Half-Minute Hero, XSeed and Marvelous Entertainment's unusual, experimental role-playing game is smart, sharp, surprisingly long — given its title — and sloppy in a way that somehow doesn't break the game but instead makes it all the more charming.

Who knew a game that seemed like a three-note joke could accomplish so much?

Loved
Brave Design: Half-Minute Hero was made by developers with guts. They created an homage to 16-bit top-down Japanese role-playing games, but sped up the pace to force you to rush from the start of an adventure to the defeat of a boss in 30 seconds, daring to fill the script with comedy and automate the battles. The main gameplay is the time management of rushing the hero from town to battle to, maybe, secret hidden cave, leveling up in the blink of an eye and strategically spending quickly-earned money to pray to a money-hungry goddess and buy the time to get the clock back up to 30 seconds.

And that's just Hero 30, the first of the game's three main modes. The three other main modes, Princess 30, Evil Lord 30 and the unlockable Knight 30, offer similarly mad takes on side-scrolling shoot-em-ups, real-time strategy games and whatever you call the genre that involves escorting a sage through a dungeon with the help of carefully laid traps that keep enemies at bay. All of the four modes run on 30-second timers, each offering a different angle on how to extend the clock.

Your Time, Not Wasted: The game is fast, sometimes too fast. Most quests go from title screen to credit-rolling in 90 seconds — if you're slow. You don't have to press buttons during battles because, well, you don't have to think too hard about pressing them even in the many major Japanese role-playing games. So, in Half-Minute Hero, you're spared. Te battle screen switches the view of Hero 30's top-down RPG to a sideways view. Your hero automatically rushes from left to right, mauling or being mauled by his opponents. Conversation in towns — where time is frozen — is brisk and funny. Levels are unlocked fast and furiously. And leveling-up is accelerated in every mission you play. Soon enough, the player is leveling from zero to 20 and upgrading armor five times in just a minute. Makes you wonder why you ever had to spend 50 hours doing that.

Splendid Variety: The JRPG mode, Hero 30, is the game's main attraction. It is a strong entry in its own right, offering more than 30 quests before its conclusion and branching off in different directions depending on decisions you make during the adventure. The other three modes are entirely different, but each retain core values of the game and the JRPG genre. All are funny. All involve characters who don't take themselves too seriously. And all offer different ways to level up, access optional levels and experience that ever-satisfying progression from weakling to superstar that typifies a great role-playing game.

A Progressive Look Back: Half-Minte Hero's graphics may look 16-bit, but so many enlightened touches have been applied to them. For example, the pixelated sprite of the main character in Hero 30 changes depending on which head, chest, foot and hand items he's been equipped with. The music is a bravura tour of RPG emotion, hitting all the beats of triumph and sorrow from track to track, the music rotating for each of the game's quick levels. Even when the developers are pretending to be annoying — like when they roll the credits at the end of every Hero 30 level — they can't help but respect a modern gamer's needs by letting those credits be accelerated.

Wonderful Imbalance: Half-Minute Hero is mostly too easy, which would be a problem if completing it didn't require going through more than 120 separately laid-out levels. It's tempting to criticize how, in the RTS mode, the evil lord that the player controls can get caught in a corner and mauled by enemies even when it seems that the controls should enable some type of escape. He can summon monsters after all, so why can't he be liberated? Some of the fourth mode, Knight 30, seems like it's been made to be broken. A level or two appear to be beatable in normal mode if the player does little more than have the protagonist stand still. But it's hard to object, because those rough edges — that apparent sloppiness — fits the spirit of a game that is having so much fun with its trappings and is so quick to move on to the next quest and crack more jokes in script and gameplay.

Hated
Throwaway Level Design: Despite what I just wrote about the imbalance, the game's shoot-em-up mode, Princess 30, does disappoint. Completion of it, Evil Lord 30 (the RTS) and Hero 30 (the RPG) are required to access Knight 30 and the amazing final two unlockable modes that I will not spoil. The conceit of Princess 30 is that the Princess needs to leave her castle, find some medicine for the king and get back home by curfew. It's funny, especially because she turns from docile to destroyer as soon as she picks up her crossbow — and because of the inane logic of the plot that has her fetching bitter grass to heal dad because everyone knows good medicine is bitter — but the whole thing disappoints because the levels are barely-distinct linear rushes. Zip out of the castle with the shooting button spammed. Zip back in. Not enough changes to keep this mode as strong, so woe to the player who leaves most of Princess 30 to be played on its own. If you get the game, mix the Princess levels in. Don't save them.

