Boot Hill Heroes

Boot Hill Heroes is one of those games. It's clunky, weird looking and you can list a lot of flaws when you think back on it, but it's fun and has its charms. There's always a "but" that comes up whenever I think back about it.

The story isn't that deep, BUT it's delivered well enough through how it's paced.
The combat is an absolute ATB mess, BUT each encounter types has its own flavor text and rewards you for playing well.
There's a deep equipment customization that allows weapon to stay relevant beyond its attack stat, BUT grinding for reagents is a joke and comes too late into the game.

Honestly, the biggest problem I have with this game is that it's supposed to be a multi part story and in nearly the decade the first game came out there's no signs of a conclusion. On the plus side, the dev still seem to keep an eye for this series.

Utterly fantastic. Boot Hill Heroes tells a story in a classic western vein about a boy following in his father's footsteps and dealing with the past left behind. It is incredibly engaging and every bit you learn leaves you wanting to know more, accompanied by a great soundtrack (composed by Jake Kaufman) that sets the mood in every scene. The combat is also excellent, with an active battle system that leaves battles involved but not overly tedious. My only real complaints that the postgame is a pain to go through, and there are some technical issues too, mainly controller mapping not working and settings not being saved. Overall I would absolutely recommend it, though maybe on another platform if you can get it there.

The story and overall experience of this game is best enjoyed on the Steam Deck. It is a very good game to just play on the PC too as a wonderful tribute to the West, Earthbound, JRPGs and just good videogame storytelling. However, the game just feel "right" on the Steamdeck. Although playing this game on a big screen with friends is also fun once you unlock new party members your friends can actually control them in battle.

I know a lot of RPGs have that function even though it is not widely used but more should.

The written story in this game is extremely well crafted. I really like the thought put into the writing. It is also fun to play combat wise and the music was well composed.

If you like Earthbound, Cowboy Westerns, and intense RPG battles you can play with friends. I highly recommend it. It's a short game with 10 hours of main story and a couple hours of endgame content. But it's a solid experience and has it's charm. Being able to dodge enemy attacks before they hit with good timing is a great feeling and there's lots of potential strategies you can take. I think having your friends being able to manage their own characters while the main character runs around the world is a good take on coop RPGs. A forewarning though for looking to play with a group of 4, you don't get a consistent party of 4 until halfway in the game, but the endgame dungeon is a challenging effort for 4 people.

This game is a treat. The battles are interesting, the characters are funny, the story becomes quite engaging when the plot thickens. The villains are well realized and so is the situation between the Native American village and the white settlers. The game visually pulls inspiration from Chrono Trigger and the more obvious Mother series. One of the more reoccurring villains early on has a laugh that rivals Kefka's from FF6, and the music is outstandingly, impressively identical to the music in that game somehow. Not sure how they pulled that off, but the composer should be complimented a good deal for this feat.

I am halfway through the game as I type this. I will complete it soon and begin the sequel Boot Hill Bounties at some point. I quite recommend...

With how popular the mother series, and all the attention Oddity is getting as a mother fan-game; it is BANANAS that this game isnt huge.

Honestly, I feel like the developers took out all the annoying parts of the mother series and really left a purely polished mother-like game.

I feel like no in-game item mechanic, and your party autohealing after every battle is just SO convenient and nice. It makes the game simply focus on each battle and doesnt make a hassle to explore.

When I was first on the fence to pick up this game; I was really turned off by the theme.
I really want another Mother game, with the wacky characters, and high fantasy low sci-fi themes.
On the contrary, this game is quite grounded, with very little to no fantasy... very spaghetti western. It is something that you would expect out of Red Dead... but a mother-like game? Idk, not sure it would work...

Welp, glad to say I was so wrong, it works, and it is super engaging!

This game needs more attention for sure, I really hope it becomes a classic in the future!

Boot Hill Heroes is one of the best RPGs I've played in recent years. Exceptional storytelling, awesome soundtrack, and an interesting combat system. I went into this game expecting a mediocre RPGMaker experience to clear out my backlog, not something that was going to get me hooked and begging for more.

First thing that I have to say is congratulations to the developer for making their game. I know that's a silly way to start a negative review, but I can tell that the developer was interested in their project. However, their skills seemed to lack in certain areas, and I think they focused too much on aspects that weren't as important.

