Heroes Trials – PS4 | Review

By Seb Hawden
| 28th January 2019
| PS4, Review
| 0

Another Ratalaika game, another trophy hunt, these games are rife on the PlayStation store and are very popular in the trophy hunting community. For a small price, you get a cross-buy title that can be completed in a very short time and nets you two platinum trophies in the process. Some people will moan that the developer is cashing in on all the trophy hunters lust for those virtual baubles, I really don’t mind what people do with their time or what the developers want to do with theirs. People should be able to buy what they want and play what they want without prejudice or people moaning about it. You don’t have to buy it and truth be told, this game is not that bad.

At the start of the game you are treated to a very small slice of storytelling, it’s a very short introduction to the game and sets you on your path towards being a hero. You have to race other adventurers through several trials to become the hero of Delua. You will take on several tasks, complete missions and hopefully end up being the first to complete all the trials.

Gameplay-wise Heroes Trials is like a very watered down old school Zelda title. It has the cutesy graphics, the top down view, breakable pots and shares a few other traits. That’s where the similarities end though unfortunately, you will spend most of your time completing completely bland and forgettable tasks for very generic characters while working your way to the end of the game. There are a few bosses and some very light puzzles but all in all, it’s just not very unique or memorable in any way.

During the game, you can swap between two characters using the triangle button. The male character serves as a warrior type and comes with everything you expect of this character class. He has a sword a shield and hacks away at the various foes of the game, has a charged attack and can block. The female character is more of a mage and has various spells she can conjure, your spells can be increased by finding various scrolls littered through the games very short campaign.

The battle system in place is simple and any person who has played an RPG before will find it quite lacking. You have an attack button, an item button and can block as the warrior. That’s about it, very simple and gets a bit repetitive towards the end of your adventure. You can use bombs that are unlocked early on to clear pathways and different enemies are weaker to different spells but that’s where the nuances of the battle system end.

Graphically the game is passable, it’s not ugly at all but again just very bland. It has forests and towns but I have seen all this before, nothing stood out in any way whatsoever. There’s quite a bit of aliasing on some of the assets too, not too detracting but definitely noticeable. The various beasties and enemies are fine if not monotonous and the various dungeons quite simple to complete. The music is passable but I can’t remember any of it, it served its purpose and carried me through the various mundane quests on offer.

Heroes Trials performed fine on the PlayStation 4 but on the vita seemed to have a bit of slowdown. Other than that the game performed fine and I had zero issues with crashes or bugs in any way.

Final Impressions

As I stated earlier, trophy hunters will eat this game up. It’s very cheap and will net you two platinum’s in about an hour. Gameplay wise it’s very simple, forgettable and very bland. It’s not a bad game per se, I didn’t want to turn it off, it’s just not very unique and doesn’t stretch any boundaries of the genre in any way. It’s a very watered down RPG that will be forgotten as soon as you have finished it. It will still sell though as people need those virtual baubles to collect and if that’s your thing then get your money out, I won’t hold it against you.

*Code kindly provided by the publisher for review*

Developer: Shinyuden / Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Release date: 23/01/2019
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Platform Reviewed: PS4 Pro