Skul: The Hero Slayer Reviews
Skul: The Hero Slayer is lovely, action-packed, and full of excellent choices. Repetition can set in rather quickly due to tedious bosses, and a single crash can ruin an entire run, but it's one of the better action rogue-lites I've had the pleasure to dump some time into.
It is lacking a thorough tutorial at the start of the game which can leave players frustratingly dying a lot really early on. But Skul: The Hero Slayer is a captivating indie game that offers a really challenging experience with plenty of replay value.
Skul: The Hero Slayer is an excellent rogue-lite platformer with beautiful pixel graphics. While its story is a tad generic, its ruthless rogue-lite mechanics are where Skul: The Hero Slayer truly shines. Combined with its unique mechanics on the battlefield, Skul: The Hero Slayer easily raises the stakes without making the gameplay feel overly complicated. The result is a fast-paced hack-and-slash experience that will have you on the edge of your seat for hours. If you’re a fan of indie titles like Spelunky, ScourgeBringer, and Celeste, Skul: The Hero Slayer will surely have something to offer you.
Skul: The Hero Slayer is a delight. Despite some bullet sponge-y enemies, the varied combat and surprisingly engaging story make each run a joy.
The game certainly isn’t the most complicated or mechanically deep roguelite action-platformer on the market. It doesn’t have the giant build variety and in-depth combat mechanics of something like Dead Cells. That being said, Skul: The Hero Slayer still a great addition to the genre in its own ways.
I won't compare Skul with a masterpiece like Hades. Skul isn't a groundbreaking game, but one of the better games of its kind, and that's something.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
The game moves at a good pace and when finding the perfect combo of skulls and items, the gameplay is very satisfying. When in the midst of high-intensity action, there are some framerate dips but it rarely hindered my fun; in fact, it kind of felt good to know that I had caused so much chaos that the game couldn't handle it all. In the vein of run-based, combat-styled platformer games, Skul the Hero Slayer proves that there's still life in these old bones yet.
Not everyone will appreciate Skul: The Hero Slayer's high degree of challenge but I absolutely loved learning the ins and outs of its world.
Skul: The Hero Slayer is a great roguelike adventure that ties fast action with a charming narrative. The game understands what makes this genre addicting but doesn’t rely too heavily on influences, which allows it to stand out prominently. If you are hungry for a roguelike, this is a great way to satisfy your cravings.
Skul: The Hero Slayer is a fun little title whose cute graphics belie the tough challenges and grinds that lie within. Dying is all part of the appeal, and never once is it frustrating or unfair. You’ll want to keep returning again and again in order to get just a little bit further, or to perhaps secure a new type of outfit or skill. It deserves a place on your playlist if you have any sort of affection for old 16-bit RPG-brawlers.
This game has a highly concentrated amount of all trendy genres such as Rogue-like, Platformer, Action and most importantly, Pixel-art style. Definitely an action packed platformer with smooth controls and for a typical Pixel-art style look, it has decent overall quality of visual effects. Most of the fun comes from how you level up your main character, Skul. Due to its mixed nature of genres, it lacks to say what's so unique about the game but you won't be dissapointed for what you'd expect as a fan of this said genre.
Review in Korean | Read full review
Despite a balance far from perfect, Skul is genuinely fun and it's an interesting take on rogue-lites.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Coll rogue-lite 2D platformer. Use heads of fallen heroes to gain new skills and be ready to die and start from beginning again and again.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Despite a few minor issues and not being the best roguelike out there, Skul: The Hero Slayer is, without any doubts, very fun to play.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Skul: The Hero Slayer has been a pleasant surprise for me. It’s charming, plays great, and has real legs. The devs understand what makes roguelites so popular. That “one more run” mentality where those runs aren’t too long, feature a lot of variety that you can control, and they feel good to play. As this is finally on Game Pass it’s an easy recommendation no matter where you can play.
Skul: The Hero Slayer has a lot going for it, but it is also muddled with design issues. For all of its creative skull designs, interesting build options, and cool and flashy attacks, I found the experience as a whole to be draining. It’s a case where the core gameplay loop is hindered by its overbearing rogue elements. A genre reliant on repetition has to accommodate for it by offsetting the recursive elements of the game, no matter how good the combat is. Skul: The Hero Slayer is certainly enjoyable on occasion, but its roguelite ingredients ultimately harm the title as a whole.
There's a good base of a game in Skul: The Hero Slayer, and fans of the genre will definitely find a few hours of rewarding gameplay offered. The game does work, and well, with only the occasional small graphical glitch that ultimately affected nothing. Running through the game endlessly will grow tiresome quickly for many that play, but for the persistent that find the rare powerful skull, you'll be treated with a very fun time. At $19.99 on Steam, it won't break the bank to pick up Skul: The Hero Slayer, but for all but the hardcore rogue-lite crowd, waiting for a sale or inclusion in some online bundle may be a worthwhile exercise in patience.
It took me about 20 hours to play through Skul: The Hero Slayer for the first time. That's unusual for a roguelike title, but it was all the more satisfying when I got to see the credits roll. The little skeleton captivated me more than I thought it would. Even if the story is only secondary, the concept with the different classes was convincing. Since the gameplay is always different, there is no boredom. However, once you've reached the point where you've explored the most, the urge to explore naturally subsides. On the whole, however, the game offers enough to provide many hours of fun and motivation. If you're looking for a roguelike title with cool new features, Skul: The Hero Slayer will certainly not disappoint.
Review in German | Read full review
As most roguelike games, Skul: The Hero Slayer (Skul) was designed to be HARD. The objective is simple, beat all game levels without dying. Yes, you can beat the game in your first try, but you won't. YOU WILL DIE and start again from the beginning, not just once, but several times. RNG has a HUGE influence on the game. There is a big difference between items and skulls performance, so to beat the game you will need luck and skills. To have fun playing Skul, you need to accept the gameplay challenge and don't consider a reason for frustrations. Last but not least, controllers plays much better than keyboards.