This review contains spoilers
Overall: 2.2/10
Good:
- Faster than both Belmont’s Revenge and The Adventure though not by much without Burst.
- Cool new powers that one can cycle through in order to give replayability.
- “Burst Mode” speeds up the game considerably, and is fun to go around feeling overpowered.
Bad:
- Game consistently tries to add exploration elements, but refuses to add alternate pathways to a lot of these. So a lot of this game is dead ends, looking for objects to get an ending which is just a paragraph of lore.
- Stage design and enemy design specifically in Stage 3/4 are so cluttered that it makes it genuinely unfun even with your new added option to your kit.
- Boss Design can be argued to be the best in the Game Boy set of games, but a lot of them just expect the player to have burst. Like the enemy design, the game often throws many projectiles or are way faster than Sonia. Basically forcing you to use magic/burst in order to trounce the boss in seconds.
- The Checkpoint before Dracula is very annoying, and even though he’s the best Dracula boss between The Adventure and Belmont’s Revenge, he’s still not fun. Especially his first phase which spams many projectiles at the player.
- Some music tracks like there version of Blood Tears is alright, but is around a 14 second loop which can absolutely get annoying cause of how long the first stage is. Stage 3’s song is also particularly grating to the ears, especially since it is the longest stage in the game.
- Awful Story, which undercuts a lot of the lore that was built up in III and SoTN. Which barely makes sense in terms of the timeline in which we know around the time where Lisa had died.
- Sonia as a protagonist, even though I dislike to use the term, is a Mary Sue. She was born with special powers, always told how great she was/going to be, has a romantic love interest in the series most popular character Alucard, and tries to present herself as the first Belmont as well as the first female Belmont.
- The game also constantly reminds the player through Alucard/Dracula’s cutscenes about how she’s a woman, and how these characters are just shocked that a woman is powerful. Which just felt so on the nose it hurts.
- The Design for Sonia is also horrid. Though many don’t notice it because it’s in the manual. However the design is just so bleh and tacky, especially when the series is hot off the tails of women like SoTN’s Maria Renard outfit.
Overall, as an origin story it is a complete failure. The stage design, the enemy design, the boss design are all just huge detriments to this game. In some aspects, it can even be as weak as The Adventure. Trying to do something akin to a Metroidvania on the GameBoy was a mistake, especially since they did not give an adequate understanding on how long and tedious backtracking can be cause of the dead ends.
The new powers and burst system are definitely unique, but certain things like time stop is just way too over centralizing. Making the rest of the weapons sort of redundant. Especially since on Bosses, the best option is always just to use Burst on them, because bosses are usually hell without it. Especially Phase 1 Dracula who can absolutely man handle Sonia, and spit you out on a Checkpoint 5 mins away.
The story is awful, and the dialogue can just be utterly cringey. Especially Alucard’s who, even though he would be younger, has done a complete 180 on his personality.
Though I can understand the want for a strong female character in the series, and a female Belmont, this game is definitely one of the worst ways to write a female character.
Especially since a lot of her dialogue is stealing from Richter’s Japanese Dialogue from SoTN/Rondo with characters acting stunned that a woman is kicking their ass.
In conclusion, Legends story deserves to disappear from the main canon. Perhaps one day we will get a female Belmont, however this attempt at an origin story is far surpassed by Lament of Innocence, and the portrayal of the main character falls into something like a bad fanfiction rather than the literary succession to Symphony of the Night.
The Extras are annoying to collect, stages are bad to explore, bosses and enemies are either laughably easy with Burst mode, or they’re long and drawn out with an overuse of projectiles.
Like The Adventure, I recommend to stay away from this game. I would only really play it if just the idea of a female Belmont interested you, or if you’re curious on just all of the games in the series. The reason why I think this game is better than The Adventure, because at least it runs consistently and lacks much of the lag from the first Game Boy’s outing.
Good:
- Faster than both Belmont’s Revenge and The Adventure though not by much without Burst.
- Cool new powers that one can cycle through in order to give replayability.
- “Burst Mode” speeds up the game considerably, and is fun to go around feeling overpowered.
Bad:
- Game consistently tries to add exploration elements, but refuses to add alternate pathways to a lot of these. So a lot of this game is dead ends, looking for objects to get an ending which is just a paragraph of lore.
- Stage design and enemy design specifically in Stage 3/4 are so cluttered that it makes it genuinely unfun even with your new added option to your kit.
- Boss Design can be argued to be the best in the Game Boy set of games, but a lot of them just expect the player to have burst. Like the enemy design, the game often throws many projectiles or are way faster than Sonia. Basically forcing you to use magic/burst in order to trounce the boss in seconds.
- The Checkpoint before Dracula is very annoying, and even though he’s the best Dracula boss between The Adventure and Belmont’s Revenge, he’s still not fun. Especially his first phase which spams many projectiles at the player.
- Some music tracks like there version of Blood Tears is alright, but is around a 14 second loop which can absolutely get annoying cause of how long the first stage is. Stage 3’s song is also particularly grating to the ears, especially since it is the longest stage in the game.
- Awful Story, which undercuts a lot of the lore that was built up in III and SoTN. Which barely makes sense in terms of the timeline in which we know around the time where Lisa had died.
- Sonia as a protagonist, even though I dislike to use the term, is a Mary Sue. She was born with special powers, always told how great she was/going to be, has a romantic love interest in the series most popular character Alucard, and tries to present herself as the first Belmont as well as the first female Belmont.
- The game also constantly reminds the player through Alucard/Dracula’s cutscenes about how she’s a woman, and how these characters are just shocked that a woman is powerful. Which just felt so on the nose it hurts.
- The Design for Sonia is also horrid. Though many don’t notice it because it’s in the manual. However the design is just so bleh and tacky, especially when the series is hot off the tails of women like SoTN’s Maria Renard outfit.
Overall, as an origin story it is a complete failure. The stage design, the enemy design, the boss design are all just huge detriments to this game. In some aspects, it can even be as weak as The Adventure. Trying to do something akin to a Metroidvania on the GameBoy was a mistake, especially since they did not give an adequate understanding on how long and tedious backtracking can be cause of the dead ends.
The new powers and burst system are definitely unique, but certain things like time stop is just way too over centralizing. Making the rest of the weapons sort of redundant. Especially since on Bosses, the best option is always just to use Burst on them, because bosses are usually hell without it. Especially Phase 1 Dracula who can absolutely man handle Sonia, and spit you out on a Checkpoint 5 mins away.
The story is awful, and the dialogue can just be utterly cringey. Especially Alucard’s who, even though he would be younger, has done a complete 180 on his personality.
Though I can understand the want for a strong female character in the series, and a female Belmont, this game is definitely one of the worst ways to write a female character.
Especially since a lot of her dialogue is stealing from Richter’s Japanese Dialogue from SoTN/Rondo with characters acting stunned that a woman is kicking their ass.
In conclusion, Legends story deserves to disappear from the main canon. Perhaps one day we will get a female Belmont, however this attempt at an origin story is far surpassed by Lament of Innocence, and the portrayal of the main character falls into something like a bad fanfiction rather than the literary succession to Symphony of the Night.
The Extras are annoying to collect, stages are bad to explore, bosses and enemies are either laughably easy with Burst mode, or they’re long and drawn out with an overuse of projectiles.
Like The Adventure, I recommend to stay away from this game. I would only really play it if just the idea of a female Belmont interested you, or if you’re curious on just all of the games in the series. The reason why I think this game is better than The Adventure, because at least it runs consistently and lacks much of the lag from the first Game Boy’s outing.