Hero's 2nd Memory review - An experience worth remembering?

Hero's 2nd Memory is a game that you think you know going into it. It looks like a free to play shooter, feels like a free to play shooter, but ultimately, it isn't.

Though it doesn't exactly hold your hand, it's a big old mixie bag of things and not all of them are complementary. The hefty ask in permissions including access to contacts, camera, and more, isn't exactly welcome either.

But, the big question here is whether it's a good game or not. I can't say the answer will be that surprising.

You play as an amnesia-struck warrior on a quest to rid the land of monsters and bring down the devil. After you're walked through a series of explanations and shown around the game's general interface, it's off to fight with you.

Enemies are plentiful, but the controls are super easy. You hold down on the screen and slide from side to side to shoot, and swipe upwards to throw out a burst of magic and push nearby foes back.

Each time you let go, time slows down and gives you a chance to catch up. You've got a very limited health bar, stamina bar, and coin counter to keep an eye on.

Depending on how strong you are and how much you've upgraded your hero, enemies go down in a couple of shots. But some of them charge and some them shoot stuff at you.

Once they die, they burst into coins like something out of Scott Pilgrim, and it's up to you to catch them and whatever rarer rewards they drop. If you miss them they're gone for good.

You can snatch a power-up or two between stages which gives you abilities like double shot, extra XP, a magnet, and so on, but they don't last for very long.

Depending on the stage you're in you'll be able to stop off in taverns mid-way through to stock up on health potions, strengthen your sword, or bulk up on armour.

As thrilling as the game is in short bursts, it also lacks in a lot of areas which eventually makes it more of a chore than it ought to be.

You're only given a slot for two health potions in your inventory, a single one of which can only fill up little more than a third of your health bar.

After completing a level and moving onto the next one you'll start off with your previous health, meaning you're at a disadvantage from the get go.

This isn't a major deal to begin with, but as the levels go on you start to face boss-like enemies before you get to the tavern to buy up your whole two health potions.

Some of the descriptions aren't particularly helpful in the game either. For example in the shop, the body armour is labelled "reduces damage to monsters", which seems a little backwards.

Other phrasing throughout just seems a little blunt and awkward, though this is highly likely due to translation from its original language.

It also feels like the difficulty curve seesaws all over the place with some earlier bosses being harder and others being a lot easier. Again, that's a smaller detail.

All in all the game feels a little rough around the edges. The response was great and performance was unarguably brilliant considering the amount of enemies on-screen.

Its fault lies in its empty, half-woven plot, inconsistent foes, rough translation, repetitive gameplay, and generally forgettable experience.

It has its moments, for sure, just not enough of them.