Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG / Management Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

Note: This review has been directly sponsored by a kind donation from Jamie and His Cats. Thanks again for your generous contribution!

If you read my review of the first Hero School Story, you’ll recall that I did not think very highly of that game. In fact, I thought it had few if any redeeming qualities. So you can understand how I didn’t have high hopes for its sequel. So imagine my surprise when I found that Hero School Story 2, released in 2023 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch is actually… good?

It starts with the same premise. Players take the role of a principal of a medieval fantasy hero school, managing the school’s growth and development in the form of Management Simulation gameplay, while also occasionally controlling students as they go out on tasks doing hero work, which has shifted from Action-RPG gameplay in the original to Turn-Based JRPG gameplay here.

Both halves of the gameplay have gotten an overhaul here, but the new turn-based gameplay is the more obvious change so I’ll start with that. When players have characters venturing out to take on quests, their combat has the party taking on enemies with characters not only sharing a pool of MP, but also an action pool, meaning that if an enemy attack disables a character, another one can pick up the slack, as there’s no reason one character can’t just perform all the actions you have coming before enemies act, though of course different characters have different strengths they bring into battle.

For the management side of things, it’s much clearer now how to do what you need to do, and the overall management is set up more like managing time and resource allocation than building structures on a property, which works well for this game. I will say it does contribute to this game’s biggest problem, though – resources are tight in Hero School Story 2, and the most valuable resources are primarily gained through tuition from students, which you can’t really control since you’re not deciding when new students enroll.

The presentation here is also greatly improved, though that’s not to say it’s fantastic. The environments are much more detailed and interesting, but the framerates are also not great, the resolution is an unfortunate blur, and there’s noticeable scenery pop-in pretty close. Likewise, the music is much better this time, which is to say it’s decent but forgettable instead of forgettable and annoying.

The most important thing this time is that Hero School Story 2 doesn’t seem like a game that was just slapped together by a designer making their first game. It still has problems, and you can still see numerous places with room for improvement, but this time around the core gameplay elements work, and provide players with an experience that is relatively unique and interesting. It’s not perfect, and I can only hope that by the time we get a Hero School Story 3 that it’s just as improved over this game as this game is over its predecessor. But for now, players craving a mix of management and adventure will likely find this game to be worth checking out.

tl;dr – Hero School Story 2 combines Turn-Based JRPG gameplay and Management Simulation elements in a story about building up a thriving medieval fantasy hero school. This is a massive improvement over the first game, and while it still has a laundry list of problems, it’s really enjoyable to balance adventuring and managing the resources of your hero school. Players who find that premise interesting will likely find this game worth trying out.

Grade: B-

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