The sales or popularity of the JRPG series “Legend” has never surpassed that of “Dragon Quest” or “Final Fantasy”. However, since the debut of “Time and Space Fantasy” in 1995, some good-quality works have been released. In the past 26 years, the series has launched fan favorites such as “Symphony Legend” and “Early Star Legend”, but in the past few years, “Endless Legend” and “Scarlet Legend” have also brought us many JRPG action games. fun of.
However, the “Legend” series has a major weakness in the past few years: it has never provided us with a game developed specifically for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The most recent game released in the series is 2017’s “Saga of Scarlet Night”, which was originally developed for PlayStation 3 and 4 (the PlayStation 3 version was only released in Japan in 2016). The newer the game, the clearer the old-time sense of the graphics engine of this series. “The Legend of Scarlet Night” does not look bad, but compared with a generation of games with anime aesthetics, it just doesn’t show the same generational leap that it can and should do.
Through “Legend of Breaking Dawn”, Bandai Namco has clearly responded to this question, and the improvement of visual quality is their primary task for their first new story work in the past five years. After testing the game experience version lasting about 30 to 40 minutes, it is obvious that the developers have spent a lot of time. Those fans who have been waiting for this “Legend of Dawn” game for 5 years can rest assured, you The wait was not in vain.
For the demo version, I was scheduled to be at a time point that, according to Bandai Namco, is about 10 to 20 hours in the full version of the game, when all 6 characters will be available for players to use. This gives me the opportunity to switch between characters and try different game styles; for example, to switch between melee and magic characters, various styles also provide a great balance for your team. The developer has introduced us to the main characters Alphen and Shionne before, but this demo version also gave me a rough idea of the remaining 4 main characters who will accompany the player throughout the journey.
As with most “Legend” games, you can only activate a total of 4 active members, but this does not mean that the other two backup characters can relax by their side while their friends are fighting for their lives. You will control your preferred character in battle, while being supported by 3 other active members. When other characters can use powerful attacks for support, you can use the arrow keys on the controller to initiate these attacks. The novelty of “Legend of Breaking Dawn” is that it also applies to inactive members, which allows them to feel that they are participating in the battle even on the sidelines.
The combat system will be familiar to the returning old players of “Legend”, but “Legend of Breaking Dawn” hopes that new players can also enjoy the game. In order to ensure that this situation develops smoothly, the dynamic combat system has been simplified on a large scale. Monsters will move around freely on the world map. Once you encounter a monster, you will be teleported to a circular battle area where friends and enemies can move freely. You can move, use standard attacks, dodge or use “Artes”, which is a term used repeatedly in this series to describe physical and magical special attacks. Your character can assign 3 Artes to the 3 buttons of the controller, and you can see the remaining number of “Artes” attacks on the health meter. Don’t panic if you run out of “Artes”, because these will be quickly replenished during the battle.
Like any JRPG worth mentioning, the “Artes” attack comes with a lot of sound effects and gorgeous animations, but it never seems to have any negative impact on game performance. The battle went smoothly and kept you in control even in the most exciting high-intensity situations. Some minor adjustments have been made to the controls to make them easier to use, which means that if you were previously lacking in interest due to the complex controls in the “Legend” series of games, you can consider re-entering them. There is no doubt that the simplified control will make it easier for novices to get started, even in the most intense and magnificent battles, it is now easier to control everything that happens on the screen.
Another mainstay of the “Legend” series is the work of the series’ composer Motoi Sakuraba. Most of our readers may be more familiar with his creations in the “Dark Souls” trilogy, but in the past 26 years, Sakuraba has composed soundtracks for almost all “Legend” games (except for “Legend of Relics” and “Legend of Innocence” These are exceptions). This time, the experience version has a distinct tone atmosphere, which clearly embodies the characteristic style of Sakuraba in the selected genres and instruments, and as expected, these tunes are very suitable for the intense and peaceful farmland walks of battle. Although I can only hear some of the music provided by the game, these are very attractive to me. If the rest of the game can present the same sound quality, then our ears will usher in a wonderful feast.
The biggest lifting part in “Legend of Dawn” is, well, the face. Not only the face, but the entire visual quality and graphics engine have been greatly improved compared to previous games. Obviously, this is the first task of Bandai Namco, so that the most adjustments have been made. The previous “Legend” works were developed using internal engines and only fine-tuned between games, but “Legend of Breaking Dawn” marked the end of the internal engine and switched to Unreal Engine 4. Since the previous work looks similar to the previous one at first glance, the changes in this work are more obvious, and it is a good thing for “Legend of Breaking Dawn”. Monsters and characters are more detailed and vivid than ever, the nuances of clothing materials and environment are clearer, the action feels more natural, and the animation style is more vivid than what we have seen before. This puts this game at the same level as the best games of its kind such as “Dragon Quest XI”, “Second Kingdom II Kingdom Return” and the older Sega title “Valkyria”. The design of the 6 main characters is very attractive. Their costumes, weapons and armors have many details, allowing me to see more from the first second. There were only a few minor visual issues during the show, such as some textures loading a bit slowly, but this is probably because the game is still not finished.
The core of every JRPG is the voice actor. Although all 6 main characters appeared in the show, it was difficult to get a good impression of them from such a short show, especially because the demo did not include much story-related content. To sum up, the design of the characters is very attractive, and the dialogue they exchange during or after the battle does give me a little more understanding of what to expect, but it is difficult to say more before the full game is released. This demo is dubbed in English and Japanese. It is no problem to play the demo twice to compare different dubbing, but 30 minutes is not enough to represent the overall quality of the dubbing. My limited experience of dubbing in Japanese and English has been considered enjoyable, so I believe that regardless of language preference, players should have a good experience.
After a long break and a lot of reconstruction, “Legend of Breaking Dawn” looks like a game that will make the series come back. We have been waiting for a long time, but the demonstration version definitely gave us the impression that “waiting was not in vain”, after all, the reward is for patience. Almost every part of the demo made me eager to play more, whether it is visual design, graphic quality or interesting combat system, it feels easier to learn now. It should be fun to see the game running on the next generation of consoles, and I am ready to embark on this new story adventure when the game is officially released on September 10th.