The Legend of Legacy is a JRPG for Nintendo 3DS in the artistic style of Bravely Default combined with the writers of Chrono Trigger.
The battle system, levelling up, stances, elements, and equipment are all complicated but vitally important to your success in that most classic JRPG way.
Enjoy!
I'm just starting the game, but the first important question for everyone is...
What's your team?
Who did you pick for your main character? Why? What two teammates are you planning to bring along on your quest?
Any pros have some beginner tips for the group when it comes to planning your team and levelling up?
"The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight." -Blitzcrank Roosevelt
Hey. I already beat the game, but I'm happy to answer questions.
I picked Meurs, Garnet, and Liber for my team. (Meurs was my main character for no reason more interesting than his description reminded me of the D&D character I'm currently playing. ) I picked the team as a whole on the rough assumption Meurs would handle the magic, Garnet would tank, and Liber would handle physical attacks with a bow, and that's mostly what I stuck to throughout the game, though I did get a nice bonus when I discovered Liber gets double effect from healing kits (some other characters do too, I think.)
Only real beginner tips I can think of to offer are:
1) You definitely need a tank. This PROBABLY should be someone with a shield, but there do seem to be some options in some of the other weapon types, such as "big sword" as well.
2) Spend a little time making some good formations at the start. Assuming your tank is in the middle position, I found Attack/Guard/Attack, Support/Guard/Attack, Attack/Guard/Support, Support/Guard/Support, and Guard/Guard/Guard to all be useful. (The game gives you Attack/Attack/Attack for free... though once you begin unlocking advanced versions of stances, you may still want to make your own Attack/Attack/Attack to take advantage of these.)
3) This isn't really team planning, but it's arguably even more important so I'll throw it out: Be aware of the very significant effects the "highest element" bestows on combat. You can see the current highest element (if there is one) in the diamond-shaped elemental display on the left side of the bottom screen. Water Highest: Reduces magic damage for all combatants. Wind Highest: Reduces physical damage for all combatants. Fire Highest: Increases physical damage for all combatants. Shadow Highest: Increases magical damage for all combatants. In particular, many boss battles (or even some normal encounters!) can become "entire party wiped out in one round" affairs if you allow Fire or Shadow to remain the highest element. You can greatly influence which element is highest by using Singing Shards: using these floods the field with the element of the Shard, though over time it will drift back to where it started.
4) Leveling up: Learning spells becomes much, much easier once you have the Wind Singing Shard. This lets you form Wind Contracts during battle: while you have the Wind Contract, your party regains extra SP each turn. In particular, this is useful "practicing" buff/heal spells over and over until they unlock, just letting whatever enemy there is live until you get the result you want. There is a certain enemy in the Roaring Valley that is very, very good for this (once you're strong enough to be able to tank them indefinitely while practicing skills, that is.)
5) Leveling Up / Team Building: Each character has specific things they learn/gain faster than others. I had posted it in the other thread, but here it is again for ease of access:
The characters can definitely learn things outside of this list, but it is harder to some noticeable but not extreme degree, in my experience at least. "Healing" refers to a character getting x2 effect from using Medical Kits and the like. It's worth noting that x2'd healing items end up being your *best* healing option most of the game, and are never less than a very good one even once you get the best healing magic available.
I think that covers what I'd consider the basics, but if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
Awesome stuff Ferret! I started with Filmia as my main character and I plan on using him as a tank with Owen for 2 handed physical damage and Eloise or someone else for magic.
I'm looking forward to a pleasureable pleasureable grind.
"The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight." -Blitzcrank Roosevelt
Oh, hey. Something I keep forgetting to mention.
Those little trading ships you can send out are about the best thing ever. Most of my end-game gear was from them, the 5000g one in particular.
In reality, it only costs 5000g when it gets you great equipment, because if it didn't, you can probably sell whatever it did give you for much (or even most/all) of the 5000g needed to try again.
If you're having trouble coming up with 5000g though, even the 300 and 1000 versions can produce good results, but you should upgrade to the 5000g ones ASAP.
I am just about to start thi game!!!!
The Lone Dark Wolf
I'm as guilty as anyone for letting this thread fall off the radar.
Had a really busy last week and a half, and most of my gaming time has been dedicated to the Dungeon Crawl tournament. However, I have still been getting some time into Legend of Legacy here and there!
The start of the game feels pretty rough/slow with the randomness to it and the lack of ability to play much with the elemental contracts and such. However, since picking up the singing air shard to complement the water one, along with a few air spells, things have been picking up nicely.
I've fully explored the Roaring Valley and the cave system inside, and even discovered and fought some 'roided-up version of the big Archwing birds (that was a fun fight despite its simplicity).
