I LOVED the original Half-Minute Hero.  It was one of my favorite games on the PSP.  Check out my review here.  Now the sequel is out, and I’m a little sad because it’s for PC and I don’t have a Steam account (nor do I have time for one).  But that won’t stop me from letting my friend Leroy review it!  So what kind of game is Half-Minute Hero?  Well, it’s an RPG you have to beat in 30 seconds!  Wait, how does THAT work?  Read on to find out!

Half Minute Hero: The Second Coming is a “Thirty Second RPG” developed by OPUS Studio and published by Marvelous AQL. It is available exclusively on PC via Steam for $19.99 (a 25% loyalty discount is applied if you own Half Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy on Steam).

This is a game I’ve been personally waiting for just about three years. The first Half Minute Hero (originally released on PSP, then Xbox 360 and finally PC, with each version getting increasingly longer and sillier subtitles) was a major favorite of mine. It presented an absolutely absurd concept, where you were given several mini RPG scenarios that could be completed in thirty seconds or less. Battles play out automatically, you level up at a rapid pace and time stops when you are in a village (so you can comfortably gather clues and equipment). It sounds nutty, but you really have to play it to believe it. It just works. Many scenarios feature more complicated situations and you are able to buy in to reset the clock, although every scenario (even the one that may take you several minutes on your first completion) can actually be completed in less than thirty seconds. As someone who had been playing RPGs since the mid-eighties, the joking manner of the game and the plot was a delicious treat.

A sequel was released in Japan in 2011, but due to poor sales of the original PSP version and the PSP’s hardware situation in the West, the sequel was skipped over for localization. However, sales of the later ports (especially on PC) were actually good enough to get Marvelous AQL’s attention and here we are, with a great PC port of the sequel, in English.

First of all, the sequel focuses solely on the RPG mode of the first game (which had three very short extra modes that applied the “thirty second” gimmick to other genres such as a shooting game). The Second Coming is also a much more streamlined experience; levels are no longer selected via a menu but take place on a seamless world map. And this time around, there’s a MUCH larger focus on story and plot.

Other than that, the game is just a bigger and more polished version of the first game. It’s exactly what a sequel should be. Graphics are better; it’s the same 8-bit styled pixel graphics with a little more color depth. The music is another fantastic hodge-podge of genres from a “who’s who” list of famous Japanese video game musicians (with a heavy emphasis on rocking songs).

The big change comes from the overworld map and the “Global Level.” In the first game, you selected stages from a menu and you started at experience level one for every stage (you did keep equipment, so there is some feeling of character progression as you get further in the game). In the sequel, everything takes place on large overworld maps and you can get into battles with no time constraints. You can level up here, although at a far slower pace than when under a time limit, and this is your starting level when you start a new stage (which will reset to where it was once completed). While these create a better sense of world and of a better built game, it removes one of my favorite aspects of the first game, where every stage was meticulously designed to be completed in less than thirty seconds and every stage had leader boards to give a greater sense of replayability.

There are other additions as well, enemies are visible on the map instead of random encounters, there’s a robust party and formation system for all of the friends you meet on your quest, you can control a living castle to defeat giant-sized monsters, you can craft new weapons and lots more. There’s a lot of little quality of life improvements that make this more than just another set of levels for the original game.

The plot is much more prominent this time, in fact at time it feels like it becomes invasive. You’re presented with a task of defeating an evil dark lord in thirty seconds, but before that happens (or sometimes, ironically, during) the characters will chat for several minutes at a clip. It works to create a better world and story, but it also takes away from the frantic pace and the sheer mocking tone of the first game. This point really frustrated me at times, but players looking for more character interaction and story will enjoy it, and it still retains a humorous tone despite being seeped in more serious plot elements.

The main story mode spans five chapters through three characters and is quite a bit meatier than the Hero 30 mode from the first game. Beyond that, there’s a multiplayer mode with a map editor, a time attack mode and an endless mode, along with some other extras such as unlockable costumes and a music player.

Overall, The Second Coming improves over its predecessor in many ways. While I have some personal quibbles with some of the changes, as noted above, I also understand that these changes may make the game more approachable to those that didn’t quite grasp the pure arcade-like nature of the first game.

Kid Factor:

Half Minute Hero: The Second Coming is fairly safe for kids. There’s no graphical violence and only mild suggestive dialogue (most of which will probably fly over the younger kids radar). The game is really a treat for fans of RPGs, so the concept, which is extremely fun on its own, may lose some of its charm on players who don’t have much experience with the genre.  –Leroy Capasso

Tags: Reader Reviews!