Time to head to Bandle City. Bandle Tale: A League of Legends story sees you, the main character, in the world of League of Legends fluffy friends, Yordles. There your character is trying to rescue their friend while traveling around to the different worlds and cities amongst the Yordles. The game has plenty of fun and interesting moments that other cozy farming games have but ultimately it is a struggle thanks to many tedious tasks and frustrating inventory problems. For more, here is a review of Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story.
*Special thanks to Kara Hanes for helping with this Review*
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Gameplay
When looking at the gameplay for Bandle Tale most of it is pretty simple. From the start, it is your basic cozy-type game. You are able to go around collecting different items and ingredients for the many recipes that you need in the game. Each part of the different skill and research trees allows players to jump right in. When playing on PC it is a simple click and keyboard game in terms of its movement.
You have different carpets with different items that you can build on them. Some are easier to get than others and sadly at times, you run out of space. Something that was very frustrating was having to rearrange things constantly to make more room or to make things easier to get to.
Bandle Tale is simple enough at its start. But then things start to get a bit grindy and at times confusing. At one point during the playthrough, there was a key item that was sent to the mailbox on a completely different part of the map and you could not progress in the game without it. The problem was that this was sent there because the small bag that was given in the game was full and there were no indications that this item was in the mailbox because the inventory was filled. It took way too much time to figure this out but it would have been nice to have something telling you it was there instead of in your inventory.
What was most frustrating about this was that you could not progress in the game. There were no hints or anything that would indicate what to do next. The time lost on this certainly hurt.
The inventory itself is a mess even outside of the key items issue. There was no way to organize everything. This seems to be a simple part of most games that require many items. For a game that relies on these quests and items, it was shocking that there was no way to at least organize them in a basic A-Z fashion.
Because of the limited space and confusing way it is all setup, you are required to run around through many different worlds and loading screens to complete quests that should have taken a few moments. Even with the ability to teleport to some of the areas, this became increasingly tedious.
There were great parts of the gameplay though. The quests and interactions with League of Legends champions were generally interesting. Champions are expected to be in the game but seeing them in a less violent environment was great. Veigar especially stood out as an almost Saturday morning cartoon type of evil guy. This is generally how his lore is but, to see it in a very different way was great.
Along with this, the character creation was extremely satisfying. The character is disabled at the beginning and this shows how Lazy Bear Games and Riot Forge prioritize accessibility. Along with this was the option to pick pronouns, something that is still not common enough in gaming. It truly felt like your own character in a very fun and new style of world.
Lastly, the ability to create a fantastic and satisfying-looking house was great. The customization options for it were numerous and it was easily one of the highlights of the game. With many of them being tied into League of Legends champions, it certainly made the connection even more relevant.
Graphics
There is no doubt that Bandle Tale is incredible to look at. The cozy feel is baked into the game more than many games in the genre. This is especially true with the lighting at night which was surprisingly great, especially for a pixel-style game.
Along with this, the colors were vibrant and pleasant to just stare at while trying to figure out how you wanted to place your different benches. This was especially true for the characters. The League of Legends champions in particular were enjoyable to see in this pixelated art style. It was truly the perfect way to depict Yordles.
The different worlds and cities really do come to life in Bandle Tale. Their different buildings and interesting characters were certainly one of the better parts of this game.
Music
The music in Bandle Tale certainly brings whimsy to the game even more so than the graphics at times. The different types of wind instruments, xylophones and the mixture of weird sounds really help Bandle Tale come to life. Each area having different styles of music was relaxing and rarely got too repetitive.
That being said, it was not necessarily music that would stand out or stick in your head. This is truly what it means to have background music. It was a great part of the game but may be music that you largely forget about until you hear it and are brought back in.
This may sound negative, but for a cozy game, this is generally what you want instead of a big, epic and repetitive score.
Story
Bandle Tale has an initially interesting enough story but it is relatively simplistic. As stated before the character is trying to rescue their friend. In order to do so the player must help the different Yordles following the major event that leads to your friend’s disappearance.
Along the way, you make friends with different characters, including the League of Legends champions, as you try and fix the different issues. One of the main champions that stood out was Tristana. She was not only a major part of moving the game forward but a memorable character in her own right. Her interactions with Veigar were entertaining and left you with a desire for more.
The focus is on magic that is made from emotions. The main way to get this magic is from having the different characters come to your parties which requires you to bake and set out big arrangements. This ends up being most of the game as it ties in with the main story.
It is a solid story with a focus on loss, friendship and building a community. It feels like much of the Yordle world is tied together through all of these different aspects and the conclusion is satisfying but not exactly unexpected.
Overall Thoughts and Conclusion/Ranking
Bandle Tale is a cute story about friendship and working together as a community to solve bigger problems. It is beautiful to look at and the music, while not standing out, brings you into the game as it should. The issues start and end with the gameplay itself as it was increasingly frustrating as the game went on.
Sadly, the graphics, characters and general feel of the game are not strong enough to overcome the myriad of issues with the gameplay itself. Cozy games are supposed to be relaxing to play and fun to lean into while spending countless hours lost in the world. Unfortunately, Bandle Tale largely misses that mark but could improve with some gameplay patches.
Rating: 6/10
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