Needless to say, Boot Hill Heroes is very rough around the edges. Navigating your character around is annoying at times, because a ton of areas are relatively tight in space, and your character clips on so many objects. The developer went with an Earthbound style layout where some areas or objects are skewed diagonally, such as streets, houses, beds or tables, etc. And there are objects lying around that you have to interact with, and the hit boxes for those are iffy. You have to keep edging your way around things (e.g., tables) to get the right position to pick something up.

NPCs also have obscure hit boxes, where you have to get nearly one pixel next to them before they will react. Sometimes I'd have to hit the interact button multiple times before anything happens. Or you have things like overlapping hit boxes. One time I was trying to talk to an NPC and it kept interacting with a poster behind them.

And of course that applies to any object that blocks your path. I had lots of places where I'd have to keep moving away, then up/down or left/right to readjust the character so they'd fit into something. There's very little leeway for moving around objects, unless the developer forgot a hitbox around an NPC, etc. One of the NPCs right at the beginning of the tribal village didn't have a hitbox so you could walk through them, while the other one had the above issue of needing just the right spot to talk.

Now, here's one aspect where I think the developer incorrectly focused: the number of NPCs and the "uniqueness." Every NPC is differently designed than another, but there's quite a lot of NPCs who don't look... great. And they also have different names in their dialogue to try to make them as unique as possible. While the goal is commendable, it doesn't add a whole lot when 80% of them are non-critical and only give one dialogue box of general info. The sheer number also makes it easy to forget them, and as said before, not every one is drawn that well. It would've been much better to scale down areas and actually focus upon NPCs as stronger characters instead of tallying them up.

Along with the idea of art in the game, it's imbalanced in that the developer tried to make large areas and tons of creatures, but then things like battle screen backdrops, wanted posters and other "story" cutscene art seem poorly done. The backdrops for battles in particular are not good to look at, and some look like smeared colors. There's a clear difference in quality between the pixel art for areas, design of characters, design of enemies in battle, and the backdrops in battle.

Now, onto the actual battles. The way the game works is you have different types of weapons (i.e., direct melee, guns, bows, throwables, etc.) that you swap between, but you also have to equip your combat moves, called "Vantages." A lot of the damage-dealing Vantages correspond only to specific weapon types, so if you end up swapping weapons, you likely have to swap your Vantages. The fact that Vantages are literally basic attacks as well as "skills" makes the swapping bothersome. It's nice if you really go into customizing, but having to swap even the most basic attacks back and forth is silly.

Plus, as far I'd gotten, I felt like the Vantages were a bit wasted. You can unlock a lot of them, but many of the default abilities seemed to work fine the entire time. No enemies had really made me think "I need to use something else." You can unlock more Vantages by defeating enemies while wearing new hats, which I did. And I also collected as much treasure as possible (including armor and hats in chests) on most screens. But still, nothing seemed like an absolute must to use because basic abilities worked alright, and most battles ended in 2 to 4 turns unless enemies avoided damage. Also, I haven't bought anything from the shops (nor even sold anything) unless required by story moments, because I never felt like I needed to.

So the Vantage system is somewhat of a good idea, but I don't think the battle system really made it worthwhile. And on the flip side, if the battle system forced you to switch skills often (i.e., because of enemies requiring different skills), then it'd become tedious with swapping back and forth.

Also, one more gripe about the battle system is scrolling text blocks. I forgot to mention so far that your characters (and enemies) build up attack gauges. And whenever enemies attack, it pauses battle (including gauges) and you see a text block appear on the right side of the screen, which scrolls all the way across to the other side. Only once the box disappears does the battle resume and the gauges start loading again. Sometimes those messages are pretty long and it can take 3 to 5 seconds before battle resumes. And the more enemies on screen, the longer you'll have these time gaps. It was especially frustrating when I was fighting 4 mice and it kept stalling, because there's no way to skip the box. There is a "Slow/Normal/Fast" option for battles, but even on Fast, the box still pauses combat and moves at the same pace as Normal.

So the game pausing battles like that started to get on my nerves a bit, especially since there are a lot of enemies spread around areas. There was one area which had to have close to 20 enemies running around on it, if not more. That's too many enemies for one place, and I think I only gained one level across those battles, so I feel like there should be a lot less battles and everything should be rescaled.

