Ren'Py - Completed - Heads Will Roll [v1.5c] [1917 Studios]

heads will roll reforged is a turn based game where every combat interaction will do a random success roll based on stats check which include str, agility, endurance and coordinance.

you can train your character stats in exchange for fatigue which need to be restored.

the longer the fight drags on, the easier for you to hit your opponent and vice versa unless you are patience enough to maintain your stamina and fatigue by wasting more turn.

the main objective of the game is basically survive.

the combat is pretty simple, maintain your body at top shape even during the prolonged battle or just die.

if you are doing something not related to personal survival then you are gonna die alot in this game and vice versa which is you will never die.

the most important mechanic in this game is maintaining fatigue and looting corpse.

the game will always let you choose to completely restore fatigue or getting 2 item for each enemy killed between combat scene which means extra money if you can always maintain fatigue in top shape.

personally this game is very easy for me and i am sure people gonna disagree because it's very easy to get killed without understanding how the game works and important decision to be made.

minor spoiler regarding difficulties of combat :

there is only 1 optional unfair fight in this game and the game literally warned you and prevent death for this combat.

decent amount of hard fight where the game allow you to retreat after surviving 15 turn. [the game still allow you to continue fight if you really want it and offer optional retreat every 15 turn multiplier]

few optional boss fight which seems very unfair but it's optional and you can actually beat it or just skip entirely.

the rest is basically mobs unit which can't even hit you once if you train enough and maintain top shape and all you need is weapon and cheap shield.

you think this mob with almost 0% attack chance can kill you ?
yes they can and almost did me dirty when comparing my 55 str and their 25 str shield bash.

so take this game with grain of RNG salt.

Story is the only thing justifying the star even being a 1. So much promise with the worst execution I've ever seen.

Character creator- doesn't work have to roll random.

Weapon choices- completely ignore crossbows. its going off realistic without compensating for the combat. Stick to sword and shield because shields literally prevent 99% of all attacks even the ones listed to go past shields and armor.

Combat- unbalanced. untested. worse than anything I've ever seen. the way it is set is up is so atrocious i cannot even describe it in English. For example. at sword skill 10 and all stats around 25 each from modding game file 1 battle STILL takes 15 minutes on easy because either the game chooses to ignore its text or all of a sudden items and weapons don't work.

quests are set up on a time system. time is too short between major sequences.

Overall dodge this game not even worth downloading. Honestly Pink Pencil games are more balanced and fairer than this game. If you want to play a tough good Hgame play the dark souls parody game.

Play on easy!

The game is great, even tho it's work to reach the sexual content. I tried playing on normal and that meant either restarting or save scumming a lot.

On steam major updates are announced coming this year so I will hold off playing the game until then.

Excellent game. Not much sexual content but the actual gameplay is quite interesting. I thought when looking at screenshot that the graphic style would bother me but I quite enjoyed it when playing. overall very good game

I am giving this game 5 stars with 1 caveat, there is 1 major issue that I have found which will either make this a 5 star game or a 1 star game for most players.

PROS
Complexity - This game has a level of depth that you rarely find in an indie game, Every single playthrough can be different, if you go with this person, or save that person, it all matters in the story, which gives this game a ton of replayability, I play it on 2 different computers so I dont overlap my saves, but its worth playing over and over. This is especially impressive because it is done on Renpy, it is so difficult to keep all of that code straight it is a miracle that they were able to do this without breaking the game.

Good Combat - Now this is a renpy game, and for all of those that have played a renpy RPG you must know there are multiple limitations to this engine, as far as combat systems go, so what this game has managed to do is impressive.

Deep Customization - You have a character, they have many stats, and each of those stats matter, I am not sure I would have gone with the choice of a 1 to 1 training to stat bump choice, but despite that later in the game you will find yourself doing quests rather than grinding stats. Additionally there are so many items to customize your character with that you can really make anything successfully.

Art - The art is on point, I think the characters look good, the items look historically accurate, the scenery is cool and the map looks great.

Overall I would say that this game has a TON going for it. Given that it is still in development I have high hopes for its future.

CONS
Saving - I feel like there is so much saving that needs to be done just so that you can get to the results that you want, I understand that this game is supposed to be difficult, and they added an easy mode which unlocks the save function at all time, but I have several hundred saves now and that could easily be cut down by simply adding the rollback function.

