Cycle through life and death repeatedly in Hero Must Die
Originally released over at Japan for mobile devices in 2007, Nippon Ichi Software is developing a full remake for Hero Must Die exclusively for the Playstation Vita.
The premise of Hero Must Die revolves around a hero on a very limited lifespan. At the beginning of the game, the hero and the demon king engage in their final battle. Simultaneously delivering a fatal stab to one another, both of their lives are brought to an end, but the world still hasn't been truly saved.
With the rest of the world still riddled with numerous conflicts, the hero is granted a mere five additional days to live. In this time, players are free to choose what they want to do with the hero's remaining time and what they choose to do or not do will directly affect which ending they will receive. However, the arrival of the sixth day brings about a return to the hero's grave.
Meet the main characters of Hero Must Die.
Hero (CV: Tsubasa Yonaga)
The protagonist who sacrificed his own life to annihilate the demon king. Given an additional five days to live, he has the opportunity to visit parts of the world he has saved. Due to his resurrection, he has a key memory missing - he loved a certain woman, but he cannot remember who.
Yuria the Angel (CV: Asami Imai)
An angel who revives the fallen hero at the cost of his memory. She provides support for the hero throughout the game and recommends he searches for his forgotten loved one.
Princess Flora (CV: Rie Murakawa)
A somewhat naive, yet kind-hearted, princess. Due to the hero's past accomplishments toward her country, she's in love with him and promised to marry him after his journey was over. Unfortunately, the now revived hero has no memory of that.
Devil King (CV: Tsuguo Mogami)
Even though he has been vanquished by the hero, the devil king's influence is still tremendous throughout the land. The thought of him still lingers in the minds of people in destroyed towns and there are even those who wish for his revival.
Unlike other RPGs, the hero in Hero Must Die will actually get weaker as time goes on. His stats will gradually decrease, he will begin to forget magic spells, and he will eventually not be able to equip the heavy armor he starts off with. If the hero battles constantly without rest, players may find themselves in an unfortunate position of the hero only having a maximum HP of 1.
On the sixth day, the player's evaluation will be presented at the hero's funeral. The game will take note of what people the player has encountered and which scenarios have been completed. Depending on how well the player has been involved with the people, the hero's funeral may get an exceptionally warm farewell from them, but the opposite is equally as true.
After the hero's funeral, the game will start over and the hero will live for five days once again. Players are encouraged to visit new places, meet new people, and tackle on new scenarios that they missed in the previous playthrough. Through this repeated loop of resurrection, death, and rebirth, players will come to know the full story behind Hero Must Die.
Shoji Masuda (Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines, Patapon) is responsible for the planning, game design, and scenario for the title while Kenji Ito (SaGa series) will return to compose the game's soundtrack. Meanwhile, Tetsu Kurosawa (Demon Gaze) is in charge of the character designs.
View the gallery below for the first screenshots of the game.
Hero Must Die is launching in Japan on February 15, 2016 for 5980yen at retail and 4762yen on PSN.
