Has-Been Heroes has just received a massive free expansion pack! It’s out now on all platforms and we’ve got a short video to celebrate:
The expansion adds tons of new content for players to discover and includes the Trine heroes – Amadeus the Wizard, Pontius the Knight, and Zoya the Thief – as playable characters once you have unlocked the Epic Quest mode. The Epic Quest mode will be a true test of skill for the most veteran players as the heroes have no starting spells! Complete with custom animations (Amadeus attacks with a box!) and beautiful 2D visuals in the style of Has-Been Heroes, the Trine heroes definitely need to perform some heroic deeds to complete this quest from another universe!
We’ve also added a new region to the main game called the Sky Temple. Each Sky Temple run will include unique twists, new enemies and new bosses!
Updates to the main game include:
* 8 Young Heroes to unlock
* New “Sky Temple” region
* 120+ new spells
* 150+ new items
For players looking for another challenge, the expansion also brings two new game modes: “Challenge Mode” and “Seed Mode”. Challenge mode is a single difficult battle with pre-set loadout of characters, items, and spells. By completing a Challenge players unlock a new Young Hero. Seed mode allows players to share a seed number with friends and play the exact same game/run with a timer upon completion. Use this to host a competition between you and your friends and compare strategy.
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I also want to post this message from us developers:
We are grateful that so many people have enjoyed the game and despite some of the criticism, we feel that we succeeded in making the game we wanted to make. Has-Been Heroes is tough but also a lot of fun when you understand the mechanics. Maybe we would do certain things a little differently, and we’d try to ease in the player (and reviewers) a lot better, but as far as the core game and gameplay mechanics, we’re happy. It’s been fun to see that a lot of you have been too!
So a big thank you to everybody who’s bought and enjoyed the game, it means a lot to us!
The free expansion is our way to thank you back, we started working on it in the spring and summer, and what started out as “let’s do a little bit of extra content” turned out to be a pretty major content add-on. Actually at some point we thought we should put a price on it, but after a while we figured that we rather have everybody have access to the same content and new features.
I hope this expansion gives everyone playing some hours of additional fun – or in other words, another 100 hours? 🙂 In addition to that, from a development standpoint this was a handy way for us to keep the team together “in-between” projects. A lot of the guys and gals who were on the Has-Been Heroes team are now working on our next game, Nine Parchments, coming out by the end of the year, and the experience we gained on working on Nintendo Switch has been super helpful with Nine Parchments too.
So in summary, thank you to everyone out there reading this and playing the game! We hope you continue to have fun. 🙂
– Joel, Frozenbyte team, developers of Has-Been Heroes
29 comments on “Has-Been Heroes gets a free Expansion – out now!”
I’ve gushed to you guys before about how much I love this game, but here’s another thank you! I wasn’t expecting such a huge update after all this time!
The Switch has had an incredible year, with loads of great games, but looking at the counter here, I see I’ve played HBH more than 300 hours. :-0 That might be a bit too much….
Anyway, you guys have really made a game unlike any other, and you should feel proud as hell to have made it. Thanks yet again!
Thanks for the support! 🙂
Dear Frozenbyte,
I love Has-Been Heroes. Seriously.
I know it’s multi platform, but I knew nothing about the game prior to seeing the Nintendo Treehouse showcase, and the premise and gameplay setup got me more interested than any of the other Switch offerings on display. It, more than any of the other games, had me eager to see how it turned out when it was finished. Then it was released, and… received its well-known savage beating in the review world. Despite that, even though I was disappointed in what everyone was saying about it, I ended up taking the plunge and downloading it the day I got my Switch, being some months(and patches) later. Turns out it my hard-earned Jackson was spent wisely.
As of today, it’s my most-played game on the Switch, nearly beating out my total Zelda and Splatoon 2 gametimes combined. Learning exactly how the mechanics worked, the various spell interactions, theorycrafting item synergies, all that stuff, was like a constant dopamine release as I fell deeper and deeper under it’s spell, often spending hours upon hours in a row absorbed in a cycle of attempt-die-repeat as I learned a bit more about how best to combat the billion skeletons in front of me.
Speaking of dying, the often-harsh difficulty, compared with my relative skill, makes me so mad sometimes that I curse out loud, but don’t let that take away from what I’m saying. The game is good. Very good. It’s damn hard, seemingly unfair at times, and absolutely not perfect, but I will absolutely be playing this thing for a long time to come. Whenever I have a spare few minutes, I can easily get in a battle or two on my current run, and then set it down for later. It’s a perfect fit for the Switch, and I know if I had it for any other platform, I wouldn’t be nearly as willing to keep playing, simply due to convenience.
