A League of Legends Story, the chains of magic

the bet of Riot Games in recent years to diversify the brand of League of Legends to take it to new terrain with all kinds of derivative products could not seem better. After all, We are talking about a game with a huge number of charismatic characters and a very interesting storyline. that was crying out to be explored in other formats that were more accessible and less intimidating for the general public than that of a MOBA and its fierce competitive environment.

This has resulted in us being able to enjoy that audiovisual marvel that is Arcane and that in videogames it has been created riot forgea new seal of Riot Games whose objective is to find the best possible studios to develop titles based on the license that help expand this universe so that it reaches more players, regardless of their level of knowledge about the MOBA.

Thanks to this initiative, we have been able to play Ruined King: A League of Legends Storya very remarkable and recommended RPG from the creators of battlechasersas well as Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Storya kind of runner rhythm of those responsible for Bit Trip Beat not too bright it just delivered and little else. Luckily, this is not going to stop here and in the future projects like the interesting Convergence: A League of Legends Story of Double Stallion or the promising Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story from Tequila Works.

But before looking to the future we have to focus on the present, since in just four days it will go on sale The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Storya new role-playing and action game developed by Digital Sun, who you probably know as the Spanish studio behind moonlighter. The result? An enjoyable title, but with a series of shortcomings that hamper the fun more than we would have liked.

The magician’s revolution

So, his story takes us to the kingdom of Demacia, a society that prohibits magic and that he persecutes those who are born with this gift to imprison them, take advantage of their powers or execute them. It is up to us to incarnate sylasa magician who after 15 years of captivity manages to escape from his prison and set fire to the city, unleashing chaos in his escape and inspiring others who are in the same situation to start a revolution against the tyranny of the nation and his body. of wizard hunters.

Starting from this premise, the title manages to articulate a very entertaining story that has kept our interest from the beginning to the end. thanks to the situations that take place, the themes it touches on and the charisma of its characters, whose interactions, internal conflicts and reactions have seemed very credible to us, as well as the development that each one has been given.

Some exhausting combats and lacking in variety

Focusing now on the purely playable, say that We are facing an aerial perspective action adventure with slight RPG touches in which we will have to overcome a series of missions where our only objective will be to advance through some extremely linear scenarios, slapping everything that comes our way.

To fight we will have a button for light blows, another for strong attacks that allow us to break shields and a third to dodge, actions to which we must add the possibility of casting spells and using our chains both as a hook to get closer to enemies and avoid abysses and to “steal” our rivals’ spellsallowing us to use them against them.

It is not a game that bases its battles on carrying out complex combos, since there are hardly any and we will almost always repeat the same ones, so Its main attraction lies precisely in the ability of our champion to copy spells, something that we can take advantage of, for example, to steal a spell of this element from a fire mage and use it against another opponent who is weak to him. There is a good variety of spells and if we learn to take advantage of them, they can give us an important tactical advantage during encounters, becoming a fun mechanic that allows us to constantly adapt to the various situations that are presented to us.

In addition, when we fill the corresponding meter with cakes we can activate the triggered modea state in which Sylas becomes much more powerful for a few seconds and that allows us to perform the ultimate ability of other champions of League of Legends those we have defeated during the main story.

Unfortunately, the battles do not take long to stagnate and although the title tries to introduce new mechanics and spells from time to time, the truth is that it has been very difficult for us to get rid of the feeling of repeating the same fights over and over again, since we will spend almost all the time dodging and performing basic hits to regain mana.

Beyond the limitations of the combat system itself, It also doesn’t help that the game overuses certain types of enemies that repeat themselves to exhaustion., which becomes exhausting, especially if we take into account that there are creatures and rivals that are very wasted and that we will only see in a few missions. We have another aggravating factor in some not very agile controls that suffer from certain inaccuracies, especially when trying to aim at the enemy we want with our chains when many are gathered on the screen.

to top it all off we have a very poor level design which barely leaves room for exploration and the search for secrets, so almost all the time we will spend advancing through corridors and fighting in closed arenas without much else to do in between. Do not expect puzzles, mechanisms or anything that is outside of pure and simple action, since you are not going to find it, which ends up contributing to the feeling of boredom and repetition of the combats appearing much earlier than desirable.

Those, we have to admit that we liked the bosses a lot: They are very spectacular, they usually have several phases, they are very different from each other and have very well designed attack patterns that we have had to learn by heart, delighting ourselves with some very intense battles that we have enjoyed a lot. Here, the duels against other well-known League of Legends champions stand out above all, since they have been designed taking into account their characteristic MOBA abilities and the result is simply fantastic and a real gift for the fans.

The foundation of the revolution

Continuing with its positive points, it is worth mentioning that the progression system is very well measured. After each mission, we will return to our main base, where we can invest the resources (experience points) that we have acquired in improving our character and permanently learn the spells that we have stolen. However, the resources that we will obtain are usually very limited, so we will have to manage them very carefully to decide which spells we want to memorize and which attributes we want to enhance.

In addition, the base will grow as we advance and rescue other magiciansgiving us access to new services and advanced improvements that will not be available at the start, which ends up resulting in a very addictive loop that always rewards us in some way at the end of a mission.

Here it should also be noted that before embarking on an adventure we can select two wizards to “accompany” us, something that is the equivalent of the game team, since choosing between one and the other will only give us specific advantages, such as that our ice spells do more damage or that we can perform a specific combo. And yes, the prisoners who join our cause will become part of the squads of these “equipable” magicians, making them level up and obtain new power-ups that we can benefit from.

Reaching the end of the story is a task that has taken us about twelve hoursa figure that can be extended a little more if you want to do all the secondary missions, which follow the same line as the main ones with the odd twist in their approach (such as the introduction of temporary spells with specific improvements) and a lot of scenario recycling and enemies.

Demacia in pixel art

At a graphic level we are before a title with a style pixel art very careful and beautiful that stands out especially for how detailed its settings are. The characters are less surprising as they are much more minimalist, but they are well animated and, in general terms, it is a very striking and visually pleasing game. The negative part of this section we have in some environments that are usually too similar to each other, in some annoying bugs and crashes that we have come across and, at least in the case of Nintendo Switch (the version that we have been able to test), in a very irregular performance and with constant drops in the rate of images per second.

Finally, the soundtrack is usually ambient and accompanies our adventures well, although he also knows how to get angry when he plays and leave us with very intense compositions for the most important battles. The effects do their job correctly and the very few voices that we will hear are very well dubbed into Spanish from Spain.

conclusions

The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story is an adventure that, despite his efforts, fails to shine. It has a good story, charismatic characters, many winks and references for fans of this universe, some very interesting mechanics, a balanced progression system, great battles against final bosses and a very striking audiovisual section, virtues that end up being weighed down by a very poor level design, controls that are not entirely satisfactory and combat that does not take long to stagnate due to how much they are abused and certain types of enemies that are repeated ad nauseam, something that in a title like this that makes it difficult bet everything for the action, it ends up taking its toll.

In the end, It is still an entertaining game that, in short sessions to avoid saturation of its confrontations, fulfills its mission of making us have a good time. At the same time, it allows us to delve into a very attractive universe of magic and fantasy with a whole legion of followers. Could it have turned out better? Without a doubt, but if what it proposes attracts you, surely you will know how to appreciate all the good things it has.

We have carried out this analysis thanks to a download code for Nintendo Switch that Riot Games has offered us.