Developer: YummyYummyTummy, Mintsphere
Publisher: YummyYummyTummy
Platform: PC, PS4, PS Vita, Switch
Tested on: PC
Fallen Legion+ – Review
Fallen Legion+ is a PC port for two games: ‘Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire’ for PlayStation 4 and ‘Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion’ for PlayStation Vita. These games tell two sides of a story, one of a princess trying to save her struggling realm, and one of a former general of the princess, trying to take the throne for himself. In Fallen Legion+ you’ll be able to choose which side of the story you play by selecting the character you play with. This action-filled combat RPG has been developed by YummyYummyTummy & Mintsphere, and Published by YummyYummyTummy.
Story
Fallen Legion+ contains two stories, which are bound to the character you choose at the beginning.
Princess Cecille Octavia learns of the death of her father, the emperor of Fenumia, at the beginning of the game, and she inherits a magical tome which gives her the power to summon powerful allies. This tome can speak, and advises her on many topics, but she doesn’t always listen to it. Besides that, despite its constant bragging about its involvement in reigning the empire and making it great, it seems to be somewhat evil and needs to feed on human souls. The empire she’ll lead is in ruins; the former emperor spent all of its gold on conquest, and Cecille tries to build the empire up again. Next to all of these problems, she has to deal with the treason and rebellion of Leandur, a former ally of hers, which tried to become the next emperor instead of princess Octavia.
Legatus Laendur is a hero of the people of Bywrn, a country assimilated into the realm of Fenumia. He used to be an ally of princess Octavia, but after her father dies and he learns of the magical tome advising Octavia and granting her powers, he secretly plans to investigate the tome and decides it is evil. Nevertheless, he takes some pages of it which grant him the same powers Octavia has: to summon powerful allies. Laendur is backed by his people to become the next emperor instead of Octavia, and he basically leads the rebellion against the princess.
The story is being told by conversations in-between combat areas, but usually one character appears in a combat area with a bit more story, about the main plotline or about the decisions you’ve made along the way.
Graphics
The game is a 2D side-scrolling game, in a beautiful cartoonish style. All characters and monsters look like drawings and they have been animated like they have been made from cardboard clippings. It’s a great looking, unique style. Attacks have colorful and bright, spectacular animations.
Sound
The constant background music is very upbeat and really puts you on edge. During battle, the characters often shout the names of their special attacks, which can get a bit repetitive. The main characters are voiced, but only a few of their conversations are narrated, most of it is just text without narration.
Gameplay
Fallen Legion+ is classified as an action RPG, but it feels more like a side scrolling fighting game. You’ll spend most of the game in battle, and the combat in this game is pretty intense. The game works fine with a keyboard, but a controller is pretty useful since the controller button layout feels more natural for this type of game.
You play as one character, which is the commander of a group of fighters, with several spells in his or her arsenal. These spells can heal, resurrect or attack. The other party members will do the most of the fighting. If all characters die, the commanding character can quickly regain mana by clicking the control button for that character.
The combat system is full of action. Each character is assigned to a separate button, and they attack when you press that button. Each character has three action points and an attack uses one. The actions of the characters are queued on the combo bar at the bottom of the screen whenever you press their buttons, but they follow each other so quickly, the attacks feel almost instantly and simultaneously. There are also special attacks if you attack at the right moment. The combat is in real time, so you can time your attacks and blocks to counter enemy attacks, or to work together with your team mates. All characters block an attack simultaneously when you press the blocking button.
At the bottom of the screen is a combat bar. This is a combo bar, which shows the way the characters attack. The last slot will always have a blue glow. The slot with the blue glow makes the character who appears there do a death blow, a special attack. There are other buffs which can be added to the slots of this bar, which will affect the character which appears in that slot.
During the combat stages, sometimes you get a dilemma and have to choose between different buffs for your characters. But these buffs do not only affect your characters, but also the game world. The decision you make influences the population of the kingdom you fight for, and can enrage the citizens or make them happy. If you enrage your people, you might get angry people hindering your path later during the stage or the game.
There’s a chain counter which shows your combo attacks, and of course, you’ll be trying to get this counter as high as possible. Each character can do three attacks, so that’s a chain of three, but you can also fill the combo counter with attacks of the different characters. A combo can be broken by getting hit or other actions. Timing your block is very important to maintain your chain attack counter, and a well-timed block will regenerate some AP of your party.
Each stage usually has a boss to end the stage, and after finishing it you can decide on where to go next. There’s a world map on which you travel which links the combat areas and story areas, and here you can choose which way you go and which stage you’ll fight your way through. You’ll be able to re-visit combat stages to play through them again for a better rating.
There are no levels or XP gain, but there are gemstones which boosts your character’s strengths, and your characters get upgraded during the game with new attacks. You’ll be able to choose between an ever growing number of team mates as the game progresses, each with their own stats and attacks, and you can decide on their positions in battle. However, there’s no gear-grinding for your characters, and no skill trees or leveling choices. This makes the game feel less like an RPG, and more like a fighting game.
Conclusion
Fallen Legion+ is a good, action-packed game, with great looking graphics and an interesting story. The game mechanics with the fighting characters bound to a separate button and the building of huge combo chains are very inventive and make combat really intense and exciting. Managing all the characters at the same time while keeping an eye on the enemies too to block at the right moment, will keep you on edge while playing this game. Fallen Legion+ is a great choice for people who love fighting games and like to look into a somewhat different type of game. RPG lovers who love to grind gear and perfect their skill trees will not be satisfied by this game, but you’ll love this game if you like to focus on fast-paced combat.
Fallen Legion+ - Review,
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