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On April 26, 2024, publisher PQube will be releasing their remaster of ACQUIRE’s classic PSP/PS3 Dungeon Crawling adventure: Class of Heroes 2G! This overlooked title may not be one of the big-time JRPGs you’ve heard of, but it clearly had enough fans demanding its return to the point of this remaster being approved. As such, it feels appropriate to judge this new title and see if it holds up, and if it is possible for a newcomer to dive right in. Let’s break down Class of Heroes 2G: Remaster Edition down bit by bit and decide for ourselves!
Party Customization – 7/10
Class of Heroes 2G is a first-person dungeon Crawling title similar to gaming classics such as Wizardry and Etrian Odyssey. The gameplay loop is quite simple as you accept quests in the game’s hub town and venture out to battle monsters with your small party.
While there isn’t much to set Class of Heroes 2G apart from its contemporaries in the genre, what is here is completely competent and fun to experiment with.
When creating your party, you’ll be tasked with selecting their race, stats, and class. You may think this is simple but what class a character can be is determined by the other factors you choose for them. As not every race can be every class and even something as simple as your alignment can lock a character out of certain classes.
There is no way to see how to become each class either, so you’ll often need to experiment with multiple characters in the basic “Common” class as you try to see what stat increases unlock which jobs.
Once you have figured out how to unlock the classes you want, leveling characters becomes an absolute joy. Leveling may be slow but the stat increases are vast and before long you’ll have a myriad of spells to cast on enemies or yourself.
Experimenting with the various ways you can handle random encounters is what this type of game lives and dies on and I’m happy to say that Class of Heroes 2G does an adequate job of providing that experience!
Dungeon Crawling – 7/10
Once you have your party layout figured out, it’s time to set off into the forest of beginnings…and likely die immediately as you try to figure out how the game works. The battle system in Class of Heroes 2G is basic but can be unforgiving if you’re a newcomer. Especially when factoring in the infirmary mechanic.
Whenever a party member dies in this game, you’ll need to spend some of your hard-earned gold to revive them. Not only is gold hard to come to buy in the early hours of the game but there is also a small chance that the character will permanently die upon spending it!
This one mechanic turns any trek into the game’s dungeons into a fearful experience with the threat of very tangible consequences. Player’s opinions on this feature will vary greatly, but as someone who had never encountered something like this in a game before it excited me.
The dungeons themselves don’t offer much unique to set them apart from other games, but they’re passable. Especially as there are plenty of fun moments such as needing to cast levitate spells to cross pits or finding trapped floors that suck away your health when passed over.
While these dungeons may be basic, there is an undeniable appeal to the gameplay loop they offer and the raw emotion the player feels knowing that at any moment a difficult monster may appear and ruin their day.
Another factor of the dungeons that I feel is worth talking about is the complete lack of music when traversing through them. Outside of battle, all you will be listening to is ambient noise. While jarring at first, it does make Class of Heroes 2G the perfect game to play while listening to podcasts.
Graphics – 6/10
When talking about the visuals Of Class of Heroes 2G, you must remember the type of game we’re talking about. This was a PSP title that was later ported to the PlayStation 3 and has now been Remastered for modern systems. So lower your expectations on what to expect from the PSP’s level.
That being said, this game doesn’t look particularly good no matter how you spin it. The 3D environments that make up the game’s dungeons and what you’ll be looking at most of the game often look poorly slapped together and can be an eyesore.
A very common experience when traversing the dungeons is the feeling of getting lost solely because every other wall looks the same. Though thankfully the dungeons aren’t randomly generated so a few runs will take care of that confusion.
As for the character and enemy portraits, you’ll see during combat, while they are all pretty fun to look at they don’t particularly stand out from those in other games and can come off as derivative. Three friends of mine asked me if I was playing through a Rance title during my playthrough which I feel is damning in of itself.
Class of Heroes 2G is not a pretty game, but once again, it would be unfair to judge a once-handheld title by the standard of modern console anime games. Take a look at some screenshots before you decide if this game is worth it for you.
Enjoyment – 7/10
Class of Heroes 2G will frustrate you, there will be several times when you make a mistake and need to either reload a save or deal with a party member being permanently gone. I had to restart my entire playthrough a few hours into this review because of a fatal string of bad luck which left me with only two party members.
In another instance, I opened a treasure chest and almost had my entire party wiped out by a trap that did mortal damage to most of them, losing nearly two hours of progress. Remember to save very often, dear readers.
However, that frustration is not an inherent negative with the game. If you can overcome the first few hours of the game you will soon end up in a satisfying gameplay loop of completing quests, slowly climbing the level ladder, and learning new skills to make those enemies that defeated you before go down like flies.
Class of Heroes 2G won’t be making waves or setting a new standard for the Dungeon Crawling genre, but I don’t think it needs to. Not every game needs to be a brave innovation and sometimes you just want to sit down and enjoy a simple experience for a few days.
If you are a fan of this type of game and have already gotten your fill with titles like Etrian Odyssey, I recommend giving Class of Heroes 2G a chance to see if you too can overcome the obstacles the game throws in your path.
Class of Heroes 2G: Remaster Edition
