Legends of Dawn any good?

[HwitVlf]

Has anyone tried the Legends of Dawn PC game? It looks interesting. ‎ 

I saw it got a bad review on IGN, but frankly the reviewer's reasoning ‎  sounded jaded with little substantial reason why it deserved the low score. Almost every criticism mentioned could be said about many other PC games that were well-received and enjoyable to play.

[Verdite]

Looks like dungeon siege maybe? Did you play Zeno clash? Looks like a surreal KF

[HwitVlf]

I hadn't heard of Zeno Clash, but they sound like the type of game I would like. Too bad they didn't release it on gog.com. Zeno Clash 1 is only around $15 these days, but I don't like dealing with Steam.

[HwitVlf]

I tried Legends of Dawn (needed a little vacation ) and it's not bad, but it has some significant "balancing" issues. ‎  It made me think how important a well designed stat/price system is in game making. Legends of Dawn has a crafting system for spells,weapons,armor,potions and several other categories. It could have been quite fun, but because of poor balancing, the whole system falls flat. ‎ 

For example, if you defeat a wolf, you might get a "Damaged Wolf Pelt" a "Normal Wolf Pelt" and some "Wolf Meat" (Ewwww, but anyways) strangely, the damaged pelt sells for more than the normal. You can repair the damaged pelt (convert it to "normal") by combining it with "Linen Thread", but the thread costs more than you get for selling the pelt.

I think it was set up this way because the pelts are meant to be crafting items more than sellables, but all you can craft with pelts are Leather Armor items whose stats are worse than the gear you find during normal gameplay. And all the leather armors pieces sell for less than the wolf pelt to begin with. Not only does that make no sense from a logical standpoint, it feels like you're being penalized for using the crafting system. All the crafting categories are like that. You can buy "fire wood" and "spices" to craft the meat into a healing item, or you can spend 1/10th as much to just buy "Bandages" that do the same thing.

My point being, no matter how nice a game looks, or detailed its environment, if its system of rewards falls flat, it can really hurt the experience. ‎ 

[Verdite]

"but all you can craft with pelts are Leather Armor items whose stats are worse than the gear you find during normal gameplay"

Im partial to a good crafting system, being a Monster hunter veteran. But most crafting games ive played have had a similar system of ... Make crap armour > Sell it for 1/10 of its price > Find better armour off a grunt > dont bother.

The best 'crafting' system ive experienced is in Throne of Darkness, you can give your surplus normal weapons and armour to the blacksmith who will (you are meant to imagine) use the parts or metals to create better armour and weapons which he will sell to you. If you give him plenty and keep building his armoury up, you can craft a piece of high end gear, albeit with high end stats, early on in the game if you really try. He has a quota based on what you give him, so you need to be careful. The items you buy from him are always set as normal items *but* you can customise every piece of equipment with materials you find, adding hitpoints from a wolf pelt or armour bonuses from monster bones etc.

All your magic items can be given to the monk who will reward you with skill points if you sell him enough.

I strongly recommend this game, even if its story is very basic it has some amazing customisation elements. Hope my screenshots dont spoil it for you.

[Guyra]

Huh, that actually looks like it might be a really cool game. Never heard of it before, though. But it looks like a Diablo clone. Guess I might have to try it out. :)

[HwitVlf]

Yeah, I ordered a copy already. ‎  That crafting system sounds right on the money so I'm eager to check it out.

[Verdite]

Just remember where the story lacks the character development and equipment customisation more than makes up for it. There are also some very creepy, well hidden parts of the game that the developers deliberately hid for perceptive players to find, of which the brady games guide doesnt cover.

The crafting even includes 'set' bonuses for adding certain combinations, they even dont need to be in one item. Just having the components active in different parts of equipment allow for some incredible effects.

The game was originally set to be in the heian period (794 - 1185, think Kuon PS2) but actually turned out to be a mix of sengoku jidai (15th c - 17th c Japan, think samurai warriors PS2) and heian, heian artifacts mixed with sengoku artifacts, though most of the enemies and folklore is heian based from what I gather. Gaki - a common monster in the game, for example, are found more in heian folklore. Those of you who played Kuon will remember them.