Who doesn’t like amusement parks and when we were all young we all wanted to work in one? Well after playing Heroland there are a few things I would want to bring into the real world but working there is not one of them. If you like Live Action Role Playing (LARP) and Otters and other sentient creatures then Heroland is the place to be.
Roll up Roll up
Heroland is a 2D dungeon crawler, the characters themselves look like board game pieces that you would get in something like Hero quest. In the game you play as Lucky a new employee at Heroland, a young man that just wants to make money for his poor family but ends up indebted to the company after a little mishap. Your job is to be a tour guide in the amusement parks dungeons and to make sure they all come out alive. You might think this is an easy job but you haven’t met the guests yet. They range from the 18th in line for the throne, Prince Elric who was number one until all of the kings illegitimate kids came out of the woodwork so poor spoilt Elric got shunted to the end of the line, even behind a dog. So you bring Elric and various other guests through the parks dungeons in search for glory against the evil Dark Lord (if he really exists that is) and his minions.
Following the leader
The game itself is nothing new in terms of gameplay but the setting and the spin they have taken on the classic dungeon crawler will make it stand out a bit from the crowd. The battle system was easy to get to grasp with, you as the guide stand in the background and you guide your team during their turns by giving them suggestions about what attack to use or in the case of the healer tell them when to heal a party member. You can sit back and let them choose themselves but you won’t last long especially in the later stages. You also have an assortment of potions and heal and use when your party gets hurt or poisoned or even cry (yes you can cry). Your role as the guide is an important one as there is also a flag system you can use during the fight to tell your group to defend against an up and coming dangerous attack, tell them to concentrate on a particular opponent and just go all out wild and use their special attacks until their SP runs out. There is some strategy involved later on but nothing too heavy for the casual player.
One mans treasure yadda yadda
Heroland is very lighthearted and there is loads of tongue in cheek swipes at the likes of Disney and how they treat their staff. The characters are likeable but I felt myself flying through the dialogue at parts because it just went on too long. There is also a customisation element as you can decorate Lucky’s room with treasure that you pick up in the dungeons and by treasure I mean plushies of the monster you face and furniture. The monsters are really just other employees from the park who are paid to fight the guests, the company even go as far as to invite you to the staff meetings where you find out what will be in the next dungeon and how to kill them. All in all, I enjoyed my time in Heroland even though it did get a bit grindy in parts but that was just a small part of it.
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