Black Legend - turn-based fantasy RPG set in 17th century city

[KateMicucci]

I've wanted a 17th century game for a long time. Hopefully its not shit.

Could use more colors.

 

[Renevent]

Not really related to this thread, but there was a medieval first person zombie game released not that long ago with a similar name...black death or something (I think) like that. Graphics were good and it showed a crap ton of zombies fighting the player (knights) at once. Anyone remember the name of this game?

*edit*

NVM, found it: The Black Masses.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/black-legend/release-date

XCOM meets dark fantasy and weird science in Black Legend, out this month

Black Legend is an XCOM-like tactical RPG game that’s about grim tidings, and even grimmer science. Set in a decaying 17th Century town inspired by the cultures of Belgium and the Netherlands, the strategy game features fantasy-fuelled notions such as alchemy, cults and the the outdated medical ‘science’ known as Humorism.

This turn-based strategy game features a compact narrative led campaign where you can navigate the world in real-time, switching to a turn-based tactical mode for encounters. It features 15 playable classes, and you can combine your core team in a number of different ways as the campaign progresses. Class unlocks are achieved when you collect all of the equipment for that class as you explore the town of Grant.

There is a main story, as well as side quests, and replayability is found in the small choices you make. Even your character’s gender will affect what options are available to you. The game is due out at the end of March and is being developed by Warcarve, the same studio that worked on the classically-inspired RTS WarParty.

Fun fact: The Humorism medical theory derives from the ancient Greek philosopher Hippocrates, and the most famous form is known as the ‘four humors’, where it was believed humans were composed of four fundamental elements: yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, and blood. One had to have a balance of all four to be healthy, and it was thought that a disease would essentially corrupt one of these four components.

We recently spoke to the developers at Warcave regarding their game, and we’ll have a more in-depth feature for you in the coming weeks. One of the questions we asked them was to explain their game, but badly:

“A bunch of Belgium-based developers wish to commemorate the Golden Age of a neighbouring country they seceded from in 1830, as well as the folklore written by people who barely even knew how to bathe properly and killed time by inventing stories to scare children when they weren’t too busy killing each other. They do so by making video game about a team of four complete idiots going on a suicide mission to a cursed city covered in a toxic fart created by a high school chemistry teacher reject, and fight fanatics by playing a game of ‘match the colours’ with bodily fluids based on medicine invented by utter quacks whose sole purpose in life was the acquisition of ‘medieval bitcoin’.”

Black Legend will be released for PC via Steam on March 25.

 

[agris]

“A bunch of Belgium-based developers wish to commemorate the Golden Age of a neighbouring country they seceded from in 1830, as well as the folklore written by people who barely even knew how to bathe properly and killed time by inventing stories to scare children when they weren’t too busy killing each other. They do so by making video game about a team of four complete idiots going on a suicide mission to a cursed city covered in a toxic fart created by a high school chemistry teacher reject, and fight fanatics by playing a game of ‘match the colours’ with bodily fluids based on medicine invented by utter quacks whose sole purpose in life was the acquisition of ‘medieval bitcoin’.”

(really)

 

[LESS T_T]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1094730/view/3024700820939239273

Ep 3: Finding your way through Grant

In Grant there was a division between populations, and so a difference between nobles and commoners arose. These commonors are usually craftsmen, artisans and cheap labor. The Commoners District houses a mixture of these people, leading to a mixture of both common and poorer housing making up the district. This District is among the largest of Grant, but mostly inhabited by the poorer people.

One of the city gates leads directly to this very district, starting at a checkpoint where guards check the goods entering and exiting the city.

The Harbour District is considered among the most important districts in the city. Hardened labourers and skilled merchants both made it their home, creating a diverse atmosphere. Ships carrying goods or currency would enter and exit here.

This district also holds one of the two large towers that hold up the harbour chain. The cult raised this chain again to keep people in the city, preventing escape by water.

After the outbreak, all of the larger ships were taken by the few lucky survivors in an attempt to escape the city. Their success is unknown.

The shipyard lies beyond the infamous bridge. “They had to cross the bridge” is a phrase that, when uttered, yielded reactions of worry and pity. Crossing the bridge implies someone had sunk deep into debt, either failing as a merchant or maintaining their business properly. The result is them crossing over the bridge into the Shipyard District, where harsh labour is expected to pay for the bills.

