I don’t know why, but I was immensely pleased with the “Other character viewpoint” sections. Especially when they got down to discussing our character.

7 Likes

From what I saw importing a save gives some small flavor text about a few people but doesn’t change anything. [spoiler] There’s also some inconstanties where the game acts like Rebellion is alive no matter what and it did kinda bug me that even if you totally opt for revenge on the Victon family Jury and Mrs. Victon get off scotch free in the end.

Your actions towards black magic also didn’t matter, which was weird when I imported a save where we ended the world only to find hey I didn’t actually do that after all. [/spoiler]

So import a save at your own risk of finding inconsistencies. It’s just some small flavor text. (Also you have to replay Heroesfall to create a save, which because I don’t label things right mean I had to replay all the games to get what I wanted)

I did like the MC better this game, and it was nice to not overreact to everything, this MC felt much more toned down. Which I think is why it bothered me so much that when I felt like I acted consistantly with the idea that I just wanted to save my sister that the game was pushing me towards speaking out against discrimination at every single turn.

With the sister [spoiler] I honestly couldn’t picture what she looked like as a part jellyfish so I just went with the mental image of somebody I care about who is wheelchair bound and suffers from seizures. (But with gloopy tentacles for effect) That made it more personal to me that I save her.

Had I stuck with trying to imagine a jelly blob I don’t know that I would have had quite the same reaction.

I mean, I guess that’s part of the point the game is trying to make that “disembodied” people face discrimination but there were also points when she was genuinely unlikeable independent of anything else so, I have mixed feeling about her.

After she was stabilized when I made the top 12 I really wish I could have changed my mind and saved Miss Boss over getting her the final treatment and the fact that I couldn’t (with metagaming it may be possible) is one of the railroads that bothered me most I think. [/spoiler]

Also I was glad that there was an asexual option this time so I didn’t have to tell the game like 80x that “I just want to be friends”. I hate black magic just because the game forces you into a super weird sexual situation when you knew nothing about them unless you absolutely are mean to them from the first meeting

I like the bee hive mind power set a lot that was honestly super clever to do. I love how the powers were written, even if I think it was slightly “chosen one have the perfect power at the perfect moment” trope-esq the writing behind it was good and the ideas were clever.

Edit: I agree that some of the side characters were super cool! I wanted more of the dinosaur hybrid I hope he comes back!

7 Likes

But Rebellion cant die in the original trilogy.

New title for this; Heroes Rise: The Maginalization Rant.

I thought this was going to be a spin off about Supers in a TV contest, not Classism/Racism with Supers. Ugh. Well, at least I have Chicken.

12 Likes

I prefer Propaganda: Anti discrimination the game. The hero stuff is just a minor plot to forced us more propaganda.

2 Likes

You can cripple them to the point where they wouldn’t be doing hero activism tho. My impression was that if you totally went ruthless revenge on the meek that you also made sure Rebellion was finished as well. Dunno that it ever said that you are right, but it was always implied in my mind for a super ruthless MC.

I destroyed their boat, but Rebellion want there, only Inherit and the leader who I forgot the name. And the PC only send them to jail.

I’m regretfully so disappointed in this instalment. To get high legend scores and whatnots, it forces you to side with the societal end of the spectrum. Especially since you can’t save Miss Boss without it. It’s also full of dreary inequality and political rants left right centre, which can add some flavour to the game, if only it wasn’t there every 3-4 pages.

My character is now this dull stereotypical activist just because I wanted Miss Boss to live. And even then, she goes in a coma ala Black Magic, who is now known as “Bright Magic” (Dear lord, I almost dropped my smart phone where I was playing it on when I read that part).

I’m hoping the next instalment in this series isn’t like this because I really do appreciate the writing and humour this series has.

14 Likes

I liked the majority about what hero project: Redemption had to offer, being able to play a new MC and all. :grin:
However i was utterly disappointed in how Jury and my first MC`s relationship played out here since my first MC romanced him in Herofall and well :sob: MY HEART IS BROKEN! I want Jury back with my first MC!!!
I just cant :disappointed_relieved::tired_face:

4 Likes

I don’t think I’ve ever been this disappointed in a purchase from Choice of Games. Not even when Rock Star was a buggy mess at release.

It’s nearly unplayable, every few ‘pages’ I have to just put down my Kindle and sigh until I’m ready to read another hamfisted rant that sounds more likely from the author than my character. The characters are super fake and barely have anything going for them, especially since you eliminate the most interesting ones early on (though that’s probably for the best or else they would have ended up as mouthpieces). The Transfer situation also annoyed the hell out of me, instead of being rewarded for playing the game I was actively punished. Griffin had the stronger faction and he had just laid a verbal smackdown on Transfer that meant hir was likely to lose the popular vote regardless, and yet I feel awful about choosing a political alliance? Plus Weaver was all “I don’t care who you pick, I understand” yet they CLEARLY had a massive chip on their shoulder after you voted out Transfer.

Of course, all of that just highlights the biggest issue. You’re actively punished in the narrative for not giving a crap about insane Powered Politics. You can’t just be a guy who got a shit lot in life but just wants to try to do the best he can for himself and his sister. You have to be an ICON, and you have to be willing to sacrifice yourself and your sister for the MOVEMENT! Even if you don’t care you character forcefully has several introspective moments where they realize how ‘important they are to ending discrimination’. Basically several moments where the game says “You realize you have the power to be an icon and you should really use it to help everyone else. What will your choice be?” Then if you choose anything but being that icon you’re awful.

The parallels to real-world problems are also so unsubtle to the point of being cringe-worthy. As is the unironic use of ‘mansplain’.

Ultimately it feels like I paid money to get a superhero game, but ended up with a lecture about social issues that was barely dressed up as superhero game.

