Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire Review (PS4)
Made by YummyYummyTummy, a company known primarily for its edutainment titles, Fallen Legion is a fast-paced action RPG that plays more like a rhythmic simulator. And while it looks and plays great, its rather shallow options leave more to be desired.
Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire has you playing as Cecille, the daughter and successor of the now deceased king of the Fenumian Empire. She receives a grimoire which belonged to her father and gives her the power to summon legendary heroes from weapons. With this power she sets out to rebuild her crumbling empire.
However, this is the story for the PlayStation 4 version. The Vita version, Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion, while mechanically almost identical, has you playing as the opposing General Laendur who wants to overthrow the Fenumian Empire.
The game takes queues from the excellent Valkyrie Profile. Each one of your trusty Exemplar correspond to one of the face buttons, cross, circle and square, with the triangle button reserved for Cecille’s spells. Each one of their attacks slowly fills up as you idle, letting you stack them up in order to do a flurry of attacks.
Holding R1 gets your characters into a defensive stance. Since it takes some time for them to stop what they are doing and raise their shields, timing is of the utmost importance. Entering defense just before a strike leaves the attacker defenseless, while doing the same for a projectile, be it an arrow or an incoming fire ball, sends it hurling back to the opponent.
Defending plays an important role in combat because of how the combo system works. Executing enough attacks (usually 5-7 depending on your selected skills) allows your last character to activate a powerful finisher. However, if any of your party members are hit during a combo the counter is reset to zero.
Because of this, combat can get overwhelming with all the things happening onscreen. The camera has a bad habit of constantly zooming in and out in order to pronounce the action. But once you get into the flow, it turns into a well-oiled rhythmic simulator which will have you subconsciously follow the action on the screen as you time your button presses.
Stages consist of a handful of these kinds of battles, each never taking more than a minute. In-between battles, Cecille will receive various requests and you will have to tackle these by picking between three cards. In one instance the game asks you to choose what you want to do with a spy that was uncovered and you can choose if you want to execute, hire or completely ignore his wrong doings. At times the choices can be a bit vague making it hard to discern what is it they exactly mean. These timed choices not only impact events throughout the game but also give you temporary stage buffs, so you have to choose wisely.
It’s just a shame that the excellent battle system is not married with anything else which would break up the monotony. Aside from jumping into battles and scattering around points on the world map in order to progress the story, there is little else to Fallen Legion. Characters don’t level up, instead they get new finisher moves depending on how far you have progressed. As far equipment goes you are limited to slotting three gemstones in total which give you varying bonuses for your Exemplars. With this said the game is better played on the Vita. While the PS4 has shorter loading times and somewhat better visuals, the fact that you can play this in bite-sized intervals on the go makes the Vita a much better option.
You’d be forgiven for thinking this is a Vanillaware game. The detailed artwork mixed with doll-like character movement is something that stands out. And while it may not match the quality of Vanillaware’s games it still feels like a breath of fresh air.
Fallen Legion is a blast to play and its combat system falls among the best out there. Its story is just dark enough to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, after the solid opener the repetition slowly sets in. You go from one battle to the next with almost no variety outside different enemies and backdrops. The lack of items and leveling up as well as the rather rudimentary choice system make for a mediocre experience. Still, taking into account that this is YummyYummyTummy’s first non-edutainment title we can’t wait to see what they have in store in the future.
- Gal Gun 2 Review (PS4) (Switch) - April 17, 2018
- Aegis Defenders Review (PC) - April 6, 2018
- The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 Review (PS4) - March 26, 2018
