Has Been Heroes Reviews
A tedious trawl through the worst aspects of roguelikes, turn-based strategy, and bad interface design. Only somehow less fun than that sounds.
Has-Been Heroes works for the Switch with its small and travel-focused design, but less so at home when there's other stuff on this console and other consoles to play. Has-Been Heroes could really benefit from an easier difficulty, because luck is just rarely ever on your side. There's some fun to be had, but it is far and few between each run you play. The tactics and strategy behind Has-Been Heroes is mostly satisfying, but is sadly undone by its difficulty.
Has Been Heroes is an ultimately frustrating game. There’s the core of a great idea here with the lane-based strategic combat. Unfortunately developers Frozenbyte have piled on too many complicated systems for it to ever feel fun.
The game being hard isn’t what brings it down. We all love a good challenge. It’s the fact that so many factors go into the actual gameplay, and it simply isn’t worth the effort. It’s stressful for no reason, and it’s unfortunate because of how much I enjoy different “out there” ideas.
A heavy dose of randomness coupled with a lack of permanent progression makes Has-Been Heroes a chore to keep playing. Though there's a good strategy idea buried in its multi-lane gameplay, the high-risk, no-reward setup isn't satisfying enough to make up for its otherwise mediocre aspects. Coupled with repetitive enemies, forgettable assets, and bizarre controls, Has-Been Heroes is a game that can go right back into retirement.
Hard and unforgiving, Has Been Heroes has the potential to create the videogame equivalent of Jack Torrance in anyone who plays it.
Despite having a lot of Items and unique heroes, Has Been Heroes lacks exciting gameplay. The levels become very repetitive very soon and winning some of the battles solely depends on luck. Although strategy plays an important role in the game, but if the game doesn't give you good items, reaching the final boss is virtually impossible.
Review in Persian | Read full review
As a console game, I can't recommend it, but if you're the type of person who plays your Nintendo Switch on the go, it at least is something you can pick up and play for a bit without much thought. Has-Been Heroes would benefit greatly with touchscreen controls on a mobile device, as the gameplay seems tailor made for it, but alas it doesn't support the Switch's touch capabilities and isn't available on phones. But hey, at least it features HD Rumble, which is easily the most over-hyped and overrated feature of the Switch, so there is that.
Has-Been Heroes includes good ideas but is let down by an insanely high difficulty level and a lack of reward. You'll enjoy it in bite sized chunks via handheld mode to begin with, but you'll quickly grow tired of feeling like you're making no progress.
Has-Been Heroes isn't a bad game, but I wasn't excited to start over after my first loss. After coming to understand the mechanics and strategy better, I am enjoying it to some degree, but I don't feel any less frustrated every time I lose. The only thing driving me to play more is my inner completionist, but if you're looking for a game with a compelling story and more to it than just unlocking more in-game items and spells, then this might not be the title for you.
Has-Been Heroes is a game that is full of great ideas but gets dragged down by poor execution. The way it combines RPG and roguelike elements with basic tower defense gameplay has so much potential that it unfortunately can't live up to in the face of imbalanced difficulty curves and unwieldy controls. It feels much more like a proof of concept that, with time and updates, could some day lead to a great adventure.
Has-Been Heroes is an interesting attempt at a new kind of puzzle/strategy/brawler hybrid, but it’s never as much fun to play as it looks like it should be. It’s a game that has good ideas and strong visual design in its favour, but it never manages to balance the high difficulty level with rewards that make the hardship worth your while.
Has-Been Heroes has a genuinely inviting and involving combat system that requires real strategic thought to master. However the rest of the game just doesn’t pull together to form a cohesive whole, with brutal difficulty, frustrating permadeath and an under-utilised premise all serving to taint the end product. It does at least benefit from the Nintendo Switch’s portability, and this is where it’s at its best, but at home you’ll likely be turning it off far quicker than Frozenbyte were hoping for.
This roguelike’s cool combat system is held back by a terrible structure.
Without narrative hooks, valuable prizes and more diverse in-game situations, Has been heroes overstays its welcome after just a couple of hours, also let down by horrible difficulty spikes and an unfairly procedurally generated maps. Try it again, Frozenbyte.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The core concept of Has-Been Heroes is excellent. I love the theory behind the combat, and I love the exploration. In practice, though, Has-Been Heroes is confusing and fiddly in ways that make it frustrating to play, rather than challenging.
While Has-Been Heroes can draw someone in really quickly, it will wind up losing them just as fast. It's fast and fun, and the mix of roguelike and pseudo-tower defence elements actually work quite well together. The core concept here is entertaining enough, but the lack of variety winds up souring the experience sooner than it should.
Has-Been Heroes is a funny and charming title that blends the age-old tale of heroes embarking on an adventure with the humour of them escorting the princesses to school.
Has-Been Heroes could be better if it had more depth, far more addictive if it wasn't as repetitive, and, most of all, an unquestionably worthy purchase if the gameplay didn't rely on randomness as much as it currently does so. Long story short: very one-more-try-ish, but also in definite need of some tweaking.
Has Been Heroes had the potential to be a very good game, but some gameplay issues and weak narrative, don't let this game to break the walls of mediocrity. Combats are hard and based on luck more than anything else. Has Been Heroes is a fun game to play in its genre, but you must deal with its problems too.
Review in Persian | Read full review