The buildings here house the shipyard workers and are made of cheap materials. The entire district carries a sense of purpose and functionality, as the workers have no need or time for distractions of their labour.

The second harbour tower holding up the chain is by far the most advanced constructed building in the area.

The second gate leads to a small island with a forest, but the mechanism is broken.

The Graveyard District houses some religious figures but mostly citizens of mediocre standing and wealth. Close proximity to the graves is often preferred by families who wish to tend to the graves of their ancestors, which has led to the interesting development of families in other parts of the city asking the citizens here to tend to their graves as well.

At the center of the graveyard stands a memorial bearing a massive ceremonial blade. The memorial bears the names of fallen soldiers and guards who have either protected Grant, or were born and raised in Grant before joining a foreign army. Maintenance of this memorial was done by Grand Piers instead of the Graveyard District citizens.

Entering the Church District, you can’t look past it, the big Cathedral of Grant. Religion is a vital part of everyday life for the inhabitants, mostly to pray for a better future. The Church District houses the clergy and their most devoted supports. Because of the high maintenance cost of the buildings, one tends to find some wealthier citizens living here, to more easily make donations to their religious leaders.

The City Center is situated in, how else can it be, the center of Grant, adjacent to the road leading to the City Council Hall. Due to its location it was crowned as the perfect marketplace, entirely due to its connections to all other districts.

Economically speaking, the City Center is Grant's most important district. On a typical day the market would be flooded with craftsmen and merchants selling their goods to a sea of customers. People would come from all over the place, inside and outside the city, to check out the goods. How times have changed. The market is no more and the place is mostly roamed by the Cult.

 

[Saduj]

Was really looking forward to this due to the setting but after downloading the demo, I was turned away by the gear based character system. Really hate that choice.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1094730/view/3024700820931847655

Ep 4: Humble Beginnings

Humble Beginnings

The journey through Grant will be an arduous one. Fortunately, you found these basic tips passed on through generations of sellswords and soldiers on how to best survive in this world ruled by Alchemy.

The Flow of Battle
Units take turns to move and act in battle. Each unit has an Initiative value that increases based on their Agility stat. Once this initiative reaches 100, the unit takes a turn. This entire process takes place in the background, so it’s easier to use the turn order at the top of the screen.

Moving and Actions consume Movement and Action Points respectively.

Movement increases as a unit’s Agility stat improves, allowing further tiles to be reached in a single turn.

Action points usually remain at a maximum of 3, although there are unique situations and abilities that could give a higher maximum. Ending your turn without spending all Action Points will make your next turn come faster.

Actions and Movements can be used interchangeably, there’s no set order. This means you can move, attack a target, move again and then perform a quicker action in any order you like, provided you have the required resources.

Consumable items consume no Action Points but can only be used once per battle.

Leave nothing to Chance
Mercenaries train their entire life, and competence in battle is the pride of any sellsword worth their coin.

You will find those employing both ranged and melee weapons to always strike true. Your strategy will not fail based on the whims of chance.

Weapon Types
Ranged weapons like Pistols, Rifles and Crossbows will require a clear shot at the target however, something often blocked by allies, obstacles or other enemies. A certain distance is also required.

Those armed with melee weapons can take advantage of the enemy’s back and flank being exposed, dealing additional damage when exploited.

Wide range attacks like the Blunderbuss are excellent when trying to hit multiple targets at once, but fire indiscriminately, meaning they can put allies in harm’s way as well.

Adrenaline
Adrenaline builds in battle as units deal damage or take damage. The higher your levels of adrenaline, the greater the chance of scoring a Critical Hit, dealing significantly more damage.
Upon landing a Critical Hit, your adrenaline will plummet back to 0.

Units with a higher Skill stat will build adrenaline more quickly.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1094730/view/3024700820931856521

Ep 5: Arm Thyself

Arm Thyself
Weapons and armour are key to survive any battle. Beyond adding protection and increasing parameters, many pieces of equipment come with important benefits you should keep track of.

Finding equipment or purchasing it lets you unlock new classes. Actively searching for new types of weapons and armour will greatly improve the versatility of your Mercenaries.

