Aarklash: Legacy

When it comes to the now infamous Confrontation IP story has often been sparse. The games have been fun to play, but story has never been at the forefront. This games changes that trend in a good way. Sadly I can't play this game anymore as I'm running a later edition of windows, but when I could play I did it often, and never regretted the time I spent praying my whole party would die with each new fight. Everything about this game was challenging as hell, but with each new piece of lore unlocked the difficulty felt worth it. This was a great game that seemed to get no attention, but that didn't make it any less fun to play. So, it pains me to say, RIP Arklash: Legacy. You deserved a better license holder, but you stood on your own two feet all the same. You will be missed.

I've had this game for a pretty long time, but never finished it until today. I'll start off with what I didn't like about it and then move on to what I did and then my final thoughts at the end. A couple of my gripes: MAJOR - The puzzles. Holy shit the puzzles. A game like this does not need this many. Act 2-3 especially were absolutely flooded with them. I don't remember if Act 1 had many because when I started playing again, it had been many years. Act 2's design was basically "fight, puzzle, fight, puzzle, fight puzzle" until the act was over. It's almost like the devs didn't know what else to put there so they added puzzles to pad the game out. They do nothing but destroy the flow of the game. MINOR - No equipment except for accessories. It would have added so much if you had gear you could find but instead you find nothing but accessories like earrings, necklaces, rings etc. It made doing that little extra to go find treasure chests not feel worth it because you already know what you're going to get. Near the end of the game I stopping even checking for upgrades. A couple things I liked: MAJOR - The combat is fun. Encountering a group of enemies and absolutely destroying them feels very rewarding and therefore very good. Especially because, even on Normal difficulty, things can go south VERY quickly. So keeping control of combat and handling it smoothly and easily is great. MINOR - 8 different characters to choose from, each with 4 different skill trees that branch off with different benefits (and drawbacks, depending on your playstyle) forming a group of 4. This can lead to many different types of ways to approach encounters with regular enemies or bosses. And you can freely switch between them after a certain point. Final Thoughts: This to me is a very average tactics rpg with not much depth, but servicable and fun enough to warrant a playthrough, even if it's in spurts.