Warcave’s turn-based strategy RPG Black Legend hasn’t been grabbing a lot of headlines, but if you’re a fan of the genre, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve kept an eye on the game. And it’s now out (on pretty much every active platform out there right now), so you can get your hands on it if you’re interested. Check out its launch trailer below.

Black Legend is set in the fictional 17th century inspired city of Grant. A thick fog has settled over the city and inflicts madness upon anyone who gets caught in it, while a cult that worships that fog has also taken control of the streets, driving the city into chaos, with the responsibility to restore order set on your shoulders. The grid-based and turn-based combat system mixes the classic mechanics of strategy RPGs with an alchemy system.

In our review of the game, we awarded Black Legend a 7/10, saying, “Black Legend might not be an unmissable game, but it’s still one that fans of strategy RPGs should definitely have on their radar.” You can read our full review through here.

Black Legend is available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Right off the bat, Black Legend had its hooks in me. Set in the city of Grant, Black Legend immediately shows that it’s seeping with atmosphere. In an age of alchemy and nascent technology, Grant is enveloped in a thick fog that inflicts madness upon its denizens. Large numbers of the decaying city’s population have been forced indoors, and these citizens who are afraid to exit their homes choose to hunker down and shut themselves off from the outside world. Those who walk the streets have to contend with not only the fog, but also with a fanatical cult that wreaks havoc on what remains of the city. You play as a band of mercenaries sent in to rescue civilians, aid the few who resist the cult, and save Grant from the forces that thwart it.

"The story itself isn’t going to knock your socks off – perhaps because it mostly plays second fiddle to the combat and exploration – but the central premise and aesthetic are strong enough to support the entire experience in and of themselves."

It’s a well-realized setting, and works on several levels. The desolate and dying city of Grant is atmospheric, and chancing across the few people still left alive who haven’t lost their minds – whether that’s in a face-to-face encounter or in Bloodborne-esque conversations through locked doors – feels like a significant event. Meanwhile, visually, a 17th century city blanketed with fog while the streets are littered with debris and litter and everything looks like it’s been frozen in a devastating moment in time is just a cool aesthetic. The story itself isn’t going to knock your socks off – perhaps because it mostly plays second fiddle to the combat and exploration – but the central premise and aesthetic are strong enough to support the entire experience in and of themselves.

Exploring Grant is also a lot of fun. The city is, by design, a desolate one, which means you shouldn’t expect to run into a ton of NPCs, but walking through its streets and alleys to unlock shortcuts, uncover valuable new loot, find and tackle different side quests, and chance upon characters that can be recruited into your bands of mercenaries can still be quite a rewarding experience. I also appreciate the fact that the game doesn’t rely on a map or markers for an exploration, instead asking you to read signposts in the world itself for the purposes of navigation. It really grounds you in the world. From a visual perspective, I definitely could have done with a little more variety though- Grant isn’t particularly massive, but it is divided into several districts, though there isn’t an awful lot to distinguish these areas from one another. There are some visually diverse locations, sure – the beaches near the shipyard, for instance, can’t be mistaken for any other part of the city – but I definitely would have liked to see more of that throughout Grant.

The combat, thankfully, is also one of Black Legend’s strong suits, employing a grid-based and turn-based tactics approach that doesn’t take long to come into its own. What helps Black Legend’s combat set itself apart, however, is its alchemy system, which is the primary way of dealing damage to enemies in the game. Different kinds of attacks apply different kinds of humours to enemies, while some of the more powerful attacks can apply more of it than the others, and often multiple kinds as well, and stacking these humours and then hitting enemies with catayzing attacks is how you deal any significant amount of damage. Not all kinds of humours go together, which means you also have to think about which humours you’re applying to enemies for the catalyzing attacks to even have the intended effect. It’s a unique system, and presented in a fairly simple manner. At first, understanding which humours can be combos with each other can be hard to understand and memorize, but it doesn’t take long for that understanding to set in, which is when the combat system really shines.

"Put together, the classes, weapons, and abilities come together to ensure that Black Legend offers legitimately meaningful build variety, allowing you to craft the kind of characters and the kind of party that suits you best."

Black Legend also boasts a varied and flexible class system, which is another area where the game impresses. There are over a dozen classes in the game, and players are encouraged to experiment with as many of them as possible. Classes are unlocked through exploration, side quests, and progress in the story, and you can swap in and out of them whenever you please. Each class specializes with different kinds of weapons, requires the character to don different kinds of armour, and has different attacks of different categories of alchemical humours. Meeting certain criteria (such as attacking enemies with a specific weapon a minimum number of times) allows you to permanently learn an ability from a class, which allows you to equip that ability among your limited slots of cross-class abilities.

The class system offers flexibility and fluidity by design. No single class in and of itself is particularly deep or expansive, and while that would have been a problem if you were expected to select a main class and then stick with it for hours upon hours, Black Legend doesn’t expect you to do that. You are instead encouraged to equip new classes, permanently learn their abilities, and then switch to a new one, mixing and matching to your heart’s content and changing your character’s loadout depending on what situation you’re in. Put together, the classes, weapons, and abilities come together to ensure that Black Legend offers legitimately meaningful build variety, allowing you to craft the kind of characters and the kind of party that suits you best.

Not everything works as well as it should though, even in the role playing department. While the flexibility of the class system is appreciated, other elements feel less fleshed out. Actually leveling up, for instance, doesn’t seem to have the kind of impact that it should, while things such as which passive boost items your characters have equipped doesn’t make all that much of a difference. During combat, the movement and the camera can also feel a bit too stiff- the latter, especially, which doesn’t even let you zoom in and out all that much, let alone tilt the camera to get a better view of the action.

"Black Legend isn’t a particularly expectational game at anything that it does, and there’s room for improvement in a lot of areas. But what it does well, it does really well, and those strong elements come together in a compelling package."

There are a few other niggling issues in the game as well that can hold it back at times. The UI, for instance, is a bit too eccentric for its own good at times, and switching between the characters in your party in a menu or switching our their classes with single taps of face buttons rather than being able to use the d-pad like in any other game definitely takes some getting used to. Voice acting, too, is passable at best, and mediocre at worst, and really dulls the impact of a lot of the dialog. Meanwhile, there’s also some visual glitches here and there, like floating objects or the textures taking too long to load in when you enter a district.

As I said, Black Legend isn’t a particularly expectational game at anything that it does, and there’s room for improvement in a lot of areas. But what it does well, it does really well, and those strong elements come together in a compelling package. The combat is fun, the fluid class system promotes impressive build variety, the exploration is simple and engaging, and the city of Grant is a solid setting that’s brimming with atmosphere. Black Legend might not be an unmissable game, but it’s still one that fans of strategy RPGs should definitely have on their radar.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

"We’ve created a variety of districts to explore, each with their own stories and secrets. We wanted to capture some old school exploration, meaning we won’t always go out of our way to hold the player’s hand and direct them to everything."

What can you tell us about the city of Grant, where Black Legend is set?

The name Grant was inspired by the combination of three major Belgian cities: Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp. As such, the architecture was directly referenced from these cities. For culture we primarily looked at the Dutch Golden Age and tried to mirror Amsterdam in that regard. A heavy focus on trade and science in a naval city.

In our setting, Grant was a very wealthy city state due to their central orientation in the world. Their trade with many neighbouring nations did not just come with affluence, but also protection. No country wanted an important trade partner to be attacked without consequences. Leading up to the events before Black Legend takes place, a lot of these neighbouring countries banded together under single banners, removing this protection.

When war was declared between the two major groups, Grant was caught in the middle. For protection, they were approached by Mephisto, a talented alchemist who covered the city in fog that makes those without an antidote go mad. This plan worked for a time, until Mephisto disappeared along with the recipe for the antidote. These events have led to the current situation, where cultists pray for Mephisto’s return and make an antidote of their own.

What can players expect from it in terms of size and exploration opportunities?

We’ve created a variety of districts to explore, each with their own stories and secrets. We wanted to capture some old school exploration, meaning we won’t always go out of our way to hold the player’s hand and direct them to everything. Although a single player experience, we intend players to communicate about finding quests, interesting NPCs and treasure in the world through a variety of channels.

Black Legend’s setting is giving the impression that the game places quite a bit of emphasis on atmosphere and world-building. Is that something players can expect to see throughout the game?

Yes, and this goes hand in hand with our emphasis on exploration. Rather than rely on cutscenes, we’ve decided to put the story in a variety of details, like item descriptions or NPC dialogue. Those who want to find every bit of story may also discover that a lot is left open to interpretation, and people may have to speculate on some events that occurred.

