Estencel

This is an astounding labor of love and dedication… and also quite rough.
To begin with, the gameplay is fun, fast, responsive and very varied thanks to the high amount of main and secondary weapons. The enemies and bosses are different with their own ways to deal with, they are interesting to fight (at least most of them). It has an appealing visual style, especially the lighting, animations and the character designs, very unique and intriguing.
When I say that is rough, I don't mean it's a buggy mess (it has some but nothing heavy) but because of some decisions of design. I do have a problem with the map layout, it's very unclear and easy to get lost, with many diversions and shortcuts that lead nowhere or back to previous path (in fact, I was able to bypass some sections by accident, making it even more confusing). Also some fights punish way too much, with the enemies grabbing you while on the floor or many attacks being hard to parry or dodge.
And last, it's too dark, even with some options (I had to turn off space lighting because of how bugged it was) it was really difficult to see in a lot of places.
The game clicked with me, I enjoyed it a lot, but I can't say it will happen with others. Being made by one person, this is an incredible souls-like with a lot more content than one can expect. It is, at the very least, worth checking it out.
Esp: Se trata de un fantástico trabajo de amor y dedicación... y también bastante tosco.
Para empezar, la jugabilidad es divertida, rápida, sensible y muy variada gracias a la gran cantidad de armas principales y secundarias. Los enemigos y jefes son diferentes con sus propias formas de enfrentarse a ellos, son interesantes de combatir (al menos la mayoría). Tiene un estilo visual atractivo, especialmente la iluminación, las animaciones y los diseños de los personajes, muy únicos e intrigantes.
Cuando digo que es tosco, no me refiero a que sea un desastre de bugs (tiene algunos pero nada serio) sino por algunas decisiones de diseño. Tengo un problema con el diseño del mapa, es muy poco claro y fácil de perderse, con muchos desvíos y atajos que no llevan a ninguna parte o vuelven al camino anterior (de hecho, pude saltarme algunas secciones por accidente, lo que lo hace aún más confuso). También algunos combates castigan demasiado, con enemigos que te agarran mientras estás en el suelo o varios ataques que son difíciles de hacer parry o esquivar.
Y por último, es demasiado oscuro, incluso con algunas opciones (tuve que desactivar la iluminación espacial por lo bugueada que estaba) era realmente difícil ver en muchos sitios.
El juego hizo clic conmigo, lo disfruté mucho, pero no puedo decir que vaya a pasar con otros. Siendo hecho por una sola persona, es un souls-like increíble con mucho más contenido del que uno puede esperar. Como mínimo, merece la pena echarle un vistazo.

This one-dev game released in 2023, and let me tell you; at the time of writing in mid-2025, the dev is STILL proactively supporting and updating the game from the steam discussion board. That's dedication! Especially since the game has very little online documentation, aside from a handful of Let's Play videos and a barebones PC Gaming Wiki website.
A note for standard soulslike controller players: you'll have to change several buttons around to emulate typical soulslike controls, except for L3/LS, which is reserved for the map. There is an option in the menu to have the map display with 2 button presses. Lmao, read my second negative point regarding this.

