Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Aarklash Legacy

I did not end up finishing this game. I absolutely think this is worth buying and playing.

This game plays a bit like a MOBA. You have four playable characters, with four unique skills each. Some play DPS, healer/support, and tank roles, or a bit of a mix.

Each combat is difficult, and requires you to play tactically for at least the first half of the fight.

The things that this game did specifically well.
* Brilliant choice to style this like a RTS MOBA as far as camera, controls, and feel
** You can issue a queue of actions to an ally
** You can pause and inspect any enemy, which is critical to surviving
* The game allows you to respec a character anytime you are not in combat. This removed analysis paralysis and allowed exploration of builds and team options
* Each enemy had unique abilities with tweakable values (stun duration, distance, cast time, etc.)
* Enemies required you to take them down tactically. If you ignored their tell, then they would heavily punish you. You can also interrupt abilities, and many times have to do this to win.
* The optional boss fights were very rewarding and quite difficult
* Progressing through the story forced you to try out new party compositions and ability pairings
* Non-standard healing abilities. I loved seeing healing abilities that were more than just heal for X amount, or heal over time. The mechanics in this game were stunning.

The pretty good, but could have been better
* The UI that you needed to use to dig into which enemy had which ability was a bit tedious
* After a certain point, you can pick your own team and you'll likely never change it up once you have something that works
* The puzzles in the game were interesting, but sometimes seemed to be more tedious than clever. It also didn't feel like it was necessary.
* The voice acting was fine, but the story line just didn't engage me

The one thing they did that could be improved was equipment. Enemies drop random equipment of a normal, magical, rare variety. Most of the time it's crap, and you throw it ino the equipment grinder that will produce an ultra rare version. Basically you're just rolling the dice over and over until you get the best of the various state (+heal is great for healers, +physical damage is not typically). I ended up save scumming this a lot to abuse getting the best equipment, but in the end it wasn't a huge difference. It almost felt like an entire system that could have just been left out.

The reason I didn't finish the game primarily was that I wasn't engaged enough with the puzzles and story to continue. I absolutely loved the combat, abilities, and character classes they created. Once I had my ideal party, the fights just got a bit repetitive. Perhaps the UI improvements would have held my attention longer, but I doubt it. Still a great game!

PS: I have no idea how I don't have any screenshots for this game.