Hero and Daughter+ is an RPG made in RPG Maker and it’s a little different from most games that come from the engine, but its also incredibly the same.
The story of Hero and Daughter+ is that the hero Ralph, the default hero in RPG Maker, has been summoned once again by the king to destroy the Dark Lord, who has resurrected way more times than any of the characters remember. However, as he prepares to start his journey, the king gives Ralph a potion that drops him back to level 1. Ralph is understandably upset, but the king simply tells him he’s had too big of a head lately and needs to learn to be humble once again.
From this point on in the game, Ralph can’t level up , but players can increase his stats by eating meals and using items. This is a bit of a problem, but there is a solution. Our hero is approached by a summoner that claims he can bring allies from different continents, times and worlds to help the hero. It just so happens that all of them are girls, most being scantly clad, and you’d be hard pressed to argue that the majority of them are actually over the age of 18.
Yes, Hero and Daughter+ is a lewd game about collecting girls like they’re Pokemon and leveling them up to fight for you. It’s a bit creepy, but the obvious parody nature of the game makes it a bit more bearable. There’s also a lot of dialogue for each of the girls when they talk with Ralph and it helps develop their characters past the tropes that each of them is meant to represent.
The combat in Hero and Daughter+ is fairly standard for an RPG. Possibly the best aspect is the auto battle feature and the ability to hold down the accept button to speed battles up. This makes grinding take a lot less time and it definitely makes the game better. I’m not against grinding, but this is one of those cases where it would feel a lot more like a chore if the above-mentioned features were missing from the game.
Ralph’s adventure to defeat the dark lord is really standard RPG, but its dashed with bits of humor all the way through that help keep the game from feeling stale. The game goes on a little too long honestly, but there are some twist and turns along the way to help keep the player interested in the story and characters.
Hero and Daughter+ includes a load of extras that players who really enjoy the game can use to stretch out their time with it. They can buy different sized houses and decorate them with furniture, including the girls that they’ve reach high enough relationships with, and there are loads of different furniture available in dungeons.
There’s another side dungeon that has players climbing a tower for a special form of currency, a monster arena, capsule collection, bounties to collect and so much more. Honestly, all of these extra bits kind of just bog the game down. They all feel like they were just thrown in for the sake of saying “Hey, look at all this extra content we have!” Even if none of it’s meaningful in any way whatsoever.
The graphics in Hero and Daughter+ aren’t really bad, but they aren’t original either. Almost all of the graphics in the game come from the default RPG Maker assets. The exception to this is the girls that players collect, who have their own unique sprites and drawn profile images. The sprites mesh well with the game, but the profile images are a completely different story. The art ranges in style and quality to the point that it lacks cohesion. There are also just some really bad example of anatomy, like girls that literally just have two giant circles drawn on their chests for breasts.
The audio in Hero and Daughter+ is surprisingly good. There’s a good bit of it that’s just reused generic music and sound effects, but some of the tracks in the game are completely new and it helps get past that “seen it” feeling that the graphics in the game invoke.
One other problem with Hero and Daughter+ is the lack of options. There’s no way to change the game’s resolution, which means players must either lower theirs to match it or play in a tiny box. This a limit of the RPG Maker engine, but it still never ceases to bother me as a player and reviewer. Players also can’t reassign buttons and must stick with the default setup, but at least gamepads are supported.
Overall, Hero and Daughter+ is actually an alright game, even if it’s filled with some questionable content. If you can get past this, you’ll discover a fun little game with a decent sense of humor that will keep you entertained for more than a few hours.
Hero and Daughter+ earns 3 GiN Gems out of 5!