Short, But Very Fun Indie Fencing Game!
En Garde was a lot of fun for me. The main character is voiced really well (as is all characters), and her interactions with the villains/rivals of each episode provide us with some entertaining and funny exchanges. The animations aren't numerous, but utilized very well throughout the game.
I enjoyed the story quite a bit too. Our main character, Adalia, fights with some renegade fencer, steals wealth from the corrupt duke guy with her girl-crush, and explores an island for a lost treasure. All premises were very entertaining and are good groundwork for fun character development.
The gameplay was definitely acceptable and I personally had a lot of fun with it. The gameplay loop is essentially distracting groups of varied enemies in numerous ways and chipping away at gauntlets of enemies one by one. You parry, dodge, distract and slice and dice your opponents depending on the situation and enemy type. Speaking of which, we get just enough different types of enemies that'll attack you using different tactics, providing the player with fresh combat situations each fight.
All in all, En Garde performs very well and didn't crash once. However, keep in mind that this game can definitely bring modern hardware to their knees. But it's optimized well enough that most mid-end graphics card within the last 3+ years should be able to run this game at high-ish resolutions and maintain 60+fps.
If you're worried about how short En Garde is, you can always wait for a light discount, which I believe is a perfect price for this game. It's an easy recommendation from me and I hope you give this a try!