+ The two weapon system; it's nice not needing a directional button press to switch weapons, AND you still have both light and heavy attacks, based upon how long you hold the button down for.
+ "Spells" are linked to stamina, and I LOVED having a "regen mana bar". I rarely use magic in general because I hate juggling mana and stamina in a bossfight, but it was enjoyable here.
+ Spell variety! And being able to have 8 of them? (4 per quickbar) Amazing. Fireball. c:
+ Souls are left outside of the boss room when you die. THANK YOU! This was something Lies of P also had, and I was so grateful to still be able to upgrade, despite being endlessly crushed by the bosses.
+ The return item is instantaneous. Great for when you're second-guessing yourself while in the boss room!
+ There is a table-looking enemy (complete with tablecloth) that double bodyslams you like you put its photo in MS Paint, cut it out with the free-form tool, and moved it up and down with your mouse twice. Idk, I just though it was hilarious. The enemy itself is actually frighteningly fast for its size.
~ There is a story, but I didn't understand exactly what was going on. I'm just here to Unga Bunga anyways, so no worries.
~ Easy mode; a good accessibility feature for people who have trouble with dodging. I used this precisely once - the final boss fight, where I found attack projection quite troubling, even after many, many normal mode attempts.
~ World map/game map; appreciated for general orientation, but several areas were just rooftops without any other map depth. The map itself felt vast, but quite empty at times, and I still got lost a lot.
~ The quickbar holds 2 items, total of 4 when using the swap key, and the Medicine defaults to 5 after you've used your surplus (10 max in your quickbar). I farmed a few times, but it wasn't too stressful, especially with the smaller healing item.
~ Healing blocking was alarming, until finding a plethora of the item to negate it made it trivial. The floor fires had much too small of a radius for me to bother running back to them.
- There are more actions than there are buttons on my controller; keyboard players will have no problem, but I love using a controller, and had to decide what I could do without. My workaround was mapping the forgotten key to 0 on a wireless numpad, and (hilariously) setting it on the floor. I called it Tic Tac Toe Tactics.
- I cannot tell you how many times I clicked L3/LS on accident (the map button). At some point, I felt like I was bad mannering the bosses I was fighting. I wish I could just rebind it to anything else (maybe in the config files?). The quickest remediation was the menu option for 2 button press for map.
- Blocking is tied to stamina while sprinting; it didn't feel great when running away to heal would also chip away at my already meager parry bar.
- Completely my fault, but I accidentally deleted my 23 hour savefile. ;-; The dev was very helpful in stating which files could be migrated, and I feel adding a confirmation screen before deletion would be helpful.
- Levelling; from the start, the game pushes you to parry. I usually play a strength build, and immediately noticed how many points you had to spend for a single stat point of STR.
- Vsync wasn't saving when I launched the game, and I would see screen-tearing. This was likely fixable in whatever config file, but I just manually set it in the in-game options every single time.
- Parrying felt nice when it worked. I still struggled with a lot of boss telegraphs, and parry timing during the endgame. There were also plenty of moments where I got stunlocked in multiple 9-hit combos (Thanks, RICHARD). Maybe I'm just getting old. :(
- I noticed some rare, but strange glitches; attacks not connecting? Rare, but annoying when you know a hit should have counted. And at some point, the map didn't load? I fell through the floor of the game, where there's a hole you're supposed to drop down through. I took screenshots to show the dev, but it happened once and then I never saw it again.
Overall, I would recommend this specifically for soulslike players who also enjoy seeing changes with the basic tried and true control scheme. I always enjoy seeing creative game mechanics in this genre, but please, no more pot men, nor 12 fireball scorpion tail guys. ;-; I bet they're in cahoots with fireball jail.

Loved the game, if you are into souls-like games this one is for you.
Some positive aspects of the game are:
+ You can parry almost every enemy if you get the feel of the mechanic.
+ Cool enemy design and everyone has their unique moveset.
+ It has secondary weapons that somehow renew the combos that you can do.
Even though I really liked the map design/layout and it's esthetics I got lost a couple of times (on the Esten Interiors and in the Forest).
At least try the demo, it does not reflect the final product in my opinion but it gives a glance.

This game is probably a lot more enjoyable when playing it single player, so I'm going to go ahead and say recommend for the price point.
If you're looking for a co-op dark souls experience, this is gonna be a little frustrating, summoned players get no items, the map doesn't sync properly, the enemies change target and direction instantly the second they take damage, so trading aggro is not a thing. The maps a really loopy and have way too many worthless shortcuts and it's easy to miss entire areas.

