At the end of the adventure, the hero defeats the evil overlord and saves the world. The End… Or is it? Yuusha Shisu. (勇者死す。English title, Hero Must Die) is a game that looks at just that — the aftermath of the final battle.
Announced in this week’s issue of Weekly Famitsu, heading for the PS Vita next year is a remake of a mobile phone game app of the same name that was originally released back in 2007. Yuusha Shisu. focuses on a hero spending his remaining five days alive to see how the world will remember him.
After an epic battle with the evil lord Geel, the hero sacrifices his own life to end the dark lord’s reign forever. As a reward for his bravery, the Hero is resurrected, but with only five days to live. With the grains in the hourglass slipping through his fingers, the Hero sets forth to do what he can in a world that is still scarred from the evil lord’s rule.
The game takes an interesting viewpoint on your standard RPG adventure that usually ends with fanfare, epic cutscenes and a long credit roll. Yuusha Shisu asks if simply defeating the big baddy will bring peace to the land.
As someone who watches the ending credits of any given action movie where the hero gets the girl thinking, “yeah, but that relationship won’t last once the weight of the real world sets in.” this game has piqued my interest.
Another interesting aspect of the game is that the Hero does not start out as a level 1 whelp. Rather, he is at the height of his strength, having faced the last boss, and is slowly degrading. Over time, his mystic armour and sword become too heavy for him to carry and he cannot defeat your basic scrub enemies without aid.
Picture: Weekly Famitsu
On the sixth day, the Hero dies. There is no getting around it. Having had a second chance with borrowed time, the Hero breaths his last and you get to see how the world thinks of him in his funeral. Whether he’ll be showered in flowers as a princess weeps for her lost love or his coffin will lie alone in an empty church all depends on his actions during his last five days.
Yuusha Shisu is scheduled for release in Japan on the PS Vita on February 25, 2016. No word on a Western release.
Comments
4 responses to “This Game Asks What Happens After You Defeat The Last Boss”
Sounds pretty interesting.
Shame about the whole Japan and Vita only thing.
Aw man, I’ve just recently been mulling over ideas about an RPG focussing on life after the defeat of the last boss. Thankfully the world is big enough for two people to share the same idea.
Although the premise is vastly different, the whole idea of a game starting after the defeat of a big boss made me nostalgic about Lufia.
Nice to see more games where the hero gets weaker. One of the things I loved about the Sword & Sworcery EP was the understanding that developed that you would die at the end of the game, and you got weaker as you went. And somehow, even the foreknowledge of your own death didn’t lessen the impact when it happened.
In any case, I’m for more games where you get weaker as you go, rather than stronger.