Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax!

[zespri]

Level 1 is pretty sane as far as the game's concerned. It's really just a 'get to the end'. But, as you progress, there are more complex ways to make your way to the overlord castle, or more gimmicks to deal with. In level 2 for instance, the bridge is out, and you need to get it fixed. A blacksmith needs his hammer to repair the bridge, so you go get that, give it to him, and he repairs the bridge. Simple as that. But, later on, you're looking at the possibility of multiple routes within routes, mazes, companions, or even areas without any enemies at all and a level 40 overlord. What ever do you do when quests get more complex?

That's what I liked. It's I guess kinda like an RPG, but it's really more of a puzzle game, and it throws a fair number of unique things at you. The PSP version is certainly the superior one, but ultimately if it's not your kind of game, I wouldn't be entirely surprised.

I'd say give the game until level 6 or 7 or so at least. There's more to the game than you'd think.

Oh the bridge one I did, It's the next one I had a pause with.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Ahh, okay. Yeah, I was thinking of the tutorial as level 1, and I mean that level doesn't even have goddess statues as far as I know. It's not even close to the rest of the game... but it does have titles and equipment like every other level does... so... it's a level to me.

Well, if you've come to a point that you just don't know what to do, treat it as a bit of a regular RPG. Think of how many times you turn back time as a bit of a time pressure thing. There are some levels you can do after turning back time ten times or more. You can take as long as you want, so long as you can afford it. So, as long as you have time to spare, you can take a moment, talk to people, and explore around to find all the significant locations of each quest. Then, if you're that kinda guy, you can come back later for the high scores and Wonderful Hero ratings and all that wonderful stuff after knowing what exactly to do.
Remind me of level 3 again? Is that the one with the bridge that leads to the danger zone, and the guy who wants a gift for his girlfriend?

[Aklyon]

Apparently
This is a thing now.


The title is even more absurd now.
Anyone know if it has the proper Princess/Evil Lord/Knight 30's, or is it the 360 version on PC?

[onyhow]

From what I heard it's supposed to be that of PSP version, but haven't tried it yet...

[mrhanman]

Man, oh man! I had a blast with the PSP version.  I would sit in my car on my lunch break and would play with it piped through my car stereo as loud as I could stand it.  As soon as I have a spare ten spot to drop on it, I'm nabbing this baby!

[LaughingThesaurus]

I looked at the achievements and I totally want to rebuy it because there are indeed achievements for "Finish x levels of classic knight/princess/evil lord 30". Seriously.
I was just about to come and let people know about it, but... yeah, looks really sweet. I definitely want to pick it up... for the second time.

[LaughingThesaurus]

I picked it up and I have some brief first impressions.

1. The port is awful. God awful. I repeat, God. Period. Awful. If you don't have a 360 controller you can use on your PC, don't touch it. The keyboard controls suck, the joypad buttons don't properly display (the game gives the keyboard keys, not the gamepad keys), the resolution is a bit low, all kinds of stuff. It's also a little bit 'iffy' in terms of load times and such... but bear with me here. Also, resolution, totally not a big deal. It's a sprite-based game.
2. The alternate Princess and Evil Lord 30 modes are in fact available from the start! But, you have to choose classic graphics to play them. These are the original modes, with 30 maps (I haven't gotten through them all, but they're just like footage I saw of the PSP version, so take what I say with a grain of salt here). The game modes actually don't play anything like Hero 30 as well, if that's good news for you. I sure hope it is.
FYI, Princess 30 is a shmup. Seriously.
3. Don't know about the other modes. The game's gone all question mark on me till I finally get around to playing the whole game multiple times. I also don't know if the classic modes are available with the new graphics... so if the modes entice you, be sure you can handle some pixel art. And by some, I mean a lot. Of handheld-quality pixel art.
4. The main game mode is from what I can tell, completely the same as the original. Problem is the menus are awkward because the game doesn't tell you which button is tied to which function. If you care about leaderboards, you might HAVE to resort to the keyboard controls, or to pressing more or less random Xbox 360 buttons.

...So it overall still amounts to 'love it or hate it'. I'm going to be playing more of it at some point, and I'll try to get more detailed information to those who are curious.
All two of you.

[Aklyon]

Yep, Princess 30 was/is a shmup. But your crossbow is bolt spam incarnate and your minions take hits for you.
Evil Lord 30 is a mini-RTS, which is sillier.
Knight 30 is a 'throw yourself at the enemies and die (repeatedly) to protect the doomspeller' thing.

But alas, I do not have a 360 controller. So I shall stick to the PSP.

[LaughingThesaurus]

 You can try to play it with keyboard controls, the issue is just that they are beyond awkward. Seriously, each fire button in Princess 30 was basically aiming a random direction. I had no idea what I was doing.
Edit: But, you do have the PSP version so.. all you'd get in benefit I think is the NEO Cartoon graphic style.

[Aklyon]

I am perfectly fine without the neo graphics, thank you muchly. HMH fits its pixel theme well on the psp.

[onyhow]

How's the control set up? I remember playing it on emulator (not mine) and doesn't have problem with keyboard controls...

[LaughingThesaurus]

The control setup is okay, and the controls are rebindable, but the problem I have is the controls mean different 'hidden' things and don't have their proper functions unless you use the 360 controller. For instance, the same button would have like 5 or 6 uses in different game modes and shell menus, but you can't rebind those functions separately. This means, for instance... the run button is 'aim right' in princess 30. The 'use item' button is 'aim left'. If you had use item on A, and run on X, you're shooting left and right with fairly awkward keys, particularly when many, many other functions are bound to them as well.
This doesn't work in a game with this many game modes, it really doesn't. Even open world games, right, they frequently have rebindable keys for each individual kind of vehicle and mode the game has.

[onyhow]

Oh now I understand why, originally the buttons for the shooting is set up to the ABXY for PSP to control shot direction...me guess is to rebind those buttons to be WASD-like so that you can aim those easier...try to use the shot direction as guide on where to bind it...

[LaughingThesaurus]

Yeah that's the most major issue I saw. But, just plain binding the same key to multiple functions without allowing them to be separated is a no-no. It bugs me so much.