Review for Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory. Game for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 29/05/2018
Fallen Legion is a project born about a year ago, more precisely in July 2017, when it came out in 2 versions (as the Pokémon titles teach): Sins of an Empire and Flames of Rebellion. The two variants differed not only for the console to which they belong, that is PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, but also for plot and protagonist. In January 2018 Steam gave us the opportunity to play the title using both characters and merging the two different stories, with the title of Fallen Legion Plus, and today we can take advantage of the portability of Nintendo Switch to play at home or in mobility to the definitive version of this ode to Tri-Ace entitled Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory. Developed by the guys of YummyYummyTummy, Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory attempts to touch the souls of those who loved - and still love - the wonderful series of Valkyrie profiles, proposing a battle system and a decidedly similar atmosphere to it.
Two rivals and a tome
The plot of Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory is set in the empire of Fenumia, a kingdom on the brink of collapse due to the death of its sovereign and continuous wars. There are two next candidates for the throne: they have waged war against each other and are also the protagonists of the two different stories told within the title. Cecille, daughter of the deceased emperor and heir, intends to restore the fallen kingdom to glory, while her rival Legatus Laendur he is the greatest and most valiant commander of Fenumia's army, and as such enjoys the trust of soldiers and many nobles. Both will be accompanied by Grimoire, an extremely annoying and arrogant talking book, but whose presence will be essential due to his innate ability as an imperial advisor.
Blood and Blades
The story of Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory is told through written and dubbed dialogue (from English or Japanese voices depending on the option chosen), displaying simple static images of the characters on a background, which is not even always consistent with the situation in which you are. The narration is however very linear and interesting, and an attentive player will not struggle to be passionate about the setting to be discovered and read between the lines. In any case, once the dialogue is over, we will enter the heart of the game by throwing ourselves into a battle stage.
The protagonists possess great magical powers, and among them is that of "giving life" to legendary weapons, imagining them as human beings who possess distinctive traits of the weapon from which they were born. If Longinus is a powerful and serious lancer, Winchester will not fail to make enemies feel the presence of her big rifle. The stages will place us in a two-dimensional setting where our hero, accompanied by three Exemplars (this is the name of humanized weapons) will run in two dimensions from left to right, periodically encountering groups of hostile enemies. Once entered into battle, the positioning of the characters in our group will be fundamental: all 4 will have positions connected to the four action keys of Nintendo Switch. The hero will always be placed at the top and used to cast spells, while the other three will do the bulk of the work: every time we press the button dedicated to one of the Exemplars it will attack, in full Valkyrie Profile style. Each Exemplar has a rechargeable bar over time that shows the maximum of consecutive attacks that it can launch, and allowing the recharge of this bar will be essential to allow us to carry out devastating combos using the different attacks of the various characters at our disposal. If initially it all boils down to button mashing, against bosses and when the difficulty arises, strategy will inevitably dominate.: it will be very important to understand when and with whom to attack, also taking advantage of the bonus effects guaranteed by a well-numbered attack within a combo (for example during a fight, the third and fifth attack within a combo can produce critical damage ), and understand when to parry the opponent's blows so as to suffer less damage and at the same time reload the action bar faster in the event of a perfect parry made at the last moment.
During the internships it will also happen that you have to make more or less important decisions: a line of dialogue may appear that will let us know of a theft or a betrayal, putting us in front of cruel or peaceful choices. Depending on the case, such decisions could lead to an increase in morale (and power) in the ranks, but in the case of more important choices they could even completely change the course of history.
A story to discover
Similar to what happens in titles like Dark Souls, the setting is not explained to us in detail but instead we are catapulted into the middle of the ongoing war. It will be up to us to get passionate about the dialogues and discover the very detailed lore that surrounds the Fenumia empire. Everything will be seasoned with two-dimensional portraits drawn in a rather bizarre way, perhaps we would venture "sketched", which may not be to everyone's liking. The sprites in battle are instead well detailed, even if some attack animations leave something to be desired, not to mention some absurd slowdowns during the most hectic phases, which lead the strategy and timing to be blessed without possibility for the player. to avoid annoying combat mistakes.
The soundtrack is very powerful and exciting and, although the number of tracks is not very high, these are all catchy and at times epic. Dubbing, on the other hand, although in Japanese is very well done as always, is absolutely forgettable in its English counterpart.
Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory is a seemingly simple, patched-up title with no strengths. However, a little patience is enough to venture into a title that has a lot to offer, starting with an articulated story and telling great feats steeped in blood, up to a deep and strategic combat system that will make people go crazy with joy. Valkyrie Profile fans. Too bad for the problematic slowdowns in the most excited phases, which heavily ruin the flow of the battle.
► Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory is a type game developed by YummyYummyTummy and published by NIS America for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 29/05/2018
