Fantasy Warrior: Legends

It’s been five long years since we last saw the name Fantasy Warrior pop up on our phones here at Pocket Gamer Towers.

Back then banks weren’t quite so evil, England were sure to win the World Cup with Sven at the helm, and having emails on a phone was considered witchcraft (sort of).

Alas, some things never change, and while Fantasy Warrior: Legends certainly looks look a modern release, it exhibits some crippling flaws that prevent it from playing like one.

You are The Warrior, the chosen one, who has to save a village, visit the king, and then rid the lands of evil monsters by assembling four pieces of a magical amulet. At least pretend to look surprised.

The dialogue is dreadful, with everyone explaining their actions and repeating it to other people constantly. For example, ‘go and clear the town of bandits’ is met with the reply, ‘I’ll go and clear the town of bandits’. It’s not exactly gripping narrative.

Forget story, though, because FW:L is all about action. There's an EXP system going on in the background, but the main thrust of the game is to hit things until they explode in a cloud of bloody gristle.

The graphics are suitably detailed and rich in colour, with an interesting manga-esque influence to the character design, and some clever palette uses for certain sections of the game.

For example, journeying back to the village near the start of the game turns the screen grey, hinting at the horrors performed when the main character was away.

Where FW:L falls apart somewhat is in the combat. Instead of using the ‘5’ key to slash, the game instead relies on automatically switching to combat mode when an enemy approaches.

From here any movement key (‘2’, ‘4’, ‘6’, ‘8’) attacks in that direction, with each enemy assigned to a particular key. If, however, an enemy attacks from a diagonal, or levels more than one attack from the same direction, it becomes hard to work out which key will ‘hit’ him, often resulting in fruitless sword-waving.

Movement is almost as hampered as the combat due to the massive amount of invisible space required around the character. Some of the more narrow levels often descend into a farcical back-forward-back manoeuvre to get through a gap more akin to driving a lorry than a nimble warrior.

Despite the lovely graphics and the decent length, Fantasy Warrior: Legends’s frustrating controls resign it to a time best forgotten.