A number of years in the past, FuRyu launched The Alliance Alive HD Remastered for Change—an uprezzed port of an amazing RPG that was sadly missed by most as a result of releasing on the 3DS after most gamers had already moved on to Change. But The Alliance Alive was not the corporate’s first launch on Nintendo’s outdated handheld; that honor belonged to The Legend of Legacy. This preliminary launch debuted to a divisive reception in 2015 (we awarded it an 8/10 in our evaluation), however evidently the Alliance Alive remaster did nicely sufficient to warrant giving its predecessor a second probability with The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered. Although we’d nonetheless say that is the weaker of the 2, FuRyu did an amazing job of sprucing up this ignored 3DS dungeon crawler; it’s not a stellar instance of this style, however followers will make sure to discover loads to like right here.
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Legend of Legacy doesn’t characteristic very a lot of a narrative, which can come as a disappointment to many gamers. After selecting one among seven potential characters, you journey to the mysterious island of Avalon—a lately found landmass that rumors say is the house to a grand, historic treasure. Every of the seven has their very own causes for coming to Avalon, and as you discover its numerous dungeons, you’ll slowly uncover artifacts revealing bits of lore detailing the civilization that when thrived there, the occasions that finally led to its downfall, and the distinctive methods during which the seven protagonists are tied to it.
We might’ve preferred to have seen extra of a plot than the comparatively sparse framework supplied right here—even titles within the Etrian Odyssey sequence have discovered methods to introduce enjoyable and attention-grabbing narrative components with its player-made groups—however the lore bits are nonetheless a cool method of telling a narrative, reminding us considerably of the best way the Chozo lore is dealt with within the Metroid Prime sequence.
The characters, nevertheless, are one-dimensional cutouts of assorted archetypes you’ve seen in loads of different RPGs, and their relationship to one another and the general story of Avalon feels surface-level and incidental. The narrative right here may use some work, then, however one silver lining right here is that it principally stays out of the best way of the gameplay.
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Legend of Legacy follows a dungeon-crawling format that’s harking back to one thing just like the Etrian Odyssey franchise—there’s just one city, and also you frequently return to it for provides and upgrades in between dives into a close-by dungeon of your selection, with every try normally leading to your get together pushing somewhat deeper. Every dungeon options distinctive theming and has set layouts, and an enormous a part of the development is centered round you mapping out each flooring of each dungeon so you possibly can promote the maps again on the town for some large payouts. It is a easy, however rewarding gameplay loop, because it seems like there’s at all times one thing new so that you can do, whether or not you’re returning to city to scoop up contemporary gear together with your winnings or working again right into a dungeon with a tuned-up staff that’s ready to tackle its challenges.
Fight unfolds in a typical turn-based format, but it surely integrates an attention-grabbing and dynamic method to get together formation that offers it a extra tactical edge. Occasion members stand in one among three rows, with every giving totally different non permanent stat buffs, corresponding to bolstering a personality’s motion pace or protection. You possibly can program a couple of formations within the menu forward of battle, after which swap between them as wanted throughout a struggle, a bit just like the Paradigm switching from Final Fantasy XIII. You’ll have everybody in assault mode for some time, earlier than switching your tankiest character to the entrance to dam an enormous strike, then swap your healer to the again on the following flip to allow them to patch everybody up rapidly. Most fights don’t depend upon actively partaking on this system too deeply, however there are sufficient powerful encounters to maintain you in your toes.
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Including extra choices to contemplate, there’s additionally a persistent elemental system that impacts the sorts of actions you’ll select in battle. Basically, the air round you is at all times charged with a combination of 4 components, and the one which’s most strongly represented will give fight advantages to actions and characters that match it. You ideally wish to compose a staff prematurely to benefit from essentially the most frequent components in a dungeon you’re concentrating on, whereas nonetheless leaving your self some choices for when the basic steadiness shifts. It’s a cool concept in idea, however we felt it led too typically to being pressured into singular staff setups and techniques, as selecting something apart from the optimum compositions could make fights unnecessarily powerful.
Legend of Legacy is remarkably forgiving in the way it handles well being restoration, although, which feels prefer it makes fight each simpler and tougher in several methods. Your complete get together is absolutely healed after each struggle, and even when somebody goes down in battle, you solely have to solid a therapeutic spell to carry them again—no want for a particular revive ability or Phoenix Down. The one downside is that they lose extra max well being each time they get knocked out, and this may solely be reset to full when you head again into city to sleep on the inn.
