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Character Selection
Your first choice when starting a new game of The Legend of Legacy is your main character. There are seven potential protagonists in Legend of Legacy, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. You’ll eventually get all of them in your party, so you don’t have to think too hard, but the game’s dialogue will change depending on your choice.
(In truth, there isn't a massive difference between characters, as far as stats go. They will level up in subtle, different directions, but you can make a character go any way you like if you equip them properly. Still, if you want optimal builds, go with what seems immediately obvious - Garnet and Owen are both good tanks, for example, while Liber is the speedy, ranged type and Eloise is good with magic.)
Regardless of who you choose, you’ll automatically be paired up with two other adventurers. The identities of these adventurers changes depending on whom you pick as your starting character:
- If you chose Meurs, you’ll get Bianca and Garnet.
- If you chose Bianca, you’ll get Filmia and Eloise.
- If you chose Liber, you’ll get Eloise and Meurs.
- If you chose Garnet, you’ll get Owen and Meurs.
- If you chose Owen, you’ll get Garnet and Filmia.
- If you chose Eloise, you’ll get Owen and Liber.
- If you chose Filmia, you’ll get Liber and Bianca.
Virtually all of these teams are well-balanced, and each one has at least one strong, defensive character who can absorb hits for everyone else. And, again, you’ll eventually get everyone, so your starting team won’t last for too long if you decide you don’t like your starting lineup.
Forest Ruins - Clearing
- After a lengthy introductory sequence (which you can skip, if you’re playing this game for the second time or more) you’ll wind up at the entrance of the Forest Ruins. A well-armoured dude will give you the Forest Ruins Map, displayed on the bottom screen. As you explore it will be filled in, and a percentile on the map screen will steadily grow. You can sell these maps to merchants later at a premium, so it literally pays to explore eeeeeverything.
- You’ll soon get the chance to move around. (Note that you can’t open the menu yet. Yes, you’ll have the chance soon. First you need to beat this small dungeon.) To your left is a guard; if you speak to him he’ll allow you to rest and restore your health. Head northeast and you’ll get into your first battle.
Combat
Battle in The Legend of Legacy should be fairly familiar if you’ve ever played an RPG before. Game time is divided into turns, and at the beginning of each turn you choose actions for your characters that will be carried out immediately thereafter. Destroy all enemies and you win; lose all of your health and you die. Simple!
If a character falls during battle they will be revived immediately after, but their maximum health will be slightly reduced until you get them some well-needed rest. To avoid this, have the character with the Medicine Box equipped use it to heal injured characters before they fall victim to enemies. This might not seem like a big deal now, but battles get really hard as you progress through the game. Better to keep your party healthy. Characters will continue to take damage when they fall if targeted, reducing their maximum health once revived, and if that character's max health is reduced to zero you'll get a Game Over. Ouch.
The main difference between The Legend of Legacy and other RPGs stems from its Formations system. Formations allow your characters to take up different roles in battle, and can affect how much damage they do and how much they take, among other things. At the moment you have two formations (they have different names, but they more or less boil down to ‘Attack’ and ‘Defend’), but you can create more later, with a greater range of Stances available for your characters.
While fighting your characters will use a series of Skills to damage enemies. Their Skills are based upon their equipped weapons and armour, and if you spend enough time using a particular Skill it can level up - and potentially unlock other, better Skills. (Generally speaking, the stronger the enemy, the more likely you'll get any sort of level-ups, whether for your stats or your Skills.) It pays to diversify your characters so you can deal with a range of different situations. More powerful Skills may use up SP, limiting your ability to abuse them too much in battle, so use these attacks sparingly. Unlike HP, which is fully restored after combat, SP restores at a rate of one SP per round.
Combat is not random. Enemies appear on the field, and you have the opportunity to run away. Study enemy movements carefully and you can often flee without getting into a battle. If you get into a battle that you don't like and want to run, you can - but you'll be forced back to the beginning of the area. Yes, not the current map, the area.
