The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered: Decent Dungeon Crawl with lots of Grind

Legend of Legacy HD Remastered is a dungeon crawler from FURYU and it released in 2024 on Steam. Let’s see how I liked it shall we?:)

Let’s just say the narrative is bare-bones. You pick a character, head to a mysterious island rumored to hold ancient treasure, and that’s about it. You do uncover bits of lore as you explore, piecing together the island’s past, but it’s more like finding scattered puzzle pieces than following a coherent story. Think of it like the Chozo lore in Metroid Prime – interesting worldbuilding, but not a driving force.

The characters themselves are forgettable RPG archetypes – the stoic warrior, the perky mage, and so on. Their interactions feel shallow, and their connection to the island’s history is weak. Honestly, the story mostly stays out of the way, which can be a good thing considering…

The core gameplay loop involves venturing into one of several themed dungeons, battling monsters, and returning to town to restock and upgrade. It’s a familiar cycle, but there’s a certain satisfaction to pushing deeper with each run. Mapping the dungeons for a profit adds another layer – who doesn’t love some good old fashioned exploration with a payout?

Battles are turn-based, but with a cool addition. Your party members stand in a formation, granting temporary buffs depending on their position. You can pre-program formations and switch between them during fights, adding a strategic layer to the mix. It’s not super deep, but it keeps you thinking on your toes in tougher encounters.

Another interesting addition is the ever-shifting elemental system. The air around you is constantly charged with one of four elements, and attacks and characters that align with the dominant element get a boost. It’s a neat idea, but it can feel limiting. Sometimes you’re forced into specific team compositions based on the elements, which can make combat feel repetitive.

Here’s a strange one – your party fully heals after every battle. Even if someone faints, a quick heal spell brings them back. Sounds great, right? Well, there’s a catch. Each faint chips away at their max HP, and the only way to fix that is by resting at the inn in town.

This makes the game both easier and harder in strange ways. You can breeze through some fights because healing is readily available. But then you hit a wall where enemies start pummeling your party, forcing you to constantly revive and retreat. The difficulty curve feels inconsistent, leading to some frustrating moments.

Speaking of progression, forget experience points and levels. Here, character growth is random. You fight battles, and your characters might get a nice stat boost or a new skill. It’s a different approach, but it can be frustrating. Grinding for a specific upgrade is pointless – you could go through a bunch of fights and see nothing, or walk out with a powerful new ability after a single battle. It keeps things unpredictable, but it can also feel like you have less control over your party’s development.

Overall, the combat and progression systems are decent, but the randomness and lack of enemy variety can wear thin after a while.

Visually, the game’s gotten a nice upgrade from its 3DS origins. The art style, with its watercolor vibes, looks good on PC. However, you can still tell it was designed for weaker hardware. The models are a bit chunky, but they don’t look completely out of place. There are very few graphic options as you can see on the screenshot above.

Disappointingly, that’s pretty much the only change. The remaster doesn’t add anything new – no new enemies, no gameplay tweaks. It’s the same game with a polish job. For a seven-year-old title, it’s held up okay, but FuRyu missed a chance to address some of the original’s shortcomings.