Lionheart

Lionheart — price & stats on Steam · GamesBerry

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Player reviews (17)

Recommended38h played27 found helpfulSep 2017

Lionheart is a monument to grind. It loves nothing more. If there’s a goal to obtain, an obstacle to overcome or a secret to find, the answer is--universally--that you need to grind some more. Nothing gets done without grind. Want to do something other than advance the plot? Perhaps you'd like to see a bit of character development? Sure, that’s an option... but it lies behind the grindwall. Think it’s time to put to use some of that gold you’ve obtained through your countless hours of grinding? I mean, you could. But not for something useful like better armour; you’ll need to collect items you can’t buy for that. How do you get those items? Through grind. As in all RPGs, your characters gain experience and grow in strength, which is accomplished through grind. That’s standard, but do you also want them to learn new, powerful moves to complement the stat-buffing level gains? Those don’t grow organically with levels. You need special items to trigger instances that teach your crew those advanced skills. Those special items first have to be built. And how do you get the items you need to build them? Grind, grind, grind. Because there’s so much grind, Lionheart is a long game topping at 100 hours, should the game's promotional blurb be believed (though I logged a little under 40). There’s a story behind it all, one openly trope-reliant that contains--and stop me if you’ve heard this before--a young, naïve farm boy coming to the big city in the search for adventure! Who (and what are the chances of this?) also happens to be the son of a once-famous mercenary, now looking to continue Daddy’s legacy. Crikey, if only there was a stoic guardian figure, or a disinterested love interest, or a ditzy support character, or a tomboy princess. There are all these things. There are all these things and more. Lionheart is unapologetically superficial. Though it adorns itself in JRPG trappings, it also unashamedly borrows from visual novels. So, all that grind isn’t tapered with exploration like you’d normally expect. There’s a winding labyrinth you’ll need to conquer before you see endgame. That much is true. There’s also a plethora of side locales that either need to be (or can be) explored on your never-ending grind to collect stuff from which you can make more stuff. There’s a mine you can grind ores from, and a haunted forest lousy with enchanted wood. Or a plateau where you can hunt boar and sentient wheat (which you use to make packed lunches), or a lake you can visit to batter mermaids to death and steal their scales. But you only visit these places in the shallowest of senses; there’s a static hand-drawn background and a progress bar. You press start and a counter moves through the bar, going from start to finish. There’s a boss battle, or at least a bulked-up fight to look forward to at the end, where you progress the plot or earn your crafting McGuffin upon victory. Then you do it over and over and over again. Full Review // http://www.honestgamers.com/13541/pc/lionheart/review.html

Not recommended3h played21 found helpfulJul 2017

So, this review is more of a first impressions kind of review. I'll get to a full review after I finish this, but I think I've played through enough of the game to talk about it some. Judging by the kind of games Fruitbat Factory puts out, it seems they prefer doujin titles that nobody would otherwise recognize or purchase. I don't mind this, since many of them are good games, but occasionally you get a game that's more hit-or-miss in terms of appeal. I knew from the screenshots and promotional material that this game wasn't exactly going to be my cup of tea, but after winning a key, I thought I'd at least try it out. Lionheart, at its core, is a visual novel pretending to be an RPG. This is in due part to the fact that it's built on the popular KiriKiri engine, which gave us splendid titles like Fate/Stay Night and GaoKao.Love.100Days. Quite honestly, this game has some elements that could make for a great visual novel. High quality art, a script with decent font and no perceivable grammatical mistakes, pleasant music...there's some good stuff under the hood. Unfortunately, I can't help but be bothered by other elements that aren't as good. The sound mixing isn't quite the best, as the voice acting is just a little too quiet compared to the music (I put both at the highest settings possible). Many scenes in the game aren't fully voice acted either, which is honestly more of a nitpick, but the inconsistency bothers me. The effects and transitions aren't terribly impressive, which is a shame because I know the KiriKiri engine is capable of some great effects. Now, that's all for the visual novel side of things. As far as the RPG stuff is concerned, there's little that impresses or engages me. I'm not a big fan of Dragon Quest-style battles (with Dragon Quest VIII and Undertale being rare exceptions), and this game does very little to spice things up. Three party members are allowed to battle at a time, although party members can be switched in between battle rounds. Oh yeah, battles are split in two phases in this game, which I will call preparation and combat. During the preparation phase, you have four options: [list] [*]Engage, which skips preparation and sends you into combat phase [*]Emblems, which allow you to attach magic emblems onto characters that can use them [*]Formation, which allows you to switch out party members [*]Item, which should be self-explanatory if you've ever played an RPG before [/list] In combat phase, battles work for the most part like a Dragon Quest game, with some minor cosmetic and mechanical differences. A turn order akin to Final Fantasy X's can be seen on the bottom left of the screen in case you're wondering what's coming up. I wouldn't say the battles are difficult to figure out, although I only played the game on Normal difficulty. The harder difficulty doubles damage dealt by enemies, which I can see getting tough for a variety of reasons. Healing items, materials and even money are hard to come by if you're not playing on Casual difficulty. Add to that the fact that some areas are restricted to you unless you have a specific item and you have the makings of a slow, tedious experience. In short, even with some saving graces, this is about as generic a VN/RPG as you can get. Some people might find mileage in that somehow, and that'll be beyond me, but if you're looking for a turn-based RPG you can get invested in, I'd suggest saving your money and buying Trails of Cold Steel when it comes out later this week. Just sayin'. :P

