My last appointment at PAX East this year was at the indie.IO booth. I was really excited about a game called Shrine’s Legacy since I had seen information about it online and knew it was a game for me. I really enjoy role-playing games and after playing Shrine’s Legacy, it felt like it was made for me but let's get into the details!
Shrine’s Legacy is an RPG inspired by the classics of the SNES era. You play as both Rio and Reima as they journey through Ardemia, looking for elemental gems to restore the Sword of Shrine to its proper glory. You can play solo controller both characters or play with a friend in local co-op. The demo took place in the forest area and we needed to be on guard as there were plenty of bugs and plant monsters around. You’ll be able to use magic as well as the Sword of Shrine during battles. You can walk right up to an enemy and start attacking them with swords or magic spells. They can do the same to your party so be careful and dodge attacks when you can. If you take damage, you can always find a save point/statue and heal your hit points, save your game or modify your build. What I mean by that is you can equip gems to either Rio or Reima to make them stronger. Gems/items have their own pros and cons so make sure you read the descriptions carefully. There was a gem that made my attacks stronger but cut my HP by 25 percent and I didn’t want that. The Legend of Zelda SNES veterans will be right at home in Shrine’s Legacy because the locations feel like they could be in a Zelda game as well and traveling the different locations is similar to how Zelda games do it(top-down view) Learning how to use magic spells will be crucial to your survival in different locations. In the demo, we had access to ice magic and needed it because there were enemies that were fire types and we needed a way to attack them. When you get more magic, you’ll be able to switch between them on the fly. We were able to switch between ice magic and fire magic like it was nothing. You can also find a statue that refills your magic meter because using magic isn’t unlimited.
There are all kinds of secrets strewn about too. The map shows the basic layout of the area but you’ll have to keep an eye out to find all the secret locations.I was obsessed with filling in the whole map so I was looking for secret areas/paths. The puzzles in the game reminded me of Golden Sun where you needed to use magic to do something first. For example, in the demo, we needed to freeze a block with ice magic and then push it with our sword onto a switch. There were areas where we needed to kill all the enemies and then a path would open because of it. Now it couldn’t be a SNES-inspired game without two things, puzzles and bosses. I already mentioned the puzzles so let’s get to the bosses. Our party finally made it through the forest and were on the way out but something was in our way. It was a giant slime monster, very similar to the little slime monsters we had been fighting in the forest this whole time. It was an interesting boss fight because we had to dodge the giant slime when it jumped, and then dodge the little slimes it spit out at us. After doing all that, a stone would appear and we needed to use ice magic on it and push said stone into the giant slime, freezing it. After freezing the slime, it would break into smaller slimes and vulnerable, ready for the Sword of Shrine to wail on it and destroy it, opening the way out of the forest for Rio and Reima.
If that doesn’t get you excited for a SNES-centric RPG, don’t know what will. On the plus side, I know I’m excited for Shrine of Legacy and can’t wait to see/hear more about it!