Разработчик: Pirate Software
Описание
- Follow Lore and Baron on their adventures through time and space.
- Handle combat through a series of unique mini-games with varying objectives.
- Change the story through exploration and interaction with the world.
- A massive series of optional cryptographic puzzles that can be solved as a community.
- Varying environments with unique pixel art, an inspired soundtrack, and tons of extra socks.
- That awful feeling when you do something terrible to someone who loves you.
- More gags than you can shake a stick at. Binder can lend you one of his if you don't bring your own.
- Advanced sadness.
Heartbound does not use the traditional systems of Levels, Experience, or Consumables. Everything is skill-based and combat can change based on your relationships with others or things you have done. Weapons can be found throughout the world and they augment how much damage you deal in certain situations.
Every enemy you encounter has unique mini-games that you will not see anywhere else in the game. There are no random battles and a number of encounters are avoidable based on how you progress. Combat never ends in death and defeating someone allows you to see their memories from their perspective. What you do from there is up to you.
Поддерживаемые языки: english, portuguese - brazil, french, russian, spanish - latin america, japanese
Системные требования
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- Processor: 1.2Ghz+
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: 512MB
- Storage: 500 MB available space
- Additional Notes: This game is locked to 60 frames per second.
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Mac
- Processor: 1.2Ghz+
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: 512MB
- Storage: 500 MB available space
- Additional Notes: This game is locked to 60 frames per second.
Linux
- Processor: 1.2Ghz+
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: 512MB
- Storage: 500 MB available space
- Additional Notes: This game is locked to 60 frames per second.
Отзывы пользователей
Released 6 years ago and has about zero updates or progress to be found. Meanwhile the developer streams all day, and actively works on other things. Blames the community for it. As the studio name implies, its better to pirate this software.
Blaming the community for the lack of updates is scummy and I want better from a developer, it's a shame that I supported this if this is the way you act, be better.
Very frustrating that this game feel like it's never going to be finished I felt like it has a solid foundation but It just seems abandoned for the past year. Im willing to check it out once 1.0 launches but right now it feels like a victim of scope creep
I've been a supporter since I was 13 years old. Bought the game in 2018 and played all there was at the time.
Since then I thought to myself "I don't want to play it in pieces! I'll wait for the full release!".
I'm 20 now, halfway through college and thinking I'm going to find a job before I play this game again.
Almost a YandereDev situation, but the code is decent.
I respect Thor and I know game dev is hard.... but it's been almost 10 years.... :(
Alright, I gave this game a fair shake, but I honestly can't recommend it.
The art, the music, and the presentation are all phenomenal, BUT...
The writing is... not great. It tries way too hard to be an emotional indie game, but it feels like it's just trying to tell you how you should feel by having the main character cry and sniffle every few lines. If you make your protagonist a crybaby, you are robbing your player the opportunity to feel those moments themselves. Fuck, hold on, I feel like that's not a good way to word it.
Okay, so, like, whenever a character cries during emotional moments, it break the tension in the player. The character is acting as the outlet for the built up emotional tension and not the player. In a game or most works of fiction, a crying protagonist is like the word "Fuck" in a PG-13 movie. You only get one, maybe two times tops for it to be effective. It's supposed to punctuate emotional moments.
Every time Lore sniffles about his lost dog or the alluded parental abuse, it kind of feels like I'm being told how I should feel instead of being guided to feel those emotions through subtle storytelling!
YOU CAN'T JUST HAVE YOUR CHARACTERS SAY HOW THEY FEEL!
THAT MAKES ME FEEL ANGRY!
Okay, now on to gameplay:
. . .
You walk, and you interact with things. Most "combat" are tiny mini-games that feels like there's no real lose state to them, at least from what I played. Think of it like... you vaguely described what undertale was to a bunch of devs who never heard of it, and expected them to make a game right then and there. That's what this feels like. It even has the same heart motif!
Undertale, Delta Rune, Omori, Night in the Woods, OFF, Lisa the Painful, and Eastward this is not.
