Legends of Amberland Review (Nintendo Switch)

Game: Legends Of Amberland
Genre: Role-Playing, Adventure, Turn-based
System: Nintendo Switch, PC
Developer|Publisher: Silver Lemur Games|Pineapple Works
Age Rating: US Everyone|EU 7+
Price: USD $19.99 |UK £17.99 | EU € 19,99
Release Date: April 20th 2020

Review code used with many thanks to Pineapple Works

I was introduced to this style of game by my father, within the last couple of years actually. He got me to play Eye of The Beholder and oh I fell for the style, it’s so simple and yet so intriguing. So, thankfully I had prior experience with the old school DND feeling I get from these kind of games.

Legend of Amberland LadiesGamer — Oh the choices!

Character creation is obviously the first thing to do in Legends of Amberland, can’t have an adventuring team without any adventurers. I have to admit, I was sad that female Dwarves aren’t available, but that still means you can pick one of each available race and gender going.

Each choice of race and gender then gives you more choices, each one with it’s own stat upgrades at certain levels, allowing you to refine a character further into what you want the character to become in time.
A tank? A DPS? Healer? So many options, it was hard to choose.

Pixel Power Perfection

The User Interface is easy enough to understand, it’s all right there, you can even use the touchscreen for, well, everything. It’s easy enough to use the joycons if you prefer, I used the joycons for the majority but found it was handy sometimes to just touch what I wanted instead.
The graphics are outstanding, it really is pixel heaven. I have always loved pixel art, so really, it was a joy to play through Legends of Amberland with all the different sprites, I felt personally spoiled.

Battles are turn-based, so no worrying if you take your eyes off of it for a moment, no surprise dying in this game, except when you get K.O.ed… I wandered too far off, my bad ♥

Enemies do not scale with you, you train to get to their level. While scaled battles make a game ‘easier’ to grind, I like the feeling of, ‘oh man, I am NOT ready for that area yet’, I’ve missed that, so it is lovely to have it from Silver Lemur Games, thank you.

Traversing the World

Get ready to meet a lot of fantasy people and monsters; knights, elves, dwarves, wizards, ogres and dragons. You are also going to be dealing with trying to find the same person after you finally finish their quest. Honestly, next time I play through, I will be noting the map co-ordinates for each quest giver, as my memory isn’t the best anyway. Although the hunt does get easier once you unlock fast travel.

Travel is one square at a time, with 90 degree rotation, while seeing everything through the eyes of your party. It’s a great way to travel, it’s fast and seamless movement. There are no restrictions on movement, travel is all your own choice. I’m so used to games like this being a tad slow on movement that I lost count how many times I went too far and had to back track to where I was actually headed, but once I got used to it, it was so smooth.

Noble Mission Beginnings

Starting Legends of Amberland is the above quest, nice and easy, right? Of course it is, it’s only the first quest. Get ready to settle in for a story that will sound familiar to many role-players, played out in a fun and exciting way. There are plenty of extra quests to pick up along your travels, in fact, I didn’t even finish all of mine.

Legends of Amberland is easy to pick up, either for five minutes or a few hours. Silver Lemur Games have managed to wrap the 90’s nostalgia into a neat package. With a few changes, such as a limitless bag, but with individual character encumbrance.