Armour
Armour comes in two categories, Light Armour and Heavy Armour. Classes using Heavy Armour generally focus on more survivability, while those donning Light Armour are often faster and can move across the battlefield with greater ease.
Some pieces of armour have unique passive effects. Make sure to find the best synergy between a class and the armour they wear.

Weapons
Weapons improve offensive capabilities and teach new techniques. Abilities become available by equipping the weapon that teaches it. Once used enough in battle, the ability is learned permanently and the Mercenary can learn the next.
Passive abilities are a bit different. Performing any action in combat while having the weapon equipped that teaches a passive ability will contribute to learning it permanently.

Cross Class
Once an active ability is learned, it can be “Cross Classed”. Each unit can use up to 3 abilities they’ve learned from any other class on top of the ones they have as their current class. Either augment the strengths of your current class with abilities from others, or cover weaknesses. Passive abilities cannot be cross classed, and are only available when the unit is the associated class.

Stay versatile, with a well equipped party and your victory over foes is almost always certain.

Humorism
The old techniques of manipulating the alchemy in the human body have been a staple of combat ever since their discovery. It is vital to master these concepts, for your enemies have already done so as well…

The 4 Humors
The body contains 4 different humors, each a distinct colour:

• Nigredo, the black humor
  
• Rubedo, the red humor
  
• Albedo, the white humor
  
• Citrinitas, the yellow humor

Many abilities, aside from their usual effects, often apply “stacks” of imbalance of these humors, indicated by the coloured markers above the ability icon. Each unit can have a maximum of 3 stacks of each colour on them.

The 4 Catalysts
Usually these stacks do very little on their own, but they can be “Catalyzed” into catalysts, using a “Catalyzing Ability”. Almost all units have an ability like this, based on the type of weapon they have equipped. Striking a target with this ability will combine the valid combinations of Humors into Catalysts. Like the Humors, there are 4 different catalysts:

• Crimson Catalyst, combined Rubedo and Nigredo
  
• Bronze Catalyst, combined Rubedo and Citrinitas
  
• Silver Catalyst, combined Albedo and Nigredo
  
• Gold Catalyst, combined Albedo and Citrinitas

To help visualize the relation between humors, you can use the “Alchemy Wheel” in combat to see if the humors are adjacent and form a combination.

Creating a Catalyst will consume the valid stacks, and deal significantly increased damage to the target. Combined with Trinkets, each of which having a unique effect when utilizing Humorism, will cause devastating effects on the targets.

 

[KateMicucci]

I think calling muskets "rifles" is a common issue in translation.

Crossbows as weapons in this time period is kind of weird, but I can see it as crossbows were still popular for hunting.

"Blunderbusses" is a weapon I despise. The word is historically accurate, but they are made out in video games to be much more common than they were. Any musket could be loaded with small shot to get the shotgun effect, and that was very common even in war. Blunderbusses in games usually have that ugly looney toons funnel muzzle, which seems to be what magically makes them a shotgun in video games. Some historical examples have the flared muzzle but its much more subtle. Blunderbuss is also an ugly word. I'd rather call them fowlers.

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1094730/view/5266367003252926758

Ep 6: The Sounds of the City

Warcave is pleased to announce the Black Legend OST, composed by Vadim Krakhmal, will be available for purchase upon the game’s release either individually or in a bundle with the game.

Now you can listen to the melancholic, immersive sounds of the city, or the adrenaline inducing battle tracks outside the walls of Grant.

You can check out a sample of what's to come in the soundtrack on the Black Legend Soundtrack page.

The Black Legend OST contains the following tracks:

1. Black Legend
   
   
2. The Streets of Grant
   
3. Whispers of the City
   
4. The Cover of Fog
   
5. Grant us our Wish
   
6. Pandaemonium
   
   
7. Claws of Gold
   
8. Old Friend, New Enemy
   
9. Hope at the Horizon
   
   
10. Robes of Scarlet
    
11. Skirmish in the Street
    
12. Dance of Steel
    
13. Tithe of Blood
    
14. Delirium
    
15. Those Who Breathe Fog
    
    
16. Crimson Coral
    
17. Broken Legend
    
18. Intoxicating Amber
    
19. Visions of Gold

 

[Acrux]

The first reviews are in - mostly mixed. It looks like the combat is solid, but unimaginative. Complaints about UI and graphics, and some early game balance. The classes and alchemy system seem to be praised for the most part.

