Game: Healer’s Quest
Genre: Adventure, Fighting, Role-Playing, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam)
Developers | Publishers: Rablo Games | Plug In Digital
Age Rating: EU 12+ | US E 10+
Price: US $14.99 | EU €14,99| UK £13.49
Release Date: February 11th, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to Plug In Digital
Healer’s Quest is a roleplaying game developed by one-man studio, Rablo Games, and published by Plug-in Digital.
Be the Healer
Let’s face it, in games healing can be boring. Healing means being the responsible one, and who wants to do that! Healing can mean using up all your spell slots on ungrateful teammates. Teammates who didn’t and don’t think to buy any potions in the last shop you visited.
Well, in Healer’s Quest you take the role of the lowly healer in a party of eccentric RPG class archetypes. Out walking in a forest you find a wand, you try to cast some spells with it. Sadly the wand fails, and when you come upon a nearby tank in the middle of a battle with little health left. You wave your wand and low and behold it works and you heal him! You and the tank who turns out to be called Tanky get caught in the throws of adventure with a party rapidly forming, and a quest to find the Noob sword and the thief who stole your gold begins!
Your three buddies on your quest are Tanky, a domineering tank, Grumpy, a barbarian who’s really a lumberjack, Beauty, a handsome archer, Murky, a mage who is more wicked than good.
Jenny the Healer
Healer’s Quest starts with customising your character, you can choose male or female, hair, nose shape, hat and such. Then you get to name your healer, I named my little healer Jenny as the game stipulates their name must end in a Y, in keeping with your teammates’ names.
Tap, Tap and Tap some More
Since you only control the healer during any fights it’s your job to make sure the rest of the party stay alive. At times that can be a thankless task as the party members don’t understand why you’re in their party. Nor do they give you any gold they gather from slaying monsters and get very angry when you let them die. An ungrateful lot, that they are!
You heal by tapping the screen on the party member you wish to heal. Your little healer will waggle their wand and keep the party members health up. You have a limited amount of mana to use, indicated by the bar at the bottom of the screen. This means you have to carefully balance between healing and micromanaging mana reserves. If you run out of mana you can no longer heal the party.
Range of Spells
Your healer has a good range of spells. However, you are limited to four spells you can use at once. There is even a spell tree to increase the powers of your spells. Magic Stars are earned during battles and you use them to increase your spells. In all, there are 22 spells for your healer to master. These are varied and include heals, buffs for your teammates, debuff removers, and mana regeneration. Each skill has its own tree, with upgrades such as increased duration, increased healing, and different passives. It gives the game a surprising amount of depth and customisation.
Healer’s Quest’s plot, though basic, is solid and it’s also silly, the dialogue is almost completely made up of ridiculing and mocking the RPG genre. Such as the annoying people in parties, standard quest design, and the daft enemies you encounter. It’s amusing, at least I think it’s amusing. It can be pretty sarcastic in its humour too. Since humour is subjective to each person I don’t think everyone will find the game as amusing as it thinks it is or as I think it is.
With an open-world map to explore, dungeons to visit and with Bosses to fight there is plenty of healing to do, to keep your team fit and healthy. Visit towns and shops for your team members to buy potions, if they remember that is! You can visit the Inn to heal your party and keep them in a good mood. But there is only room in the Inn for four team members to sleep. Jenny has spent many a cold night outside, while the gentlemen take up the beds!
Visuals and Controls
The art style of the game is similar to crayon drawings I think it fits the game well. It has an upbeat soundtrack to accompany you on your travels to find the Noob sword. Maps have the same art style with a good amount of variety and imagination, from the usual rivers and forests to castles with floating towers and large skeletons standing up in giant pits.
You can control the game with either the joy-cons or the touchscreen. I mainly used the touchscreen as I found in the heat of battle it was easier to tap the screen to heal my party members as it gets frantic at times.
Conclusion
I’ve have an entertaining time while playing Healer’s Quest, the writing has given me a laugh a few times. The gameplay is pretty solid but in shorter bursts. I don’t think Healer’s Quest is a game you could play for hours on end. At its price point of under £15 in the eShop, you certainly get your money’s worth and an enjoyable, humourous take on the RPG genre.
Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot! 