Half-Minute Hero: Making the world's fastest RPG © MAQL

It’s been a strong year for RPGs (roleplaying games), with blockbuster sequels and sprawling massively multiplayer launches like The Elder Scrolls Online , so it’s all too easy to overlook an adventure game inspired by 8 and 16-bit classics that can be completed in 30-second bitesize chunks. You could almost literally blink and miss Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming, which has just launched on PC, but you’d be doing so at your own peril: it’s one of the most charming games of the year.

The sequel to a 2009 Sony PSP game in which you take on the role of a fantasy-inspired Hero or Knight who has 30 seconds to explore, beat the boss and save the world, it’s an inspired riff on the staple ropes of roleplaying games, usually known for their cliched character, combat systems and torturously lengthy playtime between save points. It’s also one with an unusual story.

Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming was first released in Japan almost three years ago and, despite the original scooping several game of the year awards, was overlooked by publishers for a western release. Until now.

In an unusual move, the game’s been remade from handheld for PC, with sharper graphics, new features and some surprising additions including virtual reality headset support. Not bad for a game designed for a console released in 2005.

You’ve likely never heard of MarvelousAQL, but if you’re a fan of JRPGs – roleplaying games with a particularly Japanese twist – there’s a good chance you’ve played some of its games like The Last Story or Valhalla Knights. It also specialises in bringing cult Japanese games to the West, undertaking translation and localization costs where no one else will.

Typically, the American team at MAQL’s subsidiary XSEED work to translate Japanese games overlooked by big publishers and release them in the West. This time though, MAQL wanted to see if it could be done without the trans-atlantic divide, frantic emails and different time zones.

“We wanted to see if digital publishing could be done effectively from Tokyo as well,” MAQL senior producer Esteban Jose Salazar tells Red Bull. A bitesized game with a cult following like Half Minute Hero would make the perfect pilot for this.

“The Half Minute Hero series is actually owned by MarvelousAQL and developed by OPUS. We reached out to them to commission the port of the first game from the Xbox Live Arcade version and when that did fairly well, we decided to bring over the sequel directly from the PSP version.”

Salazar, who was placed in charge of the project, only joined the company in 2011, but by coincidence had played and enjoyed the original years before.

“I actually bought the PSP version of the first game when it came out! I thought it was a funny, unique take on JRPGs, which used to be one of my favorite genres but has kind of stagnated lately. I loved the old-school art style and the amazing script from XSEED. I never imagined that I'd be working on some version of it in the future.”

Like the frantic gameplay in HMH, conversion of the game was done on a micro scale. “On the publishing side, it's pretty much just me handling the project,” he says. “I do everything from managing the development to running the marketing and interacting with the community for the games we publish. I also keep my eye out for new content we can develop. It can be busy, but it's a lot fun and – as a fan – I'm happy to see our games published on Steam.”

Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming © MAQL

“As for development, on each project we work with the original development team, and they handle all the technical issues in porting the game to PC and integrating Steamworks. Their job is a lot harder than mine,” he adds.

The second Half Minute Hero game was actually released in Japan back in 2011 for Sony’s PSP handheld – the sequel kept the same silly vibe (merchants will offer to sell you air) while adding in new quests, four player multiplayer and even a world map. But Sony’s moved onto new hardware with the PS Vita, and the marker for PSP in the West is all but gone. So the team had a lot of work to do to bring the game over to PC, a platform with an easily accessible digital download service (and, as a result, low distribution costs).

Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming © MAQL

“The game came out for PSP in Japan in 2011, so in that sense, it was ‘complete’,” Salazar says. “However, there was no English translation and it didn't run on the PC. In moving it to PC and Steam, the dev team at OPUS added some cool features like support for multiple resolutions, so it's not just a simple port. Also, the original PSP version relied on a dedicated server for user created maps and sharing, but we used Steam Workshop to handle all of that, making it much easier to browse and download maps.”

OPUS also managed to work in one entirely unexpected – but awesome – feature: support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset .

“Most of the games I work on are already "done" on their original platform so I try to limit my input to features that the audience on a new platform might appreciate or improvements that help the game sell. I use the word ‘improvement’ lightly, as I don't want to change the original creative intent behind the work, I just want to add value to the new product.”

In the first couple of weeks on sale on Steam, the game’s performed well, picking up positive reviews from critics and fans alike. “The second game in a series about saving the world in only half a minute has once again won my love in only half an hour,” quips the top user review on Steam right now.

Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming © MAQL

Given its success, even after all this time, we have to ask Salazar, are there plans for Half-Minute Hero Three? What will MAQL do next?

“I can't tell you what's next for Half-Minute Hero,” he says, before leaving things on a high note. “I can say that if The Second Coming sells very well, it makes the case for getting a sequel, doesn't it?”

Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming is available to download on Steam now.