Legend of Fae

If you had told me one of the most harrowing and challenging experiences I would have in a video game would be in a match-3/RPG hybrid, I probably wouldn't believe you. Truth is stranger than fiction though, and the truth is that Legend of Fae is a pretty good game.

I suppose I'll touch on the story for a bit since I've got quite a few things to say about how this game plays it's best to get this out of the way first. In Legend of Fae you play as a young girl named Claudia Bernard who after experiencing some health troubles is sent off to live with her Uncle Montague, a professor, on Sea Cross island. After some peaceful living, Claudia wakes up with her uncle nowhere to be found and a letter and an odd lantern in his stead. As she explores the town she is attacked by titular Fae creatures, which are attacking all of Sea Cross.

I'm not going to sit here and type up a full story synopsis but from there Claudia meets four elemental spirits, which she can see because she's got some magic in her, and she embarks on a Journey to find her uncle. It's standard fantasy stuff but it does go to quite a few places that I wasn't expecting. To be specific, there are quite a few moments where Claudia expresses some discomfort in killing the creatures, despite them being so hostile. That and a few other little vignettes add a nice bit of character to what would otherwise be a pretty by-the-books fantasy story. Not to mention the way that the entire story resolves is a bit to raw compared to everything else that happens but hey, I'm not complaining.

Anyway onto the meat of the game, the gameplay. As mentioned above, Legend of Fae is a match-3/RPG hybrid. You match gems (orbs in this case) of an element which you stock up so you can cast spells in combat which happens above the gem-field. All of this happens in real-time so if you take too long matching gems the enemies will get their chance to get a few hits in. The enemies also have elemental affinities so there's some weaknesses you have to keep in mind when you're choosing which element to attack with. The types of enemies are also pretty varied so you always have to think on your toes. There are flying enemies who have to be hit with a wind type attack before you can hit them with anything else, enemies that change their affinity mid-battle and some that either don't have affinities or have hidden affinities (like ice or lightning). That's just scratching the surface of what is considered "the basics", there's also shields and status effects that come into play. Some enemies will even change the weather to prevent you from casting certain spells. There's a lot of things to be aware of and in the end-game it's borderline sensory overload with the amount of things you have to keep up with.

That's only the beginning though. In addition to all of that this game has an upgrade path, a "skill tree" if you will. You get what is basically one skill point after finishing a level which you can spend on better spells, combo spells and summons. I don't have an exact number on how many upgrade there are but trust me, there's a lot. You can also respec in case you end up not liking the skills you've got, it does cost one skill point though (I assume this is so you can't cheese the game). The skills are pretty essential since they also increase your damage you have to tailor what you're upgrading to what you're currently fighting in addition to the extra effects the enhanced spells offer.

I did mention earlier that this game was pretty hard and it is on hard mode at least. The other difficulty is casual (which you cannot change to once you've started) and I didn't go with it because I like a little challenge. Boy, the last few legs of this game really bring the challenge because if you aren't constantly at full health or shielded you go down pretty quickly especially during boss fights. The normal enemy encounters also turn into ludicrous balancing acts where you're fighting enemies from across all the elements (and various flying enemies) and at that point during the game some of you spells will hit multiple enemies so you'll end up inadvertently healing some of your opponents. It's not too much of a problem though, it is a puzzle game after all so once you "figure it out" it's not a problem. The bosses are a totally different story though.

The bosses do the typical boss thing of bringing in the goons to provide some heat and the first few are relatively easy. The last two are really tough comparatively, they took me about 30+ minutes (which is insane!) each and even though I wasn't enjoying at the time they're definitely the highlights of the combat. They end up being incredibly tense and strategic battles that, while super long, are super rewarding when you come out on the other victorious. I am not exaggerating when I'm saying that I was in actual physical pain after finishing the game. My eyes were vibrating in m sockets from my laser-focused concentration on the screen and my hand was cramped from the constant clicking I was doing but man, it felt so good to figure out the combat puzzle and come out a winner.

So in conclusion, if you want a game with some depth or maybe a little casual puzzle game then you should probably give this a shot. It's certainly stuck with me and I can only hope that you'll feel something similar if you do give it a chance.