Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago review - "A wholesome and nostalgic treat"

• Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago is an idle RPG that pays homage to Tamagotchis and the Game Boy
• It doesn't bring anything new to the genre but is delightfully presented
• There are a few bugs here and there that take away some of the sheen

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Tamagotchis were all the rage. It seemed everyone I knew was tending to a virtual pet, doing their best to raise them into a beautiful adult creature and then inevitably becoming devastated when they perished. All because you took your eye off the ball for thirty minutes to watch Jungle Run after school (that's possibly an incredibly niche British reference, but I shan't apologise!). Then, the cycle started all over again.

I didn't have a Tamagotchi. Instead, I opted for the superior Pokemon Pikachu (it had a pedometer, don't you know?) alongside the Digivice, which I didn't like as much. But that doesn't mean I don't get those same warm fuzzy feelings thinking about those days. Developer 14 Hours Productions clearly has a penchant for that craze, channelling it into their idle RPG Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago. That's a double pun name right there.

The premise is an amusing one. You're essentially created to be a babysitter for a young hero, feeding, training, and generally guiding them through life until they're powerful enough to defeat the dreaded Frog Lord, who is threatening all of fairykind. Why you? Well, basically, the Fairy Queen can't be bothered, so she hands this crucial task over to you.

It's this laid-back, jovial tone that permeates many facets of Yolk Heroes. Never at any point does it feel like there's a massive rush to overcome the fairies' amphibious foes. I mean, you're raising an adventurer from childhood to deal with it, so it can literally wait a lifetime. Rather than rush, then, you embark on a plodding journey filled with humorous quips and puns that are sure to raise a smile. And you know what? It perfectly suits the idle RPG vibe. It'll get done eventually, so let it take as long as it needs.

Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago is a lovely dose of nostalgia

And it's a lovely world to dip into for a few minutes here and there throughout the day, particularly if you're fond of the 90s. Not only do you get those nostalgic pangs from the Tamagotchi side of things, but it also pays homage to the Game Boy with its art style. Every sprite has that distinctive look, and it's all very charming, with many of the enemies sticking fondly in my mind as I write this. Whether it's how noble the standard goose looks or the brazen strangeness of the sand witch (a pile of sand with a hat and a broomstick), they're all brimming with personality.

It successfully straddles the line between paying tribute to what's come before it while standing on its own. Nothing feels entirely original (a goose is just a bird, after all) yet the design is memorable enough that you don't tie it to anything else. It's a similar story with the music, which boasts all the nostalgia-inducing tones of the retro stuff from my childhood without being overly familiar. For example, the tune that plays while your character rests is reminiscent of the Pokemon Centre theme without truly being all that similar.

You might wonder why I've spent most of my Yolk Heroes review discussing the vibes rather than the gameplay. The reason is simple. If you're into idle RPGs, nothing here is likely to surprise you. After playing a minigame to hatch your new hero from their egg and raising the infant to an age where they can raise a sword above their head, you'll fall into a repetitive cycle. Of course, while that sounds like a bad thing, it isn't necessarily. The developer knows the idle RPG audience, and that reassuring loop is a genre staple.

So, there's the Tamagotchi-influenced side where you have to manage your hero's energy, hunger, hygiene and bladder to ensure they're happy as can be. Alongside that, you'll need to use their energy to train one of the three stats, or a mixture of them all. Doing so makes them better at completing the quests (which also require energy) that you must complete to progress the story. However, there's a catch, or rather, a cap. You can only increase your stats by a certain amount before a level-up is required to boost them further. And how do you level up? Yep, you guessed it, by doing quests.

It offers no surprises to the idle RPG world but that's fine

And therein lies the loop. You have to juggle keeping your hero happy, making them super buff and completing quests so you can make them strong enough to defeat the Frog Lord. All of that can be as involved as you want, although I'd wager it'll lean heavily into the idle side of things the more you progress. Each activity, be it questing, training, or even going to the toilet, has a minigame attached that allows you to speed things along slightly. They're all pretty straightforward, similar to the Action Commands from Paper Mario, even having a similar boosting effect in combat.

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However, unless you're looking for a clicker that's a bit more involved, you likely won't dabble with this side of Yolk Heroes after a while. Instead, you might accept its status as an idle RPG, queue up a few activities and go about your day. Unlike the Tamagotchi, the fear of death is less of a concern here. Alternatively, you could save up some gold by completing quests and raiding the shop for items that speed things up.

It's very adjustable to the pace you prefer to an extent, and I certainly appreciate that. The settings menu has options you can tweak to adjust the amount of idle you're after. Don't care about the story? You can make it so it'll skip over that stuff in your absence. Don't want to worry about healing during quests? Just ensure you're stocked up on items, and it'll take care of that. Again, nothing special or ground-breaking, but that's not the point. Yolk Heroes aims to cater to a certain audience with something familiar and sprinkle in the developers' wholesome personality over the top.

For those reasons, it's kind of hard to fault. It sets out to be a charming idle RPG, and, for those who enjoy the genre, I'm confident they'll be pleased with the result. There are only a few bugs that take away some of the sheen. For instance, occasionally the virtual buttons stopped working for me until I closed the app and reopened it. Or, sometimes, the prompt to boost my attack or increase my defence in battle wouldn't appear. They're hardly the biggest issues in the world, though.