Class of Heroes is back with Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent

Zero Div and Acquire’s Class of Heroes series has long been fondly regarded by dungeon-crawling fans ever since the first PSP entry appeared in 2008. Blending traditional Wizardry-style gameplay with a fun anime-style “school life” twist, there’s a lot to like about this colourful series — but we haven’t seen much from it since 2015, when the PlayStation 3 port of the second game in the series, Class of Heroes 2G, was brought west by Gaijinworks.

Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent is a new release in the Class of Heroes series, and was previously announced for a September release in Japan on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam. Today, publisher and localiser PQube has announced that it will be bringing the English versions to the west later this year, allowing English-speaking PC, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 players alike to enjoy the game.

New Class of Heroes game - Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent

In Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent, you take on the role of Alex, son of the principal of Obsidian High. Alex’s father has gone missing, and the entire continent of Pedra is suffering a serious crisis: the world appears to be turning into a massive, labyrinthine dungeon, and monsters are appearing everywhere!

Like in previous Class of Heroes games, you’ll be able to recruit your own custom party of adventurers to accompany you along the way, choosing their race, sex, traits, personality types and abilities. All in all, there are 10 different character races available to choose from, including Human, Khaluz, Felpurr, Bahamoon, Gnome, Diabolos, Fairy, Celestia, Dwarf and Elf — and plenty of other means to customise your party according to your own preferences and play style.

One area where Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent differs quite significantly from previous Class of Heroes games is in how it is presented. Rather than being a first-person dungeon crawler, it instead adopts a grid-based isometric style for tactical gameplay. It’s quite a reinvention for the series — which perhaps explains why it’s just regarded as “unfolding in the world of Class of Heroes” rather than specifically being titled “Class of Heroes” — but looks like it will be a lot of fun to engage with.

New Class of Heroes game - Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent, battle gameplay

Unusually, combat unfolds in real time rather than being strictly turn-based, making for an interesting twist on the usual tactics RPG formula. And the presentation is absolutely lovely; during the battle sequences, characters have an appealing flat “Paper Mario”-esque appearance, full of personality and plenty of different poses to reflect what they’re getting up to.

Between battle sequences, you’ll have the opportunity to meet plenty of different characters, take on sidequests and power up your party with new equipment and abilities. And, in true Class of Heroes style, the long game will be all about putting together an unstoppable army of super-cute killing machines who are able to take on any challenges that come their way without breaking a sweat. Oh, and maybe tracking down Alex’s dad, obviously, but mostly the killing machine part.

The Japanese version of Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent is set to arrive in September, but we don’t have a specific release date other than “later this year” for the English version as yet. Collectors will be happy, though; the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 versions will both have physical releases via our pals over at Funstock, and these will be worthwhile pickups; previous entries in the Class of Heroes series have become very rare and expensive over the years, so if you’re a fan of the franchise as a whole or just like the look of the new game, it’s worth your time to score a copy for your shelf.

New Class of Heroes game - Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent

You can find out more about Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent on the official website and its Steam page. Preorder the PlayStation 4 physical version here, and the Nintendo Switch version here.

Join The Discussion

Rice Digital Discord
Rice Digital Twitter
Rice Digital Facebook

Or write us a letter for the Rice Digital Friday Letters Page by clicking here!

Disclosure: Some links in this article may be affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on them. This is at no additional cost to you and helps support Rice Digital!

Pete Davison
Spread the love!

Related post

This will close in 0 seconds