Little Town Hero (Download) (Switch)

Little Town Hero's combat can frustrate at times, but the battle system behind it is still full of charm and creativity.

Keeping your card options limited allows you to approach encounters with clever instead of relying on luck of the draw, but the deck size is too limited to break the mounting doldrum of subsequent fights. And while I did get to know this town pretty well, that's because of how small and suffocating it feels as it refuses to push outside its own boundaries.

Little Town Hero is a classic case of “has potential, but woefully executed,” and that really sucks to say when it seems to have so much going for it on the surface. Lovely graphical style and aesthetic, pretty animations from both characters and monsters, and the occasional banger in the soundtrack. And yet, it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe next time, Game Freak.

I didn’t expect to have so much vitriol for Little Town Hero going into it, however, I found very little to like. Its 18-ish-hour runtime felt like an eternity as I slogged through battle after battle. I struggle to fathom who this game is designed for, but all I can recommend is to stay away lest you get dealt a bad hand.