The historical fantasy element intrigues me, so I may end up checking it out soon.

https://www.gamewatcher.com/reviews/black-legend-review/13276
https://www.psu.com/reviews/black-legend-ps4-review-an-engaging-tactical-rpg-let-down-by-a-spread-of-technical-issues/
https://turnbasedlovers.com/review/black-legend/
https://explorminate.co/black-legend-review/

 

[Kem0sabe]

 

[Infinitron]

GameWatcher 7.5/10
PlayStation Universe 6/10
TheGamer 2.5/5
TheSixthAxis 5/10
TheXboxHub 3.5/5
Video Chums 6.5/10
XboxAddict 7/10

 

[fantadomat]

Is that EA or full release?

 

[Infinitron]

Early Access games don't get review scores.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Anyone played it yet?

 

[Infinitron]

Released on GOG: https://af.gog.com/game/black_legend?as=1649904300

Not yet on Steam.

Geel, Belgium, March 25, 2021—Warcave is thrilled today to launch Black Legend,—the dark, turn-based strategy RPG featuring an intricate alchemy battle system, 15 playable classes and a thrilling story about a bloodthirsty cult—on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Black Legend is also available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X via backwards compatibility.

Black Legend is available for all platforms for $29.99 USD, with a 10% discount available on Steam, PlayStation and Switch for the first week, and is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, and Korean.

In Black Legend, survival depends on your team of mercenaries mastering both strategic combat and the art of alchemy in this dark fantasy world directly inspired by folklore and stories from 17th-century Belgium and the Netherlands. Explore deep into the cursed city of Grant to battle cultists, monsters, and more on your quest to eradicate a madness inflicting fog that shrouds the streets.

Key Details about Black Legend:

Strategy
To succeed in the city of Grant, players must approach each combat with a tactical focus. Unit placement, ability combos, and well-chosen attacks are key to survival. Black Legend focuses on old-school strategy vibes, but without the 95% percent chance misses. As players build their band of mercenaries, it’s important to consider which class, what unique abilities, and what items will lead to success.

Alchemy
This ancient branch of natural philosophy adds an explosive twist to combat in Black Legend. Based on the real history behind alchemy, this system includes the four stages of the magnum opus, also known as the process to create the philosopher’s stone,—nigredo, albedo, citrinitas and rubedo. Players can mix up ranged and melee combat by using different combinations of the four alchemic attacks to injure, poison, and debilitate foes.

Classes
For fans of strategy games, one of the most exciting features of Black Legend is the ability to change team members to one of 15 different classes that are unlocked as the game progresses. With classes ranging from Alchemist to Sharp Shooter, there are options for all kinds of preferred strategy styles.

To unlock a class, the player must collect all the equipment required for that class through exploration or battle. Unlocked skills can be used by characters, no matter their class, opening up a wide range of cross-class builds for players to experiment with.

Exploration
Free-exploration gives players the opportunity to investigate the many alleys and streets in the city of Grant. Different districts host a wide variety of architecture and environments, with the chance to discover hidden paths, a treasure trove of new items, hidden quest, or recruitable character.

Story
For fans of rich historic storytelling, one of the most exciting aspects of Black Legend are the creatures inspired by centuries-old stories, respun in a unique way. Based on Belgian and Dutch folklore, these stories and the monsters that emerge from them have ancient roots, predating the Early Middle Ages. Players can expect to meet cannibalistic shapeshifters (Old Red Eyes), cat-eating, baby-stealing witches (Witte Wieven), shape-shifting water demons (Nekkers) and more.

Availability
Black Legend is available today, March 25, 2021, for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Switch, and through backwards compatibility for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, for $29.99 USD. Black Legend is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, and Korean.

