As someone who generally enjoys all things roguelike, I’m always down to check out new titles that are taking its concepts for a spin. While most people tend to think of their degree of challenge and unpredictability, I also have a great appreciation for some elements of risk and reward that are sadly not always honored as often. In the case of Folk Hero, what you have is a more minimalistic action adventure sort of take on things, mixing some exploration with class-based characters and combat, but struggling to make as strong an impression as some of its roguelike brethren.

For each run you’ll take your chosen hero out to a procedurally-generated island, which you’ll want to explore thoroughly as it can hold a variety of surprises if you’re willing to look for them. Of course, you’ll also find a host of enemies to defeat, some periodic chests or merchants that will help you improve or enhance your gear, and then ultimately a boss in each area that you’ll need to defeat in order to move on. I’ll give the developer credit, many of the creatures you face have somewhat erratic movement, which can make even lower-level ones trickier to get a hit on at times. You’re thankfully reasonably nimble, but you’ll need to be cautious since many areas have multiple enemies, and they can overwhelm you if you’re not careful.

It does seem like the bulk of the emphasis in the game is meant to be the combat, but that’s a mixed blessing. Yes, there’s definitely a skill-based component at work here, with you having the base tools for movement and attacks that you’ll need to get a handle on for success. Also, as mentioned above, your enemies can be pretty wily, so that will make you work a bit harder at times to take even simpler ones down. As you explore you’ll continue to find new gear, artifacts, and runes that will make you more powerful and possibly customize your build a bit, but there ultimately doesn’t feel like there’s as much variety that enhances the in-game fun compared to some contemporaries. One issue may actually be what feels like a slow start to unlocking additional character classes, or the fact that you’ll only start with one. Unlocks are great for extending play with a slow drip of new things to try, but that doesn’t mean much if people get a bit bored waiting on more potential for variety.

Ultimately, while there’s a challenge and some fun to be had here, the more simplistic overall nature of the title makes it tough to get excited about. It isn’t just that its ambition and the quality of the execution are more limited, I think a case can be made that it’s too determined to hold back more variety for too long as well. Die hard roguelike fans will likely know and understand the necessity of the grind, but even moreso than usual this feels like a case of too much stick and not enough carrot to start. If you’re the determined sort that may not matter, but when you’re staring at a large backlog of other options, and a game takes too long to start giving you access to more opportunities for variety, you begin to consider moving on and coming back to it later.