In a world where science and technology are considered myths and legends, a young explorer named Alto is on a quest to save his sister, who has been turned into a crystal by a curse. He arrives at an ancient ruin that used to be a massive research facility. Now covered by a giant vine and overrun with bean sprouts, Alto meets up with a crazy cast of characters that include a couple of female androids and even talking bean sprouts! Now Alto must explore dungeons within the giant facility with his newfound companions in order to save his sister and solve the mystery of the research facility.

Legasista is a 2-D, top-down viewed dungeon crawler action-RPG. It plays VERY much like a couple of PSP titles by the name of ClaDun (stands for Classic Dungeon). In fact, I’m almost a hundred percent certain that both games were made by the same people. So if you enjoyed those games, you’ll like this one, too.

In each dungeon you’ll explore mazes and defeat enemies in real time with sword slashes, arrow shots, and other weapons. You can also dash, block, or jump. Avoid tiles on the ground that can trigger traps, and search high and low for treasures like better weapons and armor. If you can make it to the end of the dungeon without dying, you can keep all the treasures and experience points you collected. After you beat certain dungeons, you’ll view cutscenes that explain more of the story and characters.

There are all sorts of complicated rules that go along with the dungeon exploring, though. You can do plenty of stuff with the weapons and armor you collect, like give them titles that make them more powerful. You can also change ‘frames’ which allow you to equip different amounts of weapons and adopt new abilities. There are many job classes you can have, which give you even more skills. Eventually, you’ll be able to design your own characters and make random dungeon parameters! The game does a great job of easing you in to the rules, but even then I think things get a little too complicated sometimes.

Really the only other problem I had with this game is that for a downloadable PSN title, it was a tiny bit pricey. I would have rather it had been a full retail game, as the excellent artwork and well-crafted music just scream for a soundtrack and artbook special edition bonuses. But otherwise it’s a fun little action quest game. If you liked ClaDun or other 2-D top-down dungeon crawlers, you’ll definitely want to look into this one.

Kid Factor:

Legasista is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Partial Nudity and Fantasy Violence. You just hit and slash silly monsters with weapons and magic, and they disappear when defeated. Some of the female anime characters dress a bit revealing, which is where the Partial Nudity comes in. But like most anime tropes, anything remotely suggestive is presented in a very campy way. But really the best reason why this game is best for older kids and teen gamers is the high level of reading skill required. Even though the characters have voices, it’s all in Japanese. Plus there’s the high difficulty and complexity later in the game.

Tags: Game Reviews