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Main thoughts, I'd say that (overall) the game is very nice, especially for it being so early in its release. There's nice artwork that looks similar yet sets itself apart from Happy Elements' other games, fully voiced story lines (I'm a fan of voice actors, so it's always an added bonus to be able to hear their emotion flowing through their lines!), and pretty high quality animations and effects. A nice mix of casual and involved gameplay, cool characters with unique abilities, attributes, and powers from different backgrounds, my gay self is blowing up at the seams with excitement! But, there are quite a lot of glitches that interupt game flow 'n such, leaving many players unable to even open the game.
[IN-DEPTH REVIEW BELOW *very wordy, sorry;;]
I will say, I'm gonna draw a lot of comparisons to HE's other games (mainly Ensemble Stars) due to the three games being very similar, and this game feeling like a lovely mix of Basic & Music because of how much more fleshed out the game seems with it removing a lot of prior flaws 'n such.
To start, the game has 4 different *sectors; Blue North, Green East, Red South, and Yellow West, all of which having their own group of (abnormally attractive) heroes.
The gameplay is very similar to my experience with *HE's other games, like Last Period and Ensemble Stars. The game leaning more to Ensemble Stars (obviously, these boys are gorgeous), but with more hints of Last Period to give off the battle-game feel and vibe to match the characters and story. The gameplay itself is a turn-based battle system with waves of enemies to battle. The battle system is simple, with it being fast-paced while also sprinkling stuff like a simple type advantage system (like the weapon triangle in Fire Emblem or type advantages in Pokémon, for those who are familiar with that) involving the 4 different elements/power types (like Ensemble Stars!! with Volume, Performance, and Dance or Music's 4 elements, like Glitter), meaning your heroes have a weakness type, but also a type it's more resistant to and strong against. You battle in QUESTS (like PRODUCE in Basic or LIVE STAGE in Music) using your team of chosen 4 heroes with up to 3 add-ons on each hero called 'frames'. Frames are one of the two pullable types in this game's gacha (the other being heroes), even going as far as being very similar to the heroes, having better art the higher the rarity. The frames power up your characters, provide bonuses, and offer skills to your heroes in battle. The frames, like your heroes, come with an element/power type, and matching the two can have great effects! But, matching your heroes with frames with that same hero in it will give them a new skill (if in the main frame slot, sub doesn'tgive you a skill), so it's up to preference how you choose to take on quests. And, each hero and their other variations come with bonuses that are applied in battle when using certain characters together in a certain order, so that's another nice detail.
Speaking of frames, I want to bring up a relatively overlooked problem relating to them and the gacha. Like I mentioned, there are two types of things you can pull from the gacha: Heroes & Frames. But, the problem is that, when you *order, you're pulling for BOTH. There is no way as of launch to pull for one type, even within the lower rarity gacha. The problem seems rather minor, but will definitely get more annoying as the game progresses and you really only need or want a new hero or just a frame. Seems as if the more complex the game, the harder the gacha gets in HE games.. Problems with the Orders aside, the gacha itself is very comparable to HE's other games (which is a whole other problem within itself). The rarity system is ranging from 1* - 4*, and the combined pull rate for the highest rarity, being 4*, is 2%, and individual pull rates being .5% (at least so far with the Orders at launch, as focus or birthday orders in the future may have increased rates). The gacha uses the main in-game currency, being gems, at 300 for a 10-pull (guranteed 3* or higher on your first) and 3o for an individual pull (that's what I'm calling
'em at least), but also regular coins for the lower rarity gacha (like scout tickets in Ensemble Stars where you can't pull higher than a 4* card) using 3,000 for 1 pull, and 30K for 10.
Back to gameplay (the more simple/casual side, at least), there are a lot of features from Basic & Music that were implemented into Helios. There's a customisable room for up to 4 heroes of your choice (like the Office in Music except you can save up to 100 different room layouts and reload 'em whenever) with purchasable furniture and decor using home tokens that are earned from sending your heroes off on patrols to protect each of the 4 sectors at once (like Work in Basic using both the work from Ensemble Stars! and the new work from Ensemble Stars!! to do 4 at once) for a time period of your choice (30 minutes - 10 hours) to run in the background (in case y'all haven't played Basic, you can still use the heroes you put on patrol in QUESTS, it's just a time-waiting farming sort of thing), with higher time spent patrolling giving a larger total of rewards. Though similar to Basic's work system, there's more (optional) interaction with enemies that show up every now 'n then in any of the sectors you've sent out patrol on that can easily be beaten by literally just rapidly pressing two buttons to contain the threat and save citizens, leading to more personal rewards from both the enemy and the citizens. Though, there are these medals that are used to *evolve heroes that can only be found (with the slightest chance) on story quests and on patrols that don't even drop every time, even at 10hr intervals. And with there being 4 different medals matching the 4 different sectors, there's gonna be a problem if you just want to evolve your heroes but can't because you don't have the 5 or so medals of the hero's sector. Speaking of hero growth, this game, unlike Ensemble Stars, has you have to spend coins to level up, stack duplicate frames, and upgrade heroes/frames outoside of quests (like in A3). I don't personally like this feature, since there might come a time where I just want to use my level up tickets really quickly to level up a new hero I got only to realize I need 30K coins just to level up to 40;;
Final thoughts, I highly recommend Helios Rising Heroes! It's a nice mix of HE's previous successors, and an even nicer mix of casual & more involved gameplay and idol & battle games. The characters and story is nice, their voices all very unique and expressive. The animations and effects expressed through sprites, the menu, and even the focus orders are all just amazing and show just how much work was put into the games and making everything speak for itself and oozing with charm. It's easy to pick up and put down, and so far seems like it'll meet a lot of high expectations and hopes. Especially hoping they improve on tbe gacha and fixing the glitches! I want more people to be able to play this and would love to see the game grow.
