Little Town Hero Reviews
Little Town Hero's combat can frustrate at times, but the battle system behind it is still full of charm and creativity.
Bogged down by performance issues and flat characters, Little Town Hero tells a formulaic story set in a beautiful place, strung together by complex, engaging, and gleefully rewarding battles.
Little Town Hero wants to endear you to its tiny village and light card-based gameplay, but its repetitive battles and boring story make it hard to care about its residents or their plight.
Aside from its cute art direction, there's not much joy to be found in Game Freak's Little Town Hero. Its battle system has a glimmer of potential, but finds itself muddled in system after system, making what should be its standout boss battles a tedious affair. Even for a budget price, this is a town you probably won't want to visit for more than a day.
I didn't expect to have so much vitriol for Little Town Hero going into it, however, I found very little to like. Its 18-ish-hour runtime felt like an eternity as I slogged through battle after battle. I struggle to fathom who this game is designed for, but all I can recommend is to stay away lest you get dealt a bad hand.
Little Town Hero is a curious hybrid between a JRPG and a Heartstone-style card game. It's not for everyone, but its combat system is really noteworthy.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Little Town Hero is a slice of something different. It rewards tactical, considered play in a lovely charming village setting. If you can overlook the randomness of battles, there's a lot to like here.
Little Town Hero boasts a unique, strategic battle system that draws heavily on card game mechanics. Despite the fact that the story and art design seems to be aimed at a younger audience, combat is far too slow, strategic, and challenging to keep the attention of most kids. It's an interesting combination of traditional RPG storytelling with Heartstone-like mechanics and difficulty that's sure to captivate some, but will likely miss the mark for most.
Your enjoyment of Little Town Hero will largely depend on your patience for quirky JRPG systems. The game's battle mechanics are unique and surprisingly deep, but can be frustratingly random and time consuming. Add in a story and world that have their charms, but are ultimately rather simplistic, and you have a Little Town that will only appeal to select tourists.
In an era where every RPG - and every genre that’s assimilated roleplay mechanics into their DNA - have used grinding and oversized maps to extend their playtimes into figures only a select few can truly undertake, Little Town Hero has confidently opted for a shorter experience that’s more akin to the pace, style and sedate pace of Animal Crossing than a traditional RPG or JRPG.
Little Town Hero is a solid RPG with several unique, ambitious new systems that light up different parts of the brain than you may be used to. However, it also feels like it’s still in the prototype phase. The battle system is fun to figure out, but ultimately combat is so drawn out and confusing that it becomes exhausting. Unfortunately, it’s not as snappy and enjoyable in quick bursts as Pokemon, which may be the thing that doom’s Little Town Hero’s clear potential as a brain-teasing game to play on your commute.
Little Town Hero may be an RPG but its most relevant and memorable aspect is not the plot or even the development, it's the combat system - original, interesting and challenging, Little Town Hero mostly lives for its combats. It doesn't stretch the game's soul much further than this, though, as the experience is too short, the plot feels too common and uninspired and the overall game could have been much more ambitious. There's enough here to captivate fans of JRPG games but to expand beyond that, Little Town Hero needs to improve on several key aspects.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Little Town Hero is a classic case of “has potential, but woefully executed,” and that really sucks to say when it seems to have so much going for it on the surface.
Game Freak's newest project is an adorable game that's marred by severe optimization and gameplay balance issues.
Game Freak went bold with Little Town Hero, and they did indeed make a game very different from Pokemon. But their desire to go big and bold kind of backfires because of the touchy battle system. If you like a challenging RPG, you might like it, else, you might want to consider waiting to get it.
Little Town Hero is a refreshing take on the turn-based RPG genre, with gorgeous visuals, a perfect soundtrack, and endearing characters. If the tedium of combat was tuned a bit, this would be a 10 out of 10 hands down.
Despite admirable claims to be "designed with the busy gamer in mind" the unfortunate irony is that Little Town Hero's battles are so tediously time-consuming. Combined with their especially repetitive nature, and tendency to rely on "luck", this RPG is a snooze fest. I mean that literally – I almost dozed off I was so bored.
Little Town Hero is a decidedly peculiar game, with an involved battle system occasionally interrupted by a mostly adorable story. The complexities of combat can get exhausting, especially during some hard, slow-paced bouts, but the spectacular style and vibe found in the visuals and the Toby Fox-led soundtrack help to paper over some of the maladies. This Game Freak game might not be for everyone, but if you're looking for an adorable aesthetic amped up by hardcore CCG-inspired combat, Little Town Hero might be made specifically for you, because it seems like it's that way for me.
Despite having a battle system that, while interesting, can feel at odds with the rest of the game's tone, Little Town Hero is a delightful, small-scale adventure that will calm and charm you with its serene setting, fun characters and joyful presentation.