Sword Legacy: Omen - Release Date Announcement (Steam)
RPG fans unite! Sword Legacy: Omen is a turn-based tactical RPG set in the candlepunk realm of Broken Britannia. With a rich cast of characters and a lot of satisfying moments with regards to tactical awareness, this is a title that fans of the genre will flock to. It’s by no means a simple game as you’ll need to grow accustomed to the robust battle system and understanding the proper placement for your characters to deliver the most powerful attacks. All of that is complemented by the comic book style visuals that bring the characters to life, while the dialogue is enough to keep you engaged during the campaign. With more than 40 hours of play time in this re-telling of the King Arthur mythos, Sword Legacy: Omen is sure to stimulate you in more ways than one.
As with any tactical turn-based RPG, expect a lot of critical thinking, problem solving, and situational awareness. All of these play an integral role as you progress through the story since enemies grow more intelligent, and battles overall become a lot more demanding than earlier. You’ll be surrounded by a group of powerful enemies and it’ll be up to you to decide how to properly position your crew in order to stave off death and come out on top in order to move ahead. Take part in various quests that will grant you skill points should you successfully clear them, and use all of your advanced techniques to create advantageous scenarios in boss battles.
You’ll not only be using one character during your adventures but your entire crew, which means that not only will you need to understand Uther’s style but your other comrades too. All are equipped with their own individual weapons and attacks, so optimizing their skills is of utmost importance down the road, but mastering each character will take some time. Sword Legacy: Omen is all about micromanagement and learning to see the smaller things in order to fully grasp the bigger picture ahead of you. Proper planning will lead to successful execution and less deaths on your part. With all that being said, let’s dive a little more into the gameplay and visuals.
Visuals
Firstly, let’s take a look at the visual side of Sword Legacy: Omen and what makes it stand out in its own way. We mentioned earlier that much of the game takes its visual aesthetic from the comic book style, which is actually quite fitting for the game. It maintains realism with regards to its character design but the overall layout definitely feels like you’re sifting through the pages of a comic book while playing. Everything takes place from a top down position, sort of like what you’d expect from titles like Path of Exile or Diablo, or even the classic Disgaea series as that too is a tactical masterpiece of its own.
Sword Legacy: Omen maintains its simplicity in the visual department, focusing more of its attention on the tactical gameplay appeal than trying to over-embellish the visuals that might come off as too jarring. The animations in the game are smooth and characters move freely around the screen as you control them with your mouse, with very little lag or frame drops during gameplay. All in all, the visuals in Sword Legacy: Omen are pretty solid and don’t take you away from the game but rather keep you more engaged as you dive deeper into the campaign.
Sound, Music
As for sound and music, we really can’t say too much in this area, not because there’s a lack of music but because it sort of got lost along the way. Once you get immersed in the game it goes over your head since you’re trying hard to focus more on defeating the enemy, rather than listening to the music. In fact, the music wasn’t too overbearing and that in a way that is a good thing since it didn’t detract us at all and keep the focus primarily on the gameplay. It definitely maintained its very medieval style approach to it, and the sound effects that went along with character attacks synced up quite well. One gripe however is in the lack of voice acting, since the game would’ve played out so much better had there been some life put into these characters and not just have a narrator tell the story during cutscenes.
Gameplay
In any tactical turn-based RPG your main goal is to try and outsmart the enemy before they outsmart you, but of course that’s no easy feat. The AI in Sword Legacy: Omen is pretty tough and put up a good fight, so it’s real important to avoid screwing up too much. Once you get a hang of all of your squad members and master their unique abilities, going up against a bigger group of enemies will definitely alleviate a lot of problems. Rush into battle and you’ll get destroyed, but take it with a calm and calculated approach and the game will reward you greatly.
It’s not just about leveling up one character and leaving the rest behind, Sword Legacy: Omen is all about balance and knowing when to swap out a character in order to effectively use another to close out the battle. There’s no timer in the game so you can take as long as you need to in order to develop a plan, but keep in mind that overthinking your turn may end up costing you down the road.
Methodical thinking is certainly rewarded, but there will be moments where decisive action will take precedence over the slow paced thought process; it will all depend on you on how to execute things. That’s where a lot of the fun derives from in Sword Legacy: Omen, as everything that happens throughout the game is all up to you and having that control is a satisfying feeling.
We will say, however, that we felt that the skills were a little expensive at first (starting at around 25 skill points to upgrade) but once we started to play more and more things started to even out. Some players may be turned off by that but we suggest giving it some time and being patient. The game definitely rewards hard work and doesn’t want to hand you a silver spoon, which is a plus. A lot of other turn-based RPGs on the market usually throw you a few freebies to support your adventure, but Sword Legacy: Omen makes you work for it and that feels so endearing towards the end.
With all that being said, Sword Legacy: Omen is definitely a game worth playing since it’s slow paced and encourages players to really come up with strategic ways to outplay the enemy, while surviving at all costs. When one of your comrades dies in battle you’re left with one less body to assist you in battle, and that’s where things get tricky. Learning to adapt on the fly is imperative and goes back to our earlier statement on really understanding your squad members strengths and weaknesses, to be better equipped for those less than satisfying situations.
There will be a lot of them so be aware of that because things heat up quickly, and without the proper adjustments you’ll see your team drop very quickly. Overall, a wonderful experience and we recommend grabbing the game if you’re a fan of the turn-based RPG genre.
We hope you found our review of Sword Legacy: Omen to be an insightful one and if you’re a fan of the genre, don’t hesitate to pick it up! Be sure to check out our other reviews and let us know what you think in the comments section below! Of course, follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest gaming news from around the world, and hit us up on Twitch to catch us playing all of our reviewed titles live, just for you!
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Editor/Writer
Author: Rob "NualphaJPN" B.
A passionate fan of gaming, writing, journalism, anime, and philosophy. I"ve lived in Japan for many years and consider this place to be my permanent home. I love to travel around Japan and learn about the history and culture! Leave a comment if you enjoy my articles and watch me play on twitch.tv/honeysgaming ! Take care!
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