*HE stands for Happy Elements, which is the company behind the game.
*Sectors are basically units/idol groups like from Ensemble Stars, or troupes from A3, etc.
*Order is what the game refers to the gacha as, like Ensemble Stars calling theirs 'Scouts'.
*Evolving a hero is just like blooming a card in Ensemble Stars by reaching a certain part of the idol/hero road.
The old version of EnStars was a lot more simple and easy in most aspects. The events, however, were a tad difficult with cards you may want being a ranked reward, and points are already hard to keep up with for a casual. The new EnStars Basic fixes a lot of issues resolving the events, but made the easier aspects of the old game a lot harder. Idol ranks require a lot fans, which is harder to get on Basic compared to Music. Music in general is easier, whether it be the events, the farming of materials, the list just goes on. It'd be nice if materials were not only hard to get (especially the idol stones and fans), but also if the games were more balanced. Otherwise, the game is lovely! Though Basic has its flaws and downs in comparison to Music, they do have a 1-UP in events and EXP farming, as Music is more than 3x harder in getting a single copy of a 5*. If you're a casual and don't care for rhythm games, Basic's for you! You'll be able to get cards easier from the events by managing your WORK in both the new and old EnStars to get EXP and refresh LP for Live Events, farm materials relatively easily, and still see your favorites dancing in MVs unlocked in events at 1,450,000 points! If you enjoy a bit more rhythm and fun, then look into Music! It has a lot of interactivity, but comes with difficulty in gaining EXP and points for events.
As a fan of Ensemble Stars, I quite easily fell for this game! Though it is very similar to Enstars, there are also many differences. For one, while Enstars uses 2D animated sprites for stories, this game does not, but it makes up for it by not only animating sprites during lessons, but for event sequences, transitions, and for sleeping events. Speaking of which, this game also seems to have a lot more interactivity and customization options available, like allowing two characters on your home menu in-game (who also appear animated on the title screen!), petting characters before sleeping events, and even having better (in my opinion) LP (well, it's called BP in this game) events, as it feels more like an interactive battle of bands. Overall, this game has such charm and charisma, and, if you hadn't been able to tell, I really enjoy the animations and transitions in this game!
Personally, I like the game a lot! It's a very nice time-killer, but, like all games, it needs a little more work. For starters, since the gacha isn't % based, you can keep getting the same characters over and over, which can get annoying if you actually want a new worker. Even if you 10-pull, there isn't an increased rate to get a 4 star (which is the highest star rating in the game) or 3 star, as for as I know, and it is heavily advertised to buy the 4 stars you want with the in-game purchases. There are also bugs in playing the game itself, like when I press and hold for the hammer, which doesn't respond until I try it three or so more times. You also can't rotate furniture, but I personally don't care much about it. Besides all of that, I'll continue to play and wish for this game to improve!
QooApp
4.3For what it is, it's great! Provides a seamless way for downloading games outside of your region and somewhere else to post about said games. But, I have a lot of problems with it, too. For one, NSFW. There might be a feauture to turn off NSFW from popping up in my feed whenever I launch the app, but I haven't found it yet. But, some users post uncensored NSFW content without marking their content NSFW. No matter how much I click the 'Not Interested' option, the poster always reappears on my feed. I also just don’t understand some how some posts show up considering all of 'em just show half/fully nude women (and, sadly, sometimes girls) despite nearly all of my games centered around a male-majority cast. And being very not straight makes the posts more uncomfortable and a lot more annoying. More problems relate to posting issues (like odd spacing when adding a game, media, or links) and showing updates for games or apps that don't need updates. But, those aren't as big to me. Plus, I have yet to experience any difficulties with downloading any app or game for the past 3 years or so I've use the app!