Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory Review (Switch)

Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory originally released in two parts, one on PS4 and one on Vita, and later in one collection on PC. The latter is the version that’s on the Switch so that you can experience one story from two sides with Princess Cecille working to restore the glory of her kingdom, Fenumia, whilst Legatus Laendur hopes to overthrow her.

 

Fallen Legion is ambitious but there’s little in the way of dialogue or story progression, and the game is over before you know it. Telling one story from multiple angles is difficult to do due to the inevitable overlap and retreading of content and whilst Fallen Legion manages to avoid this downfall, it’s only because the story is so thin in the first place. It isn’t uninteresting but it’s clear that Fallen Legion relies on its gameplay and score system to keep players playing once the two campaigns are over.

 

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Gameplay is similar to that of Grand Kingdom and you’ll control four characters – whoever your protagonist is, and three Exemplars. Exemplars are the thoughts of legendary heroes and their weapons manifested into physical forms so that they can battle on your behalf.

 

Each Exemplar is assigned to a face button and they’re able to perform three attacks in a row. Using all three at a time to string combos together rather than waiting for them to cooldown is key, but there’s little strategy needed as you button mash your way through waves of enemies. It sadly becomes repetitive long before your second playthrough.

 

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Another cool mechanic which is grossly underused is the choice system. They bear little impact and the situations given come with no background information, so I wasn’t particularly invested in them. Sometimes, the options given aren’t ones I’d have liked to have picked at all.

 

They pop up during missions and you have little time to decide but again, the concept is cool but executed poorly because they carry no urgency despite the time limit, and many of the options – to me, at least – seemed as if they’d be unfit for a gracious ruler. You’re more likely to pick based on what buffs they’ll give your team rather than anything else, sadly.

 

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What good would infiltrating do?!

 

The game’s distinct visual style is appealing and, despite so much happening on-screen at any given time, I rarely struggled to follow what’s going on. The environments and designs aren’t quite as exciting as the game’s art style, opting to use fantasy-inspired characters and enemies but bland, grounded environments. Fallen Legion’s orchestral soundtrack is beautiful and teases a more epic atmosphere than what we’re given, but it’s certainly an excellent listen.

 

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Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory is a solid, budget-priced title that’s marred by a weak narrative and repetitive gameplay, and it’s clear that developer YummyYummyTummy (I love their name) and Mintsphere had ambitions larger than what they could deliver for release, and not every developer can afford to delay their game for so long.

 

Regardless, I’m glad I played it on Switch rather than another system as the bite-sized missions lend themselves well to portability, but there’s little reason to go back after completing both routes.

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