Do you typically go to a restaurant and suppose, “I actually like this place; I ought to come right here extra usually,” then overlook about it for the subsequent six months? That’s The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered. It’s an OK sport when you’re taking part in it, however it’s not more likely to follow you.
The issue begins with the title, actually. The Legend of Legacy might simply as simply be The Legacy of Legends, The Quest of Adventures, or The Battle of Fight. It’s too generic to hook you, and it considerably betrays the distinctive idea of the sport. Not less than this time they’ve added HD Remastered to the title, as that is an up to date port of the unique Nintendo 3DS launch from 2015. The sport was developed by FuRyu that includes a employees with quite a few connections to Closing Fantasy and SaGa. As such, it’s not stunning the sport is intelligent and properly made. It’s stunning that it didn’t hook me.
You start the sport by choosing one among seven heroes as your protagonist. You’ll ultimately meet and might recruit the others, however this does present some replay worth by altering the sport’s opening frames and conclusion. You’re then tasked with just about nothing greater than exploring the island of Avalon. A narrative in regards to the historical historical past of Avalon is revealed by way of the gathering of “Singing Shards,” and these revelations have an effect on the way forward for the island and our seven heroes. Every will get a novel ending, none of that are grand adventures. It’s a small, tightly contained story that’s really a welcome reprieve from the standard “village farmhand goes out to gather nuts and finally ends up preventing god” method to JRPGs.
The issue with a minimalist story, nevertheless, is that different parts have to hold the sport. Is it the visuals with The Legacy of Legends? No, though they’re sort of enjoyable for a remastering of a nine-year-old sport. The chibi characters have a properly textured, illustrative look that helps them come out from the surroundings. The backgrounds are a bit muddy, however their heavy colour saturation offers them loads of life. And I like how panorama parts pop into place as you roam across the island. If exploration is half the sport, they’ve no less than made that exploration nice to take a look at.
The soundtrack is equally enjoyable, however I’d anticipate that from Masashi Hamauzu, whose work you’ll know from quite a few Closing Fantasy video games, amongst others. It does an excellent job of meshing with the brisk tempo of the gameplay.
That gameplay entails turn-based fight that facilities round positioning. Earlier than a flip, you choose which place to place your celebration in. These can give attention to offense, protection, help, and so forth, and so they instantly have an effect on your talents throughout that flip. Progressing by way of the sport unlocks extra positions, thereby supplying you with extra weapon talents. And the extra you utilize these weapons, the more adept you grow to be with them. Utilizing them sufficient in battle releases Woke up abilities for extra highly effective assaults, so there’s loads of technique concerned with fight development.
The issue with that fight, nevertheless, is the problem spike with bosses. All of them have a specific solution to be defeated, and should you’re not adept with that technique, they grow to be annoyingly troublesome. What’s pretty easy along with your group in a single playthrough can require a heavy quantity of grinding to beat with one other. I suppose this makes a number of playthroughs extra rewarding, however it doesn’t change the aggravation of discovering your self woefully unprepared for a boss while you’ve been cleansing home in opposition to the enemies main as much as it.
I’ve seen this fight system in comparison with the SaGa sequence, which I haven’t performed. I’ve, nevertheless, performed The Alliance Alive, an analogous sport from FuRyu launched two years after The Legend of Legacy on the 3DS. The Alliance Alive obtained an analogous Change HD remaster again in 2019, and it’s fascinating to match the 2. They share fight mechanics, however The Alliance Alive focuses extra on story and fewer on exploration. It’s a extra typical JRPG in that regard, however there, the overworld finally ends up interfering with the sport’s development. In The Legend of Legacy, exploring the atmosphere is a core part of the gameplay. Finishing the maps is required for development, however the story offers you little cause to take action.
Mix these two video games, and I believe FuRyu would positively have a winner. Separated, they’re extra like two halves of a complete. Going again to my opening restaurant analogy, it’s like one has good meals, the opposite has an excellent environment, and by no means the twain shall meet. Each of those video games have parts that make them enjoyable to play, however lack the items to get full suggestions. Enjoying them facet by facet may very well be an fascinating experiment for JRPG followers, however neither is a must-play by itself.
