Half-Minute Hero

My friend gifted me Half-Minute Hero pack, which includes the first and second game. The premise of the game seems simplistic, at first. But somehow I managed to sink 60+ hours into both games.

I’ll do a short and quick review of the two games, as well and contrast and explain why I think they’re two different games.

Half-Minute Hero

First Impressions

Wow, what an impression this game made on me. When you start the first quest, you’re told that you only have 30 seconds to defeat the evil lord. I played along with this premise, waiting to see what gameplay mechanics would arise.

Gradually, you are introduced the gameplay mechanics, such as rewinding time and upgrading equipments. You begin to understand the min-maxing aspect of it: unlike many other rpgs, you don’t have the luxury of time to analyze the battlefield and make decisions.

After beating a couple missions, the plot progresses and the mission start to fork. This is when you’re introduced to different endings and paths. This is when I also noticed there were achievement markers, such finding all items and paths for quest. I became obsessed with getting 100% as I went.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very tight and well tweaked. I was constantly replaying missions and trying to get my time just fast enough to qualify.

Sometimes I would need to adjust my equipment so that I would be faster on the world map. Other times, I needed more weight so that I wouldn’t knocked back as far, which would increase battle lengths and delay me just long enough.

It was always as straightforward as putting on the highest attack equipment or highest defense. You needed to factor in weight and speed as well, these attributes made a difference in battle performance. Sometimes you needed more health, to be able to go for longer without needing to heal.

Plot

The plot is very quirky and humourous, as it pokes fun at many traditional rpg troupes. The story is easy to follow and not deep. But it was cohesive enough such that it didn’t impact the game negatively.

The simple story and satirical parodying was very fresh and I enjoyed it a lot. Keeping simple and straightforward lets the strong gameplay shine.

Music

The music is really good. Nothing too memorable, besides the main theme. But it serves the game well, has a very retro vibe to it.

Total Game Length

I spent 24 hours on the game. If you only wanted to do the minimum to beat the game, I bet it would only take 8 hours. But there are several branches with unique missions. And getting all the hidden items. And getting the fastest times.

The achievements were very well done, they felt well-thought out. None of them felt like fluff or tedious. I thoroughly enjoyed getting 100% on this game.

Recommendation

I would wholeheartedly, 10/10 recommend this game. It’s simple and easy fun. You don’t need to invest a lot of time to enjoy this game and you don’t need to be mechanically skilled either.

Half-Minute Hero: Second Coming

First Impression

I played this immediately after finishing the first one. I was expecting more of the same gameplay as the first. However, the gameplay was not as tight: levels were definitely made easier and there wasn’t the same level of challenge.

I did notice a dramatic increase in story and plot. A ton more new characters were introduced, each with unique personalities and characteristics.

Plot

The plot is much deeper and expanded in this game. There are 5 eras, with 5 heros respectively for each time period. They are seemingly separate and unrelated stories but the final act of the game brings all the story arcs together, in a cohesive story.

At first, I found this to be too much story and not enough focus on gameplay. My first impression was not great: I was expecting more of what I liked about the first game but they were going a different direction this time around. At times, the game can seem to drag on and get overly convoluted. The game designers were riding the fine line between the satirical nature of the first game and falling for the very tropes they were originally parodying.

Gameplay

The gameplay is like the first but less emphasis on the tight platforming. The levels are easier, only tricky until you find out the trick/gimmick for the level. Compared to the first game, this is a bit of a step backwards.

There is a greater emphasis on the global map and rpg elements. Leveling and finding items by replaying a previous mission is often the key to success. The introduction of global dungeons was a novel concept, to introduce some replayability and map exploration. It’s quite shallow though, as you don’t often need the items in the dungeons to progress. I only went to the global dungeons to get key items that are needed to move the story forward.

Equipment selection is a regression from the first game. It’s back to the rpg trope, pick the one with the highest attack stat. Speed and weight make little difference now. This has to do with introducing the rpg team element: with more characters in battle, your weight and speed make less of a significant impact on the outcome. Your team members have fixed weight and speed and changing your equipment does little, you should change team members instead. I’m upset that this aspect of the game was neglected.

Overall, even though the gameplay was not as tight as the first game, the rpg elements and story made up for it. I did enjoy this game overall, but as a different game. The min-maxing gameplay element is still the same in both games, which is a strong common link.

Music

Like the first game, the music is good but not too memorable. The town song is my favourite. It invoke a sense of adventure.

Total Game Length

The main quest can be completed in probably 15 hours. The primary contributor to game length is the plot, which manifests in a large total number of missions.

I ended up spending 33 hours to get 100%-ish. A lot of extra time was spent collecting achievements and hidden things on the global map. This contrasts with the first game, where I spent the majority of extra time replaying missions in a time-attack fashion.

Infinite Evil Lord Mode

Infinite Evil Lord mode is a fun mode. It’s an endurance battle, as every Time-Goddess reset increases in cost. There a many strategic aspects to this game mode:

• What equipment to buy
• When to upgrade, when to skip
• Maximizing time accrued
  • Beating every 9th boss, which gives time reset
  • Use Porta-goddess statues
• Using death as transportation

After a few tries, I was able to get the achievement of beating 100 lords. After you beat 100 lords, the game resets back to level 1. You keep your equipment and level, which makes it much faster to get through the lower levels. However, the Time-Goddess statue cost continues to increase, despite a lower revenue per monster defeated. I got bored of this but I think it’s easily doable to accumulate enough gold buffer to easily reach 100 a second time. After this, it might eventually become too expensive to reset.

Recommendation

I would recommend this 7/10. If you’ve played the first game, this might be polarizing depending on what elements of the first game you deem essential. If you’re a newcomer, this game might be a pass, as it might come off as forgettable, albeit fun.