Half-Minute Hero (PC, Steam)
Apr. 30th, 2019 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroThe evil lord is casting a spell that will destroy the world in only 30 seconds! Fortunately, the hero has the legendary (and greedy) Time Goddess on his side, and she’ll keep turning back the clock so long as he can keep paying for it.
I played a bunch of Half Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy in 2016, and it’s basically the same minigame collection that I played on the PSP a couple of years before that, but with a graphical overhaul so it looks cartoony instead of pixilated. (Though the old graphics are an option.) It irritates me that the other modes (with their radically different gameplay) can only be unlocked by beating the Hero30 mode. I kinda want to replay the Princess shoot-em-up mode.
It’s an odd thing to note, but I remember exactly when I played the original: In the fall of 2012, and much of it when I did a one-day trip to San Francisco for a job interview. I read most of Mith’s first novel on that trip, too.
I recently played the first two chapters of Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming, which builds on the Hero30 mode by giving you a “global level” you can raise and the ability to go back to earlier stages in “EZ Mode”, with a higher base level and stronger equipment. They also make a more coherent plot line, add in new reasons why you only have 30 seconds for the stage (such as delaying monsters until reinforcements arrive, or preventing an execution), and add quirks like vehicles you can use (and fight giant monsters in) and NPCs who act during stages.
On the other hand, that appears to be all there is. The other three game modes don’t return, as they apparently decided the “primary” game style was the only thing anyone wanted. As much as I’d like to see where the plot goes, I got tired of the increasingly-hard variations of Hero30 mode and lost interest in the game.
Overall: This was an innovative game, but the sequel was clearly made for people who just wanted more of it, not any further innovation. The Steam version is marginally better than the PSP version, but unless you adore the first segment of the first game, the sequel will leave you cold.
I played a bunch of Half Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy in 2016, and it’s basically the same minigame collection that I played on the PSP a couple of years before that, but with a graphical overhaul so it looks cartoony instead of pixilated. (Though the old graphics are an option.) It irritates me that the other modes (with their radically different gameplay) can only be unlocked by beating the Hero30 mode. I kinda want to replay the Princess shoot-em-up mode.
It’s an odd thing to note, but I remember exactly when I played the original: In the fall of 2012, and much of it when I did a one-day trip to San Francisco for a job interview. I read most of Mith’s first novel on that trip, too.
I recently played the first two chapters of Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming, which builds on the Hero30 mode by giving you a “global level” you can raise and the ability to go back to earlier stages in “EZ Mode”, with a higher base level and stronger equipment. They also make a more coherent plot line, add in new reasons why you only have 30 seconds for the stage (such as delaying monsters until reinforcements arrive, or preventing an execution), and add quirks like vehicles you can use (and fight giant monsters in) and NPCs who act during stages.
On the other hand, that appears to be all there is. The other three game modes don’t return, as they apparently decided the “primary” game style was the only thing anyone wanted. As much as I’d like to see where the plot goes, I got tired of the increasingly-hard variations of Hero30 mode and lost interest in the game.
Overall: This was an innovative game, but the sequel was clearly made for people who just wanted more of it, not any further innovation. The Steam version is marginally better than the PSP version, but unless you adore the first segment of the first game, the sequel will leave you cold.
