I see a lot of glowing of reviews, yet I have not seen anything that comes close to QFG's brilliance. ALL of the QFG games you were thrust into beautiful open world settings of intrigue where you could discover sprawling valley's of puzzles and characters and tasks that provided organic character development. This game locks you into a school that functions like a prison and every thing feels like laying bricks. IF you want strength lift weights...Period. What happened to dozens of fun mini games...Playing Yestful in Awari, taking on Erasmus in Mage's maze, or fighting Uhura in Shapier They were replaced by a single screen photo of billiards or darts. What happened to wildernesses filled with dozens of different creatures to fight. They were replaced by one Damn Rat hybrid thing you fight over and over again. What happened to characters like Katrina with her dark heart breaking back story. Or the Princess Johari caught between worlds. Or the trippy herbology guy you could smoke pot with? They were replaced by the Dean from Animal House and a bunch of uninteresting Tweens that play like cast member from a second tier teen drama on basic cable.

Not to mention the amount of horrible genre trends that have been pilfered. Such as the "Johnny will remember that or Susie hates you now. These cues work in the interactive comic books crap that Tale Tells puts out, but I never expected to see them here. The at school time mechanic is lifted right from Persona 5. The QFG games introduced a genre hybrid that was unseen in its time. Here we're just taking scraps from some of the worst things to happen to Adventure games since pixel hunting. The whole thing plays like a JRPG dating sim from someone that read too much Harry Potter the night they sat down to code.

Maybe, I'm being harsh, but the passion I have for the parent series knows no bounds. I have sat down to play QFG 1-5 probably two dozen times over the years. I still consider QFG 4 the greatest game of all time, and its hard to sit down and try to squeeze some of that wonderful nostalgia in a game that just leads you around passively like a dog on short leash. While I'm going to give a full a play through to give it a fair shake, its like work. I remember installing QFG 1 on 3/5 floppies on a 486 and the second I walked through that gate and the Hero's March played I was hooked on a world was full of endless possibility and beauty. This game I'm locked in a prison hoping that one day someone is going to open the door and show me an awesome game that's hiding somewhere around day 14,19,27?

I'm sorry but this game is work. Its repetitive. There is very little room for discovery. Its like a broken wand, dead wood, that lost its magic. If anyone can tell me what I'm missing please do. I would love to hear other opinions and have intelligent discussions I know I'm being super harsh, but this game just feel like a neutered QFG.I feel like this game would have been great as an IOS game that I could play when I was stuck in airport, but so far it's very bitter pill that is the gem at the end of 20 year dig.

I agree.

I don't like the social game with the fellow students and I find it a chore having to raise no less than 55 lyra in order to buy a complete uniform set. If I could, I would hack mr. Terk out of this game, and Sosi too.
Time is going far too quickly in this game. I feel I'm forced to improve my fighting skills in order to make some money.
I don't like to be forced like that. That is not proper role playing in my book.
Another thing that disappoints me is that other students don't seem to react to the dinner bell at all.
One thing I do like about this game is the graphic style, though not the graphic performance, I have stutters all over the board with a modern i5 and an nVidia 1060 and 16GB of RAM. That should be more than enough to run this 2D game.

What it boils down to: This game does not have the amount of freedom I had hoped for.
I sincerely hope the game will open up to a world beyond the school.

I've seen far worse in modern gaming. It seems things will get more interesting but it's way too far into the game for its own good. Ugh. Like those RPGs that take around 20 hours before they let us off the rails.

So far the only characters I like are the adorable merchant and the wolf that sometimes greets me at the wine cellar.

I agree the art is very good. I do like the music as well. It's one of the few things that captures the mood of QFG, but it's just hard to believe that this is what they settled on as a design style for a game. I recall Lori saying they weren't going to "imitate their own game, but I feel like they just imitate everyone else's

I agree that the game is pretty shotty as a Role Playing Game. I feel like the skill building is artificial. You use the word forced, which I totally agree. In QFG1 I could spent any entire day climbing a tree until I had near 100 climb. This game's use of time is really just a artificial gate-keeping practice for the sake of the story. It prevents you from doing any actual skill development. As where in QFG I could go to the sheriff's house and keeping clicking until my Lock Pick was 100 and open that door on Day 1. This is not the case. I feel like the skill development screen in Hero U is just a sham. Clearly your only allowed to develop lock picking at a rate they want you to so they cant some doors locked for story's sake. As you said a total lack of freedom.