 

[Infinitron]

Out on Steam now too:



https://www.pcgamesn.com/black-legend/xcom-alchemy-flemish-folklore

Black Legend is XCOM with alchemy and Flemish folklore
Battle through the cursed city of Grant in this new tactical RPG

Black Legend is a new tactical RPG that takes the turn-based gameplay of XCOM and draws heavily from 17th century Dutch and Belgian history to give it a dark fantasy twist. Its developer, Warcave, puts a slightly lighter spin on their release, calling it an effort by “a bunch of Belgium-based developers to commemorate the Golden Age of a neighbouring country they seceded from in 1830”.

It’s set in the fictional city of Grant, and the player must recruit a squadron of mercenaries to aid in the fight against a deadly, fanatical cult that’s taken over and cursed the urban sprawl. The game features 15 playable classes, allowing for quite a lot of variety when it comes to your squad composition, and plenty of scope for experimenting with different synergies as you progress through the game. You explore the city and pick up quests in real-time, before transitioning into a turn-based combat system for tactical battles.

Black Legend also features alchemy mechanics based on the theory of the ‘four humours’ that prevailed in medical science until the 1850s. Warcave wants to veer away from the classic magic-based combat systems that you see in other fantasy titles: “our design team looked more into the science of the time and stumbled across Humorism and its relation to alchemy,” says Menno van der Heijden, Black Legend’s game director.

“It quickly became a key aspect of our narrative and gameplay design because it provided both a good sense of immersion as well as a unique twist that set us apart from many other turn-based RPGs.”



Black Legend’s main campaign lasts around ten hours if you’re in a hurry, with side content adding roughly seven hours depending on how thorough you are. Warcave estimates that the whole game will take new players around 25 hours to beat, but it’s designed with replayability in mind.

“We have a scaling New Game Plus system where you can carry over some character progress while scaling up the difficulty of existing encounters,” explains Heijden.

“Additionally, some side quests are only available depending on the gender of your main character, which can be a reason for completionists to start a second playthrough as a different gender. And of course, there are always achievements to be hunted.”

Warcave is also aware of the need to scale the challenge of Black Legend to suit both casual audiences and hardcore strategy game fans. Heijden hopes to strike a balance between giving the player meaningful choices when it comes to difficulty and immersion, without compromising on the story they want to tell.

“Ultimately, we decided to give the player the tools to shape the game’s difficulty according to their preference,” says Heijden. “Want an immersive survival experience in this near-abandoned city? You can disable healing after every fight, which forces you to think about resource management and the consumable items in your inventory. Want minimal resistance when exploring the streets? Turn down the rate of enemy encounters and you won’t have to repeat fights as often after completing them the first time.”

Black Legend is available today for PC via Steam.

 

[Acrux]

I've played a couple of hours now, and the combat and exploration feel pretty good. Class development is similar to Final Fantasy Tactics type games, where you unlock class and cross-class abilities. UI is functional, but there's some numbers and mechanics that are too obscured. For instance, one of my characters has "stomach punch" which lets be put the red debuff on enemies. When you combine that with the, uh...black debuff...you can get a damage multiplier. So it's really effective early game, but I have no idea why this one guy has it and no one else does.

Healing so far early on is tough to come by, and makes you really think about whether or not you want to take on enemies. You have to think about starting positioning and so on - ranged weapons have a minimum range, etc.

For now, I'd say it's around 7/10, but if they fix a few things this could easily go up to a solid 8.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Yeah the concept of Humors is pretty neat.

 

[Infinitron]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1094730/announcements/detail/2990926997069538971

Patch 1: Bug fixes and improvements

Hi mercenaries!

We've just pushed our first update including hotfixes to the gameplay, UI, localisation and QOL improvements. More updates are on the horizon, including improvement of Russian and German localisation. Thank you for your patience.

Below you can read all the hotfixes.

Localization

• The wedding in white quest in Russian no longer directs you to the Harbour district when it should point you to the Shipyard.
  
• The Dutch localization now shows the correct stat scaling for every class.
  
• The Chinese localization now no longer omits certain characters from text, properly showing the entire text.

Bugs

• The enemies in the second tutorial combat no longer allow you to sneak by them, which would result in the player character getting stuck upon starting combat.
  
• Fixed the hero death popup on death sometimes showing a deprecated version which does not allow you to click OK.
  
• Launching the game when offline on steam will no longer force you to quit the game.
  
• Launching the game when offline on GOG will now award you with your achievements upon launching the game while connected.
  