Adult content - As far as a dating sim goes this game leaves a lot to be desired, you have to toggle on mature content which is fine, but there is so much potential there for really having a good adult game that it seems a shame to leave it the way it is. When you finally get with the girl it usually goes from contempt to admiration in an instant, followed by a single slide of her naked, and then that's it, you will never interact with her again.

Lack of a guide - With a story this complex and there being so many paths that one can take, there is too much to miss if you don't know what is there, without some type of guidance it is impossible to know if you have done everything you could, so that makes it difficult to know what alternate directions you could have taken.

SUGGESTIONS
Combat - The combat is perfect the way it is, although I would say that shield break and armor break should be cheaper. Also respite should be bit more effective or at the very least be modified by some stat or another.

Story - The story is perfect the way it is, keep going along this route and you have a work of art.

Dating Sim - This is the biggest area which needs improvement, if it was me I would make an isolated portion of the game for each of the girls which allows you to have a greater level of interaction with them, give them gifts, earn their favor, talk with them, do "other" stuff with them, basically a sex scene shouldn't consist of 1 image and then you never talk to them or see them again. I would probably take some inspiration from a trainer and build out an interaction system based on that.

Achievements - It is admirable to have a game with this level of complexity, but I would say it is deeply in need of an achievement system that permanently keeps track of the different routes you have chosen to take, would be very simple to implement, and would allow people to play the game multiple times to achieve different results.

Developer Social Media - I was trying to find out any information I could about this developer, but they have no website, no discord, not even a facebook, if you are serious about making this game which it seems you are, I would put atleast a minimum amount of effort into its marketing. Build a website, start a discord server, and make a facebook page. This group has the potential to make some amazing games, players should be able to follow their work. (If you contact me I would be happy to build you a basic website and set you up on discord for free)


All in all this game is truly amazing, yes there are improvements that should be made, but the same is true of even the best games out there, given that this is an indie project it is impossible to expect perfection. I give this game 5 stars because it has a level of depth that I have rarely seen. There is so much potential here, I have picked up this game on steam in hopes to support its development and I suggest others do so as well, this isn't just a standard adult game, this is a masterpiece.

Heads Will Roll, is basically a Roll and Get(RNG) fest. Everything is based on a chance, that player could find out what it's based on, most of times.

This game combined player choice and character ability to pass rolls to progress the story.

The RNG start from character generation, which are rolling 2-10 ability point and 2-5 starting item. This is quite a bothersome since player don't know anything in the game if it's their first play through.

Even the story, had RNG aspect in it. Player will be faced to a roll check in some part of story as you progress the game. This roll could change story outcome.

It's not the first game who adopt this kind of mechanic, I've played and finished several game who had similar mechanic as this game. All of them had a good story despite the limitation of exploring dialogue.

The way this game tell story had a huge negative point. First, there isn't any history to re-read missed dialogue. It almost feels like the game forcing player to focus 24/7 while playing the game.

Secondly, there are no roll-back, so the only hope you got is to load save and redo all over again so you wouldn't miss the story.

Third, the game decide to use no-so-comfortable font to read as the default and only option available. I know it's for theme and it's look perfectly fit, but what's the point of having a perfectly fit font if the purpose is to tell story?

All those reason, makes me had no desire to follow what's the story about.

But, to be fair, if there are someone out there who are happy to be kicked around by RNG, means nothing you can do except to load-save and reading all of not-so-comfortable font sentence and not missing a single line, this game is for you.

Not forget to mention, that the game is also limiting how you could save and even the core game are also heavily relied on RNG.

Version - 1.5c [Complete]

My review of Heads Will Roll [Final] [1917 Studios]

I really love the game's setting and premise.
Unfortunately the game itself is pretty terrible.

I had no idea how to even start the first quest until trying random stuff for 5-10 minutes.
The stats you can train are explained very poorly and you have no idea what is good without reading third party guides.
The combat is complicated and apparently extremely RNG-based.
I gave up after I couldn't do certain actions, even though the button lit up on mouseover like the others, and ragequit the game.

