Hero Lodge

Hero Lodge
N/A
Metacritic
93
Steam
63
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Release date
12 January 2022
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
93 (15 votes)

Hero Lodge is a fantasy tactical turn based strategy RPG with a focus on player knowledge. Learn enemy attack patterns to fight your way to redemption.

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Hero Lodge system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7 or Windows 10
  • Processor: x86, x64 architecture with SSE2 instruction set support.
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: DX10 Capable
  • DirectX: Version 10
  • Storage: 7 GB available space
  • Sound Card: Yes

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
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pustyirnik
pustyirnik

I don't recommend it for adequate people. But if you're a masochist with lots of time, you'll love it. The game is very difficult even on the easy difficulty level, what's worse is that you can't save between turns, so the game turns into work, and I don't like to work at the computer again after work)

Fula
Fula

This indie game deserves more love:

PROS :

-The game actually encourages you to play with tactics in minds, not just trading blow mindlessly.

-Lots of characters and you end using most of them.

-The developer seem to be very involved.

Cons:

-Honestly, very little story elements. Pretty much no story.

-Character art it´s quite bad. The rest of the art it´s fine.

- For people that hunt achivements, seems like a fucking hell of a hard game to get them all.

RefrigerateYourHead
RefrigerateYourHead

This is an excellent turn based tactics game. Encounter design is great. Enemies have interesting abilities and use them frequently. The hero roster is large and truly diverse. Everything in this game was clearly created with care and attention by someone with a great brain. It's an amazing feat for a solo dev -and really fun.

SkiNNyBane
SkiNNyBane

I am too lazy to write my own so I will copy my friend's review. I agree with it.

"This is an excellent turn based tactics game. Encounter design is great. Enemies have interesting abilities and use them frequently. The hero roster is large and truly diverse. Everything in this game was clearly created with care and attention by someone with a great brain. It's an amazing feat for a solo dev -and really fun."

willsama974
willsama974

Quality Tactics with a few QoL options that allow to cusomize the experience quite nicely.
The game loop is straight forward: Mission>Base>Mission with replayable battles.
As you play you unlock different units with their own mechanics and also base enhancements such as a smith (crafting).
Combat has a few fresh mechanics and provides all the information required to make tactical choices (no hit rate here).
Unit progression (manually pick an attribute increase) and customization (one weapon and one accessory) are both simple but effective.
Positionning and damage types are major elements along with managing skill cooldowns and unit synergies.
One of the best Indie Tactical turn-based of the year so far imho.

Another Persona
Another Persona

Pretty solid little tactical-rpg(ish). It's definitely challenging and I love how when you summon the wolf it comes off the healers helmet.

The dev is very active and already has implemented suggestions and tweaked things here-and-there.

A steal for 9 bucks.

Save the effin' blacksmith or you'll lose out on an effin' crafting option.

Roca
Roca

This is the best turn-based combat I've seen in my life, and I think this is the first time I write a review. I've played 15 hours offline. And sorry for my English.

Tl;dr: this game is awesome. This is the best solo effort I've seen since Horizon's Gate.

I've played most of the best squad-based strategy games, and I think this has, hands down, one of the best if not the best designed combat. You have 25 different characters, and ALL of them (I've seen like 13-14 so far) provide extremely different gameplay experiences. The amount of content, different approaches to battles, strategies and tactical deepness is mesmerizing. I don't know how a single developer could conceive this marvel. Perhaps I'm exaggerating, but I'm really trying to recall a game with a better combat system.

These are some of the best turn-based tactics games I've played in no particular order: FF Tactics, Shining Force I-II, Battle Brothers, XCOM, the Shadowrun trilogy, Valkyria chronicles, Chroma Squad, Fire Emblem series, Mutant Year Zero, Steam Wold Heist, Wildermyth, Mainframe Defenders, The Banner Saga, Wasteland 2, Renowned Explorers, The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk, Knights of the Chalice, Fallout, Urtuk, Fort Triumph, Hard west, Age of Fear, Fell Seal, Horizon's Gate, The Age of Decadence, Intro the Breach, Fights in Tight Spaces, Invisible Inc, Templar Battleforce, Voidspire, Low Magic Age, Wintermoor, Ikenfell, Silent Storm, Wargroove, Temple of elemental Evil, etc... I think nothing can compare except, perhaps, Gloomhaven.

