For the up and away!
Hero is a Visual Novel that is part of Pixelberry Studio’s Choices: Stories You Play. You play as Alex, the assistant of Grayson Prescott, the son of Silas Prescott, the founder of Prescott Industries. Your life takes a sudden turn when at the unveiling of Prescott Industries’ newest invention, a robbery gone bad goes wrong, and you wake up with extraordinary powers, unfortunately you aren’t the only one...
Hero includes examples of the following tropes:
- Alliterative Names: As fitting the superhero genre, Kenji Katsaros, Poppy Patel, Dax Darcisse, Marjorie Miles all fit this convention.
- Big Bad: Silas Prescott, a power-hungry Corrupt Corporate Executive who wants to rule Northridge with an iron fist. He eventually becomes a telekinetic supervillain.
- Chrome Champion: Kenji/Talos can turn into living bronze.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive:
- Even before hiring superpowered criminals and becoming a supervillain himself, Silas Prescott is very greedy and power-hungry and generally treats Northridge as his personal playground.
- Russell Mayhew of Mayhew Dynamics isn't much better. His poor working conditions caused Eva's father to get lung cancer.
- Dating Catwoman: Eva/Minuet starts out as a thief and part of your rogues gallery, but you can romance her if you choose. It helps that Eva is inspired by Catwoman.
- Developers' Desired Date: Grayson gets the most attention and premium choices out of the love interests, and his romantic arc is most relevant to the plot. Kenji and Eva are somewhat sildelined.
- Elemental Shapeshifter: Shrapnel who can turn into living stone and Kenji/Talos.
- Enemy Mine: Chapter 14 has Alex and Caleb work together to escape from Silas’s hidden prison. A premium choice allows you to recruit him for the final battle in chapter 15.
- Expy:
- Eva/Minuet is an anti-heroic thief with a crush on the main character and a flirtatious yet mischievous personality, which kind of makes her Catwoman with superpowers.
- Kenji/Talos is kind of a gloryhound superhero, which makes him similar to Booster Gold personality-wise. His ability to transform his body into a Nigh-Invulnerable one made of bronze also makes him a heroic expy of Brass Body or perhaps Colossus from X-men.
- While we're at it, provided your character wears the blue costume with the red cape, the Flying Brick aspect of their powers as well as the fact they are really an alien from another dimension makes them a somewhat watered-down version of Superman.
- Extradimensional Power Source: The Prism Gate, which draws power from another dimension and can be used as a power supply or to give people superpowers.
- Flying Brick: Alex’s powers include flight, super-strength, super-speed, and super-toughness. No laser vision, though.
- Gay Option: Any of the three love interests are available to romance regardless of Alex’s gender.
- Happily Adopted: Rochelle has never made it a secret that Alex is adopted, still it is clear they love each other deeply.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The name, race, and gender of the main character are all customizable. The default name is “Alex”. You can choose the code name for the head thug after he gains his powers, the default name is “Shrapnel”. In chapter 6, you get to insert your hero name.
- Heroic BSoD: In Chapter 13, Alex is shocked to find that s/he’s not human and came from the Prism Gate. S/he spends several days in bed utterly depressed.
- How We Got Here: The prologue of the story starts with the city ruined. Chapter 15 is where the story finally catches up.
- Inspector Javert: DA Meiko Katsaros, Kenji’s Mother, considers all superheroes vigilantes and wants them arrested just as much as the super villains. She gets better after Kenji as Talos saves her life by protecting her from Caleb.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Grayson is the only main character who doesn't know Alex is a superhero.
- Meaningful Name:
- A Minuet is a kind of slow dance, which is a pretty appropriate name for someone who could slow down time.
- Talos is the mythological man of bronze gifted to the isle of Crete by Hephaestus, and Kenji can become a man of bronze.
- Playing with Fire: Caleb gains fire powers after stealing the prism crystal.
- Power Floats: Silas gains the power of flight after injecting several shots of liquid prism in chapter 15.
- Shipper on Deck: Alex suports the romance between his/her best friends Dax and Poppy.
- Time Stands Still: Eva/Minuet can create a temporal field that slows anyone or anything caught in it temporarily.
- Trophy Room: A premium choice allows you to get a new outfit and train at Kenji's private dojo. He has a trophy wall which shows he has trophies in taekwondo, karate, muay thai, Greco-Roman wrestling and wushu.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Both Grayson and Kenji have issues with their parents.
- Virtual Paper Doll: A selection of clothes is given for Alex.
