What is Illarion? Well it is a free online roleplaying game within a middle age fantasy setting with focus on real roleplay. It's an isometric rpg, and this Legend of Illarion is a homage, since it takes the world and cosmology, creating a good original adventure also for those that do not know the source material. In any case be ready for a big adventure full of character, places and quests!

The game starts with us controlling two extremely powerful characters, but make no mistake, this part is just a prologue that will introduces the adventures of Dyluck: this blue haired hero protagonist will start his adventure on a desert beach with no memories of his past. He will of course start a long journey to understand who is he, meet friends and face enemies. A classic isn't it?


Who is that woman? Why there are some many people here? Play the game and find out what's going on!

But besides Dyluck there are many other interesting characters, and often the party composition will be modified by the events, sometimes the protagonist won't even be included in the party.
This is one of the many features that distinguish this game fron other similar jrpgs. Another custom addition is the crafting system, or the possibility to skip puzzles: yes, there are puzzles and other activities besides combat, but since there is no reward to complete them (only glory! Ehe these are essentially time wasters but maybe you can have fun doing them!) it's possibile to happily skip them and proceed with the story.


Yeah, that's "Aragon", NOT "Aragorn"! And they aren't related!

I mentioned combat before, because this is a Jrpg so expect plenty of encounters that can often be avoided since enemies are visible and usually easily avoidable, but you clearly need money and experience, so fighting many enemies is recommended, considering that there are save points inside the dungeons, so you can kill everyone, exit and re enter to find new victims.
The combat system is the usual side view Rm2k3 style, with battlers that often confront groups of beasts or monsters. Every character has different moves or abilities and earning levels lets them earn new skills and powerful attacks.

Let's speak about graphics: I usually like this style, I like the edited charsets, the animated battlers and the great number of characters present in each location, unfortunately mapping is sometimes mediocre, the first city for example has an enormous shop and a rather eccessive number of save points scattered around. Well I admit I have seen worse, I played games with really ugly maps, vere it's not always bad, there are some ok or even nice scenarios, bit in my opinion mapping is the weaker aspect of the game.
Oh and also no facesets, what a pity!


Oh yes, Dax, whatever you say!

Verdict
Ok, let's be sincere: from what I've seen of Illarion, Legends of Illarion is a totally different kind of game: it's not a traditional Rpg, but it's a classical Jrpg (despite using the same setting and some classical rpg features like the crafting system), still it's a good one and an enjoyable experience! It's not overly original but it's well made and presents a complex story and a large world filled with many interesting and developed individuals: this game is long, more than 25 hours of gameplay and adventures, lots of monsters (taken from different sources and games) and a large cast of characters.
I know few similar games, and despite the fact that I never heard of Illarion, I found the story interesting and really well told (so much that I believed it was a totally original game!).

So? 4/5 is really deserved for the effort to create such a complex adventure. I still like these huge classic games despite their defects that are clearly due to their age. Still they deliver entertainment thanks to a classic but well balanced gameplay, and an interesting story.