I’ve played a lot of JRPGs in my time, so I thought I knew exactly what kind of experience awaited me when diving into the Fallen Legion game series. However, throughout my time with the game I was continuously surprised. Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory does follow many pre-established conventions of the genre but offers exciting gameplay tweaks that ensure for a truly unique experience.

The basic premise of this game is as follows. In the fictional realm of Fenumia, the recent death of the emperor has thrown the kingdom into disarray. It is up to you to restore stability to the land using powerful magics which call upon the spirits of past heroes to fight for you. The story of Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory changes drastically depending on what character you choose to play as. The first playable character is Cecille, the rightful heir to the throne of Fenumia, who must now struggle to keep the empire together with the help of a mysterious talking Grimoire.  For my playthrough, I chose Legatus, an accomplished general of the crown who was loyal to the previous emperor. Feeling dissatisfied with the line of succession, Legatus soon becomes the leader of a rebel alliance and fights to take control of the kingdom.

I enjoy how this story lets you explore multiple perspectives of a similar narrative. It reminds me of the old school Fire Emblem titles. I certainly was intrigued enough to want to see the story through to the end. I’m also a big fan of tragic heroes and I love that this is a major theme throughout Legatus’ storyline. My biggest issue with the story comes in the form of presentation. This world is quite rich in lore and the game throws a lot at you right away with little to no exposition. This can make the story quite difficult to follow initially. Also, there are also some aspects to the worldbuilding that create needless confusion. For example, characters often use the terms “Emperor” and “Octavia” interchangeably, and it took me a little while to understand they meant the same thing.

Additionally, much of the background of the world is given through in game menus or in between levels on the brief loading screens. I would have preferred if I didn’t have to go out of my way to learn about the world and wish this information could be explained more naturally through the game’s narrative.

Gameplay is incredibly intricate with many different aspects and mechanics. Levels take the form of a 2d side scrolling RPG. You have the ability to customize your party, which includes your player character and three spirits called exemplars. Each exemplar has melee or ranged attacks mapped to a button on the controller. Using an attack consumes an action point, but don’t mistake this for your typical turn based combat system. It’s much more like the active time combat system from Final Fantasy, combined with some fighting game like combo mechanics.

Landing successive attacks or blocks not only refills action points allowing for extended attack combos, but it also allows your exemplar to unleash their various deathblow techniques once the combo bar has filled.  Your player character can also cast spells to aid in combat that take the form of heals, direct damage, or resurrections. As you progress more spells will be unlocked that will allow you to change up your arsenal, but you will always be limited to having no more than three spells at one time. Furthermore, your exemplars stats can be augmented using different gemstones that are acquired by completing levels. It certainly can be tricky to get the hang of the combat and mechanics at first. However, once  you manage to bring everything together, it can be incredibly satisfying.

My biggest issue with combat is the somewhat awkward attack animations for enemies. Some of them have very strange timing and animations so subtle that it can make them virtually impossible to block once dozens of effects start filling the screen. As a result, I often adopted a hyper aggressive playstyle as I felt taking the time to learn every attack pattern dragged out gameplay and had my characters taking unnecessary damage.

I did have a great time with the bosses. They all have unique attack patterns and mechanics that require you to adapt your game plan quickly or risk defeat. I also loved how many bosses have multihit attacks that require you to block each frame in order to avoid damage. Nothing feels better than stringing together parries before unleashing an onslaught of counter attacks.

Apart from combat, your character will also have to make a variety of choices throughout each level that can change gameplay slightly. Most often, your choices will provide significant stat buffs to your exemplars or give you single use relics. It’s a fun little mini game but never drastically changes the outcome of the story in a meaningful way. Once in a while, you will unlock bonus levels that will give you slightly more insight into the story and provide extra characterization with the style of a visual novel game.

The music and sound design here is another slight miss for me here. The voice acting that is present here is choppy at best. Characters are constantly shouting attacks repeatedly, and this can be quite grating at times. While the music isn’t bad, there is a lack of track diversity. There are three to five solid compositions here, but you’ll be hearing them over and over no matter the situation. Including more music would have helped give each level slightly more personality, especially when the backgrounds are changed to different environments.

Finally, lets talk graphics. While I enjoyed the art style for monsters, the rest of the game adopts a relatively generic anime-inspired style. It would have been nice to see a bit more visual flair, especially given the unique blend of gameplay and 2d action.

Overall, Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory provides a solid base for a memorable action RPG. I’m looking foreword to seeing how the game will evolve in the sequel Fallen Legion: Revenants which I will also be reviewing in the coming weeks.

An Xbox Review copy of Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory was provided by NIS America for this review.

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Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory

$59.99

6.5

Score

6.5/10

Pros

• Fun, Engaging Combat System
• Great Bosses
• Dual Narrative Structure

Cons

• Grating Voice Acting
• Confusing Worldbuilding