Hell on High Heels

Hello!
Hey hey hey, if you were thinking that I forgot to review some games from the event "Swap in the 3 middle with u"... well you were right! BUT now here I am, reviewing "Hell on High Heels", an Rpgmaker VX Ace game by Pianotm & Red_Nova about demons!

The game in fact starts a sunny day with not one, but three demons: Salamandra, Agathion, and... Jim! (like "this is Aerith, and this is... uh Vincent")
The three are doing what many evil beings usually do in rpgs: unleash an army of lesser monster and try to conquer the realm, that this time their aim is towards the Kingdom of Khandee, a place where there is a king, vendors but absolutely no heroes nor a strong army. And the king is an idiot. So the demons will conquer the place in no time, correct?
Well, no!


Nia is the protagonist of the game, and she's so intimidating that she kills enemies with words. Literally!

Kingdom of Khandee is in fact home of the most terrible little princess, Nia! She's a spoiled brat with a mean temper that likes organizing tea parties (where no one goes obviously, since she is so mean!). Clearly her parents spoiled her so for them it's ok as she is, and her servants and vassals... well they are there to serve her, so the only ones that will try to contradict her in any way will be these demons. But they will learn that she's more dangerous than she appears.

"Hell on High Heels" is a short classic rpg about a realm invaded and a terrible girl: we play as Nia but we can build a full party with her parents and a bodyguard (just called "servant", well no one has names except for Nia, her only friend and the demons). Only Ria and the bodyguard has special abilities, the parents have only standard attacks, but do not underestimate them since they can find and equip weapons and armors, and they can level up, unlike Nia that, being a child, is a permanent level l weakling, with no attack abilities. So how do you use her?

Well it's simple: Nia can unleash her rage shouting and making her enemies die. Really, she is that powerful. She has various skills (one for example convinces the opponents to attack the other party members) but she starts so weak that enemies can one-shot her (hence the usefulness of a bodyguard, of course!), anyway she will get tougher and tougher as you get more and more achievements (defeating a demon and earning a new ending... yes there is more than one outcome possible!).


Nooooo mom, please! I got the NewGame+ just to recruit filthy demons! But Nia will get what she wants. As always, OF COURSE!

So the game is basically an "inverted dungeon delving adventure": instead of entering and exploring a dungeon to defeat the bosses, you have to leave the palace and defeat the bosses, facing their minions, collecting loot and spending money in some shops to get some useful accessories and consumables. Oh, and the game also includes a mandatory mini-puzzle about pushing a crate, a classic of many rpg games, necessary to close one of the gaps to proceed (pay attention because falling down equals death!). Is this all?

Well, no! After completing the game once you get the NewGame+, and this gives the possibility to actually recruit the demons! This also expands the endings you can get (I think that the first playthrough has just two endings available), and even a secret level (it's pretty easy to figure out how you can get it) where Nia decides to reverse the situation: she will invade hell! And I'll let you play and see how the story will end...

Visually the game is nothing special or new: the resources are something you probably saw one thousand times (except some aspects like the menu screen, that I guess it's Pianotm's job, judging the style, or Ria's facesets, whose origin is a mytery to me), mapping is ok even if a bit generic and bare bones, do not expect complex structures or may interactions but just some npcs and silly dialogues here and there. Yes, dialogues are probably the most important and most enjoyable aspects of the game because they're funny, and so are the ending the Ria's comments about them. And since I was speaking about endings, let's end here the review!


Ok this is a glimpse of the secret level! Nia goes to hell to strike back! Poor demons!

Final Verdict
"Hell on High Heels" is a nice but simple and apparently average game that is clearly improved by the presence of Nia, that is both the star of the game (and the source of the most amusing dialogues) and the "innovative gimmick" that turns the ordinary dungeon delving adventure into a fun parody. Does it work? Well, yes it works, even if the game becomes a bit stale and repetitive (you always fight the same monsters and visit the same barren locations more and more times, doing that silly crate puzzle every time) after getting 4-5 endings, but being a game made for a jam... it's enough for one hour of fun. The game has just some minor flaws, for example it states that the demons are all defeated even if one can be totally avoided, also minor demons do not flee after you defeat the final boss, and this is a little odd. Anyway there is nothing game breaking, and the base idea was cool! Not bad at all!