[Game Review] Half-Minute Hero (Steam Version)

"The world is ending in 30 seconds and the only one who can stop that is you!", this game took this weirdly awesome idea and enhanced it with a great and funny presentation!

Half-Minute Hero

Is a game where you have 30 seconds to save the world from many evil overlords that use the world destroying spell for various (mostly stupid) reasons. You have the help of a money-hungry goddess who literally sell time to you (time is money) so you have more than the actual 30 seconds before the world ends.

There's really no fourth wall and the game always making fun of the traditional RPGs, since you do all things that take hours to do in other RPGs (grinding, money-grinding, party making) are done in the span of 5 minutes at most here. **The experience is very different than other RPGs since they teach you to take your time, this game tells you to not waste a single microSecond!!

If this idea seems interesting to you then you'd love the game since it took the idea and played with it to its full potential!!

Released on PC with the full title: Half Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy.
If you buy the sequel you get this game for free (Here's a Link) but if you don't want the sequel you can buy this on steam [Here]

The Story

The Story is very basic, long ago there was a battle between the Goddess of time and the God of Evil and she barely won and sealed him, but now the power of the Evil God seeped through the seal and he created many Evil lords who have a spell powerful enough to destroy the world.

The plot isn't something new... But everything in this game made to be funny.. many of the villains don't actually know what they're doing and some of them want to destroy the world for stupid reasons (I mean really, would you destroy the world because ). and the Goddess interactions are all funny.

The main (Hero 30) story takes many branches depending on how you approach some levels. and that's interesting for me. the replayability is so good and I've spent 20+ hours in the game and haven't finished all the options out there.

The Gameplay (Game Modes)

Half-Minute Hero comes with two graphic different styles: The Neo-Cartoon style and The Retro style. you can change between them in the game's main menu. These styles have identical Hero 30 mode but all other modes are different between styles. Retro has more variety of Gameplay.

Hero 30

Is the main game where you go on a journey to stop evil lords who have learned the world-destroying spell. Everytime the spell is cast, you have 30 seconds to stop it. but since 30 seconds isn't always enough you can pray pay money to the goddess reset the time to 30 seconds, but everytime you reset the time the price raises.

Here, the gameplay is traditional RPG with exploration and battles. But the battles are fast-paced fights where you don't control player actions except for healing and running (and you'll need to do that a lot). This mode is the Longest & the Best one in both Neo and Retro styles.

Evil Lord 30

Hundred years after the main quest of the hero ended, the Evil Lord who aims to resurrect his lover who has turned into a bat

This mode plays like a real time strategy, where you control 3 types of monsters (Summons) and battle three types of enemies, every type of the three can win against one, lose against another. and takes a lot of time to deal with its own type.

Princess 30

Hundred years after Evil Lord 30, The Princess goes on a journey to cure her sick father, but she has 30-second curfew (what?) so she must return home fast.

In Retro, this mode plays like a shooter, the Knights hold the princess in their journey and she shoots enemies with bow and arrows.. a Lot!!

Other Modes

There's Knight 30 about a knight helping a sage to save the world after the time goddess disappeared. and Hero 300 which is the climax of the game where the Hero battles the Evil one last time, this time in only 300 seconds since the Goddess isn't around.

Both of these modes are a little harder than the other modes!!

Multiplayer

I haven't personally played multiplayer so I'll talk about what I read about it on the internet.

When in multiplayer mode The players compete for the title True Hero by defeating the Evil Lord first. But the 30 second time is shared between players so when a player pays to the Goddess money everyone else will get time for free... the players also compete for the items every shop has only one of each item so to get the best weapon you have to grind for money and buy it before everyone else!!

Conclusion

It's a fun game and one of the games I want to play again after some time. Some levels are really difficult unless played in a certain way, trying to learn what works and what doesn't is a part of the Half-Minute Hero's charm. It's hard to get everything in the game so it may take a lot of time for %100 completion.

I'd Recommend it to those who

Love RPG games a lot, or want to get into RPG games but don't want to spend a lot of time on grinding... this game can be fun for the casual as well as the hardcore players. I'd recommend if you like games without fourth wall (Neptunia & Disgaea) or simple games in general.

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All images are screenshots from the game used for fair/review purposes.