It could have been, but... well, you know...
I like the art style and idea of the game.
But I found out the game got apparantly abondend and only has 3~ hours of content if you are slow.
For that it's way too expensive in my opinion and I wont recommend anyone buying it.
Maybe at some point the game will receive a real update and the promised content, but it just doesn't looks like it, especially considering it has been out since 6 years.
At some point there was a monthly game update video, but those are long gone and the main developer is doing other stuff and working on another game.
In the Early-Access info box it states following:
„Every few months we release a new major content patch until we finish the game. Each content patch will include additional areas or characters and a continuation of the story. Things have been severely delayed due to Covid19 and other health issues but we're not stopping development until the game is finished.“
Which is a lie and nothing has been communicated at least not on official channels.
Dev abandoned the game just to become a streamer after a long hiatus. Can't believe I paid full price for this on release back in the day and it's still not finished.
Save your money and buy games from developers that actually DEVELOP their games.
game is out for 7+ years, bought it a year ago and still no updates
Wish it was complete years ago, dont buy it.
posting the review now because I genuinely forgot it exists
It’s been 5 years since I last played this game (last played Aug 2020) and it still doesn’t seem any closer to being finished. The developer used to do consistent dev streams on his youtube and twitch but as of recently it’s been nothing except for gaming streams or Q/A’s.
I could be wrong about this so take it with a grain of salt, but as far as I can tell from a search through his VODs, it’s been over a year since his last stream working on the game. Now this would be understandable if he was working off camera. You wouldn’t want to spoil the entirety of a game through dev streams after all. But once again, going off of the recent content updates, it really doesn’t seem like that’s the case either, as it’s also been over a year since the last update (Dec 2023) and even then it was a bug fix update. The last content update was Oct of 2023.
I understand that these things take time and an immense amount of effort but as the years have gone on, it seems like the developer’s priorities have shifted away from the games development and towards being a social media influencer.
I cannot in good conscience recommend the game to people at this point as I’m no longer convinced that it’s actively being worked on/will be finished.
No update in over a year, so I am assuming it's dead. I played the demo and enjoyed it, bought the game and played a bit more but have been waiting for the next update. Gonna assume it's not coming. Saw some dev comments in the Steam Community Discussion board saying they would be updating soon, but seems like they are way more busy with other stuff.
9/10 up until the points in the game where the devs have stopped updating the game, then it's a 4/10
I find it so odd that such a promising first and second chapter of a game came out at record pace, very healthily and very strong narratively, but then chapter 3 has taken over 4 years(since 2020) to get slightly over halfway done.
The first chapter takes about 1.5 hours to get through, chapter 2 follows suit at about 1 to 2 hours.
In comparison, chapter 3 has about 45 minutes of actual gameplay around the narrative storylines and choices the player can make(and has made).
Heartbound's developers have(from what i've seen) pivoted to being social media posters/twitch streamers rather than game developers. It's a shame, too, because even though they are good people, due to that switch in career they are unlikely to finish this game anytime within the next decade or so.
The last major content update was over 2 years ago.
I know that developing a story based game is difficult, especially given the large amount of choices that the player can make(and the devs pay respect to the player's choices), but the development is so slow and the developers are so absent in communication that I don't find many reasons to say "yeah, they will finish this game within the end of the decade".
As a stand-alone product, I can't recommend Heartbound until Chapter 3 is finished and Chapter 4/5 at least get started on. When Chapter 3 is finished and Chapter 4 starts to have some kind of story, then I will change this review. Until that point; I end this review with:
There's just not quite enough content. I paid for this game when it was 25$ and before buying I saw that the devs were making semi-regular updates about every 6 months or so. Significant content patches that furthered the story and kept the narrative flowing and/or redoing art that was purposefully placeholder, bugfixes etc.
