Class of Heroes PSP Review

Where to start? This is an immense game. I am over 9 hours into it, and barely – just barely – past the first dungeon. Yes, I said first. So, in searching around for a way to tell this tale of a review, I did not know where to start. So, as is usual for the narcissistic blogger, I’ll start with me.

This being my first foray into the world of JRPGs, I faltered at first. I read no instructions (none came with the preview copy I received), I pressed buttons with abandon. I enrolled pre-made students, I created new students. I didn’t choose their race, gender, or alignment with any more care than, “that looks cool.” I wondered around the school a bit, then headed for the labyrinth. I figured, this is a dungeon crawling RPG, right? What could go wrong?

Well, I’ll tell you what went wrong. I died. Over and over again. Then I died again.

Class of Heroes, regardless of its cutesy anime characters and overly ebullient dialogue, will kill you. Especially if you are a newb, like me, who likes to rush in where there is no understanding. Your hand will not be held, your tears not dried. You. Will. Die.

Developed by Japanese developer, Acquire, and published by Irvine, CA based Atlus, Class of Heroes is one of those rare breeds – a full-on hardcore, no-holds-barred modern genre classic that manages to be both incredibly true to its own roots while providing appropriate learning structures (sometimes called scaffolding, in education lingo) to help newcomers as well.

The game begins with a quick scrolling text explanation of what’s happened in the past – magical paths that cross the mountains and forests of the land have strangely appeared, leading to adventures and adventuring schools like Particus Academy, which is the school your characters start out in. It’s like a Hogwarts for the anime set, only really, really different. Note here that Particus is where I’ve spent all of my time in this game, and there are at LEAST two more Academies (Rantslate and Mashlenia) on the world map. Yep. This game is huge. The faculty dialogue is written with spark and wit, and lends itself to close reading; it’s that well done.

You’ve Got a Fine Character

Characters are customizable along race, gender, stats, alignment, and major, all of which except race and gender can be changed later. There are ten playable races, three alignment options, and fifteen majors to choose from for each character. The races are as follows: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Erdgeists (huh?), Halflings, Sprites, Felpiers (whahuh?), Drakes, Diablons (whoa), and Celestians. Each race has its own strengths and weaknesses, as well as different attitudes about the other races, which makes balancing party rosters tricky, as does the fact that you have to balance for alignment as well. The majors shake out like this: Warrior, Wizard, Devout, Thief, Cleric, Evoker, Ranger, Alchemist, Psychicer, Monk, Samurai, Valkyrie, Paladin, Kunoichi (female ninja), Ninja.

Race to the Finish

Each race has special abilities, which you’ll need. Each major has its own set of skills and attributes, as well, and you’ll need those, too! Your party is made up of only six characters at a time. So, balance out the races and their likes and dislikes, the alignments so everyone gets along, and make sure your party had healers, offensive and defensive magic users, healers, and ranged fighters. The sheer amount of juggling stats, abilities, races, and alignments makes for a very very dry beginning to the game. This might be why I skipped even learning about it before plunging into the labyrinth. Where I died. Did I mention that?

Why? Because We LIKE You

But the question becomes for me, who rarely likes to grind through meaningless battles for silly levels and potions, why do I keep playing it? I think, more than anything else, that I enjoy the challenge of the balancing act, the joy of finding a recipe that works, and the artwork is pretty darn special. As can be seen in the screenshots in this article and on the Class of Heroes website, the anime-style perfectly meshes with the music and the user interface. Menus drop and slide into place, as do NPCs and monsters in the labyrinths. It all melds together in a perfect soup of gaming happiness that scratches a gaming itch I didn’t even know I had.

It’s Academic, My Dear

The game places the player in an odd point of view. The professors and other NPCs talk to the player in the 2nd person, addressing their remarks to “you.” The player is in charge of the party, knowing each character’s items, abilities, and weaknesses. “You” get to take classes from the different professors, each with a different skill to teach you. If I’ve learned anything from my hours in game, it’s to at least read through these “classes,” as each one will teach the intricacies of item management, fighting, party balance and fight order (I didn’t mention front or back row, yet, have I?), and actual curriculum about classes and majors where you need to take tests. Get a question wrong, and you’ll be scolded and told to study up. Answer them all right, and move on to the next class. It’s all very…academic. Which is why I didn’t read them. And then, well…you know.

Labyrinthine Perspective

Labyrinths are cool. There’s no doubt about it. They’re also mind-numbingly, fist-shakingly, hair-tearingly frustrating. Monsters can show up in multiple rows, some of them known, some unknown. They all seem incredibly difficult to beat, especially at first, but as you get your groove on, you’ll notice things do improve. When you die, and you will, the students from an annihilated party stay in the labyrinth, on the floor. You can then send a different party with open slots into the dungeon to rescue the dead-ish kids, or pay the Infirmary staff to extract and heal them. Each labyrinth has a left entrance, a right entrance and an Inner Sanctum. Usually, you need to find a magic key so you can open some doors that allow you to bypass all the annoying parts of the labyrinths and get through the other floors. If you don’t, you’re gonna be spending a ton of time re-traversing some of the most annoying levels I’ve ever walked through, albeit virtually. I spent a great deal of time re-playing one of the first few floors early on because I failed to get the key early on. Add to that the incredibly random yet frequent monster battles, and you’re in for some quality X button mashing. Hint to the newb: holding down the X key to confirm the endless stream of battle dialogue is a fairly helpful strategy.

Party Like It’s 1984

Your party, as I said above, is made up of six slots. Three are in the front row, and three in the rear row. Front row folks are generally melee characters with lots of HP, while rear row characters tend to be magic and ranged weapon users. At least, that’s what’s been working for me. As you progress, your party becomes more hardcore, less stoppable, and generally one you won’t want to change up very much, since that would require re-balancing the team. Best bet may be to create a whole new party, if you feel like experimenting with balance and party order.

This is, as I’ve said, a hardcore JRPG, with old school gameplay and mechanics, and an extremely tough learning curve. What’s a newbie to do? Aside from reading the instruction provided by the faculty and library study, there’s an amazing thing going on on Atlus’ forums. The developers are walking folks through the game in a blog series, which is on number six as of this article’s publishing date. Blog #4, for example, is all about working through the labyrinth, fighting baddies, and how to deal with the fact that these dungeons are constantly changing. Yes, I said that the labyrinths will change each time you enter them.

Get it, Rent It, or Forget It?

Class of Heroes is an immense game, and this review would run into the same immensity before long, so I’ll close it here. Not before giving you my bottom line, though. Being a non-JRPG playing gamer before this, I wouldn’t have picked it up off the shelf. I’d allow the Final Fantasies of the gaming world hold my hand and tell me silly little stories of world domination and cuteness. No longer, though. This game has so changed the way I see the RPG genre that I may be seeking out other titles soon. Knowing what I know now — how compelling the grind is, how interesting the party and game-world is, and how much satisfaction I can get from a well-balanced party of adventurers, I highly recommend this game for purchase. First off, a rental will never let you get into the game as far as you may need to in order to find its charms. The real problem with Class of Heroes is that it does NOT hold your hand. It throws you straight in with no bumpers. You WILL get banged up. You WILL enjoy it, but you’ll need time to do so. Buy this game, and you will die. Repeatedly. And you’ll like it.

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