I assume some of these problem are due to the fact that the game barely funded then had to go into a second kickstarter after going into an overhaul. I funded both kickstarter and would have funded a third if it would have given us a game with more freedom, more organic skill development and better freedom. I'm just having a hard time understanding what the design goal was here? Is it suppose to be a more family friendly game, cause its certainly coming off as "Baby's First QFG." Your not kidding about Modern gaming I feel like every Assassin's creed game the slog to title screen through the tutorial increases by an hour.

As for HU....I agree. The intrigue is there but the game play is not. Everything feels like a chore. Let me earn money by playing daggers with the chief thief. or battle a variety of different monsters or steal things, or pick flowers for the herbalist or fight wraiths. But I guess flirting with ambiguous ethnic girl or obviously white bread UK-ish girl is exciting too. SIGH.

Damn, I was seriously thinking about this when I saw it pop up (somewhat unexpectedly, since I thought it was dead) here on GOG - but even though most reviews are positive, something feels off from what I've seen so far. I've been a fan of the QFG series since the very first Hero's Quest on the Amiga, so almost insta-bought it.

Definitely not happy to hear they've taken cues from Telltale of all places, especially since Telltale "games" are barely interactive let alone challenging (but "ooooo! Consequences!" - which at best amount to a different character appearing in one scene, and at worst does nothing noticeable).

I've seen complaints about the passage of time in other reviews too - is it that bad, or does it make some kind of sense? If time only passes when training, that makes sense - in QFG time would still pass when you do something, and although you could grind for ages to get one skill up to a crazy level, typically you would wear out your stamina quickly (especially at the start), so you'd have to rest in-between (which also passes the time).

AFAIK all actions took "time" in the QFG games, including looking at something - but you easily had enough time to check everything out in most cases before the clock would actually appear to advance. Is that the case here, or is the time much more limited/restricted?

Finally, is the combat any good (apart from repetitive enemies?). From what I've seen, it's turn-based (which is good), but it appears your options are pathetically limited - even Quest for Infamy's combat (definitely it's weakest point) was more in-depth than this.

It takes around 1 screen of walking to pass a minute, training stations seem to take one hour, classes and meals have designated end times no matter how early you arrived.

Choices at least impact your character sheet or rep though it's not like rep has much of a point other than relationships and having folks not hate your guts. The character sheet can have a big impact on solutions available to you and access to more interesting stuff.

I don't have as much of a problem with the combat as others. Too bad all the good enemies seem to be behind locks it takes way too long to open.

I agree with most of the criticism here. The game worlds that were so enticing in the QfG-series are far from the cold corridors of Hero-U, and sometimes the game feels like a bit of a grind with time constraints much harsher than those in QfG.

In the end the thing I found the most annoying about Hero-U, and something I wish I had known beforehand, is that the main story events must be resolved on specific days. Often leading to situations where I had already figured out what to do but the game wouldn't let me act on it until enough time had passed in the game, thus leading me to think I might be on the wrong track.

However, even if it might sound like I hated the game I did in fact enjoy it a lot. Exploring the university and uncovering its secrets was still enjoyable, and even if I didn't care much for Shawn or his fellow students it was well written enough to keep me hooked until the end.

Another thing that is annoying: You are always pressed for money, because you have to buy a new tool the next morning. I couldn't play the gambling game, because Shawn would have been expelled for not wearing that @*%! Uniform. Later on tools become progressively more expensive. In other words too tight constraints :in time as well as money. From day 9 on the story does become a bit more engaging, but it is still hampered by the game constantly pushing you towards a certain direction. Too much is planned.
So while I don't hate the game (or I would have stopped playing it after day 8 (I'm now at day 20 or so), this is not going to be a favourite game of mine.

You could go the stealth route instead of buying the uniform but that's pretty much added difficulty just to save some cash.

The passage of time "makes sense" in the school setting but it sooo restrictive. You wake up at 9ish every day sit through a cuts scene of breakfast and then a class. Where you have to pay attention because it will be on the test.. I'm not kidding. You have to take tests. So then its 2:00 and you get to do basically two things that each cost an hour before the diner bell rings and you're forced to go to diner any training that is slated at an hour is locked away. Could you imagine this in QFG 3 where if you wake up in the Simbani and throw spears and use the balance bridge twice (WITHOUT Mini-Games!) and then Uhura drags you away and says No more until dinner's over! Eat some Zebra steak and you can't leave until after sundown.