Due to most people’s initial reception, I fully expected the game to be quickly swept under the rug with very little support, and ignored in favor of your next project, but seeing this, not just random QOL updates, but an entire expansion with added modes, characters, items, spells, etc, is like a little early holiday present.
Thank you, Frozenbyte, and everyone who worked on Has-Been Heroes. You all did real good, and I hope all your future games find their audience.
Thank you so much for your support and kind words! We hope you enjoy the expansion as much as you have enjoyed the basic game. Although I might need to warn you a bit, there will be frustrating moments ahead with the expansion as well. ;D
Totally awesome.
I was really surprised when I started the game yesterday and found additional menu options. It turned into excitement when I realised that it’s free new content. “Has-been Heroes” is my most-played game on the Nintendo Switch. I played it even more often than Zelda or Mario Kart, and that means a lot. Christmas must be early this year when we get such great free stuff in November. Thank you very much, Frozenbyte! That’s such a nice surprise.
Always happy to hear that we managed to beat Zelda and Mario! 😀
Thanks guys – this is my most played Switch game too.
Side note, I might not have picked it up had it not been for Jerry at Penny Arcade. He did a great run through of the mechanics on a stream that completely sold me on the game.
You mean this one? https://www.twitch.tv/videos/166234585 He’s done a few, they’ve been awesome. We should force them on new players. 🙂
Hi guys,
I love Has-Been Heroes, and the free expansion looks great, but it’s been a week and you still haven’t updated the Humble version to include it. Any ETA on when you’ll be updating the game on that platform?
Next week! Sorry for the delay and thanks for your support. 😊
I’ve enjoyed the game a lot, although I’m only 30 hrs in or so, it’s been such fun thus far. Can’t say I mastered it yet, but I’m trying a lot – and dying even more! – to get the hang of it. Sooo…
Thank you for the blast I’m having!
Looking forward to playing Nine Parchments!
Much love.
Thanks for making this game and thanks for giving us a free DLC. It’s amazing how you guys made this happen. I’m one of the people who loved this game and this is probably the best $20 game (launch price) I have ever played on a console
Thanks for your support! And I’ll also mention to give some credit to GameTrust who published the game. 😊
If you haven’t yet please also take a loot at our other games!
Thanks for the amazing game and the amazing expansion as well!
I almost ended up not picking the game because of reviews and now it turned out to be my most played game and I’m not even close to unlocking everything. I also make games for a living and I know how hard it is to make something you love and end up being bashed even though you know you’ve done a good job and people love it.
Looking forward to playing your next games!
Thanks for your support! 🙂
It´s very very difficult to unlock heroes. 56 hours of game and I´m getting so tired. It´s not me… tons of enemys, Start from the beginning once you are dead. I think I´m not going to be in the 60th hour with your game. Totally unfair.
While I’m sorry to hear that you feel this way, please understand that starting from the beginning is very initial feature for roguelikes.
However here is one way to cheat in game, if you’d like to use it: If the situation looks dire, close the game (fully) and open it again to continue from the last checkpoint. However more than this, we encourage looking for strategies online like this guide.
Again sorry, but hopefully you can still enjoy the game!
56 hours are a lot. 56th hour was my last. the game depends basically on the spells. the improvements are very poor on the next play. How many hours do you need in order to have a good advantage? 200? I´ve played 200 hours at rogue legacy i.e. cause is not unfair from the beggining as this game, I´ve beat mom several times (isaac) sometimes more difficult depending on the tears… enter the gungeon is difficult but you can advance….. and long etc… this game is extremely frustrating.
I’ve cleared the game many times with very crappy spells, trust me. All is manageable. Deep tactics are to be discovered.
Maybe the game is just not for you.
I must admit at first has been hero’s frustrated the absolute crap out of me before i understood the game mechanics…… now i actually play it as much or more than breath of the wild ….. i also have 9 parchments and let me say this … YOU GUYS TOTALLY ROCK!!! I cant wait to see what else you guys have been up to
Thanks for the kind words, we do our best. 🙂
Where is the download link
The game can be updated to the expansion version from the game service you bought it from.
I hope this helps!
I love the game, I play it everyday for 2 hours. My only disappoint is the fact that I have do start all over again each time. I beat the game 4 times and there are no new perks except new characters in their base form.
Thanks for the feedback!
It’s normal for roguelikes to start from the beginning, but good luck if you still want to unlock more stuff. 😊
At least each play through is quite different?
Hey guys,
Been playing the game since late last year and still playing from time to time.
I’m now near 99% complete and will be getting platinum soon!
Amazing game, great mechanics,deep tactics of play and combo, music and sound effects are awesome.
Nice! 👍
We also really appreciate the feedback. Note also that Hall of Heroes exists. 😉
Love this game any help is much appreciated
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