The Legend of Korra budget cash-in Platinum game

[Mangoose]

Is Legend of Korra similar to this?

Fuck that shit buy Korra

Tried Korra, it's kinda meh. Mechanics are quite similar to DmC, but simplified to the state, when fights are just long and boring QTE.

Okay so I've played a lot of Korra because I'm a fanboy.

First of all, I can't really say whether or not it's similar to MGR because I didn't play much of MGR. MGR didn't seem as fun as DMCs or Bayonetta to me. Maybe because there were too many ranged mooks so it wasn't as fun to dance around enemies trying to slash at you.

Also I am being mega-facetious when I say "fuck this shit buy Korra" lol. Buy it if you want to play it, otherwise there are other good games too.

Back on subject... From what I've read of MGR and what I've played of Bayonetta, Korra is like both in the importances of Parrying/Witch-Time dodging/Countering (respectively). However, it is most similar to Bayonetta in that you only have to time the button to do the "special-defense." Which in Korra's case, is a timing the Block button to return a Counter attack.

Now, baturinsky does describe the beginning 1/4 maybe 1/3 of the game where you don't have your elements, so that you have to over-rely on the counter system (which may be considered a QTE) to win your fights. However, the thing is that countering doesn't kill - it stuns.

Once you get multiple elements, you are given varying opportunities on how to execute those stuns. Note also that (let's call these QTEs "executions") executions can kill multiple mooks close together even if they are at normal health. So often pragmatism figures in how to execute that enemy using which element. For example, if an enemy is in general far away, you'd probably want to use a Water execution, but if the enemy is far away but with 5 mooks between you, you switch to Fire so you can do the double-dodge "rush" and get to the enemy that way. If the enemy is close by I'm not sure if it matters whether to use Air, Fire, or Earth... I think Earth might hit more mooks in the area or do more damage in the area. But perhaps you don't even want to Execute, and you spam Air spins so you can keep enemies staggered and even stunned the whole time.

---

Okay now I'll give an honest review of the game. To try to be as unbiased as I can, first I'll talk very generally about the game, then delve into the specific details and the negatives, and in the end talk more specifically about the mechanics I liked.

Very holistically, this game reminds me of Space Marine. Basically having the general pro of: Unique combat system in being able to switch between multiple and significantly different mechanics seamlessly, but with the general con of lack of encounter design/variety, map design/variety. Now I reiterate a holistic view because the specific strengths and weaknesses are not nearly the same in detail, but from a general "fun to play" point of view that's what you're going to feel.

Now specifically, I believe I wrote a review on Steam so I'll quote from that and elaborate.

Cons: Subpar graphics and variety/amount of content (including enemy types). Enemies, encounters, and equippable items could be balanced better. Sometimes over-reliance on counters. Naga running game and pro-bending are not interesting mechanically.

Well, fuck graphics, I don't really care, just mentioned it because other people care. Anyways, there is a severe lack of variety of enemy types and encounter design.

• Enemy wise, you've got several types of enemies: Chi-blockers, Spirits, Benders (fun non-mooks), and Mechs and Giant Spirits (not fun non-mooks).
  • Chi-blocker types:
    1. Guys that throw bolas at you which you must either dodge or counter.
    2. Guys that throw electric blasts at you which can't be guarded so you HAVE to run around dodging like a faggot.
    3. Melee guys that will take away your bending for X seconds if you don't dodge, block, or counter them.
    4. Guys on bikes that are pretty fun - and moderately difficult - to try to knock em off their bikes. You gotta be in the air shooting Water or Air for this, otherwise you just get turned into roadkill. Unless you are really really really good.
    5. In general, 1-2 are not really fun but make up the most of the encounters, sometimes you get 3-4 and those are fun.
  • Spirit types:
    1. Uh... there are these melee guys that either attack you normally or tunnel under the ground to attack you some time below. Getting attacked normally is really boring, very easy to dodge or counter, and you don't risk getting chi-blocked as above. However, the tunneled attacks are interesting... I haven't learned to counter them well - I just keep on the move as much as possible.
    2. Flying guys that either shoot shit at you or divebomb you. Not very interesting. Only interesting thing is that if you counter their divebomb (which is kinda easy), you can spin them around hitting a bunch of mooks around you.
    3. So in general these guys are kinda boring.
  • Benders
    • Types
      1. Fire-guy: Fast as fuck, hard as fuck to defend against. Play keep away and CC him, or somehow time an Earth attack to stun him and then pummel at him.
      2. Water-guy: Normal speed, but even harder as fuck to defend against, because Waterbending moves let you quickly throw multiple hits at you, so you can't just spam dodge or guard (dodging 3 times makes you pause). Same as Fire-guy, you have to use your regular movement to get out of the way and then hit him with what you got. Basically Water-guy tries to leave a smaller window to let you hit him, whereas Fire-guy is just zooming all over the place and it's hard to catch him.
      3. Earth-guy: Slow, but again hard to defend against, and if he hits you you are so fucked. I don't think I explicitly said, but one Earth hit will stun you. Also I didn't explain that Bending attacks can be charged, so these Benders can take an arbitrary amount of time charging before smashing into you with whatever attack. Oops. So now you have to really pay attention to when this guy is going to slam a pillar up your ass. Now, since he's slow it's easier to get an attack vector on him... but... I forgot to explain that Earth attacks usually can't be blocked, so while you're wailing on him he might be charging up a pillar to shove up your ass, lol.
    • Problems
      1. They only come in one set: Fire-guy, Water-guy, Earth-guy. They do complement and supplement each other well, but there is not a single different mixture of Benders (IIRC). It would have been really nice to see some.. well.. any other mix. And I don't see it being hard to implement, since the fucking models, textures, animations, AI, etc. are all there to be cloned. Sigh.
      2. There seems to be no AI difference between a bender of the same type. Well, honestly, every Fire bender is a literal clone (including model and texture) of every other Fire bender. I don't know if this is an AI problem or if it's just because a bending style on its own is not complex enough. And from the top of my head, I don't think the benders use all of the combos available.
      3. No Air benders to fight against. Sure, it's based on whatever story, but it would seriously add to the game, gameplay-wise.
  • Mechs and Giant spirits
    • You counter their attacks, and snip away at their health.
    • Seriously, that's it.

