Developer: Goblinz Studio
Publisher: Goblinz Publishing
Platforms: PC, Switch, Stadia
Tested on: Switch
Legend of Keepers – Review
In most games based on exploring dungeons and killing enemies, you are the one who’s invading the dungeon to find the riches inside. In Legend of Keepers, you’ll be the one in charge of defending these treasures within the dungeon as you’ve been hired to become the next dungeon manager at the Dungeons Company. It’s your job to create the best defense for each attack and with some of the game’s mechanics, this can get quite challenging as well.
Story
Congratulations! You’ve been hired as the next dungeon manager by the Dungeons Company. It’s your job to protect the dungeons from all those pesky heroes, explorers, and whatever else may set foot inside your dungeon. As you start the game, you’ll get a tutorial that shows you the ropes of the game’s gameplay. After that tutorial, you’re mostly on your own and you can decide your own actions. The game progresses in weeks and in between fights, you’ll have to do other activities to strengthen your monsters or solve problems in the company. Sadly, aside from the small scenarios you can read in between fights, there is no more story content to be found in this game. These small scenarios do contribute to the game as a whole.
Graphics
Everything in Legend of Keepers is in an 8-bit graphics style, and this fits the gameplay perfectly. It lets you reminisce about those good ol’ days when you played classic dungeon crawlers. Despite the usage of this style of graphics, each monster is certainly detailed enough to look good on the Switch’s screen. The attacks in-game also look pretty good and mostly meet your expectations when choosing each move.
Sound
The background music is calm and accompanied by some effects that perfectly fit the dark theme of this game. With some screams and eerie effects, it really feels like you’re on the evil side in this game. All the sound effects in the game are on point. When your opponents die, the screams they utter sound very satisfying.
Gameplay
Legend of Keepers is a roguelite dungeon defender game with turn-based combat where you are hired to be the next dungeon manager. It is your job to keep your dungeon safe from attacks by adventurers, heroes and other pesky outsiders. The game immediately puts you in a tutorial that shows you what you can do in the game. This tutorial is quite straightforward, as, at each step, you’ve only got one option to choose from. Luckily, you’ll get more options after the tutorial. Each battle between the enemy and your monsters is played out in turn-based combat, where each of your monsters has a variety of attack moves that will damage your opponent in multiple ways. These attacks will deal direct damage, but can also poison or burn your enemies, making them take damage during their own turns.
Your dungeon will get attacked every few weeks by a random encounter that can consist out of heroes, adventurers, veterans, or other enemies. Every group of enemies has an indicator for their strength and sometimes, you can choose between two or more enemies to fight, offering you a choice for an easier or a harder battle. After you’ve selected your opponent, you’ll have to select your monsters to protect your dungeon. Early on, you won’t have a lot to choose from, but as you progress and earn or buy new monsters, you’ll have more options. In each dungeon, you’ll have two rooms where you can put a maximum of three monsters as a team. When placing these monsters, you can inspect the incoming enemy to decide which monsters are suited best for these opponents. Aside from these two rooms, you’ll also have two rooms where you can set a trap and one room where you can activate a spell or skill. You have to choose the traps before the battle starts, but the spell will be chosen when the enemies arrive in that room.
You can defeat your opponents in two different ways. Of course, you can kill them by dealing enough damage, but you bring their morale down to make them run in tears. Each successful defense of your dungeon will earn you gold and based on how you got rid of the enemies, you’ll earn blood or tears. Blood is gained from killed enemies and tears are earned by scaring them. You’ll also get a new trap or a new monster depending on the reward mentioned while picking your opponents. Some enemies are more easily scared than killed, so you have to pick your monsters wisely for the best approach. Luckily, you’ll have a variety of monsters to choose from after a while, to choose a fitting strategy for each fight. When you haven’t been able to kill or scare the enemies with the monsters you’ve placed, the enemies will reach the boss battle against your own character. You’ll start as the Slaveholder, a very powerful monster that can easily obliterate anything in its way with very powerful attacks. Others will be available later in the game.
After each battle, your defeated monsters are revived by the company’s lich doctor. When this happens, their motivation drops. When a monster’s motivation drops to zero, it will be incapacitated for ten weeks and unable to fight in multiple battles. To prevent that, you can let your monsters rest in the garrison, but while they’re in there, you can’t use them in battle.
After you’ve defeated a group of enemies and have taken your rewards, you’ll have a few weeks until the next attack. In this period, you’ll have several activities to choose from. You can buy new monsters at the merchant, train your boss, deal with office troubles, go plundering with your monsters, and more. These activities will reward you with power-ups, resources, monsters, and traps, but they can also leave some of your monsters incapacitated for a while as some activities also have risks. When choosing a certain activity, you’ll have to stick with it, as going back still forfeits the week you’re in.
Conclusion
Legend of Keepers brings a fun twist to dungeon games, as you aren’t the one exploring the dungeons, but you’re defending them. There’s quite a variety of monsters and traps to choose from to effectively fight each type of enemy. The gameplay is quite easy to handle and devising a good strategy for each group of enemies can be quite fun. The activities in between battles add some variety to the game, which makes the game even better. Legend of Keepers is a very fun game with retro-inspired visuals that most seasoned gamers will surely appreciate. If you like turn-based battles and want to be on the evil side, then we’d definitely recommend taking a look at Legend of Keepers.
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