In some ways, this makes Legend of Legacy very straightforward, but it surely additionally provides the designers license to throw some powerful enemy encounters your method, which results in a really inconsistent-feeling issue curve. You’ll be marching via a dungeon, leveling any foes that dare cross your path, solely to stroll into one other space and discover that now the boot is on the opposite foot and also you’re having to revive a number of members of the get together a couple of occasions in each struggle. It may be irritating, then, while you’re making respectable progress solely to hit a wall that comes out of nowhere.
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Character development is dealt with in a really related strategy to the SaGa sequence, which is to say that it’s completely random and largely past the participant’s management. There’s no such factor as expertise or character ranges right here, as an alternative finishing battles will see your characters periodically gaining everlasting boosts in particular stats, corresponding to HP or Assault. The identical goes for increasing a personality’s skillset—typically you’ll degree up a person ability, rising its effectiveness in battle, whereas typically you’ll unlock a completely new ability for no matter weapon that character is wielding.
This random improve system isn’t essentially higher or worse than the usual development that almost all RPGs make the most of, but it surely’s attention-grabbing the way it provides the continuing development of a given dungeon a a lot totally different really feel. Grinding to battle a boss is successfully a pointless technique right here, because it’s completely attainable you possibly can undergo a couple of consecutive battles and don’t have anything to point out for it. Then again, you’ll typically end a struggle towards a normal trash mob and have every character acquire a number of stat and ability bumps . Normally, development nonetheless strikes ahead at a tempo that’s kind of equal to what you’d count on out of a normal development system. This variable ratio reinforcement schedule ensures that each encounter, from boss to grub, feels equally rewarding — or unrewarding, maybe — given that you just’re hypothetically at all times just one extra struggle away from one other main breakthrough.
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So, fight is satisfying and character development is okay, if random. Our greatest criticism with all that is that Legend of Legacy rapidly reveals you that it’s a one-trick pony—it repeats its gameplay loop with none main additions or alterations for a number of dozen hours till it simply ends.
Dungeons are solely superficially distinct from one another, usually sharing lots of the identical enemy varieties and doing little to introduce distinctive gimmicks or degree options to distinguish them, whereas the low enemy selection signifies that your methods and staff compositions not often have to be adjusted between fights as soon as you determine the ‘proper’ setups. On this sense, Legend of Legacy is nice as a ‘second monitor’ kind of recreation that you just play whereas solely partially paying consideration, however prolonged periods with it will definitely grow to be tedious and monotonous as you undergo the motions with out novel content material to spice issues up.
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Visually, Legend of Legacy has obtained a pleasant decision bump from its humble origins on the 3DS, and whereas it’s nonetheless clear that it is a title that originated on a lot weaker {hardware}, the artwork type is robust sufficient that the outdated, chunky fashions don’t really feel too misplaced on Change. There’s a painterly, watercolor type to the visuals that appears particularly nice on a Change OLED, whereas we appreciated the Paper Mario-esque method during which timber, boulders, and different dungeon components will spring up throughout you as you roam a dungeon.
In addition to the visuals, there aren’t actually another modifications or updates to Legend of Legacy, and this lack of iteration feels a bit disappointing. Legend of Legacy has aged comparatively nicely within the seven years since its first launch, however FuRyu missed an amazing alternative to handle a number of the criticisms of that authentic launch, corresponding to including some new enemies to carry extra selection. For higher or worse, that is successfully the identical recreation that launched on the 3DS, simply cleaned as much as give it that HD sheen.
Conclusion
The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered is an honest, although unspectacular, dungeon crawler that does a superb job of defying some conventional RPG tropes. Mechanics like the basic system and the randomized character development assist this stand out from the pack, whereas its easy dungeon-crawling format carries the essential, however satisfying gameplay for dozens of hours. Nonetheless, it doesn’t take very lengthy for this one to really feel prefer it’s overstaying its welcome, and extra may’ve been finished to sand its rougher edges. Legend of Legacy is probably not the most effective instance of this style, but it surely’s nonetheless an gratifying launch for the dungeon-crawling cognoscenti.