• Misc.
  • Maps are crappy in variety, but more or less as you would expect from at $15 game.
  • Pro-bending is too simple in mechanics, not much to talk about.
  • Naga running game is also simple and not much to talk about, but it is a fun interlude during the game. But that one FUCKING segment fighting THREE MECHS while riding a POLAR BEAR DOG tests your willpower to not throw your controller at your monitor.

Okay some good things now:

Pros: Decent mechanics, Good variance between elements, as well as a decent variety of combos that have different uses rather han just for flavor. Ability to switch elements and continue combos rather than restart them.

• The differences between the elements were already partially shown earlier when I described the enemy benders and in describing other random. I'm too lazy to go into detail so I'll speak kinda generally. Each bending style has its strengths and weaknesses, but the elements are not niched.
  • If you're fighting a large number of mooks, you can do AOE Earth combos or AOE Air combos. If you time and place yourself correctly, you can use Water bending to set up an AOE freeze. In the same situation, if you want to take out a specific enemy type, you can use Firebending to quickly zoom around and lay the smack down before switching to Earth or Air.
  • If you're fighting benders, you'll have to switch elements quite often. We already talked about possible strategies for the Bender enemies above, so now think about fighting 3 of them (one of each kind) and how to do that. Have fun.
  • You can also switch elements mid-combo without interrupting the combo. E.g. First two light attacks as Fire, then switch to Earth and use a heavy attack for an Earthquake combo. Actually one I like is the 5 Light -> 1 Heavy Air (uppercut) -> Charged Heavy Earth in the air (aoe pillar slam as you come down). And I suck at these.
• With bending, you don't have to rely on counters!
  • If someone is throwing a bola at you, you can negate it with a shot of water (and I think air?). You can block it with a pillar of Earth (and then kick that pillar at him). I don't think you can negate a electric attack with water but I think Earth still does block it.
  • You can later buy an item that allows you to dodge behind an enemy if you time the dodge perfectly, which means that instead of going la la la counter la la la water execution, you dodge right behind them and slam them in the face with an Earthbending fist.
  • But really, by the time you have your four elements and the combos for them, you should be able to pull off a loooong combo that continuous keeps your enemies staggered. No need to rely on any QTE system at this point.
• Encounter design on Extreme is harder.
  • Now, sadly, they did not add more enemies. But they made almost every encounter much harder. I'm replaying it now (accidentally deleted my save right at the last level of Extreme ) and I was worried I'll get bored, but I'm actually not that bored because holy shit I'm getting my ass kicked... Though that's kinda due to accidentally starting a New Game and thus having no elements or items unlocked...
    
  • Typical encounters will have more enemies, more enemy types (including Spirits early on, whereas in Normal they didn't come in until the last 1/3 of the game), and better AI. Now, I said earlier that bola and electric charge mooks were boring. They're not boring when there's 7 of them and a Mech in the distance throwing more electric charges at you, with the bola enemies also being able to use their bolas as electric whips. Then they also block you when you try to hit them (requiring you to either stun them, hit them with Earth attacks, or switch enemies). And also the window for a "perfect" counter or dodge is a lot tinier.
  • Added encounters that were not in earlier difficulties, such as 6 guys on bikes surprising the shit out of you.
  • Annoying extra enemies during set piece battles. Were you fighting 3 benders before? Now you fight 3 benders while a couple Chi Blockers drop in and tie you up, block you from bending, and shoot lightning at you so you have to move from where you wanted to be. It's even more fun when you're fighting a mech.
  • Actually, Normal difficulty is also pretty balanced, as you start out with no elements or items.

So, um.. what was my conclusion....


Oh yeah.

