This game's based on the Quest for Glory series which combined point-and-click puzzles with having to level up your character's stats, fight monsters sometimes and make sure your character has food to eat and a safe place to sleep. You have the typical Fighter, Mage, Thief character options of an RPG from the early 90s, and then add bonus points to their skills to customize your character, including being able to trade a bunch to give them a skill they normally don't have. It tries to expand on the formula a little by having some different stats, like being good with animals or herbs, but I didn't notice those getting much use compared to the traditional stats like weapons, dodging, sneaking and magic. Outside of the couple of puzzles that did, this was very much designed with the mindset of an old-school QfG game.
The places where Heroine's Quest was aping its predecessors was where I felt it was the strongest, like jokey references to other games (I bet I'm the only guy in the world who noticed the rooster from Mixed-Up Fairytales). Also, stuff like how lot of the fighter's path through the game involves proving herself worthy to wield a magic sword. Likewise you can't just buy magic spells from a magic store, which exists in this town for some reason even though nobody else there uses magic. You have to find them when you're out questing like you did for some of the spells in QfG.
Speaking of weird stores, that's one of the updated touches I didn't enjoy. All the npcs in this game have their own schedules, even the ones who run stores, and won't necessarily be where they need to be for you to buy something from them, or get the item you need to move the plot forward. Which ties into another aspect I didn't enjoy much; the game takes place during the winter that comes before the end of the world in Viking myth. It's so cold you lose stamina just from being outside for a while, and more than once I lost my whole stamina bar just walking from one town to the other when it was snowing. And after I did, the shopkeeper I needed wouldn't even do business with me because my schedule didn't coincide with theirs. I'm trying to stop the end of the world, fool! What do you mean talk to you when you're at your shop?? One time I even found the blacksmith sitting on the box where I keep extra stuff, and I couldn't get something I needed until he went to work!
End of the day, Heroine's Quest is a solid enough game for Quest for Glory fans who wanted a bit more and weren't 100% happy with the last game. The heart of the original four games and the same general sense of humor are there. But most of the new ideas were underused or just plain annoying.
A throwback P&C game with hit or miss updates
This game's based on the Quest for Glory series which combined point-and-click puzzles with having to level up your character's stats, fight monsters sometimes and make sure your character has food to eat and a safe place to sleep. You have the typical Fighter, Mage, Thief character options of an RPG from the early 90s, and then add bonus points to their skills to customize your character, including being able to trade a bunch to give them a skill they normally don't have. It tries to expand on the formula a little by having some different stats, like being good with animals or herbs, but I didn't notice those getting much use compared to the traditional stats like weapons, dodging, sneaking and magic. Outside of the couple of puzzles that did, this was very much designed with the mindset of an old-school QfG game.
The places where Heroine's Quest was aping its predecessors was where I felt it was the strongest, like jokey references to other games (I bet I'm the only guy in the world who noticed the rooster from Mixed-Up Fairytales). Also, stuff like how lot of the fighter's path through the game involves proving herself worthy to wield a magic sword. Likewise you can't just buy magic spells from a magic store, which exists in this town for some reason even though nobody else there uses magic. You have to find them when you're out questing like you did for some of the spells in QfG.
Speaking of weird stores, that's one of the updated touches I didn't enjoy. All the npcs in this game have their own schedules, even the ones who run stores, and won't necessarily be where they need to be for you to buy something from them, or get the item you need to move the plot forward. Which ties into another aspect I didn't enjoy much; the game takes place during the winter that comes before the end of the world in Viking myth. It's so cold you lose stamina just from being outside for a while, and more than once I lost my whole stamina bar just walking from one town to the other when it was snowing. And after I did, the shopkeeper I needed wouldn't even do business with me because my schedule didn't coincide with theirs. I'm trying to stop the end of the world, fool! What do you mean talk to you when you're at your shop?? One time I even found the blacksmith sitting on the box where I keep extra stuff, and I couldn't get something I needed until he went to work!
End of the day, Heroine's Quest is a solid enough game for Quest for Glory fans who wanted a bit more and weren't 100% happy with the last game. The heart of the original four games and the same general sense of humor are there. But most of the new ideas were underused or just plain annoying.