- Anyway. Back to the Forest Ruins. Wait, crap, that brings up something else.
Treasure
While you're wandering 'round the many areas of The Legend of Legacy you will find treasure in a variety of forms, either as sparkles, treasure chests, or in objects of note. (And by killing enemies, of course, but meh.) With some exceptions, these treasures always seem to be randomized by the game. Quite often you won't even find chests or sparkles where they're listed in here, because they don't always pop up in the same spots from game to game. Both chests and sparkles appear to respawn after a while, so going through areas a second time can prove helpful.
What does this mean for the guide? It primarily means that I'll be pointing out chest and sparkle locations as best I can, with no reference to their contents. Sometimes they have the same items in 'em between playthroughs; sometimes not. I will do my best. Note, too, that approaching sparkles can also trigger enemy battles, so use caution.
- ANYWAY. Further northeast is an emptied lake. The path splits in four ways here. Start by head left, then wandering southwest. There may be a Chest down here. North of here is a conspicuous monument to investigate; up and to the left of the monument may be another Chest. Keep following the path northeast and then north to potentially find another Chest. This pathway loops back to the emptied lake if you go south of the last chest.
Treasure
While you're wandering 'round the many areas of The Legend of Legacy you will find treasure in a variety of forms, either as sparkles, treasure chests, or in objects of note. (And by killing enemies, of course, but meh.) With some exceptions, these treasures always seem to be randomized by the game. Quite often you won't even find chests or sparkles where they're listed in here, because they don't always pop up in the same spots from game to game. Both chests and sparkles appear to respawn after a while, so going through areas a second time can prove helpful.
What does this mean for the guide? It primarily means that I'll be pointing out chest and sparkle locations as best I can, with no reference to their contents. Sometimes they have the same items in 'em between playthroughs; sometimes not. I will do my best. Note, too, that approaching sparkles can also trigger enemy battles, so use caution.
- ANYWAY. Further northeast is an emptied lake. The path splits in four ways here. Start by head left, then wandering southwest. There may be a Chest down here. North of here is a conspicuous monument to investigate; up and to the left of the monument may be another Chest. Keep following the path northeast and then north to potentially find another Chest. This pathway loops back to the emptied lake if you go south of the last chest.
- Back to the lake. Head south and the path splits again, though you might as well take a right, as further south just loops back to the same spot. Ahead is a large, odd-looking shell; investigate it to find a Fragment.
- Wander northeast a bit and you’ll see a shining mote against a heap of rubble. These sparkles sometimes net you items, and... sometimes... they'll just earn you ambushes. I don't recommend checking these if your team is in rough shape, but you never know what you'll find. Sparkles will refresh periodically.
- Wander northeast a bit and you’ll see a shining mote against a heap of rubble. These sparkles sometimes net you items, and... sometimes... they'll just earn you ambushes. I don't recommend checking these if your team is in rough shape, but you never know what you'll find. Sparkles will refresh periodically.
- This should more or less complete your map. If you wander to the northeast you’ll find two heaps of rubble, both of which provide exits from this area. The more northern path leads to the Singing Grove; the lower exit leads to the Forest Tomb. The Forest Tomb is apparently too danged dangerous for you right now, so it’s not your exit of choice, buuuuut…
Forest Ruins - Forest Tomb
- A short walk east of the entrance will take you to another pile of rubble. For good or for ill, there's a Sparkle in front of it. Yep, that’s it.
Forest Ruins - Singing Grove
- Same enemies here, so you’re not facing any great perils just yet. The only exceptions are the debuffing Shadowcats, and they’re still not a big deal. In a small nook to the left of the entrance you may find a Chest; northeast of the entrance may be a Sparkle.
- Head east. You’ll hit a crossroads. You can head all the way east to find another ‘ancient device’, but you can’t do anything with the blasted machine, so forget about it. Loop north, then wander aaaaaall the way around the map to the west side. (Assuming you want to get the whole map done.) There’s a stone statue here that will trigger a nasty fight.
Dreadwing