Also the games ONLY early available Dungeon is only open after dinner Like could you imagine Baba Yaga closed the forest until Sundown. Stamina is gone completely. Health is now called Stamina and Stamina doesn't really exsist as we knew it. Time as I described above is so limited you have not enough to get tired. In QFG where you might climb a tree 35 times to get the birds nests. You're don't have the time to do that. So there's no point in Stamina or Vigor potions. It's total gate keeping for the sake of story pacing.

And its totally self aware the other night... The main character made some 4th wall joke about "This door is hard to open as if someone was keeping lower level Rogues out."

Combat is average. It's servicable turn based. But "pathetically limited" is accurate. Every battle plays out like this. Sneak up Click on them and throw something before they can approach. Then Melee once they get near. Repeat. OVER and Over and Over. QFG wasn't known for its great combat but at least you had options. You could attack from range for a long while from outside of close combat by chaining spells and daggers etc. This has none of that. Toss a bottle or dagger and then maybe get one more free toss before its melee and then its just take turns until someone dies.

Quest for Infamy had the worst/strangest combat system ever. If I recall it right, Blocking successfully actually Healed you? So what I used to do after getting my ass nearly killed by a hard monster I was pick a fight wiht an easy one and SPAM BLOCK until I was at full heal then kill him with one hit and be at full health again. Great Nostglic game but really weird Combat system.

As for if you should buy it. I think it comes down to if you want to support the Coles I backed BOTH kickstarters on the basis of how much I enjoyed the games of my youth. I want to say there's something to this game because I keep playing it, but nothing we're discussing here is being exaggerated. This is the facts. And I know it sounds like I'm being mean spirited espescially since they said outright it wouldn't be like QFG but Its hard to not want it to be QFG-like when you grew up with 5 Iconic games and this one is set in the same world with statues of heros from 1-5 its such a weird dynamic. I don't know. Its a hard call. People seem to be saying better stuff is locked away farther into the game, but that's ridiclous to make your loyal fans sit through boring game play to get to good stuff. Again, If you want to support the Cole for there awesome work in the past. It has some redeming value, but if your a game should represent its value on its own merits. Its definitely a wait until it goes 50% off.

See the separate topic about fixing stutters

https://www.gog.com/forum/herou_rogue_to_redemption/fixing_stuttery_graphics

I understand where some of the criticism here is coming from, but personally I think it is a bit too harsh.

The time limit is a matter of taste, but I do not think it limits freedom too much. There is a limited amount of actions you can do on a day, but here are lot of days in the game. So all in all I think there is enough time to explore during the game on the whole.

The time limit was chosen very intentional by the devs. This is one of their answers to a backer who did not like the limit:

There is much more to the game that at first meets the eye. I hope you stick with Hero-U and find some of it. The time restriction is deliberate for a few reasons. We don't want players spending all of their time grinding. We don't want them to push so much skill development and exploration into the first five game days that they get bored later in the game. And time is an economic system - Scarcity creates value. In Hero-U, time is more valuable than money, as it is in real life.

I personally find it a refreshing and new element that you have to think a bit about how to spend your limited amount time. But like I said, there is always the next game day. There are some actions that need to be taken before a certain day, but I think the game gives you time enough to complete the action and gives enough warnings that a deadline is approaching.

It’s the same with money. Having a limited amount of it, makes the game more challenging. And there are enough ways to make money or avoid spending money. For instance, if you chose the right locations in the hall and wait for Terk to turn his back, you can run past him and you won’t have to buy the uniform. You can work in the kitchen and explore the cellar and sea caves for loot (and later other areas).

I do not think this is a Telltale type game at all. More the opposite I would think. There is much more freedom for the player to decide what to do (with his limited amount of time).There are much more challenges. And the game does not overly hold your hand in telling you what to do, the player has to think discover lots of things by himself. If the player does not take initiative (because he waits for the game to lead him somewhere firmly by the hand), there are big areas of the game he will never see and a lot of things he will miss. It is quite "old school" in that way and I think the players that are asking for a hint book are the ones that are used to telltale games. I agree that "X likes/dislikes this" might be an unnecessary addition, but that does not make it a telltale type of game at all for me.

That is is not an open world game, probably has to do with budget limitations. Compared to the QFG Games in their time, Hero U has a very limited budget and team. This is probably also the reason why you do not see more students from other classes wandering around the school. Also, it was a design choice to have the game take place school, which means that you cannot go exploring the whole world.