Now, to round this out with the story. So far, besides random NPCs giving some general info, the most I'd learned was about the Saints-Little Gang you see at the beginning of the game. I'm almost 6 hours into the game and the only "big" cutscenes were like 3 different versions of introducing the same gang. I had met what seemed to be all of the party members from the game's trailer, but had yet to build a whole party. The game boasts a 4 person party and even highlights co-op, but this far into the game and there was still no party. You keep meeting the party members and make 2-person groups, and then they keep leaving.

And the game seems to go at a relatively mismatched pace. It leads you into believing big things are going to happen but keeps derailing them, or you wind up in weird places and have to do fetch quests. The point I decided to give it a rest was when I had to go hunting animals (in combat) with a mandatory weak weapon. An NPC expected me to return with some materials that you get from RNG distribution. I killed probably 10 of the enemies before getting enough of the materials (antlers, in particular), and prior to that had a few battles where they'd also ran away when I got them low on HP.

Finally, I got the materials and went back to the NPC and they said to get my weaponry imbued with powers. I found that you could upgrade weapons and that the antlers were part of a recipe to increase attack power. I went to increase my current main weapon (and not the weak knife), but the NPC wasn't happy. The game wanted me to use the materials I had just farmed to upgrade a weapon I was sure I wouldn't use again. I didn't want to have to farm for more or spend money on it. I wanted to upgrade a weapon of my choice!

So there is where I quit. The game started off fine but then leaned into a half-Earthbound style without the charm, and just failed to hold my interest. My current plan is to drop this and play the sequel. Since it's been a few years between the two, I'll see if the developer has improved on various aspects.

This game is great (for it's price range).

Combat/Gameplay is both intuitive and satisfying. It provides enough challenge to engage you, but not enough to aggitate or demoralize. If you're looking for a rpg that will challenge your min/max skills this is definitely now for you; However for casual gamers, children, non gamers, and people looking for a "gate-way" game for rpg's, this is perfect.

The story line is fairly solid, with simple but enjoyable characters with a story that is both suitable for a younger audience, and deals with interesting and mature subject matter.

Graphics, and sound, are definitely well represented, but neither truly stand out (except for fans of the mother-series who will likely find the art style very nostalgic).

Again, overall this game is a good choice for any console rpg fans and for those who are looking for a comfort rpg.

Wild Arms meets Earthbound.

I like the gameplay and the look.
I only wish they made it more aparent from the getgo that your dog is the save point.

Pretty immersive - I played the whole thing with my girlfriend in a few days. Those nostalgic, sprite style graphics are quite charming. There's a big lot of indie games like that, I know, but some developers are especially meticulous in their pixel art as in this case. The plot is not as sophisticated as classic titles' (only people who played Chrono Trigger and the such will get what I mean), still amazing anyway, carrying a handful of quick-witted lines. Besides, the ethnic aspects were kindly depicted and that's a major plus... I hope that there really is a sequel. 8/10

A retro RPG set in a whimsical take on the old west. The graphics are quite good with some expressive sprite animation that reminds me of good SNES era RPG's. The story is fairly straight forward and full of the usual western cliches, but its well enough told and builds to a good conclusion at the end of this chapter, certainly setting up interest for whats going to happen in the next chapter. The combat is turn based but each action needs a certain charge before it will perform, so a large part of the strategy in combat is timing, picking what moves to use and when. This really makes the combats quite tactical and raises them above the usual "Pick an option from the menu and wait" fare thats typical of older JRPG. Skills ("vantages") are learned by wearing different hats, after each combat you will get a certain amount of skill points that will be assigned to the skill set the hat gives you, once you have earned enough for a skill you learn it permanently, even if you take the hat off. You can only have four skills equiped at once so this adds another wrinkle to the already interesting combat. All in all I had a great time with this game in the 15 odd hours it took me to complete, well worth the price.

