Architect Recommends: HEARTBEAT (Patreon)

When doing these recommendations I always try to choose some interesting or unknown titles so here’s a real out of left field entry, HEARTBEAT, or at least it’s demo.

The full game isn’t out yet but the demo is insanely comprehensive with a good 2-4 hours of content to play so you’ve really got no excuse not to pick it up.

HEARTBEAT is in every way a love letter to classic JRPGs, as you might be able to notice from the screenshot up there, its artstyle and world filled with cute critters takes heavy influence from the GameBoy Advance Pokemon titles and the battle system is very reminiscent of a Mother/Final Fantasy crossover.

So what sets HEARTBEAT apart from its clear inspirations? Well, not much, to be completely honest. If you don’t like menu based combat and classic world puzzles like block pushing and a lot of talking to NPCs then there’s nothing here that will convince you to stay, but if you’re already a JRPG fan, HEARTBEAT is a refreshing new spin on old ideas.

Most notably is the way combat works, gone are the days of waiting for endless combat animations or having to cycle through eight different menus to cast a spell, every fight is clean, slick and yet no less tactical leading to a sense of kinetic satisfaction that JRPGs can rarely muster. That, combined with a kickass soundtrack and some actual fight complexity even in the first few hours, immediately elevated HEARTBEAT’s combat above other games which just rip off final fantasy. 

Your party members are all Mogs, cute furry creatures which, contrary to Pokemon, all of human intelligence and are not just animals- something the game makes very clear to point out. Each one you gather up has a unique set of abilities and role in your party, for example your starter catfriend is a healer and physical attacker, whereas a lightning-infused chimera you pick up later on fills the role of a squishy caster. Each of these guys have their own personalities which are for the most part pretty charming and never outstay their welcome in the case of the more one-note additions. They’ve also got abilities that can be used to solve puzzles and get around on the map like pushing blocks around or entering hidden pathways that break up the action nicely and help the world feel a little more alive.

Speaking of which, the writing in HEARTBEAT is really quite impressive, it’s nothing too groundbreaking or dramatic, but what is on display is clean, concise and generally lighthearted. There’s a lot of jokes on display and a fun collection of characters but that’s never at the expense of actual thematic exploration which I won’t spoil here but HEARTBEAT certainly goes further than you’d expect. HEARTBEAT doesn’t fall into the trap of bogging you down in early exposition but also gives it’s characters and their arcs room to breathe, even going so far as to have party members even disagree and argue, a surprising rarity in my experience.

All in all, HEARTBEAT is a new take on the classic JRPG format for existing fans of the genre who’ve gotten a bit tired of being bogged down in filler content and angsty writing and want something fresh that’s still clearly an homage to the style. And if you’re looking for something to convince you that not all RPGs take 10 hours to get going and require lots of grinding then HEARTBEAT might be able to win you over.

HEARTBEAT is available here: https://shepple.itch.io/heartbeat