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You are not the Full Game! ...Demo Review

  • LX_Theo
  • 05/18/2013 12:13 AM
  • 1285 views
Today I will be taking a look at the sections of You Are Not The Hero released as a part of release something weekend. Immediately this game caught my attention by advertising itself as different and unique. The title alone makes it stand out from the depths of medieval RPG fantasies that can come in droves at times. With Media Madness Month beginning, I thought it would be a good time to tackle this unique concept.




Story
The story is very self explanatory. You are not the hero. You are not trying to save the world. You are Petulia, a good for nothing NPC that happened to have a nice stat boosting pendant in her house. The heroes - as in the actual heroes trying to save the world - find themselves in retreat from the evil army and making their way through Petulia's small town. As with most heroes, they proceed to break into everyone's houses and loot everything of value. When Petulia's treasured pendant becomes a victim of these noble actions, she sets out on a journey to regain the pendant.

The story is quite good and does exactly what it means to. 4th wall jokes break that barrier before you even get to take a step, and don't stop from there. Its done very well, with the humor being a large upside here.

Characters are all greedy, lazy, or stupid, with Petulia's obsession with the pendant being no exception. With only being to nearly the end of chapter two, little progression of characters have been made, but a good number have been established well in being interesting and very promising. Given the comedy nature of the story, I don't expect much development in the future, but I'd say the characters certainly have setup to have it done well.

- Story (so far): 90/100 -

Gameplay

The gameplay in the game seems largely to play on the concept that you are also not a hero. There are no battles (despite having health). You are not equipping weapons and items. You are simply a girl chasing down the nobles thieves of her pendant. In that respect, the game becomes largely a mix of a puzzle and platforming. You can sprint and jump, as well as click ENTER on things. As far as NPCs go, I'd say Petulia is no slouch.

I do find issue with how well this is implemented. To me, trying to run and platform across holes and rockslides can be quite awkward in the general RPG Maker setup. Perhaps its my inexperience in dealing with platforming elements in RPG Maker games, but I do not believe it translates well. The ultimate problem is that these sections will hurt you and your health bar the more mistakes you make. Luckily most areas that can cause problems have a save point at the start, so the issue is relatively well contained and not game breaking in the least.

The gameplay does not stop there. There are also an assortment of puzzles and other miscellaneous bits. One section asks you to read tombstones to find a certain messages to say. Another asks you to preform a QTE of sorts, where you and guard go head on in a Dragonball Z style struggle. These events are great changes of pace, and compliments the less enjoyable fundamental mechanics quite well. These various change up come often and seem to vary considerably, and I applaud the creators for what they've managed so far.

Another good concept is the stars and The Library. Each chapter has its goals for you to reach, and you get stars based on how many of them you met. The Library offers you the chance to go back and replay chapters. It offers a hint of replay value that could be very good for the game in the end.

- Gameplay: 75/100 -

Presentation

Graphically, the game looks nice. The tiles/overworld characters look good and consistent, as well as the secondary graphics like character portraits. Graphics for the gameplay elements are amusing when they need to and are versatile to not look out of place. In the end, this games looks very good graphically, but little to put it over the edge. I happen to not expect any game here to go to that level, though.

Sound wise, the game also does quite well. The music is nice and well done, but not very memorable. What is done very well is the music selection for parts. For example, a section that has you wandering through the darkness is quieter and makes the situation more on edge as it should be.

Some inconsistencies bugged me, I might add. At times, the game couldn't seem to decide how it wanted to display the character portraits. One instance in particular found itself switching between a full character and behind the message box and one in a square in the message box. This difference even managed to also have both methods done for the same character in that conversation. Various issues like these popped up and distracted me from the game itself. I must say, that there were minor and only major enough to be worth mentioning to exist. I suspect none of them were on purpose and will be gone when the game is farther along in any testing procedures.

- Presentation: 80/100 -



Overall

You Are Not The Hero is a very good game in its early stages. For the time I was able to play it to the demo's conclusion, it did little to take me away from finding it amusing and enjoyable. It is very unique, funny, and provides excellent promise in these opening sequences. While not perfect, I'd say it is definitely a must try. I know I'll be subscribing to it. I'd definitely love to do another review when this one sees a more full release.

- Score: 83/100 -