As voted by ✨you✨, I've finished my journey with Little Town Hero. It...kinda grew on me? It's an incredibly hard sell. I fully understand why it's not well received, but I also kinda admire developer Game Freak for sticking to a small game like this.
More informal review in Read More 👇
Basically, this project isn't as much as a roleplaying game (RPG) as it is a boss rush. Although, you do also get the RPG staple of a sphere grid. Y'all like sphere grids? 
In combat, you perform math to fight and that's... It was incredibly draining. The closest I can compare this game is Pokémon Colosseum meets Hearthstone, where you're trying to figure out what combination will give your numbers lethal, every single turn. It's a lot of math; like a lot. The game is only a dozen hours, but I could only play a chapter a day, because my head was spinning from trying to make the numbers work. To its credit, that's a very effective way to make these towering encounters feel impactful in a novel way. 
The double-edged sword here is that this boss rush is all there is. As its title implies, you almost never leave the little town and you go back and forth whipping these monsters, wherever they appear. This tight-knit containment is woven into the story (and, again, even the title), so once I made peace that this is all there is, I was able to really enjoy the thematic aptitude. The art and general presentation also help to make this story more likeable; it's very cute with just a touch of danger, for dramatic effect.
The only downside is that this clearly has Game Freak written all over it. Yes, that means that their creativity is threefold from their usual Pokémon schlock. That, also, means that they came up with exactly one idea and then called it a day. Like, not only is the experience a constant repetition, but you can also see that there was more to do here. There's a furnace in the town and it's used once, but not for what you'd think.
I've taken some shots of the art book, which beautifully captures this charming setting that I mentioned. Yet, this detailed world building is barely ever referenced in the game at all.
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The nucleus of a great, understated game is in here. I like it when games try and Little Town Hero did try! With just a touch more development, maybe some more rummaging around town, maybe a bit more character development, this could've been a classic. One of my favorite games is the 3DS sleeper, Attack of the Friday Monsters. I was periodically reminded of that, which is great, but it's not exactly the same. There's not enough meat here on either the gameplay nor the story to reach those heights. It just needed that touch more. The other game this reminded me of was the notoriously unfinished Murdered: Soul Suspect. Little Town Hero falls somewhere in between these two worlds.
Until next time. Thanks for reading 💖