• Fixed crashes related to: animations, inventory filtering, level loading, healing, taking damage from multiple instances at once.
  
• Fixed a hair and hat clipping issue for various NPC’s.
  
• Recruitable mercenaries should no longer spawn on top of each other, note that this change will not remove any already stacked groups until leaving the area.
  
• Recruited mercenaries are no longer stuck with their rapier forever, it can now be unequipped and they can properly change classes again.
  
• The squares that you placed your units on in either tutorial no longer block you from using melee when standing on them.
  
• The climbable stable gate at the start is no longer climbable and will not get you stuck.

Other improvements

• Rebalanced some voice line volumes, mainly for Jan in the Merchant Guild and Pieter greeting you upon entering the city.
  
• Gates and archways should no longer cause the camera to quickly sneak under them when running through.
  
• The player no longer has control of their character while petting the dog or opening gates, so the air cannot be opened or pet.
  
• Stomach Punch now shows you what weapon it’s learned from.
  
• The game now launches in the resolution of the monitor being used upon first startup. If you have already launched the game and are having trouble with it not opening correctly on the default resolution, you can remove the saved video settings at C:Users{Username}AppDataLocalblacklegendSavedSaveGames
  
• Playing on ultrawide resolutions no longer forces you to play very zoomed in.
  
• Ultrawide resolutions will now be part of the resolution options for fullscreen.
  
• Recruitable mercenaries now start at level 1 instead of 0.
  
• When replacing one of your mercenaries with a new recruit, you can choose to take the gear of the one you’re replacing.
  
• Various grid fixes in the Harbour District and Shipyard District.
  
• Improved visual for the Bowstring quest.

UI

• Class selection menu now shows the entire class description, including growth, rather than being hidden behind the scrolling text.
  
• The cross-class ability selection window and class selection window are cleaner and no longer have class widgets being cut in half.
  
• Increased the size of certain small text elements.
  
• Added the class name of taught abilities to the item tooltip so you don’t need to know the class icons by heart to know which class it’s for.
  
• Improved the visual for the compass UI element for better readability.
  
• Improved the visual for the loot log icon.
  
• Several UI elements have been modified to better fit on very wide monitors.

 

[Lhynn]

So i just beat the game. This isnt so much a pure rpg as a dungeon crawler through and through. The city is a dungeon with the districts being different "floors".

I started the game in medium difficulty but soon i found myself restarting, not because of how hard it was, but because all the difficulty options affect do is make it more grindy (Less money, the need to use in-combat heal to save on healing outside of combat. Because nothing is more thrilling than having your entire team skipping turns while the last nonthreat enemy attacks you to get your guys up to full before finishing the fight. Needing to use your skills more, finding more trash fights through the game, or even gutting the character building system by making it impossible to learn skills... why?)

The game presents a gear based skill/class system where you unlock classes and skills by acquiring and equipping different gear. Classes affect your stat growth rate and they have both exclusive skills and skills that can be cross-classed as long as youve learnt them. Of course almost every skill ever worth using is class specific, they generally eat your entire AP reserve and can only ever used once per round, but it really doesnt matter, you will never have enough AP to manage that. This leads to a game where you use the exact same skill with any given character until a beter one becomes available, so every fight feels the exact fucking same.

Enemies scale to your level, so the game actually becomes both harder and easier as you play. Harder because your squishies will probably get obliterated if a sharpshooter kills them with their first action, but easier because you can do pretty much the same thing. You will be gaining 1-2 levels on every fight, so by the end of the game you will be level 120+. And you will be backtracking constantly. Through the game you will find 4 bosses, they are hardly a challenge but can prove entertaining, as they actually have different skills and animations.

I enjoyed the fact that you had no maps, and the layout of the districts is different enough that you should never get lost for more than a second if you are paying attention.

Other than that i thought the final twist was pretty clever. Didnt hate the game but didnt love it either, lands squarely on a 5/10. Would not play it again and would only recommend to people looking for a dungeon crawler with cool aesthetics to waste their time on it.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.blacklegendgame.com/2021/04/02/patch-2-ux-improvements/

Patch 2: UX improvements

Hi Mercenaries!

