Little Town Hero

Little Town Hero's combat can frustrate at times, but the battle system behind it is still full of charm and creativity.

Little Town Hero wants to endear you to its tiny village and light card-based gameplay, but its repetitive battles and boring story make it hard to care about its residents or their plight.

Bogged down by performance issues and flat characters, Little Town Hero tells a formulaic story set in a beautiful place, strung together by complex, engaging, and gleefully rewarding battles.

I didn't expect to have so much vitriol for Little Town Hero going into it, however, I found very little to like. Its 18-ish-hour runtime felt like an eternity as I slogged through battle after battle. I struggle to fathom who this game is designed for, but all I can recommend is to stay away lest you get dealt a bad hand.

In an era where every RPG - and every genre that’s assimilated roleplay mechanics into their DNA - have used grinding and oversized maps to extend their playtimes into figures only a select few can truly undertake, Little Town Hero has confidently opted for a shorter experience that’s more akin to the pace, style and sedate pace of Animal Crossing than a traditional RPG or JRPG.

Game Freak's newest project is an adorable game that's marred by severe optimization and gameplay balance issues.

Your enjoyment of Little Town Hero will largely depend on your patience for quirky JRPG systems. The game's battle mechanics are unique and surprisingly deep, but can be frustratingly random and time consuming. Add in a story and world that have their charms, but are ultimately rather simplistic, and you have a Little Town that will only appeal to select tourists.

There’s not much to knock with Little Town Hero it’s a great experience with a praiseworthy visual style, soundtrack, and the sometimes hard but ultimately inventively brilliant battle system. Some minor frame rate stutter here and there, but nothing worth getting up in arms about. The game won’t be to everyone’s taste, whether that’s down to expectation as a Game Freak game or just the overwhelming nature of the battle system. If different and out of the box is an appealing trait, then Little Town Hero has it with a lot to spare.

Little Town Hero is a charming RPG with gorgeous art design and very unique combat mechanics, resulting in a very strategic and tactical experience. Although it may take you a few hours to become accustomed to the gameplay during the boss battles, the satisfaction of taking down the enemies by utilising a long-winded chain of combos and pre-planned set-up is glorious. For a game set within a ‘little town’, there’s a lot of adventure and excitement to behold, introducing new characters and unravelling secrets the further and stronger you get. By the end of the game, I was very satisfied and came to appreciate the unique nature of the game along with the challenging gameplay and intriguing story – I’d certainly recommend giving Little Town Hero a shot if you like games which try something new.

Little Town Hero is a turn-based RPG with a very particular combat system similar to that of card games. The combat system is too dense and constantly evolving, but you get to master yourself with patience and planning a good strategy, it also feels quite fresh and innovative. It is a shame that it has only arrived in English and Japanese, because given the gender this can influence more than one user.