(The Japanese version of the title is “Yuusha Shisu“)

A thought-provoking time-management JRPG focused around the concept of death, that provides a compelling non-linear experience.

Developer Pyramid Publisher Nippon Ichi Franchise N/A Genre Role-playing PSTV Yes Physical English No – JP only

World-building & Story

In Hero Must Die Again, you play as the eponymous hero who has been slain by the Demon King in a battle that took both of their lives. On the way to the afterlife, the hero is saved by a benevolent angel named Yulia who offers him an extra five days of life to help tie up loose ends in the kingdom and reconcile with his loved one, after which he will finally pass on.

The setup here is easily one of the most interesting I’ve come across in gaming for a long time – we often see the adventures of a group of heroes on their way to slay the final boss, but we hardly ever get to stick around and see what happens afterwards. This is exactly what Hero Must Die Again provides, although the disconnect here is that it doesn’t let you play the adventure up until this point – meaning you have to work backwards to figure out what has happened in the land, what the issues facing it are and what you need to do.

At the centre of this is the small but memorable cast of characters the hero comes across, the majority of whom are female heroines who the hero interacted with in his previous life and may consider as his loved one. Each of these falls into a standard archetype – Naomi is a strong Blacksmith-warrior who wields a giant hammer and the element of fire, while Sara is a nervous cleric who casts healing spells with the element of water. Each of these has a different quest they ask you to undertake upon your return – so for example Marian (a witch) asks you to locate three orbs to help revitalise her destroyed home town, while Sara requests funds to help rebuild the church.

While the heroines are undoubtedly the main thrust of the game, a number of side and extra characters provide some great intrigue and touch on more moral issues that are at the core of Hero Must Die Again. For example, Jonah is a woman selected to be the next hero upon your passing and asks you to train her to become as strong as the hero was at his peak – but her hot-headed decision-making leads her to become somewhat of an antihero depending on your actions. There’s also Zoro, your rival who challenges you to constant fights for supremacy (but eventually submits to become your follower if you best him enough times) as well as the daughter of the Demon King who attempts to reconcile with the humans.

This all leads into the main hook of the game – death. Every playthrough ends with the hero passing away (slowly getting weaker over the course of the five days) and you then watch his funeral, with various eulogies delivered by the characters depending on your actions during the time you were given. These are somewhat mean-spirited at first, berating you for failing to solve the kingdom’s problems in your short extra time alive, but they also drop small hints about what to do next time which leads into the next cycle where you try to make a bit more progress – it’s a very interesting concept that’s executed fairly well.

The world itself is fascinating too – it feels particularly small in scope which is a shame, but things like different races you’ll encounter who are trying to co-habitate following the death of the Demon King (such as the forest people being driven out of their land by humans following their mutual pact) add a lot to the sense of community (there’s also a large focus on showing what the after-effects of the war with the demons were). As previously mentioned, the game poses plenty of moral questions too – such as what you do with the children of demons who were left as orphans after the war – and it’s things like these that help to keep interest levels high throughout.

Presentation & Sound

A simple-looking game by all accounts, Hero Must Die Again wouldn’t look out of place in PSP’s library, although it has plenty of charm that helps to elevate it above its basic elements.

Character models are probably the most striking feature – you’re introduced to close-ups of the hero and Yulia straight off and they have basic features like blocky hands and mouths that don’t move, although their straightforward 3D effects reminded me of a earlier time in gaming (the beginnings of the 3D era with PS1) that I miss. To be fair, designs are fairly spectacular – travelling merchant Bibi has massive pink pigtails that bounce while she casts spells, while Naomi has the skimpiest of armour on that barely covers her modesty. Things like effects and spells in battle are all basic too, but work well enough – a couple of attacks and summons are pretty spectacular.

The other aspect of the presentation (other than the world map which is just a path-based selection of areas) are the dungeons and towns, which are 2D sideview and allow horizontal exploration. Again, nothing here is mind-blowing – you’ll travel through endless forests with trees stretching into the distance, fire caverns and water caves, all with simple elements making them up. Even the towns feel largely samey ceremonial areas but there are occasional moments of beauty – the lava flow of a volcano in the background or a beautiful lake of water in the middle of the forest, which stand out compared to everything else.

There’s tonnes of Japanese voice acting here alongside a beautiful soundtrack – many of the songs here are absolutely stunning, there just aren’t that many of them meaning they get repeated a lot throughout.

Soundtrack highlight – Royal City

Gameplay & Content

The ultimate time-management RPG, Hero Must Die Again follows an unconventional structure that definitely causes it a few problems, but also turns it into one of the most memorable and unique titles on Vita.

