Holy Idle
Assemble a team of canine compatriots and fight your way out of the office in Oh My Dog: Heroes Assemble. Collect over 50 doggie heroes based on familiar pop culture properties and pummel waves of enemies with a simple tap. Then use resources dropped by your corporate colleagues to level up your puppies’ powers to compete with increasingly powerful foes. With wicked humor, vibrant characters and easy-to-master gameplay, developer Joy Net Games unleashes one of the most fun and accessible idle RPGs around.
Hero Worship
Fed up with boring office work and a belligerent boss, Oh My Dog’s human protagonist cries out for help. Luckily, his pleas are answered by Dog God, an adorable Shiba Inu bearing a striking resemblance to Doge, the popular 2013 meme. After descending from on high, Dog God asks for praise and treats. In exchange, he blesses our human hero, Master, with the ability to lob various emojis of Dog God that chip away at foes’ health. After mowing down several waves of enemy coworkers, Master encounters a chest monster, which drops a chest once defeated. Chests contain various resources and hero fragments. Green, blue and purple chests mostly yield cookies, bones and iron. These resources are used to upgrade players’ dogs and equipment. In contrast, the orange and red chests offer the greatest chance for players to pull complete heroes or hero fragments.
Dog God prompts the player to crack the chest open, and Master is joined by their first dog hero, Pinky Piggy—a slot machine, pig-dog hybrid. After adding Pinky to the team, you’ll bust your way through hordes of lackeys, gathering biscuits and plenty more chests to unlock even more heroes.
Kennels and Bits
After filling out your team of six, you’ll continue your climb out of corporate hell and into a world of other modes. Early on, players will gain access to an idle RPG staple—the guild. Oh My Dog’s guilds seem more paired down than most other idle RPGs, but it offers enough rewards for those who engage with the mode. After joining a guild, players can earn a daily sign-in bonus and power up each class of heroes at the Tech Center. While Oh My Dog contains seven hero classes, players shouldn’t worry too much about class advantages. During my time with the game, I basically played with my favorite heroes and never once struggled with progression. Guilds also feature a Trial Boss, through which players can earn rewards by racking up damage. The final guild mode is the Guild Fortress, where guilds face off against one another.
In addition to guilds, players can recharge at their house. Houses act as a base for players and feature resource generation, PVP battles and a gaming console. Other players can visit your home and destroy your room or face off against your team of pups. If they emerge victorious, they’ll win resources and take you as a hostage, making you tidy their homes for them. Of course, you can do this to other players as well.
Between brawls, you can play on your house’s gaming console. Consoles feature basic touchscreen minigames, which yield resources after completing levels. Protect the Dog tasks players with drawing shapes to protect Dog God from a swarm of bees and other environmental hazards, while Dog and Dogs is a mahjong-type board game where players match different tiles to clear the game board.
Doggedly Divine
While I’ve covered plenty of the game’s various modes, the more I play Oh My Dog: Heroes Assemble, the more I unearth. Just now, I’ve unlocked the game’s fishing minigame, which allows players to catch sea creatures and equip them with their heroes for another layer of stat buffs. There’s also a number of holiday-themed minigames that were released in the last few days in conjunction with the game’s limited-time holiday event.
While there’s certainly plenty to do overall, some players may feel frustrated with the game’s main mode, as there’s little active gameplay past the initial ten or so levels. Players will need to manage their team of heroes and their equipment, but the game automatically battles the never-ending hordes of foes. I certainly appreciated this aspect of the game; however, it was disappointing to never see the game’s story progress too much beyond its initial setup.
However, the biggest draw for me was Oh My Dog’s quirky litter of heroes. Thanks to the game’s autobattles, you’ll always have a ton of chests to unlock, which, more often than not, contain hero fragments, if not full heroes. Thanks to this supremely well-balanced and generous gacha system, I couldn’t wait to see which pop culture-inspired pup I’d unlock next. Not to mention that each character features voice work and unique abilities and animations. My favorite heroes included Dragon Doll (Goku from Dragon Ball Z), Kradogs (Kratos from God of War) and Strawhat (Luffy from One Piece).
While Oh My Dog isn’t a perfect idle RPG, it’s pretty darn close. Fans of the genre and newcomers alike will appreciate its free-to-play accessibility, quirky squad of pups and wide range of modes, which offer players plenty to do and collect.
