Backpack hero is a charming dungeon-crawler roguelike that makes use of a unique Inventory Management System. Read our review to see what’s great about it, what it could still improve, and if you should give it a try.
Backpack Hero Review Overview
Backpack Hero Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Exceptionally Innovative Inventory System |
Overwhelming Amount of Mechanics Interface UX Could be Better |
Backpack Hero Overall - 72/100
Backpack Hero packs an unconventional but innovative Inventory Management System(IMS) that leaves you engaged and deep-in-thought while organizing your bag. Its story, graphics, and audio, however, leave a lot left to be desired. Still, the overly addicting dungeon-crawling roguelike gameplay all but makes up for the other lackluster aspects, providing simple-to-understand but difficult-to-master mechanics.
Backpack Hero Story - 6/10
The story of Backpack Hero is a hit or miss, with most of its narrative elements taking a backseat to focus more on its gameplay systems. Though the story beats do tie in with the combat, dungeon-crawling, and town management systems, they don’t share the depth or complexity of said systems. Though that is a good thing as to prevent more complexity, the contrast makes the story feel more like an afterthought that was added in post-development, made to try and tie in all the mechanics.
Backpack Hero Gameplay - 9/10
Backpack Hero provides innovative gameplay mechanics through its unique Inventory Management System (IMS). It marries the “chore” of organizing your items into combat, successfully providing in-depth engaging gameplay through “where” and “how” you organize your backpack. This odd pairing could so easily be implemented poorly, but Backpack Hero flourishes and succeeds in turning a unique concept into very addicting gameplay.
Backpack Hero Visuals - 7/10
The pixel art found in Backpack Hero is charming. The character designs are all cute, have a lot of variations from creature to creature, and their dialogue portraits are a nice touch. There isn’t any breathtaking visual grandeur to be found in Backpack Hero because it doesn’t need to. Its art direction is perfect and expected for what it is, which is a dungeon-crawler roguelike by an indie team.
Backpack Hero Audio - 6/10
Backpack Hero starts off strong with its adventurous main menu music but unfortunately fails to maintain that quality. There isn’t much variant or emotion able to be invoked by any of the original soundtrack (OST), and often gets stale and repetitive through multiple runs. The sound effects(SFX) are decent and serviceable at best, suffering the same fate as the music as becoming “just there” instead of being continuously satisfying.
Backpack Hero Value for Money - 8/10
Backpack Hero costs only $19.99 and has tons of content for pixel indie fans, impulsive IMS organizers, and dungeon-crawler-roguelikes enjoyers. With its IMS well implemented and with various play styles to choose from, most of the value will be in the gameplay. The other aspects such as the story, graphics, and audio are merely adequate and have no striking qualities except the charming pixel art style.
Backpack Hero Review: Didn’t Fumble The Bag
Backpack Hero is a very curious case, but in the best way possible. I keep saying it throughout the review, but it’s so wonderfully unique and full of creativity with its mechanics that it’s astounding. The mechanics I’m referring to is the Inventory Management System that I can’t seem to shut up about. I’m a very avid organizer of inventories in any game, and having one where it’s main gimmick is the placement of items in your inventory affecting pretty much EVERYTHING about the combat, scratches a very specific itch in my brain that hasn’t been scratched. I go more in detail with how the IMS functions further in the review, but I can’t help but fully gush and appreciate its excellent execution in Backpack Hero
The dungeon-crawling aspect isn’t anything special however. As seen from the footage above, it’s merely clicking through a static map, traveling through blocks, and finding points of interest. Besides the combat and IMS, everything seems to have less shine and polish for them. The art style, though has some highlights in its character art, is nothing extraordinary. The story sets up the world adequately but is somewhat lacking in more substance, only serving surface-level plot points. The audio is the most lacking, with only a few repetitive tracks that will easily leave you bored and playing your own.
A lot of love and passion was still clearly poured into Backpack Hero, and it still shows through the gameplay. Though the other aspects might not reach the same great heights as the IMS, it more than makes up for them by being deeply engrossing. It provokes strategic placement and positioning – all residing within an unconventional backpack.
Pros of Backpack Hero
| Things Backpack Hero Got Right |
|---|
|
Exceptionally Innovative Inventory System |
Exceptionally Innovative Inventory System
Backpack Hero deserves all the praise it could get for its highly addicting and extraordinary Inventory Management System. It builds upon the iconic Resident Evil Tetris-block style that has enamored fans of the franchise for decades. What makes Backpack Hero different is the placement, alignment, and neighboring items which could potentially affect an item’s special attributes. On paper that sounds fun and complex as it is, but it goes above and beyond with the abundance of unique ways it could manipulate its backpack mechanics.
Countless weapons types, armor placement restrictions, consumables, and special items all have certain conditions placed on them to either allow for use, for bonuses or even negative effects. For example, one weapon could receive a minor debuff in damage for ANY adjacent weapon surrounding it, while another weapon can only function when there ARE adjacent weapons surrounding it. For the armor, it gets even more complicated. Headgear gives bonus armor points when they’re at the top row, while footwear gives bonuses when they’re at the lower right. The same principle applies to handgear, where the left-handed gear placed on the leftmost column will provide bonuses, and the right-handed gear placed on the rightmost column will do so too.
