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[Cuningas de Häme]

Devs have been pretty open about the game and how some might not find it likeable. They even suggest you to wait for a while if you're on the fence!

Follow their advice. See how the game turns out after a few patches.


I am really intrigued, I watched some 30 minutes of gameplay on Youtube and I honestly think that many reviewers are just lacking. That one guy certainly was, he hadn't any idea how to play the game.

I am not a HC gamer by any means, but even I understood the mechanics after watching 5 minutes of his gameplay. It is really simple, the challenge lies in the time and lane and resource management.

And the pausing is of course essential!. It's like playing KotOR once again. I always used pause in that game.

Seems like a nice game suited for Switch, but I am not a fan of roguelikes. Actually, I kind of detest them. But this game seems to have a twist at least... I am so torn.

I probs buy the game later in the spring or summer when I have more money. Always nice to support fellow Finns.


EDIT. Game journos have to play so many games that they most likely have pretty similar gaming patterns etched in their brains. Most of the games follow similar mechanics and if you give them something new in a stressful setting like HBH (constant hurry almost right from the beginning) they are bound to be confused. And then the first impression is sour and that affects the rest of the review.

It is totally undestandable and one of the dangers of their work. That's why one should never read too much into reviews, always form your own opinion. Preferably by playing the game first (hard nowadays, we need more demos!)

Oh, and people generally have pretty strong favorite genres or gameplay types, and I have a feeling that HBH doesn't fit very well in many people's existing dividings. Very understandable again, and I would never hold it against a reviewer.

Unless they give unfair review for my favourite game, of course. Then I get my trusty pitchfork and some nice artesan torches (no trees were harmed making them).

 

[FarEastOfTengai]

It's live on Switch E-shop if interested. I went ahead and grabbed it. Here is to hoping I like it!

 

[Unison]

Sometimes when I pause I can't switch lanes with my heroes... Why?

You can only switch into the lane of the person who just attacked...

Figured this out as I played.

 

[Banjo-Kazooie]

I think the physical edition is Switch-exclusive (and also Gamestop published)

http://m.gamestop.com/pages/collection/hasbeenheroes

 

[jonno394]

I think i'd need a demo of this before i drop €25 on this to get it physically.

 

[Glix]

Okay. Played the prologue and theee battles afterward.

Game is VERY COOL.

Game is not pick up and play. Not even a little. Not even close.

If you enjoy rougelikes and "get" them you will like it.

The dont stress in the tutorial how imporant lane switching is.

Looking forward to playing more.

Note - i put the switch to sleep mid battle during the prologue (might have been right at the end of battle during save). When i woke it up, game crashed. When i relaunched the game it crashed on the title screen. Only a hard reboot fixed it

 

[Unison]

I'm playing on PC...

The game's better than I expected, given the reviews. It has an addictive quality that I wasn't really expecting.

It really requires you to juggle your party members in a way that recalls some JRPGs (e.g. FFX-2), but at the same time seems more strategic.

Not sure I love the roguelike trappings... sometimes you just get a better rollout of items or spells.

I don't quite yet understand what I am unlocking with the souls that I collect.

No idea how this would transfer to a gamepad. Mouse control seems ideal.

 

[agc]

I'm really enjoying the game so far and have gotten used to the weird controls (on Switch), however a lot of these bosses are assholes to fight, haha. Looking forward to playing more later.

 

[DarthButcher]

I'm playing on PC...

The game's better than I expected, given the reviews. It has an addictive quality that I wasn't really expecting.

It really requires you to juggle your party members in a way that recalls some JRPGs (e.g. FFX-2), but at the same time seems more strategic.

Not sure I love the roguelike trappings... sometimes you just get a better rollout of items or spells.

I don't quite yet understand what I am unlocking with the souls that I collect.

No idea how this would transfer to a gamepad. Mouse control seems ideal.

This is similar to other rogue likes like Binding of Isaac. When are you on a subsequent run and encounter that item, it will initially have a ? next to it, but after you've encountered an item or spell for the first time, it will always tell you its effect.

 

[Unison]

This is similar to other rogue likes like Binding of Isaac. When are you on a subsequent run and encounter that item, it will initially have a ? next to it, but after you've encountered an item or spell for the first time, it will always tell you its effect.

I'm not talking about that... I'm talking about the post-game unlocks where you trade enemy souls for treasures...

 

[Shaanyboi]

Wait, this is physical on Switch? Hmmmm

 

[nubbe]

Been looking at some streams.
The game just seem slow and don't seem to have a good flow since command execution constantly cause pause interruption.