I thought the appeal of Half-Minute Hero wouldn't last. And it would be if all of the levels were as quick and sometimes-silly/broken as those of Knight 30, Evil Lord 30 and Princess 30. But Hero 30 takes this one over the top. Level design in Hero 30 is clever, full of hidden secrets, fun gameplay twists and everything else that a good RPG can have — brilliantly packed into quests you can hope to clear in 60 seconds.

If more developers want to mess with conventions like this, please, please do.

(Half-Minute Hero was developed by Marvelous Entertainment and published by XSeed for the PSP on October 13. Retails for $29.95 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played all quests to completion, except the bonus, crazy final post-completion one. Took me 12 hours, 15 minutes, 8 seconds.)

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Far be it for me to be the only way the game can represent itself to skeptics and optimists alike. Get a load of this trailer and decide for yourself if the game is something you really want to play. On the Wii. With no motion controls whatsoever.

For my part, I want to like this game. I dig dating mini-games and I think the Wii needs more JRPGs. However, I didn't care for Valhalla Knights on PSP and I doubt moving the series to the Wii will have any impact on that — especially if motion controls aren't even an option. Oh well, at least there's online multiplayer.

Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga is out this fall.

The game's concept sounded simple enough to me – you play as little 8-bit characters that riff on classic role-playing game tenants and have 30 seconds to get through various levels that open up on a world map. However, when I picked up the game and actually started to play, I couldn't figure out which buttons did what. Then, with 10 seconds to spare on the clock and about two inches shy of the boss encounter, my character was suddenly naked and without a sword and shield.

No other game has ever made me say "What the $%&@" out loud before. It took me and four other games journalists half an hour to figure out what exactly happened. Apparently, when you stop in a town (where the timer so graciously pauses most of the time), you can pray at a Goddess statue to reset the timer back to 30 seconds. To do this, you have to shell out 100 gold initially and then 200 gold the next time you do it and so on. If you don't have enough gold, the Goddess will still reset the time, but at some random point during your game, she'll show up and strip you naked — also, the timer apparently won't pause in towns anymore.

Really, it was the damndest thing — not just being naked, but the whole concept of only have 30 seconds to get from one end of a map to another. Half-Minute Hero feels more like a puzzle game than an action game, really. The sooner the player grasps that and starts plotting out exactly where to go and when to pay the Goddess to reset the timer, the less time they'll spend yelling "What the $%&@" at their PSPs.

Here, have some screens:

The big plus here is the larger screen size. Back when I reviewed Valhalla Knights 2 for PSP and one of my biggest complaints (no pun intended) was that playing as a dwarf or recruiting one took up half of the screen.

What Is It?
Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga is the third game in an action-RPG series developed by Marvelous Entertainment. Players take the role both of a boy who then fathers a child that then becomes the main character for the second part of the game.

What We Saw
I played an early level of the game where my male character only had enough money to afford one companion character.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is due out in fall 2009.

What Needs Improvement?
The World Needs Color: It seems like all the Valhalla Knights games adhere to a dirt-and-slate color scheme. Eldar Saga, sadly, is no different and after a while, you get tired of looking at various shades of brown and gray.

Navigating Menus During Combat Is Still A Pain: You're getting jumped by a band of rabid armadillo creatures – you do not have time to open up one menu and then two sub-menus to find a magic recharge item and then cast a healing spell.

Why Is This On The Wii…? There are no motion controls in Eldar Saga and the game supports the Classic Controller (which will probably make navigating menus easier). So why exactly is this game on the Wii and not on the PlayStation 2 or something?

What Should Stay The Same?
Complexity Is Preserved: Valhalla Knights has always been one of those RPGs where you have to pay money to have the items that you find in the world identified before you can use them. Nuances like these annoy some people because they seem like throwbacks to the dark days of Japanese RPGs; however, die-hard fans consider them necessary complexities that make gameplay richer and more challenging. That second camp will be pleased to know said nuances are very much a part of Eldar Saga.

Multi-Generational Play: At first, I balked at being forced to play a guy for the first part of the game, but then I found out there's a courtship system where you have to get one of three lady characters to like you. That lady character then becomes the mother of your character's child who you play as for the second part of the game – and that character can be a girl if you so choose. Yay!

At Least There's No Flailing: If nothing else, ignoring the Wii motion controls means you won't be throwing your arm out trying to win sword fights.

