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Hero Emblems's tile-matching battles and cutesy characters should appeal to JRPG fans

A JRPG fit for the mobile crowd

Hero Emblems's tile-matching battles and cutesy characters should appeal to JRPG fans
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iOS
| Hero Emblems

HeatPot Games released its tile-matching JRPG Hero Emblems on iOS yesterday.

I've been playing it a little, enjoying the challenging turn-based battle system, and the comical interactions between the four main characters.

It has you controlling the Princess's guard after she has been kidnapped, and the King is found in a deathly state.

You have to go on a quest across the game's adventure map, battling monsters in dungeons, wilderness, caves, and the ocean. There are bosses to take on as well, eventually leading up to the source of all the recent mishaps, the God of Evil.

The core of the game is its turn-based, tile-matching battle system. You have four heroes, each of which have a specific role: the fighter deals damage, the knight defends with his shield, the healer replenishes HP, and the witch casts magic spells.

Each hero is represented by an emblem on the grid of tiles. You have to match three of the same emblems to make the hero they're connected to perform an action.

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What you want to do is spam attacks with magic and swords. But you also have to watch out for your defense and health bars depleting, which they will do rapidly if you don't pay attention.

You can also match emblems in four and fives to unleash bigger attacks or replenishments. This also unlocks a skill emblem that, again, makes for a bigger action when matched.

It's also possible to match five emblems in an 'L' or 'T' shape to create a new emblem that unlocks each hero's most powerful action.

Being turn-based, you have a limited number of moves that you can make before the enemy attacks. So, while matching three emblems is adequate, to survive harder battles you'll need to set-up bigger and multiple attacks on the grid.

As said, it's not all battling, and Hero Emblems does a good job of getting you familiar with the unique personalities of each character.

The dialogue between the group of heroes is actually quite amusing in places. They argue, let each other down, but clearly respect each other through their flaws, and will joke around as well.

You can purchase Hero Emblems for the odd price of £2.63 / $2.99 on the App Store. That's actually a discounted price, with the full price being £2.49 / $3.99.

Obviously, the UK price is acting up, and so it might change as the App Store figures out its new pricing system.

Chris Priestman
Chris Priestman
Anything eccentric, macabre, or just plain weird, is what Chris is all about. He turns the spotlight on the games that fly under the radar.