These are just the tip of the iceberg, as Backpack Hero has so many more unconventional weapon types, armor types, and special items that beget thought and creativity while organizing your inventory. To spend almost an eternity on end after a battle making sure all loot you gained is positioned perfectly to allow for maximum stats, only for the next encounter to drop loot you ALSO want, causing you to rearrange everything all over again – that’s Backpack Hero, and it’s very addicting.
Cons of Backpack Hero
| Things Backpack Hero Can Improve |
|---|
|
Overwhelming Amount of Mechanics Interface UX Could be Better |
Overwhelming Amount of Things To Do and Learn
Backpack Hero has a LOT of quests to fulfill and mechanics to learn and grasp. It doesn’t hold back at introducing one feature after the other, as the feature creep seems to exponentially increase every time after completing(or failing) a run or two. More new NPCs appear during runs and arrive in town further opening up new quests and presenting new playstyles and mechanics. Some have proper tutorials or explanations, while others are just presented with no context, leaving players to figure it out on their own.
Having so many things to do in a game is no bad thing, but the pacing of their introductions is at a breakneck speed where the player might have barely adjusted or fully absorbed the previous one. It ends up being drastically overwhelming to the point that all information being presented becomes jumbled together, negatively affecting the player’s learning rate and retention of said information.
Interface UX Could be Better
The user experience (UX) of the overall interface could be so much better with proper adjustments. A lot of these enumerations aren’t egregious, but some points for refinement. For example, when choosing loot after battles, you’re only allowed three items to receive (without any other buffs). But the act of choosing the items is messy, where your items can be mixed into the dropped items when reorganizing, leading to confusion about whether you’ve exceeded your limit or not. The game tells you how much left you can collect, but not having a clear distinction between the items from your backpack and the items you can get is rather unintuitive.
Second to the inventory, the player will be spending the most time on the map screen. It’s the main mode of travel for Backpack Hero, where the dungeon-crawling aspect comes into play. However, it’s rather dated from how it’s presented and how it functions. On initial glance, it’s easy to assume that it’s just a visual map. It looks very static when there’s no response to each block being hovered by the mouse. Having a highlight of each block would be much clearer and provide better information to the player as to which block they’ll be selected.
Lastly, to actually open the map and inventory is a minor nuisance, with their icons rather too tiny and out of the way to the top-right of the screen that I kept forgetting that they were important icons. As most of the playtime will be spent between the two screens, it’s important to make the transitions seamless. Either make the buttons larger and, or perhaps have the buttons take up the entire left or right-hand sides of the screen be able to to quickly swap.
Is Backpack Hero Worth It?
Put The Backpack in The Bag and Buy It
For only $19.99, Backpack Hero has countless hours of gameplay with its wide array of possible game modes and item gimmicks that will leave you sorting out your inventory for days on end. Its story, visuals, and audio are a bit lacking, only serving as background charm to the main focus of gameplay. Nevertheless, the amount of things one can do in Backpack Hero is almost endless, being a dungeon-crawler roguelike with a handful of different characters with their own distinct playstyles and gimmicks.
Fans of the genre would absolutely fall in love with this game, and even more so if they already hold a deep-seated love and nostalgia for the Tetris-block style of inventory management from the Resident Evil franchise. Those who have neither experience looking to casually try and dip their toes into Backpack Hero might have an overwhelmingly difficult time trying to grasp and process everything, but if given enough time, thought, willpower, and a LOT of rearranging, everything will just click together.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 Epic |
 GoG |
 Switch |
||
| $19.99 | |||||
Backpack Hero Overview & Premise
Backpack Hero is a dungeon-crawler roguelike with a heavy emphasis on inventory management. Purse, a mouse on a mission to find her missing mother, ventures into The Crypt dungeon and finds a magical backpack with special properties. The backpack can expand and store items found in the dungeon and use them in combat against any hostile encounters. She’ll venture deeper and deeper into the dungeon, encountering friends and foes, and bringing back treasures to help the town of Orderia flourish and rebuild.
Backpack Hero FAQ
Does Backpack Hero Have Mods?
In an update on September 6, 2023, Backpack Hero officially added mod support for the game(Blog post). This allows members of the community to upload their mods directly onto the Steam Workshop and be easily downloaded by players through the platform.
What Platforms is Backpack Hero Available on?
Backpack Hero is only available on PC and on the Nintendo Switch. It can be bought for PC from Steam, EGS, or GoG. Be warned that currently, the Nintendo Switch version has a myriad of issues that the developer, TheJaspel, is working hard on to fix and issue patches.
Backpack Hero Product Information
 | |
| Title | BACKPACK HERO |
|---|---|
| Release Date | November 14, 2023 |
| Developer | Jaspel |
| Publisher | Different Tales, IndieArk |
| Supported Platforms | PC, Nintendo Switch |
| Genre | Roguelike, RPG, Strategy |
| Number of Players | Single-Player (1) |
| ESRB Rating | E for Everyone |
| Official Website | Backpack Hero Official Website |
