I just wrapped up my playthrough and I am very impressed with Hero-U. It's easily my favourite of all the "Old Dev" Kickstarter projects so far (although I haven't played "Thimbleweed Park" yet, so we'll see if it sticks). The game starts out rough with its time management and "dish washing for money", but it got more fun running around the school and its dungeons once I got into the game's groove. The Coles took a page from
Harry Potter and successfully built a really charming world around this institution you never leave. My finishing time was roughly 32 hours, and there's still two other paths I haven't tried, so there's some lengthy replay value to it.
To get my complaints out of the way, I feel like the side characters
weren't as active around the school as I wanted them to be, considering how often I revisited each room every day looking for surprise content. Unless I'm mistaken, there's a general pattern to visiting people every day that doesn't change much. And I felt the ending
came a little too soon with the big payoff being saved for a later game maybe? All I know is that the game teases a "Voldemort", but opts for a lower key ending instead.
Onto the good stuff - I like all the characters in this game. Yes, even Terk the Jerk. There's something very "Shermer High" about how pathetically disgruntled he is towards the students. And then you have the students, almost each of whom you can team up with to go on their special quest. And taking a page from QFG5 and newer RPGs, the Coles now have a reputation/romance system where you can cozy up to LOTS of people, including teachers, all of whom immediately shot me down. I think Esme was my main girlfriend for this playthrough (we used the L word, so it's official), until I accidentally agreed to a date with Thomas. But Esme didn't get mad, so now I'm dating them both. The funny part is that my most affectionate character turned out to be the Chef, and all I had to do was clean her kitchen for three weeks straight.
The story is incredibly dense and the Coles have put a lot of thought into the dialogue. Like, SO MUCH THOUGHT. All the philosophy that goes into their "Rogue" class feels like a real school curriculum. Even the carefully-worded exam questions gave me nightmarish flashbacks to high school. And the puns - OH MY GOD. THE PUNS. I can't tell if the Coles keep a punning dictionary on-hand, or if they're natural Homonym Sapiens. I'm convinced half the game's budget went into puns somehow. I also appreciated that in the spirit of QFG, the game still offers three roles to pursue on top of your rogue path, with learning to be
a Healer, an Alchemist, or a Magician for your elective class.
The combat is... challenging. I don't hate it; it's just not designed to be a power fantasy simulator. When you can't sneak around, every encounter needs to be planned out and staged on your terms. You can't just run in and attack or you'll be overwhelmed. Fortunately, you get a lot of tools to even the odds. I spent most of the game's latter half carefully backing away while throwing daggers, dropping traps, or sneaking in for back attacks. Some encounters did wear on me, but felt rewarding once I figured out the tricks.
Speaking of tricks, the Poobah sequences became a lot more fun once I figured out that the characters all have "tells". Notably,
Aeolus and Katie, where Aeolus' face telegraphs his every hand, while Katie amusingly forces her expression to be the opposite of what she's holding.
I also really liked the ties to "Quest for Glory". It's more than fan-service; it's a direct continuation of the games, with a lot of QFG's events and locations being the history and meat of this world. Even one of the main characters appeared in a previous title as an unnamed NPC. But my favourite bit of lore came after I did some post-game reading and discovered Lori Cole's
Convergence Concept which suggests
that the Hero from QFG is actually four different siblings in Hero-U's world, each one a different class, who all saved Silmaria together, making every QFG ending canonical - with the added twist that QFG's thief is actually a woman in disguise.
It feels good to finish the game; it was a much larger time investment than I expected. I really hope they sell enough to launch the sequel (or another Kickstarter) because I'd like to see where they take this series next. It's a nice hybrid of old/new gameplay that I trust even younger audiences may enjoy.
Does this mean that it's better to wait until after Patch 2 comes out before I grab Hero-U?
Goodness me... what a surprise! 
The person who designed the dungeons and who was one of the biggest backers? He was one of the main 'boardies' on The Halfwittenberg Door, one of the 'spiritual successors' to the official Sierra QfG boards. Sadly, the Halfwittenberg Door is now defunct (and has been since 2008), but it was a real blast from the past to see his name again. 
