Legacy Saga "A Tale Of Two Worlds" NEW DEMO!!!!!!!

LEGACY SAGA

Okay, so, this has been a long time coming and I've been having a lot of trouble with my computer lately. It's pretty much impossible to type up an entire review on my iPhone... So I apalogize for the long wait JPARKER.

WAIT!!!

What's that? It's not a chest, it's a monster in a box!!! Alright, let get this started.

I want to start by saying flat out that this is as much of a review as it is a test run, so I'll be pointing out a lot of things that are sure to help the developer make the overall experience more enjoyable for all of us. :)

Music\ 4/5 Almost Perfect
Great and suits the game well overall. Not much to really say here, everything really just fits.

Graphics\ ⅗ Has Potential
All internet scavenged and because of this a lot of things clash. I found that the beginning of the game made sense and was designed quite well. When the story jumps ahead a 1000 years the game takes a bit of a dive. The maps feel off and there are strange inconsistencies everywhere. I know it's part of the genre thing, but I still find treasure chests, unopened, just laying around in a forest slightly odd. Also I'd like to see custom charsets for the over world, so they look scaled to the world map. I'd also like to see the water move. In all but 1 area of the game there was beautiful looking water that just didn't do anything. No movement . Period. Overall the graphics didn't clash terribly and almost felt themed.

Mechanics\ 3.5/5 On The Right Track
The mechanics are for most part just use the standard RM2k3 engine. Now, there is a Moogle that you meet shortly after the introduction. He is how you save and access the "special menu". As you progress special character altering items can be purchased and unlocked through the special menu. The special features overall reminded me of Resident Evil 4. I found it to be an interesting take on the classic RPG hero upgrade items. JParker nailed one of my favorite things in games. I love the ability to choose how I upgrade and when to do so. Not some useless half assed skill tree where I'm going to get everything eventually it's just what I grab first. That's one of the best things about survivor horror games. Resident Evil 4 was perfect for that. Taking your special points and being completely free to do as seen fit. This helps the game to fit to any one players play style. Though, I did find purchasing things to be sort of cumbersom. It doesn't break the game by any means, just something I'd like to see improved. Well, actually... Yes it did break the game. I found that after a certain point I couldn't access much of anything because the game would always crash from map errors. There is one major suggestion I'd like to make; the implication of a world map. An item to turn it on or off would be greatly appreciated.

Story\ 3/5 Has Potential
The game opens with your typical Demon hell bent on destroying everything and the 4 heroes of lore rising to stop this self proclaimed unstoppable force. The interesting twist to JParker's world is that magic isn't so magical. It's a man made tool, nice touch. I found the dialogue to be very jumbled. Sometimes it was great and other times it was sour and generic. So after the demon kills all of the heros, they rise to face him with the internal power found in their hearts! They instantly send him back to his home realm/world and he leaves two pieces of a curse/soul to set a trap while he lies in wait.

1000 years later.

Our story starts with Jeromy. He's fairly perturbed about his mother asking him to gather berries from the woods for her pie. This leads him to a special tree where he is attacked by a wild creature!!!

But fear not! Jeromy is quickly joined by Jesse, who has been tailing him for a while. Turns out Jesse is looking for someone for the king. Someone he can't talk about. After leaving the forest they part ways. Jeromy returns home to find that his mother hasn't heard from his friend yet. So he heads out to town to find Ed. Disaster strikes as Jeromy bumps into Jesse once again, a lot of arguing ensues and Jeromy is then sent to the castle to fetch assistence for the King's royal guard. Jeromy finally arrives at the town, but not before mouthing off the poor Moogle that's trying to help him. After speaking with the King Andrew, the story really starts to unfold. And the rest, as they say is history... Trust me, there are plenty of twists and turns through out the story.

You play as several different characters throughout the game each with their own unique look. I found that the intro starts out to be pretty generic but as the plot continues and the twists come, I found myself growing to enjoy the story. Wanting to know more. Despite all it's flaws, it still manages to slowly but surely suck you in. I didn't like davids part of the story as much as Jeromys. I felt that David was a better character with a lot of potential, but he felt wasted. Little player motivation besides why not drove his part of the story. I'd like to see this tightened and flushed out a little more.

Presentation\ 2/5 Passable
The presentation started out fairly polished. Multiple people worked on different aspects of this project. One very apparent theme is that this is not so much a unique and original game as much as it is a fan game. That's not a bad thing by any means. Coming back to the mulitiple people part, this is the games selling point and it's curse. The quality in dialogue and map designs and all around flow feel like they are constantly being pulled in too many different directions. There was also times where I'd enter a house and then entered the house next door to find the exact same house layout with the exact same NPC. The only difference is that the NPC said something slightly different. A few spelling errors crept up from time to time, but nothing major.

There were constant glitches throughout the entire game. The best I found was supposed to be a little girl walking happily about the first town you find, but instead 90% of the time she was invisible. the other 10% she was a child's decapitated body walking about. Very classy. There were also quite a few invisible doors. These were most noticeable in the castle where a few other problems with the story occured. I found that there were a few head scratchers (wondering how guarding every room of the castle but not the King makes sense) but not major plot holes. The game also liked to give me HP upgrades randomly when I would purchase MP upgrades. The further in I got is when the major game crashing bug rearred it's fugly head. After unlocking the ability menu and spending my "gained points" on David's armor the game crashed when exiting. Said the map did not exist. This same problem kept me from changing my party and from increasing any stats.

Legacy Saga began to deteriorate further in with it presentation as well. Some scenes the screen would slowly fade to fade back in with the entire party set up for a cutscene and others would be a simple jarring instant teleport. Towards the end of the game, the mapping become increasingly designed for mindless grinding. Maps that require you to walk around the entire map three or four times to fight an endless supply of creatures just to turn around at the end to head back out. There was one area that I thoroughly enjoyed though. it was the bandit cave. The old rickety walk ways were a great build to the old atmosphere.

Ending Conclusion\ 3.5/5 A Blast From Memory Lane.
Jparker, you are a jerk... YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHY! "Nah, joking, you found nothing..." *Shakes fist*

Legacy Saga is a title that I feel starts out weak and doesn't have much to offer in anyway besides it's unique levelling system. I personally feel that the story is the games saving grace. The graphics for the most part seem to blend well together, the music is phenominal and the mapping is weak. As a package the good outweighs the bad. I recommend at the very least checking this baby out if you are a fan of any of the original 2D final fantasies. If not, then let it slide. At its core, it's a fan game.

* JParker, If your game is to over come the slosh that is home brewed games, you'll need to step the presentation up a notch. I feel that the heart is there, but sometimes it felt like it left for bathroom breaks through some of the dialogue, map design and of course... The testing. TEST, TEST, TEST! Your game crashed on me probably no less that 20 times. On average, every 4 minutes or so.
Overall, I think as a collaborative effort, all the people who worked on this project should be proud. It's hard working with other people. Congratulations.

- Ashes