Recommended20h played15 found helpfulAug 2017

With 2017 already fulfilling its unspoken promise of delivering a deluge of delectable games I will probably never be able to finish, it does become difficult to limit my commitment or even outright pass up on a particularly interesting find. Smaller projects especially seem to have this hold on me. Lionheart, a visual novel/RPG hybrid developed by doujin circle Shiisanmei is a fine example of one that is engaging, but a joy to come back to between play sessions. Players take on the role of Leon, a young man dreaming to be adventurer. After a chance meeting with a young woman named Maria, she enlisted his unique abilities to explore the Magic Labyrinth, “Libra Corridor.” In many regards, when it comes to tone, Lionheart does put me in the mind of plenty of old-school RPG’s that comes off with a straightforward and neutral voice. That is not to say that it doesn’t contain any moments of levity or earnest, but it is difficult most of the time to tell what is going for. Of course, with the comedy being far more prevalent, players will probably find themselves chuckling most of the time at the endearing and sometimes frivolous humor. In particular, Maria pretty much made the game for me, her standoffish and deadpan personality clashing nicely with Leon’s oblivious behavior. Along the way, other members are added to the team such as: Leon’s guardian, a nun of the church, greedy merchant, samurai nekomata, naive princess and more that are not only valuable party members, but also lend a hand into the brand of humor and storytelling. The narrative is by no means great, yet serviceable for what it is and gets the job done. Where most of the time will spend spelunking and exploring the Libra Corridor as far as the storyline is concerned, you will have the chance to visit other areas in order to gather much-needed resources, train, and learn new skills (if you have the required material). As far as dungeon exploration goes, it is a very simple affair where players are given a map and get to choose the movement speed. Depending on the speed, you may run across resources more frequently or enemy encounters. The quickest option will usually prompt more battles as the slowest and normal options will yield more resources, but not a guaranteed outcome. When entering combat, battles are turn-based allowing you to use up to 3 members in battle. One of the things that I like about the battle system is that it is reminiscent to the “Mana/Atelier” franchise that allows you to swap frontline and backline party members, yet makes it more necessary especially in fights where enemies can take a more of a beating and players need to recover HP and AP in order to perform special skills or even wait out their emblems (magic abilities) cooldown period. With their being 3 difficulty levels to choose from (can be changed at anytime), you will most likely find yourself using these strategies often on any, but a great deal more choosing the “Heroic” mode that doubles enemy damage. My only complaint about Lionheart’s battle system is that there is no way to speed up battles. This is especially noticeable going into the aforementioned optional areas to grind for material only to get greeted with back-to-back encounters of annoying foes that you have no choice than to whack with normal attacks if you don’t feel like letting your emblems recharge over and over. The game does promise 50-100 hours of gameplay, however wouldn’t be surprised if a good 10-15 hours of that is counted toward toiling through optional areas. For game that was produced by a fairly small team, the production values for Lionheart looks great. Background and foreground environments are somewhat bland, but the character artwork and designs easily makeup for it. I am also impressed that the game does contain Japanese voice acting in various parts – a feature that wouldn’t be missed, but nice to have nonetheless. Being appreciative for the work that has gone into the game to fit the experience, it is very regrettable that there are some technical shortcomings. One in particular, the game is not very response on the world map, usually taking a few seconds or clicking elsewhere for it to show the drop down for areas that have more than one section. Another issue regards saving that takes a minuet or two before it actually does. With Fruitbat Factory being stellar with the titles they publish, these are problems that surely will be resolved during the full release and nothing that seriously impacts the game enjoyment factor. Having plenty of other games waiting to be started or finished this year, Lionheart is another delightful title I’m proud to add to my playlist. From the spread of characters to easy-going storytelling, I would be simply remissed to understate how much amusement I was able to get out of it and still have a few more hours left to pour into it. For those that enjoy the grassroots approach to RPG’s that you can only get from the indie scene with a splash of old-school style coupled with modern sensibilities, I do highly recommend giving it a chance. Seeing how Shiisanmei seems to be at work with a sequel, I can only hope it won’t be too long until I can join Leon on his next adventure. —————————————————————————————————————— Pros: Entertaining cast of characters, simple and solid combat system, adjustable difficulty settings, a lot of optional events. Cons: A few minor technical issues, no way to speed up or skip combat animations. Final Verdict: Another satisfying and engaging RPG that should be able to offer plenty for fans of the genre craving a meaty experience. Disclaimer: In no way, shape, or form was I compensated for the composition or publication of this review. This by my own volition. A review copy of the game was kindly provided by Fruitbat Factory.

