Every time someone asks me what the name of this game is, I feel myself physically age as I say it.
Record of Lodoss War is a franchise that I was surprised to learn actually existed before playing this, turns out it's been around a while. I have absolutely no knowledge or prior experience of this series or the lore, I simply tried it out because a.) it was about to leave game pass, and b.) it was by Team Ladybug, who made Touhou Luna Nights, one of my favourite games of all time. So, with that in mind, I saw this not as an adaptation of the novels, but as a spiritual sequel to Luna Nights.
Unfortunately, this fails to meet the mark set by its predecessor. An emphasis on melee combat makes a change, but sadly there's zero depth to the melee - you just swing your sword (or similar weapon of choice) and do damage. Certain other substitutes such as boomerangs add in a little more to positioning and movement, but it's very standard. Fortunately, there's a great deal of depth in other areas to make up for it, but it never felt as fun as throwing projectiles in Luna Nights.
You do have a bow for ranged attacks, but naturally you have to stand still/move slowly while aiming it. It's mainly used for puzzle solving, but can make surprisingly light work of bosses. There's a great deal of bow types, though you're usually never doing yourself a favour by not using the one with the highest stats. Even the bow that heals you in return for doing less damage isn't really worth it over pure DPS.
The main big combat mechanic is the elemental spirit...switching...thing. You gain the power of two spirits - one is air, giving you a hover ability to manoeuvre around spikes and such, and then there's fire, which...stops you getting hurt by fire. Each of them has some kind of charge system: as you hurt enemies with one spirit, the other charges its level. At Level 2, it does more damage, and at Level 3, that spirit slowly heals you while equipped. That healing makes for a pretty interesting design choice, though one not as effective to me as Luna Nights' healing via grazing attacks. For experienced players, it probably trivialises the game.
The world design, just like Luna Nights, is basic. Very few branching paths, a generally linear progression, and barely hidden secrets. There's merit to exploring, but it always feels like a feature added out of necessity than as a selling point, putting far more emphasis on powering through hordes of enemies towards each boss.
The bosses are once again the highlight, and there's some good stuff in there. Switching spirits to mitigate elemental damage is particularly fun during these, although a few of these patterns are a little bit extreme for protagonist Deedlit's slow walking speed and limited acrobatics. She can do a quick backstep dodge, and jump around, but there's no way to move any faster that I could find. It's not a bad Belmont Strut, but please, Deed, maybe quicken the pace when you're dodging lightning fast attacks from an elven warrior. Or, god forbid, literal lightning attacks. They stun you for a lot of time. Not fun.
Graphics are great, there's some real solid spritework and backgrounds on display, even if the environments are uninspired and samey. There's an extensive amount of fun enemy designs, although they're usually just cannon fodder throughout, especially given that you level up as you go on. The music is pretty alright, but I have to admit that I can't remember a single track, and I literally beat it the same day I'm writing this.
There's a story in there somewhere too, but I'll be honest: this is completely incomprehensible nonsense, and follows the EXACT same structure and setup as Luna Nights, albeit with at least a different message. If you're at all interested in ever reading Lodoss War or watching the anime, I'm told this contains heavy spoilers, so do keep that in mind. Hardcore fans will probably at least enjoy seeing these characters in videogame form for the first time since....huh, there was an MMO in 2016. I was expecting the last one to be that Dreamcast game, but the more you know I guess. Anyways, uh, eat up Lodossheads.
Altogether this is a fine game, but as with Luna Nights, it's neither complicated nor is it long, clocking in at about 6 hours on average. It's very Symphony of the Night-inspired (or so I'm told, I haven't played it yet), so that might be a boon for Castlevania fans, but I would recommend Luna Nights over this anyday.
Record of Lodoss War is a franchise that I was surprised to learn actually existed before playing this, turns out it's been around a while. I have absolutely no knowledge or prior experience of this series or the lore, I simply tried it out because a.) it was about to leave game pass, and b.) it was by Team Ladybug, who made Touhou Luna Nights, one of my favourite games of all time. So, with that in mind, I saw this not as an adaptation of the novels, but as a spiritual sequel to Luna Nights.
Unfortunately, this fails to meet the mark set by its predecessor. An emphasis on melee combat makes a change, but sadly there's zero depth to the melee - you just swing your sword (or similar weapon of choice) and do damage. Certain other substitutes such as boomerangs add in a little more to positioning and movement, but it's very standard. Fortunately, there's a great deal of depth in other areas to make up for it, but it never felt as fun as throwing projectiles in Luna Nights.
You do have a bow for ranged attacks, but naturally you have to stand still/move slowly while aiming it. It's mainly used for puzzle solving, but can make surprisingly light work of bosses. There's a great deal of bow types, though you're usually never doing yourself a favour by not using the one with the highest stats. Even the bow that heals you in return for doing less damage isn't really worth it over pure DPS.
The main big combat mechanic is the elemental spirit...switching...thing. You gain the power of two spirits - one is air, giving you a hover ability to manoeuvre around spikes and such, and then there's fire, which...stops you getting hurt by fire. Each of them has some kind of charge system: as you hurt enemies with one spirit, the other charges its level. At Level 2, it does more damage, and at Level 3, that spirit slowly heals you while equipped. That healing makes for a pretty interesting design choice, though one not as effective to me as Luna Nights' healing via grazing attacks. For experienced players, it probably trivialises the game.
The world design, just like Luna Nights, is basic. Very few branching paths, a generally linear progression, and barely hidden secrets. There's merit to exploring, but it always feels like a feature added out of necessity than as a selling point, putting far more emphasis on powering through hordes of enemies towards each boss.
The bosses are once again the highlight, and there's some good stuff in there. Switching spirits to mitigate elemental damage is particularly fun during these, although a few of these patterns are a little bit extreme for protagonist Deedlit's slow walking speed and limited acrobatics. She can do a quick backstep dodge, and jump around, but there's no way to move any faster that I could find. It's not a bad Belmont Strut, but please, Deed, maybe quicken the pace when you're dodging lightning fast attacks from an elven warrior. Or, god forbid, literal lightning attacks. They stun you for a lot of time. Not fun.
Graphics are great, there's some real solid spritework and backgrounds on display, even if the environments are uninspired and samey. There's an extensive amount of fun enemy designs, although they're usually just cannon fodder throughout, especially given that you level up as you go on. The music is pretty alright, but I have to admit that I can't remember a single track, and I literally beat it the same day I'm writing this.
There's a story in there somewhere too, but I'll be honest: this is completely incomprehensible nonsense, and follows the EXACT same structure and setup as Luna Nights, albeit with at least a different message. If you're at all interested in ever reading Lodoss War or watching the anime, I'm told this contains heavy spoilers, so do keep that in mind. Hardcore fans will probably at least enjoy seeing these characters in videogame form for the first time since....huh, there was an MMO in 2016. I was expecting the last one to be that Dreamcast game, but the more you know I guess. Anyways, uh, eat up Lodossheads.
Altogether this is a fine game, but as with Luna Nights, it's neither complicated nor is it long, clocking in at about 6 hours on average. It's very Symphony of the Night-inspired (or so I'm told, I haven't played it yet), so that might be a boon for Castlevania fans, but I would recommend Luna Nights over this anyday.