Then, the updates kept getting slower, less content added per patch, more advertising the devs streams. Heck, I went to check the streams linked *by the devs* that say "we're working on the game" and find World of warcraft being streamed.
ike yeah, I get that relaxing and taking your time is part of a healthy work/life balance, but advertising "we are working on the game on twitch, here watch us" then spending 4 hours streaming World of warcraft instead is like... not false advertising, but I think it's dishonest.
Please do not buy this game until it is finished. There hasn't been consistent updates in a long time now.
in my time playing this game i was able to connect to the main character and i cant wait for the rest of the game to get finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Temped recommendation. To be blunt, if you don't understand that early access is a form of patronage and not a commission, you probably shouldn't pay for early access. Likewise if you dislike the idea of paying someone who is then free to not spend their entire day working on the game, you probably shouldn't pay for early access. The funny thing about streaming the development of a NARRATIVE GAME is that sometimes you don't want to live stream your development of a NARRATIVE GAME because that would, by definition, spoil the NARRATIVE in your NARRATIVE GAME.
Speaking of spoilers, I will be talking about the narrative of this NARRATIVE GAME so if you can't stand anything being spoiled, stop reading now.
Pro's: Heartbound's art is solid. You get a real feeling that the people behind it did their homework and had the skill to make the art style shine instead of it obviously being an excuse and a shortcut for a lack of it. Very effective at communicating feel and mood. Same goes for the music and sound direction.
The writing is also pretty effective at communicating complicated subject matters in a way that should be championed for children's games. And no, that's not an insult. There's a genuine lack of good, solid quality games made specifically for a child audience that parents can buy without fears of them getting harassed and harangued by the wider internet or having content that strictly isn't meant for kids. What limited plot does exist does a fairly effective job teaching subjects like conflict resolution, interpersonal skills and learning to appreciate what makes people different. It's Undertale if it were targeted at a slightly different audience and traded quality music for quality art. And dropped the kludgy combat system.
Not that the music is bad. It just leans heavily into using music as atmospherics where Undertale is taking the opportunity to drop some memorable jams. Then again it's entirely possible the better tracks are just being squirreled away from the audience because they'd spoil the plot. Toby Fox wasn't dropping Spear of Justice in the demo either.
Con's: The writing. Pop culture references so old they could run for president or at least rent a car being passed off as humor. Some people will giggle at them and find it charming. Other people will home in on POPCULTUREREFERENCE and immediately bounce off the game. One oddly specific facial animation that seems to be used interchangeably to describe moments of sadness and embarassment. One oddly specific set of socks that if you're not paying attention to, you'll soft lock yourself out of getting, requiring you then either exit out and restart from your last save to grab, or forever wondering what those socks were about.
But yeah, the writing. Maybe it's a consequence of the development cycle for an unfinished project but you're introduced to a stable of characters who are interesting and are then immediately squirreled away as you shotgun your way through 4 unique story arcs that are each introduced and resolved in about 5 minutes. It's the pacing being all over the place and being way too brief when it shouldn't be and taking way too long when it's unnecessary. I still don't understand what the dickhead book is supposed to be. It's not immediately clear how you go from the start of the game to the Spine. The game explains virtually nothing and while it's understandable to hold that back, it's also just.... not present anywhere. It's early access so I'm withholding judgement but this is the kind of problem that'd normally be identified and fixed in the planning phase so it's unclear if it's a shortcoming of the developer or just a gremlin in the dev cycle for a relatively horizontal story structure.
There is also the problem where the writing at times feels like it's leaning into the realm of trauma dumping and / or relying on emotional p-rn to force a reaction from the audience. I don't think it's a straight dump of the author's life- I don't expect to learn his dog was killed by an eldritch horror and that he was then abducted by furries- but there are many plot beats in the story that feel less like they're there to communicate a story and more like they're there so the author can vent about past trauma.
Which isn't actually a bad thing, but it's also something some people didn't sign up for and will object to. And it could also be interpreted as flying under the radar for a children's game to jump to subjects like toxic relationships and how corporate work culture is trying to consume your soul. Which runs the risk of having plots completely bounce off the audience and having parents scream, "MY CHILD SHOT THE NAZI IN HIS COWADOOTY GAEM! IS HE NOW SATANIC!?" or some other moral panic.