Not much is known about the game other than the fact it's an adventure title and is set in a small town, where a young girl is being haunted by ghosts. But plenty is known about the game's staff, which includes Akira Ueda (Contact), Nobuo Uematsu & Hideo Minaba (Final Fantasy), Kazushige Nojima (Kingdom Hearts) and Kenichiro Takagi (Half-Minute Hero).

Can't wait to see more, especially if the Contact-esque art style in the image above (from the game's teaser site) makes its way through to the rest of the game.

[via 1UP]

Muramasa: The Demon Blade looks amazing, and it sounds like it's amazing to play. But with titles like No More Heroes and Arc Rise Fantasia under its belt, can Marvelous Entertainment get it to sell?

This G4 video gives you a good look at why you should be picking the game up when it hits the U.S. and why G4 thinks it was the best Wii game at E3.

Check it out and decide whether you're going to pick the title when it comes out this September.

How about porting some of your Wii misses to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, hoping for high-definition hits? That's what Marvelous is considering, according to a financial presentation poked at by Siliconera. That means Wii up-ports and a renewed focus on Microsoft and Sony's now-gen platforms, an attempt to lure in the underboob crowd with better looking underboob.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade seems like a natural fit for a higher-resolution port, given its relatively simple 2D transition to more graphically capable consoles. Perhaps some Odin Sphere fans will latch on to the non-Wii version of Muramasa, still due to hit North America this year.

And, given Grasshopper Manufacture's Goichi Suda's latest comments, noting that the next No More Heroes title is probably not going to come to the Wii, we'd think a port of the first two might make for some easy cash.

It's not like Marvelous and its developers are lacking for Wii games to pretty up, it mostly a concern of what makes sense.

Marvelous Considering Wii To PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 Ports [Siliconera]

Marvelous isn't necessarily publishing the kind of Wii fare that targets the "blue ocean" consumer. Instead, the company is responsible for titles like No More Heroes, Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Arc Rise Fantasia, games that typically make brief appearances on Japanese software sales charts.

A staff post on the official Marvelous site, partly translated by Canned Dogs, partly by GameSetWatch, indicates that staffers there are crestfallen over the company's lack of Wii success, writing "I truly have teary eyes. I feel like crying."

Marvelous staffers appear to be bearing some of the responsibility for the company's current sales situation. Some of the company's titles, No More Heroes for example, sell better in other territories under other publishers.

The unnamed staffer also asks readers to pre-order the upcoming Little King's Story, saying that numbers are dangerously low.

Marvelous Entertainment stuff [Canned Dogs]
Marvelous Teary-eyed Over Poor Wii Game Sales [GameSetWatch]

Marvelous publishes Grasshopper's games in Japan, and the exec says this about that mysterious PS3 title: "If we do that [game] we might go bankrupt," Wada joked to game site Siliconera. "We are making it, but if we make everything then it's a little too risky."

Taking risks is good. Taking risks that bankrupt your company? Less so.

Marvelous Entertainment Publishing A PS3 Game Made By Grasshopper Manufacture [Siliconera]

Vanillaware's gorgeous 2D side-scroller was supposed to be released by XSEED in North America later this year (it was released in Japan earlier this month). But the company today issued a statement that reads:

XSEED Games confirms that it is no longer involved with the North American release of Muramasa: The Demon Blade. XSEED Games and Marvelous had previously announced the game as part of the initial line up between the two publishing partners. We firmly believe in the product and will look forward to seeing it release in North America. We enjoy and respect our relationship with Marvelous, and are committed to working together to deliver an amazing line up of games in the US including the highly anticipated Little King's Story, the epic RPG Arc Rise Fantasia and Suda51's intriguing mystery adventure Flower, Sun, Rain.

So now Marvelous need to find somebody else to publish the game in the US. Or, going by the tone of that release, have already found one, and for some reason aren't announcing it just yet. Either way...please hurry!

XSEED Loses Muramasa: The Demon Blade [IGN]

But the game is gorgeous, one of the more interesting third-party titles coming for the Wii this year. And one that's managing to somewhat decently so far in Japan, so we don't necessarily mind that Vanillaware and crew clearly have aftermarket plans to shill Muramasa: The Demon Blade stuff. New wallpapers from the game, direct from the publisher, that don't even feature the game's hero and heroine are all the evidence we need.