But I'm not saying this game is perfect. The graphics are mediocre at best, the music and FX are repetitive and forgettable, the UI is clunky, the story irrelevant... but the combat. It has everything. This is one of the few games where you cannot simply rush and kill everything. You must defend A LOT. And you cannot simply "defend", you have to choose a specific type (blunt, slash, fire, etc.) and pray you remember perfectly how many attacks types your opponent have.

So, in short:
CONS
- Everything except the gameplay it's ugly or bad: graphics, music, UI.
- You cannot remap hotkeys.
- You cannot save mid-battle. Battles can be LONG.
- You cannot even save normally. There is an autosave, but if you choose an option (some missions branch and if you don't like one result you cannot load and try the other option - I'm looking at you, Blacksmith)

PROS
+ GAMEPLAY. Combat System Ever. Classes.
+ Attention to detail (even your camp base changes depending on which mission you are)
+ Constant variations. New mechanics being introduced in every chapter. Hunting, crafting, party choices, being forced to play with different characters instead of being stuck with your chosen ones...
+ The amount of content compared to the price tag is a steal.

QUESTION: Why nobody knows this game? The developer does not even have a Facebook page, a discord server... nothing. There is no way to discover this game except by sheer luck, as it was in my case.

Jolly
Jolly

This game didn't get the buzz it deserves - probably due to releasing just after a long sale and the holidays.

I'll likely do a real review after suitable time with the game, so this is more like the "2 hour demo and keeping the game review" - for me it's a keeper and I'm looking forward to more.

Game feels tight and well done - good production values and presentation.

Combat is immediately interesting - good mechanics, characters have useful/good abilities right off. Art is good (I'm iffy on pixel art and just can't take it in some games). Combat controls and flow are very good - clear and intuitive.

Global manage elements unlock as you go - so I haven't seen them all yet - what is there is good so far.

Level ups are simple and gear isn't that complex but both feel good.

Good game loop and flow - there's nothing rocket science here but there's enough depth to make it interesting, the combat is solid and enjoyable, and it all meshes nicely in a well wrapped package.

Even in my limited time there are a few nice touches or elements that have caught my attention.

- the way the game teaches you monster attacks is cool (and bestiary tracks that stuff for you mercifully)
- as in, many enemies have animations or hints about what they're going to do that you need to react to - it spices up the turn/grid based
- archer has limited arrows and can often retrieve arrows in combat - but has to move to them OR has an option to craft arrows during combat with mats (which I've yet to get but it's an interesting option)
- mage just unlocked (first real unlock gave me a choice of 3 to pick from), has strong abilities with long cooldowns and an ability to reduce those cooldowns to sort of charge up - sounds interesting
- as someone else said - the animation for shaman pet deploy is just cool (and starting off with a pet summoning character is nice - you get to hop right into non-vanilla characters
- first thing you fight is rats! but these rats will destroy you if you don't take the game seriously

MjrKuffenbach
MjrKuffenbach

What could be a better start of gaming year than to almost miss totally quiet release of an awesome game and then fall deep in love with it. Hero Lodge is one-man project and it's a lot (lots lots lots) of damn good work worth many hours of fun (tens for sure, hundreds easily). And definitely worth more than those few bucks dev charges for this.
Main reason for my adoration is 25 characters you can get for your team. Each unique, each with specific abilities, strengths, weaknesses and roles on battlefield. No two plays the same. So when you begin to experiment with party compositions, your tactical possibilities are uncountable. And you will need them, for the game is tough and enemies are as cleverly designed as allies. It's turn based tactics galore.
There's much more - loot, crafting, equipment and levelling that can shape the characters substantially to your needs (love to boost assassins ap through accessories to make easier for her to run behind enemy lines and backstab the s*it out of everything... to give one of the simpler examples).
Everything unlocks through the campaign and adds to complexity of game with very good pace to hold you hooked and gradually raise challenge. Hell, after almost 60 hours, I haven't even seen everything and can't wait to!

Long story short: if you're at least a bit interested in turn-based games, then BUY THE F*CK IT! It's bloody cheap and it deserves to be recognized gazzilion times more than it is now!

DANDOMINO
DANDOMINO

Rather enjoyable and a bargain price.

Little bit tough tho, but not too taxing.

RE-Review.

Game scales better and better. Still not too easy and not too tough. Makes you really think about your moves. Common sense and patience are your best friends.

