Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes

About

"Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes" is a tactical RPG that parodies classic fantasy themes and video games. Assemble a team of anti-heroes and take on the Dark Church in a campaign filled with dark humor and strategic combat. Customize your characters and manage their inventory to maximize their effectiveness in battle. Be prepared to make tough choices, as your decisions will affect the story and the fate of your party members.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes screenshot

54%

Audience ScoreBased on 438 reviews

humor212 positive mentions

gameplay20 negative mentions

The game offers a humorous and satirical take on traditional RPG tropes, making it enjoyable for fans of the genre.
The combat system, while simple, allows for strategic planning and features unique character abilities that can turn the tide of battle.
Despite its flaws, the game provides a decent amount of content and can be entertaining if approached with the right mindset.

The game is plagued by numerous bugs and crashes, making it frustrating to play and often requiring frequent reloading of saves.
The graphics and overall presentation are dated and lack polish, which detracts from the gaming experience.
The dialogue and humor can feel forced and juvenile, leading to a lack of engagement with the story and characters.

humor
218 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
97%
3%
The humor in the game is highly subjective, with many players finding it a mix of campy, low-brow jokes and clever parodies of RPG tropes. While some appreciate the witty dialogue and pop culture references, others criticize the humor as forced or unoriginal, leading to a divide in enjoyment. Overall, the game is seen as a light-hearted, casual experience that may appeal to those who enjoy irreverent humor, despite its technical shortcomings.
- “Expecting a serious tactical RPG, but oh boy, it's like the developers raided the humor aisle at the RPG supermarket! 🤣”
- “Humorous storyline poking fun at RPG classics – Oblivion, Gothic, Lord of the Rings, take a bow, you've been roasted! 🏹”
- “This is a tactical turn-based RPG with a heavy focus on humor and well-written dialogue.”
- “For a parody, it's embarrassingly unfunny.”
- “Worst of all, it's a parody game that's unfunny.”
- “It tries its very hardest to use satire to ridicule the RPG genre, but the end result was a giant mess of unfunny, immature, and amateurish jokes slapped onto one of the most unplayable and boring indie RPG games in creation.”
story
176 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
66%
11%
The story is a straightforward, linear narrative that parodies classic RPG tropes with humor and satire, featuring a cast of quirky characters on a quest to save the kingdom. While some players find the comedic elements enjoyable, others criticize the plot for being clichéd and lacking depth, leading to a mixed reception overall. Despite its simplicity, the story has moments that can elicit laughter, though it may not satisfy those seeking a more intricate or emotionally engaging experience.
- “The story follows a young protagonist, Drake, and his mentor, the established hero Holy Avatar, as they set off on an adventure to recruit a ragtag party of antiheroes and save the kingdom from an evil force.”
- “The story isn't particularly complicated, but what there is is nonetheless satisfying with some interesting twists.”
- “The characters and story parody other RPGs in an entertaining way.”
- “The plot is silly, the dialogue is contorted and the atmosphere is pretty absurd.”
- “The story is a joke so I can’t even list that as a positive for this game.”
- “I wanted to try to play it to the end, but it really is so boring that I decided that I didn't care enough about the story and characters to want to finish it.”
gameplay
116 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
71%
17%
The gameplay is characterized by a mix of tactical mechanics and turn-based combat, offering around 8-15 hours of playtime depending on the player's approach. While some players appreciate the humor and simplified mechanics, many criticize the slow pace, clunky controls, and lack of depth in strategy, leading to a repetitive experience. Overall, the game presents a blend of fun and frustration, appealing to those seeking a light-hearted RPG but potentially disappointing for fans of more complex tactical gameplay.
- “The best part comes from the tactics gameplay and most of all from the obsession meter which unleashes an ultimate move that can turn the tide of battle, but can only be interacted with by careful planning so heroes and enemies bring about the situations needed for filling it.”
- “The combat is surprisingly fun and easy to pick up due to the simplified RPG mechanics.”
- “This is a turn-based squad tactics game with easy-to-understand mechanics, and everything you'd expect from the genre in terms of classes, techniques, and so on.”
- “The gameplay is a little slow, thanks to the developers who already knew this and included a 2x speed feature on the main screen, allowing an impatient user to move faster so that we can march forward in our quest to start a new game immediately after this one.”
- “The gameplay in combat is ridiculously slow and mundane; this game is turn-based, so controlling a massive team of characters is a big chore, especially when they all do pretty much the same thing in terms of mechanics.”
- “Combine that with an ultra-linear plot and bland gameplay, and you get a game that is just not worth playing.”
graphics
62 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32%
39%
29%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many users noting that they are dated and could use improvement, particularly in character detail and overall polish. While some appreciate the cutesy art style and find it fitting for the game's tone, others criticize the visuals as amateurish and buggy, leading to a less enjoyable experience. Overall, the graphics are seen as a weak point, but not entirely detrimental to the game's fun factor.
- “The art style may be somewhat cutesy in places, but the backgrounds really set the appropriate moods for each stage.”