This also dovetails with a problem where despite having the option to choose your story paths, there's an objectively correct path (center, right, left) that could be strung into a much more compelling, coherent plot using seasons to communicate age and mental state. Otherwise if you do the thing that seemingly makes sense and go left to right you get fed a plot that merges themes of neglect from a father who's too absorbed in his work to be a parent and watching yourself get fed into that same meat grinder as an adult and then you get a blink-and-you'll-almost-miss-it sub plot involving an abusive, gas lighting mother before you button up that plot and.... get abducted by furries. It's what I call the Ghibli Maneuver. Grave of the Fireflies was originally a double feature with My Neighbor Totoro. In that order.
In a different game it feels like you'd start with the center plot, which seems to be the childhood plot, then do the right plot which I'm guessing is supposed to be those wonderfully awkward teenage years and then left plot is obvious about reconciling childhood and becoming an adult. But you're left with the choice which means you can easily bounce from war crimes and human rights abuses to.... getting abducted by furries.
If you do them in the wrong order it ruins the pacing in a way that will make many people bounce off it. It's jarring to go from "Corporate jobs suck and here's some childhood trauma" to "You woke up in a world populated with furries, go play match maker for the deer who can't identify food and help the armadillo who's autistic go on a quest."
As is it's frustrating to recommend Heartbound. It's not a bad game, but it's still way too early to say if the plot is any good. As-is I can only say that the design is a prime example why it's usually wise to stick to a single overarching story that leaves the player with options to explore and follow secondary plots if they interest them. The game has POTENTIAL. Which is frustrating because there's no shortage of games that lived and died on POTENTIAL.
I've only played for about 40 minutes so far, but good GOD! I can already tell that this game is gonna get me to cry (more than it just did LMAO)
https://steamusercontent-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/16424557059797858/EAF449390407CCB2158B78BF78BCF29E1E5CBE9A/
I love this game.
Um dos melhores jogos já feitos (mesmo ainda não estando pronto).
The dating part of this game was a bit slow, but once you get the ball rolling, the paths for more date-able characters opens up which is surprising in the current dating sim markets. the other mechanics like gun customization were pretty cool too.
(actually written review, this was for s***s and giggles)
Hasn't gotten a single update in a full year. Very much been abandoned by it's creator
It's been 6 years since i bought this game (i was 14) and i always thought that one day i'll see it finished
I'm now 21 and feel scammed, i know the game was made with passion but now it just feels like a pain in the ass of the dev who has promessed (sold) something he doesn't want to do anymore
I have waited for this game to finally release for litterally a quarter of my life but i don't think i'll ever see it and it makes me kinda sad in a way
I hope i'm wrong tho
It's been one year guys. You wouldn't survive Hollow Knight
I played it in March, 2019. I enjoyed it. Then at some point the game just told me that we're going to skip a game chapter cause it's Early Access and the chapter is unfinished. This is the reason I don't play any other games on Early Access since then. It's been 5 years. The game is still Early Access. I hoped to return to it when it releases.
It's a good game with good storytelling and unique mechanics. I love it and is my perfect idea of a game to replace my Undertale hyperfixation
It appears this game has been abandoned by the dev. He doesn't stream it's dev anymore, used to claim he is working on it after stream every day but streams up to 16 hours a day so I feel this may not be true.
Not sure how this guy became a game development mogul when he can't even finish this one indie game after all these years.
Honestly, I cannot recommend this game right now. I had originally bought this to support the dev as I had followed his streams, and he was working on it fairly consistently, or so it seemed. The only dev update this year for this game was a meme post for April fools. This at the time may have been funny, but now seems pretty out of touch since it was the only 2024 update.
