En Garde! Review

I’m sure we all have a few games that have been sitting around unplayed in our Steam libraries for years. I think I bought En Garde! around the time of its release in 2023; it was on sale, and I figured I’d get around to it eventually. Now, in April 2026, I was finally between games after spending an unreasonably long time beating everything in Heretic + Hexen. This adorable title, a student project with vibrant art and a unique take on the action genre, looked up at me with puppy dog eyes like I’d left it out in the rain overnight. I’m glad I let it inside when I did, though; it turns out it’s exactly the kind of game I like to stumble upon, warts and all.

Those experienced with the action genre know that the toughest moments aren’t fights against towering bosses and tough enemies, but dealing with crowds of low to mid level foes. Though it’s actually a lot of fun to learn different strategies and use moves you would otherwise ignore to deal with crowds, many players prefer simple duels with no distractions. Unlike other action games, En Garde! thrives in the crowded scuffle by design. Adalia de Volador, the lovable rogue fighting against Spanish oppression in Mexico, won’t be able to brush armies aside with ease or juggle an enemy in midair for a full minute like Dante or Bayonetta. In spite of what you expect from a fencing-themed game, En Garde! sets itself apart by encouraging you to play dirty.

En Garde!’s combat is fundamentally quite simple. You have basic attacks, a parry for quick ripostes, and a dodge for attacks which can’t be parried. Enemies have only a couple hit points, but you have to break down their guard to hit them. There’s no standing and waiting in En Garde!; it’s always best to keep attacking enemies, as it’ll drain their guard and force them to attack so that you can counter it. It’s simple and effective, but you’ll find it lacking as tougher enemies start to appear and your foes come in larger numbers. Captains have shields and heavy armor which normal attacks won’t break, and certain tougher enemies get all of their guard back when you don’t dodge or parry their attacks correctly. Unlike some other action games, the action can always reach a point where even the sharpest players won’t be able to parry or dodge through everything.

How do you deal with groups of sharper, tougher foes when your moveset is so simple? It’s easy; just improvise! One attack I haven’t mentioned yet is the kick, and it’s the move that opens up a world of possibilities. Kick your enemies into walls, down stairs, or right off of cliffs when you open them up! Better yet, kick props into enemies or vice versa. Knock down a crowd by kicking a stack of crates into them or kick enemies right into a weapon rack to drop it on their heads. You have to catch an enemy off guard, either by avoiding their attacks or disorienting them with props, before you can kick them directly. This means you can’t just kick everyone around all the time, making it more satisfying to kick an enemy in just the right spot.

Of course, there’s also a button to quickly interact with even more props in every arena. You can throw stuff at enemies to stun them, cut down ropes to drop cages and chandeliers on your enemies, or toss a bucket over an enemy’s head to keep them out of the fight for a while. When simply fencing your enemies doesn’t work, unorthodox tactics sweep them off their feet and embarrass them enough to make their guard easier to break. The varied arenas and props make your approach to every single fight different, and the variety of enemies is enough to further change up your approach. My only gripe here is the lack of a real manual lock-on system; the less strict targeting makes sense with how aware you must be of your surroundings, but it didn’t always agree with who I wanted to hit.

Last but not least is panache, the mechanic which really ties the theatrical theme together. Many action games put an emphasis on stylish play, but En Garde! is once again unique it how it defines style. Panache fuels a set of three powerful attacks which restore a point of health; a strike which depletes a lot of guard, a spinning slash to disperse crowds, and an unblockable kick that makes it easy to put your enemies in bad spots. You won’t earn much panache from your usual fighting maneuvers; instead, you earn it with bold and otherwise impractical flourishes. Swing over a crowd on a rope or a bar, landing on the other side as they can’t help but stare in shock! Slide over a table towards enemies, stunning them with your bravery! All of this has the perfect flair for a musketeering game like this, but it does feel a little like the game is bluntly looking for ways to get you to move like it wants you to. The special moves are nice to have with how busy and chaotic the game can get - especially on hard mode, where your health is halved - but earning panache is one part of the game that doesn’t quite flow as well as the rest.

Fortunately, even En Garde!’s hard mode feels quite fair, despite the game claiming that normal mode is the intended experience. Of course, it’s not as hard to design a solid difficulty curve when the game only has four levels. Yeah, I was able to finish the game on hard and its bonus arena mode in about four and a half hours, which is probably the most disappointing thing about the game. The arena mode’s random aspects do help to give it some replay value, at least. This game’s status as a cleaned-up student project explains all of its best and worst aspects. That’s why it doesn’t have a lot of content and seems a bit rough around the edges sometimes, but that’s also why it was made with so much creativity and heart.

Matching the appeal of its roguish gameplay is its wholly charming aesthetic. Your adventures as Adalia de Volador consist of four largely self-contained episodes exploring her escapades against the establishment. The entire first episode sees her fighting through the city guard in an elaborate test orchestrated by her bumbling brother Alejandro, who unconvincingly disguises himself as “El Vigilante” with a domino mask. The third episode introduces Zaida, a fellow rogue who isn’t above using Adalia’s crush on her to her advantage; the almost childlike admiration Adalia has for Zaida is adorable. The overarching villain is the Count Duke - both count and duke - who taxes the city dry and responds to caricatures of himself by burning them all in a huge bonfire in the city. The simple setup of a people’s hero fighting to keep the occupying government in check plays well into a lighthearted and quite funny tone, employing all the classic genre tropes with a self-aware touch. The colorful Mexican cityscapes and flavorful music give the game a vibrant feeling.

A lot of credit has to go to the performances here. Clara Cantos’ performance on Adalia is nothing short of spirited from start to finish; you can tell she’s having a ton of fun taunting her enemies and delivering witty retorts in the heat of battle, and her intonation fits the character perfectly. Angela LeBlanc and Julien Masdoua are also doing well as Zaida and Alejandro respectively, selling me on Zaida’s cool cynicism and Alejandro’s klutzy theatrics effectively. Although Mathieu Lagarrigue’s performance as the Count Duke is arguably a little flat, his intonation suited the image of the cruel, narcissistic noble well enough.

Quite a lot of the fun really comes from the various enemies’ lines in combat. The back-and-forth between Adalia and her foes is very charming, as they complain about her unorthodox tactics being unfair or taunt her for running away only to end up with a bucket on their head moments later. Their reactions to getting kicked down the stairs, watching Adalia leap over them in awe, and the like are fittingly cheesy. The tougher enemies like Captains and Duelists have more distinct personalities; it’s always fun to hear Captains complain about the lacking quality of their soldiers and to stuff Duelists’ self-important dignity right in their faces. It’s the perfect tone for a game about performing slapstick comedy against your enemies to come out on top.

Overall, En Garde! isn’t exactly some kind of groundbreaking masterpiece, but it is a fun, charming little romp. I don’t have much of anything bad to say about it, and just about anyone looking for a good time can enjoy what this game has to offer. I’m always so happy to stumble upon something like this because it just feels like something made by people who really cared about bringing their idea to life. Though its creators may not have had a ton of experience, they were still able to pour their creativity and talent into something that put a smile on my face. When stupid people who do nothing but play Call of Duty and Fortnite all of the time complain about games no longer being fun, I can’t help but think of things like En Garde! There’s always someone out there making the kind of game you want to see; sometimes you just have to look outside the mainstream.