Maybe more fun to play it than to watch it

 

[Unison]

Been looking at some streams.
The game just seem slow and don't seem to have a good flow since command execution constantly cause pause interruption.

Maybe more fun to play it than to watch it

I'd suggest trying a demo, if one is available. It's overwhelming if anything.

 

[agc]

I'm not talking about that... I'm talking about the post-game unlocks where you trade enemy souls for treasures...

Those are new items that can now start showing up in future runs.

 

[Unison]

Those are new items that can now start showing up in future runs.

Ah, thanks... Seems unnecessarily grindy to me, then, but maybe that's how the genre works.

 

[dickroach]

The first bit of information on their website is literally:




Spoiler alert:

Spoiler

Binding of Isaac and all the Tomorrow Corp games aren't Switch exclusives either.

those games weren't shown for an hour on the Treehouse stream from the Switch reveal day along with solely Switch exclusive games

 

[Unison]

Beating the 2nd boss gave me *81* unlocks, sending my completion from something like 1.3% to 12.7%!

 

[RedBoot]

Wait, this is physical on Switch? Hmmmm

Physical on Switch, PS4, and Xbox, but only available at Gamestop.

EDIT: Had a chance to play, so I'll just edit this instead of doubleposting. Not sure I totally understand it just yet. Pausing is absolutely crucial, I find myself doing it at the start of every "volley" of attacks. I'm starting to focus more on keeping enemies back as opposed to defeating them, a la PvZ. That helps me focus my attacks a bit, but it's hard to "focus" on more than one lane at a time since you can only switch after attacks. I got to a boss that was sending copies of himself into each lane, so I just couldn't handle the enemies fast enough.

Not sure how progression works so far, I'm unlocking stuff but it doesn't look like you can start with extra stuff in a run, at least not yet. There appears to be a ton of stuff to unlock, and I am liking what little I understand of the game so far, I just need to wrap my head around it. It's odd, it looks like each run is only two levels, which seems short? I feel like you'd want to have a fairly easy first level and ramp up from there, like in Enter the Gungeon. I'll keep plugging away at it. I do agree that the tutorial doesn't seem to be much help.

 

[Unison]

Physical on Switch, PS4, and Xbox, but only available at Gamestop.

EDIT: Had a chance to play, so I'll just edit this instead of doubleposting. Not sure I totally understand it just yet. Pausing is absolutely crucial, I find myself doing it at the start of every "volley" of attacks. I'm starting to focus more on keeping enemies back as opposed to defeating them, a la PvZ. That helps me focus my attacks a bit, but it's hard to "focus" on more than one lane at a time since you can only switch after attacks. I got to a boss that was sending copies of himself into each lane, so I just couldn't handle the enemies fast enough.

A lot of the gameplay, insofar as I have figured it out so far, seems to be making your "weaker" characters wear down an enemy's stamina with multiple hits, so they can be susceptible to your barbarian's strong single hit. Status effects and spells can help you to do this as well.

I'd definitely recommend doing extra battles in the lead-up to the boss, since it enables you to hit more bonus areas to buy more spells and gear.

Not sure how progression works so far, I'm unlocking stuff but it doesn't look like you can start with extra stuff in a run, at least not yet.

Yeah, that's my take thus far... the potential unlockables are unlocked with play, as are new starting heroes (who have different starting spells).

I've played about three hours and only managed to kill the 2nd boss once.

To a certain degree there do seem to be "bad rolls" where you come up against enemy sets you aren't ready for, but the luck factor here is nowhere near as awful as in something like Darkest Dungeon.

Enjoying it so far...

 

[RedBoot]

A lot of the gameplay, insofar as I have figured it out so far, seems to be making your "weaker" characters wear down an enemy's stamina with multiple hits, so they can be susceptible to your barbarian's strong single hit. Status effects and spells can help you to do this as well.

Yeah, I'm starting to see that. Rogue does three hits, Mage does two, and Fighter does one. I think you stun enemies if you deplete their stamina exactly, also.

I'll figure it out eventually. This game might need an RE6-esque "Here's how you do shit" post in the future.

 

[DarthButcher]

Yeah, I'm starting to see that. Rogue does three hits, Mage does two, and Fighter does one. I think you stun enemies if you deplete their stamina exactly, also.

I'll figure it out eventually. This game might need an RE6-esque "Here's how you do shit" post in the future.

I'll write one out later this week and update the OP with it.

 

[RedBoot]

Okay, game is finally clicking with me. I actually managed to clear a run! I'll say first off, the final (?) boss fight with the Ghost Pirate was absolutely amazing, particularly when the "goal" of the fight clicked with me. Worth all the confusion and frustration up to that point.