Now, he barely works on it, if at all and appears to have changed professions somewhere along the line to a full time streamer. The fact that there are multiple threads in the HeartBound reddit asking if this game is a scam should be a massive warning sign. Stay away until this game comes out of early access and play the demo if you really want to try it. At least then you wont be out any money
It’s pretty obvious his preference is in streaming.
I started watching Thor about a year ago on Twitch and bought the game in support of him. There was a period he would stream development on this game every day, now he’s pretty much just a WOW/AOC streamer with the occasional sponsored stream of some nonsense game.
It’s disappointing this game has pretty much not been touched in recent times and I have doubts it will ever be anything more than it is now. He called it a “vent game” on stream today saying he just used the creation of the game to essentially emotionally vent. Not exactly a vote of confidence.
Unfortunately Thor is a bit of a different person than he used to be, you’d be wise to just put this one on the wishlist and see if it ever early access. Disappointing to say the least.
It is a nice proof of concept, but for a proof of concept already 6 years old without any changes done. No roadmaps, dev-blogs etc., no updates, just nothing. I would've got a refund if I hadn't played it for too long. What a shame.
Its made by an Indie developer/streamer. With that said, i would keep the game with it's discount if the game was finished, but right now, it isn't worth buying. If you really want this i suggest getting the free steam key from him where you get enough twitch points for a free key, but doing the math, you would need 173.3 days worth of watch time
Low quality, flash tier game made by a dev who has completely abandoned it, and now shamelessly pushes his streaming career on the title card of the very game he claims to be working on while streaming, yet when watching him you can see he has not touched it in months.
Avoid supporting this, it is the 'Magnum Opus' of a grifter who touts having 20 years of experience in the games industry, and yet cant finish something that is roughly the quality of a flash game on newgrounds in 2003.
Very fun adventure/RPG-ish game. Good story and you can litteraly almost click on or inspect everything. You get a great game for you money. Note that it is in early access so if you're not down for that then just wait until it's done.
Money for game development and sales? - no
Money for Streaming? - yes
Maybe finishing the game and continue to stream much better solution for all sides?
Or maybe streaming so much profitable than develop a game? I'm very dissapointed of buying this game and supporting Thor. The flame of interest went out like 3 years ago. Now this some long run project that maybe new generation will see. What a shame
PS - Buy this unfinished and maybe finished in 5 years product. If you really want to support dev, and not for a game itself.
Thank you, Thor, Goblin Lord.
This game is very inspiring, thank you for making a game as magical and as mysterious as this one. I hope a new update comes out soon where I can play the Ice world
i played it for the first time back in 2019. very important to me. im excited to see it completed, someday.
This is a REALLY good game, even though it is unfinished.
The characters are very fun/memorable, and the humor is really good, lots of fun faces, I laughed out loud a few times because of the dialogue. And the story/message is really good Also, I feel Lore on a spiritual level, he is BIG MOOD
I can't wait for it to be finished, I know it'll take time, but the best things usually do.
Anyways, good game and great job.
And Thor if you're reading this, I hope you're having a good day, I found you through YouTube shorts about 6 months ago, and have been watching ever since. I think you're really funny and I find your video and streams about how games/software work to be really interesting, keep up the great work!
And, as much as I want this game to come out as soon as possible, I know you're working as quickly as possible, especially with only three people developing it. I'd rather wait a while and get a great game than get a rushed/buggy mess quickly.
Anyway, now that's REALLY all I got XD
Good baseline, shows promise, but development of the game has clearly taken a backseat to Pirate Software's streaming career/other ventures.
Excellent story game! I really enjoyed the music and the art style is super cute to boot. 10/10 Buy the demo!
I bought this without realizing the game was unfinished: i saw the release date was 2018 and assumed it had been completed by late 2024. The environments and music are beautiful, and the characters (except the main character) look carefully designed and eye-pleasing too. There is very little actual game play or puzzle elements--it's more of a walking simulator where the dialog and story are quite jumbled and don't seem to have real personality besides "mystery" and "quirky." There is a lot of potential to heavily rework the game, but given how long the game has gone unfinished, the dev can't use "potential" to keep players interested anymore.