I just got to the part where u can now have 5 members in your team so that is going to help in these later-tougher battles and going back to get resources.

Enjoyable levelling up your team and thinking about which combinations work. And, like the Witcher, u gotta think about your team and equipment before you go in to catch these beasts & monsters.

A lot of fantasy tropes, a lot of weapons and crafting, lots of details about the monsters and there pros n cons.

I was annoyed the skeletons would not die unless u had holy weapons, at first I only had 1, as the game makes u work for your resources, I mentioned it to the Dev and he agreed just holy damage to kill was a bit too tough so hes changed it to Holy & Fire weapons now...and even then I think hes now put a limited amount of times the skeleton can reanimate.

And again, I cannot believe the price, this should be triple for the value for money you get.

Awesome game, good job to the Devs.

Ginger Tsunami
Ginger Tsunami

Writing this early review, because this game is going to be big for SRPG fans out there. So, i wanted to help this game gain traction as soon as possible.

I don't need to play any further to give this a positive review. Well worth the price point and I can already see the depth of strategy involved. Nice beastiary that reveals more with kills or scanning enemy. Crafting available and shops. Both upgrade with use. Only can choose 3 allies per battle. I only have 4 unlocked, but i can tell at this point that the team builds will be endless. I just started learning about some crit bonus that is related to playing battles with same team. A bond is slowly built. I really like the Blocking/dodging skills. Well advanced. You'll need to know and select the type of damage that you want to block/dodge, which adds a level of strategy I haven't really seen before.

There's a lot i could say, but i want to put a little more time into this. I just want to say something about leveling up. You get to choose how to level up with team EXP. As your team levels up, i was given a choice from 1 of 3 new classes. Quite a carrot to dangle infront of someone. I instantly was to play more to continue unlocking new classes.

This seems to be a sure Labor of Love win for 2022 if it picks up in speed with more people trying this game out. Any fan of SRPGs should give this a try. From what i've read, this seems to be a single person creating this game. I can already tell that this will be my top 5 SRPG games of all time. Up there with FFT and Ogre battle tactics... Ya, I'm old shool.

That being said, the biggest CON of this game, is the sound and graphics. If you can't handle a game that requires you to have a little imagination, this might not be for you. Normally, this would turn me away from a game. However, I keep in mind that one person put a lot of love and time into creating this hidden gem. I would love to shake the hand of the person who created this and thank him for helping me find a great game to waste my time on :) And i'm not even 4 hours in

Sombrero
Sombrero

I can recommend game but it's not my cup of tea.
Why?
The game is great as a puzzle in my opinion. Each enemy unit feels like a problem that needs to be solved using your party members. The design of enemies in particular is actually really good they each have a unique gimmick and some random enemies feel more engaging to fight than bosses in other games.

The reason why I'm personally not too much into the game is because you can't customize your units much. Each character has a pretty specific gameplan and a set class. You can tweak their stats a little bit but you won't turn your warrior into an archer or a mage like in a class based game.

All in all, it's a really good game if you are into puzzle-like combats with great monster designs.

(Kudos also for the overall pretty great UX, there's a lot of clever keybinds and the flow in combat is really good in terms of controls, the game feels a lot faster paced thanks to that)

MrCangus
MrCangus

Very fun and challenging turn based rpg. The process of building your team and creating the perfect composition is very rewarding. You learn very quickly some champions compliment each other well and others do not fit your teams play-style. Each character feels unique and their character models fit their lore/design well. As mentioned a few times already, the wolf shaman summon animation is awesome!

You can easily spend hours trying to optimize an encounter to keep your team members alive and avoid mechanics. One thing I particularly enjoyed is learning the animations and abilities for individual enemies. If there is a rogue type enemy, then you must make sure your character is turned the appropriate way (maybe even go back to back with two toons) to avoid a large amount of damage. With the executioner enemies you have to have an escape route to avoid the chains and execute ability. There are hints to help you learn these mechanics, but you are always given the opportunity to learn them yourself first.

All in all, this is a solid game I look forward to playing more and hope to see what secrets there are behind the hero lodge and the souls(?) of those who end up there.

On a completely separate note: The start of the game is oddly reminiscent of YuYu Hakusho, one of my favorite anime tv shows from my child, which hooked me right away. Getting hit by a car while saving an innocent life all to be given another chance in a new and exciting world due to your selflessness. Sadly, I have not found a character with a 'sprit gun' type ability to complete my roll play :P