It took the entirety of the three hours I played the Legend of Legacy demo for me to finally start getting into and enjoying the game. In that respect, the demo did its job. I’m curious to see where the game goes, both in story and gameplay; Despite my resulting interest in the final game, those three hours were beyond agonizing.
Legend of Legacy is an upcoming JRPG from Atlus; The game boasts an impressive staff, including Masato Kato, a renowned writer known for Chrono Trigger, and the lesser known Final Fantasy composer, Masashi Hamauzu.
The game plays like a turn-based Final Fantasy 13, featuring roles for the three party members in battle that can be switched each turn. Rather than Sabateur, Medic, etc, though, the roles are simply Attack, Defend, and Support. Each role boosts various attributes and can be customized in battle formations that the player can create in the menu. There’s also a magic system that any character can utilize based on certain accessories they equip.
Legend of Legacy is actually somewhat infamous over in Japan for being notoriously difficult. So much so that when Atlus began localizing it, they promised to make it easier for players abroad. The current difficulty in Legend of Legacy is insulting as a result — Most of the demo can be completed simply by holding the A button. Characters heal automatically after every battle, including downed party members, though their max HP is lowered, much like Dark Souls. In the event that you actually do need to heal, the item used for healing is in unlimited supply, so there’s rarely any actual danger in battles.
Beyond this, the characters, while mostly balanced otherwise, are thrown off by one member known as Baron Owen. He begins the game by doing nearly three times as much damage as the others, making even the last boss you face in the demo completely trivial. I had to restart the game multiple times in order to avoid Owen joining my party just to add some kind of difficulty, only to have him forced in after accidentally meeting him in town. In fact, your character and party choices are almost entirely pointless, as the other characters join almost as soon as you reach the town. It’s just a matter of talking to them.
Despite having a talented composer on staff, the music is entirely forgettable in Legend of Legacy. It’s not exactly bad, but it isn’t exciting or fitting music. The battle theme, for example, is light and airy — completely out of place to what’s going on. There isn’t any voice acting either, outside of narration. Though, the characters are written so generically, you can actually imagine what annoying anime trope voice they might have. The save point — some kind of talking, miniature bear-cat thing — gives me a piercing headache just looking at it.
Graphically, the game is like Bravely Default. It’s not a bad style to follow, but the artist, Tomomi Kobayashi, has such a unique art style that it’s a little upsetting that they didn’t try to capture it in the actual game. The environments are nice to look at, and the 3D effect makes some of the more detailed scenes pop out pretty nicely. Until you actually start unlocking skills (Considering the inconsistent RNG level up mechanic, that could be never), battle animations look the way I feel while holding down the A button: Really lazy. Some of the skills look awesome though, and unlocking skills was one of the points which brought me back to the game.
I don’t think Legend of Legacy will be a bad game when it comes out; I think it could actually be a lot of fun if it keeps picking up. However, the fact remains that — as far as the demo is concerned — it is insultingly easy, the story is more or less nonexistent, character choice is essentially pointless, and you’re better off putting your own music on rather than listening to what the game has to offer.
For those of you out there who, regardless of what I’ve just said, are excited to pick up the game on October 13th, then you might as well download the demo as well. It lets you play the first couple of hours of the game, and you can transfer your saves upon the full release. For everyone else that’s interested, but not sold, I would recommend trying it out. There is definitely something here that I’m looking forward to discovering in the final game, but until that something appears, I’m just not impressed.