HEARTBEAT is a traditional turn-based RPG that takes place in a fantasy world inhabited by humans and Mogwai. Mogwai are a huge group of magical creatures, divided into subcategories based on their elemental affinity - a bit like Pokémon that can talk. Certain special humans, called Conjurers, can form special bonds with Mogwai and thus draw power from each other. Conjurers are rare and most towns have a single one to protect them from any threat. In HEARTBEAT, you play as Eve Staccato, the Conjurer assigned to protect a small village, as she ventures further and further from her home and gets wrapped up in a larger conflict.
Gameplay
Gameplay-wise, I don't really have that much to say about HEARTBEAT. It functions very much like any other turn-based RPG, but I will make a note of some of its unique qualities.
- The HEART meter charges up your Limit Break, but it's shared between all characters - as their hearts are all connected. This means all damage dealt and taken to and from all characters charges the meter, but only one character gets to use a Limit Break type attack before the meter depletes again. A shared or combo attack like in Chrono Trigger might've been fun, but I understand why it was resolved the way it was.
- Mogwai have elemental affinities, but humans do not. That means that Eve, your main character, is neither strong nor weak against any element by default - however, when a Mogwai becomes her friend, she will often get a shard of their core, essentially their soul, which will allow you use up a turn to switch to their element and gain its strengths and weaknesses on the fly. This offers some neat strategies, though it's still very simple.
- There are two characters in the game that attack on their own, outside your control, when they join you. One of them, a kind of moth baby that you get to give a name to, stays with you throughout the entire game. The 'moth baby' can transform into a baby version of most friends and foes you encounter and can level each of its forms. It's the only other character besides Eve that you can control the elemental affinity of, adding another layer of strategy.
- In spite of its cute presentation, this game is not recommended for beginners. In battle, information appears at the top screen in rapid succession and disappears just as quickly, and the phrases are often full of icons and abbreviations that you'll have to learn to recognize. I think the interface in battle could've used some work, like a log showing the events of the last few turns. There are plenty of examples of this, but for some reason Heartstone - which is really more a card game than a turn-based RPG - comes to mind.
- The overworld works as expected for any JRPG, but the characters that accompany you each have a unique ability they can apply in the overworld. These are used to solve simple environmental puzzles or reveal secrets. They're usually fine, but puzzles that require precise timing can get a bit annoying. To clarify, when you press on a switch to start a timed event, you may immediately press the button to start running, but because you weren't fully on the tile yet or because the switch was still activating, it doesn't work, costing you valuable time. Enemies are not random encounters but can be seen and (if desired) avoided on the map, which I think is a plus.
Presentation
HEARTBEAT's presentation is one of its main attractions. It features a large cast of expressive, distinctive characters with beautiful sprite portraits.
HEARTBEAT's world is a delight to explore. Vibrant colors, catchy tunes and hundreds of beautiful and detailed sprites are just the tip of the iceberg, and the clean and sharp interface ensures you won't be distracted from it. Each character has a unique design, and most characters come with their own musical theme and a battle variation of said theme. A tremendous amount of effort was put into realizing this world and characters. If I had to say something negative, I guess not all of the music is as memorable - but with as many tracks as the game has, not every single one could be equally iconic.
Story
I'll keep this mostly spoiler free, but as I mentioned at the start, you take on the role of Eve Staccato - a conjurer with the power to form pacts with Mogwai - on a quest that gradually increases in scale. She's accompanied by the Mogwai she made her first pact with, Klein Gremory, a Cat Sith Mogwai with a mysterious background. Eve and Klein are the protagonist and deuteragonist, with other characters coming and going in the story while they remain. Its huge cast is one of HEARTBEAT's strengths, but also one of its weaknesses, as the story cannot focus on a single character and their arc for too long. Characters' conflicts are resolved quickly or relegated to the background while the story continues without them in favor of another character.
MINOR SPOILERS:
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I don't feel I have the authority to give in-depth feedback on a game's story, but I personally have my doubts about the pacing. While I appreciate the way the conflict escalates from something relatively minor to a larger scale over time, it takes a long time for the real "goal" to come into view.
A game that does a similar thing is Chrono Trigger; the initial hook is time travel and the potential dangers of it, but the game shows its hand soon after, revealing that the time travel is a means to prevent the eventual apocalypse. In my opinion, Chrono Trigger's initial hook is more engaging, and I personally prefer that it reveals its ultimate goal a bit earlier. What this amounts to is that HEARTBEAT's story takes a while to get to the point, which means you may lose interest if you're not invested in the characters. Once the story picks up, though, it picks up in a big way.
Like so many of the story based RPG Maker games of yore, HEARTBEAT boasts multiple endings. There's only one true, good ending, with all the other endings ranging from somber and unsatisfying to shockingly grim, especially considering the game's otherwise mild content. I was impressed by the detail in some of the bad endings; most of them feature unique portraits, a fair bit of dialogue and even a unique battle or two. It's a shame so few people will get to see them, though, because the good ending is incredibly easy to get. I feel like the game could've asked a little more of me to get it, but it's preferable to the alternative - the last thing I would've wanted was a bad ending because you failed to talk to character X seven times in a row on two missable occasions (yes, I AM talking to you, Ib).
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Other Thoughts
- One thing I really appreciate about RPGs with a lot of dialogue is that they acknowledge when certain conversations have been had. Say, a character has a long confession to make - then when you speak to them again, all they say is 'Thanks for listening' instead of repeating the same thing again. Unfortunately HEARTBEAT does have a few occasions, which I won't spoil, where a conversation that has value in the context of the story repeats when the character is spoken to again. It's a minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless.
- Some moments that are otherwise well written - like an emotional climax of a character's story - can feel less deserved because of how quickly characters are shuffled in and out of the party. I wonder if this is a fair critique on my part, or if I'm just being too harsh on a game that simply has a lot of characters? Unfortunately, no one I know personally has played the game; maybe I should look up a few playthroughs to get some other perspectives. If you do play it, let me know what you thought!
- The game has a fair bit of humour. It got a few chuckles out of me, but some jokes land better than others.
Some of the portraits for humorous side characters did get a laugh out of me; the game's visuals are its strong point in more ways than one.
- Because the game is otherwise lighthearted, rare unsettling moments hit hard. A few music tracks and visuals gave me chills. I'd post them here, but I am still trying to avoid spoilers.
- The vast majority of important characters are female and all playable characters are. This is justified in-universe; a Conjurer needs to be attuned with a Mogwai, which are either 'Yin' or 'Yang' (essentially male or female). Two characters that are not female accompany you at a given point (those are the characters you can't control I mentioned under gameplay), but because they're not "attuned" to you, they can't be instructed and take actions on their own accord though they're still on your side. This idea is neat, but it doesn't play much of a role in the story itself beyond lore. I've always found the idea of having characters on your side that act on their own interesting; Susie from Toby Fox's Deltarune is a great example of a character acting on their own in a way that is less interesting from a gameplay point of view (always attacks the top character in the same way, and enemies are always warned the same way by ACTing) but more interesting from a story point of view.
- You can collect cards of the locations and characters in the game, if you're into that kind of thing. IO definitely didn't spend two hours buying packs (just in-game money, no worries) to get the rare card I wanted.
Conclusion
HEARTBEAT is a competent turn-based RPG that distinguishes itself in some minor ways. Its story is slow and features too many characters for its own good, but the story gets good and the characters are entertaining and well designed. The game's presentation is excellent. If you're into the genre, give it a shot: https://store.steampowered.com/app/984560/HEARTBEAT/
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