I just wrapped up exploring the Boiling Seas (or whatever it was called) area, and next on my list is to finish exploring the valley of ruins (place where the air temple ruins is located) as extensively as I can. Then I'll be pushing on to the next new area.
I very much enjoy the relaxed nature of the game, with the focus on player-led exploration. I'd like to see a little more variety to the enemies than what I've seen so far and maybe have slightly more frequent "big" encounters, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with the game. Hopefully the fire and shadow shards come soon so I can be working with the full range of elemental contract options!
Switch: SW-5816-4534-9106
The air shard is definitely a really important get, I wish it had been first they give you. It's practically impossible to make effective use of or learn abilities without Air Contract's SP regeneration since SP totals are so low, especially early on.
It'd be worth finishing the map, unfortunately. Map sales are your main source of gold (especially early on), and also affect your access to various other goodies (shop inventory, for example), so it'd be hard to recommend skipping one. You also need to make sure you find all the little statues so you can collect the Whispering Shards and make sure you have the spells you need: different shards of the same element will give different spells, so you should try to find all you can (though there are multiple copies of some spells too.)
But, the good news is, the difficulty will definitely ramp up.
Water shield is so good! It's worth learning that one for sure.
I revamped my team after diving a bit deeper in to the stats of various weapons and spells. I dropped Eloise as spells just aren't worth the SP compared to weapon abilities and she's not good at much else. I bumped mah main man Filmia over to offensive weapon user to make use of bows mostly. Bow abilities are strong as hell and apparent so are all the bow weapons. His second weapon is just whatever powerful thing I have lying around as he's good with almost everything. He also serves as my water caster in the beginning of fights to get everyone's defense up. Owen is my other offensive guy, who carries the wind thing for that super important SP per turn, and acts as a secondary healer with his great 2x bonus to heal items. Garnet is just tanking stuff. I like the look and feel of this new group.
I'm still finishing up exploring the windy area to get all those little sections up to 100% explored before heading out to the couple of new areas I've been unlocking.
Send out them galleons folks!
"The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight." -Blitzcrank Roosevelt
Finally cleared the fire elemental ruins and triggered what I assume is the big mid-point event of the game.
The haphazard Awakening system feels more capricious than the old SaGa games (most of my experience with SaGa was the three Game Boy titles, though I played some SaGa Frontier back in the PS1 era and I have Romancing SaGa for the PS2 sitting in my backlog) and is a source of frustration to me, but I am otherwise quite enjoying the game.
The combat itself has grown more enjoyable since the air ruins when I gained the air shard, and since I have finally developed what feels like a more diverse set of abilities for my characters.
The exploration has been satisfying since the start of the game. What can I say, I enjoy filling out maps!
I also actually like the grab-bag nature of sending out ships for equipment, though I wish there was more to be found as treasures discovered while exploring the game's areas.
Overall, I'm glad I picked it up and I'm enjoying it (and I expect to enjoy the second half of the game even more than the first half), but a little disappointed with a few of the game's systems compared to what I expected. It's definitely proven to be worth my time to play so far!
Switch: SW-5816-4534-9106
This game is an odd duck, but in a good way.
The further I progress, the more fun and interesting it gets. More hazards and variety to the explorable areas the further you get, more varied and interesting enemies, more varied and interesting abilities/stances (though subject to the whims of the RNG).
I've also run across a few Big Nasties that I can't beat yet; not sure if they're optional or not. But I continue to push forward into new areas so long as I'm able to do so. Just started exploring the Bottomless Pit, which ramps up the creativity yet again.
Legend of Legacy is a nice counterpoint to the many games that seem to become rote and less creative once you push on past the halfway point.
Switch: SW-5816-4534-9106
The Bottomless Pit is complete, leaving me with only one area I haven't finished exploring on my map: the Shifting Sands.
That place is seriously super nasty. I got the impression it was an optional area, but I have no more regular areas unexplored. There are a few boss monsters I've left for later since they seem super tough (and thus, I assume, optional). Some nasty guy in the Ship Graveyard and a dragon-thing in the swamps (not the swimming one, I've killed that one a couple times).
Sort of lost, and there aren't any good guides out there that I've found to get myself un-lost at this point.
Switch: SW-5816-4534-9106
I *think* the Ship Graveyard bit may be your next destination, actually... but I admit I'm a little rusty on the matter.
Playthrough 1 complete, thanks to the hint from you Ferret. I was stuck until that.
The final couple of boss fights were a little more unforgiving than I would normally expect, but mainly due to the semi-randomness of the elemental contracts. That's the one mechanic of the game that I find rather obnoxious, since the only way to ensure that your enemy doesn't steal the water contract in particular is to all but dedicate one person to spamming it each round.
