It's like puzzle quest with a different kind of crazy
First off, full disclosure, I have not yet finished Legend of Fae, currently at level 32 of 50. I kind of just want to get a review out in consideration that this game has no coverage that I am aware of, besides being featured on steam. That being said, this game has a pretty good hold on me.
Alright, let's see if I can adequately explain the basics of the game play. The core mechanic is a match 3 puzzle game (Bejeweled) with blocks representing elements (fire,earth,water and wind), focus (used to generate a "mind gem" for clearing status ailments) and a physical (used to move or dodge). You build up a mana pool for each element type as you clear mana blocks, you then utilize fore mentioned mana pool to do basic attacks and cast spells (have I mentioned this game mimics Puzzle Quest yet?). The twist is that this puzzle mechanic is represented on only the lower portion of the screen while the top section is a "combat screen". Upon this combat screen the protagonist is represented in the center along with any enemy "Fae creatures" on one or both sides, and combat playing out in real-time. The player needs to switch between the puzzle screen to accumulate elemental energy and the combat screen to target enemies and select attacks.
The real-time element of the combat adds a sense of urgency to the entire experience and later levels require strategy to survive enemy encounters. There is also a skill tree which unlocks increased damage and additional spells for each element as well as the ability to combine elements for additional spell attacks. In the later section of the game you get the option to learn to summon specific elemental minions to fight along side you. There is so much more but for the sake of this review check the wiki.
Story is fairly standard RPG fare with some interesting twists and a few instances of humorous dialogue between the main character and her elemental cohorts. Once again, see the wiki for more details. The game also has score and time challenges for each level which adds some re-play value. In my opinion, the artwork is serviceable for an indie game with the music ranging from nearly elevator quality ambient to more enjoyable boss battle tracks.
As a final note, I have had some minor but unfortunate technical issues with Legend of Fae, namely that the sound seems to take on an unbecoming crackling occasionally and the game has reset my pc's resolution after closing, however the developer's have already released a few patches and will hopefully phase out these issues eventually.
