RPGs Don’t Get More Nostalgic Than Loot & Legends

Long before the likes of Final Fantasy, Baldur’s Gate, and The Witcher, roleplaying games were confined to the tabletop. Using a combination of source books, graph paper, and makeshift tokens, players would band together on epic adventures that mostly took place within their own imaginations. Even today, with video game tech at its prime, ‘pen and paper’ RPGs are a much celebrated medium among hobbying communities. Although Dungeons & Dragons is widely considered the go-to leader of the pack, in recent years we’ve seen plenty of alternatives including Shadowrun, Pathfinder, and Star Wars: Edge of the Empire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhhoy-FpsYM

Although RPGs have arguably evolved since their slightly awkward emergence, there’s still a healthy demand for that traditional pen and paper feel. In a way, there exists a paradox – although technology allows us to explore vast worlds, games like Mass Effect and Skyrim lack that sense of tangibility and co-operation the entire genre was once built upon.

Loot & Legends can, in some ways, be seen as an attempt to fill this void. Although it carries all the tropes of a role-playing video, it’s presented in such a nostalgic way that RPG fans help but fall in love. Not only that, developer Dropforge Games are starting to roll out features to heighten its pen and paper appeal such as new modules and online co-op.

To some, Loot & Legends may look alarmingly familiar. In fact, some of you may have already played it under a completely different name altogether. You see, on PC – where it can be run in-browser – the game is known as Card Hunter and has only just come out of beta. Meanwhile, on mobile and tablet, Dropforge has adopted a new title – there must be a reason behind this, yet it doesn’t impact on the actual game itself.

It might have something to do with the word ‘card’ and what connotations that has in the mobile gaming market. Although cards star as a key gameplay feature, Loot & Legends is more of turn-based RPG than just another Hearthstone or Magic: The Gathering clone.

There are no set matches or duels here. Instead everything is presented as an adventure, each story-driven quest composed of one or more battle scenarios. These often spew up a handful of enemies for the player and their characters to compete with, taking it in turns to activate an increasingly complex roster of cards.

Typically, there are several variations, ranging from melee and distance attacks to spells, buffs, and healing effects. To even move one character across the board you’ll need to play a corresponding card. Several hours into Loot & Legends, the cards start getting tagged with all sorts of advanced mechanics but it’s still an easy system to get your head around.

Cards are further differentiated depending on character classes. Primarily, players will have access to a warrior, mage, and cleric, each packing a deck that is tailored to their role within the party. Naturally, warriors are tuned towards close quarters combat while mages skirt the periphery, clerics filling the space left in between.

However, as you start to complete quests and gather loot, more and more customisation options come into play. You see, for every piece of equipment your characters take into battle, there are specific cards attached to it that are then shuffled into your active deck. Switching up your warrior’s primary weapon, for example, could either boost its range or damage while also filtering in a number of helpful abilities. In other words, every time you equip new items, you are essentially adding to your own custom deck.

What’s so great about Loot & Legends is just how well the game is presented. Everything is given a layer of cartoonish authenticity from the character tokens and map tiles down to paper reference sheets. This aesthetic gives the game an endearing makeshift feel enhanced by the game’s narrator and resident GM, Gary. Using a combination of borrowed and DIY game pieces, he does his best to cater to the players’ wants and is occasionally hounded by his older brother Merlin. These moments, where the player’s attention is drawn away from actual game itself, really helps add to the overall package.

Another point worth mentioning is free-to-play. Over the past several months, we’ve come across some truly shameful monetisation techniques, from aggressive ad placement to the stingey gating of essential content. Loot & Legends has taken a fairly balanced approach to squeezing money out of its players. Although there are occasional nods to microtransactions, these never feel obtrusive and are pitched as more of a shortcut rather than something players desperately need to advance. Aside from the straight-up buying of currency, real cash can also be used to join an elite loot club, slightly improving your spoils after each encounter.

It’s a game that certainly makes a grand first impression and one that allows players to settle in at their own pace. A couple of weeks in, I’ve grown a little tired of the turn-based battle system yet the prospect of better gear – and therefore cards – has me jumping back in for the occasional skirmish.