Heroland

63%
Game Brain Score Based on 45 reviews
  • story
  • humor
  • graphics
Heroland Game Cover
While it lacks in variety, Heroland serves up an original idea that is almost sure to give RPG fans a laugh along with a taste of something new, yet familiar
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Heroland is a single-player, fantasy role-playing game with striking 16-bit era visuals. As a theme park guide, help tourists navigate perilous dungeons, customize their strategies, and summon monsters to aid in battle. When not adventuring, enjoy the theme park's attractions and uncover the island's dark secrets in this nostalgic RPG experience.

  • Nintendo Switch
  • PC
  • Play​station 4
  • Play​station 5
  • Windows
  • Play​Station
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

63%
Audience ScoreBased on 45 reviews
story8 positive mentions
music3 negative mentions
  • The game features charming graphics and a unique art style that adds personality to the experience.
  • The writing is engaging and filled with clever humor, making the interactions with characters enjoyable.
  • Heroland offers a lighthearted and quirky take on RPG mechanics, providing a fun and relaxed gameplay experience.
  • The combat system is overly passive, leading to a lack of engagement and making battles feel tedious.
  • There is an excessive amount of dialogue that can disrupt the flow of gameplay, often feeling bloated and unskippable.
  • The game requires significant grinding to progress, which can lead to a repetitive and monotonous experience.
  • story36 mentions

    The story of the game presents an intriguing premise involving a royal succession crisis and a theme park linked to real-life legends, but it suffers from excessive bloat due to the inclusion of numerous party members and their sidequests, which can detract from the main narrative. While some reviewers appreciate the charming writing and humor, others criticize the pacing and the overwhelming number of references that can overshadow the plot. Overall, the game offers a lighthearted RPG experience with a mix of engaging story elements and gameplay, though it may require patience to navigate its lengthy tutorials and side content.

    • “The actual plot of the game with a royal succession crisis, the theme park being founded on real-life legends and possibly being run by the dark lord himself, that's interesting enough.”
    • “Overall, Heroland is a lighthearted RPG that manages to be interesting in terms of story and gameplay.”
    • “But whether it's side quests or main, whether it's dialogue or mission title, the 'wonderful writing full of intelligent humor and wit' that Ollie Reynolds of Nintendo Life calls it is just an endless barrage of references.”
    • “But even more bloated is the story.”
    • “The game has horrible pacing, doing a 5-minute story introduction for an hour of tutorials.”
    • “The bits between where you can 'explore' the island you're on are just selecting stuff in a menu and getting notifications that something is at a place, going to that place, and finding out that nothing was there. Why did you go there? Just move on with the story.”
  • humor20 mentions

    The humor in the game is widely praised for its clever writing and engaging characters, featuring a mix of lighthearted and mature jokes that playfully reference video game tropes. While some feel the humor can be overly forced at times, the self-aware and quirky nature of the dialogue, along with colorful aesthetics, contributes to an overall enjoyable experience. Players appreciate the balance of innocence in visuals with a more sophisticated comedic undertone.

    • “Firstly, and probably most importantly for a genre that involves reading a lot of text, the writing is engaging, clever, and hilarious. There are plenty of jokes about video game tropes, as expected in a setting that's literally a theme park based on them, but it's not the only type of gag; if it were, the experience would probably have fallen flat.”
    • “The self-aware humor and quirky characters make up for most of the shortcomings.”
    • “Humor in the game is rather funny; characters and the whole game look innocent, but the dialogue is sometimes very mature (even though they are very rarely serious).”
  • graphics19 mentions

    The graphics of the game are generally described as cute and charming, featuring a unique blend of 2D and 3D styles that evoke nostalgia. While some players appreciate the adorable art and vibrant visuals, others criticize the lifelessness of the environments and repetitive music. Overall, the aesthetics contribute positively to the game's character and humor, enhancing the overall experience despite some mixed opinions.

