From the makers of Disgaea comes another weird, wacky and witty game. This game is none other than... (inhales) Zettai Hero Project: Unlosing Ranger vs Darkdeath Evilman! (phew! let's just call it ZHP!)
The world's savior Super Baby (just bear with it) has been kidnapped by the Demon General Darkdeath Evilman! It's up to the Unlosing Ranger to beat Darkdeath Evilman and rescue Super Baby and save the world! But then he gets run over by a car (eh?). The dying Unlosing Ranger then hands his belt over to you, a weak bystander, and asks you to fight in his place, then he dies. As the fight of the century begins, Darkdeath Evilman fights you, the weak bystander and pretty much whoops your back side. Wow, game over? Nope, not really. True to its word, ZHP only has one climactic battle, it just doesn't say how many times you have to fight that climactic battle (XD).
Absolute Victory Unlosing Ranger
This pretty much screws you up from here on. Now you get to face Darkdeath Evilman! You lose painfully. Good thing you get transported to Bizarro Earth (a parallel earth on the other side of the sun, so you don't see it). So Bizarro Earth is where Hero wannabes train to become Real heroes. Where do they train? In dungeons of course! Dungeons you ask? If you are wondering whether this looks a little like pokemon mystery dungeon then yes, it does. The difference? Well, add in references ranging from the conversation to the attack movements and even parodying characters (Say hello to Brick Oldllama!)
I had fun playing this game. It reminded me of Playstation games like Azure Dreams and Chocobo's Dungeon 2. I played those for hours and hours as well. These two games and ZHP have some things in common, namely:
- player adventures in dungeon
- player loses energy while adventuring in dungeon
- player always starts at level 1 in dungeon
- traps, lots of it
- when player dies, player loses all items he has in the current run
Remember the thread about Disgaea 2 about the maximum level being level 9999? In this game, you can get to level 9999 and then some. It stores your total levels accumulated and it gives you some bonus stats to go along with it. That means even if you start at level 1, you're still stronger than the level 1 before you enter the dungeon
Did I mention references? Lots of it. Here's one for you:
Take a guess? Anyone?
I think I forgot to mention cosplay (O.o). Yeah, I said it right the first time. COSPLAY. You feel like your controlling other characters (but in reality you're still the original character dressing up as other people). There are lot of costumes you can try out.
Yeah, I know. It messes up the blog space. It's a small price to pay though. Onwards!
Oh right, there is also a dark clinic that allows you to get additional stats. (Sounds good? Let me show you how it's done)
Once you finish the game, it unlocks alternate endings for you. But if you get bored with unlocking the endings there are still things you can do. There are Hero Mastery Dungeons and Dengeki Dungeons. Hero Mastery Dungeons are pretty much stand-alone dungeons unrelated to the story. Dengeki Dungeons are dungeons with the boss being a character in anime/manga. If you checked the costumes above, you'll get to fight those characters(?) after a witty dialogue. Do know though that there is a side-story regarding the Hero Mastery and Dengeki Dungeons. If you want to find out about it, then try unlocking and completing the Dengeki Dungeons to unlock one more stage.. ;)
This game has a whole range of equipment. From basketballs to plump bosoms, this game has it. Oh, and the awesome thing about this is that you can see the equipment that you wear. Speaking of equipment (you wanna know a secret? check out your status bar before and after changing your equipment ;D). Sound? ZHP has good enough background music in your story-related dungeons. It gets better in the Mastery Dungeons. The default background music is the Unlosing Ranger's Theme Song Medley. Medley? Yeah, equip one thing, it changes the lyrics, equip another, changes the lyrics. Let's see whether you can get them all :D. For one theme song, it sure has a lot of versions. There's a (insert unlosing ranger song types). You can also by the different versions in the music store if you are able to get the whole version playing in the Mastery Dungeon. Good luck with that :)
Breaking the fourth wall is common practice in this game. Having one of the characters mentioning that the reason the boss battle screen looks like crap is because the main character sucks cracked me up big. After each dungeon there's also a segment called "The Way of the Hero" where in two of the characters talk about what it means to be a real hero. Don't skip it :)
Yeah... He sucks...
TL:DR? Scores below
| Story | Now if you read through the whole storyline of ZHP, you should know that it’s a good plot. Sure it’s about saving the world and all but there’s also the story of how the weak main character becomes the new Unlosing Ranger. It’s nice, very nice | 9 |
| Gameplay | Gameplay is pretty much the same as other roguelikes but it also adds some stuff of their own. The levels that you gain every time you go through a dungeon are accumulated and added to your total level which also boosts your stats. A nice deviation from standard roguelikes. | 10 |
| Sound | I was kind of hesitant to give this a 10/10 but hear me out alright? This is the only game I have heard of that has more than one theme song (Just so you know… It has 10 theme songs… 10!!). You don’t believe me? Check it out online. Each theme song is awesome. You need to unlock it to play it, but it’s so worth it. | 10 |
| Replayability | Consider this. Unlocking the theme songs mentioned above takes time. Finishing the mastery dungeons takes time. Even unlocking the Dengeki (Anime) Dungeons takes time! This game is jam-packed full of things that you won’t get bored for a long time. You get tired of one thing and there’s always something else there that keeps you playing. | 10 |
| Overall | A very high score if you ask me considering this is one of those underappreciated games that have been released. This game has been received positively well by most gaming review sites. It’s kind of sad that not a lot of people play it. So try this game out. It’s fun and it’s enjoyable :) | 97.5% |
true true, your opinion is appreciated :). While you may think that it doesn't deserve the score I gave it, I feel that it deserves this score :). After all, I am posting reviews based on how I liked the game anyway :)
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