DarthButcher, go ahead and write up that post whenever, but I'll try and put together a quick primer for people who are confused:

First off: Pause Button. L on the Switch, probably the same on other consoles. Pause is your friend. You will probably do 99% of your actions from pause. You really need to plan every move in this game, and doing it in realtime is insane.

-Things to remember: the green blocks on enemies (and your characters!) must be depleted to actually damage an enemy (I think the game calls them stamina?). Each hit from your characters takes out one stamina. Rogue does three hits, Mage does two, Fighter does one. The Rogue's starting spell doubles hits for a character's next attack, so keep that in mind. So an ideal move would be using the Rogue on a 3 stamina enemy to clear his stamina (which also stuns him, stopping movement), then swap to the Fighter for direct damage. After being attacked, enemies will recover stamina, though you can permanently reduce it with a direct attack (I think?).

-If you "overkill" an enemy's stamina, you'll launch the enemy back. This is also important since one of your goals is keeping foes away from your characters to avoid damage.

-Some spells will clear out enemy stamina as well, such as the Fighter's starting spell (also deals DoT with flame, which can spread to nearby enemies). So if you want to focus on an enemy, or clear out someone with 4 or more stamina, use a skill!

-Directly after an attack, you can swap a character into the slot of the character who just attacked. Note that you can swap "infinitely" until you take another action, so you can kind of cheat a bit to re-arrange your characters in the best fashion.

So how should your general gameplan go? Pause the action. What enemies are closest? What are their stamina levels? Can you damage anyone? If you can't damage someone, can you knock someone back? Ideally you want to match hit numbers to enemy stamina, knock back enemies you can't damage this 'turn," and do as many direct attacks with the Fighter as possible because he hits like a truck. Skills can complicate this further (Doublestriking the Rogue gives her reasonable damage, the Mage's Freeze spell will lock an enemy in place after they take a hit so you can use an attack to slow enemy progress in a lane), especially when you get new skills from chests/merchants.

The controls will feel weird at first, but they do work. It'd probably be tough to do this gameplay otherwise. You're basically matching muscle memory to the situation while doing the same action with different button combos each time. I'd compare it to a rhythm game (not the actual gameplay, just learning the controls). As always, pausing is your friend. Don't unpause until you've done the right move.

I'm sure I still have a lot to learn, but here's some fun stuff:

-One of the spells I found was called Revitalize, it has a long cooldown but it resets all attack and spell cooldowns immediately. Kind of a "Get out of jail free" card, or a way to double up attacks if I was in a good position.

-Right now, I do see the issues with the enemy variety, as most of what you see is just different skeletons. I happen to like skeletons, but I hope there is more variety down the line. I think clearing a run actually unlocks new areas, so I'll probably see more.

-Unlock spoiler:

Spoiler

One of the skelingtons has a Naruto headband.

So: Is it a good game? I think it is now, but it's not easy to learn, nor is it easy to teach or even get a feel for. Even a demo would have to be extensive enough to give people a solid idea of the game. Honestly, I wouldn't even say this game has a tutorial, it has a story prologue that happens to show you a few gameplay rules (also, you can't repeat it). If you like the modern style of "roguelikes" and don't mind absolutely banging your head against a wall for a couple hours to figure everything out, this one might work for you.

 

[FarEastOfTengai]

I am really enjoying it so far. I have spent a couple hours and went from not being able to clear one battle / stumbling on the controls to easily swapping lanes and launching attacks. Got to second boss but lost. =(

One of the things that did not click for me early was using spells. Do not sit on them. Once I started regularly using them in my attack rotation I started winning more often.

It also took me a few times to realize I could switch lanes when getting a new spell/item to choose who gets it.

I still haven't figured out how to see what a spell or item does again that I have already seen in a prior game before choosing who will pick it up though.

Back to it...

 

[diablos991]

First game I beat both bosses and unlocked the

Spoiler

bard

. (86 unlocks).

Not too shabby.

 

[SickBoy]

I waffled on this game, but in the end I preordered the physical copy on account of EB Games in Canada offering double trade credit for Switch stuff.

After reading some of the early reviews today, I expected I might be returning it in short order.

But I found my time with it this evening surprisingly fun. I think it's a huge help that I watched a chunk of that Treehouse stream. It's what convinced me to try preordering the game in the first place, and the information that stuck with me helped make my first session more enjoyable than it likely would have been otherwise. The game does a pretty poor job of teaching you anything but the bare minimum... and I was glad for some of the information the Treehouse stream gave me (for example, that a certain type of enemy caused insta-death)....

