LifeisXbox’s One True Hero Review | Created by small indie developer Rat Cliff Games and published by No Gravity Games is a 3D platforming story about a young man’s journey to be a hero of his town Tute O’Rya but due to having no physical qualities until bestowed with a magic sword that will allow him to go from simple lad to warrior when his village gets hit with a mysterious tremor which destroys half the town and villainous creatures start attacking. One True Hero focuses on ledge platforming as its main gameplay feature is interrupted every now and then with enclosed battles with enemies with increasing levels of difficulty. The developer obviously knew the strength was section design and platforming and leaned heavily into this. The developer also leaned into humour and the characters in the story are quirky (but with reason to be that way) and this adds to the experience.
Most Memorable Moment
There were two memorable moments for me. The first time in the Hollow Realm gives you some excellent visuals and introduces an optional hard section of platforming. The secondary was an excellent battle in the burning orphanage which had a burning away platform. The battle was a longer sequence, the battle which was tense and exciting and I was on the edge of my seat for the duration.
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox One | Review code provided by PR/publisher. This review is the personal opinion of the writer.
What we Liked!
- Platforming sections | The platforming sections in the mandatory parts of the game are challenging without being overbearing and the optional sections (i.e. The Hollow Realm) are very challenging for those that need an extra level of difficulty. The platforming in One True Hero comes in ledge hanging sections, in which the developer varied the difficulty based on how easy it was to see the ledges and 3D elements. For example, things such as turning corners of traversing across gaps and traditional platform jumping sections, mainly in the form of the town experiencing an earthquake in the early sections and avoiding traps such as fire, steam, and saws.
- Puzzles | The puzzles are well thought out and varied, making them fresh and not repetitive. The library puzzle, for example, takes the ‘in a specific order’ puzzle trope and adds a platforming element to it. However, the basement puzzle has a logic to match the statues motifs using the paintings provided in the previous room. They had me thinking and it gave a real satisfaction when the puzzles were solved.
- Sense of humour | The game has a very ‘British’ dry sense of humour which I was not expecting and at times the cut scenes had me laughing hard, which is rare for me in video games. Particularly the town hero and the girl at the orphanage made me laugh out loud and I appreciated this. Needless to say, this added to the fun factor of One True Hero.
- Music is excellent | The music in One True Hero is great and I have found myself humming some of the music after I have finished playing for the day. Whether it is the music traversing the world as normal which is regal and adventurous, the battle theme which instils a sense of confrontation and danger which all good battle themes should or the various boss themes which are bespoke and fit perfectly with the fighting style and surroundings.
Mixed Feelings
- Combat | Some of the combat sections are very good like the aforementioned burning platform section where the fight is very engaging and the boss fights which feel special and unique to beat. However, some of the more common/usual fights that occur in One True Hero are very easy with half of the enemies just standing there, not moving a muscle, waiting to be killed. When each and every enemy is defeated, they generate life that regenerates your health bar far too much, making fights a cakewalk. It also makes the difficulty spike of adding more enemies to a particular fighting section feel utterly pointless as the more that died, the more health was regenerated to my character. Rather counterproductive.
- The story is ok, just ok | The story in One True Hero starts off basic, about a young man who wants to become a hero but has no real ability to be one until bestowed with a magic sword. He then sets off to complete helping tasks for the local residents of the town when the town starts sinking and eventually uncovers a greater evil. A lot of it is been there, done that in this writer’s opinion but the characters are well-written and the direction and dialogue help the story travel further than it should have.
What we Disliked
- Technical Issues | There are issues with the playable character being stuck on environments which took me about 10 minutes to free myself from and I was stuck in a hole with no means of escape other than quitting out or pressing load last checkpoint. Thankfully the game loads up frequent checkpoints so you don’t miss out on loads of progress but it’s a temporary fix for a problem that shouldn’t exist. Also in my experience frame rate issues existed in both combat and whilst running from area to area.
- Easy to die from fall damage | I have died in One True Hero to fall damage which felt like no more than 2 metres down from my current position. It’s very frustrating as a player to die in this way. Yes, fall damage is essential in a game like this but if the damage was lessened or made to feel more realistic I think it would have made for a more enjoyable experience.
- Glitched achievements | Quite early on the story-based achievements glitched for me and I had passed many sections in the story which had achievements and none of them ‘popped’. Such a disappointment as the achievement list looked varied and challenging, so if you are an achievement hunter like myself, be wary that it may glitch on yourself also.
- The visuals aren’t good | The cartoony graphics, in my opinion, doesn’t make One True Hero look pretty. The town looked wonky and the houses looked uneven even before they started falling apart and it’s very easy to find yourself lost in the town. The heads-up display is very basic and does not add to the gameplay whatsoever and the pause menu looks again very basic and the text looks straight out of word art. As for the colour, it adds to the feel of it looking rather basic and doesn’t pop out of the screen the way you would like, it’s not drab, and there is colour to it, but it doesn’t look exciting either.
How long to beat the story | Approximately 20 Hours
How long to achieve 1000G | Approximately 30 Hours (2 Playthroughs)
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