I like to think I play a large variety of mobile games. To prove this, I've chosen to review Legend of Solgard, a puzzle game that I saved to my Google Play wishlist some time ago, when I was itching for match-three puzzle games. This game does match-three a bit differently, and it has a ton of gaming content for a mobile game.
Overview
Legends of Solgard is an RPG take on the match-three puzzle genre. In this game, you play the role of Embla, a Nordic woman that is tasked with stopping the mythological end of the world, Ragnarok. Through the story mode, you are guided by the squirrel Ratatosk, also of Norse mythology. You match three or more of the same type of creatures in order to get them to attack, and you command up to four different types of creatures in each battle. Each creature has different skills and strategies, and you get more of them as you progress through the game.
As I mentioned, there is a lot of content in this game, and there is so much to do that it can be really disorienting for new players. There's a mountain of features and details to cover, so let's dig right in!
Tutorial and Early Game
The player is greeted with a scene of our grumpy squirrel friend, Ratatosk, fighting back the forces of Ragnarok. Ratatosk serves as the player's guide, providing the tutorial of how abilities, features, and menus work as the player levels up. His guidance is unskippable, popping up text boxes and forcing you to interact with whatever new feature or button he's gotten interested in now that you've discovered it. This is nice for new players, but it can be really detrimental for players that have had to re-install the game and lost their progress.
Another issue I have with Ratatosk hovering around is just that: he never truly went away during the time I've played. I had made significant progress, and when a new skill showed up after several days of playing, he forced me into a practice match to try the skill out. Granted, the practice match was short and really took less than a minute, but that is extra hassle an experienced player could do without.
That being said, Ratatosk really fulfills his role as your guide to the game. If it weren't for him, I would not really have known about upgrading the creatures and the option to use raid tickets (more on that later.) Navigating the game's plethora of content is made a lot easier thanks to this character.
Graphics and Aesthetics
In all honesty, the game's art style didn't look that great to me at first. The character designs were a bit weird to me, and some of them even looked a bit creepy. However, the style did eventually grow on me. The models actually came to resemble the aesthetics of the Spyro series of games in some way.
The menus and buttons look great, and the layout is nice to look at. Still artwork, whenever used, is really nice on the eyes for the most part. The map in the story mode is vivid and very detailed and is rendered in the same 3D style as the character models. The stages are well-made and provide an appropriate backdrop for what is playing out on the field.
Gameplay
As previously mentioned, Legend of Solgard is an RPG with match-three puzzle mechanics. However, the said mechanics are a bit different in this game. In my experience, those puzzles allow you to move any piece on the board vertically or horizontally, swapping places with the piece adjacent to it. Other games that I have played in the past even allow you to move a piece freely to anywhere in the playing field.
In this game, though, you are limited to moving only the pieces closest to you, and only horizontally. The pieces you move can only be moved to another column and into a position closest to you; the pieces cannot be placed in between other pieces. Each move takes up one point of energy, which you have maximum of three per turn.
Pieces can merge together if you match three or more. If they are matched in a column, they form a bigger version of the creature they represent and move to attack, although some creatures require some turns in order to launch their charge. If matched in a row, they transform into barriers that shield you from your opponent's attacks. Your creatures can also be merged from other formations, such as squares, crosses, or L's, and they would get attack bonuses depending on the formation.
Combining your creatures also triggers passive abilities. Each creature has unique skills that provide offensive or defensive bonuses. Some build or add barriers, while others dish out attacks on the opponent's playing field. Later on, you get an ability to attack the opponent yourself after charging up some energy from matching your creatures.
The RPG aspect comes in with your management of the creatures. As you play, you get shards for different creatures. Getting a certain amount of them unlocks them for use, or allows you to upgrade them. There are different rarities, and as such, very different stats and strategies.
Game Modes and Content
This is probably the best aspect of this game. Legend of Solgard has enough meaningful content to keep fans of the match-three genre hooked. Even better, the developers have done well with controlling progression. Access to modes and abilities are dependent on the player level, and the reward of unlocking a new mode kept me coming back.
At first, the only play mode available is the story mode. After all, it is the most appropriate setting to have the tutorial, and the story is the meat of any RPG. The story mode is also the primary method of leveling up, as it has the best reward for effort involved. This mode is similar to Warriors of Waterdeep's campaign mode in that you progress through a linear series of battles. The difference here is that you can replay the boss fights that happen every five levels at a higher difficulty. Beating the boss a second time lets you use the raid feature mentioned earlier, which lets you skip the battle and get the rewards in exchange for energy and a raid ticket.