After fighting a battle you’re doomed to lose against the Demon King, you begin being placed in the middle of a city by Yulia, where you are greeted by Thomas – your old companion who acts as your guide throughout your first playthrough. He’ll explain about the history of each area as you walk around but in doing this you’ll quickly notice the game’s main mechanic – everything you do from talking to people to walking around the world map takes time and every hour that passes, the hero grows weaker (from 999 HP to just 1 HP) and loses abilities and spells, meaning it’s a rush against the clock to get everything done.

Your first time through therefore is just an opportunity to get a feel for the mechanics and world you’re in – you can explore one of a handful of locations on the world map, talk to various townsfolk or take part in battles. You actually can’t achieve very much first time around (each playthrough lasts around 3-5 hours), you’ll instead have to wait for the third or fourth time through which unlocks new characters, events and zones which help push things forward.

So what do you actually spend your time doing? Well, the first and most important thing is undertaking quests for the heroines – each one you come across will have a specific task, such as killing the monsters who are terrorising the mine or recovering a powerful orb to help create a barrier around a forest. You’ll realistically only have time to do one or two of these per lap you complete, but thankfully your results are cumulative meaning you can pick up where you left off next time around. You’ll also be given a second task by them on subsequent playthroughs, which actually provided a brilliant incentive to keep pushing forward.

Moment-to-moment gameplay involves selecting locations from the world map and entering them. You’ll explore from a sideview perspective similar to Exist Archive which is pretty neat, except there’s no jumping mechanics or any platforming here and the most you’ll be doing is climbing ladders and jumping down ledges. In dungeons, enemies appear as coloured blobs but the lack of a jump button means you can either charge them straight-on or run away – there’s no option for skilful dodging, which is a shame as this would have added a nice extra layer of skill.

When you get into a battle, you’ll be treated to some very traditional turn-based systems. There’s a turn meter in the top right showing whose action it is next, you can choose from basic attack, defend, item or spell commands and there’s a rock-paper-scissors system of elements that you can imbue your weapons with (fire, water, wind etc.). There’s a certain satisfaction to taking down mobs as efficiently as possible (the same feeling I get from playing the Atelier games) and some of the bosses pose a nice challenge, but battles will mostly depend on your party setup and the extent of health that the hero has lost.

See, early on the hero will likely flatten any foe he comes across – after all, he has just defeated the Demon King and is at the peak of his power levels. As the game progresses though, he gets weaker and weaker to the point where even the most pathetic of enemies can one-shot him, so later battles basically consist of babysitting him as much as possible (if he gets knocked out, the whole team will have to rest for 6 hours for him to recover). It means you need to ensure a good party setup and there’s a decent number of companions to choose from – Jonah is nearly always the best pick since she grows stronger as the hero grows weaker, but she has her own issues relating to the story which means you’re better relying on people like Naomi and Sara.

When the hero does eventually pass away, you’ll witness his funeral which will be attended by the various people he came across during his second lease of life. Interestingly, the game measures the attendance at the funeral and the number of tears shed and you’re graded on this performance – which encourages you to do as much good as you can in the time you’re given. Following this, Yulia will offer you a chance to go around again and this is the game’s main hook – slowly making progress through the same areas over and over until you solve all the kingdom’s issues.

It actually proved to be super addictive – you first need to clear all the heroine quests, then gather seven different items before finally facing the true boss. How you go about each of these steps is up to you though making the game feel incredibly open-ended – although unfortunately, the amount of times you’ll revisit the same dungeons and towns does cause monotony to set in after a while which soured my experience somewhat (there’s also random elements such as people you need to speak to which can be frustrating when you can’t find them anywhere). There are a couple of other activities to undertake, such as giving gifts or fishing, but these are too simple to be consequential.

Each lap of the game will last around 3 or so hours and you’ll need to do at least 5-6 in order to see everything (I actually did a lot more than this), meaning there is a healthy amount of content here should you get addicted to the formula – which I very much did.

Ease of Understanding

Compared to the other import games I’ve reviewed, Hero Must Die Again contains a lot of Japanese text and is not beginner-friendly – you’ll be carrying out very specific quests for each of the heroines and if you’re not able to work out what these are then you’re likely to be completely stumped when playing. I found this wiki to be particularly helpful (which can be easily Google translated), but it means relying on external resources quite heavily (I also used Google translate a fair bit for the on-screen text).

With that said, there’s not a massive amount of reading to do in Hero Must Die Again – this isn’t a Legend of Heroes level JRPG with sweeping backstory, instead you’re going to be reading small amounts of often-repeated dialogue. In that way, it’s a lot more of an easy import than many JRPG’s if you’re feeling up to the task.

Conclusion

Although simplistic in its presentation, underneath the hood Hero Must Die Again is a structured and enjoyable non-linear JRPG about saving your kingdom with your final days of life. The moral issues it contemplates and the way it presents these is handled well and its gameplay systems are fun too – if you’re up to the challenge of playing an import JRPG on Vita, this one is definitely worth a shot.

7.5/10