Hero Maker

Hero Maker is a short comedy RPG featuring full parody of the cliché RPG and a healthy dose of stupidity. Add to that genius battle tactics and you are good to go.
You are out to save the world from the impacts of an old-fashioned evil lord and his minions. You replay many known scenes, many known paths, but in a different way and with different narrations while you are turned into the hero of light!


But .. but I like it that way!

This game does in many ways a smart job of turning clichés on their heads such as a villager throwing you out of there house before you can do anything in it, women screaming for their lives as they are approached in the dark, The creator did a great job using tropes to their advantage.


Neat!

What I commend is that these tropes are introduced one by one. We are not simply thrown into a fully clichéd world - it is a changing world and a world in which we discover more and more of them. Many games tend to cluster details like that too often. And while you recognize all of the used tropes, you do not see all of them coming as they do.

Additionally, a lot of vulgar and random comments and dialogue add their own shade of humour. And while I am not a fan of the type in general (using Beetches, Biatches and all kinds of varients, for example), it does not harm the overall experience and will certainly enhance it for some. What they do lack is some polish and some better transitions from one place to the next.
I found the frequent use of smileys in dialogue quite jarring.

A big problem are the visuals. Mapping is done blocky, bland and you can tell that the creator is still inexperienced. However, it is compact and does not send you walking for hours. It is simply a means to forward the story, and it works for that part.


Yeah .. I will just go the next area. Thank you.

Music is RTP and while it makes sense, it is still fairly bland.

Given that and the fact that it is a comedy driven RPG, I am always a little bit wary of the actual gameplay.
The journy itself is .. not that interesting. Nor are the maps. You fast-forward/skip most of the walking and just walk tiny little bits by yourself. A lot of time and movement is done in events as well. There is no menu and no savepoints, but you get frequent chances which you will need.
There are only a few puzzles which are not that hard, but still take a little bit of thought for you to understand - I quite enjoyed them.

What really makes this stand out - and where most of the mindless giggles and laughter arise from - is the choose-your-action "battle system".


DO A BARREL ROLL! HURRY!

You have limited options for your characters to choose from to attack and defend - while characters have their skill-pool (such as throwing stones), only very few of their options will be available. You have to react according to the situation.
Your attacks can be countered, they will not always work. All are accompanied by dialogue which make for the most hilarious commentary in the middle of a fight.
Your MP and HP bar is shared, so you may want to conserve MP in some cases.

It is a very fair system as you can guess the right moves most of the time logically - that you may not want to try to dodge a super-fast ninja, for example.
Savepoints are set before fights so you can try out different options and you can win even if you mess up once or twice.

I had a blast waiting around hearing my characters waste time talking about conserving MP, doing barrel rolls for no good reason and throwing stones at dragons (it's super effective, trust me).

For a first game, or even the first games, this one does a splendid job of covering up the bad while focusing on the good. The creator knows his limits and Hero Maker is a really funny game and a great parody.
It is nothing fancy, but anyone who can live with that will have a blast.