| CGMagazine |
Elias Blondeau |
7.6 / 10 |
04-13-2017 |
Has-Been Heroes, best enjoyed in short bursts, is a clever take on roguelikes and a strong argument for the Switch’s easy portability. |
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| Cubed3 |
Nikola Suprak |
8 / 10 |
10-04-2017 |
Has-Been Heroes delivers an excellent challenge for the player and provides the perfect blend of tension and enjoyment. The combat mechanic definitely manages to be both welcoming for newer players, while still providing scope for tactical and strategic decisions through the use of spells, combined with good lane placement. There is not a lot of focus given to creating an epic memorable quest, and sometimes luck plays too big a part in victory |
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| Daily Dot |
AJ Moser |
3.5 / 5 stars |
03-27-2017 |
Has-Been Heroes is a challenging and charming indie adventure |
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| Destructoid |
Jed Whitaker |
4.5 / 10 |
03-24-2017 |
As a console game, I can’t recommend it, but if you’re the type of person who plays your Nintendo Switch on the go, it at least is something you can pick up and play for a bit without much thought. Has-Been Heroes would benefit greatly with touchscreen controls on a mobile device, as the gameplay seems tailor made for it, but alas it doesn’t support the Switch’s touch capabilities and isn’t available on phones. But hey, at least it features HD Rumble, which is easily the most over-hyped and overrated feature of the Switch, so there is that. |
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| EGM |
Emma Schaefer |
4 / 10 |
03-28-2017 |
A heavy dose of randomness coupled with a lack of permanent progression makes Has-Been Heroes a chore to keep playing. Though there’s a good strategy idea buried in its multi-lane gameplay, the high-risk, no-reward setup isn’t satisfying enough to make up for its otherwise mediocre aspects. Coupled with repetitive enemies, forgettable assets, and bizarre controls, Has-Been Heroes is a game that can go right back into retirement. |
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| Gamefa |
Aria Moghadam |
6 / 10 |
02-28-2019 |
Has Been Heroes had the potential to be a very good game, but some gameplay issues and weak narrative, don’t let this game to break the walls of mediocrity. Combats are hard and based on luck more than anything else. Has Been Heroes is a fun game to play in its genre, but you must deal with its problems too. |
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| GameMAG |
xtr |
6 / 10 |
04-23-2017 |
The world of Has-Been Heroes is too frustrating due to the same type of enemies, random difficulty level and lack of motivation to run it more than once a week. The only exception is the version for the Nintendo Switch, which can be good for short sessions in buses, subways and trains, replacing no less monotonous games for tablets and mobile phones. |
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| GameSkinny |
David Fisher |
8 / 10 |
03-28-2017 |
Like its titular characters, Has-Been Heroes may look like nothing new, but has a charm and unique style of gameplay that should not be overlooked |
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| GameSpot |
James O’Connor |
5 / 10 |
04-04-2017 |
This roguelike’s cool combat system is held back by a terrible structure. |
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| GBAtemp |
Tom Bond |
6 / 10 |
03-31-2017 |
Overall, Has Been Heroes is…ok. If the RNG was fixed up a bit and the difficulty curve was altered so you’re gradually introduced to the game, it would be a pretty good rogue-like. As it is now, it’s simply too frustrated and luck-based to be up there with other great rogue-likes like Rogue Legacy or Darkest Dungeon. |
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| Geeks Under Grace |
Joe Morgan |
6.5 / 10 |
03-27-2017 |
Has Been Heroes is a fun yet flawed rogue-like. The steady flow of unlockable content and frantic strategy are engaging, but the brutal boss encounters that often rely on luck from pickups can be infuriating. |
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| God is a Geek |
Nick Gillham |
4 / 10 |
04-13-2017 |
Hard and unforgiving, Has Been Heroes has the potential to create the videogame equivalent of Jack Torrance in anyone who plays it. |
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| Hardcore Gamer |
Jason Bohn |
3 / 5 stars |
03-30-2017 |
Despite all of these complaints, Has-Been Heroes isn’t a terrible time. |
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| IGN |
Leif Johnson |
6.1 / 10 |
03-24-2017 |
There are some good ideas in Has Been Heroes, such as the way it uses multi-lane battlefields to make us use strategies that involve switching between the strengths of three different heroes to achieve victory. It’s a recipe for fun that manages to last for a while. Eventually, though, the heavy emphasis on the luck of level generation, the frustrations of enemy repetition, the poor tutorial, and the tendency to overrun you with tough enemies spoil the whole. Hard games are great, but there are limits. |
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| Metro GameCentral |
GameCentral |
3 / 10 |
04-03-2017 |
A tedious trawl through the worst aspects of roguelikes, turn-based strategy, and bad interface design. Only somehow less fun than that sounds. |
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| Nerd Much? |
Bobby Bernstein |
8.3 / 10 |
03-27-2017 |
I’m not sure if the game would work as well for such an extended period of time if I were tethered to an Xbox One or my PC to play, but the Nintendo Switch appears to provide for the best gameplay experience. |
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| New Game Network |
Stephen LaGioia |
65 / 100 |
04-17-2017 |
Has-Been Heroes is a solid tower defense experience that borrows attributes from Plants vs Zombies, while putting its own twist on the formula. Plenty of repetition and frustration |
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| Nintendo Enthusiast |
