Who liked to suffer in front of a good Darkest Dungeon or even a very revered Iratus? Today, we face its opposite: you will not have to conquer a dungeon, but defend it with your minions just as vile as you and, if necessary, you will have to get your hands dirty. So, are you ready to fend off the foam heroes who will try to steal your treasure and damage your minions for you? Heat up the Nintendo Switch, here we go!
History
You play one of the three masters of the dungeon who will be responsible for punishing the imprudent who come to challenge him. Each having their own motivation and reasons for hating humans, but all were recruited by the same association to make these abominable humans pay a thousand torments, those who dared to profane the ground of our place of their justice and their glory which will soon end soon!
Graphics and atmosphere
The graphics aren't state of the art these days. You will not have an exceptional graphic revolution, however what is proposed does the job correctly without a false note. Each master of the dungeon will offer his own style and the atmosphere that goes with it, whether in terms of scenery, bestiary or even the soundtrack. Even if the latter is not really unforgettable, it does the job well. There is not much more to say except to point out that the units are correct in terms of design and that they are thus perfectly differentiable over the course of the game.
Gameplay
week after week
The game is played according to a sequence of events that you will decide, week after week, according to the choices that will be offered to you. So events that can affect absolutely all aspects of your adventure such as monsters who want to join you, artifacts to trade / steal, discounts on questionable food, but which can poison some of your monsters later. Or you can meet monsters and traps merchants, engineers to improve your traps, tax collectors who can offer you money in exchange for bribes in liquid form, or even alchemists who are a little struck, weird rituals and others fitness sessions for your dungeon master... The choice is yours.
But the most important will remain the weeks when you will have to welcome adventurers, veterans or champions into your sanctuary to show them a little who the boss is around. You will often have the choice with the reward that accompanies them (new trap / monster / rare monster, an artifact or gold), the difficulty or the conditions that will be imposed (whether they are favorable or not). You will most of the time be free to choose your fight!
Note: before the adventure, it is possible to modify many variables such as the gold earned, the life of the dungeon master, the life of the adventurers, the duration of the campaign, the difficulty, etc... except for the difficulty and the duration, it will not influence the experience you will gain at the end of a campaign.
Preparation
First of all, you will have to define the monsters among those who will be in room number 1, room number 2 and in the garrison. It's up to you whether you want to give it your all in the first room or if you just want to wear them down until they get knocked out in room number 2. In any case, you'll have to make consistent teams based on the strengths and weaknesses of each. Because each monster and each adventurer has its own strengths, synergies between races (demons, skeletons, mechas, etc.), weaknesses and skills that must be taken into account to maximize your chances. For example, you can combine an orc wizard (rare monster) who will inflict burns on the entire opposing team while your flame eater will consume these burns to inflict even more damage. Or your monsters will have attacks that will bounce off the rear target depending on the morale of your opponents... Lots of parameters to take into account!
Once your teams are formed, you can enter the preparation phase which will be more or less the same, with the difference in the layout of the rooms. It is most often composed in this order: a room with a trap, room number 1 of monsters, a room where you can cast a spell, a new trap, room number 2 of monsters and the master of the dungeon to finish. To this can be added a room with a campfire for the adventurers so that they can rest, a disaster room to inflict a serious penalty on them or a bonus room which varies according to the master of the dungeon.
Action
Once all this has been validated, you can go into the combat phase with your opponents who move from room to room interacting with the traps, until you reach the first room where you can start the first fight with your creatures. You will be able to choose the skill to cast depending on the situation and the combos you want to do. For example: another skill of the orc sorcerer, Cain's revenge, will transform your team into a group of random skeletons and, given the number of skeletons available, you can have a fairly powerful or comical team that will also have full life!
If ever the group of adventurers manages to defeat your teams and pass your traps, the hour of confrontation with the master will be in order. If you die, it will be the end, if they die you can survive another week. For that, nothing could be simpler: you will have to be ruthless and use your gigantic bar of life and your power which will not be too much against certain really powerful opposing compositions.
Note that you can defeat your enemies either by inflicting a physical defeat on them by reducing their miserable little bodies to powder, or mentally by shattering their hopes and confronting them with the harsh reality: they are weak and useless... it is worth better give up. Depending, you will get as a reward either the blood of your victims or their tears which surely taste salty.
The after fight
Once you've won and the rewards have been earned, you'll need to check your teams. The monsters who have been knocked down have taken a hit to their morale and will have to rest in garrison if it is too low, or even simpler: they will go to see a shrink. But you will also have the opportunity, with the rewards, to evolve your fighters in exchange for gold and sometimes by adding a little blood or tears in addition.
As for the post-campaign, you will gain experience on your dungeon master. This will give him the opportunity to spend talent points which will greatly help you against the incursions of those stupid humans. This may affect your general power, your spells or even your creatures by giving them passives according to their race, or by lowering the cost of training, etc...
Summary
Legend of Keepers is entertainment that will put your tactical skills to work. If, in easy mode, it will turn out to be quite simple, the various possible settings will give you something to enjoy for many hours. The general atmosphere quite nice and the gameplay will raise the mayo, despite an almost non-existent story. If you like the style, I strongly recommend it, for others it might be an opportunity to try a cool game? Who knows...
Available on...
- Nintendo E-shop
- Steam
