Other party members act in similarly interesting ways, such as causing a large explosion if an enemy is killed within ten seconds or having certain disadvantages to be aware of, but Knokka's and Wendaroo's dynamics easily highlight how important positioning, timing and balancing resources are to success. Your tactics are also influenced by how you upgrade those abilities upon leveling. Each can progress down one of two very different paths. For example, one branch allows Wendaroo's throwing star to pass through allies to heal them in a line while the other alters it to a more offensive capacity. Best of all, skill points can be redistributed at any time without cost, granting the freedom to experiment and keep encounters fresh with evolving sets of skills.
Loot is often dropped from enemies and found in treasure chests which can further enhance your party's performance. These come in the form of accessories – earrings, rings, relics and amulets – with no armor or weapons to be found. Those pieces of jewelry still greatly influence attributes and it can be a battle in of itself deciding who should get what.
Knowing your enemy is just as crucial to victory. Clicking an enemy's portrait reveals all of its capabilities. Moving your mouse over their bodies will highlight who they're targeting as well as the range of their area-of-effect attacks. Battles are constantly in motion, however, even with that information. You have to respond quickly to their generally short incantations, reposition your characters to avoid fatal blows, and counter their potent buffs.
Despite its streamlining, Aarklash: Legacy is rewardingly challenging. Even on its lowest of four difficulties, a loading screen is one mistake away. Enemies hit hard and it's not uncommon to be surrounded or surprised by reinforcements. But when you pull through a hard-fought battle by using your abilities at the right moments, perhaps swapping out Frinz for Denzil for a more ideal party composition in a particular boss fight, and keeping watch on where everyone needs to be, it's not hard to feel a strong sense of accomplishment.
The game's presentation is pleasing, too. The interface is left to a delightful minimum. The characters are well voiced and defined, though the preview build didn't delve far into their stories. Spell effects look impactful. The environments feature sharp textures with a colorful, painted styling not dissimiliar from Diablo 3.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much to discover in those environments. The game could eventually open up, but those first few hours consist of moving through linear, barren levels. There's little of interest to see or find. Chests are hidden throughout, but their positions are rarely unapparent as you can spot their shapes on the map. If it wasn't already obvious by this article, the developers seem to have put a larger focus on its combat. Aarklash: Legacy just didn't do enough during my short time with it to get me to care about its world. Unless the full game takes its characters and settings to a more interesting place, that emptiness could be a deal breaker for some.
Aarklash: Legacy does a lot right as a strategic RPG. It's rewarding to win each encounter, as if you've just solved a difficult puzzle, and offers a good amount of freedom to explore your characters' growth without needlessly complex mechanics bogging down the experience. But its world wasn't nearly as engaging during the few hours I was able to spend in it. Regardless, those hours were enough to leave me interested in the full game, and curious if Cyanide Studios will match its well-crafted gameplay with a well-crafted story.