 

[Stormwatch]

What exactly do the unlocks do? I feel like I just keep starting from scratch. I can sometimes beat the first boss but always die on the second. Do I need to beat that second boss to actually make progress in the game?

 

[diablos991]

What exactly do the unlocks do? I feel like I just keep starting from scratch. I can sometimes beat the first boss but always die on the second. Do I need to beat that second boss to actually make progress in the game?

Next time you run into the spell you can see a tooltip about what it does so you can give it to the appropriate person.

When you unlock map items then you'll see those on your minimal instead of "?". This allows you to plan your route better.

Not sure what the enemy unlocks do yet though.

 

[Clearos]

Went to gamestop at lunch and lucky enough they had one copy of it left.

I thought it was more expensive, $20 was an easy buy now option for me. A play when the weather is crappy during lunch kind of game for me.

 

[Niceguydan8]

I assumed this was a Switch exclusive because of how much coverage it got at Switch events pre-release. Were Nintendo that desperate to increase the number of games on show?

This isn't exclusive to Nintendo though. Hell, a fair chunk of E3 stuff that Sony and MS show off are basically just highlights of multiplatform games that sometimes have exclusive content but other times are just trailers of a game that will come out on competing platforms.

 

[Niceguydan8]

I've given the game a few hours and I think it's really fun once it clicks. I think it takes a while to click and I'm not even sure there is a good way to tutorialize this game unless it's going to be real indepth and kinda hand-holdy at the beginning.

I think it feels like a good rogue-like so far. I think the boss fights, while hard, are actually really fun.

 

[Experien]

I am enjoying this game a lot.

Is there a way to equip unlocked stuff to your characters or is that part of the Rogue-like feature where you start from scratch every game?

 

[Kouriozan]

Impressions convinced me to give this game another chance, will watch some let's play before deciding to buy or not.

 

[deadfolk]

I am enjoying this game a lot.

Is there a way to equip unlocked stuff to your characters or is that part of the Rogue-like feature where you start from scratch every game?

I think unlocking just means that those items have a chance to appear during future playthroughs, like in chests on from shops, etc.

Same as how Binding of Isaac works.

 

[Stormwatch]

Finally beat the second boss and unlocked a new character. It is nice to finally see some progress. I got lucky and got a spell that grouped all of the enemies into 1 row. That made things a ton easier. Wish there was a way to keep those spells for future runs. I am having fun playing the game in short spurts, though. It gets addictive.

 

[protonium]

.

 

[ManUtdRedDevils]

Souls can be used during a run to instant refresh a spell. Super handy in boss fights. It costs 20 souls to do it.

 

[DBreakfast]

I've only done two runs so far. First one I got overwhelmed incredibly fast. Second time I think I got the hang of it, because I beat both bosses pretty handily. It's really fun so far. It feels like there's a fair bit of strategy to the fights that I haven't really gotten to yet. The boss fights were especially fun too. Both of the ones I encountered had special abilities that required unique strategies to beat. I'm juggling a lot of games right now, but I'm really looking forward to spending more time with this one.

How does the length of a run in Has Been Heroes compare to Binding of Isaac, for those of you who have played both? Two bosses a run seems limited but there seems to be a fair amount of areas to run through. Looking forward to trying this game out tonight.

I'm pretty sure that after a victory, your next run gets an extra floor added. I don't know how long it gets though. Like how beating Mom in Isaac unlocks two more floors. When I beat it the first time, I'd say it was comparable to a fairly short Isaac run. There aren't a ton of fights per floor, but they can take quite a while each.

 

[March of the Crabs]

After hating it at first, this game finally clicked. It is really good and really addicting.

I went from not understanding anything to beating the first boss with no damage taken (couldn't beat the 2nd one though) in just a few hours. I hope this game succeeds, it's amazing beyond the learning curve.

One question, what is the point of that wizard-style dude (the one with the cane - don't remember class names)? Obviously the big guy is heavy with 1 hit, and the other character can do 3 hits with less strength, but what about the cane guy? He does 2 hits but his damage is very low. Is he better with spells or something?

 

[Gsnap]

After hating it at first, this game finally clicked. It is really good and really addicting.

I went from not understanding anything to beating the first boss with no damage taken (couldn't beat the 2nd one though) in just a few hours. I hope this game succeeds, it's amazing beyond the learning curve.

