• Price: $49.99 USD (digital & physical)
• Developers: Cattle Call, FuRyu
• Publisher: NIS America
• Release Date: March 22, 2024 (NA/JP); April 12 (EU)

A review code was kindly provided by NIS America on behalf of Cattle Call and FuRyu. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

The Legend of Legacy is an RPG that was first released on 3DS back in 2015, and its “legacy” lives on with an HD remaster of the game on Nintendo Switch. I missed out on playing it on 3DS, so I was excited to check out this updated version. The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered aims to provide players with a “classic RPG combat [experience] with a twist” – let’s see if the game is indeed as epic as its name implies!

“Party Planning”

When you start the game, you’re given seven character options to choose from; they include a brief description of each character, and you can also check their beginning stats. The character you choose will lead your party of three, which includes two of the other playable characters. It looks like you start with the same party members each time you start the game with a specific character, but you can choose to swap them out later on if you’d like.

All seven characters have their own motivations for wanting to explore Avalon, an island that appeared ten years ago. It’s said that adventurers are drawn to Avalon because it has multiple sites with high concentrations of spiritual energy and elemental spirits. The island hasn’t been fully charted yet, so you must fill in the dungeon maps yourself.

You start with limited access to the island. As you explore each area, the game automatically fills in the map for you. There are generally two ways to unlock new dungeons: either find an exit in that direction in another dungeon, or buy a (blank) map to access the new area. Map prices are fairly high – especially since it can be hard to make money – but you can use the funds from selling your completed dungeon maps to buy access to new ones.

Mapping out the dungeons is complicated by the enemies who wander around on the map. If they see you, they’ll chase you around and try to attack you. While combat is turn-based, the mechanics aren’t very traditional.

RPGs “Build Character”

You can equip your party members with any weapon type you want, although I would assume that some work better than others for each character. At the start of each turn, you must choose your party’s battle formation, which impacts each characters’ stance. Battle formations can place your characters in any combination of attack, guard, or support (speed) stances.

After selecting the formation for the turn, you then choose what ability each character will use. Everyone has two weapon slots, and each weapon has a starter ability. To learn new skills for a weapon, you need to use the starter skill until the game randomly has a new one activate in battle. Then you need to start using the new ability to learn even more.

You can also level up each skill’s attack, guard, or support stat depending on which stance you’re using at the time. The magic you learn works the same way as the weapon skills. At certain points you will find “Singing Shards” for the fire, water, and wind elements. These allow you to form contracts with the elemental spirits.

“[Elemental], my dear Watson”

There are “Whisper Shards” scattered across Avalon, which you must equip to use a “Charm”/spell and also learn it to keep it in your ability pool permanently. Again, you must use the spell multiple times until your character randomly learns the spell. This process can take some time (and a lot of patience); sometimes using a spell will result in the character learning an entirely different spell, too.

Once you’ve learned a spell from its shard, you can continue to use it as long as you equip an item imbued with the spell’s element. That was a nice way to extend the elemental theme. You need to equip the Singing Shards at all times to be able to use any of the spells, though.

When a battle starts, you need to use a “Calling command” to form a contract with the spell’s associated elemental spirits before you can even use any of that element’s spells. You can have all three contracts active at the same time so that you can use all three elements’ spells in that battle.

The contract “expires” after each battle, so you’ll have to complete the process again each time you fight. To make things interesting, even minor enemies can take control of an element’s contract, removing your ability to use those spells until you use that Calling command again. These contracts not only allow you to use spells, but also provide you with benefits like SP and HP restoration every turn. If the enemy takes control, they get those benefits instead.

Combat Complications

I think the character growth and battle mechanics are pretty interesting, if not a little frustrating due to the random stat increases and skill learning. Your characters don’t level up at all, so your success in battle is based on your luck in increasing your stats.

I’m used to grinding in RPGs, and being able to defeat tougher enemies after putting in some effort to level up and purchase better equipment. I fought many battles in The Legend of Legacy that did not provide me with anything at the end – no stat increases, abilities, money, or anything else!

Apparently you’re more likely to improve your characters’ stats or learn something new if you fight more challenging opponents, but I often got nothing in those battles too. I didn’t like feeling like my efforts were wasted, especially since battles take a while (even when you speed things up by holding the A button).

It was hard for me to determine if an area was right for growing my characters because battles can be pretty challenging wherever you go. Your HP is fully restored after each battle, but to restore SP you have to use items outside of battle, use the wind contract, or wait for it to slowly build up again in battle.

If a character’s HP reaches zero in battle, their maximum HP decreases until you can rest again. Enemies can further damage their max HP even if a character is KO’ed at the time. You can revive fallen units using healing skills or items, but their decreased max HP might make them easier to defeat again, continuing the cycle.

One of my characters ended up having 1 HP total temporarily after being defeated so many times! If any party member loses all of their HP, it’s Game Over. Getting a “Game Over” means that you lose all of your progress after your last save. I felt demotivated each time that happened. Out of the battles I lost, only a handful had a retry option. I wish we had that option for every battle.

There wasn’t a lot of enemy variety – I saw a decent amount of reskins – but a lot of them still gave me a hard time. Environmental hazards like exploding plants or spikes can also temporarily reduce your max HP, so there are times when it’s wise to return to town to heal and regroup.

It’s difficult to leave a dungeon without bumping into more enemies, but if you do run into them you can choose to run away. The fleeing mechanic is another unique aspect of the game, as it conveniently takes you right to the dungeon entrance every time.

Avalon’s Amenities & Anecdotes

Avalon only has one town, and it doesn’t have many facilities. The shop doesn’t offer a wide variety of equipment, and SP healing items are really expensive – especially in the beginning. You can pay for a ship to go out and bring back new items; there are three ship tiers that cost different amounts of money, provide different items, and take different amounts of (real) time to return.

Other than that, there’s an inn where you can heal and save, and a bar where you may run into one of the four characters that isn’t in your party. You can recruit the rest of them, but you can only have three in your party at any time. I really liked the character art and models (the frog prince was really cute), but I chose my party leader based on their character description.

Sadly, despite their initial attempts at writing backgrounds for each character, it doesn’t seem like they really expand on them at all as you play through the game. I played as Meurs, and while there is dialogue here and there, I didn’t feel like they ever gave us more information about the characters. It wasn’t always clear where to go or what to do as I moved the (minimal) story along, and I was confused by their occasional explanation of Avalon’s lore.

Overall Impressions

Story is an important part of a game for me – especially in RPGs. I was disappointed that the game didn’t live up to my expectations when the description states that “each route has a one-of-a-kind narrative.” If you don’t mind a game with less emphasis on story and more focus on fighting, The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered might be a good choice for you. The random stat/ability increases and difficulty spikes may frustrate some players, but the character growth systems can be a neat way for patient adventurers to customize their party.

7.5/10