Sonntag, 16. August 2015

{Not A Proper Review} Half-Off Hero


"Half-Off Hero: The World Needs Savings" by The Dink


It was bound to happen. A game, where several things come together and shut me out. First of all, I am so the wrong audience for this game. As detailed elsewhere, excessive reading and JRPG are my kryptonite... Well, part of my kryptonite, and you will never guess the other secret ingredients...
Back on topic, "Half-Off Hero" and me are probably never going to be best friends, and, as I will explain later, that bugs me for a few reasons. "Bugs" being an important word...

Story
You are a shopkeeper. Well, for the first part of the game. In a bit that reminded me more than a little of Kafka's "The Trial", some guards barge in, take you to see the queen who now tells you that you are the chosen hero, so go kill the powerful bad guy.
But... I have a family. Granted, I didn't expect them to last as long as they did, so I didn't name them... But a family nonetheless. And every monster I met has kicked my butt...

Mechanics
There are four parts I played in "Half-Off Hero".
1.) The shopkeeping game, where you choose a few items from your stock to offer that day. Adventurers will come in and want to be offered the right item. Don't worry, there is a cheat sheet for who wants what. You have to offer the items fast, because apparently these adventurers are late for a good looting already and they will leave your shop very quickly.
There is also the option at the beginning of the game to always enable dash, or rather, to overshoot by three spaces and backtrack back with the right item in tow, only to see the customer leave in a huff. I might have gotten the hang of the frantic life of a merchant, if I had played it more often.
2.) Combat is your typical JRPG "Choose Category - Choose Exact Variety Of Pain Administration" affair. My fights boasted no backgrounds and no health bars on the enemies so I have no idea if I posed a serious threat to any one of them. All I know is that they put me in the hospital without fail. More on that later.
3.) Dungeons and travelling, where you walk around until something nasty finds you. (see 2.). See also: "bad ideas", "picking a fight" and "oh, please, no").
4.) Hitting the space bar like I got paid for it. I'm sorry, I don't deal well with frontloaded games. And "Half-Off Hero" is so eager to explain everything about its world, while I am still hesitant if I want to enter that world. On the one hand this overenthusiasm is charming, but it also makes me more than a little impatient. Hence the space bar pecking.

Presentation
The larger top down views look pretty standard, but that is not something you can say about the dialogue screens and locations. Clearly a lot of effort, creativity and love went into the characters and their design. Again, unique, enthusiastic style.
But I hit the brick wall of one nasty bug that constantly made my screen flicker with black bars. My aforementioned impatience only grew from that and it did not help my enjoyment. Also when I tried to pay off the tab I had unwillingly accrued with the nurse who looks like Harley Quinn's more evil twin, she thanked me and my tab stayed exactly the same.

On the whole...
Let me repeat emphatically: I am not qualified to judge Half-Off Hero. I did not actually play enough of it, since I feel like I spent ten solid minutes getting the exposition out of the way. The parts I did play I was bad at. And bugs delivered the final knockout punch for me.
So why would I still recommend you have a look at it?
Because I read the document the dev put up on the contest page. And the ideas used to incorporate the theme of growth in the game sound amazing. Seriously, if your cursor is hovering over the download button, unsure if you should, have a look at the document. There are great ideas in there and I hope the game finds an audience that appreciates it.
But that is a clubhouse I'll probably never see the inside of.
___

Link: http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/449#.VdDJx_ntlBc

Dev: 
The Dink

Time Played: 25 minutes

Got My Vote? No. We're not meant for each other, "Half-Off Hero". Find someone who deserves you more than me.

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