I want to take over Rebellion and his gang as the best heroes… That would be cool because my hero worked solo pretty much all the time.
A sequel would be cool if it actually provided choices with meaningful consequences. The world was interesting, but I only felt like a super hero before the antagonist showed up. I still maintain that her real super power was plot convenience. Doesn’t help that she was also completely uninteresting, her motivation basically being “Your parents accidentally killed my mom when we were both little kids and I’m a crazy person.” And of course seeing as she is totally fucking insane, that just makes it even less plausible that she could have pulled off the ridiculous puppet show at all.
I’m still annoyed that they randomly kill off Madame Vice with what is as far as I can tell, a plot hole. Honestly I would have enjoyed the game more with her as a romance option instead of BM. At least she was interesting… Although I did find it amusing that you could make BM be a dead ringer for a Pomeranian.
I didn’t buy the game because of my experience in the beta. What was changed in 1.1?
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Letting you type in things is one of the best parts of the game. My BM was a dead ringer for grape jello. 
I agree with @trollhunterthethird, though. The game seemed to be leading me to turn into a villain, so it would be a little disappointing if that weren’t addressed in a sequel.
I’m also curious as to what changed in 1.1. As far as I can tell, it more or less plays the same. I know that you can turn down BM at certain points, but I still don’t get a real choice at parts that I would’ve liked to have one.
Becoming a villain sounds pretty awesome, being a sadistic super villain like the Joker or Venom would be really fun. Although that might be what we get with ‘Choice Of the Villain.’ (assuming that the title refers to a super villain, and not a Blofeld like evil genius villain)
Ether die a hero, or live long enough to become a villain lol I like it
It’d be interesting if in the second game we have to become anti-villains in order to take down Mayor Victon. While technically our characters would be trying to take down an evil bastard we’d still be criminals in the eyes of the law. We could even have the option to remove the “anti” in anti-villain depending on our actions.
That would be an interesting option, but one I don’t think is strictly necessary.
Depending on the playthrough, you could murder someone on live tv, and police won’t touch you and the premiere superhero group in the city will still invite you to join.
The mayor apparently doesn't have the mojo he thinks he does.
Heck you could make a recording of him saying something extremely sleazy and blow him out of the water I think. That would probably only require a neural chip app.Ouch… Is there anyone besides me who wants to outshine Rebellion and his band?
Sorry wyrm I don’t I kinda like them especially black magics lil secret it makes him mor sexy to me
While I did like parts of the story/game, I’m hoping with this potential sequel some things get addressed. Such as, while I perfectly understand in the beginning for our young hero to have some level of naivete and inexperience and thus flub various situations, the problem is–as others have mentioned in other threads–that these flubs and bumbling about is a constant. At no point throughout the narrative is the player allowed to get ahead of the situation or even given some semblance of pausing and plotting out ones own course, it’s simply a constant stumbling into one hapless situation into the next. And while that’s fun and interesting for a young upstart hero at the start of a narrative, it’s tiring to play throughout a narrative. And so I’m hoping that’s something that is addressed and at least immensely reduced in the would-be sequel.
Another concern is this, I could never shake the sense that the writer liked his NPCs more than he likes the player character/player, and perhaps in a small sense–even dislikes the latter. The reason why is because the PC/player is constantly being punished. Even when one is justified in their actions (SPOILER: your attempt at revenge to put the Victons in their place), winds up being yet another situation where the Villain Sue, Prodigal, magically manipulated things and thus the PC/player is punished. At no point is there a situation where there is any form of justice or satisfaction for the PC/player. Anytime it seems like there is, it is only later utterly quashed by one of the NPCs. The NPCs, especially those in the antagonist roles, far more often keeps the PC/player under heel, even in their time of “victory” (I put that in quotations because at no time is there any semblance of a real victory). I begun to realize with each knock down within the narrative that… I wasn’t playing a “hero rising” to anything, I was playing a victim trying to cope with a constant beat down. Whether I play an aggressor or someone genuine and gentle-hearted, the results remained the same in that regard. I’m playing a constant victim to circumstance, not a hero rising from circumstance.