The next mode unlocked is the treasure caves. In this mode you are tasked with breaking as many pots on the field and getting a certain number of harvest tokens in a certain number of turns. This target goal does increase with every level, but you still keep the harvest tokens after the level if you don't reach the goal. These tokens are spent in a shop that unlocks various things, including gems for creatures. You are given two entries daily, with the option of using play tokens to play more.
Next to be unlocked after leveling up to a certain point, there is the bounty mode. This mode's main purpose seems to be for getting gold, which is used for upgrading your creatures. Here, you go up against AI using their own set of creatures that you can obtain through the game. Three bots make up a gang, and defeating a gang nets you a reward chest. The gangs do get gradually more difficult, and it forces you to find other avenues of improving your team. Like the treasure caves, the bounty mode is free to enter twice, but you have the option of spending some tokens to play more.
After leveling up some more, you are permitted to take part in boss battles. If you aren't already in a guild, the game will force you to join one. Joining a guild is incredibly easy to do, and all guilds seem to automatically be in combat with the bosses in this mode. In guild bosses, you have to choice to either attack a gem that is powering up the boss, or attack the boss directly. The gems generally seem to require higher rarities, but you are able to use a bomb to damage it. Bombs are usable once a day, and deal damage to either the boss or gem without having to spend time or resources in battle. Once the boss is defeated, you are rewarded with a chest containing guild coins that can be used to redeem creature gems and other goodies.
The last mode I'll cover is the hero battle mode. This is the PvP mode of the game, and it puts you up against an AI representing the opposing player's choice of creatures in a best of three matchup. The catch here is that the creatures become unplayable after each battle, so planning is of the essence in the duel. I didn't play this mode much, so I don't quite know the extent of the rewards in this mode, but there does seem to be some value in it in terms of experience and gold.
Speaking of gold, there is a sort of chance event that occurs as you play. It's almost a mode in and of itself, but the way it triggers as you play the campaign makes it feel as if it's an event, even if you can access it at any time. As you play the campaign, certain spaces will become highlighted in gold, and you can play the treasure hunt. Here, everything you hit with your creatures will drop gold. There is also a goblin that moves around the opponent side of the field that drops some bonuses upon defeat. These golden creatures still hurt though, and will attack and put you out of this mode if you are defeated.
Sound
This game has an adequate soundtrack that I can appreciate. Boss fights and different modes have their own tracks and they match the intensity quite well. Sound effects are good on the ear and are appropriate for what they are used for, for the most part.
There is no voice acting for this game in the sense that all exposition is from reading text, but there are grunts and yells provided to the characters.
Embla makes her own sounds when you trigger her ability, and some creatures make sounds when they attack. I could be wrong, but these sounds are bit similar to each other. Embla sounds a lot like the other females in the game. This isn't really an issue, but it does detract from the experience of the game a little.
Storyline
For a game that has a fair bit of lore in it, the storyline isn't all that memorable. It's a fairly standard "chosen hero goes on a quest to save the world" story, and it honestly gets drowned out by all the gameplay modes that are available. This isn't that big of a deal, and is actually a pleasant surprise to see that developers tried to put in a meaningful story on a match-three puzzle game, but the writing is quite basic. I wouldn't say that the writing isn't original, but it isn't all that unique either. This isn't much of a surprise to me considering the artistic platform, but it is significant enough of a point for me to bring attention to.
Loading Times
The mere mention of this as a title should let you know where this is going. My phone is a bit of an aged, lower-end phone compared to the devices available on the market right now. However, a lot of apps work great with my phone with no problem or a tolerable wait. However, Legends of Solgard is ridiculous with its load time. I sit for a good minute in a loading screen, which is a lot longer than I've done for most mobile games, including PUBG.
At first I thought this was an internet connection issue, as my internet is not actually that great. However, even connecting to other hotspots or using my usually reliable mobile data didn't seem to do anything for the load times. The game does run smoothly though, so this leads me to believe that the loading times buffer for a lot of the details in the menus and levels.
Final Thoughts I'd rate the game a 4 out of 5.
Legends of Solgard is a very fleshed out game, and I was undoubtedly hooked on the game ofr a time. The mechanics, while taking a bit of getting used to thanks to its difference from its contemporaries, were very thought out and fair. The plethora of content and the way they were made available were perfect in its reward-grind balance and made the game more appealing to keep playing for longer sessions.
However, the game only gets a flat four because of the incredibly long load times for what it is, the weakness in the writing, and the lack of variety in voice clips. Granted, the waiting could be blamed on the device, but if other, more demanding games have played fine on the device it was being played on, I don't think that would be a proper excuse for the game. The writing and battle sounds were not that big of a deal, but combined together, they were enough to knock the rating down a notch.
Thanks for reading!
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