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

[Infinitron]

https://www.blacklegendgame.com/2021/04/16/patch-3-minimap-world-map/

Patch 3: Minimap & World Map

Hi Mercenaries!

The third patch is live now! Bringing you a much requested, highly anticipated feature: minimap & world map! No more clueless running around, no more checking of every road sign, now you know exactly where to go with a simple look on the map! Together with the map, we are also deploying some bugfixes, improvements and balance changes. Some classes won’t even know what hit them! (looking at you, Duelist).

The patch notes can be read in detail below.

UI

• A minimap has been added to the game, allowing easier navigation within the levels. For players who prefer to play without the minimap, there is a gameplay setting to disable it.
• A world map has been added to the game, showing you the various districts you have visited and where you currently are.
• Some bosses have had their size in the bestiary reduced so they fit within the screen.
• Enemy names in the bestiary will no longer spill out of their windows.
• Enemy descriptions in the bestiary will no longer be clipped.
• You no longer need to go to the “buy” side of the vendor to sell items lower than row 2 when using a controller.
• Mercenary recruitment buttons have increased width to better support localization.

Localization

• The russian localization for the quest “a wedding in white” has been updated.

Bugs

• Players and enemies will no longer go “off track” and bounce back and forth when climbing on higher combat speed settings.
• Weapons that reduce the cost of catalyzing abilities to 1AP now work as intended.
• Pressing F12 to take a screenshot no longer pops the weapon tooltip.
• Passive abilities will no longer show twice, hiding potential third passives.
• Scrolling down in weapon selection when using a controller should now be more consistent and not block the player from scrolling past the first two rows.
• Steam cloud now correctly synchronises save games.
• Attempting to open your inventory during the unit placement before the final fight will no longer greet you with a white screen.
• Using a quarter tree now properly plays an animation and sound.
• Combat speed will no longer have a chance to affect free movement animation speeds.
• Single gates now also lock your movement during the animation.
• Enemies right outside of the merchant guild no longer pop in and vanish when entering the commoner district.
• Machteld should now properly spawn for all female characters.
• Polished the Spawn Locations in the Graveyard District, City Center, Church District and the Commoner District.
• Polished the grass foliage in the Graveyard District.
• Fixed an area in the City Center where a player could get stuck between vases and boxes.
• Fix the animation for the Plague Doctor’s Beacon of Ain Soph into a more fitting one.

New game plus

• Difficulty is no longer reset to easy upon starting a new game plus cycle.
• You can now adjust difficulty settings before starting a new game plus cycle.

Spoiler

Balance

• Experience gains are reworked to not give all of the experience to the unit executing the action, splitting a part of it between party members. Higher level units will gain less, while lower level units will gain more. Additionally, overall experience gains have been slightly reduced.
• Revamped most random encounters throughout all chapters in order to have a more logical spread in terms of enemy count and difficulty.
• Massively buffed Benedict so he’s no longer a pushover for your optimised party.
• Throwable items scale with unit level, keeping their damage relevant later in the game.
• Duelist and Rogue now gain less agility per level to reduce initiative snowballing. As compensation for this change, the Duelist gained better stamina scaling and the Rogue gained better strength scaling.
• Units left in the barracks will scale up relative to the level of the lowest level member in your party to keep them relevant and not forcing you to train a level 1 unit.
• Area of effect skills grant more experience to keep them in line with other skills.
• Shout abilities no longer follow line of sight rules.
• Bleeding damage has been moderately reduced.
• Mercenary stat growth has been improved, with strength growth going up to C and stamina growth going up to B.

Specific ability changes

• Blade flurry only applies one stack of humor (was one per hit).
• Visceral thrust only applies one stack of Rubedo (down from two).
• Brutus damage significantly reduced.
• Inspiring shout also removes a random humor stack from affected allies.
• Pocket sand applies a stack of Nigredo and the experience to unlock it permanently has been significantly reduced.
• Rightly end no longer applies humor stacks, but deals significantly more damage.
• Blunt side only applies a single stack of Nigredo (down from two).
• Execute only applies a single stack of Albedo (down from two), but deals moderately more damage.
• Snipe only applies a single stack of Nigredo (down from two).
• Multishot applies double humor stacks if it critically strikes.
• Glass cannon applies two stacks of Rubedo (up from one).
• High powder shot applies two stacks of Albedo (up from one), but deals moderately less damage.
• Flammen now also applies a stack of Nigredo.
• Bottle o’ rum removes a random humor stack from the user.
• Stomach punch applies two stacks of Rubedo (up from one).
• Disarming strike removes two action points from the target (up from one) and deals slightly more damage.
• Sweeping strike reduces hit targets’ movement points by three for one turn.
• Kidney shot applies two stacks of Nigredo (up from one).
• First aid heals slightly more.

 

[agris]

That’s unfortunate, a method of world navigation that is standard in older-style games is actively patched out of this one due to customer demands for a quest compass-type mechanic.

There’s a lesson here for the wannabe devs on the codex, and I believe it involves setting expectations.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.blacklegendgame.com/2021/05/03/patch-4-guides/

Patch 4: Guides

Hi Mercenaries!

The fourth update is now live! With this update we have replaced the existing tutorial window with a more comprehensive and expansive “Guides” section! This new section will be the source of all information for statuses, effects and mechanics. Together with the updated explanation of mechanics, we are also deploying more bugfixes, QOL improvements and UI upgrades.

