Has-Been Heroes Review

When I first saw the promotional art for Has-Been Heroes, I knew it was going to be a game that I'd enjoy. I really enjoy fantasy settings, so seeing a trio comprised of a warrior, a mage, and a rogue made me excited to see what the game was about. Unfortunately, the promotional art doesn't quite represent the in-game graphics, since it doesn't has the same think-outline style as the graphics, but that's not something that I'm particularly upset about.

Has-Been Heroes is a rogue-like action-strategy game created by Frozenbyte in partnership with GameTrust. It's very important to keep its genre in mind while playing; it's a rogue-like, so it's going to be quite difficult and require a lot of learning from experience, and it's a strategy game, so planning and careful execution will be important.

Has-Been Heroes is so hard, you'll find that many reviewers couldn't make it much farther than their first victory - if they ever won at all. I don't mean to pat myself on the back, but I seem to be the only reviewer to have defeated the true final boss at least once. Now, I'm not going to say that other critics' opinions are invalid; however, I would argue that my view on the game is perhaps more fair, since I have seen more of the game than they likely have. I'll elaborate more on that later.

The premise is simple; you play as the titular band of has-been heroes - more formally known as the "Epic Band of Heroes." These heroes were once the greatest in the land, accomplishing many great deeds, but peace eventually reigned and the heroes vanished one by one. Years later, the king of the land, Fortinbrax, called upon the heroes for their first quest in a long time: to escort the twin princesses - or "twincesses," if you like - to school. However, only three heroes showed up: the monk Metacles, the warrior Crux, and the rogue Tam.

If you think the gameplay is going to be simple too, you're dead wrong. I'll try my best to explain it all. The game has two phases: movement and combat. You'll start off in the game's movement phase, which allows you to explore the current area by moving from node to node as indicated by the map. The idea is to travel to as many of these nodes as possible while you make your way to the boss at the end of the area; the catch is that you can only move between two locations once. Doing so more than the initial time costs a Candle, which can be found as random loot drops. There are two kinds of nodes on the map: big and small. Big nodes can be anything from merchants, to rest camps, to treasure chests, while small nodes can either be empty or initiate a fight. As is a given with the rogue-like nature of the game, every map is randomly generated, meaning that the locations of everything and the available paths between them are different each time you play.

Planning a good route around the map is only half the game; combat also requires good planning. Each hero occupies one of three lanes as they slowly march toward approaching enemies. Sending a hero out to attack will freeze time and allow you to switch the positions of the heroes. The main concept that's important to master is the stamina mechanic. Each of the heroes and most of the enemies have stamina, which prevents them from taking damage to their health from melee attacks. To effectively attack an enemy, you must attack with your heroes enough times to reduce the enemy's stamina to zero without going over. When this happens, that enemy will be stunned, allowing you to attack it for full damage and knock it back to the other side of the screen. If you hit an enemy too many times while they still have stamina, your attacks will deal reduced damage and the enemy won't be knocked back very far. If you plan your attacks carefully, you can clear a battle without ever taking damage, which sort of reminds me of one of my all time favorite games, Child of Light.

Tam Waits to Meet the Heroes

Tam Meets the Other Two Heroes

The Heroes and Twincesses

An Example of Battle

Let's talk about the heroes for a moment. There are 36 heroes in total, and each falls into one of three categories: three-hitter, two-hitter, and one-hitter - those are unofficial categories, by the way. In case it wasn't clear already, these categories are named for how many hits a hero performs when they melee attack. You can only choose one of each type of hero when you start a run through the game. Part of the strategy to combat comes down to figuring out the most efficient way to use your heroes to break stamina; for example, if an enemy has four stamina, you could either send out your two-hitter twice or attack with your one-hitter and three-hitter one time each. On top of melee attacks, each hero can also use spells to deal damage or buff a party member, which go on cooldown after use. Every character starts off with one spell and can hold four more in one of their "spell slots," some of which will augment the abilities of a spell if it has the corresponding trait; this can result in anything from fire spells burning the target for longer, projectile spells hitting an additional target, or buff spells applying to the whole party.

Speaking of spells; they're the real fun part of the game. Most spells have an element attached to it, which can mix with other elements in a variety of ways. Utilizing spell combos effectively is the key to victory; the only problem is that you have to unlock the spell elements - or "spellements," as I call them - to have access to any spell combos. Each spellement is locked behind each of the end-of-run bosses, so in order to have access to an element, you have to get a win. I can't even tell you how long it took for me to unlock Poison and Wind; all I can say is it took a long time. That's where I think Has-Been Heroes' biggest weakness lies: it can take seemingly a long time to unlock anything.

