When asked what my favorite genre is, I’d likely have to go with the JRPG. Growing up on the likes of Dragon Warrior (now Dragon Quest) and Final Fantasy, and later the Tales series, Wild Arms, Lunar, and so many others, I can’t help but love the turn-based combat and stories they told. The relationships between the characters, their development, and worlds all drew me in again and again. Star Ocean: The Second Story had over 80+ endings, and I managed to obtain 64 of them. My claim to fame years ago when PSM was still around and kicking, and I got my blurb in the magazine. So when a modern day game comes out and claims to be a love letter to the genre, I have to give it a good amount of my time.

The game will not surprise anyone familiar with popular RPGs from the 90s, or even early 00s. It begins with a cinematic of the main character, Finn, being pitted against an enemy that is much stronger than him. The game uses this battle as a tutorial for basic attacks and defense. After a couple of rounds, you see another cinematic where Finn comes close to certain death, and an unknown power awakens within him and he all but kills his opponent in one fell swoop. After blacking out and waking up, you find out you’re a slave, you’re going to be killed for winning, and are then bought off the slave owner without any need of convincing and freed from your predicament. You’re soon made aware that Finn is the amnesia-inflicted character you’re no doubt familiar with, having no understanding of the world around him.

While I understand the benefits of a character with amnesia in storytelling, the amount of exposition that NPCs throw at you is nauseating. It’s not that I dislike dialogue, but the way that it’s presented in this can be a bit of a chore. For example, fairly early in the game a conversation between Finn and Aria involves asking for information, and the other asking for water. They say the same thing in essence several times before any development is made. This could be fun banter, providing insight into the characters’ personalities, but instead comes off as annoyingly redundant. Sadly, a large majority of the dialogue throughout the game plays off this way, and one of the aspects of the genre that made me love it serves as something I’d rather skip.

To say the characters never develop is a bit of an overstatement, although you won’t see any changes like you would playing Final Fantasy IX, where characters like Steiner become fan favorites as we see him change. Instead, we see Finn go from annoying slave to slightly less annoying swordsmen. That’s not awful, as other games did the same and were still plenty successful. One that stands out is Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, which had a fairly average story and a set of characters that never really changed, but had a pretty strong combat system. Similarly, this has a fighting system that works well and amplifies the experience.

To say the combat is unique unto itself would be a lie. It holds similarities to The Legend of Dragoon and Shadow Hearts, with its ACT (Action Circle Tempo) system playing a large part. This simply means that with any action you choose that results in an attack or a defensive maneuver yields a circle with three different zones and a button to press. When the needle goes around the circle, you must choose for it to stop in the right spot. Landing it in any of three zones affects what happens – whether it be increased AP gain and critical chance, or less damage done and a higher probability of the attack missing altogether. This avoids combat becoming overly monotonous, although I did find the confirmation to be a bit sporadic. I often had to hit the button well before the needle was where I wanted it, while other times doing so it registered immediately. The system also has a series of weaknesses and resistances for each enemy, be it the elements or the type of weapon you are using. If you don’t want to focus on looking at the types, the game is nice enough to show you whether or not it will be effective by shining a light over the enemy. If there’s no light, you’re safe to use it, but it’ll do normal damage. Once you reach a full bar of AP, you can use your boss killer move. I call it this because it’ll often wipe 25%-50% of a boss’ life. Gaining AP is easy enough – simply use your attacks or Grimoires (spells that don’t cost anything other than going after normal attacks with the potential of being interrupted) and do well during the ACT section. In some instances, these are necessary for winning battles, but other times it’s a wonder they were included with how powerful they are.

To speak toward the aesthetics of the game, it absolutely nails what they were going for. The music is fantastic and compliments the painted backgrounds very well. I know when I initially saw it, I was thinking it was more of a PS1 style, but after playing, it’s definitely more along the lines of the PS2 era. And that isn’t to say the game is bad looking at all, as the character portraits are beautifully modeled and rendered, with enough animation to bring the conversations to life. The world is a joy to adventure in, although it is a bit linear as much of it doesn’t allow for free roam. The dungeons are fun, albeit simple. Some will add a bit of challenge with traps and elements that will slow you and cause damage over periods of time. Luckily, there is often times a room with a place that you cannot only save, but heal your wounds for free. Using this will respawn enemies, but this can be a great way to grind out some levels, especially if you have a side quest that involves killing a certain enemy to gather materials which can be used for the likes of upgrading your gear.

Is Legrand Legacy: Tale of the Fatebounds the love letter to JRPGs it claims to be? It certainly has a lot of elements that remind me of the games I love, but I can’t say that the sum of its parts comes out to exceed, or even match them necessarily. I will say that it matched my enjoyment of The Legend of Dragoon, so for those that undeniably love that game, this may be an absolute joy for you. Honestly, if a sequel was made with a bit of the mechanics retooled and the dialogue had an overhaul, it would be absolutely stellar. However, I will say this is a fantastic debut for an indie company, and taking what they learned from the development of this, I’m certain their next entry will blow this one away in the same sense that Assassin’s Creed II outdid its original outing.

7 out of 10

Pros

• Fun Turn-Based Combat
• Beautiful World and OST
• Character Portraits

Cons

• Convoluted Dialogue
• Pacing Issues
• Flat Characters

Legrand Legacy: Tale of the Fatebounds was developed by SEMISOFT and published by Another Indie and Mayflower Entertainment. The game launched on PC January 24th, 2018 for $24.99, with releases on the PS4 and Switch expected later on. The PC version of the game was provided to us for review. If you’d like to see more of Legrand Legacy: Tale of the Fatebounds, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

Check out OpenCritic for a better idea of how our review stacks against others.