Ok. I just bought this game 2 weeks back and already finished this game. It was a relief for having playing a completely different game. Half Minute Hero is a PSP game released in October 13, 2009. This game lives up by parodying the Japanese RPGs in humorous fashion. Normally in JRPGS, you need to spend countless hours grinding for level up, battle random monsters, go to towns, finish side quests, gather equipments and so on. Due to existance of so many JRPGs in the market with common gameplay tactics needed to apply, XSEED thought of making a completely different type of RPG with completely different type of gameplay. They didn't fail to deliver that making the game fall into nice package. So what makes Half Minute Hero different from other JRPGs? The game title says it all: You have to kill the boss and save the world in 30 seconds. I repeat! 30 seconds!! Not to mention, you also need to level up your character by battling random monsters, go to towns, do quests, go to stores, equip your character with better weapons and armor and finally go to the castle and kill the boss all within 30 seconds. Now you all are wondering, how is that even possible. Simple you get a slight help from the Time Goddess. I will get that to it later. Before that let me tell you the story.
Story:
The whole story itself is pretty humorous. It is short and has no depth (which is supposed to be when the game is itself focuses on frantic gameplay). It takes the common storyline which most JRPGs adopt. The evil lord Noire has plans to destroy the world and has distributed the enormous power he gained from Ultimate Evil Lord towards his minions (Sub evil lord). This power if used will destroy the world in 30 seconds. So the Time Goddess seeks help from heroes and heroines from various areas to defeat Noire and save the world. That's all.
Gameplay
The gameplay is divided into four selectable parts: each starting from different Goddess Era and have different styles of gameplay: Hero 30, Evil Lord 30, Princess 30 and Knight 30. The last one is unlockable after you completely the other three modes. The modes are in chronological order as the story continues from Hero 30 all the way towards Knight 30.
Hero 30 as mentioned above mocks the traditional JRPGs. You have to finish killing the boss within 30 seconds. Since you also need equipment, battle random monsters, do quests and level up, it is practically impossible to do all this stuff in 30 seconds. That is when the Time Goddess comes to play. She is willing to restore the time when you pray to her (in the process pay gold as tribute, which also increases in geometric progression so that the player do not completely rely on the time, since at a point restoring time will not be affordable). Also to make things a little bit relaxed, the Time Goddess stops the time when you enter a town. That's all. Now its upto the player how he/she is going to finish the level. There are 30 levels in Hero 30 that the player needs to finish. That means the player has to save the world 30 times. The level also gets longer and harder in the process too. The restoration of time also makes the game more interesting as in some cases you need to restore the time to get to certain places, or observe something or avoid destruction of a town. If anyone has played Braid, he/she will understand how the concept backtiming works. The mockery also continues as each level starts with a title Hero 30 with a roman numeral refering to the level number. I guess it is direct parody to Final Fantasy since, Final Fantasy has 12 sequels with number 13 releasing soon. After the end of each level, credit lines appear (which can be skipped) which mocks the end of a JRPG game after the world is saved. The levels are also replayable in order to beat the time to finish or even gain the achievements locked in each level. These records are updated online in the leaderboard.
Evil Lord 30 is the second mode and happens right after the Hero 30 story left off. You play as the beautiful male Evil Lord which likes everything beautiful and hates anything abominating. He loves getting complimented by people telling him beautiful. He naturally doesnt take request unless anyone knows his weak spot which is telling him beautiful. So he ventures into the world trying to remove the curse inflicted upon his beautiful loved one (who was turned into an ugly bat). The problem is that he has to do finish killing monsters and destroy abominations during nighttime which is only 30 seconds. Otherwise the Evil Lord has to rush back home as sunlight is not good for his beautiful skin. The gameplay is basically a real time strategy game and adopts the idea of rock-paper-scissors. He is a summoner and has to summon three different monsters to fight three different type of enemies: Brute, Ranged and Dexterious. The player has to summon the monsters in a way to give advantage towards enemy. If the time nbearly runs out he has to reach the nearest barrel where the Time Goddess is hiding and pay gold. It is not that fun compared to the fun you will be having in Hero 30.
In Princess 30, you are a Princess and have to save your father by going out and find some quest items. However you are given a 30 second curfew to finish your job. It is a multidirectional shooter. Where you have kill the monsters with yours arrows frantically while your soldiers carry you and guide you forward and come back. This is a frantic gameplay where gameply is mad fast and you shoot wherever and want to kill. The fun lasts here since the game gets a repeatitive everytime.
In Knight 30, you play as Knight who has to protect your companion sage for 30 seconds against monsters before the sage inflicts the ultimate spell on every monsters. This is however not an interesting concept and also repeatitive, but there are barriers, which you need to break in order to pass the level.
Overall the game has its share of repeatitiveness, but it will not live you relax for a single minute, since the gameplay is fast and frantic everytime and in the process it is fun too.
After the above 4 modes are finished, a new game mode is unlocked which is Hero 300. It means you have to save the world in 300 seconds, but this time, there is no Time Goddess and so there is no way to restore the time and also the level is huge. This will require some trial and errors. To make the game even more insane, after you finish Hero 300, a new game mode is unlocked which is Hero 3. Yes! Hero 3! This is the only mode I still could not finish since it is mad hard. I guess it is mainly for the masochist gamers.
The game also has a multiplayer mode which is the Hero Ad-Hoc mode where you play along with 4 other people. I have not tried that yet.
Sound
The game has lots of music and sound effects are applied perfectly. The music itself gives a driving force to the players at some events to make the players feel they are in the game. It also has some feeling of humorous tunes due to the game's humorous nature.
Graphics
The game is totally 2D. It should be because of fast nature of the game. Next the characters are only designed with 8 Bit graphics which also mocks the traditional 8 Bit JRPG characters.
Replaybility: Very High
The game offers multiple paths in all the campaign modes except Knight 30. So it leaves players to go back and finish all the levels the campaign has to offer. Also players can revisit the level to beat the record time to finish the level and there are some achievements to collect.
Overall
The game is a welcome addition to any gamer's library. Any gamer looking for different type of gameplay should get this game. The fast and frantic nature of the game and the humor gives enough fun-factor to play the game.
Overall ranking: 4/5, Reviewed by Syed Rubayyat Akbar aka Koshai
Additonal info:
Half Minute Hero
Platform: PSP
Genre: Role Playing
Release: October 13, 2009
Rated: Everyone 10+
Market retail price: Currently $29.99 when reviewed
At first, I thought with the old school pixel look I was going to be disappointed. Yay! I was wrong! It's actually really fun racing against the clock and has neat side stories for the different modes and I've gotten a chuckle out of it a time or two. I've never played anything like it which is good in itself, but after playing I actually starting liking the old school look. It adds to the game really and it makes me a little nostalgic. I also like that it's very easy to pick up for short periods of time. You're not worried about when the next save point will be. lol Overall, it's pretty good. Nice review. Couldn't ask for more :)
Sorry for the delay mate. Haven't played this game but it does sound very interesting. Not sure whether I'll be playing it though. Need to find my PSP first. I have no idea where it is hiding now. lol.
Nice work with the review. Keep them coming ;)
Yes i might just have to go and play this game...the joys. looks and sounds very humorous
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Sounds like an interesting game. Though I'm not much into JRPG. And, mostly I don't buy PSP games these days. Unless I'm going for a long tour. Nice review Koshai. Keep up the good works :)