- “I thought that the artwork was truly beautiful.”
- “Admittedly, the graphics could be better, but the bright, cartoony style suits the overall feel of the game.”
- “Unfortunately, due to the game's dated graphics, the female models aren't detailed enough to be arousing.”
- “A clumsy interface that combines graphics from the eighties with the charm and usability of dog vomit.”
- “This game, even after being released for four years, is prone to random crashes, horrible graphics performance, and save corruption to top it off.”
stability
44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
5%
95%
The game's stability is frequently criticized, with many players reporting bugs, crashes, and glitches that disrupt gameplay, particularly during combat. While some users experienced minimal issues, others faced significant problems, such as being stuck in combat mode and needing to reload saves. Overall, the game is described as "buggy" and "awkward," detracting from the overall experience despite its entertaining elements.
- “Randomly crashes or freezes, after fighting for an hour plus without a save, as you cannot save while in battle mode.”
- “An inexcusably, pound-the-keyboardingly graphically buggy turn-based PS1-style strategy RPG that, while offering decent level-to-level challenge, provides little to no incentive to progress.”
- “It's buggy (I particularly dislike when I'm stuck in combat mode and need to save and reload to move freely again).”
music
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
40%
20%
The music in the game is generally well-received, with many praising the decent soundtrack that complements the gameplay effectively. However, some users noted a significant lack of music, sound effects, and voice acting in certain areas, which detracted from the overall experience.
- “The music is done very well, and keeps the”
- “Music fits nicely with the game.”
- “Levels are repetitive, story is decent, graphics are okay, and music is good.”
- “A bad buggy game that could've been good if it wasn't for the complete lack of music, sound effects, and voices (no voices at all), as well as awkward controls and bad camera movements.”
- “A bad buggy game that could've been good if it wasn't for the complete lack of music, sound effects, and voices (no voices at all), as well as awkward controls and bad camera movements.”
atmosphere
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
33%
50%
The atmosphere of the game is characterized by a thick sense of suspicion, particularly in dungeon settings where characters encounter shady figures. While the overall tone is described as absurd due to silly plot elements and contorted dialogue, the pacing contributes to the immersive experience.
- “The plot is silly, the dialogue is contorted and the atmosphere is pretty absurd.”
- “The plot is silly, the dialogue is contorted, and the atmosphere is pretty absurd.”
- “The characters encounter shady figures in the dungeon, the atmosphere thick with suspicion.”
- “Pace and atmosphere of the game.”
grinding
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players generally find the grinding in the game to be tedious and unenjoyable, although it is acknowledged that the game is not primarily focused on this aspect. Instead, it offers a humorous take on traditional JRPG mechanics, allowing for quicker progression through battles while providing commentary on the genre's typical grind.
- “The grinding isn't fun, but I can tell this game wasn't made for that (even if it's mocking JRPGs).”
- “This made progressing through the (really boring and tedious) fights much quicker.”
- “Yes, especially if you love funny games sidestepping the regular trashing and grinding endless monster hordes and giving some background about the deeper abysses of the genre.”
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's optimization is notably poor, with users reporting frequent crashes, subpar graphics performance, and issues with save corruption, despite supporting 1080p resolution and running on Windows 10. Even after four years since its release, these problems persist, leading to a frustrating experience for players.
- “This game, even after being released for four years, is prone to random crashes, horrible graphics performance, and save corruption to top it off.”
- “It supports 1080p resolution and runs on Windows 10 too, but the game optimization is very poor and sometimes it runs poorly.”
character development
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Character development in the game is largely criticized, with reviewers noting a lack of depth and progression for characters. The repetitive use of maps and enemy designs further detracts from any potential growth, leading to a stagnant gameplay experience. Overall, players feel that the game fails to deliver meaningful character development.
- “There's really no character development and areas are used several times for different scenarios.”
- “The UI is very cumbersome, enemy designs are more or less copies of your character designs, reused maps, and a number of glitches.”
emotional
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is characterized by a lack of significant plot twists or deeply moving scenes, yet it still manages to evoke laughter and tears from players, leading to a mixed but impactful emotional experience.
- “I laughed, I cried, I kissed three bucks goodbye.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization aspect of the game is praised for its absence of microtransactions and DLC, appealing to players who are frustrated with the current trends in gaming that often include these elements. Reviewers appreciate the focus on delivering a straightforward RPG experience without the distractions of modern monetization practices.
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game suffers from a lack of replayability due to its completely linear storyline and absence of side quests, leading to a consensus that there is little incentive to play through it multiple times.
- “The only real complaint I would have is that with the total lack of any side quests and the 100% linear nature of the storyline, there is about 0% replayability.”