A Look At Stuff You Probably Never Heard Of: Heartbeat
Oh boy!!!! I’ve been looking forward to both playing this game and talking about it for a long while! I’ve been following this game very closely since I learned about it thanks to a video from Nitro Rad and anxiously awaited the full release of the game. And with Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I figured now would be a good time to talk about it. So now, here we are. I give you… Heartbeat! I want to mention that I wanted to take a look at this the same month this was released or the following month, but… I couldn’t finish it in time…
Heartbeat is an Indie RPG created by Shepple. She did the writing, graphics, and a few other things. However, the music was done by Harmonicblend, Pringle helped with programming, and Sil helped with extra graphics. Overall, the group is known as Chumbosoft. The game was made in RPG Maker MV and was in development for 2 years before being released on Itch.io on September 15th, 2018. It was later released on Steam on December 12th of the same year.
The game starts in Sunwich, a town in Outset. A young woman named Eve Staccato has been living with her grandfather in his shop alongside her Mogwai partner, a Cat Sith named Klein. Eve is a Conjurer, someone who forms a pact with a Mogwai and the two work together, often times the human’s heart making their Mog partner stronger. Her grandfather gives her the task to deliver a package to Solburg, only to quickly find herself getting wrapped up in one adventure after another, meeting other Mogs and Conjurers along the way.
On the Overworld, enemies can be seen walking around and coming into contact with them starts a battle. Enemies in the overworld come in three different manners; skittish ones that avoid the player when possible, neutral ones that go wherever with no concern for the player, and aggressive ones that directly approach the player when they get close. And each character in the party has special abilities that only they can use in the Overworld, like fishing, fitting into small spaces, or seeing invisible paths.
In battle, things play much like any other RPG game; characters taking turns in battle with the order being decided based on their speed. However, instead of “Health” and “Mana”, characters have “Pulse” and “Beat” respectively. And there is a “Heart” meter which, when filled to 100, allows one character to perform a powerful attack. There is also an AI controlled party member the player attains early own who is able to transform based on the Mog DNA gained throughout the story to assist the party in a variety of ways.
The sprites in the game are incredibly colorful, having a style all of its own. While the character sprites are all very simple, yet manage to make each and every character stand out from each other and have a lot of detail. And the vast music library all vary greatly from each other. They can be upbeat and joyful or sad and depressing depending on what the situation calls for.
So now it’s time to go over my Final Recommendation:
Never Let Go Of It||Get It||Hold Onto It||Try It||Consider It||Stay Away From It
MAN! I am SO glad I waited patiently until this game was released! This game is incredibly cute and so much fun! And those who know me know that I’m a huge mythology buff. The Mogs in the game consist of creatures like the aforementioned Cat Sith, but also Kistunes, Minotaurs, and Manticores just to name a few. And each and every Mog has an elemental affinity and with it, an element can be strong against another type, much Like Pokemon. For example; Volt Mogs are weak to Earth attacks and Earth Mogs are weak to Ice attacks. However, unlike Pokemon, elemental strengths and weaknesses are incredibly simple. One is weak to another, resistant to another, and take normal damage from the others.
And a massive saving grace in this game is that you have the ability to save the game whenever you want. Simply pausing the game and clicking on “File” allows you to save the game, no matter where you are. You’re also given the choice to save when something important happens. The game also saves automatically a certain points, such as when sleeping on a Sheepsquatch bed.
However, there are a few problems I have, at least during my playthrough. Biggest one being that early in the game, Klein can easily be taken out with one or two Toxic attacks. And if a Toxic Mog uses a Multi-Hit attack on Klein, she can very easily be defeated. But honestly, it’s more of a nitpick if anything and isn’t a major issue, especially since the problem is very quickly rectified.
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