Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story

Genre: Action-RPG / Management Simulation

Players: 1

.

Review:

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

Hero School Story, released in 2018 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch, is a game that combines Action-RPG and Management Simulation elements in a story about a hero school in a Medieval Fantasy kingdom where players take the role of both the school’s principal and its students heading out on heroic missions for the school.

The presentation is a bit ugly, using simple 3D visuals with some cel shading and unimpressive animations, though the anime-style character portraits are generally pretty nice. This is joined by what I can only describe as “generic RPG music” that toes the line between forgettable and annoying.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a case where the presentation is redeemed by the gameplay. You’re presented with separate Action-RPG and Management Simulation elements here, and neither of them are engaging.

The gameplay in the Action-RPG sections is simple, button-mashy, and forces you to contend with three idiot computer-controlled comrades who are all too happy to dive head-first into a horde of enemies rather than drawing them out to take them out a few at a time.

Meanwhile, the Management Simulation elements control poorly, give players far too few options, don’t really explain what those options do or how to access other things you want to do. You get a directive to start holding more magical classes…. okay, great, how do you do that? Especially when none of your room-building options offer magical classes and you already filled up your only room space with a generic classroom to complete a prior goal.

I suppose some players might enjoy grinding away at Hero School Story, but I personally found it to be devoid of anything worthwhile. It’s ugly, uninteresting, controls poorly, lacks options, and has terrible action. Don’t buy this game.

tl;dr – Hero School Story combines Action-RPG gameplay and Management Simulation elements in a story about building up a thriving medieval fantasy hero school. Unfortunately, both the Action-RPG elements and the Management Simulation elements are terrible, and the presentation s ugly to boot. You have countless better options than this on Nintendo Switch.

Grade: D

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Johannes, Jaka, Jared Wark, Gabriel Coronad-Medina, Francis Obst, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}