Has-Been Heroes (Nintendo Switch) Preview

At first it did not really look like much was on offer in Has-Been Heroes, with three characters on the left side of the screen (warrior, monk, rogue), slowly moving forwards along their own lane, battling in real-time against hordes of enemies, one by one - real-time until the action was paused, that is, to figure out the best plan of attack. It was all very slow, frustrating, and downright confusing, dying regularly due to the controls being too obtuse. The booth attendant insisted that perseverance was required and that it would click eventually and, thankfully, that was indeed the case. However, even then, the action was somewhat mundane.

The idea is that different allies have varying levels of defence and offence, with the aim to pit the correct level of hero against foe and eventually progress to the end of a stage. This is done by attacking along a horizontal path and then switching other characters into the gap left behind as one dashes forwards to strike a blow, continuing the attack-swap-wait trio of manoeuvres repeatedly ad nauseam. Throw in some magical spells that replenish over time after use, and beating the weaker skeletal enemies was suddenly not so hard once the pattern of team-attacks had been figured out. Nothing was particularly addictive, though, and not even remotely intriguing, with it quickly turning into a melee of button presses in the hope of defeating the incoming monsters as fast as possible. It all ended up being a pretty-but-boring experience on the whole, with smatterings of frustration here and there. Perhaps the final game will draw people in with its story, but it just seems to be a case of "protect two sisters" by carrying out the same thing repeatedly. There could be a hidden gem in here, but it certainly was not visible in this short demo version.