Repetition does funny things to your mind. It goes through cycles. Sometimes, wandering around the countryside, trying to outpace the darkness, it feels like I'm really in this world and it really matters that I'm killing monsters and finding treasure. Other times, it feels completely abstract, like I'm just trying to solve a geometrical and timing puzzle with a cursor shaped like a cute-little sprite-art adventurer.
I'm not sure which way is better, honestly. It's not a very compelling or deep adventure. The demon lord doesn't have much characterization and the mysterious darkness that chases you across the world is ill-defined. The people you meet along the way don't have much dialogue, but they're all friendly and helpful, which means it kind of sucks when they are inevitably killed by the shadow. Overall, the world-building and storytelling are thoroughly compromised by concessions to the gameplay.
Viewing it as a puzzle game makes a bit more sense, though. You've got a very limited supply of moves, and everything you do has a strict opportunity cost. Gauging your movement rate and available resources against the constraints of the surrounding area and the enemies you might face therein is often a real challenge.
Ultimately, the real problem I've been having with One Way Heroics is that I've basically been done with the game for five hours now. Once you slay the demon lord, the only thing you have left to do is try and do it again, with other character classes, on a higher difficulty. It's all right, but there's not a lot left to discover (unless, of course, there is and I just happen to be so far from discovering it that I don't even suspect it exists).
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