The Watchlist: Heart & Slash

Title: Heart & Slash
Developer: Juan Raigada
Platforms: PC, Mac
In development, Possible release in late 2014
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Heart & Slash is a beat'em up roguelike-like (think Binding of Isaac meets DmC). Apart from permadeath and random level generation, roguelike elements will show up in enemy spawning (enemies are modular and hopefully I will obtain decent variety) and the random pick up system. Apart from 3 switchable weapons, the main character can equip and level-up up to four different pieces of equipment (head, arms, body and legs) which allow for new attacks and skills that I intend to heavily modify gameplay (for example, changing from a regular roll-evade to a Bayonetta style time stop).

Playing the recently released pre-alpha version of Heart & Slash, I think the best description of the game would be a mix of roguelike, fast paced beat-em-up combat, and a dash of Megaman. Your little robot awakens in a darkened halls and finds itself in a randomly generated fight to survive.

Your robot has a wide variety of weapons, skills, and parts to switch between, each combination offering a new playstyle. Different heads, arms, bodies, legs give the player different stats and abilities from double jumps to jetpack boosts to stopping time. The abilities augment your formidable combat skills; fast and strong attacks and evasive maneuvers are all at your disposal as you fight against waves of enemies, bosses, and traps using a range of powerful weapons and subweapons.

Heart & Slash has a long way to go, but its current form is extremely playable and, more importantly, is a lot of fun. More bosses, more room types, secret rooms, NPCs, more body parts, and just overall polish is planned in the coming months. You can find the pre-alpha demo and follow Heart & Slash's development here.