[h1]Overview[/h1]
[i]Heromantic[/i] is a romance-lite, superhero based visual novel with a concise story and boasts the choice of either of two female protagonists, each with their own discrete route, although each character's thread remains tied in to the overarching story and therefore events in one will cross-reference with the other.
[h1]Story[/h1]
Union City is a sprawling municipality with more than its fair share of crime, and not just your mere workaday criminals either, oh no - they have supervillains running free, too! But all is not lost, as there is also a whole host of second-tier “heroes” doing their bit to keep the public safe, and above those, an elite team of superheroes, both human and alien, known as the [i]Super Troupe[/i].
It's at the end of the prologue/common route where one of the Super Troupe is taken out of the picture – creating a gap in the team at the top level of crimefighting. Very quickly afterwards, we are given the freedom of choice of which protagonist story we wish to play: will it be Beverly Boulevard, the doggedly determined ace reporter; or Elena Noble, the low level heroine also known as Luminary?
[h1]Experience[/h1]
I found the story, irrespective of being relatively short, to be well constructed with zero continuity lapses between the two protagonist options. Members of the superhero team all strongly resemble very well known literary characters, providing a certain level of reader familiarity which lessens the need to provide each of them with extensive personal backstories – this is not to say that they are hollow, but that the narrative focuses on delivering the action ahead of detailed character building, and in doing so, ensures that a punch is provided which supplies continuous entertainment throughout.
With a title like “Heromantic”, what you want to know of course is whether there is any romance to be found? It is certainly intimated at from a fairly early stage in both threads, and ultimately provides the reader with a choice of snagging our desired partner or not, which, whilst quite satisfying, still leaves us without that payoff CG at the end.
[h1]Features[/h1]
The initial main menu is very nicely presented with portraits of the main characters serving as the usual clickable options (start, load, gallery etc) and there are some basic settings which [i]mostly[/i] save for your next session after closing the game. This might be the only bug I found, and it's a tiny one – the text speed option resets to the default (which is slow) each time you reopen the game, but any other settings alterations you make, are saved. Full text speed is instant, which pleased me.
Once in the story, there is the usual text command list along the bottom, which, on option screens, changes to the remote-control icon type which may be at the top or bottom, and can be very difficult to see. This is worth looking out for when you come to your first options, as [b]it is there![/b] You can save, etc, at a player choice, without having to resort to the escape key.
Within Elena's story, there are a couple of instances of having to play through a combat mode, but do not worry about this being some kind of rpg-type clash. Luminary must battle villains to defeat, but this is done via untimed text-options, and is simple enough to get through. It is [i]very slightly[/i] tiresome on subsequent plays for alternate ends, but nowhere near enough to put off anybody bar the most extremely impatient of players.
The standard user controls are available, with plenty of save slots, backstep and skip (both of which I found to be somewhat slower than average, but not painfully so) and a gallery featuring 16 full screen pictures to be found for each protagonist; which feels quite generous for the size of the game. Although there are no achievements to unlock, completion of each gallery serves as proof that you have successfully attained all available endings. I found this fun to do, with judicious use of the save slots ensuring that it wasn't a burden.
[h1]Graphics and Sound[/h1]
Visually the game adopts two very contrasting graphic styles, with location backdrops being presented in a monochromatic line-drawing style (which looks better than I just made it sound) and this enables the full colour, large character sprites to pop and these also have variations of expression and clothing.
I felt that aurally, the best the game produced was the tune accompanying the opening cutscene and menu. The sound through the main body of the game is OK, serves its job as support, but is quite easily disregarded due to its very low-key nature.
[h1]Verdict[/h1]
As evidenced by the closing credits, it appears that this game was written, illustrated, coded [b]and[/b] musically composed by a sole female developer. As otome lovers, that alone should be a damned good reason to want to give your support to this game, and that's before we take on board the clear evidence that playing through this story is a rewarding experience.
I note that my playtime is almost double that of the couple of reviewers to precede this one, and whilst I did leave it running for 20 minutes or so unattended on one occasion, the rest of the time is true, and is down to seeking out all endings without cheating – at time of writing, the developer has released a guide (which I did check after completing the galleries, just to be certain). This is more than fair gameplay time for the price asked.
The game was gifted to me by my wonderful friend after I casually mentioned that it might be a good fit for a group curation (which it is!), and sadly this highlights once again Valve's truly abysmal decision to discount gifted game reviews from their popularity stats. It has still been purchased by a customer and should count towards visibility. I make a point of raising this within this review as this game is fully deserving of sufficient visibility on this platform to raise awareness to its full potential customer base, and like many other small indie triumphs, does not deserve to be hampered by a dire policy stance.
Do both yourself and the developer a favour, and buy this game. There is a very high percentage likelihood that you will have a good time. Jane Koyama, I salute you. Well done!
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