Last updated on December 15th, 2025 at 08:51 am
Not Exactly A Hero! – Adventure Game Review
Not Exactly A Hero! is a Adventure/Simulation game from Buff Studio Co.Ltd., first launched in 3rd June 2021.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 263+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Not Exactly A Hero! Stand Out
Sick and tired of your usual typical superhero plots full of clichés? Wonder what it's like to live as an everyday citizen in a superhero universe? Play 'Not Exactly A Hero: Visual Novel, Story-driven Adventure Game' and find out!
"Not Exactly A Hero"
Riley, the game's player character, is a substitute agent with the purpose of supporting a superhero's everyday activities. But essentially, Riley is an everyday citizen. Yes – just like you and me.
"Relationship matters"
In the game, you will go through numerous encounters with all kinds of characters in between cases:
Your boss, Chief, who's constantly under stress from low budget issues;
Your team's new recruit, Chris, who tries to scratch your ego all the time;
An 'Oobur' driver with a knack for stirring up other people's minds;
A kebab truck guy with a weird and wonky personality…
You may befriend some of them. Some might turn their backs on you. It's all up to you and the choices you make.
"Every playthrough is like playing a new game"
As the plot unravels, there will be a LOT of decisions you have to make.
Each and every one of those choices will build up as you proceed, and will ultimately decide the final outcome.
This game is packed with 3 starting points, 4 side character routes, 9 different endings and a bonus route for completionists.
You are the protagonist. Everything is up to your choice.
Main Features
- Intriguing novel-style adventure game
- Marvel-esque light and witty atmostphere
- Stylish illustrations drawn by the artist from the game 'Underworld Office'
- Unique messenger-style gameplay
- 4 main characters aside from the player character – many different events and routes based on the interactions with each of the characters
- 9 different endings + completionist bonus route
- 32 achievements + 48 collectible illustrations
Are you a fan of story-driven games, choice-based games, visual novel games, and/or games where you interact and build connections with other characters? Then you will love this game as well!
More things to point out!
- This adventure game is FREE TO PLAY (F2P)!
- This game is a story-driven visual novel where you get to live as an everyday citizen within a superhero universe
- Meet and interact with various characters with different personalities. The characters may look cold and with an attitude on the outside, but are kindhearted on the inside
- Progress through the missions given by your boss and solve unique puzzles in a "time attack" fashion
- This game is a choice-based game – storyline and ending will differ based on the decisions you make
- We still have so much more stories to tell. We will be bringing more visual novels, text-based, story-driven adventure games in the future
- If you like this game, take a look at our other games, '7 Days' and 'Underworld Office'. You won't be disappointed!
We recommend this game to…
- Gamers with a passion for visual novel games, adventure games, messenger style games, and/or games where you actively build connections with other characters
- Gamers who love light-themed superhero movies, comics, etc., or novels
- Someone who doesn't think their life is special – this game will give you the feels
- Gamers looking for Free to Play (F2P) games, indie games, heartwarming and wholesome games
- Someone who likes Marvel films and novel-based games
- Best game for people who find your same old usual copy-paste story-driven games boring
- Gamers who are looking for OG indie games such as Undertale
This Adventure game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Not Exactly A Hero! is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 6th October 2021
Recent improvements include:
- Improved game stability
- Minor bug fixes
Download & Availability
Not Exactly A Hero! is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Not Exactly A Hero! on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
It's so fun and the art style is absolutely delicious the tickets are easy to get and adds aren't every two seconds.
It was so good! Ads werent too bad. We wish we learned more of the mystery with the ending we did so far we understand a comment about wanting more now! Very good- a bit sad we wouldve loved to continue even after -( we think we did Route B or something as the ending). We loved this :).
HOW DO YOU GET TICKETS we TRY THE ADS THEY ARE NOT WORKING MAKE IT EASIER TO GET TICKETS.
This is our favorite game out of the series of choice games by buff studio. Its incredibly charming and cohesive, we just wish there were more >.< (and we also wish we didnt have to watch like 60 ads but the games gotta make a buck somehow!) the other games like this are also amazing, but theres something about the idea of a more open world main character focus that really draws us in. We totally recommend charlies underworld if you want something similar, but that one is a little more restrictive if we remember correctly. Its been years since we played this game and our head still wanders over to it every now and again. Its genuinely a game we love.
Oliver, Riley, theyre both names that Haydens mom (ciu) considered for her new baby.. Guess the devs like the name just as much lol.
Im bad at incorporating our emotions into a story but GENUINELY adore this so far. Its amazing and Im always interested to see what happens next.
We love the art, the coloring and style are so fun, and we really appreciate the play for free option, Im absolutely willing to watch ads to help a good little indie story studio.
Its amazing. Great storyline, and everythingx and ppl complainging abt tickets- u can watch an ad for 40 every minute or every few minutes- which is way better than paying – plus- in y opinion its good bc it is free and only requires little ads – its not like ad everytime we click sum u actually have a reasonable amount of ads! Character and character personalities are amazing – you can connect with the characters so well- its aMAZING.
This game is the only thing that kept us sane when we didnt have internet for 2 and a half weeks we love all of the characters and how your choice matter.
We love this game! The endings are nice except for the painful ones. We loved the story and the story telling. The characters are amazing, and Im hoping this gets a sequel.
This is honestly one of our favorite games, we love all this companys apps and Ive played all of them, but this one is by far our favorite, keep up the good work.
This game was a joy to play! We loved everything abt it cant wait to play more.
Youre games are so good we like the story you come up with Im happy we found a virtual novel on a apps store that we like. Keep it up man.
