Heroes Rise: Prodigy & Heroes Rise: The Hero Project Review

Source

Steam: $3 for Prodigy, $3 for The Hero 
Project 

Like I said in my last review- it takes a lot, and I do mean A LOT to get me really invested in a game and I finally figured out why. It's the story. The story has to be compelling enough to really draw me in and make me actually care about what might happen next. And before any of you jump on me, yes graphics do matter, gameplay does matter, etc etc. But at the end of the game, all video games are essentially interactive novels with really great graphics aren't they? 

Which brings me to these two wonderful games! The Heroes Rise Saga. Really not so much a video game as an Interactive Novel, but it is on Steam and honestly gives you the same feel as a video game because even though there are ,brace yourself, NO GRAPHICS it brings an excellent game-play experience, one to rival most games I've played. 

Here's the gist of the main story arc, the subarcs develop depending on the choices you make throughout the game: You are an aspiring superhero in Millenia City and by aspiring I mean you are absolutely unknown and are just one of the many denizens of Millenia that are, as the game puts it, Powered. You live with your Grandmother, also Powered, on the East Fringes (read as: the slums) and are simply trying to make a name for yourself as a Hero. For what reason you may ask? Well that's your choice.

And that is all I'm going to tell you about that because any more and I'd ruin the story for you, but essentially the name of the game is pretty much  the same as Always Sometimes Monsters, you can check out that review here, you may not be able to alter the main storyline, just as you cannot alter the hand life deals you but you can choose how to power through it. 

That is exactly the point of the Heroes Rise Saga. Will you be a hero in the name of justice? For money? For fame? Or for Power? Will you be loyal to those who help you or are you always out for number one?  (On a sidenote I turned out to be what the game calls a "Heroes Hero" through both installments.)

The story itself is very much compelling and has it's humorous moments but I will say this, if you do not enjoy reading well... This game, being essentially an interactive novel, is well a novel. I did notice that it was getting quite a lot of flack on Steam for this very reason. For some reason people are going into this game expecting it to be completely customizable as far as the story arc went and complained  that the choices they made "didn't matter" and "didn't change the story at all". They were expecting a visual novel experience in an interactive novel game. And the reason I'm making this distinction is because there is a reason that the Heroes Rise Saga is marketed as an interactive novel and not a visual one. Aside from the lack of graphics, they operate on two entirely different systems. 

Visual novels generally work on a points system- if you choose certain choices x amount of times you get x amount of points which makes the game give you ending x. Visual novels are meant to have different endings and although that could very well have worked for the Prodigy, it would have made it tricky to continue your story in Hero Project. An interactive novel has a set storyline, meant to be left open ended so a continuation is possible. 

But I digress. 

What I found really neat about this game was that you can continue your specific storyline (i.e. your stats, relationships, customizations) into the sequel which is not a common feature found in games today. It made for a really great flow between games and an easier transition from the first story arc and the second one. Although I will say, while the decisions you make in both games are very difficult to make -depending on who you want your hero to become- the decisions are significantly harder to make in the second one. 

Prodigy deals with more moralistically motivated decisions. What I mean by that is that your decisions seem to be made solely on the basis of what your character would find to be in sync with their motives as a superhero whereas in Hero Project, the choices at hand have to do more with where your loyalty lies and how to reconcile your motivations as a Hero with those loyalties. Also in Hero you get a nice little chunk of your back story to complicate it all so that's also a thing.

On to the customization! If you're like me then in every game that allows customization you fiddle with the settings until you're really happy with what you've come out with (for me that means either making it as pretty or as ridiculous looking as I possibly can). The customization, being text based, is limited but they make these limitations interesting in that you can choose their physical gender but then also their gender identity- which is new for me at least in video games. You also choose the appearance of their costume, their power set, to an extent, and their Hero name (I was Tinysaur and my energy was purple, for obvious reasons).

Replayability is also a factor that I look out for when playing a game and this game, both actually, are very replayable. There are some achievements to be had on Steam and they're mostly based on the type of hero you choose to become. I really want to replay both games but have to set aside time for them because, and this is a testament to how good the writing is, I played through both in approximately 8 hours- which I played through straight and as a result showed up to work the next day on only 4 hours of sleep. Was it worth it? Definitely. Definitely. Definitely. Was the game worth it's price? ABSO-FRICKING-LUTELY. 8 hours of gameplay, for $6. (I got both with in the Steam Summer Sale with the Legendary Guides for $4.) So $6 for two games, 8 hours of incredibly engaging gameplay and story....It's more than worth it.

That's my two sense about these two wonderful games. I'll now go back to pining for the third installment, which I'll definitely be reviewing once it's out.

So what type of Hero will you become? Let me know in the comments down below! 

-Amy (AKA Tinysaur, the Heroes Hero)