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Just a few years in the past, FuRyu launched The Alliance Alive HD Remastered for Swap—an uprezzed port of an excellent RPG that was sadly missed by most as a result of releasing on the 3DS after most gamers had already moved on to Swap. But The Alliance Alive was not the corporate’s first launch on Nintendo’s outdated handheld; that honor belonged to The Legend of Legacy.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 review), 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 might nonetheless say that is the weaker of the 2, FuRyu did an excellent job of sprucing up this neglected 3DS dungeon crawler; it’s not a stellar instance of this style, however followers will you’ll want to discover lots to like right here.
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Legend of Legacy doesn’t function very a lot of a narrative, which can come as a disappointment to many gamers. After selecting one in all seven potential characters, you journey to the mysterious island of Avalon—a not too long ago 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 varied dungeons, you’ll slowly uncover artifacts revealing bits of lore detailing the civilization that after thrived there, the occasions that in the end led to its downfall, and the distinctive methods during which the seven protagonists are tied to it.
We might’ve favored 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 fascinating narrative parts with its player-made groups—however the lore bits are nonetheless a cool manner of telling a narrative, reminding us considerably of the way in which 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 might use some work, then, however one silver lining right here is that it principally stays out of the way in which 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 often 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 ground of each dungeon so you’ll be able to promote the maps again on the town for some massive 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 recent gear together with your winnings or operating again right into a dungeon with a tuned-up group that’s ready to tackle its challenges.
Fight unfolds in a typical turn-based format, however it integrates an fascinating and dynamic strategy to get together formation that provides it a extra tactical edge. Social gathering members stand in one in all three rows, with every giving totally different non permanent stat buffs, comparable to bolstering a personality’s motion pace or protection. You may program a number 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 could 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 subsequent flip to allow them to patch everybody up rapidly. Most fights don’t rely on actively partaking on this system too deeply, however there are sufficient robust encounters to maintain you in your toes.
![The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered Review - Screenshot 4 of 7](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/146433/900x.jpg)
Including extra choices to contemplate, there’s additionally a persistent elemental system that impacts the sorts of actions you’ll select in battle. Primarily, the air round you is at all times charged with a combination of 4 parts, 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 group prematurely to reap the benefits of essentially the most frequent parts in a dungeon you’re concentrating on, whereas nonetheless leaving your self some choices for when the fundamental stability shifts. It’s a cool concept in idea, however we felt it led too usually to being compelled into singular group setups and techniques, as selecting something apart from the optimum compositions could make fights unnecessarily robust.
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 numerous 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 deliver them again—no want for a particular revive talent or Phoenix Down. The one disadvantage is that they lose extra max well being each time they get knocked out, and this will solely be reset to full should you head again into city to sleep on the inn.
In some ways, this makes Legend of Legacy very simple, however it additionally offers the designers license to throw some robust enemy encounters your manner, which results in a really inconsistent-feeling issue curve. You’ll be marching by means of 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 number 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.
![The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered Review - Screenshot 5 of 7](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/146447/900x.jpg)
Character development is dealt with in a really comparable approach to the SaGa sequence, which is to say that it’s solely random and largely past the participant’s management. There’s no such factor as expertise or character ranges right here, as a substitute finishing battles will see your characters periodically gaining everlasting boosts in particular stats, comparable to HP or Assault. The identical goes for increasing a personality’s skillset—typically you’ll stage up a person talent, growing its effectiveness in battle, whereas typically you’ll unlock a wholly new talent 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, however it’s fascinating the way it offers 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 solely attainable you’ll be able to undergo a number of consecutive battles and don’t have anything to indicate for it. Alternatively, you’ll typically end a struggle in opposition to a typical trash mob and have every character achieve a number of stat and talent bumps all of sudden. Typically, development nonetheless strikes ahead at a tempo that’s roughly equal to what you’d anticipate out of a typical 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.
![The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered Review - Screenshot 6 of 7](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/146440/900x.jpg)
So, fight is satisfying and character development is okay, if random. Our largest criticism with all that is that Legend of Legacy rapidly exhibits 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, sometimes sharing most of the similar enemy varieties and doing little to introduce distinctive gimmicks or stage options to distinguish them, whereas the low enemy selection implies that your methods and group compositions hardly ever 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’ type of recreation that you just play whereas solely partially paying consideration, however prolonged periods with it will definitely develop into tedious and monotonous as you undergo the motions with out novel content material to spice issues up.
![The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered Review - Screenshot 7 of 7](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/146430/900x.jpg)
Visually, Legend of Legacy has acquired a pleasant decision bump from its humble origins on the 3DS, and whereas it’s nonetheless clear that this can be a title that originated on a lot weaker {hardware}, the artwork fashion is powerful sufficient that the outdated, chunky fashions don’t really feel too misplaced on Swap. There’s a painterly, watercolor fashion to the visuals that appears particularly nice on a Swap OLED, whereas we appreciated the Paper Mario-esque manner during which timber, boulders, and different dungeon parts 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 excellent alternative to deal with a few of the criticisms of that unique launch, comparable to including some new enemies to deliver 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 great job of defying some conventional RPG tropes. Mechanics like the fundamental system and the randomized character development assist this stand out from the pack, whereas its easy dungeon-crawling format carries the fundamental, 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 might’ve been accomplished to sand its rougher edges. Legend of Legacy is probably not the perfect instance of this style, however it’s nonetheless an pleasurable launch for the dungeon-crawling cognoscenti.
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