For a single-dev game, Estencel is impressive.
The atmosphere of the game is quite unique. It has just the right balance of beauty and eeriness in a genre that tends to default towards the dark, gritty, and macabre. The music, too, I thought was surprisingly good and fitting for the game's setting; which I didn't expect to have the variety that it did. Of course, some of these environments are a little rough around the edges, but they more than make up for it with their intricacy. There will be times you might not know where to go or what to do, but if you like interconnected, labyrinthine level design and exploring until you come across the solution to what's got you stuck, you'll enjoy getting lost in this game. From what I pieced together of the story, mostly through conversations with NPCs, it wasn't deep or sprawling but it certainly interested me. You can dig up the lore like I did or you can simply ignore it and just have fun with the gameplay.
I found the core combat mechanics to be perfectly serviceable--great in some ways, but a bit clunky in others. Dodges have tight windows. You can't spam them to escape danger every time. Blocking is situational too. You can block almost any kind of attack but if your guard gets broken, especially by a boss, you'll be severely punished for it. You can deflect/perfect block just about anything as well. Doing so is highly rewarded with the opportunity to counter-attack, and by filling your meter to perform a powerful AoE. There are a handful of "main" weapons, one you choose to start the game with and the others you collect throughout. You can have two equipped at a time and can alternate seamlessly between them during combat. I was disappointed with their lack of reach though, especially the scythe. Attack combos were alright, a few I found myself wishing I could cancel out of more readily, but not too bad otherwise. I'm not sure how enemy scaling works, but it seemed at times I was dealing underwhelming damage. It might have been my fault for not leveling the strength stat enough, but it was easily remedied with consumable items that grant weapon buffs, which are common to come by. What I liked most about the combat system were the secondary weapons, of which there was a greater number and variety than the main weapons. Projectiles, wide-sweeping attacks, movement options, improved deflects, etc. You can have 8 of them equipped at a time. They don't require a certain stat level to use, you can use them as soon as you find them, and they don't consume any material or points--nothing like that. They simply have a cool-down timer between uses, some shorter and others longer depending on what it is. I found myself using these just as much as the main weapons, even some pretty much dedicated to deal with a certain enemy type.
Another thing I liked, which I was initially skeptical about, was the simplicity of the stat system. There are 4 stats: health, strength, endurance, and guard. Health is self explanatory. Strength determines how much damage you deal across all your main and secondary weapons. You don't have to min-max into specific builds, just invest points into the stat and you'll do more damage with whatever you're attacking with. Endurance allows you to run, dodge, block, and attack more--also self explanatory. The guard stat makes it harder for enemies to guard break you. If you struggle with deflects/perfect blocks it will bolster your regular blocking. There isn't any weight system for weapons, equippable items, and outfits are just cosmetic. This might be disappointing to some, probably a constraint of single-dev, but the simplicity quickly grew on me. Again, no need for stat min-maxing, respeccing, needing a certain piece of armor or talisman to complete a build--just explore, find stuff, and use whatever you want. Similarly, there's a basic handful of consumable items, your weapon & recovery buffs, throwables, etc. I didn't use these too much but they were useful the few times I did.
Estencel's enemies are pretty interesting. I will say up front, the AI is spotty for some, but their design and decent enough variety I think make up for it. Their placement, numbers, and difficulty were decent as well. There was a good difficulty balance, a bit of gank here-and-there, but overall a mid-level challenge for anyone who is experienced with Souls-like games. I had trouble with one particular enemy type throughout the game--I think it was a combination of them being overtuned compared to the rest and maybe being the strongest ones in whichever environment they appeared. I guarantee you'll realize which one I'm talking about once you encounter them, they stood out as much more difficult than the other enemies, but thankfully they were few and far between.
Now, I think it goes without saying that one of the main attractions of Souls-likes are the bosses. In my opinion, they often tend towards one of two extremes: they're either underwhelming, basically slightly more threatening than regular enemies, or they're over the top and packaged with oppressive toolkits that leave the player just feeling relieved when they finally beat it rather than satisfied they overcame an appropriate challenge. This was the aspect of Estencel that impressed me the most. The bosses were varied in both design and difficulty, but they mostly stayed in the reasonable medium between the two extremes I mentioned earlier. Some bosses you can trade back-and-forth with, some you have to be aggressive against, and in a few cases I found it was best to stay on the defense against their overwhelming aggression and go for guard breaks instead. The boss fights went very smoothly for me, I didn't experience any jank or bugs, which I assume has been mostly worked out since the game's launch. Still, I should mention there were 2 bosses which stood out a bit, and these are the type I mentioned where I had to stay on the defense and react to their onslaught. One was the final boss, which without spoiling, was simply a degree of difficulty above the other bosses in the game because of its variety of attacks, aggression, and health pool, which is to be expected, but I can understand how someone who might learn to be aggressive against bosses during their playthrough will suddenly find it jarring to be put on the backpedal at the end. The other was actually a mid-game boss, and this one stood out the most. It was by far the most aggressive boss, and seemed to have a subtle phase change once damaged enough when it became even more aggressive. The reason why I mention it in particular is because it's a very different beast from what you encounter before and after. It has both fast, multi hit attacks and heavy, long wind-up attacks. All of them can be deflected/perfect blocked, but the learning curve for their timings is steeper than any other boss. This is another one I guarantee you'll understand when you come across it. It's just one of those situations where I think the game doesn't adequately prepare you for such a difficult enemy and I can see some players getting frustrated there. You can also select to fight bosses again from any fireplace (Estencel's bonfire).
My conclusion? Clearly there was a lot of passion and effort that went into making this game. Obviously, being a single-dev game means there's a limit to what you get even with all that passion and effort. But that being said, Estencel is definitely worth picking up. I enjoyed it, and I recommend it.

