Legionwood 1: Tale of the Two Swords

[b]My Playtime:[/b] 32h (finished the game) [h1]Intro[/h1] [b]Legionwood 1: Tale of the Two Swords[/b] is the first title of the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=Legionwood&supportedlang=english&developer=Dark+Gaia+Studios&ndl=1][b]Legionwood[/b][/url] series, a turn-based [i]RPG Maker[/i] game with up to 6 party members. It also allows you to build your party members however you want, with customizable stats, gears, and skills. [b]Pros:[/b] - A lot of customizations to make the party that you want - Rewarding optional contents [b]Cons:[/b] - No option to speed up battles - Dungeons tend to force you to go back and forth within the same area [b]Specs[/b] Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 [h1]Should you play this game?[/h1] [b]Yes.[/b] [i]If you like RPG Maker games and don't mind the slow pacing and difficulty spike at the beginning, feel free to play this game.[/i] [hr][/hr] [h1]In-Depth Review[/h1] [h3]Visuals[/h3] Most of the game uses the default RTP assets, although there are still some customized assets used in it. Take the main characters for example. All of them use customized portraits and sprites, with some close-up cutscenes placed here and there to complement the story. I liked the details that the game has, although sadly, dungeons look similar with their boxy design. [h3]Story[/h3] The game tries to conceal the full story in mystery at first, giving hints and vague remarks from time to time. This will be explained fully later on, although I found some hints, especially regarding the main characters, to be too predictable. One thing to note from this game is that NPCs tend to have long lines, and they might change them based on the events that happened. However, dialogues always stop with every punctuation mark, making it time-consuming to talk to them just to see the changes. [h3]The Game[/h3] [b]Gameplay[/b] The gameplay in [b]Legionwood 1: Tale of the Two Swords[/b] is similar to other turn-based [i]RPG Maker[/i] games: you need to explore the area while finishing dungeons in between. Exploration in the overworld tends to be short; there is no random encounter to bug you, although walking speed can be very slow. It takes time to explore everything after you get a ship for the first time because of it. That being said, I like how the game marks all landscapes, making it easy to figure out which one you can explore. I also liked how the game highlight all interactable objects. I played with a controller, and since you can't activate the auto dash feature, it was hard to interact with all objects in the hope that I'll get some items out of them. Speaking of auto dash, the game has a dash - you just need to press it manually. It doesn't work in the overworld, though. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=689918973 Dungeons are poorly designed. Most of them tend to be this kind where you need to go to the far left to flip a switch, and then proceed to the far right to flip another switch that unlocks an area past the first switch. The dungeons themselves aren't large, and this "backtracking to flip the next switch" feature is just making them last longer. [b]Characters[/b] Characters are highly customizable. They might have different base stats, but the difference is so little that you can tweak them however you want. The game offers stats that you can allocate every time you level up, and the best part is that you can always retract the points that you assigned. This means that you can change a party member from a DPS to a tank, or others. It also helps to check whether the stat that you allocate was effective, and change it if it didn't. All characters can learn spells as long as you have the money. Some characters might have a unique spell, or start with some that aren't accessible at the beginning, but they won't matter at the end. Most of the useful spells are sold in town, and although they are not cheap, you should have enough money to afford them with no effort. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=689919531 There are also no restrictions on gears apart from some that are not accessible if you use or don't use dual swords. However, the ability to use dual swords themselves can be changed at will. The trade-off is that you can't deactivate the dual sword feature, although I can't say that it's a bad thing since any weapon is better than offhand gear. [b]Combat[/b] The game can be challenging at the beginning. Enemies hit hard and MP is scarce - all MP restorative gears in the game are bugged, and you need to reach the save crystal if you want to recover for free. The crystals might be accessible almost everywhere, but you need to know where to look. First-timers might have the wrong impression and have to go back to town and grind for a while before they can continue with the story. Some bosses are tough, others not so much. As I said before, the difficulty comes at the beginning; not only that you need to know where all of the save crystals are, but your characters also don't have enough stat points to mold them into a specific build. This gives some issues when you fight some of the early bosses; I even found one of them to be harder than the one that is supposed to be the strongest boss in the game. On the good side, you just need to stick to the same strategy once you figured out the right build. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=689718770 [b]Length and Difficulty[/b] The in-game clock said that I finished the game in 22:43:38, but [i]Steam[/i] says that I finished it in 32h. I did restart the boss fights several times, especially for a boss that I kept on dying to at the beginning. The game might be challenging at first, but it's gonna be easy afterward. The difficulty mostly comes with the fact that you can't save anywhere in dungeons, forcing you to reset a lot of hours if you died from random enemies. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] [b]Legionwood 1: Tale of the Two Swords[/b] is mostly a game that was designed for early adopters of the [i]RPG Maker[/i] genre. The difficulty was toned down from when I played it years ago, but it still can give you some challenges early game. Moreover, the slow-paced battle might bug some people; I had to multitask the game with other things because of how slow it is. That being said, it is still a solid [i]RPG Maker[/i] game with a nice story and a lot of customization for the characters. Give it a try if you enjoy [i]RPG Maker[/i] games, although stay out of it if you don't like slow-paced games. [quote]Follow our curator page: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/quote]