In the end, I had to cheese through the final battle by setting my tank (Owen) to use the shield Retaliate art every round, Garnet on water contract spam (and reactivating Water Shield every few rounds), and Meurs alternating between curing statuses, buffing Owen, healing, and very rarely casting Hypernova for some extra damage.
With that strategy, it wasn't difficult. It was merely tedious.
Final battles aside, I quite enjoyed the game in general, particularly the second half when there were a lot more interesting exploration elements and mechanics coming into play in combat. I may do another runthrough on New Game+ at some point, but it was well worth playing through at least once.
Switch: SW-5816-4534-9106
Yeah, given that Water Contract is an end of turn % heal, by the end game, it heals 999 on bosses if they end the turn with it Not sure you could beat the final battles without being very overpowered or spamming Water Contract as you (and as I) did.
Got an email about this releasing in the UK next month, and would've been tempted if Bravely Second wasn't coming out in February too, but may be one for the future, as I've had my eye on it for a while. As someone who loves traditional, turn-based JRPG games (FF7/8/9/10, Bravely Default, etc.) how much would I enjoy this? Disappointed by some of the mixed reviews it got.
It's hard to say.
The game definitely started out rather weak for me; there was the initial excitement of exploration and learning the new game system, but that wore of rather quickly. The early areas are rather bland both in terms of environmental hazards/gameplay and enemies, and you have very limited options for restoring your characters' SP (skill/magic points).
It's not until roughly 25% of the way into the game that you get access to abilities that allow for reliable SP regeneration for your team, which makes a HUGE impact on reducing the early-game tedium. This allows you to -- if you choose, which I did -- do some "grinding" to acquire more diverse abilities and learn magic skills from equipped crystals for your team.
For me, I didn't feel like the game really hit its stride until the halfway point. At that point you've unlocked all the core functionality options for your characters, and you begin to reach regions with more varied environmental hazards & gameplay, as well as more diverse and interesting enemies to deal with. Additionally, if you did some early-game grinding to unlock abilities, you'll be well set with that and that will leave very minimal grinding in the second half of the game. This all combined to make the second half of the game significantly more fun than the first half, and while I wish the first half had been a little more fun and a little less tedious, the second half was great.
So it's hard for me to recommend the game, because of the mixed feelings I have about it, particularly the early going. The biggest overall downside to the gameplay was, in my opinion, the lack of interesting treasures to find from either enemies or exploration. Most of your equipment will be acquired via sending ships out from the town, bringing back random rewards. There's very little in the way of equipment to discover in the core gameplay, which does make the exploration a little less compelling than it could be. I missed having something like the Nasty Dungeon from SaGa 2 (Final Fantasy Legend 2) on the GameBoy where there's a really tough and lengthy optional dungeon packed with goodies worth retreiving.
My hope is that, if we get a sequel to Legend of Legacy, they expand the overall arsenal of equipment for the characters and use exploring the gameworld as the primary mechanism for acquiring new gear (of course keep the shop in for the basics and the randomly rotating special selections). That, and providing a less tedious method for SP regeneration in the early game, would address the biggest frustrations I had with this one.
I'm torn on the elemental contract system in combat. I like what it adds to the gameplay, but the passive bonuses are a little on the harsh side when it comes to enemies (bosses in particular) stealing them from you. It was bad enough that for the final battles, I pretty much had to dedicate one of my three party members to spamming the water contract just to prevent the boss from stealing it and healing 999 HP for free. That is not fun gameplay. Even worse, the boss is still doing heavy damage frequently enough that it left me with another of my party members on very frequent healing/buffing duty. So as a result, the vast majority of the damage I dealt during the final battles was using a guard-reflect ability on my tank, while my healer healed and my main damage dealer simply spammed the water contract. There has to be some way to refine this system so that it doesn't lead to such boring "tactics" during key battles.
Switch: SW-5816-4534-9106
Jeremy Parish did a semi-review of the game at US Gamer.
How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?
MilkmanDanimal wrote:You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.
I briefly tried to give this game a try... i simply cant!
The Lone Dark Wolf
More than once, I see:
Really, it's a strange beast and The Alliance Alive is a better game overall, fixing a number of issues folks had with this game.
How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?
MilkmanDanimal wrote:You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.
Still had this on my favorites... Every time I see the art box of this game I want to play it.. i just couldn't... am I alone on this one?
The Lone Dark Wolf
This and Alliance Alive, ya. They don't make enough games like this. Instead, everything is your typical linear rpg leveling system and massive handholding.
How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?
MilkmanDanimal wrote:You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.
Does this game "legend of legacy" have a good story? Do you suggest I have it a third change? Did you like it?
The Lone Dark Wolf