The Legend of Legacy is an RPG created by CattleCall and published FuRyu. It was originally released on the Nintendo 3DS on January 22, 2015 for Japan with an English release by Atlus on October 13, 2015 for North America and by NIS on February 2016note in other regions.
A mysterious continent named Avalon has suddenly risen from a deep slumber. The continent itself is greatly unexplored, prompting many adventurers to seek its riches for themselves as well as the mythical Star Graal. Seven of these adventurers explore the uncharted land in hopes of fulfilling their singular dreams and desires, while also cooperating with each other. This merry band of adventurers includes:
- Meurs— An elementalist, or a person who can converse with the elementals. The spirits that guide him led him to the isle of Avalon, where he seeks the connection between the elemental spirits and the legendary island.
- Garnet— A templar of the Holy Order, she is absolutely loyal to her nation and her church. When legends of gods awakening on Avalon began to circulate, the Holy Order sent her to investigate.
- Bianca— A kindhearted girl who one day awoke on the isle of Avalon without her memories. She is determined to regain her memories and discover her connection to Avalon, no matter the cost.
- Liber— A young treasure hunter who came to Avalon seeking its untold riches. His optimism and chivalry can often get him in trouble as often as it ends up saving the day.
- Eloise— A beautiful woman and a talented alchemist who often uses her seductive charms to get her way. She is drawn by rumors of the eternal youth that the Star Graal could bestow.
- Owen— A mercenary whose skill in battle has given him the moniker "The Baron," he'll take any job if the price is right. And the price that the Holy Order is willing to pay to suppress any "false gods" arising in Avalon is high indeed...
- Filmia— A prince of a lost kingdom of Avalon, a paragon of nobility and chivalry, and a frog. He searches Avalon for traces of his former kingdom, so that he may take his rightful place as sovereign.
One of the game's most notable features is its leveling system: characters don't "level up", their skills do. Have character protect their allies and their Guard skills will increase over time. Have them act as a healer and their Support skills will increase over time. Using a skill a number of times will reward you with a new skill. However, this makes leveling unpredictable - there is no experience bar to gauge how close you are to advancing.
A remastered version for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC had a March 22, 2024 release.
Legend of Legacy provides examples of:
- After-Combat Recovery: Your HP restores itself after every fight. Your SP, however, won't. And if a character faints, their maximum HP is reduced until you can get them to the inn for a rest.
- Another Side, Another Story: One of the main draws of the game is the option of starting an adventure with one of the seven leads, though this doesn't mean much to you in the long run once you recruit the other members randomly without much trouble almost immediately. On a greater scale, your choice will quickly fade into obscurity with the lack of story.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- The Western release of the game tweaked several gameplay mechanics, such as receiving more experience from enemies and carrying over many elements in a New Game Plus run.
- The ability to quick save anywhere.
- Anti-Grinding: You will have easier time leveling up stats and learning new arts when fighting a group of new, stronger enemies while the opposite happens when fighting multiple groups of weaker enemies.
- Can't Drop the Hero: Although you can freely swap your party members at the inn once you've spoken to the other characters in Initium, the character you select at the start of the game can never be removed from the party.
- Checkpoint Starvation: A pet peeve of many reviewers. The good news is that health is restored between battles. The bad news is that your magic points aren't. The really bad news is that, if a character faints, their maximum hit points will go down. The worst news is that you can't save on the field, only in Initium, the city where you can buy equipment and rest your party. If you realize that your hit point cap is too low, or you're out of magic, you must quit the map you're on and return to the city. And there's no fast travel to certain point in the map - you've got to make your way back to where you were on foot.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The Start/Select buttons take automatic screenshots of the game. You'll forget a lot where the menu button is.
- Dungeon-Based Economy: In the backstory, the mysterious continent of Avalon mysteriously appeared, and the city of Initium was founded to both sell supplies to adventurers and to buy any treasure they come back with.
- Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: You will easily defeat enemies by sneezing on them. While the bosses aren't hard, the game does a poor job in warning the player about sudden boss encounters in areas full of piss-easy enemies. And you can't run from those harder boss fights.
- Elemental Powers:
- Blow You Away: From the Wind Singing and Whispering Shards
- Making a Splash: From the Water Singing and Whispering Shards
- Playing with Fire: From the Fire Singing and Whispering Shards
- Casting a Shadow: Element exists in-game, unfortunately not usable also plays a large role in the plot especially involving the Star Graal
- Dishing Out Dirt: Notably absent. Then again, the Shadow element's attacks include Sandstorm and Powerblow, which summons jagged rocks from the ground, so it's possible Earth is present after all. note
- Everything Trying to Kill You: The Roaring Valley strays into this. Get to close to a cactus? It explodes. Too near a skeleton with a weird twitch? It's hiding a monster. Step onto one of those bird-shaped shadows? An overpowered monster will instantly swoop down from where it's circling hundreds of feet in the air and crush you into a paste, if you've not done some serious grinding. And that's in addition to the fact that the narrow corridors make the usual highly-persistent mook monsters incredibly difficult to avoid, making the level a Death Course. And, of course, once you explore the Archwing Burrow, there are steam vents to worry about too.
- Fire, Water, Wind: As stated in Elemental Powers, above, Fire, Water, and Wind are present but Earth is notably absent, except possibly as the Shadow element.
- Fusion Dance: In the final boss's 2nd form, Amelius merges with the Star Graal
- Game Over: Either by having all character's HP reaches zero or by one of your character's maximum HP reaches zero.
- Guide Dang It!: Legend of Legacy gives you incredibly vague instructions, best summed up by the King's order of "Go explore something!". The storyline is negligible, so there are no hints has to where you should be going...meaning that you might turn up in a late-game area fairly early on, and waste time trying to figure out how to progress the story, unaware that you can't yet. NPCs won't appear in an area until you've cleared it, so they're useless in terms of guidance. Even the crucial mechanic of the Singing/Whispering Shards (Whispering Shards are useless if you don't have the corresponding Singing Shard) is explained in less-than-concrete terms.
- The lack of levels and experience bars can result in this; often, the only way you'll know that a monster is too strong for your party is after a Game Over or two.
- Last of His Kind: Meurs is stated to be the last elementalist. Filmia might also be an example, though it's never outright stated.
- Notice This: Sparkles indicate items! Or an ambush. Take your chances.
- Orcus on His Throne: The King of Adventurers who, despite his title, never gets up to do anything and is always slightly slouched over
- Peninsula of Power Leveling: The Roaring Valley. These contain bird monsters that are far more powerful than anything else at that point in the game. Fortunately, the game's Awakening system gives you stat and ability boosts mid-battle against strong opponents, which you keep even after fleeing.
- Shifting Sand Land: Literally called so in the Shifting Sands area. Also features inescapable quick sand pits, but instead of hurting the party they transport you to other areas of the map
- Steam Vent Obstacle: Notable in the Boiling Sea and the Archwing Burrow.
- Tactical Withdrawal: The Run Away command, when used, lets you flee battles and sends you back to the start of the map. It works 100% of the time, except for certain encounters and boss battles where it is unavailable. Though it's annoying if you're trying to get further in an area this is very handy for preventing defeat when enemies are kicking your butts, or even if you just want to return to Initium quickly.
