I've been hyperfixated on an indie game called Backpack Hero for a few weeks now and it's been carrying me through some lonely nights. From what I've seen, the game doesn't have much attention right now and some fans think the developer's abandoned it. I want to share my experience, played blind in June 2024.

It's a simple premise, an inventory management roguelike where you explore randomly generated dungeons filled with enemies, finding loot and placing it in a tile grid in your backpack. Some items take more than one space, but you can rotate items to fit, like a puzzle. Items have different interactions with each other, giving buffs if placed at the bottom or top, or boosting block or damage near items of a certain type. You can buff your items with forges (once unlocked) and make a unique build that you use to go through increasingly challenging levels and boss fights.

So, here's what I really enjoyed:

The good

1. Atmosphere and charm

It might not be everyone's cup of tea but I really like the story, spelling and grammar errors and all. Even though you only see the world through your meta-progression town and a dirty dungeon deep underground, you learn a lot about the characters who lived and live here. There's cute little details, too, like the map background changing on each character, the flavor text for enemies, the unlockable costumes. Every playable character is named after a type of bag, which is great.

The music sounds like Chrono Trigger and puts me in a great mindset. The graphics are also great, super cute and stylized. Needless to say I enjoy cute fuzzy animals.

2. Gameplay as Purse

I simply can't get enough of playing as Purse, the main character. Her gameplay loop is simple but lovable, and I love the feeling of getting stronger between battles and floors. Expanding my backpack space feels great, and I feel like I'm making meaningful decisions at shops or forges. I often end up speccing into a certain kind of build, but I might also change my style if I find a neat or unique item.

3. Thinking creatively

You have the option also of playing challenge runs, ie. you only start with this loadout, or you have to carry these items to the end of area 2. They're fun short romps - the ones without an unfun gimmick anyway - but they make you think creatively about the mechanics of your items.

The alternate characters (besides Tote) I also count kind of as this. It feels genuinely good to use my brain and think of how items in my backpack interact with one another. Making a build based on a specific idea feels fun, and I feel like I can manipulate the item pool, shops and forges to get what I want.

Now let's talk about Backpack Hero's shortcomings:

The bad

1. Bugs

There's a few bugs I encountered during my time with the game. For instance, saving and exiting during a dungeon will hide counters for item spots on the map, and branching "collapsing" paths will softlock the game, blocking off items and collectibles. I've had items move around when I try to sell them, and the behavior for gaining a new item in battle seems buggy. Finally, as Pochette, I used the pet whistle item while my pet was fainted, and it softlocked the game.

2. Bloat

The game's item pool is bloated. There are so, so, SO many items you can find that are overshadowed by better items or just don't add much to the game (eg. status cleansing potions? Grapple that changes the order of enemies? Cleavers that are just worse shivs?) More often than not I end up skipping loot from battles or chests because there's just nothing there that could help me.

This leads into:

3. Some overly complex systems

There's a few microsystems you can manage in your backpack, the obvious one being mana. You can collect manastones and place them adjacent to "conductive" items that transfer mana to mana-consuming items. The problem is this is a LOT of setup when you'll typically only find one or two of the relevant pieces at a time, most of which don't feel worth it.

Another example is bows - 90% of the time, taking a bow or arrow is dead weight because you're expected to have empty space to maximize arrow damage, and you can't use bows or arrows without one another. There's also "structures" such as bricks, which are less useful than plain armor, and sparse enough in the loot pools that you will almost never use them.

4. Tote

Tote is an unlockable character whose gameplay mimics that of Slay The Spire. It's very underdeveloped and, similar to point 2, more than half of the carvings you find have a niche or unhelpful use. I had to look up a guide and get lucky drops just to win one run. You will die a lot.

In conclusion, do I recommend it? If you like deckbuilding kinds of games (like Slay the Spire, or Balatro (tentatively)), absolutely. If you're a furry too, bonus points. I personally think some of the shortcomings can be pushed to the background (except Tote) making the rest of Backpack Hero really shine.