Legasista Review

For a while, NISA had problems breaking into the portable market. Their portable titles were simply upgraded ports of their previous RPGs, which despite being great, were less interesting too. However, this all changed with Cladun as it was simply enjoyable. After seeing how successful the series was, NISA decided to try it on the PS3 with Legasista. Naturally this sounds like a great idea, but is it too simple for console gamers?

Lets see what’s HOT and what’s NOT in our review of Legasista.

HOT

Enjoyable to Play
If you’re a fan of action RPGs, then you will most likely enjoy Legasista. This is because Legasista has a simple hack and slash combat system. You see all of the gameplay takes place in dungeons, which are naturally filled with various monsters. These monsters will usually attempt to kill you, but you’re given a number of ways to deal with them. These include slashing with your sword, using your bow, blasting them with magic, in addition to a number of other weapons / skills. This will take care of most enemies, though you can further increase damage by hitting them from behind. However the monsters aren’t as cut and dry as you would expect.

In addition to all of the normal RPG elements, monsters come in various colors and sizes. It’s not uncommon to see a really large monster or finding an extremely small one. While size doesn’t affect stats, it does affect the radius of attacks. So if you find a giant mushroom it’s easier to get poisoned than a smaller one.

Beyond size differences, there are also various classes for each monster. You can tell them apart based on their colors, in which you will want to keep track of. This is because unlike most RPGs, certain classes are universally better. For instance, the blue puddle girl can attack in front of her, the green one can attack in 4 directions and the purple one is exactly like green, but also attacks on top of where you are. Due to this you’re going to need to plan ahead if you hope to survive.

Lots of Depth
While Legasista might look very simple, it actually has a surprisingly high amount of depth. For starters, a number of weapons have titles attached to them, which you can remove or replace with other titles. Every title adds some sort of bonus, so you’re free to make your best weapons even better. In addition to weapons, characters also have a number of elements for you to play with.

The first thing is your job, which you can change once you hit level 20. Once you change jobs, you have to relevel your character to 20 before you can change again – but you do keep any progress on other jobs. This can be helpful for adding traits as those make your character stronger. They include things like extra health, better drop rate, magical power and many more. Every class has unique bonuses, though you can also buy universal abilities too. To further upgrade your character you can also change their energy frame.

Changing your energy frame basically changes how you play that character. Every frame offers different bonuses, so one might let you use a shield and sword, where as another would restrict you to swords. These aren’t just great for playing your way, but also let you prepare for certain situations. So if you’re taking a lot of damage you might want to bring a shield or stick to magic attacks. The choice is really up to you, which is part of the fun.