League of Heroes (Nintendo 3DS) Review

By Luna Eriksson 12.04.2015

Review for League of Heroes on Nintendo 3DS

There are certain things people expect and accept in a free-to-play title that they would never ever accept in a game they have to buy to start playing. Things like being given too little resources, having no reliable way to get into game, and timed lockouts. Sadly, League of Heroes did not understand this when it shifted platform to the 3DS. There are timed challenges that reset once every four hours, and a hard to obtain currency that is vital to gear up. However, despite its flaws, it succeeds in creating a fun experience for the masses to bite into.

The concept of an easily accessible, yet expansive, RPG is a daunting one. Many are afraid to dip their toes into the genre due to the high number of hours quickly consumed, but League of Heroes is a great title in this respect as it offers most things that can be found in most full-scale RPG. Everything from grinding, gearing up, missions, and boss fights are present, covering nearly all expected areas.

The gameplay is extremely simple: enter the woods and start fighting monsters. It might turn repetitive and grindy very fast, though, in all honesty. That is, however, its point, and, luckily, the repetitive system is quite addictive. This is due to sub-missions that will keeps excitement high about what will come in the next dungeon and if it will have those enemies needed to complete their mission. While the grinding is repetitive, the levels, and hours, will surprisingly fly by in the process.

Screenshot for League of Heroes on Nintendo 3DS

However, while League of Heroes works as a good and addictive toe-dipping exercise into the genre, there are also some weird design choices that can be tracked back to its free-to-play roots. The biggest offender is the fact that it is impossible to reliably grind crystals, which turns into the most important currency somewhere in the middle of the adventure. This is clear as day a leftover of its 'freemium' past. The developer tried to solve this by adding new ways of gaining crystals, which is extremely clever and works pretty well at the beginning, but even in mid-game the crystals will run low at all times. One mission from a witch, for instance, might very well take up to 10 stages to complete, and to upgrade to a level 40-50 bracelet will require over 80 crystals, which at that point will be impossible. This is a severe case of 'freemium' balance in a 'non-freemium' game and is definitely a massive barrier. Another issue is the challenges. These are vital to even have the ghost of a chance to farm crystals at the pace required to gear up. However, they only reset every four hours, which creates an unnecessary wait-gate.

Besides these leftovers from its free-to-play roots, League of Heroes is quite a good title to test the RPG waters for those who do not feel like spending several hours at a time to get into the experience. This also means that it may end up being too simple for role-playing veterans, yet it may strike a chord due to its addictive levelling-up system. It is just disappointing that all the F2P aspects were not completely removed when moving to the 3DS eShop.

Screenshot for League of Heroes on Nintendo 3DS

Cubed3 Rating

6/10
Rated 6 out of 10

Good

League of Heroes is at its core a good game. Its concept is fine and the game design succeeds in achieving exactly what it set out to do. However, the issue here is that it has not left its 'freemium' past behind, not being rebalanced enough in certain areas to be a proper eShop title, ending up with inexcusable design issues for a full-priced release. If able to tolerate timed lockouts, League of Heroes may well be worth a go.

Developer

Gamelion

Publisher

Gamelion

Genre

Real Time RPG

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  6/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

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