Our second update is live! This patch involves improvement to the localization (German, Russian and Simplified Chinese), bugfixes, general improvements to the gameplay and UI upgrades. Also, no more potato chip sounds!

To everyone who is waiting for the mini map, this will be coming in the next update!

The full patch notes can be read below:

Localization

• German, Chinese, and Russian localization have all been entirely revised, generally improving the quality of translation.
• Certain text blocks, most notably in the difficulty window and journal are now localized.

Bugs

• Oliver, the vendor in the merchant guild, will no longer tell you to go both west and east to reach the harbour.
• Maarten will no longer get himself stuck on a raised surface during either tutorial combat.
• Fixed a hidden wall in the Graveyard District behind the Church.
• Fixed a hidden wall in the Shipyard District, near the docks, that prevented the player from looting a chest.
• Fixed some collision on the walls in the Graveyard District, which allowed for the player to surf on them.
• Fixed an issue in the Harbour District where the player was able to walk off of a pier and get stuck on the water.
• Fixed an inconvenient collision issue in the Harbour District where the player could not completely walk in between two objects at the cranes at the docks.
• Fixed the Male Sewer Rat Tunic so the head doesn’t clip through it anymore at the top.
• The mouse cursor should no longer randomly appear when using a controller.
• The main menu version number now shows the correct number.
• Skipping the intro cinematic after the Black Legend logo has appeared no longer causes it to get stuck on screen.
• The Wedding in White sidequest will no longer send you back to fetch the scythe you already have after charging it. This change will also automatically complete the uncompletable fetch quest for anyone who was affected by it.

Improvements

• The spawn location of one of the White Wives in the Harbour District has been moved so she will not get stuck behind a wall.
• Some minor graphical and clipping issues have been resolved and improved in the Graveyard District.
• Sprinting speed has been increased.
• Status effect icons have received an update to improve clarity.

UI

• Unlocking a class now presents you with a popup, more clearly indicating when new classes are unlocked and telling you where you can change classes.
• The pause menu now explicitly shows you a save button which is disabled if your difficulty settings don’t allow in-combat saving.
• Units can now be healed from the mercenaries overview window, by using the icon next to their details (top face button on controller).
• Reworked controller navigation for the mercenaries window to support the new healing system and no longer cycle through mercenaries.
• Improved the visuals for the Status Effect icons, so they are better visible.
• The event log has received updated visuals to make it stand out a bit more.
• The “select class” button has been widened to improve readability.
• Quest-relevant trinkets without effects will now show their description in their tooltips.
• Status effects icons in the bottom bar are larger to stand out more.

Sound

• Dog type enemies don’t silently take attacks anymore, whining whenever they get hit or get killed.
• Dog type enemies have gotten rid of their potato chips eating habits.
• The Warcry ability now has a sound effect.

New game plus

• Tutorials no longer show again when starting new game plus
• Key items are removed from the inventory on new game plus, so certain quests will no longer be automatically completed and you can’t just pass through all locked gates.

 

[Storyfag]

Didnt hate the game but didnt love it either, lands squarely on a 5/10.

Ah, I see you are using the oldschool scale

 

[agris]

1 is horribru, 10 is exceptional. always has been, always will be.

thanks for the write up Lhynn

 

[Nortar]

Sadly the setting is the best thing in this game.
In addition to what Lhynn said, I can mention terrible AI.

I've seen enemies with the Bleeding debuff (taking damage on each move) run themselves to death with no apparent reason.
Even ranged enemies, who have no reason to move at all, do that.

There's no difference in behavior between different kinds of enemies.
Wild dogs and elite cultists act the same.
Dogs in a pack would willingly enter the fire, pick targets individually, maneuver for flacking and backstabs.
And never retreat even after being massacred and outnumbered as retreating would tarnish their battle honor I guess.

So effectively there's just one enemy just wearing different skins.
That makes combat pretty predictable and pretty boring.

The amount of available healing removes any danger from the game.
There are at least 3 different skills that no only provide healing, but also remove humor stacks, negating the risk of being catalyzed by enemies.

There's an impressive amount of weapons, but they all act the same.
A spear, a sword, and a dagger have the same range; just like a crossbow and a matchlock pistol.

So no real danger, no real variety, no real fun.