A spiritual successor to the beloved old Saga series, being developed by past developers from Square Enix and Level-5, and featuring wonderful visuals and an intricate battle system caused Legend of Legacy to get a small amount of buzz from RPG fans before its release. Regrettably I haven’t played a Saga game, but I have played plenty of RPGs and really love me some Level-5, so I was all on board to give this game a go. A few hours in I found out just how difficult the game was: I was losing to small mobs, getting absolutely devastated by bosses, and generally not having a great time with the game. I stuck with it though, and discovered how to actually play the game. If you were like me and you are struggling to get a foothold in the world of Avalon then use these tips to better your adventuring and conquer even the most difficult of foes!

Level up your skills by using them in battle

This might be a no brainer for those of you that tried the Saga series, but you don’t get traditional levels by gaining experience and leveling up. Instead, as you battle and use skills, you level them up individually. For example, you can increase your skill with short swords by simply using short swords in battle, and you increase your HP by taking damage! It’s an intriguing system that reminds me heavily of Final Fantasy II back on the NES (which I loved), but it does mean you’ll need to do a bit of grinding to get ahead of things. I found it easiest to focus on a role for each character (which we’ll get too); that way you’ll enhance those specific skills to a higher degree and will be more formidable in future fights!

The more difficult the enemy, the more likely you’ll increase your skills

At first I thought I was getting levels steadily by defeating small mobs on a map, moving to a new zone, loading new monster, and killing them again. Rinse and repeat. But it wasn’t until later I discovered you actually increase your skills more by fighting harder foes. Taking on larger enemies or rarer mobs will return larger rewards, oftentimes increasing a few skills multiple times in one battle. This means your grinding will be different: Instead of killing mobs, run to a boss and fight them as best you can, and when you are getting close to death, just cut your losses and run away. You’ll still keep all your increased skills, and (assuming you all don’t die), you’ll start over at the nearest exit! Run back to town, sleep and save, and repeat! Eventually, you’ll be able to take down the big beast and be more of a badass on the battlefield!

Casting spells requires contracts with elements; you must forge these before you can cast spells

Before you can cast a spell, you need to forge a “Contract” with that element. So if you want to cast water spells, you need to first have the elements on your side. You can equip a “Singing Shard” item you get in the game to pull the elements to your side and for a contract with them. Once a contract is formed, you can start casting those spells associated with that element. This is essential for more difficult enemies for two reasons; not only can you cast spells, but if you have the element on your side you’ll deal more damage and cast more effective spells. You can check this by looking at the small grid on the lower right of the bottom screen: if an element is on your side it’ll be shown there.  Having the elements on your side also gives you benefits like bonus health and SP at the end of each round. As you and your allies cast spells and the enemies cast spells, the sway of the element will move from side to side, so keep it in mind before deciding your attacks.

Learn new skills by using old ones

Just like leveling up skills and stats, you can learn brand new arts and skills by using older ones. It’s pretty simple: if you use defensive skills frequently, eventually you’ll learn a brand new defensive skill. Sometime these skills are offensive, sometime defensive, but more often than not their better than the one you just used. It’s a bit more likely you’ll learn these skills by using the same older ones over and over, but using them during harder enemy battles will likely return better results. This might not be new to you, but I bring it up because you can actually learn some insanely powerful and useful defensive skills with a shield this way. My game got way easier when I learned Ricochet for my defensive character. It’ll be better for you, too!

Be wary of each characters formation and placement on the battlefield

There are three types of battle formation positions: Defense, Attack, and Support. They are self explanatory: characters in the defensive position are better at using defensive skills, those in attack position take more damage but are better at dishing it out, and those in the support position are better at casting support skills like healing spells or shield spells. While each character can be put in any position, it is wise to look at their levels before making a formation for your team: You should place party members with a higher defensive level in the front row for use with defensive skills, characters with attack prowess in the attack row, and so on. This is important because it will make their respective abilities more effective. For example, a support character casting a healing spell while in the attack formation might only heal around 60 HP, but in the support position will heal well over 80 HP fright off the bat.

Do not be afraid to run from battle

It was one of the hardest things I had to get used to right off the bat, but running from battle is a totally viable, and oftentimes smart, option. Escaping from a fight not only lets you live to fight another day (and avoid a Game Over screen), but it also lets you keep any skill increases you’ve gained in said battle, and, best of all, it teleports you right to the exit of the map so you can easily get back to town and save! Legend of Legacy requires you to grind, and the best way to grind is to beat up on harder foes until you can’t anymore. For me, though, the best part of running away is just getting to an exit fast! When I was low on health and needed to warp to town, I would just get in a fight and run: I haven’t failed at a run attempt, but there are some boss fights you can’t escape from. But for the most part, hooray for easily getting back to town!

You don’t need to buy new maps to get new zones; you can discover them through exploring

Money in Legend of Legacy is kind of hard to come by, so why would you want to spend it on getting expensive new maps for new zones to explore? Good news, you don’t have too! So far, every zone you can purchase from the vendor can instead be discovered through exploring a zone you already have. This can save you a ton of money, and a ton of money is what you’ll need to purchase some of the better weapons and items in the game. While I don’t recommend buying maps, you can buy one to get to a new zone faster and get more spells and stuff, but I don’t think that’s entirely necessary.

Legend of Legacy is a tough game, but it’s conquerable if you know what you’re doing. Believe me, I had many frustrating moments early on with the game when I didn’t understand what things meant, how to play the game, or really anything about the intricate systems because they aren’t explained to you. I’m glad I stuck with it, though, because I’m really enjoying the game. It’s reminding me of a simpler version of Etrian Odyssey or a more difficult Final Fantasy, haha!

How has you’re time been with the game? Any tips you can share to help out any other adventurers? Let me know!

Laters,
Jsick