The Legend of Legacy: All good things come to an end (spoilers!)

Including great games. After 34 hours of roaming, fighting and looting, my run of Legend of Legacy is over. And you know what? I'm sad. I feel some bittersweet ache at the thought that my fascinating, entrancing, deeply fulfilling run of that game is over. I could have gone on for yet another thirty hours, discovering new dungeons and drinking in the game's unique atmosphere.

Why the drama, you may ask? Surely you can indulge in postgame, or roam again old dungeons if you want your run to be longer, right? Well, actually, no. Not only is there no postgame at all in LoL, but the game literally forbids you to roam Avalon again once the final boss is beaten. I found myself in Initius after the deed was done, with no possibility to save or alter my party—which was actually disbanded, my former mates walking amongst the locals and commenting on the fact that our adventure together was a hell of a good one and that we should do that again someday. I then left Initius, which triggered the credits; and after witnessing lead character Garnet's final scene, I was sent back to the beginning of the game and given the possibility to start a New Game+ right away. I obviously didn't do so, since I was still busy digesting the whole experience and trying to come to terms with the fact that my run was over.

Although I had been playing for 34 hours already, I didn't expect the ending to come so soon, so to speak. The game's non-linear brand of dungeon-crawling means that there was no ominous build-up to the final showdown, and the last boss came nearly out of the blue. Although there was no mistaking that grandiose fight for anything else than the Final Boss Fight, it was still a bit of a surprise to see the game come to an end right after that—especially since the ending does not exactly shed light on the island's many mysteries. I suspect the storyline to be a choral one, in which it is necessary to clear the game with all the characters to get the full picture; and I suspect that full picture to be quite a blurry one anyway, with many elements being left to the player's imagination. At any rate, the combination of that cryptic storyline and that old-school ending that puts a full stop to the game instead of being a mere pre-postgame intermission gives me the odd, persistant and wondrous feeling that my playthrough has been an incursion into a dream of sorts.

Whether this effect was voluntarily crafted by the developers or not, it is one of my favourite aspects of LoL. Never before have I played a game that made me feel so much like I was exploring a mysterious and ultimately unfathomable world, with just a handful of cryptic clues to help me figure things out—or not. My gaming fernweh came back full force, to the point where I did something that I usually never do, i.e. purchase the official art book in order to soak myself deeper in that marvelous game world. Those gorgeous dungeons are engraved in my memory now, and I want to roam them again and try to figure out Avalon's many mysteries. No, take that back: I don't need to figure out Avalon's many mysteries. I want to dive into that world again just for the sheer pleasure of it, just because it feels so tangible yet so surreal, solemn and timeless, just because it makes me feel like a full-fledged explorer trying to piece out a mystery that's beyond their understanding.

I realize that all my writing about Legend of Legacy is a trifle messy and quite emotional; and that's not too surprising, considering that it mirrors my experience of the game. I don't want to expand on the gameplay mechanics because I don't really care about them, at least not outside of the game's context. They are only a tool to a greater purpose, which is the roaming of that marvellous game world. I don't want to try to be rational about Legend of Legacy and to analyse it, because playing that game was a deeply emotional experience for me. It sent me back to a place I thought I had left forever, namely the early stages of my gaming career, where every cartridge held a promise of adventure and even the most barren game world was a place of wonders. I love Legend of Legacy for that. I love it for offering me a vast and tangled game world while refraining from any kind of hand-holding, giving me the pleasure of making discoveries and overcoming obstacles on my own. I love it for being so tough and so gorgeous at once, making me feel again like a kid taking their first steps into the wondrous world of videogaming. I love that game, and I'll play it again for sure—and I sure encourage you to do so as well, dear fellow gamers. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!