The Hero Project: Open Season — Can you win America’s #1 reality show for heroes?

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We’re proud to announce that The Hero Project: Open Season, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, iOS, and Android. It’s 25% off until April 12!

Can you win The Hero Project, America’s #1 reality competition for heroes? Team up with allies old and new to unravel a conspiracy threatening your world, and save the planet from destruction!

The Hero Project: Open Season is a 170,000-word interactive novel, and the final installment of Zachary Sergi’s Hero Project series. It’s entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

In a competition full of heroic stars, will you rise high enough to influence the way society views Powered people? What will you do when your fight soars to heights you never expected…and when your journey falls back into the perspective of the original Heroes Rise Trilogy main character?

As you rise, the decisions you make will shape the world for your Powered peers—and shape your relationships and potential romances. Will you fight for Powered rights or personal gain?

• Play as male, female, trans, or non-binary; gay, straight, bisexual, non-categorizable, or ace
• Play a new hero, in a brand new season of The Hero Project
• Use your animalistic Powers to survive deadly missions
• Kick slugging butt with Prodigal as your sidekick
• Become an advocate role model, a powerful kingpin, or a dangerous freedom fighter
• See Black Magic, Jury and Jenny again
• Secure the fate of a new Powered capital, or will you exploit its resources
• Untangle the conspiracy behind the scenes of The Hero Project fast enough to save the entire world
• Play as the original Heroes Rise Trilogy hero in two interactive interludes!
• Enter into one of a ten different romantic relationships!

In Open Season, everyone is a target. Who is yours?

We hope you enjoy playing The Hero Project: Open Season. We encourage you to tell your friends about it, and recommend the game on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our ranking on the App Store. The more times you download in the first week, the better our games will rank.

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I haven’t finished it yet I’m in the second interlude with the old MC but I am loving it! I got so excited at one point I literally threw my breakfast! I’m so happy!

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@RETowers, I’m not sure if the title of the topic is justified, because no matter what, the players are probably never gonna end up winning the reality show, as that twist in the tale is an essential part of the story. And that there’s no such achievement mentioned in the game itself probably confirms my hypothesis. So I would rather prefer to have some other suitable title, like “The Hero Project: Open Season- will you change the system from within, or lead the revolution from the front?” or something that you believe fits. It’s not a very big issue, true, but given the amount of name-calling and wordshed the forum has witnessed in the past week on this specific release, which eventually led to the unlisting of the previous discussion thread, why give another reason for people to start catfights? But in the end, it’s just another suggestion, I am sure you will ensure necessary measures if needed.

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Hi, could anyone tell me who are the male (only males please) romance options in this game? I know Jury is one, but I don’t know about others (Griffin,fumble…etc?) Thanks

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Weaver can be male, female, or NB. Not sure about any others…

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I have not been here for a while. I saw this. I cried.

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Griffin and Starsoar, I think you can romance the first mc so if you picked them to be male then him too

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Original MC if: new mc is interested in their gender, old mc is not in a relationship i believe Dunno if the old mc actually has to be into the new one.

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Does anyone have any info on the theoretical polyship between Jury and the two MCs? Perhaps @Mewsly? The only thing motivating me at the moment is the Jury-mance and that seemed like the best option?

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No polyship. When Sergi talked about ‘love triangle’ he meant ‘standard love triangle where one char has to choose’. IIRC h was aware people read his tweet as hinting a polyship, and should have cleared things up.

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In terms of the Polyship its not an option. I think people just got carried away by the possibility.

However the Verdict Romance is available for both the new MC and for the old MC to rekindle. I haven’t romanced Verdict as the new MC, and I don’t think I will, but the rekindling is… well, I’m happy with it so far.

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The ‘romance’ is literally clicking the ‘he’s so hot’ options. There’s no ‘romance’ to speak of. If you were looking for the characters coming clean about their feelings and motivations, that doesn’t happen.

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@MeltingPenguins @Mewsly Thank you both.

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Thanks for the replies. That is really useful.

