You’re Not The Hero – No, really, you’re not
You Are Not The Hero – Previewed
By Julie Morley
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It’s funny how plenty of traditional RPGs follow a similar story pattern. A hero of some sort finds themselves in a situation where they must step up to the plate and journey far and wide, doing everything they can to take down the forces of evil and conclude their reign.
But what if you actually weren’t the mighty character that saves the day? What if, instead, you were just a mere bystander, minding your own business. Yes, the averagest of the average, an NPC. There’s nothing particularly special about you, you just go about your day doing your own thing, and that’s completely okay. However, in You Are Not The Hero you’re Petula, an unemployed, hot-headed, NPC, who just didn’t have any direction in her life until the heroes came to town.
In plenty of RPGs players can just raid houses for supplies and whatnot; but in You Are Not The Hero, things are a little bit different. Heroes are at it again! Moving through towns and scouring the villagers’ homes for any resources possible but having the nerve to take whatever they please without a word!
However, all NPCs can’t stand the hero and just hate their stuff getting stolen all the time. They just aren’t gutsy enough to make a peep about it.
When a “trusty” hero sweeps into town one day and steals Petula’s pendant, suddenly she finds herself going on a little quest of her own. The averagest of the average, without any skills or aspirations, now must chase after the bravest and most honorable of heroes to get back her most precious possession. Now, that makes for one heck of a story.
In You Are Not The Hero, you truly are anything but the hero. You’re just an NPC that wants her average life back. All the battle elements of an RPG are removed in You Are Not The Hero, concentrating on the exploratory and side-quest components. There is only one main story line but the possibilities outside of it are practically endless.
Petula is met with plenty of opportunities during her travels. The least ambitious of the flock finds herself surrounded with things to do. Want to run an Inn? How about having your own bakery? Fancy the idea of some fishing trips? All the non-combat activities you can think of, Petula will be able to do on her search for the pendant.
Donn Manalili, the developer of You Are Not The Hero, wanted to make a game that brings in the middle guy. All this time, in RPGs, we’ve been taking away money and resources away from some people that may actually need it. Sure, sure, they’re fictional characters, but it’s the principle!
You’d figure there would be a good reason they were hiding those coins in a chest. Certainly not for your greedy hands to find, that’s for sure.
You Are Not The Hero was funded back in November 2013. The original funding goal was only $12,001 but the Kickstarter campaign raised $90,776, reaching almost all of the stretch goals, opening it up to additional chapters, better graphics and different platforms. You Are Not The Hero is tentatively scheduled to be released for PC in December 2014.
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[author image=”http://cliqist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/julie.jpg” ]Julie Morley is a freelance writer and comic artist from Spring, Texas. She attended the Academy of Art University for two years, studying Animation and Illustration. Whilst here, she learned about writing comic scripts, storyboards, and general storytelling. Since leaving college, she has been working on personal comic projects, stories, and illustrations. She aspires to release a self published comic within two years. For the majority of her life, she has been playing console games, typically being third-person shooters and sandboxes. Her favorite game of existence is Dark Cloud II (Dark Chronicle) and her favorite Indie game is Gone Home.[/author]
