Pixel Heroes: Byte and Magic Review – Quests, Combat, and Pop Culture

<p><em>Pixel Heroes&colon; Byte and Magic<&sol;em> is an old-school-style RPG that combines questing and combat with <em>Captain Underpants<&sol;em>&period; Not only <em>Captain Underpants<&sol;em>&comma; though&period; Small pop culture references surprise you along your journey&period; Are you a <em>Doctor Who<&sol;em> fan&quest; Did you enjoy <em>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas<&sol;em>&quest; If you do&comma; you are likely to bump into familiar characters in this nostalgic game created by German developer&comma; The Bitfather&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game begins with a randomized group of mercenaries from which to create your party&period; This is where the problems begin&period; Many times&comma; there won&&num;8217&semi;t be a healer available for hire&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s nearly impossible to get through a dungeon without one&period; The only way to resolve this is to click a button that once again randomizes the entire pool of heroes&period; At first&comma; you can choose from standard classes&comma; including&comma; but not limited to Adventurer&comma; Barbarian&comma; Fighter&comma; Priest&comma; or Rogue&period; Talking to NPC&&num;8217&semi;s&comma; beating bosses&comma; or reaching other checkpoints will unlock other classes&period; These classes are generally stronger and come with unique abilities&colon; Alchemist&comma; Bard&comma; Shapeshifter&comma; or Witch&comma; among others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126431" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126431" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-126431 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;11035123&sol;pi-e1497167568681&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Pixel Heroes&colon; Byte and Magic&comma; Head Up Games" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126431" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Pixel Heroes&colon; Byte and Magic&comma; Head Up Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The humorous side of the game sets in right away&period; A brief bio describes each potential party member&period; These bios seem to be created from a sort of Mad Libs script&period; &&num;8220&semi;He once had an argument with a nice ring&period;&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8220&semi;She doesn&&num;8217&semi;t believe in large ducks&period;&&num;8221&semi; When your party is selected and you begin to interact with NPC&&num;8217&semi;s outside of the start building&comma; things become even more bizarre&period; Each townsperson is quirky and unique&period; My personal favorite townspeople are the men who sell exclamation points to wear above your head&period; Although&comma; they won&&num;8217&semi;t sell one to you&comma; of course&period; They are only available to those who assign the quests&comma; not the heroes who complete them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You are able to leave town as soon as you have acquired a quest&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll encounter random events along the way to the quest dungeon&period; The results of those interactions are not always the same&period; My first play through the game&comma; I encountered a dancing tentacle&period; I decided to dance along&comma; and nothing happened&period; When I encountered him later in my journey&comma; I decided to dance with him again&period; However&comma; we made too much noise the second time&period; Monsters heard us and attacked&period; The encounters start to become repetitive early in the game&comma; but the fact that the outcomes change help to prevent you from racing through them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126432" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126432" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-126432 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;11035134&sol;PixelHeroes&lowbar;Battle&lowbar;Logo-e1497167558342&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Pixel Heroes&colon; Byte and Magic&comma; Head Up Games" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126432" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Pixel Heroes&colon; Byte and Magic&comma; Head Up Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>When you reach the dungeon&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll have one last chance to equip items to your heroes before entering the first room&period; Each dungeon has eight rooms including enemy fights&comma; treasure chest encounters&comma; or the boss&period; Most of the time&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll be fighting enemies&period; Combat is the same for all fights&period; You put all three of your party members up against three enemies&period; Each of your fighters has two equipped items with which to attack&sol;heal and two skills&period; Combat simply consists of going back and forth&comma; choosing one of those four options for every hero&period; It becomes repetitive early on and incredibly boring on a console&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Your heroes acquire items and XP after a battle&period; The items are procedurally-generated and rarely worth keeping around&period; This is okay though&comma; because your inventory is hard to manage&comma; and it will fill up quickly&period; Once you leave town&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re unable to return and sell items until you&&num;8217&semi;ve completed the quest you accepted&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s no way to automatically sort your inventory&comma; so I found myself just tossing everything I didn&&num;8217&semi;t have any use for&period; I only kept items with status effects I could use in the future&period; I discarded everything else immediately&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126433" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126433" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-126433 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;11035143&sol;PixelHeroes&lowbar;Inventory&lowbar;logo-e1497167542842&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Pixel Heroes&colon; Byte and Magic&comma; Head Up Games" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126433" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Pixel Heroes&colon; Byte and Magic&comma; Head Up Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>For a relatively simple game&comma; I had more frustration with the controls than I would have expected&period; On the PS4 version of <em>Pixel Heroes&colon; Byte and Magic<&sol;em>&comma; you can choose to have snapping controls or a free cursor&period; Neither option lets you use the directional buttons&comma; only the left joystick&period; I generally prefer snapping controls on a game like this&comma; but trying to navigate an inventory like the one shown above with a joystick and snapping controls was irritating&period; The free cursor option worked better&comma; but it was slow&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All in all&comma; I appreciated the lightheartedness of <em>Pixel Heroes&colon; Byte and Magic<&sol;em>&comma; but I think the developers were too dependent on humor to save an otherwise boring game&period; On a console&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s too repetitive&comma; but I would score this higher on a mobile platform&period; The game wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t seem as repetitive if you could pick it up and set it down for short increments of time&period; If you are interested in old-school RPG&&num;8217&semi;s&comma; I recommend trying this on Android or iOS before picking it up for PS4&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center"><strong>A PS4 review copy of <em>Pixel Heroes&colon; Byte and Magic<&sol;em> was provided by Head Up Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;