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Alright played my first run and I loved the game and as a disclaimer for what I’m about to say:I love all of Zachary Sergi‘s work…
But…I find one glaring issue that bothers me a lot about the ending.

Summary

Why is the MC not doing everything in there power to try and wake Miss Boss up? Putting aside the romance bit, so much of the MC’s “bad rep” is because of her condition. Why wouldn’t it be a hero’s first priority to correct this after learning they can with their super slugging cool Infini powers? The cop out here is to say that you don’t have control yet, cool. If that is the case why is the MC so nonchalant about her condition at the end. It’s one of the last wrap up bits. “I still want to pursue the romance”. What in a couple years? Meanwhile this girl is just losing time when she was an aspiring hero trying to make a difference. I don’t get why this wouldn’t be the MC’s #1 priority. Her adopted mother gave you no end of grief. This is just the one thing that seriously bothers me. Not to mention if this is the last game of this series (not including versus) what a lame and unfulfilling romance conclusion. “I’ll just wake her up…someday.”

Still loved everything else.

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Without the intention to attack anyone (sorry I know this will sound like it): The bit with miss boss feels like lazy writing:
either sergi had no interest in straying from the story to include a bit where she wakes, couldn’t think of something and just shrugged it off, or thought it’s more dramatic this way.
In either case, the plotthread’s been left hanging.

/shrug

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Just finished the game. I really enjoyed most of the plot, although there was something I really did not understand given the way I played the first game.

Summary

In the first game I chose to romance Griffin because he was the only absolute male (no gender switches or gender fluidness) romance available in the whole game. To do this I had to get rid of Transfer and for this I was told, even by my own character, how mistaken I was for wanting Griffin instead of hir.

Even so, I thought my choice would carry on to the next game and even if the romance was doomed, I was going to get some closure (hopefully rekindling), but there was none. I waited the whole game for an explanation of why he gave MC the cold shoulder and all I got was a line in the epilogue saying he apologised now because you were famous and the closest you could get to rekindling a relationship was keeping him in your contacts in case you wanted another steamy shower.

On top of this, what I understood the least was the fact that now Transfer was again part of my team and romanceable, even though I never interacted with him in any of the books. What was that all about? I thought there was going to be 10 (5/5?) romances according to how it is marketed but the only obvious ones for me (for a MC into men) were Transfer (Gender fluid in the first book turned trans according in the last book), Weaver (gender swapper) and Verdict (only absolute male character, but he was for my Trilogy MC) as Griffin was completely unavailable and Starsoar was just a line saying you will date in the future.

Have I missed something? Feels like absolute male characters do not fare well in the romance department in the Hero rise sagas (Jury, Griffin, Starsoar).

At the end of the day I really enjoyed the game, I just wish it had been more coherent in that department if not more fulfilling as it was extremely lacking imho.

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As said above: The romance aside from transfer and weaver feels… tacked on. Jury seems more there for the fans (sergi still hates the boy’s guts, and it shows in both the code, the treatment, and good heavens, Verdict is an utter BORE) and transfer and weaver, yeah, they are there. Dunno bout transfer, but weaver’s ‘bonus scene’ (the one i found, though i think that one’s for 'great friendship with them) is pretty dang ableist on top of that…

So, I think when it comes to romance… don’t bother. The author seemingly didn’t either.

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I disagree on Verdict. It’s pretty clear that he’s trying his best to make up for everything but you gotta keep in mind who the POV character is for most of our interactions with them. The new MC. Of course he’s going to put his best foot forward for them, they’re a new person who never knew them as Jury. This is a fresh start for him. If this had been two games and stuff like the romances had more breathing room I’m sure we would’ve gotten more of him struggling to do good, but for what we got… darn it, I’m proud of my boyfriend. I got so excited every time he showed up! I certainly wasn’t bored.

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Let’s agree on YMMV:

I’d say had Jury been written the same way as verdict, barely anyone would have cared for him enough to make him an RO in HR3 at all.

Also, the game punishes you with loss of the vision and assuredness stat if you react positively to him. Not so much with weaver, from what I found in the code…

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