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#A League of Legends Story

A League of Legends Story

You’d by no means break the chain

The League of Legends universe is fairly massive at this level, because the MOBA has spun out into collection, collaborations, and even different genres. The Mageseeker is the newest of those efforts to create a compelling story inside the world of Runeterra, creating a brand new taste of League storytelling with an motion RPG coating. And, for essentially the most half, it really works.

Developer Digital Solar, identified for their very own earlier motion RPG Moonlighter, undoubtedly makes its mark on the League timeline. A give attention to Sylas, the once-chained mage now caught between his potential as a revolutionary and his egocentric need for revenge, lends itself nicely to each a unique form of story and an attention-grabbing tackle fight. 

Even when it stutters and stumbles, The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story is an intriguing new lens on Runeterra, particularly for individuals who don’t need to hop proper into champion choose.

The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story (PC, PS4, PS5 [reviewed], Xbox One, Xbox Collection X|S, Change)
Developer: Digital Solar
Writer: Riot Forge
Launch: April 18, 2023
MSRP: $29.99

Sylas, the protagonist of The Mageseeker, is an attention-grabbing case. Demacia, the pristine fantasy kingdom point of interest of the story, has been looking, jailing, and slaying these with magical powers for a while. As somebody who can sense magic, Sylas is initially a useful asset to the Mageseekers. 

However after he learns to channel magic in a change of coronary heart, he’s jailed till the beginning of The Mageseeker’s narrative. He escapes jail, exposing his good friend and excessive society member Lux’s hidden magical talents within the course of, and units off on a quest for vengeance, with the assistance of a rising mage rebel.

Although Sylas isn’t precisely my favourite League of Legends champion, I discovered his story in The Mageseeker attention-grabbing. There are some stumbles, largely in various missions that really feel like shuffling objectives additional away on the final second. A few of the dramatic twists additionally didn’t hit as laborious as I feel the story wished them to.

Screenshot by Destructoid

Sylas’s rising band of rebels presents one of many narrative’s foremost conflicts: Sylas is greater than keen to martyr himself for petty vengeance, however his pals, notably the insurgent chief Leilani, worth societal change extra than simply murdering Mageseekers. It really works for the sport’s comparatively shorter runtime, although it typically felt like conversations have been retreading philosophical floor a couple of instances over.

What it does imply is that League newcomers, and even those that’ve by no means performed a match on Summoner’s Rift, can nonetheless simply hop in right here. Most characters obtain a good quantity of exposition, so even should you don’t know why Garen and Sylas would possibly scrap with one another, Digital Solar’s made it simple to comply with. For the League knowers, there are many attention-grabbing cameos; Garen, Lux, and Jarvan IV are apparent ones. Morgana and Shyvana are explicit highlights, and some different shock cameos have been welcome additions.

These cameos weave particularly nicely into the center of The Mageseeker: its magic-stealing fight. Sylas is a wizard who obtained extraordinarily buff in jail—it’s been a very good yr for that specific model of dude—and nonetheless carries his petricite chains with him, which he can whip round for injury, traversal, or to tear out some magic for his personal use.

Screenshot by Destructoid

So when battle strikes, Sylas has choices: bust heads together with his fists and chains, or solid magic that he both has or has stolen. It’s a fragile dance that feels prefer it’s meant to be a balancing act. Stolen spells are one-time use, and value no mana; Sylas can even maintain as much as 4 spells he can use any variety of instances, offered he’s garnered sufficient mana by means of punching.

The spells are all fairly entertaining to make use of, even when the essential ones turn out to be a bit out of date by the marketing campaign’s finale. An elemental system of corresponding weaknesses is easy and typically ignorable, however provides a little bit of technique and reward for considerate spell use. And fight seems like a rush when it clicks into place. There’s plenty of dashing and positioning, avoiding massive crimson circles on the bottom whereas making an attempt to prioritize targets.

The place I hit some friction was the controls. And to be clear, it’s not all unhealthy; typically, rigidity from controls can elicit attention-grabbing, compelling emotions. That’s the place I discovered myself with the opposing punching and casting programs. The face buttons handle dashing, potions, and your gentle and heavy assaults; Sylas’ chains and magic, in the meantime, are on the triggers and D-pad. However to goal your chains—for spell utilization or simply zipping round—you must use the proper thumbstick.

These moments of getting to consider whether or not I used to be protected to goal and steal one thing, or if dodging round or hitting foes was extra essential, made The Mageseeker’s fight really feel somewhat extra intentional than simply dash-attacking round an area. At its greatest, The Mageseeker combines quick motion fight with strategic considering, as you make fast reads of the fundamental sorts on the sector and switch them again on foes to wipe them out earlier than they overwhelm you.

Screenshot by Destructoid

I did, nonetheless, hit some precise friction with all that movement. Sylas will be laborious to trace when the motion will get going and spells begin flying. It wasn’t unusual to get hitched on some degree geometry and never understand it. And among the chain-specific prompts didn’t really feel nice to execute amid a horde of enemies on a controller, resulting in unintended strikes or zipping proper into spells as an alternative of toppling a turret.

Different common glitches popped up, too. Enemies typically froze for me, or can be inexplicably non-interactable. Person interface would disappear. Nothing game-breaking occurred for me, however noticeable hitches occurred usually sufficient. Hopefully there’s some post-launch assist.

The Mageseeker additionally hits some snags the additional in it goes. The bottom constructing features are attention-grabbing sufficient, although largely centered on passive upgrades for Sylas or buying the reusable variations of spells you’ve stolen from enemies. I want bonus strikes hadn’t been tied to which mages you introduced with you on a mission, as Sylas’ light-heavy combos begin to really feel stale, even inside the roughly 12-to-15 hour runtime.

Even the story begins to show over acquainted concepts after some time. And although the optionally available dungeons present an attention-grabbing twist, with some utilizing a roguelite-style pick-em setup that offers you enhanced variations of regular spells, I discovered myself wishing I may apply a few of these to my precise magic. The Mageseeker has plenty of fight arenas, and whereas considerate stealing and use of magic works nicely, it felt odd having a extremely attention-grabbing system for upgradeable spells, with dangers and rewards, being restricted to only one line of aspect quests.

Screenshot by Destructoid

Boss battles are an enormous spotlight of The Mageseeker, the place its League cameos can repay in beautiful battles. Whereas among the lesser bosses aren’t as robust, like a specific battle in opposition to an enormous head that will get repeated a couple of instances, these with League champions are the primary occasion. The champions have their full transfer units, and the way in which they’ve been tailored into assaults, after which into ultimates that Sylas can deploy afterward, is a excessive level right here.

The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story is in the end an pleasant expertise regardless of any stumbles, although. Even after I would’ve preferred it to increase extra on concepts and fine-tune a bit, the highs of its narrative do work, and Digital Solar’s expertise for each fight and artwork shine on this recreation.

Sylas’ story is an effective solution to expertise one thing totally different on this planet of Runeterra, whether or not that’s recent air for the MOBA followers or a extra interesting style for these new to League. The Mageseeker meets the bar for spin-offs, increasing nicely and including extra to the world whereas placing a singular spin that Digital Solar can name its personal. This burly mage journey is certainly value wanting into should you’d favor a League recreation with extra motion, story, and beautiful artwork.

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