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Don't judge a book by its cover

Brave Hero Yuusha is a traditional RPG created in RPG Maker VX Ace by SgtMettool. Superficially, it resembles an old school NES-era Dragon Quest game, but looks can be deceiving; there's a bit more to this game then there appears at first glance.

The game begins exactly the way you might expect an old Dragon Quest game to open; your hero, a prophesied warrior known as the Yuusha (who you can name), is brought before the king to be charged with the important quest of slaying a demon lord and rescuing a princess! But savvy players might notice something is just a bit off. Our hero doesn't quite seem to understand how he got here, the king is acting just a mite peculiar, and within seconds the game appears to have gone horribly off-script, with the Yuusha suddenly being thrust into the Demon Lord's castle hours before he was intended to arrive. We're only a few minutes in, but it looks like we're already about to fight the final boss! This must be a short game.

Okay, I like a challenge...



However, before the story can conclude in its intended way, the game's true plot gets underway as a villain called the Puppeteer appears and decides he's tired of the Dragon Quest formula and thinks it's time to try a different story; one where there are no rules and anything can happen! The Yuusha and his nemesis, the demon lord, must reluctantly join forces to stop the Puppeteer before he tears their world apart.

The game is a loving pastiche of many RPG cliches and plots, with the characters literally existing within the pages of a storybook, actors carrying out a script of good versus evil. If anyone has ever played the old RPG Maker demo game Gobli, this will all seem familiar.

Your party consists of a hero who doesn't seem to understand why he's a hero, a villain who doesn't seem to enjoy being a villain, and a kidnapped princess who could probably save the world by herself in ten minutes if anyone took her seriously. While not deep characters by any stretch, as the game progresses each of them is forced to examine their own role in the story in interesting ways. The NPCs are amusing, the villains are comically over-the-top, and generally you can tell the creator was just having fun every step of the way. Interspersed with this tongue-in-cheek stereotype land is a somewhat darker narrative about a young boy being caught up in his own fantasies. While nothing groundbreaking I found the basic premise of the game unique and fun enough to compel me to keep playing to the end.

The gameplay is more or less identical to Dragon Quest, simple turn based combat with no frills. The game is pretty breezy and never gets overly challenging, and while random encounters get monotonous or stale after spending too long in one area, dungeons are small enough that this doesn't generally become a problem. The dungeons themselves are well-designed, compact and contain enough additional puzzle elements that you don't spend too much time just wandering in mazes. Each dungeon has an additional goal on top of finding the boss. Hidden in each dungeon are scattered 'pages' literally ripped out of the book, resulting in important story elements, NPCs or objects not appearing in a nearby town. By gathering these pages you can restore the world back to it's original state and undo the damage the Puppeteer has caused, similar to Soul Blazer or Dark Cloud.

The game is a decent length of a bit over three hours, though it might take longer if you explore everything. I feel like this length was about right, any longer and the game's gimmicks might have started to wear out their welcome. While this game certainly isn't trying anything new, its charming art style, humorous writing, and competent design earn high marks from me. If you like old school RPGs, you'll probably love this game.

An editor's work is never done...

Posts

Pages: 1
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
I agree whole-heartedly with this review. It's a great little game!
Thank you for the review! Glad you enjoyed it!

I had considered making the game one or two areas longer, but I think if I had, it would become exhausting to finish, considering how simple the combat is. Glad I left all that out, then!
Pages: 1