Conclusion: Because it is inevitable to make huge tradeoffs for a $15 game, I am glad to see prioritizing gameplay mechanics over graphics and amount of content. However, I would have liked to see better variety of enemies and encounters. Getting rid of Naga running game and pro-bending would have given more time to spend on encounter/enemy variety.

I would faceiously state it's 1/4 the quality of Bayonetta. Wait, oh my gosh, that's like the same difference between $15 and $60!

If you care about ratings, I'd maybe give it 3-3.5 out of 5.

For $15, it's good for what it is.

 

[Mangoose]

Oh I forgot to talk about how I feel the elements are not precisely balanced (didn't sleep last night lol). Sometimes I innately want to use one style more than the others.. however that may be because of encounter design and/or personal playstyle.

On the other hand I usually use all the elements in each larger encounter, and not as a conscious decision.

I dunno, I'm no expert at this type of game.

 

[7h30n]

Thanks, I needed a more in depth look at the game!

Too bad we don't get more Platinum games on PC.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Thanks for the impressions. I've tried it and the mechanics are pretty solid indeed.

 

[Mangoose]

Some videos:

First mech fight during your first playthrough. As you can see, it is pretty QTE in the beginning:

Spoiler

Here's much later in the game, can't remember if Normal or Extreme difficulty:

Spoiler

I fight some Benders on Extreme difficulty (which means extra enemies appear) and also after I accidentally deleted my save, so I only have Earth and Water (normally you'd have all four elements because they carry over from Normal difficulty, and finishing Normal is necessary to unlock Extreme):

Spoiler

And then the boring Pro-Bending minigame:

Spoiler

Finally the FUCKING NAGA FIGHTING MECHS LEVEL:

Spoiler

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Let's put some screens here.

The final boss is Crispy.

Who gets Andhaired in the later stage.


Very cool game. The graphics are on PS2 level, the locations aren't very detailed and you just smash everything that's not a pavement to gain more points for shopping. But the gameplay compensates it and we've got a good, arcade beatem up with 4 diffrent schools (water in the beginning, which IMO was kept as only option for player for too long), which can be leveled to be more deadly in the process. The enemies have little variation, typical mob guys with diffrent abilities, some of them on motorbikes. Later on when we face a gigantic robot, just like in many other games it becames a typical cannon fodder to kill. Learning how to use the schools effectively was a short, but fun process. I found wind school a little OP in the demons realm. You can beat it in 2 days without a sweat, but there is one thing that I liked. Which is how easily you could die if you charged like a maniac, especially with the guys who knew some of that magic kung fu.

 

[Mangoose]

Actually I do have to admit that one of the items makes things a bit too easy in Extreme. That being the one that puts you on full "Charge" all the time while halving your health. But I think the benefit outweighs the penalty too much.

I didn't describe that mechanic, but "Charge" is a meter that you can increase by holding down your attack button and "Charging" up, well, your Charge meter. As your meter achieves certain tiers (the max being 3), your attacks gain extra effects. For example, charge Fire will set enemies on fire which will (I think) stop them from attacking you, and fully charged Fire (which is mostly melee and sometimes short ranged) will immediately jump you to enemies rather than you needing to manually move to targets. In that case full Charge makes Fire a bit too overpowered. Some examples of the Charge mechanic - and these I think are not overpowered - is Earth stunning enemies easier, and some Water combos freezing your enemies.

Now, if you get hit at all your Charge drops immediately to zero. It also decreases over time, so you need to Charge up again to refill your meter. And of course, Charging itself is not easy to time, because it takes time to hold down that button and that window lets you get attacked. Often I try to Charge and I get attacked, so I have to dodge or block or counter, which means I wasted my time because I could have executed an uncharged attack or combo instead.

So with all that said, the item giving you constant Full Charge is quite overpowering since there's no way to drop your meter at all. Half health is more than worth that benefit.

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Also another mechanic I didn't mention is movement. Double tapping the dodge button gives a different effect based on the school you are using. That being said, I don't really find Earth and Water double-dodging very effective (they just do a quick attack while you dodge... Hmmm actually maybe that would be useful at full Charge). Air is somewhat useful because sometimes there are Dark Spirit "Pits" that cause damage while you are on them, and double dodging with Air lets you ride on an air bubble that elevates you, and thus you don't get damaged when you fly over them. But I never really used it during combat, it was too slow IMO.

Fire double dodge was very useful though, it gives you a quick and long flying dash forward, which is a very useful movement tool during combat.

I found wind school a little OP in the demons realm. You can beat it in 2 days without a sweat, but there is one thing that I liked. Which is how easily you could die if you charged like a maniac, especially with the guys who knew some of that magic kung fu.

I can see why you think Wind is overpowered. I think it's again because of encounter design, since spamming it against a crowd of mooks is really really effective.

I do like charging in like a maniac, though.

 

[Mangoose]

Oh man, the 600 point "temporary" (can last for like 4 long battles lol) full Charge item is even more OP than the permanent 1/2 health one.

I'm not even close to 300k points because of my accidental restart and thus no playthrough of Normal though ;_; Extreme is so hard this way (thankfully).