The patch notes can be read in detail below.

UI

• Updated the minimap for the Church District. The Banquet Street landmark is now placed on the correct street.
• The turn indicator visual is updated for better readability.
• The tutorial window has been replaced with a more expansive “Guides” tab in the party menu. The areas that would normally open the tutorial instead open up the Guides tab on the relevdaaaant category.
• The “start combat” button is larger to better accommodate localization.
• There is now a question mark next to “use of philosophers stone” difficulty setting that can be hovered to show what the philosopher’s stone’s effects are.
• A one-time highlight has been added to the “select class” button and “inventory healing” buttons to further emphasise their importance.

• [SWITCH ONLY] Updated the visuals for the Dpad for better readability.

Bugs

• Fixed Flammen (Dragoon) not properly applying nigredo.
• Fixed Pocket Sand (Mercenary) not properly applying nigredo.
• Improved the visualisation of the Pyrotechnics (Dragoon) area of effect so it always shows all tiles that will be hit.
• Using the fast travel well no longer prevents you from opening the pause menu upon arriving at your destination.
• The loading screen is no longer stretched on widescreens.
• The Mercy Stroke dagger now drops during the main quest Scouting the Scouts.
• The free movement UI no longer vanishes upon entering new game plus.
• Players can no longer reach the City Center early, which would result in getting softlocked by the gate back to the Commoner District.
• There can no longer be situations where a fifth party member is added, causing issues.
• Ogier should no longer be invisible when talking to him in front of the church.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the world map toggle button to become unbound.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the second Maarten you recruit to have negative HP.
• Grand Piers has further strengthened his resolve and properly prevents you from killing him from the back or sides.
• Fixed an issue causing tightly packed groups of enemies to freeze up or crash the game when engaging combat with them.
• Maarten no longer changes his hair colour at times.
• Fixed an issue that could cause generated party members to have mismatching names and visuals.

Quality of Life

• Autofill for consumable items is now always on by default and only disabled when explicitly disabling the auto fill for a certain slot.
• The currently selected unit during the pre combat placement phase is now highlighted white to clarify it’s being moved.
• Whenever the game asks you to select your facing before ending your turn, the camera recenters on the currently active character.
• The sprint action for controllers has been moved from the left joystick press to the right face button (B on Xbox controllers).
• The tab key can now also be used to open the inventory.
• Treasure chests now have a glowing material, to make them easier to find.

Balance

• The price of molotovs has been increased to 1000 per molotov (from 250).
• First Aid (Mercenary) no longer grants experience.
• Christiaan’s anchor has been reworked to now maintain damage taken when it is grabbed, making it more reasonable to bring its health down.
• The tutorial enemies scale with difficulty settings and NG+ cycle.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.blacklegendgame.com/2021/06/07/patch-5-passive-effects-achievements-stella/

Patch 5: Passive effects, achievements & Stella

Hi Mercenaries!

The fifth update is now live! With this patch we’ve brought fixes to achievements, the Black Death questline, passive effects and other miscellaneous improvements.

The patch notes can be read in detail below.

Achievements

• The Cultist Cleanup achievement has been fixed to correctly track map completion progress. To unlock it on a playthrough where you have already defeated each group of cultists at least once, visiting each map once will cause the achievement to trigger – this includes smaller maps that don’t explicitly have enemy packs like the Merchant Guild.
• The Weapon Collector achievement no longer requires you to find nonexistent weapons. To unlock this achievement on a character that has already collected all weapons, unequip any weapon or loot any weapon from the ground.

Passive effects

• Bloodcoral Blade has been fixed to consistently increase maximum MP and heal the correct amount.
• The Robes of the Amber Walker now correctly provides its effects rather than the effects of the Bloodcoral Captain’s Coat. If a character already has the robes currently equipped, this change will not be applied until the robes are unequipped or swapped with another piece of armour.
• The Buccaneer’s Self Preservation passive skill was fixed to properly provide extra MP and AP when below 50% HP.

The Black Death questline

• Loading a save that was quickly created after helping out Stella in the Graveyard District should no longer prevent you from continuing the quest.
• Stella no longer has male voice lines for executing combat actions.
• Stella should no longer get stuck when running off after helping her out.
• Accepting Stella’s request to join your party and swapping her with Maarten should no longer crash the game.
• Stella will now always join you in combat against the cultist in the Graveyard District.

Miscellaneous

• The area around the statue south in the Church District has been updated to better allow camera navigation on and off the platform.
• Killing the last enemy in a group now properly grants skill- and party experience.
• Fixed an issue that could cause your party to expand beyond four units.
• Fixed a potential crash relating to combat.
• Skipping the tutorial no longer prevents you from opening the pause menu upon entering the Merchant Guild for the first time.

 

[Darth Canoli]

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.

I had my eye on this one, dark settings, fast animations, seemed good enough until i read the reviews here...
Maybe on 50%+ sale someday.

 

[LESS T_T]

Looks like the company is no more. Only 2 employees registered on LinkedIn. 26 registered as ex-employees, many of them left the company on February, and some of them are hired by Rogueside, related company of this developer. Rogueside is known for Guns, Gore & Cannoli and upcoming Warhammer run-and-gun shooter Shootas, Blood & Teef.