Legasista Review

By Kevin Mitchell  |  Posted: September 17, 2012

Dungeon crawlers are a rare commodity these days, especially if you passed on the ClaDun titles released on the PSP due to their niche nature. NIS America, hoping to entice newcomers to the dungeon crawling genre, has made subtle changes to the classic formula with Legasista. Combine this with an endless supply of randomly generated dungeons and we have a dungeon crawler that can ease newcomers into a dying genre.

As we begin, our hero Alto, who can be best described as your stereotypical JRPG character, ventures forth on a quest to break the curse that has crystallized his sister. Sounds awfully familiar to another JRPG, doesn't it? Only an ancient weapon has the power to break the curse, so the natural choice is to head to a long-lost Forbidden Tower. Before even finishing the tutorial dungeon, the search ends as the ancient weapon appears before Alto, although it does try to kill him.

Before Alto is vaporized into a million pieces, the Ancient Weapon – who happens to be a young girl-droid – loses her memory and when she comes to, she has no knowledge about being a weapon of any sort. Yes, I know, yet another amnesia story in a JRPG. Exploring the dungeons, you must find "data" and feed it to her to restore her memory little by little. Along the way, some very unique characters will join your party and provide some humorous dialogue. In typical JRPG fashion, the story progresses through dialogue scenes with static characters appearing on screen. Hopefully you don't mind reading, as all of the voice work is in Japanese.

Looking past a rather ho-hum story and the stereotypical main character, Legasista has one of the deepest character customization and inventory systems imaginable. Jobs can be changed on a whim and equipping items will have a positive or negative effect on specific character stats. For those who aren't looking to spend an entire night going through each and every item, there is an auto-equip feature that will select the best items that are available.

Dungeons themselves are quite basic and simple in their design with each floor only utilizing a few different blocks, giving everything a clean, but boring appearance. The combat plays out differently than in any other RPG game that I have played previously. Once you lose all of your hit points, your armor will begin to take damage. Once your armor hits zero, it breaks and won't be able to be used ever again, while you will be sent back to the entrance to the tower known as the Railyard. Combat consists of figuring out how to exploit enemies so that you can hit them and they will miss every time.

Simply Put

With its randomly generated dungeons, Legasista seems to have an unyielding amount of content to offer players along with tons – and I really mean tons – of character customization. The story carries on the tradition of using overused clichés and the combat is simplistic at best once you figure out how to attack each enemy, but there is still something enjoyable about Legasista.