I loved every part of this game (the lore, beautiful artstyle, and multiple endings/paths, especially the secrets! ), but this game has seen no updates in the last few years, nor can you 100% it. I've been so excited seeing this game grow since 2019 and was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened to Baron and Lore that stormy night. Unfortunately, I don't think I ever will. It really is a shame, there is so much potential here yet it will probably remain unfinished.
There is no character building. You're thrown into this confusing story, and are doing tasks for what reason? There is a lot of dialog that is just "...," and there doesn't seem to be a clear reason why you are in that universe. i feel like the creators focused more on building relationships with the creatures instead of game play. Like who is LORE exactly? Am i rescuing his dog or his sanity? I really enjoyed the quick action battle in the beginning, but it went from an action game, to a task simulator. I read most of the dialog, but 90% of it is useless information. Very gossipy at times or just pointless chatter, AND YOU CAN'T SKIP IT, and you can't continue without crucial information that you have to sift through. These animals/monsters talk, and talk, and TALK, then say constantly "shut up," or "quite!"
I can honestly say, this will be a hard game for me to come back to, once it is completed. They have a lot of things to iron out with the story and the game play. I understand its early access, however, its the same game. Also, there is no way to quit the game without closing the window.
Fantastic labor of love. Haven't had a chance to play too much, but I already love it and I love Thor. He is an amazing human being and a great creator.
Hasn’t posted any updates in over a year at this point and streams WoW all day, yandere dev 2.0
A game you won't regret waiting for <3
A lot of people are leaving negative reviews because they lost hope for completion or they think it's a scam.
In reality, the game is only 10 US Dollars which is a lot less than what most games are asking for nowadays and less than the price of 2 McDonalds cheeseburgers.
This game is currently being developed by only 3 people. An artist, a programmer and a musician.
I hope you won't be swayed by the people who refuse to wait and want the game NOW. This a labor of love, not a triple A company with dozens of people working on it day and night.
It's also very weird to compare it to another game just because it was made faster,
this is not a race.
If you want a game to play right now, there are plenty for you to pick from. However this game will always be here; waiting for you to come back, when it's ready.
Such a beautifully crafted piece of art!
Lots of story depth, some of it painfully unnecessarily cryptic. Currently as of 11/25/2024 its a bit of a walking simulator with a handful of mini-games, but many meaningful choices which given the game market of today feels kind of rare that your choices in an rpg matter. Overall its a positive experience and the games environment has a ton of character, most of it good, there are some puns that gave me immediate a$$cancer. I'd recommend getting the demo and if you really like what this game is putting down then purchase to help support development.
This thing is a SCAM
REVIEW: HEARTBOUND - Maldavius Figtree's (Pirate Software, Thor) MAGNUM OPUS
Watch my review about this, this is false advertising, unfinished product that has been like 6 years or more in development that barely pass as a visual novel.
https://odysee.com/@NezahualDoomer:7/Heartboundreview:4
https://rumble.com/v5e7jze-review-heartbound-maldavius-figtrees-pirate-software-thor-magnum-opus.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp
This game has some real potential. Looking very polished so far. I got a bit lost now and then remembering the "current objective", but managed to find my way through. Keen to finish the story.
Eh game play is very boring and story moves wayyyyyy to fast for my liking
Kind of a nice story game to chill to.
this game is so fun and designed so well i love the story and hope to learn more as i play
It's as if a Norse god and two amazing artists have teamed up to make this game, congratulations on the work Thor, Shaye and Stijin.
É como se um deus nórdico e dois artistas incríveis tivessem se unido para fazer esse jogo, parabéns pelo trabalho Thor, Shaye e Stijin.
Дополнительная информация
Разработчик | Pirate Software |
Платформы | Windows, Linux |
Ограничение возраста | Нет |
Дата релиза | 21.01.2025 |
Отзывы пользователей | 89% положительных (1554) |