Pros:
Good amount of content for the price
Its the wild west
Good combat system that is deeper than you might expect

Cons:
Some grinding
Final boss will murder your face (You can click retry until you beat him though)

I bought this game because it was the only one appearing researching "Earthbound", At first I didn't think so, but now I do think it reminds me of Earthbound, one of the best RPG I have ever played (I am speaking about the SNES game). It's original, lots of humour, nice charactors. I am loving it

Some days later... I have finished the game.. not really. The game has not a real end and you'll fight most of the outlaws (all but one) in the next episodes. I am not too disappointed as I look forward to playing Boot Hill 2 and 3. It means this beautiful game is not over! I read there is a new DLC coming soon and I'll check the page everyday

[Spoiler-Free Review]

Setting an RPG in the spaghetti west just makes so much sense!
Boot Hill Heroes is a modern RPG designed as a sort of homage to the glory days of the Role Playing and Wild West genres. The story is easy to follow and progresses at a snappy pace, the difficulty is forgiving (for the most part), and while it doesn’t allow for true ‘save anywhere!’ functionality, you’ll never feel locked-in to a play session beyond what your time allows. Despite being a linear experience overall, the game still manages to deliver a large scope RPG feel (complete with unique characters, game mechanics, and plot twists and turns throughout).

It isn’t just an Earthbound clone.
What really distinguishes this game is the setting. Everything from the types of enemies you encounter, to the locales you visit, and the weapons at your disposal remain faithful to the genre and lend a sense of authenticity to the entire experience. It's charming and cohesive, with big entrances and over-the-top performances from a cast of characters the likes of which you’d expect to find in Vaudeville. I won’t give anything away but the characters (esp. the villains) are the true stars of the game and they don’t disappoint.

This game has heart!
Every character in the game is completely unique (in appearance and dialogue). It’s hard to imagine how much work went into creating a world, one character and one house at a time, but you'll notice how meticulously places are decorated and arranged. It's a small window into who they are and the way they live. In addition to the dinnerware, you’ll find livestock penned in barns and stables, people working the farms and such: towns feel alive.

Hat Mechanic
Hats are the means by which your characters change their appearances and acquire new abilities. They’re equipped, but don’t produce any defensive bonuses. This is crucial to what makes them work, once you've unlocked the skills associated with a new hat, you can choose to wear another hat for purely aesthetic purposes. In this way, you'll never have to worry about hats being outclassed by others discovered down the line. It’s a system that encourages experimentation. Receiving new hats throughout your adventure never feels old, you'll rush to try each one on as soon as you get them. Unfortunately there is some overlap in unlocked abilities so not every hat provides you with a completely new set of unlearned skills.

The writing is clever and witty!
Especially in battles where enemies are introduced and later eulogized depending on your performance. I wish there was a greater variety of phrases rather than one or two for each type of foe, but I always looked forward to seeing how they would come to grips with being defeated: I know at least one or two lives were changed thanks to my relentless beatings.

Dialogue could use a bit of tightening up overall. In battles you'll sometimes get a message detailing every aspect of what an enemy attack does. Lick is probably the most egregious example of what I’m trying to describe here, “Weak physical damage with small chance for confusion that slightly heals the user.” Thankfully, the developer has demonstrated a willingness to address issues as they're identified.

The graphics in battles aren’t the best…
A bit rough around the edges shall we say? Don’t expect to be blown away. Some of the enemies look like they were created in MS Paint. In addition, the font style (all caps, some spacing issues) makes it somewhat difficult to read what’s being said at times. I’m not saying you can’t read it, I’m saying you’ll appreciate how easy it is to read text in other games.

The Music/Soundtrack!!!
Does the industry have an award for Videogame Music of the Year? What won? This is better.

Missing content from PS Vita version?
This is the definitive package, all content released on other platforms is being included in the Steam release.

Post-Release Support?
Boot Hill Heroes Part 1 is finished but new features have been added post-release (including a new mini map feature in the latest patch). Since the game is being spread out over multiple episodes, the developer has seen fit to reward early adopters by offering each DLC release free at launch (free for one week), the price then becomes $0.99 each. What does this mean? Buy the game now and get all future episodes for free.

TLDR:
If you've got any interest in RPG games of old, get Boot Hill Heroes. This game is special.

If you are a fan of SNES rpg's (Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy), you'll like this game. It has that Earthbound asthetic which is pleasing to the eyes. There are also some Earthbound refences hidden in there as well. The developers worked hard on this game. The music is composed by Jake "Virt" Kaufman the composer for Shovel Knight, he is very talented, the music sets the tone. Great game, I highly recommend this game.

Until now I defeated Monty Spades in the game and I like to say this is one of the most worthy PC games ever. Best of 2014. I simply love the chaotic yet beautiful multiplayer and the setting is amazing! Despite a few bugs now and there, it's a wonderful game! You won't regret it for sure! Hope to see more work like this in the future!^^

Did you ever wonder what Earthbound: Wild West would look like?

