RPGolf Legends Review 

Game: RPGolf Legends
Genre: RPG, Action, Adventure, Sports
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows), Xbox & PS4)
Developer|Publisher: ArcticNet | KEMCO
Age Rating: EU 7+ | US Everyone
Price: US $29.99 | UK £26.99 | EU € 29,99
Release Date: January 20th, 2022

Review code provided with many thanks to KEMCO.

Sports and RPG Together

RPGolf Legends, as the title implies, mixes sporty golf gameplay with the action RPG genre. The mix of the sport and RPG genres in video games, to me, feels like one of those dishes on a menu at a restaurant. You take a gamble on and hope for the best. Something that feels like it shouldn’t work but kinda does. It’s thanks to these risks in game development that we ended up with little gems like Mario Golf on Game Boy Color and Golf Story on Nintendo Switch. The latter of which ended up being one of my favourite early Nintendo Switch games. But does RPGolf Legends stand tall with these titles or just end up in a bunker? Let’s grab our golf gear and go for a walk.

She Just Wanted to Play Golf

Aerin just wanted to play golf, was that too much to ask? After waking up one morning to do a spot of fishing, Aerin lures Clubby, a spirit golf club. He instructs Aerin to free all the sealed golf holes in the world. Before she knows it Aerin is not only making golf more accessible to the people of the world, she is also assisting in their various woes by completing side quests. The plot is presented in text boxes with plenty of witty dialogue, most of which is Aerin reluctantly taking on the various side quests she is given. It’s light-hearted fun suited for all ages. 

The game is presented in the familiar pixelated graphical style with a cosy soundtrack that leans mostly to the chilled side. Lots of vibrant colours and plenty of varied environments to explore. It’s not a new look but I really liked some of the small details. The two most notable examples that come to mind are seeing your character’s reflection in the water and leaving footprints in the sand and other surfaces. It’s rare to see these features in games of this graphical style making RPGolf Legends feel pretty special.

Golf Quest

The main quest of the game is to unlock all of the sealed golf holes dotted around the world. There are six islands to discover in various themes each with 9 holes. To release a golf hole you need to fill up the experience bar on the left of the screen. This can be charged by defeating enemies or actually playing golf holes you have already unlocked. Once freed from the crystal prison you can play a spot of golf. Then you repeat the process of filling the bar and unlocking the next hole.

To mix things up, every few holes a player will challenge you to a few rounds of golf. I always liked these head to head golf sessions as you actually get to watch the AI run-up to their own ball and hit it in real-time. It’s something I don’t think I’ve seen in a golf-style video game before. You’ll also have to do a little dungeon raiding masked as a side quest for an NPC. When you free all 9 holes per island you can compete in satisfying golf tournaments.  Finally, on the last hole of each island, you have to play golf whilst contending with a boss. Basically, you stun the boss first then quickly run-up to your ball and try to get it into the hole as quickly as possible.

Aim your Ball down the Fairway

Playing golf itself is a very enjoyable experience and easily the highlight of the game for me. Golf in this game is a familiar formula where you select a club, aim your ball down the fairway whilst taking the wind direction into account. You then charge up a meter and try to angle the ball correctly and hope for the best. Courses are varied, featuring bunkers and water traps that you would expect, with the challenge steadily increasing the more you progress through the game.

I found it very enjoyable replaying the courses to try to improve my score. As the game progresses you can unlock new golf sets with improved perks for range and even craft and equip balls and equipment such as sticky balls.  When it comes to golf I was pretty happy with this game. To add to the Zen feels you can indulge in a little fishing which is very easy to pick up. Unfortunately, it kinda all fell apart for me when it came to the action combat.

How to Ruin a Good Game of Golf

When you’re not playing golf you are fighting various enemies dotted around the island to obtain items for side quests, craftable items or fill up the bar to unlock a new golf hole. Aerins weapon of choice is of course a golf club which makes sense but it’s also just awful to use.

The range of the golf club is pretty small and so often I just couldn’t land a blow on enemies, most of which require multiple hits to put down. You can make use of a charge move which costs mana that depletes very quickly. You are also able to use a special move such as a shield but this will cost all the experience you spent time accumulating to unlock the next golf hole, a trade-off that just seems unfair.

Combat

Enemies themselves tend to follow a predictable pattern where they lunge at you presenting a small opening to land a blow. It’s incredibly tedious and feels more work than it should be. Another irritation is when you do get defeated you respawn at a nearby checkpoint except you only start with half a health. This is incredibly frustrating before boss fights. I spent most of my money in this game buying potions but in there lies another frustration.

For some reason when you use any healing potion or remedy you have to wait for a countdown timer to expire before using another one adding yet more tedium to the combat. What commonly happened for me is I would use a potion then get poisoned by a darn snake, except I could not use an antidote because you have to wait for the timer to deplete. It all makes for a combat experience that’s grindy and unnecessary and it’s such a shame as I loved the golf segments. 

Extra Clubs

RPGolf Legends is jam-packed with content. The main quest will take over ten hours to complete but there are tons of side quests to take on, each of which can be easily tracked in a quest menu. The further you progress in the game the more it opens up. You can unlock different golfer classes which grant you special perks in golf and combat. There is plenty to keep you busy and nice little surprises await you provided you have the patience to overcome the challenges with combat.

The last point worth mentioning is the game is single-player only. Seems a slight shame the door wasn’t opened to play a bit of 2 player golf action in this game. You can save the game absolutely anywhere making it easy to jump in and out of the experience. The game offers two difficulty settings for golf and combat. I set the latter to be the easiest mode but it didn’t ease my niggles with combat.

Conclusion – Par For the Course 

RPGolf Legends for me ended up being a kinda push-pull. When the game focused on golf gameplay and exploration I was really in love with the experience. But the combat in the game really soured it for me. The game does get better the more time you invest into it, once you upgrade your clubs and unlock new classes. It just requires a lot of persistence to get to that point. With that in mind, I still recommend this game since it does put its own spin on the sports RPG formula. It’s just a formula that could have been a hole in one with a few tweaks to the gameplay.

Final Verdict: I Like It