Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2

Have you always wanted to run your own fantasy school, training up pupils who you'll send out on perilous quests, just like Dumbledore? A deft blend of JRPG and management, it tells the story of a world split into four nations, each of which has founded its own hero academy. There's hours of fun in a cutesy game world.

Welcome to the cutesy yet ferocious world that will keep you occupied for hours: Valthirian!

As soon as the game begins, you find out that an evil dragon has split the country into four, and evil beasts roam the land. Hero schools have been created to protect the honest citizens, and you'll be in charge of one of them.

Between recruiting students and building and upgrading buildings, you'll always be busy, even if the game isn't all that complicated.

You start off with a single student and none or not many teachers. If your sole pupil is to become a hero, they'll have to complete entire courses in their character class: knight, mage, archer, paladin... and more.

Getting them to study is easy: just build the right buildings and set the right lessons. For a knight, you'll need to build a gym, which is the perfect place for physical training.

Classrooms, libraries, farms, dormitories, windmills... every building will enhance your school. They will also earn you bonuses when you send your pupils out on quests.

It goes without saying that building costs gold, and to maintain them you'll need to collect crystals known as arclithes. Whether as a reward for quests or out there on the world map, it's easy to farm these two resources.

Our tip to help you on your way? There's an interesting strategy that can help you manage your school. Each building gives you a special bonus when you set off on a quest, in the form of blessings from the school. Better attacks, bonus experience, more frequent rare item drops... Although you need to build some buildings to advance through the story, it's up to you how far you upgrade them. You might choose to upgrade an existing building for stronger boosts, or build something else on an empty plot to boost your attack, defence, magic, etc. But you didn't hear it from us!

And because this is a JRPG worthy of the name, it's got plenty of exploration! Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2 lets you go out on quests in the areas you unlock as you explore.

The initial quests are pretty straightforward, often involving exploring a forest or killing monsters. That's when you'll discover that this cute little game features turn-based combat and weapon affinities. Each character class (knight, mage, paladin, archer, etc.) has a colour that matches particular enemies. So, red beats red, yellow beats yellow, and so on. Make sure you plan ahead and form the right team of three pupils before sending them out questing. Especially because your pupils can also be sent to other towns and earn rewards in gold or arclithes.

We loved how the school management and quest combat is connected: the things you do in one have an impact on the other.

Our favourite part? The diplomacy.

If relations with your neighbours are poor, quest locations will be more dangerous but they will also bring more rewards! You're free to choose which kind of principal you want to be.

With its cute aesthetic, Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2 is the perfect game for anyone who fancies and RPG deftly combined with straightforward management sim elements.