Of course you have, so play this game.

If not, you're a sad person and need to play this game.

If you don't know what Earthbound is, you're an even sadder person who really needs to play this game and then play Earthbound. Or the other way around, doesn't matter.

With nods to Earthbound and Classic Westerns, Boot Hill Heroes part 1 is a well-done entry in what could be a really good trilogy.

10 years ago, a hero averted disaster by bringing the leader of the Saint's Little - the most ruthless gang in all of Bronco County - to justice....but that was 10 years ago. I mean what is that? A decade? That's a mighty long time. It's time enough for all the Saint's Little Gang to plan for their return. Chaos is brewing, and it's up to a new generation of heroes to put a stop to it. Will they succeed? Or is it going to be their last round-up? Well, since this is just the beginning, I'd hate to imagine they failed their quest before it even started.

Earthbound gets mentioned often when discussing this game, and for good reason. Both games share similar aspects such as perspective and enemies appearing on the map rather than at random. BHH also has some obvious call-backs, which can be found in Kickstart Creek, but we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here. Let's talk about the biggest difference, the battle-system.

This game uses an active battle-system. Each character (up to 4) can equip four vantages. These can consist of attacks, healing abilities, stances, and so on. Having the right combination of vantages for battle is a necessity. Attacking is more than just stabbing or shooting something until it falls over. You gotta figure out a strategy. Do you pick the enemy apart with a thousand cuts? Debilitate them with several status effects? Or save up for those powerful attacks? There isn't an "item" option in battle. You can't hand someone a sarsaparilla if their health is low. Either have someone equip a healing vantage, or make proper use of stances. Stances are the cheapest abilities, and for good reason. They put characters on the defensive, reducing or outright avoiding damage. There are many stances, some not even defensive at all.

Meter management is an essential tactic. Using abilities requires power, and it can take awhile to use the most devastating attacks. The same goes for the enemy. Even when you don't know their next move, you always know how long it'll take them to perform it. That's the key moment to go in any stances that you have. Not doing so is a fatal mistake. Still, death isn't quite the end in battle, your characters will recover given enough time, but they'll be worse off. Wounded party members tend to bleed out, become less resistant to status effects, and generally have a tougher time staying alive. If they accrue too many wounds, they're permanently out. Okay, I mean permanent as in: "until they see a doctor" but whatever. Basically, you have to go into battle with the mindset that anything you can do, the enemy can do as well.

Like I said though, this is just the beginning of the trilogy. It only takes about 7 or 8 hours to reach the end of this chapter, and that's hardly enough time to get your boots wet. However, there are several battles that will require an understanding of how the west was won, and they're not the kind you can grind enough experience to breeze through. I expect battles in the next two entries to emphasize this unique and fun battle-system.

Some other things I'll note:

-There are no clone NPCs. Usually with these 16-bit RPGs we see 20 dozen of the same townspeople everywhere. Not so with this game, everyone is different.
-I'd be lying if I said that the music doesn't elevate this game. Jake "virt" Kaufman provides a great soundtrack.
-Easy (and missable!) achievements. Pay attention to your surroundings.

In short, Boot Hill Heroes is on the right track. Hopefully subsequent entries are even better, I'd hate to see such a promising start go to waste.

This is a wonderful little cartoon Wild West game that is highly reminiscent of Earthbound, primarily in regards to the graphics and following along with its theme faithfully. The jokes and writing are good, the story is serviceable. However, the gameplay is very uneven in my experience - combat is creative and varied but very unforgiving at times as well, with the primary 'improvements' system feeling a little underused with how rushed the plot and locations feel when going through them.

It's a fine game and worth the price, but with those caveats in mind it's not for everyone.

I picked this up on sale because I'm all for traditional SNES-era RPGs. What I found was something so very similar to one of my all-time favorite games, Earthbound. This beauty has similar artwork, music, animations, and fight mechanics. The only difference is, it's set in the late 1800s in a western setting. Pardon me while I go play this game. As an added bonus, you can use a Microsoft controller for Windows, or, I can only assume, retro USB gamepads.

Update after ten minutes of gameplay: This game features all of the best aspects of the Mother game series! This is definitely getting finished and put upon my proverbial game mantle. Games like this deserve to be played.