Aarklash: Legacy

I was shocked and excited when I first heard of Aarklash: Legacy, a budget friendly tactical party-based RPG by Cyanide Studio. Set in the beautiful world of Aarklash, you take control of wheel-swords on a mission for truth and redemption. This game gives me major Divinity: Original Sin 2 X Baldur's Gate vibes, unfortunately it doesn’t live up to those expectations.

Beauty Over Substance

Don’t get me wrong, as I’ve said this game looks beautiful, you can tell there has been a real focus on the graphics and animation, everything looks smooth and very polished, but it very much feels like you’ve been thrust into a brand new world and not given the chance to explore or at least take in your surroundings.

This ties in with the general story of Aarklash: Legacy as well. It’s not that it’s bad, but more generic than anything else, I can’t remember ever being drawn to any of the characters developments like I would in something like Divinity: Original Sin.

Get To Know The Crew

You take control of 4 ‘Wheel-Swords’ who are essentially debt collectors for hire (to my understanding), all of which have their own set of unique abilities and characteristics that will help you overcome even the toughest of fights. There are also an additional 4 playable characters who you can control as well, all of which have a very unique look and feel about them and it’s actually interesting trying to learn how they play.

The playable characters are somewhat delightful, they each look, sound, and play in such a unique way. When I say delightful, I don’t mean in the way they interact with each other because I’m pretty sure during the beginning they all hate each other. But it’s a nice breath of fresh air, having a different take on a normal party of four. For example you have ‘Knokka’ a female tank in your party, along with an interesting healer called Wendaroo, who heals by throwing out her glaive.

The Next Fight Could Be Your Last

I think if you have a general understanding of how a typical RPG party should be set up (tank, healer, fighter) then you’ll enjoy the way that Aarklash: Legacy plays. Not only are the decisions you make extremely important during combat, but the tinniest slip up could mean you restarting your adventure from your last save. (happened to me many times.) Honestly this game can be extremely overwhelming when it comes to combat and you have to utilise the pause function! Trust me, it’s there for a reason.

One big gripe I had with Aarklash: Legacy is the loot system. It feels like none of the items I picked up were beneficial, regardless of item colour/rarity. So it kind of left me feeling really underpowered, especially when compared to something like Diablo 3 for example, which is another RPG that is revered for it’s loot system.

Pros

• Beautiful animation style
• A more in depth tactical approach to combat
• Budget friendly

Cons

• Generic story
• Lacklustre loot system