Concept:
RPG designers take drugs and then make a game.
Keep:
The humor. Half-Minute Hero is completely self aware and lampoons its heavy use of RPG archetypes and clichés to great effect. Beyond just the oft-used clichés there's a layer of bizarre dialogue that is incredibly amusing and entertaining.
The frantic feeling. You're constantly up against the buzzer in this game and tasked with beating a level in that time. You only have 30 seconds to beat a level and everything feels very concise, but it works. In that time you'll race around, kill monsters, level up, buy weapons and make it to a castle to kill a demon boss and cut out all the fluff that makes RPGs crawl and get stale.
The abbreviation. Everything feels so concise and brief in Half-Minute Hero to great effect. People that have complained for years that they don't have time to beat an RPG have no leg to stand on, because you can literally beat a part of the adventure in mere seconds. There are no menus to select, most everything is automated for the player and you don't have to overly think things out, just go, experiment and have fun.
The variety. You assume the roles of several characters during the course of the game and each segment plays entirely different: the hero is more of a traditional RPG, while the other segments play like a shooter and a RTS. There's always something new to try out and Half-Minute Hero isn't shy about throwing everything you've learned out to give you a brand new style to learn.
Correct:
The auto-load system. My saved game didn't auto-load for me (I didn't notice) and when I later saved my new series of missions, I accidentally saved over a couple hours of work on the other quests. Not the worst thing in the world, but frustrating nonetheless.
Cut:
The anime-esque cut scenes. Briefly in story segments there will be drawn depictions of the pixel art characters. They don't fit in with the 8-bit, pixel-art style of the rest of the game and come off as distracting.
Conclusion:
Half-Minute Hero is lightning in a bottle; it's a quick, no nonsense RPG that breaks down player actions to all that's necessary to complete a game. You won't find a lot of excess fat on Half-Minute Hero, just straight action that doesn't get bogged down in the minutia of the standard RPG.
If you're a fan of RPGs, you'll enjoy how this game turns convention on its head and gives you a great adventure while poking fun at it; if you're not a fan of RPGs this is a game that you can play that won't feel like a total RPG.
The first of two downloadable demos is currently available on the PlayStation store and will make it to stores and be available for download in October. In the mean time, check out the trailer for the game:
