Parents' Guide to Black Legend

This is a thoughtfully made strategy game, but players will need to work through a steep learning curve and engage in a fair bit of grinding in order to get the most out of it. Black Legend's setting is dark and mysterious, providing players with an almost Dark Souls-style of action in which they follow paths through dangerous streets teeming with aggressive enemies, unlocking gated shortcuts along the way. Lights above doorways let you know if there may be someone at home willing to offer some advice or a request you can choose to fulfill. The narrative, unfortunately, doesn't quite manage to live up to the creepy setting, offering few memorable characters and a strangely dull, slow-moving plot. Even most of the heroes have little in the way of personality beyond the class and clothes assigned to them.

But the combat's good. It seems straightforward at first: You just move into range and attack with your strongest weapons. But as the game moves on and battles become harder, you'll want to take advantage of various systems, such as flanking enemies for a damage bonus, climbing higher to increase options for heroes with ranged abilities, and working out which combination of classes works best when dealing with different types of enemies. Unfortunately, figuring out the Humorism system takes more time than it should, and a clunky interface and menu design could prove a hurdle for some. Plus, there's an element of slog. You'll inevitably end up fighting similar enemies found in the same locations time and again as you work and rework your way through the city en route to quest objectives. It's easy to see and appreciate the work that went into the combat and atmosphere, but the overall experience is still rough around the edges. As a result, Black Legend will likely end up popular with only a specific subset of hard-core strategy RPG (role-playing game) fans.