PAX East 2020: Skul the Hero Slayer Impressions

I wanted to make sure that I didn't overwhelm myself with stuff to do at this year's PAX East. There were certainly a ton of games around to try out and I wanted to play ones that heavily interested me. Skul: The Hero Slayer was one such game and by the end of my time playing it, I could sense the immense amount of replayability. You play as Skul, a lowly knight who goes out on a quest to save his king that's been kidnapped. Developed by Neowiz, Skul has this gorgeous pixel art alongside beautifully drawn backdrops. The game instantly also gave me a Metroidvania vibe but after multiple deaths, I could see that instead it has a rogue like method of returning to where you already visited, with the abilities still in your skillset.

You start out in the castle talking to some of the other denizens before you leap off into the world beyond. As your original self, you have moves which are mapped to the trigger buttons that have a slight cooldown after use. Your standard attack is mapped to one of the buttons alongside a jump button. I did have some slight confusion with dropping down through ledges to the next area. With every run, the rooms you go in differ each time. So it's entirely possible for players to have a unique run.

The abilities are gained through a variety of skull faces that Skul can pick up and equip at any point. Two faces can be utilized at a time and the move sets are quite something. I know in my time playing the game at PAX, I had a jester like face with throwing knives and another face that made me a brute with slower movement but heavier attacks. I was told during my playtime that throughout your run you can encounter shops which serve as checkpoints after you die. I believe the purposes of the build they had didn't allow checkpoints to be used. Either that or I was dumb and didn't know how to spawn at them XD. Enemy attacks are clearly visible with slight red flashes on the screen yet for me I certainly got damaged several times.

Skul is certainly hectic at times and after a few runs I was getting the hang of the enemies plus the faces I was using in terms of the moves they came with. I also was using Skul's default move of hurling his face at enemies a lot. Certainly had some comedic effect to it! The enemies I faced were a mixture between army soldiers to living trees and plant life. There were also brutes of each enemy type that had their own attack pattern! The art style hooked me and the levels/rooms were pleasing to look at!

Skul: The Hero Slayer is an exciting rogue like simulator and I certainly could see myself getting addicted to it with trying to get even farther in each new run I do. Neowiz have crafted something really exciting and I would highly recommend grabbing it once released! Skul enters its Open Beta in April with the full release happening sometime in Q2 2020! For more info, check out their website :).
http://skulthegame.com/
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