Hey, we'll gladly post about the inevitable mouse pads, hump pillows and figures—and the inevitable digital macro breakdowns from figure collecting perv web sites. So just let the pandering to horny otaku wash over you and enjoy some new wallpapers from the publisher.

Oboro Muramasa Wallpaper Shame #1, #2 [Marvelous via GoNintendo]

The new screenshots feature an ample Lesley now with ample coverage — and more importantly, ample support.

Are Rise Fantasia is rated CERO A, the Japanese equivalent of the ESRB's "E for Everyone" rating. Imagine that has something to do with this cover-up.

Arc Rise Fantasia [MMV via 読みゲー]

Namco Bandai's Xbox 360 role-playing-game Tales of Vesperia was a big hit when it was released in Japan last summer, selling 161,070 copies. The game was so popular it caused the Xbox 360 to sell out in Japan.

Arc Rise Fantasia is an upcoming Wii title from beleaguered Marvelous Entertainment. Sure, there are some similarities, but it's not like Tales of Vesperia invented this style of boxart. Opinions?

Wii『アークライズファンタジア』のパッケがTOVとそっくりな件 [チラシの裏でゲーム鈍報]

Those who voluntarily retire between March 23 and April 3 will receive a special severance payment. Their retirement would commence on April 30.

This is the latest measure from Marvelous to curb costs. After this year's earning were down compared to last, the company reduced bonuses and cancelled large scale publicity events and overseas musical performances.

Marvelous Entertainment has released Harvest Moon titles and No More Heroes, among other titles.

マーベラス希望退職者募集を実施　固定費の圧縮を目指す [AnimeAnime via ANN] [Pic]

As already revealed by Famitsu, Yuusha 30 lets players save the world from evil "Demon Kings" thirty seconds at a time. It's a role-playing game. It's an action game. It's a real-time strategy game. And it's a shooting game (read: shmup!). All of it delivered in thirty second chunks.

Marvelous' first trailer for the game sure looks melodramatic, but not without its charms. Cross your fingers (in 30 second intervals) for a localized release.

Each mode has its own main character and gameplay mode: A brave warrior in a side-scrolling action game, princess in a shooting game, a demon king in a strategy game and a knight in an action game.

There's a countdown clock in the middle top of the game that ticks off 30 seconds players have to finish each mini-game in these four modes.

Marvelous To Announce Creative RPG “Yuusha 30″ For PSP [PSPHyper via PSP Fanboy]

What else is there to it? Beats me. The Triforce-looking countdown is brought to you by Marvelous Entertainment, the 8-bit mushroom is courtesy of Sega Japan. It makes a 1up (extra life, not blog) sound when you click it. Are we gonna see a Mario/Sonic combo? Your guess is as good as mine.

In the interest of full disclosure, I usually don't talk about news judgment but seeing how late to the party this one is, I owe an explanation. Yesterday I saw this, considered it, and came to a decision that countdown clocks are primarily marketing, and offer little news value beyond the mention of their existence. Plus, there's nothing definitive I can say about what these point to, and my own knowledge of what these developers have worked on is extremely limited, so my speculation is uninformed. That said, the first rule of news, as Dad always told me, is that it's what people are talking about. And plenty of people are talking about this. Bad call on my part.

Update: Loyal Reader Shaun O Mac fiddled around and found this on the Sega countdown:

Clicking the letters in the Takao Miyoshi brings up links to other Sega products, not sure what that's about though. One is Let's Tap, C is Let's Catch, The other is U-Can, and P in produce plays a funky jingle, but I don't know what it's from.

The games that are displayed are Prope titles which is Yuji Naka's studio so perhaps he is ready to announce his next title, and Sega are giving him back Sonic the Hedgehog. That I doubt, but it is Prope related.

Marvelous Entertainment Vaguely Zeldaish Countdown Clock [site]
Sega Japan Vaguely Marioish Countdown Clock [site]
Thanks to many tipsters who mentioned these.

Wii
• Arc Rise Fantasia
• Rune Factory Frontier
• Oboro Muramasa
• Hitman Reborn! Kindan no Yami no Delta
• Harvest Moon Waku Waku Animal March

DS
• Avalon Code
• Tsuki no Hikari

PSP
• Ikki Tousen: Eloquent Fist

PS2
• Hitman Reborn! Kindan no Yami no Delta
• Junjou Romachika Koi no Doki Doki Daisakusen
• Zero no Tsukaima: Mayogo no Period to Ikusen no Symphony

TGS Page [Marvelous Entertainment via Dtoid]

Make the jump for the other two videos.