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RRR Official Review: Legion Tactics
Review by Dark Gaia
[i]Legion: Tactics[/i] is one of only two so called "strategy" role playing games I know to be available for RPG Maker VX. The other game, ironically, is created by a developer called Legion ([i]To Arms![/i]) and whether by design or coincidence, the two games are alike in that they are not truly strategic or tactical in the vein of [i]Final Fantasy Tactics[/i] but rather are strategic in scope and the amount of choices available to the player. Much like [i]To Arms![/i], [i]Legion: Tactics[/i] is a strange game; it isn't quite what you expect it to be and because of this, it will immediately put you off unless you can place your expectations aside and give it a chance.
In [i]Legion: Tactics[/i], you control the commander of the titular Legion, which is a group of four soldiers, resembling a typical RPG party. Over the course of the game, you must lead your squad on a series of "tactical" missions against an opposing country and save your homeland from a deadly threat. Interestingly, these missions that you undertake play much like an old text based dungeon crawler, rather than the strategic, turn based skirmishes you may be expecting. Essentially, the missions involve your party travelling through a series of paths (similar to the individual rooms of a dungeon crawler) and on each path, you are given a series of choices, such as stopping to examine your soroundings, resting, or pressing on. Depending on the choices you make, you can uncover treasures, traps, battles and other interesting things as you make your way along the path. Like an old text based dungeon crawler, you do not have direct control of your movements and the various actions you can perform in the "rooms" are conveyed through text and (I suspect) based around random dice rolls. This gameplay style isn't really a bad thing. Rather, it lends the feeling of an old pen and paper RPG to the game, which can be interesting for older players but will unfortunately make it seem slow and boring for those well versed in faster paced games.
As you play through the missions in [i]Legion: Tactics[/i], you will inevitably be drawn into battle, whether through some scripted event or via an encounter you discover while searching a path. These battles use a typical side view, turn based battle system and play out very similarly to battles in traditional RPGs such as [i]Demon Kingdom[/i] or [i]Legionwood[/i]. Unlike those games, however, the battles in [i]Legion[/i] are drawn out and take a considerable amount if time to win. The game appears to have many aspects to consider in battle, such as which classes are effective against certain opponents, and which skills and weapons deal the most damage to specific enemy types, though in my experience of the game, these choices unfortunately made little difference on the battles; even when I had parties consisting entirely of Infantrymen, for example, I was able to still win the battles simply by attacking, as the game's characters seem to have quite a lot of HP compared to the enemies, and seem to deal more damage per hit than the enemies do as well. Naturally, the many class combinations and equipments available in the game are not for nothing though, as you will be able to beat certain battles a lot quicker with the right party setting than you would otherwise, it's just unfortunate that these "tactical" choices do not have a deeper impact on the battles.
In between missions, your Legion rests up in a succession of towns and fortresses where you can regroup and stock up on supplies before setting off on the next mission. Rather unfortunately, the places that you will visit over the course of the game are quite ugly - [i]Legion: Tactics[/i] uses 2D images of 3D objects (created in [i]Neverwinter Nights[/i] I think) as its sprites and tiles, but the characters just end up looking rough and the maps look both bare and poorly constructed. The minimalistic look of the maps resemble the general visual style of a NES game in terms of detail and object placement, but do not have the simple charm present in said games. [i]Legion: Tactics[/i]' graphics, quite literally, try too hard, and come off looking flat. The between mission cutscenes however, which are rendered as successions of 3D scenes, do look very good and are a breath of fresh air in an RPG Maker game. There are no complaints to be made about this game's audio; the music tracks used are well placed and appropriate and even better, were not familiar to me, indicating that they may indeed be custom made.
In conclusion, [i]Legion: Tactics[/i] is not a bad game as such. It's an interesting, unique concept with a slightly confusing execution. As a dungeon crawler or an old style adventure based RPG, it comes across as a rather solid game and should satisfy players familiar with the genre, provided they can get past the subpar graphics, but sadly, for those players who are coming expecting either a typical RPG or an actual [i]Final Fantasy Tactics[/i] styled game, it will only disappoint.
[b]5/10[/b]
Reviewer's Score: 5 / 10, Posted Sun, 19 Dec 2010 01:13:27 -0500
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