Hands on with Legends of Exidia on DSi

While the DSiWare library has been quietly building up a decent range of titles from big name developers, there’s still the feeling that it’s catering too much for the sudoku-loving casual crowd.

Gameloft’s Legends of Exidia is looking to address that limitation, with features that wouldn’t be amiss on a full priced title and typically high quality Gameloft production values at its core.

Legends of Exidia is a story-driven action RPG heavily influenced by Eastern RPGs, which features a hero with a typically average name, in this case Louis, and a powerful magical artefact called the ‘orb of spell’.

It also has boring stuff like masses of side quests, a combo-based combat system, and arresting visuals. But the really important aspect of the game is that there’s an ‘orb of Spell’.

How can you not like that?

Legends of Exidia starts with the half-naked, blue haired hero Louis getting out of bed in a sleepy fantasy village. Having talked to a number of people with mysterious exclamation marks over his head, he’s quickly away on a quest to save the kingdom from danger, armed with a sword, leather armour, and a weakness for cream cakes. Or gold coins - I forget which.

Taking on the monsters that infest the nearby countryside is as easy as hitting the A button, causing Louis to swing his sword.

Multiple presses begin a simple combo system that can be upgraded as you level up, and anyone in the way of this whirling dervish receives a face full of numbers and, possibly, death.

Why numbers? Well unlike Zelda, Legends of Exidia uses a basic stats system that can be levelled up with better armour and weapons.

There's a massive number of weapons and armour to purchase during the course of the game, which alter the look of your character as opposed to just changing some numbers.

This extra care and attention is carried through to the levels themselves, or rather the set-pieces that occur throughout the 22 different locations.

For instance, part of my time with the game was spent fighting alongside another character on castle battlements, an easy place to just stick lots of monster in a line and wait for the player to carve through them.

Not so with Exidia. I soon found myself smashing columns to open pathways for my companion, leaping over rotating platforms, throwing impromptu explosives at archers and finishing up by leaping on top of what looked like an Ogre and slashing his head while he was stunned.

Even during an earlier section in the countryside, there was enough going on to keep things interesting, with falling blocks and timed jumps sitting nicely alongside the standard beating up shrub-monsters.

Naturally, my play time was limited to only a few sections of the full title, but if Exidia can maintain the same level of action over the course of what looks like a lengthy adventure, then RPG fans should be very satisfied with its appearance on the DSi.

Legends of Exidia was released on the 29th January in Europe priced at 800 points, and is scheduled for a February release in the US.

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