    • “The graphics are nostalgic and charming, the music is catchy and upbeat, and the characters are well-written and lighthearted.”
    • “The art style is adorable and there are tons of collectibles and furniture that you can collect to decorate your room.”
    • “The graphics are cute and unique, the combat is enjoyable and surprisingly engrossing, and the game’s overall charm is praiseworthy.”
    • “This game desperately tries to sell itself as a charming indie game but there's not much charm to it, the art style is cute but the environment is lifeless vector art, the music is repetitive and the dialogs are neither fun nor witty enough to be worth reading.”
    • “The graphics are designed in a cross between 2D and 3D style.”
    • “The graphics are cute and unique, but the overall presentation lacks depth and engagement.”
  • gameplay18 mentions

    The gameplay of Heroland has received mixed reviews, with many players criticizing the game mechanics for feeling disjointed, likening it to a poorly executed blend of idle and active turn-based RPG elements. While the battles are the primary focus of gameplay, the overall experience is described as slow-paced and lacking in action or strategic depth. However, some players appreciate the lighthearted nature of the RPG and find the mechanics to be balanced and easy to understand.

    • “Gameplay consists of story segments around the park, character and party management from the shops, and a somewhat hands-off active time battle system when you’re trekking through the dungeons.”
    • “Overall, Heroland is a lighthearted RPG that manages to be interesting in terms of story and gameplay.”
    • “So far, I've encountered no bugs, typos, or glitches, and the gameplay feels pretty balanced.”
    • “This is not a good game if you are looking for action, drama, intrigue, fast-paced gameplay, or strategy.”
    • “Gameplay: they really messed up on the game mechanics (like mashing an idler into an active turn-based RPG).”
    • “Also, the game has an oddly long load time, so if you find you want to play this in short sessions in the same day (like I had sometimes), I just left the game open, which does add some to this revised gameplay time for this review.”
  • music14 mentions

    The music in the game receives mixed reviews; while some praise its catchy and upbeat nature, fitting well with various settings, others find it repetitive and lacking charm. The audio quality is generally noted as decent, with a good choice of instruments enhancing the experience, but it ultimately fails to elevate the overall gameplay for some players. Overall, the soundtrack is seen as serviceable, providing a pleasant backdrop but not enough to make the game stand out.

    • “Between the tropical sounds on the island map and the subdued music of Lucky's home, it’s all done with a good choice of instruments and decent quality.”
    • “The graphics are nostalgic and charming, the music is catchy and upbeat, and the characters are well-written and lighthearted.”
    • “This game desperately tries to sell itself as a charming indie game but there's not much charm to it, the art style is cute but the environment is lifeless vector art, the music is repetitive and the dialogs are neither fun nor witty enough to be worth reading.”
    • “It is serviceable as a mindless grind if you need something to do with your hands while listening to music and podcasts, but even then your time is better spent elsewhere.”
    • “Audio is done pretty well, with its variety of music properly fitting with the settings and situations in the game.”
  • grinding8 mentions

    The grinding aspect of the game is largely criticized for its repetitiveness and basic mechanics, reminiscent of mobile RPGs. While the engaging writing and characters initially mask the grind, players ultimately find the experience monotonous and lacking depth, requiring repetitive leveling on confined maps. Despite some balance in combat, the overall sentiment leans towards frustration with the grind-heavy gameplay.

    • “It quickly wears off, only to leave something that is nothing but grinding through the absolute most basic RPG game you'd get on a mobile phone.”
    • “And you have to grind to level on these claustrophobic little board game maps repeatedly, where the experience is extremely repetitive, giving that empty feeling you associate with grindy mobile games.”
    • “Even if you overlevel while grinding, the balance almost requires you to make some input during a battle (or at some point in the dungeon).”
  • stability2 mentions

    Users report a high level of stability, noting the absence of bugs, typos, or glitches, and describe the gameplay as well-balanced.

Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

74% average critic score

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Play time

82hMedian play time
82hAverage play time
82-82hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs

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