Posted on: October 23, 2021
rob.liefeld
Games: 1345 Reviews: 78
An experiment that kind-of works
I played these a loooong time ago, so maybe I view them through rose-tinted glasses. That said, here's how I recall them. First of all, props to whoever titled the series: - 'ey mate! I'm working on this high-fantasy rpg series, but they're also gonna be adventure games where you have to investigate a series of murders as a detective. What should I call them? - Erm... Legends of... Murder? - Brilliant! The title encapsultes how these work: a very basic rpg system (fixed monster encounters, loot, spells, attributes, leveling up, a top-down exploration-view) fused with an illustrated text adventure (inventory, searching, an actual plot, puzzles, rich descriptions through text and using the keyboard for everything - though there's not a lot of typing). Mind you, there were number of hybrid-games back then, where they tried to join different aspects of different genres, as the tropes of which were yet to be set in stone (heck, there have been text adventure-rougelike hybrids some years earlier). This one is somewhat closer in theory to our modern sensibilities when it comes to narrative driven rpgs, as it's heavier on the story an lighter on combat than many of it's contemporaries. Then again, it's also very close to adventure games - both, for example, are mercifully short. You can finish each in an afternoon or so. IF you play attention to every little detail. It also helsp if you're psychic. Both games are murder mysteries where you're to find the culprit. In the first you fart around a large castle trying to find who killed the king, in the second you fart around a small town, trying to find who killed a young wizard-student - and in neither does the game hold your hand. Maybe it's because I was a kid, but I recall I had to use walkthrus since I honestly didn't understand how the final solutions made any sense. I think the games are still approachable today if you don't mind the antiquated interface and have the patience note-taking.
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