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Hero's Realm : Taking the absolute BEST of every old school RPG!

Here is my first review for a game, I am not native english so I apologize for any syntax error.

I discovered RPG Makers game a few months ago during xmas holidays, since then i downloaded about 30 of them... one of them was obviously Hero's Realm. Its DragonQuest/FinalFantasy look had gotten me interested. Needless to say, it REALLY lived up to the legacy it is trying to emulate.

Graphics : Well obviously we are talking old school rpg here, most of the visuals have been ripped from the 2d era (ff4,ff5, etc.) some monster comming from a lot of the final fantasy as well as other well known RPGs. same goes for the background and tileset that will remind you of dragonquest and the likes. The game being coded with RPG Maker 2003 makes it compatible with anotherfullscreenmode, an app coded by Cherry that makes it easy to enable fullscreen as well as filtering (remember Zsnes HQ2X, 2Xsai, etc.) well theses awesome filters are availlable on RM2k3 games as well! Considering I play the game on a 70inch monitor, having only a small windowed game was not an option, and doing the alt+enter would switch the monitor resolution to 640x480 basically moving all my windows desktop icons all over the place. So having the anotherfullscreenmode was a gift!
9.5/10 with anotherfullscreenmode and hq2x

Music : This game has over 300 music pieces!! From Chrono to Final Fantasy, including some classical tracks, some completely original and very memorable awesome music. The only drawback is that the music is midi... some people enjoy the retro aspect midi will bring. Personally I like orchestral scores... Especially since a lot of theses music could have been converted to mp3 with much better instruments, it would have greatly improved the overall experience for me. Still, there is no denying that a lot of thought went into the selection of each of theses music and sound effects which made the game so much enjoyable.
8/10

Gameplay : Gameplay was pretty much what you would expect from a AAA RPG back then. Turn based with ATB filling up, an option to have the ATB in active or wait mode was awesome. (I played in wait mode since active was much more brutal early on) The game also has 12 basic class to chose from, 3 master class and 3 ultimate elite class. There are TONS of hidden items, sidequests and mini games. The game also has many mechanics that have been used over the years, multi level tower where you can drop from floor to floor, slippery tiles in ice caverns, auto move tiles, switches, puzzles, etc. The most impressive is by FAR the party mechanics that will eventually allow you to switch party on the spot, including during battles, that literally blew my mind that someone was able to code something like that using that engine. Overall, very solid game with great mechanics and near perfect gameplay. Only downside would be the class changes that reset the level is a bit too harsh considering you dont get to keep anything from that previous class.
9.0/10

Story : Very classic tale of good vs evil here reminiscing of old dragon quests a lot. There are a few memorable vilains and the story is good enough and easy to follow. A few times I had to check walkthrough or ask the forums for tips or help, but mostly it was to be sure I would not end up missing something (I am a completionist). The game is divided in 5 chapters (ala Dragon Quest 4) where you do good deeds in your respective part of the world with a different hero on each of the 4 first chapters. Then at the begining of Chapter 5, they get together to embark on the biggest journey to save the world! (obviously!) Overall was a decent story, but much more old school (Dragon Quest 1-4) than the Final Fantasy 4 or 5 it tend to looks like. A lot of the backstory was only availlable by speaking to the insane amount of NPC every town had. The total text count must really be quite high considering the size of this world.
7.5/10

Overall : Even though i did not give perfect scores on any of the category, nothing is ever really "perfect". This game really does achieve perfection in one thing, being the ultimate Retro RPG. If you liked Dragon Quest 4 (that is the game that really comes to mind the most), you really owe it to yourself to play this gem. This is pretty much as good as it gets, hence the reason why my overall score is the perfect 5/5!

Thank you for taking the time to read my very first review, I wish you all a very nice day and Keep on Playing! :)

-=Fire Hawk X=-

Posts

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Thank you for the review! This game is my love letter to RPG games of that era (early 90s), and it makes me feel happy that I was able to strike a chord with players who are familiar and looking for games of similar ilk from that era.
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