What lead me to conclude that the writer enjoys his NPCs more than the PC/player (and possibly even dislikes the latter), wasn’t only the constant being put under heel regardless of what path or choice I made, it was actually the ending. Your supposed moment of triumph. Personally, I’ve played a lot of oWoD (Old World of Darkness by White Wolf, especially Vampire the Masquerade), where regardless of what campaign you play, you’re not looking at happy ending, it’s a game where in it’s setting at best you wind up with something “bittersweet” (and far more lenient to the bitter) but far more than likely will wind up with a very cold, pitiless and/or brutal “bad end”. But in those campaigns the PC/player can (one way or another) carve out some semblance of satisfaction against ones enemies before it all comes crumbling down around them (the player). In this game, anything of that sort is… non-existent and the writer clearly doesn’t want you to have it. Again, the ending is the pinnacle example, **SPOILERS** the writer truly goes out of their way to attempt to make you feel guilty for killing Prodigal to save by his own words “millions of lives”. Why? The Prodigal has by that point murdered hundreds, constantly victimized the PC/player, and is utterly unsympathetic in their actions… And the writer is trying to make you feel about this? Not only that but somehow these actions keeps the mass’ opinion of you in a state of limbo of whether or not a you’re a hero or even a good person? Really? What sense does that make? I mean, sure my “Legend level” (which was a stat that made no sense with whatever you did within the narrative half the time) was in the middle rung, it wasn’t lacking–but does that really have to be the big indicator for whether or not saving “millions of lives” is a good deed accomplished by you? Seriously? But it didn’t end there, it ends with Victon and his nimrod son giving you shit and informing you he’s going to crush you. So… here… even in your moment of false triumph… you’re being placed right back into being a victim in the end. I mean, really? The writer just couldn’t keep it to an addendum at the end “to watch out for Mayor Victon and his boy”, the writer really just had to have piss all over you there? So, not only are you denied satisfaction of getting some form of poetic justice against the Victons, in the end you’re just turned into a further victim of theirs just as you were as a child with your parents… All that ran through my head was, “Really? After all that?.. This writer really hates his own player character and the customer… Yeesh.”
I’m going to leave it there, but quite frankly… I haven’t really delved into any of my criticisms I have for Rebellion, The Millennial Group… the groups NPCs of whom really have nothing to do with (and makes one wonder what the point of them was and why it wasn’t just the Rebellion seeking to obtain a protege, making the narrative more personalized), why the writer felt it necessary to give a laundry list of tragedies for Prodigal suffered (another attempt of the writer trying to make one feel guilty for killing her, sorry, sir, I felt nothing) because to make a great villain–that’s not needed in the least, keep it simple and pithy–it enables the player to relate to villain as well not just the hero/PC; but then of course I still have numerous criticisms for the player being constantly knocked down throughout the narrative, thus not really being a hero but merely a victim to circumstance reacting to whatever the NPCs place before the PC/player. A hero is someone who volunteers to be in–or places themselves in danger, whereas a victim merely finds themselves in such situations completely out of their control. While in a certain regard the former can be the latter… still… who wants to constantly play a hapless victim of circumstance? But I’m going to refrain from continuing only because I already wrote a massive wall of text here.
What I liked about the game was that the setting was amusing, it reminded me of City of Heroes and Mutants and Masterminds, both are games I thoroughly enjoyed. And personally… I rather did like Black Magic (I had her look like Alicia Keys–sexeh!), she was a fun character to me. In any case, while I did really just babble on and on criticizing the negatives, those I didn’t mention I either liked or simply didn’t see anything wrong with it. But, my hope is… those concerns and criticisms don’t end up in the sequel or are at least downplayed SIGNIFICANTLY in comparison to the first, because… if I play the demo and I’m finding myself right back in the exact same disposition of being the hapless “hero”… I’m just going to walk away from it.
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I actually felt like I was playing Sky High: Where Are They Know?
@Apillis I found your rant.
I think, as part of an origin story, as the first installment, of playing a very young, naive up and coming hero I didn’t particularly mind that I just kept failing most of the time.
I was slightly irritated that some events were forced on me, but I may not have actually minded so much if it wasn’t in second person.
I would have liked a slower pace. I’ve have liked to have explored the setting a bit, had a chance to relax, to talk to my family and friends, to just get a bit of slice of life.
