1 or 2?

[Miklik]

I've never heard of this series before, but it looks like something I might enjoy. I'm not looking to grab both before knowing if I'll enjoy both, though, so the question is which one should I get? After taking a quick glance at the store pages, they seem pretty similar, except the sequel just has more stuff. Any other aspects I should consider?

[atmasabr]

1 is a remake of a Wizardry spinoff and has extremely similar mechanics to Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls and the Expy games like Operation Abyss and Demon Gaze after that. 2 is more committed to being invested in the game world and lore, so it changes the mechanics in some areas and balances its classes in its own unique way rather than being a copy of every single other DRPG in its family. Most of 1's dungeons are dreary (some are outdoor locations). 2 gets rid of 1-square visibility and light spell mechanics, and has more bright and beautiful outdoor dungeons, with some dreary dungeons.

What you see in the two video reviews by Eric Landon RPG on each community page is pretty close to what each is trying to do on their own. Most of what he leaves out boils down to this: 1 gives you more flexibility in your characters, while 2 is more user-friendly when it comes to trial and error.

2 actually does have advanced classes, but you have to go to another location for them. Rather, 2 restricts advanced and even some basic classes by race. 1 will throw deadly random battles at the party early much more often. 2 will wait until the second dungeon. Part of the issue is in 1 you get stuck with weak weapons for a long time and you'll need to know to turn the junk items you find in the maze into regular weapons. 2's a little forgiving in that respect.

I personally would recommend 1 to a die-hard DRPG fan because you'll spend more time trying to figure out the mechanics and less time retching at the cutesy presentation, and 2 for someone who wants to power up and make gameplay progress, although both are okay for both (there's plenty of things to figure out on your own about 2 as well, and you can actually pick up a sub-par party and make progress just by persisting in 1).

[KiTA]

So Class of Heroes 1 is a port / remake of a game called Wizardry Xth Generations 2 which came about when the publisher that made that game went under and some of the staff went on to join/found ZeroDev.

Zerodev or the guy at Zerodev brought the source code for the game over -- literally, as you can enter the debug menu in CoH1 and it talks about Xth2 stuff -- but swapped the gothic post apocalyptic military school themes for a high fantasy anime adventure high school instead.

The majority of the team from that company went on to found Experience, Inc., which is why it has such similar mechanics to Operation Abyss and Demon Gaze. Same team, essentially, and they're all pulling from other older Wizardry games in Japan such as Wizardry Empires and Wizardry Summoner.

I could go on for pages and pages about the "Wizardry family tree" that this is a part of, and have in the past (TVTropes has some info on it from me prior to my latest banning, Wikipedia as well), but, it's likely not interesting for anyone not already a fan.

So. 1 or 2.

Since CoH 1 is a remake of Xth Generations 2, which was a niche DRPG sold on a basically nonexistent platform in Japan (Windows 95), it's made for fans of the genre. That is to say, Class of Heroes 1 is harder than you'd expect, at least at the start. There are mechanics that in a more modern game (said with all the disgust I can type with) would make optional, like crafting, grinding, and experimentation, that simply aren't what I would call optional in CoH1.

Class of Heroes 2 is an original game using the same races and classes, and is much better balanced early on, iirc. As frgrndrgns mentions, it waits till the dungeon AFTER the tutorial dungeon to start instant killing you.

Honestly I never finished CoH1 on the PSP (kept meaning to, but... lazy) and never touched CoH2. The publisher for CoH2 in English on the PSP/PS3 made some choices, like nerfing certain spells, that I didn't like, and his attitude when I said as such was extremely flippant. The guy was infamous for this (look up Working Designs someday) but, yeah. His company his rules, I guess -- I still bought every release.

The important thing to note is 1 and 2 are completely separate games. I do not believe there are even any cameos in 2 from the cast of 1.

[Ѭ‡∴ℱ𓇀𓉂⎆]

Originally posted by KiTA:

The important thing to note is 1 and 2 are completely separate games. I do not believe there are even any cameos in 2 from the cast of 1.

CoH2 is a direct sequel to CoH1; You even go back to it's locations.

With the above said... I like the gameplay changes CoH2 makes over 1, and think it's a better game overall. CoH1 experiments in a few ways that didn't quite pan out, and sticks a bit too close to some Wizardry things I'm just not really a fan of.

[Miklik]

Thanks for the detailed responses, both of you. Sounds like 2 is a better entry point, so I'll probably grab that.

[Kensloth]

On the PSP CoH 1 and 2 games, you could transfer your save file from CoH1 to the CoH2.. I wonder if that mechanic remains intact for the PC version..?

[atmasabr]

Originally posted by KiTA:

So Class of Heroes 1 is a port / remake of a game called Wizardry Xth Generations 2 which came about when the publisher that made that game went under and some of the staff went on to join/found ZeroDev....
...
The majority of the team from that company went on to found Experience, Inc., which is why it has such similar mechanics to Operation Abyss and Demon Gaze. Same team, essentially, and they're all pulling from other older Wizardry games in Japan such as Wizardry Empires and Wizardry Summoner....
...
As frgrndrgns mentions, it waits till the dungeon AFTER the tutorial dungeon to start instant killing you.

[I'm really overdue to updating my Steam account name. Sorry but I really was.]

Thank you, I appreciate that explanation. Teleport into water for me :P I once gave a good few paragraphs about what happened with Wizardry's legal rights in the US.

I got super stuck in the first game because I decided to go for the Student with 30 Stamina achievement. I think I'm down to 62 now.

There are, however, one or two characters in common in the two games.

[Sam Aconitum]

TLDR;imo , CoH1 if you want something harder, CoH2 if you want something a little less hard but still challenging and has a lot of QoL that CoH1 lacks