| System: PS3 |  |
| Dev: System Prisma | |
| Pub: NIS America | |
| Release: August 21, 2012 | |
| Players: 1 | |
| Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p | Fantasy Violence, Partial Nudity |
No matter which kind of gameplay is preferred, Legasista offers a great deal of character customization for the player to dive into. The player can use the pre-set story characters or design custom characters with a number of possible parameters, from class to personality. Even weapons and character appearance can be customized by importing graphics from a PC, though it would have been nice to have more custom sprites to choose from in the game itself. Once a character is chosen or created, the player can choose a "power framework," which determines the kind of equipment and abilities the character uses, and further customize character classes by spending job points. It's possible to get very deep into the character system, and doing so is likely necessary in order to tackle the more difficult Ran-Gens. Gamers who just want to explore dungeons and pop monsters on the head can get away with a fairly cursory use of these systems for the main campaign, though. There's even an "equip strongest item" option for the inventory slots, saving a lot of fiddling around with inventory lists.
As System Prisma's first HD game, Legasista looks pretty good. The graphics are sharp, distinctive, and extremely colorful. The Ivy Tower is mostly organic, featuring a wide variety of living environments, which is a very nice change from the dank dungeons we usually troop through in this kind of game. Monsters have a lot of personality, and while a certain amount of palette-swapping is used, there's still a wide variety of beasts to encounter and most palette swaps at least have different abilities from their counterparts.
The game sounds great, too. One area in which System Prisma's Cladun games shined was the music, and Legasista continues that tradition. Its tunes are lively and memorable, providing a great backdrop for adventure. The original Japanese voice-overs have been left in the game, a practice that is certainly preferable to removing the voice acting altogether for a low-budget English release.
Legasista shows some good growth on the part of the System Prisma team, which has come up with a more interesting active combat system to accompany its dungeon adventures. Although only huge dungeon-crawling fans are likely to be entranced enough to get deep into the Ran-Gen system, Legasista's main dungeon is fun to play through, especially in small doses. With a story that's both sweet and silly, a varied dungeon that can be played in short chunks, and a deep customization system available for those who are interested, this is a crawler that's worth checking out.
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By Becky Cunningham Contributing Writer Date: August 21, 2012 |
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