I’d have actually liked to have made the inconsequential decisions, such as writing to my parents or not, getting angry at my gran. Actually having the conversation with my gran about getting a sidekick, as opposed to being told that the conversation had happened. I think if she’d guilt-tripped me about it, if I’d actually seen it, it would have made me feel better about having one.
I didn’t actually get the feeling that the writer disliked the main character. I think Heroes Rise is strangely one of the choice games where I got a better sense of the Heroes personality. They weren’t a complete blank slate. I’d have rather that personality was a bit more defined.
I thought the story was more of a scrappy underdog struggling against the odds. Now it was admittedly annoying that every single mission ended in failure, not through my own actions. I think that was something that could have easily been fixed too.
I got more comfortable with it knowing that I probably couldn’t die.
A Hero’s first kill should matter. The second time around I killed her without any real care that I did, pushed away the bad feelings. But I was glad the game did actually bring it up, that killing was a line that could be crossed. That your own parents were in jail for killing. It fit with the theme for me.
I did think the game tried to be too big to some degree. That hopefully there’ll be a pay off in the sequel though.
I liked the setting a lot. I liked Jenny. I liked Sonja. I liked the Rain sidekick. I liked Jury.
I didn’t like Black Magic. I just found Black Magic a bit. I cheered the second playthrough when I was able to be rude to Black Magic, I hit the scene where I realised it was a trick and went “Hahaha I’m out of here” and just left. I was glad I could do that.
With the whole Prodigal thing… it absolutely made no sense. Because here… it’s saying that killing is a definite line to cross, it doesn’t need to drive that point home, because it already established that with your parents being imprisoned. However, that too made no sense because… let’s break it down. Miss Artillery is summoning numerous guns to attack the MC’s parents. This is a life-threatening act, this will kill them. So they react to restrain her and inadvertently kill her in the process of acting out of blatant self-defense, and yet… they’re incarcerated for it. Nevermind this was during a press conference and thus is obvious they’re attacking out of self-defense in front of the media. I’m sorry, but there’s just so many variables to it all, the explanation to me just made no sense whatsoever. But, for the sake of the setting and establishing the attempt for the MC to have a “tragic background”, I went with it–whatever.
But…
I absolutely REFUSE to make that same exception for the Prodigal’s case. I utterly REFUSE. Because here the MC is in the situation where they and Jenny and granny are going to be executed. BUT, not before Prodigal annihilates as described–live on the air and being witnessed in real time within the narrative–“millions” of people and by the time you stop her via killing her around three hundred are already dead. This is what is described within the narrative–as is–in my playthroughs. And yet, it’s left to be pondered whether or not I crossed the line in acting in not just blatant self-defense for my own life but for the lives of my family and friend(s) and the lives of the damn city itself??! REALLY!!! It just makes no damn sense whatsoever. Just having that within the narrative any way one slices it–it makes it just way too obvious to me that the Prodigal had become a Villain Sue by way of being an authorial insert of the writer. Made clear by the fact of their attempt to make the player feel guilty for defeating and/or killing the sadistic mass-murderer at the end. Why? I’m not going to feel guilty for putting down a mass-murderer, their chance for sympathy from me died with their victims. I have no reason to sympathize or empathize with them at that point, there’s no incentive to.
Now couple that with the MC being–not really a hero (at least to me), but a hapless victim to circumstance over and over again. I dunno… I never got any sense of the MC having a more well rounded personality than say–the MC you play in Tin Star, The Seven Winds, Unnatural, Zombie Exodus, Choice of the Vampire (and other titles on this site that aren’t immediately springing to mind)–in fact, the MCs in those titles I feel are vastly more well-rounded and felt more connected to. A detailed background isn’t always what’s required to make a relate-able character. It’s the constant haplessness that continually grated me in “Hero”, if it were a comedy, I’d be fine with the constant stumbling, but when it’s more geared to be adventurous and supposed to be the tale of the rise of the hero–bumbling about at the start is fine and makes complete sense within the narrative; but when there’s no end to it–it’s tiring and gets really trite. The novelty of it gets worn thin. Because it comes off as… the MC isn’t learning anything. Thus no matter what is chosen, what avenue is taken, the MC isn’t gaining any real character development, because they’re still the bumbling fool running around with the Idiot Ball they started out as from the start of the narrative.
