I can’t say I had heard of Underhero until fairly recently. There are so many indie games out there after all that it can be hard to know of them all and that’s why you need those irl recommendations to filter out the crazy ones. Underhero makes for a fun platformer with some good level up elements and a good degree of difficulty. There are a few areas where it could have used some quality of life updates to smooth out the ride but I’d say it did really well for its budget overall. It’s an adventure you won’t want to miss.

The game starts with the hero finally making it to the big boss in order to save the princess. He has worked hard to get here and is currently level 99. Unfortunately right before he can make it to the final fight, he ends up getting squashed by a chandelier, courtesy of minion 745. The demon king is thrilled and tells the minion to go give the bosses their magical stones back. Then he will be richly rewarded. What the demon king doesn’t realize is that this minion feels rather guilty about what happened and the hero’s sentient sword Elizabeth has convinced him to help her out. He will now be gathering his strength to save the world. This will not be an easy fight.

How can a minion hope to defeat his boss right? Well, having a super legendary sword at the ready is certainly helpful for that and you get stronger as you take on the various worlds. One of the mechanics is even similar to Undertale which is that you can choose to destroy the enemies or bribe them using money. The latter cuts your exp point gain in half while the former corrupts you but gives a lot of EXP. Me personally? I decided to take out every enemy I came across because at the end of the day they are still on the villain’s side. That being said, I did spare the other minions who were just caught up in the chaos so I didn’t go too crazy.

Every time you get a level up you get to choose between increasing your attack power, health, or stamina bar. Personally I went for attack power every single time. It just felt like it made a massive amount of difference but you can make decent arguments for any of the 3. The game has a whole lot of freedom to it. You can also find various upgrades along the worlds and others within the shop. I was nearly able to buy all of the upgrades but I spent enough money during the game where the last few were just out of reach.

There isn’t a level select or anything like that so if you miss out on something then unfortunately you’re probably not getting it back. So try to be thorough in each of the worlds. The game took me around 10 hours to clear so it’s a pretty decent length. Additionally the enemies can be challenging so make sure you save whenever possible. I got jumped by a snail creature after completing a long series of ice skating events so then I had to beat them all again. It’s always a rough feeling so you want to minimize that whenever possible. It’s not always easy though as the save points can be rather far apart at times. That’s something I would like to see the game address if it ever gets a sequel.

The two things the game needed were a quick level select like fast travel, and more save points. I would also add respawning enemies but since this directly ties into the game’s story, it might be a bit unreasonable for me to suggest that. Either way the other things are easier to implement. The game’s difficulty mainly comes from trying to learn the parry timings and the opponent’s moves after all. So you don’t necessarily need high stats in order to crush the enemies. It just makes things easier.

By the end of the game we have quite a few noteworthy characters. I really liked the rival who gets a solid twist by the end. The villains were mainly pretty good and the true boss behind it all made for a good obstacle even if I wasn’t a big fan of the character himself. The game wasn’t afraid to break the 4th wall or subvert your expectations either. At one point the game starts to send you off on what sounds like a super annoying fetch quest but then a volcano blows up which skips the whole thing.

Or another time when you are getting ready to fight the boss but you are told to go back to the hub world first, the game just trolls you and you start the battle anyway. It’s little moments like this which help to make the game extra memorable so I appreciated that. The writing is good and the story is on point so the game had its fundamentals down. The graphics are also solid, this is a good looking sprite game with a lot of solid combat animations. The soundtrack is a bit more forgettable though. I wouldn’t say there were any big themes in the game that stood out, but I did appreciate the horror type jump scares near the end. The boss battles were definitely real creative.

Overall, Underhero is a pretty good game. It was well planned out and I wouldn’t say that it had any big weak points. You can get it for a good price online and it gives you a good amount of value. There were also quite a lot of trophies it gave you just for completing the game and the platinum seems doable even if it would end up requiring some extra playing time. I can safely recommend this to anyone looking for a solid gameplay experience. Due to the nature of the parry system, it’s also a game that anyone can beat so long as they keep on practicing and learning each of the boss’ tells ahead of time. Focus on conquering those and you will be all set.

Overall 7/10