[b]My Playtime:[/b] 21.7h (100% achievement, finished the game)
[b]My First Playthrough:[/b] 10.6h
[b]Grindy Achievement(s):[/b] No.
[b]Optional Achievement(s):[/b] Yes (~12 achievements).
[b]Difficult Achievement(s):[/b] No.
[h1]Intro[/h1]
[b]The King's Heroes[/b] is a turn-based [i]RPG Maker[/i] game that is focused on dungeon delving. You need to make up a party of four with no other explanation except their class name to finish the game. It offers a lot of freedom, allowing you to tackle most dungeons in any order that you want.
[b]Pros:[/b]
- A lot of difficulty modes to suit your playstyle
- Enemies only respawn when you reenter dungeons
- Bonuses for beating all enemies in the dungeons
- Freedom to tackle dungeons in any order that you want
[b]Cons:[/b]
- Can be grindy depending on the difficulty mode that you chose and your playstyle
- It's unknown what each class does before you choose them
- Money is too scarce
- Enemies can give you trouble even in the easiest difficulty
- Some dungeons take too long to traverse
- Can be boring and repetitive at some points
[b]Specs[/b]
Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
[h1]Should you buy this game?[/h1]
[b]No.[/b]
[i]The gameplay is too boring due to its numerous enemies, and it takes time to finish dungeons even in the easiest difficulty. Moreover, grinding is imminent if you go to a higher difficulty, the story is almost nonexistent and the dialogues are boring.[/i]
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[h1]In-Depth Review[/h1]
[h3]Visuals[/h3]
The game uses a combination of default and customized assets, and I like how the developer manages to create unique areas out of them, whether in dungeons or villages. However, I found some dungeons to be empty and too long, wasting your time to traverse back whenever you want to make sure you are not missing anything. Moreover, some parts of these dungeons look automatically generated sometimes, giving a labyrinth-like look with hardly any room to walk.
On the other hand, I like how the villages are designed. They have an SNES-like aesthetic where you can see a building's interior without going inside it. This makes the villages look small and busy at the same time.
[h3]Story[/h3]
The story is hardly existent. I thought that having to choose your party from eight characters would spice up the dialogues a bit, but it turns out that the dialogues are fixed no matter which character you chose - it seems that the dialogue that shows up is determined by your party order instead. Moreover, apart from the twist at the end, the story is boring and the characters are unlikeable. They will only argue with each other sometimes, showing how self-centered they are and how they need to focus on their main mission.
[h3]The Game[/h3]
[b]Gameplay[/b]
You can choose a party of four out of eight people. However, the game never tells you what each character does or what's their selling point except their class. Sure, you can roughly guess what each class does since they tend to follow basic [i]RPG Maker[/i] classes, but some classes are exclusive to this game and can be hard to figure out without more explanation. Moreover, some classes are branched into several subclasses that can be harder to deduce.
Choosing party aside, I like how you can choose your difficulty. The game has 6 difficulties, with one being a unique mode where monsters won't respawn, giving you limited resources. That being said, I didn't find the other difficulties to be captivating, especially due to the difficulties that I got even in the easiest mode. Sometimes, an enemy can one-shot my party member, and my party member might deal very low damage, which I assumed because they are resistant to a certain weapon type. The lack of an MP restoring option at the beginning of the game also forces me to really take care of my MP allocation, which I doubt works in a harder difficulty.
That being said, the game gives you freedom in exploration. The world map was divided into three sections, where you can visit the dungeons in the first two sections in any order that you want. However, the game might unknowingly force you to visit it in a certain order, especially since some dungeons have a lot of enemies that you must beat, which can be problematic unless you are at a higher level. Luckily, it's still possible to clear the dungeons in any order in the easiest difficulty if you have speedy party members with you.
However, dungeons can be boring. I liked its design - there is only a fixed number of enemies and you'll get a bonus for beating them all, but sometimes they are just too long. I had to defeat ~60 enemies spread over ~10 floors once, and it's the worst experience that I got, not only because the enemies are repetitive, but because there is hardly anything noteworthy to do except for beating enemies and opening chests. I would prefer more dungeons with fewer floors instead of this.
[b]Combat[/b]
Combat is boring. You either need to use your skills or normal attack in the easiest mode, but since you can only restore MP through items or inn, you might want to save your skills for later. Sure, you might be able to equip some gears that restore your MP every turn, but the amount is too small to let you spam skills that way.
Enemies can be too strong, though. There are some instances, especially in my second playthrough since I had to play in a party that doesn't have a lot of firepower, when a party member was one-shotted by an enemy. Damage to enemies also seems to be random in that case, either relying on element or weapon type. It's not often that I find my character to be dealing hardly any damage to the enemy without knowing why. Since enemies can pack a punch, it is vital to beat them before they can act, but it can be hard to do if half of your party members can't deal damage to the enemies.
[b]Length and Difficulties[/b]
I finished the game in 10.6h in my first playthrough. The game forces you to play it twice for 100% completion. I originally planned to play the easiest mode in my first playthrough because of this, changing the difficulty on the second easiest mode in my second playthrough after I knew what to do, but I scrapped that idea due to how boring it was.
Even after playing it in the easiest playthrough, it can still take time to finish a dungeon, even forcing you to save scum if you have weaker party members, which might or might not be contributed by the lack of money needed to buy gears. Yes, money is pretty much scarce unless you recruit a certain character who can give you extra money, and even with that, you still need to make sure to only buy things that you need.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
I'm pretty surprised that this game was developed by [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6842143][i]Aldorlea Games[/i][/url] due to its quality. The combat is almost not balanced, the story is boring, and the gameplay is repetitive- I think I can complain in almost every aspect of the game. I know that I liked some of it, such as the touch encounter and how the dungeon works, but that alone won't change how I feel about the game. I didn't enjoy it as a whole, and my second playthrough felt like an eternity due to its boringness - at least I could still play it while watching an anime since I know most of the content already. And that's not a good thing.