If the narrative is going to be about a “Heroes Rise”, then there should be some sense of triumph over it all–somewhere–at some point within the narrative. But it’s non-existent, and given it’s utter absence regardless of what playthrough that’s experienced, then what exactly did the “hero” rise to? I mean, even defeating Prodigal at the end comes off as the writer just at last tossing the MC a bone, rather than a genuine triumph over circumstance. And regardless, at the end, there is no real triumph as the character is essentially receiving another beat down amidst being thrown a small bone or two almost as a sort of default prize for finishing the game. I really just did not care for it at all, and part of me genuinely regrets having ever bought the game.
I really, truly wish the writer the best and hope that the things I’m criticizing about the first installment aren’t an issue in the second. But… as I said before, personally for me, if I get a wiff of the same thing repeating itself in the second installment during the demo, I’m just going to turn my back on it and feel relieved that I did.
Yeah, I didn’t understand either why the parents weren’t up on manslaughter charges instead of for murder. And why they were imprisoned for so long, for the killing of one person, a person who by all rights would have killed not only them but others too.
I then didn’t understand why all of their money was stripped and given to Prodigal. I didn’t understand why they were imprisoned for so long. Surely they would be out of jail by now.
I did admittedly suspend my belief on that front and tried not to think too hard about it.
Okay, I can see your point of view.
Here’s the thing, you’re not you, despite the choice of pronouns and the use of second person. You’re this nameless hero, who’s had feelings of their own throughout. A hero who’s got a huge crush on Black Magic, who idolises Prodigal, who’s upset at their parents and so doesn’t write to them, a Hero who gets angry at your gran. And a hero, who due to their history feels bad for killing. That’s just part of their personality. They’re not the blank slate protagonist that’s common in choice games. They’ve lived their whole life with the “my parents are murderers” shadow hanging over their head, rightly or wrongly. And taking a life, any life, especially taking their first life, is huge for them.
It may not be for you, but the protagonist, despite the choice of pronouns is not you.
I’m not saying that the MC had a more rounded personality. I’m saying that they had a personality. It was most certainly not round. It was rather young, from the crush to the temper tantrums, to the various mistakes I kept making, I kept assuming I was a teenager. One who was extremely inexperienced.
I think the rise was from nothing at all, completely inexperienced, to starting to be known, whether it was for good or for bad.
I did like the game.
For me that’s the focal point of the issue right there. I don’t mind the MC not truly being “my character”, nor do I view any of the characters in “Choice of” games as truly being “my character”, because if they were, I’d have altered a lot–even with the ones I like most. But, there’s only so much customization an author can grant and enable a coherent plot to progress forward with in “Choice of” games. So as the reader/player allowances need to be made, and for a good, well-written plot I’m willing to do that.
However, when I’m continually running into things like with “Heroes Rise”, where the key plot points and conclusions within the plot never makes forcing me to simply “go with it” for the sake of being able move along within the narrative… that’s bad. When I’m following a narrative along, I should be able to at least most times be able sit there and say, “That makes sense, let’s see what’s next!” But, with “Heroes Rise”, whether it was the issue the MC’s imprisonment, Prodigal’s… whatever, Rebellion and his/her group, the Victons’ nonsense, and the “hero” constant bumbling about (as I’ve said it’s fine to start in a narrative but gets trite when it remains a constant, because it shows the character has learned nothing)… Each the narrative just stated essentially that it happened without any real reasoning as to why, leaving me responding each time with a flat, “What?”
If I were to have a conversation with the game itself I’d imagine it’d be something like this.
Me: This makes no sense. Why did this happen?
Game: It just did.
Me: Yes, but why?
Game: IT JUST DID! MOVING ON!!!
Me: Sigh… Okay… What’s next?
Game: Now… there’s an old woman crossing the street, what do you do?
Me: Help her?
Game: You accidentally trip her as you’re helping her cross the street. Oncoming traffic runs her over, and now the entire city hates you. Good-going, screw up.
