Backpack Hero Proves Inventory Management Is Mightier Than The Sword
Organize ‘em up.
If there’s one thing more important to any adventurer than a sword, it’s a good backpack. Where, for instance, are you going to store all your extra gear when you’re not using it? In your backpack. Where are you going to put the potions that keep you alive in a dungeon? Backpack. And how are you going to carry all the treasure you find out to sell in town? Again, your trusty backpack. Finally, there’s an RPG that respects all the essential work done by the humble backpack, and it’s free this week on the Epic Games Store.
Backpack Hero is part-roguelike RPG, part-town builder, and part-inventory management puzzle. You play as Purse, a mouse girl who’s searching for her lost mother in the dungeon that sits conveniently on the edge of town. With the help of a magic backpack, you’re able to scoop up hoards of items to help on your quest, from weapons and equipment to use in battle to treasure you can sell to expand your home of Haversack Hill.
Different characters change up the mechanics of packing and fighting.
While you’re in a dungeon, you can bring as much gear into battle as your backpack will hold. Levelling up makes your pack bigger, and initially, your only concern is getting everything to fit. As in Resident Evil, your backpack is laid out in a grid, with each item taking up a certain number of squares. Rearranging everything to save as much loot as you can is a nice puzzle at first, but facing tougher challenges is all about not just cramming more into your pack, but placing it all in the right spot.
After your first quest or two, you’ll start seeing all kinds of items that demand a specific placement. Some float to the top of your backpack, while others sink to the bottom. Often, armor will only work if it’s placed in the top or bottom row, while items will grant bonuses only to the gear they’re touching. The deeper you go, the more powerful items you’ll find, while their requirements grow more demanding. Before long, you’ll spend more time packing and repacking your gear than actually fighting enemies with it. If that sounds like a drag, then Backpack Hero may not be for you, but the game’s unique obsession with organization has me hooked in a way that would shock you if you saw the disarray of my actual apartment.
Even in a dungeon, organization is vital.
At times, Backpack Hero scratches an itch similar to games like A Little to the Left or Unpacking. You’re arranging swords and vials of acid instead of pencils and stuffed animals, but the brain-tickling joy of getting everything in its right place is similar. All the better if your clever organizing helps you survive another floor of the dungeon and bring home even more loot.
When you do head topside, you can sell your treasure to help rebuild your hometown. Farms and homes will bring in food and residents, while more advanced buildings unlock specialized NPCs. They’ll offer quests that let you tackle the dungeon with unique equipment sets, introduce entirely new items, and sometimes even become playable characters with their own fighting styles.
Backpack Hero isn’t as dense as many other roguelike RPGs, but it more than makes up for that with its charming, original design. It’s a refreshing take on dungeon crawling that actually feels more relaxing than stressful, thanks to how it turns what amounts to packing for a trip into a satisfying puzzle.