One question, what is the point of that wizard-style dude (the one with the cane - don't remember class names)? Obviously the big guy is heavy with 1 hit, and the other character can do 3 hits with less strength, but what about the cane guy? He does 2 hits but his damage is very low. Is he better with spells or something?

Stunning enemies requires matching hits with their stamina exactly. So while you can hit two stamina enemies with the 3-hit girl, they won't be knocked back as far, and will only take damage from the last hit, and they won't be stunned. If you hit two stamina enemies with the mage, they'll get stunned immediately, giving you more time to plan an attack, the next attack done on them will do full damage as they won't have any stamina to block it, and I'm pretty sure they'll be knocked back further. The game does tell you during the tutorial to match stamina with hits, but doesn't go into full detail on all the benefits.

Also, I believe matching stamina will cause the enemy to lose one stamina bar permanently.

 

[Tangeroo]

One question, what is the point of that wizard-style dude (the one with the cane - don't remember class names)? Obviously the big guy is heavy with 1 hit, and the other character can do 3 hits with less strength, but what about the cane guy? He does 2 hits but his damage is very low. Is he better with spells or something?

Having "2x" as his base is pretty useful, not only for the 2 stam enemies, but also (coupled with the double hit spell) for the 4 stam mobs. His freeze spell is also useful for buying time and comboing with other elemental spells.

 

[Niceguydan8]

One question, what is the point of that wizard-style dude (the one with the cane - don't remember class names)? Obviously the big guy is heavy with 1 hit, and the other character can do 3 hits with less strength, but what about the cane guy? He does 2 hits but his damage is very low. Is he better with spells or something?

They also seem to get more spell buffs. If you look at the empty spells for the wizard guy, he has a lot more passive buffs for spells compared to the other two classes in the group.

 

[March of the Crabs]

Thank you all 3 of you! I was wondering what caused the "knock-back" effect - that makes perfect sense. This game rules.

 

[Gsnap]

Thank you all 3 of you! I was wondering what caused the "knock-back" effect - that makes perfect sense. This game rules.

Yeah it's fun. I'm surprised people have been so negative about it. It's unique and works just as well as other rouge likes.

 

[Stormwatch]

This game could have benefited from a "real" tutorial. Now that I understand the knock back mechanism it all is starting to click with me. I'm able to beat the skeleton boss a lot easier once I'm able to dwindle his stamina down to 1.

 

[Matbtz]

After a couple hours of playing I got really into it ! I played maybe a bit less than 10 hours and have unlocked

Spoiler

the bard

and the

Spoiler

mexican wrestler

. It's really fun and the synergy between certain combo and spells are very cool. The degree of luck for some runs on chests/items/spells is a bit of a downside though.

 

[Jim_Cacher]

I think this looks very interesting after spending some time watching the Treehouse demo. I will pick this up, hoping that I can find a physical copy.

 

[March of the Crabs]

This game could have benefited from a "real" tutorial. Now that I understand the knock back mechanism it all is starting to click with me. I'm able to beat the skeleton boss a lot easier once I'm able to dwindle his stamina down to 1.

Yeah I think that's this game's biggest issue - it's pretty obtuse and doesn't teach you much. Some people love that and it harkens back to the NES days where obtuse was the norm, but I can see how it would turn people off.

That being said, once it clicks with you this game is stupidly addicting.

 

[DBreakfast]

I had enough time for one more run last night. Wound up running into the trio-of-skeletons boss and got blown out almost immediately. The quick one is REALLY fast. He caught my rogue about a frame or two before I was able to stun him.

I was initially a bit worried that the combat here would become too rote and uninteresting, but the variety from enemy abilities, player spells, and general randomness is keeping things really interesting.

I'll agree with the sentiments about a lack of tutorial though. I feel like I've caught onto the main mechanics pretty quickly, but that was only after reading multiple reviews and watching quite a bit of gameplay. Some of the systems, like knockback and stamina reduction, are pretty obtuse. As much as I disagree with the negative reviews, I really can't fault the reviewers. Trying to figure out this game without help from the net has to be miserable.

 

[Owlowiscious]

1- Look at green boxes, match your attacks to add up to that

2- ??? correct me if I'm wrong, but look at number on bottom right, and match your attacks to the stunned enemy? they are all 1x so i thought the 1x heavy hitter should be hitting them? ...... as I type this I'm realizing maybe that's just saying the enemy will single/double/ attack?

3- cheat with spells. this breaks the game in a good way where 1 and 2 are puzzles, 3 makes it not a one solution game

 

[depward]

Picking this up for Switch. Excited to play. And appreciate and + all information you folks all supplied; sure it will be super helpful for a new player such as myself.