But there are several secret places that you can find and explore. I think the sea caves, catacombs and secret areas you can find later in the game add enough areas to explore (and more monsters than just the “rat hybrid”).

As for the characters, I agree that no one is quite as interesting as Katrina in QFG4, but that is a very high standard. I think most of them are enjoyable enough and some might have surprising secrets later in the game. Each character (both students and teachers) have their own agenda and I thought it was quite fun finding more about them, not only in conversation but also by eavesdropping.

Does this game top my favourite QFG games (2 and 4)? No, but that is a very high standard to reach, especially with limited budget and small team. But I did really like the game. I loved all the references to QFG Games. I thought the day/time limit system was something interesting, challenging and new (I never played a Persona type of game before), that did not distract me from the RPG/adventure hybrid gameplay nor from the story.

Yes, more areas of the castle open up after Day 9, but I still have to get a 40 lyra costing kit before the *next day*. So I challenge your statement: There is always the next day... That's pretty much impossible. As my character currently only has 1 lyra and with only 28 stamina/ hp won't be able to kill proaches yet. Try killing 39 lyra worth of drats on one night... Next to impossible and I don't have any non-essential equipment I can sell...
What it boils down to: This games feels like work. Thankfully I already have a job.

As long as you avoid being spotted by Terk in the hallway, you do not need the kit.

Try working in the kitchen after dinner every evening in the beginning of the game. That is a steady source of income. A bit in the game there will be more loot available the areas you reach through hidden passages.

I don't mean to be harsh, I just have a sarcastic way about my writing. You make fine points I just have a hard time agreeing with all of them. I don't have a problem with the Coles trying something new and making time VERY finite. but least give me something interesting to do. A lot of people, like minded to my experience, keep saying this game is like work. And for the first nearly 10 days that's true. Nothing you do is fun. By Day 3 of QFG 1 I might have already played Mage's maze with Erasmus, daggers with the cheif theif, and discovered the Goblin training grounds and the weapon trainers challenge. WIth a good hybrid character that gives me 4 goals to play around with. Hero U give you literally nothing to do to for 10 days except flirt with stock characters.

Maybe some people love relationship sims they seem to very popular in the east. But the dialogue trees are so limited. and the characters are just boring cliches that literally stand in the shadow of stautes of better characters. Where's characters on par with Erasmus and Fenrus or Enry the Ermit or Uhura or Katrina or Dimitri. Name one character in this game that is on par with those icons. And what's the point of having a relationship without deep dilalogue trees? Most covnerstations are bland choices of funny, mean, or kind followed by Shawn's sex advance puns.

Dimitri from QFG 4 is actually the perfect example of why I hate the "ESME DOESN"T LIKE THAT" Tell Tale garbage. It's an immerstion breaker. Dimitri is a xenophobic constable in a small town if you haven't played the game and your deeds slowly change his opinons about you. He's goes from antagonistic authority figure to one of your closet friends. And I can only imagine the dark creepy PERFECT atmosphere of QFG 4 being distrubed with constant reminders "DImitiri Likes that! Dimitiri Loves you! Dimitiri is your BFF!" It's cheap design. IF the game is writen well the player feels the change. Its part of the user friendly dumbing down of games that's taken place in the last 15 years and I can't believe the Coles adpoted it.

That said. I'm starting to see that "there is more to the game than first meets the eye," by I reiterate there is very little joy in the first few days. No Mini Games, No Good Characters, No Quests. You sit around, talk, take a bath, To quote Tom Hanks from BIG "What's fun about that?" SO its not design choice I'm being harsh about its poor execution. And I'm aware some of this is the result of no enough funding, but there is some poor execution at work here.

What feels the saddest is that Lori Cole is asking us to wait for her game to get good. If this was an original IP it would get 2 star rating across the board. They are playing with a lot of faith build up over the years and it feels very disingenuous to ask loyal fans to sit through "WORK" to get to the good stuff. I'm not asking it to BE QFG I'm asking it to have THAT magic. Every single game in that series made you feel like you were thrust into an amazing world the second you hit the ground. Each screen was full of amazing discovery and possabilities. THis is more like the Shawkshank Redemption where you're slowing working your way through a prison wall.

While I respect all of your points as they are very valid. I just think the game lacks heart. Game are of course a passion and maybe I'm just expecting an exact vision that wasn't, or maybe its because I'm an English professor so sitting in a class IS like work but From where I'm sitting as person that played All Five Games, including both versions of 1&2 several times. I have a hard time believing I'm even going to play this game twice.