Me: *facepalm*
It was like playing a DnD game with a trolling DM suffering from depression taking their issues out on reader/player, but I’ll concede maybe the game just isn’t for me. But, when I read what was in the description of the game and compare it to what is actually in it. It just feels like I didn’t get what I paid for. And that’s why, with the second installment, I’m hoping I don’t have that sense anymore. I’m hoping that everything I’m ragging on the first installment with is a non-issue in the second installment. But, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see with the demo.
Your parents are serving life solely because of Mayor Victon wanting to use the accident to his advantage (its how he became Mayor).
Its kinda a dumbed down version of the events that started Marvel’s civil war arc ie a hero v villain fight ends in a death(s in civil war) and someone in government uses it to push through their own agenda.
Yeah, I know that’s why they were excessively charged and imprisoned was because of Victons’ power grab, but nevertheless, how it’s tossed in their makes absolutely no sense. For me, it was just another moment where I could only find myself reacting with a flat, “What?”, because within the context of how it all that happens–the punishment was so over-the-top it’s silly and nonsensical. I mean, since when does a murder-victim’s family receive THE ENTIRE ESTATE of the murderers’? Yeah, the last time that happened was back in 19th century, and even then–rarely. It was a blatant bullshitted plot-device conjured there with no decent explanation to toss the MC into being “poor” (and what furthermore makes it excessive is the fact that the MC being in witness protection accomplishes them being put into a “poor” status by itself). And all it did is serve to make the Prodigal’s own circumstances revealed at the end (i.e. her downward spiral) to make even less sense as well (because she was granted all this wealth yet magically she winds up on the streets with zero explanation, too; but then arises again with all her wealth in tact. I mean… What?). It all just came off as so hamstrung and haphazardly constructed, I genuinely think the writer didn’t exactly have an outline for it, he was just making it up as he went along without any planning or forethought. The whole thing just made me roll my eyes.
That’s clearly stated, but I think the primary objection here is that its a little unbelievable. Victon’s, what, a circuit court judge at that point? And the PC’s parents are wealthy, popular celebraties. The former wouldn’t get away with running roughshod over the latter in anywherw in the actual known universe. Certainly not by rallying public outrage over the death of a recidivist criminal.
As a plot point, this never bothered me that much, as it feels unrealistic in an appropriately comic booky sort of way, but I can understand the basic objection.
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@Apillis: Amen sister! The game was overly reliant on a combination of illogical events and immature decision-making on the MC’s part, over which the player was given no control, to force the narrative to go in the direction the author desired. The intent of all this seemed to be to make the player suffer as much as possible. And Prodigal definitely came across as a Villain Sue, ugghh!
If I were the writer this is how I would’ve planned the story to make more sense, infact this is how I imagine it to make more sense of it.
You parents were at the party, and they had spotted Ms.Artillery. They saw her at the assasin school when they were shutting it down but she had escaped before your parents had managed to reach her. The police had investigated your parents claim but evidence shows up false. Your parents saw her and had cut the party short in hopes of finding you and making sure that you are safe from Ms.Artillery allies. When the guests left, she had attacked, clearly your parents had no choice but to fight her. The stress of your safety and the unpredictable power of Ms.Artillery had lead them to use too much power so it ended up killing her, because of the no-witnesses and the failed investigation of Ms.Artillery before the court thinks that your parents had killed an innocent woman. This gave dirt for the Victons to use.
Before-hand Ms.Artillery had wired your parents account to be synced into hers, she masked it to make it look like drug payement from the Splice circle - further blackening the Hero family.She had managed to do this by using the technology of the assasins company that had funded and opened the school. The assasin target was the city itself, a rival anti-powered country had wanted to weaken the states by removing its powered-capital. Ms.Artillery had known she would not come alive so she had put instructions to her daughter to specifically use the money to eliminate the target and only follow instructions from the assasin company. Prodigal went rouge and had not been able to have pulled funding out of the accounts (Because the assasin company had gotten to it first) she had to hide In squalor and decay so the company could not find her. For a while she had no purpose, but then realised through slow years of being hunted and living like a rotting rat had she realised that she had to change something. She had made a deal with the assasin company about exacting her revenge as long as in the process she eliminates the city and not have the company involved in any way. They had returned the funding and Prodigal began work twisted with revenge and hatred.
Maybe in the fictional sequel in my mind the MC discovers Mayor Victon’s role with these assasins and how the MC incovers this.