Jason Lepine |
8 / 10 |
04-10-2017 |
The roguelike genre is a game genre I’ve never bothered to explore. There was just never a game that caught my eye. Admittedly, Has-Been Heroes was no exception. The trailers didn’t stir much interest in me and my initial demo of the game turned me off even more because of a control scheme I felt was confusing at the time. Now, with over 10 hours of gameplay under my belt I have to admit that Has-Been Heroes has become one of my most recommended titles for the Switch. |
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| Nintendo Life |
Ron DelVillano |
5 / 10 |
04-04-2017 |
Has-Been Heroes is a game that is full of great ideas but gets dragged down by poor execution. The way it combines RPG and roguelike elements with basic tower defense gameplay has so much potential that it unfortunately can’t live up to in the face of imbalanced difficulty curves and unwieldy controls. It feels much more like a proof of concept that, with time and updates, could some day lead to a great adventure. |
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| NintendoWorldReport |
Justin Nation |
8.5 / 10 |
03-29-2017 |
Maybe I’m just a “kick me while I’m down and I’ll still get up” kind of guy but the best compliment I can pay Has-Been Heroes is that it scratches an itch I never even knew I had, and I don’t come along games like that often enough. Depending on where you are on the challenge-loving scale will likely determine where you’ll stand, individual results will likely vary. |
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| Player.One |
Phillip Martinez |
4 / 10 |
03-24-2017 |
Overall, Has-Been Heroes is a very enjoyable experience, despite the difficulty level. While I wouldn’t recommend this game for younger gamers as they will probably get too frustrated, this is definitely something players with patience can really sink hours and hours into. |
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| Push Square |
Ken Talbot |
6 / 10 |
04-02-2017 |
Has-Been Heroes is as tough as nails and built for people that like to lose over and over again. The combat offers an interesting twist on a familiar mechanic, but never really evolves beyond that initial learning process. Some of the whimsy present in the Trine series has been carried over here, but not enough to balance out the punishing difficulty. |
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| Saving Content |
Scott Ellison II |
2 / 5 stars |
05-12-2017 |
Has-Been Heroes works for the Switch with its small and travel-focused design, but less so at home when there’s other stuff on this console and other consoles to play. Has-Been Heroes could really benefit from an easier difficulty, because luck is just rarely ever on your side. There’s some fun to be had, but it is far and few between each run you play. The tactics and strategy behind Has-Been Heroes is mostly satisfying, but is sadly undone by its difficulty. |
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| SomHráč.sk |
Róbert Hagan |
85 / 100 |
04-20-2017 |
Has-been Heroes is an interesting entry in the roguelite genre. Easy to learn, but still rewarding. The skeleton slaying experience is harmed by some minor technical issues, though. |
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| SpazioGames |
Gianluca Arena |
5.5 / 10 |
04-13-2017 |
Without narrative hooks, valuable prizes and more diverse in-game situations, Has been heroes overstays its welcome after just a couple of hours, also let down by horrible difficulty spikes and an unfairly procedurally generated maps. Try it again, Frozenbyte. |
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| TechRaptor |
Samuel Guglielmo |
8.5 / 10 |
04-14-2017 |
An addictive and entertaining roguelite, Has-Been Heroes has some novel ideas that makes it an absolute blast for when you have 30 minutes to kill for another run. |
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| The Outerhaven Productions |
Aaron Sanders |
2.5 / 5 stars |
04-17-2017 |
Has-Been Heroes isn’t a bad game, but I wasn’t excited to start over after my first loss. After coming to understand the mechanics and strategy better, I am enjoying it to some degree, but I don’t feel any less frustrated every time I lose. The only thing driving me to play more is my inner completionist, but if you’re looking for a game with a compelling story and more to it than just unlocking more in-game items and spells, then this might not be the title for you. |
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| TheSixthAxis |
Dominic Leighton |
5 / 10 |
03-28-2017 |
Has-Been Heroes has a genuinely inviting and involving combat system that requires real strategic thought to master. However the rest of the game just doesn’t pull together to form a cohesive whole, with brutal difficulty, frustrating permadeath and an under-utilised premise all serving to taint the end product. It does at least benefit from the Nintendo Switch’s portability, and this is where it’s at its best, but at home you’ll likely be turning it off far quicker than Frozenbyte were hoping for. |
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| TrueAchievements |
Cindy Minguez |
3 / 5 stars |
04-10-2017 |
Has-Been Heroes is an initially appealing title that quickly becomes bogged down by a lack of good instructions, too much luck-based randomness, and permadeath that never quits. |
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| VGChartz |
Evan Norris |
Recommended |
03-27-2017 |
Permanent death and randomized everything might prove too unpredictable for some. The lack of a robust story might turn off others. Players who adjust to the steep learning curve, however, will find an engaging title full of action and strategy with high replay value. |
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| Video Chums |
A.J. Maciejewski |
8.6 / 10 |
03-27-2017 |
Simply put, Has-Been Heroes is one of the most engaging strategic gaming experiences on the market. |
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