This game is complete trash, from design, to enemies, to environment and everything in between. Why am i giving this a positive review still? I paid a dollar for it and i got that much enjoyment. The developer tried, they really really tried and it didn't pan out. This is the Xbox live arcade souls like and the quality you would expect from the description. Its always nice to play a game in which the developer has an idea and a passion even if the end result didn't work very well.
Issues:
The dodge and parry are borderline useless due to having minimal invincibility frames
The weapons have such short range you have to cram your face into the enemies to hit them
At least in multiplayer the enemies hit like trucks and even jobbers will 2-3 tap you, this does get a bit better later
The cap on healing items restored at fireplaces means your going to go through most of the zone low HP or no HP
There is a massive run up to bosses to the point the golden scepter is required to make boss runs, there is a reason even from-soft abandoned the boss run up
Enemies jank around so hard they can often be down right impossible to read
The sheer amount of enemies between you and bosses is garbage
The game actively punishes you for fighting multiple enemies at once, this would be fine and acceptable if they didn't make almost every single encounter multi enemy
This game just pumped numbers for HP and damage and i think part of the issue is the game may scale for 8 players even if you only have 2 players
And i could keep going, its honestly nuts this game inst sitting at mostly negative but what it does right it does very right. It just doesn't do a whole lot right.
Now that im done dumping on it lets get to the positive parts because everything else is forgettable. The weapon system is down right inspired and it blows me away i haven't seen something similar. If this was narrowed down to be a borderline boss rush game it could be great, but its not and there is just so much artifice between you and the good parts. Unfortunately that's pretty much all i can praise, the weapon system is the sole reason i have even an hour in this game.
Im going to disabled comments as i know the moronic git good gang will roll in and screech like monkeys if i don't. I am not unfairly comparing this to bloodborne as some seem to be doing, i am comparing this in my head to Lies of P and code vein, both of which it majorly falls short of. For a game that's $12 at full price i never expected it to stack up. If you pick it up for less than $5 it's worth seeing the project, other than that avoid like the plague.

Amazing indie game. The mechanics the game creates are amazing and the way they use them is ever better. Level design and direction (as in guiding to the next objective. I would argue bigger games such as the dark souls games kind of have a similar issue, but community guides are much more common) could be stepped up a little, but I'm not trying to detract from this accomplishment. I was surprised to just how much content this game contains.