A single win bombards the player with new unlocks; items, spells, enemies, merchants, not to mention a new hero. What does a failed run get you? Hardly anything; you get only a couple of items and spells - a drop in the bucket compared to a victory. I believe this is normal for rogue-likes, but it feels bad in this case because of the more-or-less on-rails nature of the game. Where you're starting off, trying to learn the game, it can often feel like you're just bashing your head against the wall. This is why I mentioned how my view on the game might be more fair than that of other reviewers due to my progress: I have more victories, so I have a lot more of the game available. I have more spellements unlocked, so I have more options in combat. I have more heroes unlocked, so I can experiment with team setups and find synergy between heroes. I feel like other reviews of Has-Been Heroes might not be as fair as mine because other reviewers didn't see everything the game has to offer.

Has-Been Heroes might feel like an impossible game at times, especially when you're just starting off, but it's important to stay determined to win. There have been times where I was tempted to just give up and start a new run, but I pressed on and ended up surviving through whatever it was that I was struggling against. It's also important to keep playing so you keep learning. When I first reached the final boss, I died to it. Was I extremely upset that I went all that way just to die? Yes, but once I had calmed down, I had realized what I did wrong. I fought the boss in a way that heavily weighted the fight against me. The next time I fought the boss, I remembered what I did wrong and was able to defeat it.

Sometimes it can feel like Has-Been Heroes is completely luck based, but that's not true. Like any rogue-like, it's equal parts luck and skill. To prove this, I started a completely new playthrough of the game on a new profile, and I tore through the first two areas; I even completed the run without taking a single hit. Admittedly, there are a handful of bosses that are much more difficult without certain spells, but they're never downright impossible. No matter how much it might feel like it, Has-Been Heroes is never outright unfair to the player. Well, except for one thing...

There is one mechanic that I absolutely despise for its blatant unfairness: mid-lane enemy spawns. See, normally, enemies appear by walking in from the right side of the screen. However, an enemy can sometimes literally pop up out of nowhere in a random location on the battlefield. This contradicts the basic battle mechanics, since it can screw up your plan for your next melee attack by having a new enemy spawn in front of the target you intended to strike, and if it's stamina doesn't match your hero's amount of melee strikes, too bad. There is no way to prevent mid-lane spawns; they just happen, and you're forced to deal with them. They can even happen just as you send out a hero to attack, causing them to be interrupted and likely waist their attack on an enemy with more stamina than your hero has melee strikes. I've even had bomb-type enemies pop up right when I sent a hero to attack, which caused them to detonate the bomb and get caught in the blast. Mid-lane spawns don't ruin the game, but they certainly are very annoying.

Let's back up a bit and return to the subject of progress opening up the game. As I mentioned before, when you win, you unlock more enemies. One complaint I've seen people have is that every one of Has-Been Heroes enemies is a skeleton. I want to point out that this is not entirely true, and I'm not just playing with semantics. Sure, their are a lot of skeleton enemies, which is due to story reasons, but they aren't the only type of enemy to be found. Their are plant monsters, fiery-looking demons (who aren't actually fire-based), ghosts, and zombies - in fact, my favorite boss is technically a zombie. Skeletons may be the majority, but they certainly aren't the only thing you'll see. Additionally, every variant of the skeleton enemies have some sort of visual distinction that telegraphs how they act. Do they have on a red bandanna? Expect them to recover from stun quickly. Is the skeleton holding a large weapon? It likely has an extended attack range. Is the skeleton very slow and hopping on one foot? Keep it from attacking you as best as you can; it will likely kill you immediately if it reaches you.

I've also heard people have the same opinion on Has-Been Heroes' background as they do with the enemies; that is, there's a lack of variety. Again, I'd like to inform you that this is not true. Sure, the very first stage has two possible themes that are both forests, but the others are completely distinct. The Volcanic Plateau, the Cemetery, the Desert, the Jungle; you can't convince me that there's a lack of background variety. I'd also argue that these backgrounds are quite beautiful, but I'd like to keep this review objective.

Although, there is one more subjective aspect of Has-Been Heroes I'd like to talk about: the writing. I enjoy the game's sense of humor. I wouldn't say it's the funniest game I've ever played, but it does make some good jokes. One of my favorites is when Metacles declares "Time to use my walking stick for walking again." It's not the funniest thing ever, but it gave me a good laugh. The game also likes to poke fun at itself, making jokes about the random chests sitting in the middle of the road and how the enemies always attack head-on; it's a healthy amount of self-awareness.

All things considered, Has-Been Heroes is a very enjoyable game. Rogue-like and action-strategy might sound like an odd combination, but it works very well. Has-Been Heroes gets a 4 out of 5. Like I said, there's not a whole lot of the game that is truly unfair; it's mostly just a matter of learning the game and getting good at it. Trust me when I say that this game can be very fun once you've unlock all of the elements. If you have the patience, this game will provide hours upon hours of play.