Lakria Legends

Lakria Legends, let’s start. But just before, I must mention a game or work of fiction with the word ‘Legend’ has probably been overused. People may already be put off by the Title before playing it but that shouldn’t stop them.

Now to start off, you play from the perspective of Ren who wakes up suddenly after having strange dreams. Like many RPG games of its style you start off in a small village. Although early it’s not known whether it’s Ren’s original settlement as the young hero does mention to an NPC that he travels a lot.
Anyway at the beginning Ren is told by his mother to meet his sister Leena in the forests who is waiting there to show him something important. This actually is some sort of spiritual entity that is communicating with Leena, as it turns out Leena is gifted and suddenly soldiers and a villainous woman approach and attempt to kidnap Leena. When you get there in time after much exploration through the forestry, Ren initially manages to defend her especially with help from the spirit however the villainous woman takes off Leena’s Amulet and the entity disappears entirely. This thus begins the main plot. You have a villain, someone you must save, plus there is mystery and a conspiracy. The game certainly achieves its drawing in of the player to keep playing because of the basic goals in hand. Though I have to say I wasn’t as captivated as I could have been.

Music wise, I really got into it the more I played. At the start it wasn’t my cup of tea but then after acquiring a taste for it, it was as if I tasted second rate soda which is always good every now and again. Considering I gave up early. I accidentally deleted the game files but I can say I went and listened to more of the soundtrack on the net, quite impressive. Though this review should stick to what I experienced and that is the music captures the player. That much cannot be denied.

In comparison to games of its genre in this community, the quality is better than your average RPG Maker Game but I have to say there are some things I don’t like. These are really the lack of seriousness of the characters responses in the story and its realism. For instance, the fact that the hero for literally no reason just has a sword and knows how to fight with literally no explanation as to how at the beginning of the adventure. How is that even possible? This guy isn't a soldier, hasn't been trained or anything but that is just ok, for literally no reason. It’s a problem in so many RPG Maker Games, where the protagonist just is, for literally no reason, exceptional at combat. I also don't know how a defenceless Leena just wonders into a dangerous forest despite the fact the citizens are talking about the recent uproar in monsters about. They don't seem to give a damn about monsters which takes the effect of me taking the dangers of their world seriously that everything will just work out because good always prevails as its fate.

Shortly after key events unfold, the second party character you meet almost for no reason just follows you home. But wait, how bizarre is this, instead of Ren telling his ‘momma’ that by the way Leena got kidnapped, he sits and has dinner with his momma and his new friend Serene as a guest and tells her that way. The way this all breaks down is just downright unrealistic. “Hey, I’m Serene and for no reason I will follow you Ren because I feel a bond with you for no reason…”. It’s obvious that there’s more to her just tagging along and that she knows more than she lets on, but I’m not a fan of the way it was all put together. It made me feel that Serene was in reality being pretentious and I always despised those kind of female personalities and even fictional characters for that matter.
Moving on, the battle system being your standard rm2k3 animated side view is good and for the plus side of things, monsters are relatively animated too which is not something the default battle system provides. Battling monsters at the start isn’t too difficult and quite straightforward. I think the difficulty is just right. When levelling up your characters fully recovers which is the good part about grinding however if you are not careful because of the lack of Items gained on your travels and dropped from monsters you can die. It is probably a good idea to find a shop at some point in time to get some recovery Items. It must be said that this is the type of game that requires grinding because you will most likely die if you proceed on without doing so. I like a challenge don’t get me wrong but I don’t think an RPG Game should be focused on levelling up per say as a blocker to prevent the player from going ahead. When this is done, it’s no longer a game based on challenge but one based on just trying to break the ‘stat limitations’. The challenge should really be focused on levelling up for the situation that could arise against a more threatening opponent based on the advantages levelling up will give you such as new spells and being able to tweak your character to better fight off such enemies.

The level design is well constructed. From what I had seen, the environments were really decent to look at, really. Somewhat almost truly realistic. Though I didn’t get too far in the game to think of what the setting would look like if I zoomed out of the world. You can jump at specific edges of hills or water sides good for extra exploration. There have been a few boulders blocking the hero’s way at some specific points forcing the player to find and use explosives at certain points in the game to get to some restricted places. I think this is a key gameplay aspect.
As a reviewer, the question must be asked whether from what I played, is this is a good game and that is yes, no doubt. Below I have given the game some ratings:
• Gameplay: 3/5
• Story: 3/5
• Level Design: 3.5/5
• Graphics: 4/5
• Animation: 4/5
• Music: 4/5
• Captivation: 3.5/5
• Originality: 4/5
• Overall Score: 3.5/5