To start off, the story plot and art is amazing. Small attention to details like names changing are a great add on as well as the story and endings being so diverse. The best part is ads arent a problem and its super easy to get tickets! From our experience, This game helped us get out of story/art block. Though we havent finished it because of personal events, Ive had it for a long time and its easy to get invested in the plot. Im usually picky about games, and this is one we personally love and have shared. We even thought of dressing up for Halloween as one of the characters last year. To add to that, the character development is spot on, we were really surprised to find out our choices actually mattered throughout and how much everything changed in a loop situation. 10/10 definitely get this if youre a story or choice drawn person.
Im 3 chapters in and this game feels great :).
We cant get tickets from the ads.
The superhero story certainly caught our eye, and so did the fun art style! There are some minor issues about tapping the screen to progress, but its pretty worth it. We wish there was an easily accessible way to review our scores. Sometimes a +1 appears, but zero information explaining what it means. We just hope when they +1 is green, it means we did good.
We havent played the game yet but whats the difference between the free version and the paid version.
SPOILERS AHEAD: Pros: 1. Its pretty easy getting attached to the characters, and it makes it even easier to make betrayals gut-wrenching, especially The Kebab Guys betrayal. We mean, being a SMAKS leader all this time? Come on, he was so pure too! 2. We like how your choices actually affect the story, usually with other games theres either a right answer or a wrong answer. Cons: 1. It honestly gets a bit frustrating trying to get endings once you get like 5/8 endings. Im kinda impatient and a perfectionist so.. 2. Translation errors! Ah, the bane of foreign games. There are quite a few, and it can take you out of the story. 3. TICKETS! Please make a feature where you can recharge tickets outside of the app Most of these cons are just nit-picks, aside from number 1. Our rating?: 4/5.
We're still in the middle of playing and the only thing that's bothering us is how the creators made the black girl with the green braids talk. She's using aave, (African-American Vernacular English) and in some of her dialogue she uses it completely wrong, for example, "we finna like what we like" or how she said "Nameen?" As a black person we kind of find it weird that the creators (who probably aren't even black) make her speak like this. There's nothing wrong with speaking like this as a black person but not only does she use it wrong or it just doesn't make sense. Maybe we're just overthinking it but it doesn't sit right with us. (Sorry if this doesn't make sense it's hard for us to describe how we feel about this).
We noticed that we were able to get tickets from the ads before but now the issue with the ads not loading seems to have come up again. So far its been a good game but we cant really experience most of it due to us not being able to progress.
Its one of the very few choice stories where choices actually matter and dont require in game transactions to make decisions you want to make!! Its one of our favorite games right now, and we appreciate the devs so much for making a game that has a fair way of progressing the story. Its a breath of fresh air compared to the heavy transactions in The Arcana and other episodic games. The art style is also a lot more different than typical episodic games on the App Store, sort reminds us of Purrfect Tale !! All in all, this is a great game. :).
We love the game so far it has a very good story and its well made.
We like how the story makes you so interested in it plus it various choices and funny remarks.
First of all, it is amazing that this game is completely free to play, and it is very easy to get tickets to continue the story. The art and characters are very good, and its nice that each one is easily recognizable. If youre looking for a short visual novel with several routes you can take, look no further.
The art is great and the storyline is amazingI love all the characters and gameplay so far.
Luv the game! The story is great, your choices matter, and its pretty dang good. Our only problem is that ticket wait times increase on each use, and the choices that require tickets appear much more often as you progress, and the ticket timer wont progress unless youre in the app.
The game seems pretty good but we cant get past the first chapter since the ads that are supposed to give you tickets wont load. There is another option to get tickets which sends you to another website where you can… Pay to get more tickets. The website seems pretty sketchy. We know Buff Studios wont read this review since all of their responses to the reviews are the same, so the only reason Im writing this is to warn people thinking about getting the game. TLDR, Decent game , but we cant progress BECAUSE we CANT GET TICKETS.
They try and make you pay in order to actually progress in the game by making a ticket system in which 5 min of gameplay=all tickets spent=have to wait forever to get another one. In these moments they try to sell you more tickets even though playing 5 minutes of the game results in all your tickets being gone, so you will just spend more and more money on a mediocre game.
The plot seems to be pretty interesting. However, to pick many of the actions you need Tickets. While you can get them through stories, to be able to play the game like a normal cyoa, there is one simple way to do that. Spend real money. Otherwise, there is one simple boring path to go down.
This game is a super cute game with good art and good story telling. Im not done but so far everything seems great. The only reason why this isnt 5 stars is because on the first day we got the game the sound didnt work. The second day we played it, it worked but today its been going in and out. Im fine without the music but we honestly just dont know whats happening.
We enjoyed this game thank you but studios.
Ive loved every single one of these games sense 7days where we started playing a few years back. We really appreciate how you can see how much effort goes into these games and this one is no different. We love how well thought out each character Amazing.
Ive thoroughly enjoyed what Ive played of this game so far. Tickets are very easy to get in order to progress the story, and the characters are interesting, very unique, and well designed. Additionally, the creators of the story have made the main character relatable, and also neutral enough (in appearance and choices) that you feel as if youre really a part of the story. Great job all around.
Havent played very far but it seems real neat.
The ads block the buttons preventing you from progressing lol what a joke.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.1.11
- Size: 250.67 MB
- iOS: 11.0 or later
- Languages: EN, FR, DE, ID, JA, KO, RU, ZH, ES, TH, ZH, TR, VI
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References, Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Buff Studio Co.Ltd.
Last updated: 6th October 2021 | Genre: Adventure, Simulation | Developer: Buff Studio Co.Ltd.