Furthermore it also isn't really an adult game.
No violence, no particularly mature dialogue, and the only lewds are a few pictures of women showing their breasts or buttcheeks.

I would have loved to show love to that game, but, difficulty is far from being well balanced.
To be clear, it's not that the game is challenging, it's more critical, you can fail in a dead-end while making no mistake in character building and in story.
So, the game is not challenging, it's frustrating, at the very beginning, even at the lowest difficulty setting.
A better balance would greatly improve it.

I really wanted to like this game. The combat system is fresh, the story is entertaining, and I enjoyed starting from nothing and rising through the ranks while overcoming difficult encounters.

However, the scaling is way out of whack starting in Act2 (after you leave France). Suddenly I couldn't survive even basic encounters due to enemies that regularly outclassed and outnumbered me, AND with similar gear. Enemy stats were often 2-3x mine. Killed foes would be immediately replaced with fresh troops with massive bonuses to attack and defense since I was tired, making mere survival literally impossible. Even with nearly unlimited gold I couldn't buy superior equipment to my foes, and even if I could, the stat requirements required to use it were prohibitive. It's a shame because Act 1 had good balance; it's like Act 1 had been carefully balanced, and the rest was ignored.

Then there's the bugs and instability. When you lose your shield, you permanently lose the agility used to equip it. The game also crashes occasionally due to script errors. Other users have reported a host of additional bugs.

In the current state the game is basically unplayable without cheating after the initial map. An update is planned that is supposed to fix many of these problems, but I can't recommend the game as it stands. It's a shame because the basic concept seems promising.

This game needs to be retuned. A game that gives healing a chance to fail is rubbish. Your char stands no chance when fighting more than one person. Battles can drag on for too long. Why aren't head and neck shots lethal? It should be a risk reward system and not, "oh look, I did slightly more damage" to the enemy. If you don't invest in certain stats (agility, composure and endurance) you might as well start over, which defeats the purpose of custom stats. I did enjoy the management until it started to sink in.

A very difficult game for a small amount of H content. The combat system is incredibly difficult. To put it into terms, it took me several tries just to win the opening battle and that was only the start of a long grind. Eventually I just went to save editor to cut through all of that nonsense and see the story.
As for the H scenes, expect a long wait before getting to see anything, which isn't necessarily bad due to the story and setting of it. This could pass off as a regular game to tell you the truth because of what's seen but I digress.

If you are going for souly a pretty alright RPG, this is the game for you.
I gave up after a few hours as the gameplay is honestly a drag and pretty random, I found myself reloading saves before battle often so I could get a different enemy I had a better chance against, as it seems you need to go straight into one or two loadouts in order to do well in battles, the rest are more filler.

About 1/3 into the game the story is alright, the gameplay is alright, and the visuals are alright.
All around I would say its nowhere near a bad game, but not my cup of tea.

The romance is not until the end if luckyand all that
Otherwise makes you question if its there at all with scenes like just giving you a art piece with no text.., unfitting, and the mature tag just adds nipples or w/e as if that was a big deal or anything..
\art in that time period was more Mature then this and again no text or anything just as if artist was told to paint whatever so long it contained the character at times.

Difficulty is just way to Luck based with massive favoring to fail with poor mechanics making it even harder needlessly.
Even with crazy cheated stats a lot of this can boil to bad rng (including a luck stat that I don't think you can cheat).

Some the bad mechanics include common sense things that were fixed in gaming years and years ago like switching your gear with what you have equipped, which is extra bad here since you have VERY limited inventory space means you have to Throw away items to equip something new often times...

Story is ok at best outside the poorly done romance, but if you played or watched or read some 100 year war things its just meh.

Far to long for replays and that includes the other route which was also horribly done with just random time skip and no player control 1/2 routes think skips 6months... and largely ignores most what you did.

Just a total lack lusting, old style, time waister with rng mechanics and a few earned pictures with potentially nude bits.
>
Like if you played all the old flash games and want something like them without that much adult content and take place in 100year war then this is it.
Otherwise skip, and if you do play do yourself a favor and get renpy cheat.

2/5 Below Average

Well nice game in the mediéval art
very hard game but allways new because of events
do you have any walkthrough or guide ?
It's pretty obvious that there is no porn. This is a real game with some nudity I guess.