Can you talk us through how free exploration works, and how it can be leveraged to gain an upper hand before jumping into battles?

Overall every battle can be analyzed from a distance to see the types of enemies you will go up against. Based on that the player can decide to try and avoid the battle through use of obstacles and staying out of detection range, or finding a different route to their destination.

Players who want a tactical advantage can look out for priority targets like enemies armed with ranged weapon, and approach these units so the battle starts close to them, allowing you to shut them down early before they can run away and be a menace.

Another factor is how the encounters operate. When the game begins the entire city is overrun with cultists, as you clear these battles, the amount of cultists you encounter will start to decrease depending on your difficulty settings. People who play on the easier difficulties will encounter less cultists while those on higher difficulties will have to force their way through more often.

"Those who want to find every bit of story may also discover that a lot is left open to interpretation, and people may have to speculate on some events that occurred."

How the does the alchemy system that Black Legend’s combat centers around function in the game? How does it tie into progression and classes?

The Alchemy System was inspired by medieval medicine theory. This theory of “humorism” believed that people got sick due to a chemical imbalance of four “bodily humours”, each represented by a colour: black, yellow, red and white.

In Black Legend, a lot of abilities cause these imbalances to occur on enemies, represented by up to 3 stacks. On their own, these stacks do very little, but they can be “Catalyzed” together into a “Catalyst”.
The entire flow of combat revolves around applying these stacks that can then be combined into “Catalysts”. Upon creating these successful combinations, the affected unit takes a lot of damage.

All these combinations start out with the same effect: damage. But as you explore you will find a type of equipment called “Trinkets”, nearly all of which have different effects that play around the alchemy system. For example, there’s a trinket that inflicts a Bleeding status effect on the target if the unit that is wearing it manages to combine the Black and Red colours into a “Crimson Catalyst”.

Each class has a set amount of abilities but it’s rare for a single class to cover all 4 colours. As such, the player must plan their party accordingly to make sure they cover as many bases as possible. The synergy between units is very important. Some classes are very good at applying the colours, but are lacking in the “Skill” stat which determines the damage scaling when forming a successful catalyst.

Finally, proper use of the Alchemy System will yield an Experience Point bonus, so you can level up more quickly by learning and using it early.

With 15 playable classes, Black Legend seems to be focusing on giving players many options. How does having so many classes affect things such as team composition?

It’s something we wanted to leave up to the player. If someone wants to challenge themselves and try to play through the game by only using a certain class or even the base class, we intended for that to be possible. If people want to focus on a ranged composition, we will let them.

Overall we want players to find something they enjoy playing with and be able to complete the game.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of Black Legend be?

That is a very difficult question to answer as someone who knows the entire game by heart. Just running through the main story, knowing where everything is and having a lot of experience with the combat system will still take me a good 10 hours. Adding all the extra side content I can confidently add another 3 hours to that. Overall, depending on the experience of the player and their desire for exploration, I would say between 15 to 20 hours.

Will the game have any sort of multiplayer component?

At the moment we’ve put all our efforts into creating a solid single player experience with no current plans for multiplayer.

"At the moment we’ve put all our efforts into creating a solid single player experience with no current plans for multiplayer."

Can you tell us about what other modes will the game have besides the critical path?

The difficulty settings are rather customizable. Players who want more of a challenge can play on the “Hard” setting where factors come into play like the permanent death of their units. We also enable a “custom” setting where the player can create an experience completely tailored to their own liking.

Finally, we have a New Game+ option that lets players carry over their progress from a previous playthrough.

Since the reveal of the PS5 and Xbox Series X’s specs, a lot of comparisons have been made between the speeds of the two consoles’ GPUs, with the PS5 at 10.28 TFLOPS and the Xbox Series X at 12 TFLOPS- but how much of an impact on development do you think that difference will have?

Very little impact for an indie team of 10 people. Most important for us is to release the game on these platforms so they’re available for both current generation (PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch) and the new consoles. We intend to make sure it runs well on both platforms.

What resolution sand frame rates is the game targeting to run on PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S? Will the game have multiple visual modes?

We’ve decided to keep most customization regarding graphics to just PC due to the large variety in hardware there. For consoles we’ve set our standards as high as possible to create a uniform, smooth experience, but it’s too early still to give exact numbers. Although given our intent on releasing for the previous generation of consoles, we’re pretty confident it will run fine on the new hardware.