Half-Minute Hero: First Impressions

So yeah, it's been a while since I've blogged. Now I'm gonna start again. Woo woo.

So I picked up the game Half-Minute Hero today. If you haven't heard of it, here's a description: Play through the story of an RPG in 30 seconds. It is in fact as ridiculous as it sounds, yet at the same time not. Everything in the game is streamlined so you at NO point stop moving. Combat is entered seamlessly and is controlled automatically. You run around the overworld visiting one-screen towns where the clock does not stop. You buy items, purchase better weapons, all with that 30 second timer getting ever smaller. You grind against field monsters until you are feeling strong enough to defeat the boss in his castle. The timer doesn't stop until the very last hit is delivered to the Evil Lord's face.

So, there you have it. It's not as simple as it sounds, if indeed that paragraph sounded simple.

Your first quest is a tutorial mission. You have no timer until you complete the kings first request to destroy a few field monsters. Then Evil Lord appears and casts a spell that will destroy the world in 30 seconds! You are free to try and kill him, but odds are you won't. I certainly didn't.
Just when I was eager to hit retry, a maiden appears offering me a deal. The Goddess of Time will make a pact with me, offering services for money. She can increase your timer, make you gain experience faster, and will also stop time while you are in a village, completely contradicting what I just told you. Whatever, this is a first look.

The charm of this game is in it's absolute old-school RPG immersion. The graphics, the battle text, the opening screen's mode7 pan over the landscape reminiscent of Final Fantasy, or any square game for that matter. It mixes old and new quite splendidly, every screen being an absolute treat to look at with bright and sharp pixels jumping off the screen.

Combat consists of your Hero sprite colliding with a Monster sprite, damage values flying off each others bodies until someone ends up more dead than the other.


My replenished hero was able to grind out a few more levels, and after I hit level 5 a very helpful message popped up, stating "You > Evil."

I took this as a sign to let me know I was ready to wave my sword at Evil Lord's face. Indeed, the prophetic message came true. I struck the spell caster and the timer disappeared. In typical fashion, he left me with a cryptic statement that more wizards all over the world were going to be casting this spell!

The king granted me a caravan to travel the world to stop these other bad men. Some fellow also gave me a pair of dirty clothes which presumably protected me slightly better than my armor. Otherwise I probably would not have graciously accepted such a strange gift. At any rate, with the mission complete I am treated to the credits, as well as my rank: Wonderful Hero. Clear time 50 seconds.

I now have a group of people to assist me on my way, providing information on weapons, landscape, and the results of my past battles.



This Hero 30 mode isn't all there is to the game though. Rather, it's just one of four. There's Princess 30, Evil Lord 30, and uh... I'm not sure what the final one is, as it appears as ??? to me.

Princess 30 plays like a side-scrolling shooter with the Princess being your "ship."

Evil Lord 30 plays like a strategy game where you are the Evil Lord who summons 3 different types of units to counteract the King's troops. There are also creatures in the world which you can recruit by walking over.

That about explains all my experience with the game so far, but it's extremely stylized, and frantic enough to not become a grind on patience.

Upon selecting mission 2 of Hero 30, it appears you can customize your equipment before setting out, probably to prepare for different monster types and abuse weaknesses, I imagine.

The music in this game is also a very modern yet familiar affair.

In mission 2, the evil lord had broken a bridge necessary to reach him. I had to retrieve a hammer from some monsters in a cave so a carpenter could rebuild it, allowing me access to the evil lord. Goddess of Time has allowed me to purchase time back, at an increasing cost for each use.

I stopped by a town on the other side of the bridge before tackling the evil lord, and gained a new sword and shield on sale. It would seem to be wise to purchase any available weapons before pursuing your ultimate goal. Who knows what sort of special items you may acquire if you search well enough.

looking at these mission screens, it appears there are also "titles" to be won for achieving certain qualifications. In mission two I bought seaweed kelp from the store to replenish my HP, and at the post-mission stats, I was awarded the title. I'm unsure if these have any effect on the gameplay, but it seems fun to try and figure out the riddle behind each one.

Apparently death carries a subtle, yet heavy penalty. You have infinite lives, but each death will locate you back at the beginning of the continent with very little health. coming back from a death is an expensive and time-wasting endeavor, to resources which are worth more than anything.

I think that'll just about do it for this quick look. Clearly this game has a lot of charm. Three extra modes which I've yet to try, ad-hoc multiplayer battles, and a proposed eight hours of gameplay, 30 seconds at a time. This was easily worth the $30 price tag.