Finding Peace With the Impossible.

ScourgeBringer is a platforming action roguelite from 2020 with a stunning pixel art aesthetic that never feels old or overused. After about 15 hours of looping runs, I can confidently say it’s a game built around repetition—your own personal *Groundhog Day* through four punishing floors of misery.

Let’s get this out of the way: I never beat the final boss. I’ve tried. I’ve “gotten gud.” But I also found peace with it. I’m done—and satisfied. Sometimes it’s okay to leave the mountain unclimbed. Not every place needs my banner soaring.

This is not a game for newcomers. If you’re into hard games—if you enjoy suffering, adapting, and coming back swinging—this one’s for you.

But fair warning: ScourgeBringer doesn’t hold your hand. It rips the hand off.

ScourgeBringer deserves far more recognition than it received. Buried deep in a mine of digital libraries, this little uncut gem sits gleaming under the dirt, simply waiting for the right pair of eyes to see its shine.

It’s a damn shame this game didn’t get more traction, because it has serious merit. It’s time to give SB the spotlight it deserves—a forgotten gem that stands toe-to-toe with bigger-named titles.

This game is legitimately hard. Expect to die—a lot, and often. Runs can stretch to 30 minutes, which feels a bit long for the level of precision it demands. Personally, I prefer 15–20-minute runs, but I adapted.

You survive not by brute force but by playing nearly perfect with limited health. Thankfully, once the roguelite elements kick in, things get more manageable. The upgrades feel substantial—massive, even. They meaningfully change how you play and help flatten that brutal difficulty curve.

Movement is the soul of ScourgeBringer. The game’s blistering pace never lets up. Distractions will kill you—literally. A single second of panic can turn your full-health run into a quick death.

Button mashing? Absolutely fatal.

Every move must be deliberate. You’re meant to chain attacks—slash, dash, parry, repeat. It’s smooth and precise, a flowing dance that feels like you’re being rubber-banded across the screen on instinct.

When it works, it’s beautiful chaos. You feel like a futuristic sword-wielding samurai—and who doesn’t want that?

But the second you lose that samurai flow? You’re dead.

Losing momentum—stalling out, falling behind—is the danger zone. One mistake snowballs into three bad rooms, and that’s the end of your run. If you get hit, don’t try to thug it out. Back off. Regroup.

This is a game of attrition, not ego.

The times it feels unfair are when you’re cornered and overwhelmed by a positional misplay. Take the hit, breathe, recover—and you’ll bounce back.

No enemy is safe to leave for later. The quiet one in the corner? The cute one who shoots a single projectile? He’s the enemy.

Everything is dangerous.
Every hit counts.

Losing health early can wreck a promising run 15 minutes later—like a ticking time bomb to a death on a lower floor. Health is your most valuable resource. Every decision—every shortcut or rush—can come back to haunt you.

And yet, I loved the aggressive style. My zoomies made it harder, sure, but I wouldn’t play any other way.

The upgrade tree is excellent. It adds depth, not just stat boosts. These aren’t filler perks—they genuinely impact how you play and open new paths forward. Upgrades like fury combos or blood chains reshape the battlefield and give you meaningful goals.

Keeping your combo meter at 2 becomes a game in itself, earning you more blood points and encouraging fluid, high-level play. These points feed back into the upgrade system, creating a loop of progression and reward that’s incredibly satisfying.

Bosses and Sentinels are a different beast.

These fights are all about finesse—waiting for openings, dodging attacks, and surviving old-school bullet-hell barrages. You’re no longer dashing around. You’re locked in.

And those 1 HP clutch boss fights? Absolutely electric. When the boss is below 20% and it’s a mad dash to finish them off—man, there’s nothing like it. The adrenaline is real.

ScourgeBringer is punishing, fast, and requires serious discipline. It rewards mastery and punishes sloppiness. It’s not for the faint of heart—but for those willing to endure its trials, it offers some of the most fluid and rewarding action in the roguelite genre.

If you’re a fan of high-speed, high-skill roguelites, pick up the sword and prepare for the fight of your life.

You might not conquer every mountain, but the journey itself is worth every brutal, beautiful moment.

Nope - I am not sure this game is worth five cents TBH. It feels like an minimum-effort obstacle course of no originality.

A lot of bad graphics UI decisions - for example, you cannot see enemy projectiles while slashing because of some extraneous fog thing.

Oh and there are plenty of cheap hits and heals - it is an awful bullet hell game. There is mostly no signaling of bullet emissions - just play with the invincibility mode on if you value your time.

The game has the invincible mode so that you can blow through this repetitive game fast. The amount of mashing you need to do in this game is obscene. An average enemy takes multiple hits and every room has two waves enemies, meaning it starts getting repetitive in the first room. The content is extremely uninspired. I have seen the same "expedition got killed by monsters" lore trickle thing countless times already (for example, Anuchard) and it is a staple of lazily-put-together games.