29 Likes

I liked it. Well I found it kinda repetative too with the contant discriminaton thing but that was so far the only negative thing for me in this game. Tho I only played it once so maybe I just made relatively lucky choices. In this playthrough JK was the most important for my MC but I also tried to make choices which feelt kinda the most heroic (hope thats the right word). For example when it came to the part with Miss Boss my MC tryed to save her even though the last requirement to JKs treatment was to let her die.

Also I have question: Does my old MC from the original trilogy only appaer in this game if they are in the Millenial group?

Not gonna give any comments on this other than I thoroughly enjoyed it.

1 Like

I really like the game so far… but I have two questions:
I can’t load my save game from hero fall, so I played the game as a “new reader”. Is it a bug or…?

Starsoar just got eliminated in the final round. I really replayed this about ten times or so, just to see if I could get a different outcome: I really wanted him to come along :’( I’m so sad. Is there a way to not get him eliminated? If so, I really want to know! Sorry for my bad English, English isn’t my native language.

No, he will always be eliminated because of his secret.
The only other outcome is your character being eliminated with him.

You know, one of my favourite parts about the old Heroes trilogy was that no body made a big deal about Jenny being a lesbian regardless of my MC’s gender or orientation. Before anything else, Jenny was my best friend who was a badass even without powers and I loved that about her. Another transcharacter was shown to be in a tumultuous relationship sure but nobody ever doubted that this character was confident, attractive and comfortable in their own skin. I could handwave the first time all the LGBTQ+ characters started arguing as sheer stress and the fact that most of them were shown to not particularly like each other.

I have to say though that Redemption is rather disappointing on multiple fronts. The use of the Legend score was one means to reward success and, more importantly, that your MC acted like a Hero. Now there is a score that represents just how conspicuous this MC is in supporting anti-discrimination causes. There is nothing wrong with playing such a character but while the original trilogy was a railroad, this newest installment has become a full on straitjacket.

My MC is dirt poor, largely ignorant of national events, has an effectively handicapped sister who is dying, has identity issues due to the nature of the MC’s powers and lives in a bad neighbourhood. I have to say, like how the major themes of anti-discrimination are played out in the storyline, this is laying it on a bit too thick. Too much of a good thing as it were. I far more enjoyed the previous set of characters who I could root for, this set seems a little more stilted to me. Overall while the theme is a worthy one, it comes across a little too preachy and it does interfere with my enjoyment of the game. Least of which the fact that you are essentially punished for going “off-script” does feel just a tad mean-spirited. Also negating one of the old romances? Why?

I have to admit that Heroes Project was my least liked entry in the original series. The notion that you would build a superhero team based on reality TV of all things seemed ridiculous to me. Such shows encouraged factionalism and backstabbing for one. In fact one of the easiest ways to end the show as part of the Protectorate was to betray one (or more) of your oldest friends and some of your newest ones. How would such individuals necessarily be the best choices for the nation’s superhero team? I considered it brilliant writing when it was shown that a pawn of the villain was involved and the whole point was to recruit heroes to his cause. To create a team that could rival the Millennial Group but was otherwise loyal to him.

Knowing all this, having turned almost half of the Millennial Group to my MC’s side, having had Rebellion stand down after he realized what he was doing, whose bright idea was it in-universe that another season was a worthy endeavour? It was the scheme of a villain meant to create not the premiere superteam but rather one that would serve as his own superpowered thugs. Why is the American Protectorate still an ongoing concern? How did they surpass the Millennial Group in prestige and power? After what happened with President Victon on live television, testimony from my MC, Rebellion and Drew, you would think that the whole system might be shut down. Sure it might be good television and get ratings but is creating rifts between heroes worth it? Why would they not just go back to the traditional method of selecting members for the American Protectorate?

23 Likes

This. I liked a lot of things about the HR trilogy, but I struggled with Hero Project, and am not particularly excited about returning to that fundamentally implausible bit of the world.

7 Likes

I mean one thing I think a lot of the players/readers should keep in mind is that the author has stated that he wants both this and Versus to be longer than a trilogy–I forget where (somewhere on Facebook or Twitter I think?) he said he wanted these books to feel more like TV episodes where the original HRs were more like movies. So, I see a lot of the flaws that are being pointed out and while I can’t say I completely disagree, I also feel like this is supposed to be more of a TV pilot than a complete standalone work, and I think that should be kept in mind in discussion.

3 Likes

How it should influence the things we are criticizing?
Because it will have more episodes shouldn’t punish the player for playing a character with high Personal instead of playing with high Societal.
Or the fact that this game has very little of heroing and a lot of discrimination issues.
Or that you are railroaded of caring about those issues.

4 Likes

I’m sorry if I wasn’t as clear as I should have been–I did mean to say that a lot of the issues were valid, but there’s also going to be more time for the story to spread out, and the focus on discrimination over heroing might have just been to make sure the issues of the series were well-established. If this is just the first couple missions and the villain is just now being revealed and explored then chances are we’re going to be doing more fighting in the future rather than more introduction to the new Rookies and characters.

And like, while the railroading issue is, well, an issue, a good part of the plot of this one is the MC deciding whether they even WANT to be a hero, as opposed to the last game where the MC definitely did. I see now in hindsight there was definitely less heroics than in the last games, but it definitely felt to me like this was mostly build up and introduction to the heroing plot, like a prologue.

1 Like

I think, for the sake of my enjoyment of the Heroes Rise series… I’m just going to consider this particular game non-canon. Which means canonically your MC is still together with Jury if romanced, instead of him pulling a Jacob. The American Protectorate was disbanded after they realized it was a dumb idea. There’s no such thing as disembodied or morpho-powered. There’s no second season because, yet again, it’s a dumb idea to put a bunch of superheroes in a competition that encourages backstabbing.

13 Likes