No Raiden to save this one, Platinum…
PlatinumGames have had a big success as of late with the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Bayonetta 2, so much so that I didn’t even know they were involved with a Legend of Korra game till I loaded it up. Now, I know absolutely nothing about the show, but considering most games like this end up as both retail and digital versions, I was skeptical since Korra is only available as a download, was I right to be so pessimistic?
The game consists of 8 levels, weighing in at 30-40 minutes each…so you’ll breeze through it in no time, having said that….there are ridiculous difficulty spikes throughout, luckily though you can buy items to help you, even in the menu after you die and can equip them from the level by tapping the touchpad on the PS4. I didn’t really understand what was going on story-wise, but it’s your typical Anime-fare with over-the-top voice acting and crazy moves from start to finish.
You can see that PlatinumGames have had a hand in making this, it’s just hard to tell how much and how much time they had to do so. It feels rushed, the levels aren’t the greatest in design and the enemies are repetitive to fight, as well as looking the same with just a different colour scheme and a different type of weapon seems lazy.
You can find items that give you more currency to spend at the shop, although these items are pretty random and makes it harder for trophy hunters to get their platinum. There’s also a Temple Run style mini-game involving Korra’s weird polar bear dog-thing Naga that is just a pain to control, especially later on as you fight off 3 mechs at once, which is tough since one hit will make you fail. The same goes for the other Naga stages, but that’s got checkpoints throughout.
The game does get easier as you upgrade Korra, and there are a few cheats to make it even easier that doesn’t seem to disable trophies, what’ll come in handy during the Extreme difficulty playthrough. But it still will be incredibly tough at times…
The visuals are the strongest part of the game; the anime cutscenes are well done and match the show from what I’ve seen. The framerate seems to be decent throughout and the load times are minimal, the only issue I have is that the camera seems to have a mind of its own during battles. And as I said before, the level design is a bit basic and the variety of enemy is severely limited.
The Verdict
The Legend of Korra doesn’t quite have the grace of PlatinumGames past successes like Revengeance and Bayonetta, but it does have its moments…I just found the game to be short with off-putting difficulty spikes and little reason to go through it more than once for anything other than trophies. Which makes me question just who the game is aimed at? It’s too difficult for kids and I can’t see many adults playing it, so who then?