Recommended77h played13 found helpfulAug 2017

Antes de começar a análise, eu gostaria de deixar claro que enquanto a minha recomendação é positiva, Lionheart possui uma série de características que, provavelmente, vão afastar a maior parte dos jogadores, são elas: • Ausência de exploração, o progresso dentro dos eventos é demonstrado por uma barra, logo, o jogador em momento algum controla qualquer movimento dos personagens. • O jogo contém apenas um final. • Grande parte dos visuais são imagens estáticas com apenas alguns efeitos. • Ele é completamente baseado em números, ou seja, quanto maior o seu level, mais fácil ficam os inimigos. • O combate é absurdamente lento, um encontro ordinário pode provocar batalhas que duram de 2 a 5 minutos. Então, se qualquer uma das características acima lhe parecer um mal negócio, faça um favor a você mesmo e nem pense em comprar Lionheart. Dito isso, vamos para uma análise mais detalhada: História: O enredo de Lionheart é bastante simples, seguindo a história de Leon Lionheart (sim, o excesso de “leões” no nome foi proposital), um aventureiro que deseja seguir os passos de seu pai. Para isso, ele segue com o seu parceiro e protetor, Orsin, para o Libra Corridor, uma enorme dungeon que em outros tempos foi usada como base para um exército de demónios. Lá ele conhece a misteriosa Mariabell, uma usuária de magia, que está buscando um grupo de mercenários para desbravar a dungeon e que após uma série de eventos, acaba se unindo ao grupo de Leon. Ao longo do jogo, outros personagens passam a fazer parte da equipe, a maioria deles é baseada em algum clichê tipicamente presente em personagens japoneses e o desenvolvimento deles é bastante raso. Felizmente, o protagonista e a história, evoluem ao longo da aventura e acabam se tornando o ponto mais forte do jogo. De forma geral, não há muito o que ser visto em Lionheart, que já não tenha sido explorado por algum outro título. Mas, é um trabalho competente o suficiente, para motivar o jogador a continuar seguindo com a história. Visuais e Som: Os visuais de Lionheart são extremamente simples, os personagens, inimigos e objetos são todos imagens fixas de qualidade considerável e os efeitos também fazer um trabalho decente, mas podem causar crashes em alguns computadores. O real problema está na falta de variedade dos inimigos, que se repetem ao longo de toda a aventura, tendo apenas a paleta de cores modificada. As músicas presentes no jogo são boas, mas estão em baixa quantidade e o jogador provavelmente vai se cansar delas depois de algumas poucas horas, já os efeitos sonoros são alguns dos mais irritantes que eu já ouvi, o problema está na repetição absurda deles, com um mesmo som sendo repetido inúmeras vezes ao longo de um simples confronto. Mas, o voice acting é de ótima qualidade, cada personagem possui uma personalidade única e os atores fizeram um excelente trabalho transmitindo-as ao jogador. Em resumo, não se trata de um jogo formidável no aspecto visual, mas o voice acting é um oásis de qualidade no meio de toda a mediocridade apresentada em Lionheart. Gameplay: Infelizmente não há muito a se elogiar aqui, pois, o jogo consiste em selecionar um evento em um mapa e uma vez dentro desse evento escolher com qual velocidade prosseguir. Essa velocidade define a quantidade de encontros (batalhas) que o jogador vai encontrar e por consequência, a quantidade de loot que será adquirida. Os combates são feitos por um sistema em turnos, com algumas peculiaridades como a possibilidade de se trocar de personagens a qualquer momento da partida (apenas três lutam ativamente por vez) e a presença dos Emblems, que fornecem habilidades especiais. No geral, a vitória é definida por números, sendo que é necessário possuir uma certa vantagem em leveis para conseguir vencer certos inimigos. Ademais, Lionheart conta com um sistema de crafting simples, que gera itens que podem ser usados para melhorar os status dos personagens. Além da já mencionada velocidade dos combates, o jogo também tem um sério problema de coesão entre a história e o gameplay, por exemplo, diversas vezes um personagem informará o jogador que determinada criatura é fraca contra um certo elemento, mas na prática, todos os elementos dão, aproximadamente, a mesma quantidade de dano. O que torna a utilização deles completamente inútil. Honestamente, a ideia de trocar a formação ao longo do combate e o uso de Emblems é ótima, mas todo restante do gameplay é simplesmente entediante. Veredito: Lionheart é um jogo medíocre com raros momentos de brilhantismo, separados por horas e horas de um gameplay entediante. Em suma, minha recomendação é positiva, apenas pelo fato de ter sido uma experiência diferente da de qualquer outro jRPG que eu já joguei e por ter me rendido 76 horas, das quais algumas foram muito divertidas. Mas, como existem dezenas de jogos desse gênero na Steam que, no geral, fazem um trabalho melhor em divertir, eu recomendo que Lionheart seja adquirido em promoções.

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