Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - Hier 01:24

Shrine’s Legacy – Review

After playing Captain Wayne – Vacation Desperation, we were left feeling nostalgic. Not to the early 2000s, mind you – the good Captain took care of that – but a general longing to more innocent, simpler times. Thankfully, we had the perfect game sitting in our backlog. Shrine’s Legacy may have gathered some digital dust since it was released in October (booting it up almost felt like we had to blow on a cartridge), but what are a few months for a game that wants to take you back to the early 90s? Story A long, long time ago, an evil entity known as Aklor threatened the world of Ardemia. He was ultimately defeated by Kailee Shrine, a heroine armed with a powerful sword powered by eight elemental gemstones. Aklor’s defeat brought peace to Ardemia, but as these stories tend to go, that peace was finite. Centuries after his defeat, Aklor returned. It’s now up to Rio Shrine, a descendant of the original heroine, to pick up the Sword of Shrine and defeat the evil once again. Rio is joined on his quest by Reima, a young woman with magical powers. She has her own reasons to seek revenge against Aklor. Together, Rio and Reima travel across Ardemia to collect the eight gemstones needed to power up the sword and take down Aklor, before the world fully succumbs to the darkness. As far as stories go, Shrine’s Legacy plays things very safe, presenting the umpteenth take on the classic hero’s journey. However, for the kind of game that Shrine’s Legacy wants to be, this works well enough, as it leans into the traditional storytelling approach for 16-bit RPGs. Nostalgia, rather than originality, is the keyword here. Graphics Nowhere does Shrine’s Legacy channel the SNES era more than it does in its visuals. The highly detailed pixel art and bright colors bring to mind classics like the Mana series or even A Link to the Past. Carefully crafted sprites give life to the inhabitants and enemies of Ardemia. The world itself is gorgeous too, with distinct environments that make exploration feel engaging. You’d expect a game that mimics a 30-year-old art style to run smoothly too, but unfortunately, that isn’t entirely the case here. Shrine’s Legacy’s performance is inconsistent, and there are some persistent visual glitches, like NPCs walking through objects, for example. Some of the busier locations, such as cities, are more demanding than what seems reasonable, with performance dips and framerate issues breaking immersion enough to warrant mentioning. It’s not so egregious that we’d call Shrine’s Legacy unplayable, but a visual performance patch would be welcome. Sound Opting for an appropriate less-is-more approach, Shrine’s Legacy sticks to a period-accurate soundscape. If you’d let someone listen to the game’s soundtrack and then tell them it was from an actual SNES game, they wouldn’t bat an eye. That said, in their attempt to make the music sound accurate, developer Positive Concept Games forgot to make the music memorable. It lacks standout and memorable tracks and sounds very generic. Unsurprisingly, Shrine’s Legacy doesn’t have voice acting, as that wasn’t a thing in the SNES era. The developers found a clever way around this, by having in-game text be accompanied by sound effects that match character personalities and emotions. Aklor’s dialogue, for example, features deeper, ominous sound effects. Gameplay Harkening back to the RPGs of three decades ago, Shrine’s Legacy offers a top-down adventure modeled closely after classics like Chrono Trigger or old-school Legend of Zelda games. The game combines real-time combat, dungeon crawling, and puzzle solving. While Shrine’s Legacy proudly wears its inspiration on its sleeve, you needn’t have played any of those older titles to appreciate what’s on offer here. The game maintains an identity of its own. Classic RPG design is combined with accessibility to accommodate a modern audience here. Combat is simple, accessible, and strategic. Taking direct control of either Rio or Reima, and swapping between them as required, you fight enemies using a mix of melee attacks and mana-powered elemental spells. Mana is restored by hitting enemies with physical attacks, encouraging an aggressive playstyle. You’re not just mindlessly bashing buttons though, as combat involves timing attacks and carefully positioning yourself to take advantage of enemies leaving openings. Rio and Reima have similar movesets, though there are slight differences in focus, with Rio being more combat-oriented and Reima more magic-focused. Early on, combat does feel clunky and sluggish, but as you level up, customise characters and gain new spells, new strategies start to open up and deepen gameplay. Those spells also play a part in exploring the world, particularly when it comes to solving puzzles. More often than not, the solution to overcoming an obstacle involves magic, which is a great way to make spells blend in with the world rather than feeling like “just” a combat thing. At times, Shrine’s Legacy feels reminiscent of a Metroidvania, with new powers opening previously inaccessible pathways. Exploring the world is a joy, with plenty of branching paths and hidden areas to discover. Dungeons follow the old-school Zelda template to a tee, with themed environments, puzzle mechanics, and a boss waiting at the end. It all adds up to a solid, but comparatively short RPG. While we don’t think we’ve seen every single thing there is to discover here, our playthrough took us only around 18 hours. If we were to revisit Shrine’s Legacy, however, we’d want to try out the game’s co-op mode, where, rather than switching between our protagonists, two players play as Rio and Reima, respectively. Conclusion A heartfelt love letter to the SNES era, Shrine’s Legacy successfully captures the feeling of playing an old-school RPG. The inherent simplicity of its systems isn’t a weakness here, but part of the experience. The dual character setup makes it so that Shrine’s Legacy still feels unique rather than a carbon copy of the titles it unapologetically emulates. There are some rough edges here, mind you, but as a whole, Shrine’s Legacy definitely understood the assignment. Whether you’re a SNES veteran or a newcomer, this is a game that offers a brand new adventure that feels like a time capsule to yesteryear.