An easy to use SRPG with an emphasis on the "Strategy" component.
Mechanics:
The game is a series of battles. You control up to five characters that you choose from your party. Some join your party on their own, others can be hired from Mercenary Guilds in the towns. While characters come with a set name and look, you can change the character's names and the color of their clothing if you desire.
The battles take place on a grid, with red icons representing the good guys and blue icons representing the enemies. The grid is on the touch screen. These are called units. The top screen has a 3D rendering of the battlefield and players. The camera automatically moves on the top screen, although you can control it is you wish.
All battle actions are done on the touch screen with the stylus. The D-Pad can scroll the battlefield map and the L, R & A buttons control the top screen camera.
When you select a unit, by touching it, you are shown information on that character. That includes status, abilities, buffus/debuffs that are in effect, passive skills and movement range. If you then touch one of the abilities, you find out what it's effects are, any mana costs, how long the effect lasts, etc. The same goes for the buffs/debuffs - it will show you what the effect is and how long it will last. You will use this feature a lot in order to figure out what your opponents are capable of and to devise a strategy to deal with them.
During a round, each unit gets to move and to use an ability. To use an ability, you select the ability and you see a range that the ability covers. Any enemies withing that range will blink. You then select the desired enemy and touch the check mark approving the action. You then sit back and watch the action on the upper screen. You can move either before or after your action (or not at all, if you wish). Moves done before an action are not set in stone until you perform an action. Once all of your units are done, you indicate your turn is over and the enemy then gets their turn.
There is a balancing mechanism place called "Fair Fight". If there are more than one enemy units left on the battlefield, only two of your units can attack a specific enemy unit per round. No ganging up on one unit and having all five of your units attack it. If there is only one enemy unit left, then all bets are off and everyone can attack it. The enemy also has to follow this rule when attacking your units.
You can bail from a battle any time during your turn with out any penalty. If a unit dies, they simply go away for the duration of the battle (unless you use a resurrection ability during the battle) and are again available for future battles. No resurrections are required.
Individual units do not have "Levels". Instead, your group has a level and nay unit joining your group for a battle are automatically promoted to the group's level. That way you don't have to grind units that join your party later on in the game.
When a battle ends, your group earns experience points, gold and treasure. You get to assign which unit gets which treasure. They can equip it on the spot, if they have the ability to equip that item, or you can just carry it for future use or to sell in town. The Equip menu is nice, as it's easy to compare what you currently have equipped with the new item.
You can not save the game during a battle. It is automatically saved when a battle is completed. You can also manually save between battles when you are in camp.
Every battle has an objective, which is usually "Defeat all opponents". There can also be secondary objectives, such as "Win in two rounds" and "Secret" objectives, in which you don't know what they are unless you happen to complete them (I haven't completed any yet). You must complete the main objective in order to continue on. If you manage to complete the secondary or secret objectives, you get more loot. You can replay battles later in order to try to complete objectives.
As far as Stats go, each hero (as the game calls them) has HP & MP. They also have a defense level against each the three classes of skills: Physical, Magical or Affliction. These are expressed as a percentage, where 0% is no protection and 99% is immune to a skill of that class.
There are three equipment slots: Main Hand, Off Hand and Armor. Items come in various strengths and rarity: Normal, Mystical, Heroic, Epic and Legendary (quest items). The color of their name indicates which level they are. You get items as Treasure at the end of battles and you can also buy them in town. I do not know if Treausre you get from battles is pre-set or random. Since there is only one save slot, it is hard to experiment much. Like almost all RPGs, not all character classes can equip every item.
Skills are earned as the Heroes level up (I believe). You do not get to choose which skills a hero receives, they "appear" at the end of battles. There are Active skills, which you have to select to use, and Passive skills, which are always active. An example of a Passive skill is "Sidestep" - The skill user has a 20% chance to avoid Physical Damage.
Impressions:
I would classify Dawn of Heroes as a "Lite" SRPG.
By "Lite" I mean you don't have to keep track of a dozen stats and fret over which ones to advance. You don't have to grind each new character so that he/she/it gets to a high enough level to join your party. There is no weapon/item crafting option, so you don't have to collect all sorts of resources and figure out recipes in order to create "Uber" items.
The fact it is "Lite" allows the player to concentrate on the main element element of the game, which is Strategy. You really do have to use strategy in order to win battles. And, most importantly, you have to be able to change that strategy as battle conditions change.
Just because it is "Lite" doesn't mean it is easy. It can be very challenging to win a battle and darned near impossible, at early levels, to complete secondary (optional) battle objectives.
I really like the battle interface. It easily allows you to understand what your units and, especially, the enemy units are capable of, what their status is and what buffs/debuffs are in effect. No having to remember what a little purple cloud hanging over a players head means, like in a lot of other RPGs
I like the fact that you don't have to assign all of your unit's actions/movements before starting your turn. You select a unit, assign action/movements then watch as that unit performs it's assigned tasks. You then go to the next unit, etc. If things don't go as planned with unit 1, you can change your plans for unit 2.
The graphic are nice. The detailed 3D renderings are well done, although I have seen some camera clipping "issues" at times.
The battles are challenging and take a while to complete, 15-20 minutes or so, so far. You really have to be able to adapt your strategy to changing conditions.
There are a lot of different actions, buffs and debuffs that the enemies throw at you, so battles are rarely like other RPGs where you just sit there mashing the A button repeating the same actions over and over.
I find the sound effects a bit "catrooney" (annoying) , but I am getting used to them so they are less distracting.
One real pain is there is only one save slot.
The dialog has a comedic bent to it. I swing back and forth on whether I like this or not. It tends to be a bit silly, but does give the characters a personality and it lightens the mood a bit.
There is a Multi-Player component, that allows for co-op play. It can use local links or the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. I have not tried this yet so I can not comment on how well it works
The bottom line is that I like this game, so far. It's not a "Must Have" but I am glad I got it.