Black Legend, our review

Black Legend by Warcave is a dark and mysterious turn-based strategy, inspired by culture and al 17th century folklore of Belgium and the Netherlandsand Central-Southern European more generally: immersed in the nefarious streets of the abandoned city of Grant, we are induced to explore dangerous areas and sieved by enemies, confronting them with our customizable party, and facing secondary missions.

The enemies that will appear before us range from beasts of folklore, to cultist men, demons and tough mercenaries. In a context immersed in madness and destructive magic, which winks at alchemythe player who loves the turn-based strategy cannot fail to be passionate about this title, which on the level of the atmosphere created that brings darkness and mystery to the limits of horror, and in relation to the good balance between history, exploration and battles, it offers a lot of fun and a good level of challenge.

It obviously starts with the personalization of your character, and immediately we will be catapulted into the city and led to lead a group of mercenaries who will aim to free the city itself from the followers under the orders of Mephisto. With the ultimate goal, that of thinning out the fog that leads to madness and covers the whole city in a thick blanket: for this reason the citizens will not give us a hand, remaining barricaded at home, on the contrary, in the vast city we will be able to obtain requests for help from them that will result in real side missions. We therefore take the side of the liberators, flanked only by a resistance group, the Golden Claw, which at least provides us with information and resources useful for the cause.

There exploratory phase it is quite accurate: although you are always inside the city of Grant, the various districts will become explorable as the story progresses, and each area is large enough to satisfy the needs of discovery, especially to reveal the mysteries that force them citizens and the city not to rebel against the grip of the fog and the followers of Mephisto.

The developers have certainly given all the knowledge of the folklore European and Western, many creatures we will face, with particular and gloomy characteristics: it will not be difficult to meet cannibal shape-shifters (Old Red Eyes), cat-eating witches, child thieves (Witte Wieven), shape-changing water demons (Nekkers) and other typical horrors. The clashes therefore become different and fun, never boring, just as the dark atmosphere well defined by the design is also reflected in sounds, verses and background noises.

Furthermore, the level of customization it is quite rich and complete: as you proceed, in fact, up to 15 classes of heroes will be unlocked, and also the overall difficulty level can be customized in a peculiar way to the needs of each type / level of player.

The combat systemas mentioned, focuses on many of the characteristics well known to turn-based strategists: before each clash we deploy our parts on the map, our characters will have some action points available to move, attack (attacks from the side and from behind will make greater damage) close or at a distance, depending on the characteristics, and to be able to use objects and items without having to use battle points.

The balance of the clashes is quite accurate, what we find again in Black Legend is the use ofalchemy. At first a system quite difficult to master, as it becomes a little less difficult, the sure thing is the undisputed usefulness in battle, also because our enemies will also have the same possibilities as us to use the fruits. In short, there are four moods represented by colors: red (rubedo), yellow (citrinitas), black (nigredo) and white (albedo). Each affects our enemy who is hit, and they can be combined and catalyzed to inflict even more damage. These alchemical elements they are important in battle as they inflict important ones “Malus” to our enemies. The alchemy system in Black Legend is certainly important, well done and perhaps too complex to be mastered from the start.

Black Legend is a dark and well-made turn-based strategic RPG, which from a graphic and gameplay point of view involves the player, especially those who love the typical Central European folklore, with a combat system with common characteristics but which stands out for the alchemical system, also if a little difficult to master. A game that cannot go unnoticed, especially for those who love the genre and are not bad with a pinch of horror background.