Developer-Four Quarters 

Publisher-Devolver Digital 

Format-PC 

Release-Out now

Most of the imagined adventures we go on these days are lavish affairs, cast against the backdrops of vast, detailed open worlds. Loop Hero rejects that, taking the generic elements of a fantasy RPG and paring it all back. It’s an exercise in how little is needed to take your brain on a fantastical journey.

Graphically, it seems, that’s not much at all. Each level begins as a simple circuit, a looping path of tiles surrounded by featureless black. Heroes and monsters are realised as tiny monochromatic clusters of pixels. Combat is a relative feast for the eyes, with 16bit-style sprites cycling through the same attack animations over and over, the thrust of battle conveyed primarily through flashing damage numbers and text announcing evasions and counter-attacks. And yet, with the help of the whirling soundtrack, there’s tension to these encounters, even though you’re not actually controlling them yourself.

This is where Loop Hero really commits to minimalism. You can hit pause on your hero’s journeys around the loop, but that’s as direct as your input gets. Combat plays out automatically, both sides attacking on a timer. Should you encounter multiple foes, you won’t even be able to suggest which to attack first. Instead, your contributions come at the management level. Encounters drop weapons, armour and all the other loot you’d expect. Your job, as the numbers totter upwards with each go-around, is to keep your hero dressed in the best possible gear, maintaining an ever-shaky balance between strength, speed and specialist effects such as health-leeching vampirism.