Heading out on an amazing adventure, conquering the challenges that you face, and achieving your ultimate goal is the strive of many great role-playing games out there today. Without any exception to the same drive that pushes many RPG titles forward through a continuing forward comes the Tale of the Fatebounds.
SEMISOFT has developed Legrand Legacy, the epic tale that follows the main character Finn on his destined journey to team up with a few unlikely partners in order to end the coming feud that could destroy civilization as they know it. This strategic turn-based game has a few curve balls and intense segments, but with a bit of planning it can be surpassed.
Story
Starting out as a Finn, a slave who is bought to accompany an old man through the desert and to make sure he reaches his destination safely quickly leads to the largest adventure Legrand has seen yet. On this journey through the desert, Finn meets Aria who requests his assistance finding a specific location in the desert where they meet Lazarus. Receiving the words of the prophecy, learning that Aria is the Flame of the Fatebound, the journey begins.
The ultimate goal is to prevent a feud greater than the recently fought Mugna Feud; the great war between the Kingdoms of Fandor and Altea that put Legrand in a chaotic state. Partnering up with many others along the way, your determination will be put to the test as you attempt to achieve your nigh impossible task.
Gameplay
Legrand Legacy is played like a classic Final Fantasy or Wild Arms game; you pick a move, select your enemy target, and then clashing begins. The strategy lies in using your mixture of regular attacks, grimoire moves (that are element based), and items in order to survive through your battles.
There is an AP bar, which is basically the build up to using your super move. This is the move that will deal the most damage to the enemy in a single turn, but requires a build up. You can build your AP bar by attacking the enemy with either regular or grimoire attacks.
When you select a move and target, before your character will actually attack a small timing challenge will appear. This will happen before every attack, including the super moves. This timing game will have a section of the circle in a orange semi-circle that has a yellow sliver in the center of the bar. If you press the correct button when that bar is on the yellow, you will land a "Perfect" which gives you a stronger attack and a little more AP for the attack. Landing in the orange gives you a "Good" which means you just have a chance of hitting the enemy. If you fail this timing challenge, your attack will be most likely cancelled.
When choosing between using your regular or grimoire attack, you can see by highlighting the enemy options ahead of you if your attack will be a weakness, a resistance, or a neutral type attack on the enemy. This is good to keep an eye on because sometimes even your weaker moves will deal more damage than your stronger attacks while being resisted.
There are also some other game types to prepare for while playing. Without giving away all of them, a few that took me by surprise as a fighting style where it was basically "Rock, Paper, Scissors" but with "Quick Attack, Heavy Attack, Counter" for the options. There is also a board game type section where your characters are pieces on a battlefield and you have to use a different type of fighting strategy to conquer. Different mini-games happen every so often, so be ready for the worst and hope for the best!
Tips for new players:
- Save as often as possible! When you die, you have to restart from your last save - no continues. That means if you just went through a very long cut scene, which you can trust that there are lots of dialogue filled cut scenes, then you will have to go through it again because there is no skip option.
- You want to save your AP for the big guys. They are cool and get the quick kill on certain enemies, which can really save you in a pinch, but you want to save them for boss sections. There will be times you will lose a fight and can run off before retrying. You should take the chance to go fight a few enemies and build up the AP to start the fight off with a better chance.
Graphics and Sounds
The games entirely drawn, if not painted, scenes are an amazing approach. You can see how it is a painting that we are getting to adventure through. The collision in the game makes sense with the way the world is drawn and just helps provide its own unique experience to it.
The sound effects are fitting for the different scenes they are portraying and know how to make a scene feel as intense as it is epic with the musical score to the game. It brought the determined adventurer out of me.
Replayability
The adventure is a very long journey that will take upwards to 20+ hours to complete, depending on player skill and care for the story. There are a few side quests that are pretty easy to pass up and aren't able to be done later, so for a perfectionist who would like to complete the game in full there is side quest hunting to be done. Other than that, the game will be mostly the same.
What Could Be Better
I would of like there to be voice acting done for the mass amount of dialogue that is in Legrand Legacy. It also would of been helpful to have an option to skip a cut scene for if we have already seen it. The save system is pretty brutal as well. Could of used a checkpoint system or at least a way of warning players that they haven't saved in awhile.
Conclusion
The game is an epic tale that is full of unlikely characters bonding together as they overcome great challenges on their way to stopping the feud in the North. The gameplay is challenging and has plenty of curve balls when it comes to difficult enemies and play styles. Any fan of the old school turn-based, strategic role-playing games will enjoy Legrand Legacy.
