Do you sometimes go to a restaurant and think, “Do I really like this place? I should come here more often,” then forget about it for the next six months? This is The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered. It’s an okay game while you’re playing it, but it’s not likely to hook you.

The problem really starts with the title. The Legend of Legacy could just as easily be The Legacy of Legends, The Quest of Adventures, or The Battle of Combat. It’s too generic to hook you and kind of betrays the game’s unique concept. At least this time they’ve added HD Remastered to the title, as it’s an updated port of the original Nintendo 3DS release from 2015. The game was developed by FuRyu with a staff with many connections to Final Fantasy and SaGa. As such, it’s no surprise that the game is smart and well-made. It’s a wonder it failed to stick with me.

You start the game by choosing one of seven heroes as your protagonist. Eventually you’ll meet up and be able to recruit the others, but this provides some replay value by changing the opening frames and ending of the game. After that, you’re tasked with pretty much nothing more than exploring the island of Avalon. A story about the ancient history of Avalon is revealed through the collection of “Singing Shards” and these revelations affect the future of the island and our seven heroes. Each has a unique ending, none of which are grand adventures. It’s a small, tightly contained story that’s actually a welcome break from the typical “villager farm goes out to collect nuts and ends up fighting god” approach to JRPGs.

The problem with a minimalist story, however, is that other elements have to carry the game. Are the graphics with The Legacy of Legends? No, although they are kind of fun for a remastering of a nine-year-old game. The chibi characters have a nice textured, illustrative look that helps them pop out of the landscape. The backgrounds are a little muddy, but the heavy color saturation gives them plenty of life. And I love how the elements of the landscape pop into place as you move around the island. If exploration is half the game, at least they’ve made that exploration enjoyable.

The soundtrack is just as fun, but I’d expect it from Masashi Hamauzu, whose work you’ll know from many Final Fantasy games, among others. It does a good job of blending in with the fast pace of the game.

This game features turn-based combat centered around location. Before a turn, you choose where to place your party. These can focus on offense, defense, support, etc. and directly affect your abilities during that turn. Progressing through the game unlocks more slots, thus giving you more weapon abilities. And the more you use these weapons, the more proficient you become with them. Using them enough in battle frees up the Awakened’s skills for more powerful attacks, so there’s plenty of strategy involved as the battle unfolds.

The problem with this battle, however, is the difficulty spike with the bosses. They all have a special way of defeating them, and if you’re not experienced with that method, it gets annoyingly difficult. What is simple enough with your team in one playthrough may require a large amount of grinding to overcome with another. I suppose this makes multiple playthroughs more rewarding, but it doesn’t change the aggravation of finding yourself woefully unprepared for a boss when you’re cleaning house against the enemies that lead it.

I’ve seen this battle system compared to the SaGa series, which I haven’t played. However, I have played The Alliance Alive, a similar game from FuRyu that came out two years after The Legend of Legacy on the 3DS. Alliance Alive received a similar Switch HD remaster in 2019, and it’s interesting to compare the two. They share combat mechanics, but The Alliance Alive focuses more on story and less on exploration. It’s a more typical JRPG in that regard, but there, the overworld ends up interfering with the game’s progression. In The Legend of Legacy, exploring the environment is a core element of gameplay. Completing the maps is required for progression, but the story gives you little reason to do so.

Put these two games together and I think FuRyu would definitely have a winner. Separated, they are more like two halves of a whole. Going back to my first restaurant analogy, it’s like one has good food, the other has good atmosphere, and never the twain shall meet. Both of these games have elements that make them fun to play, but they don’t have the pieces to get full recommendations. Playing them side-by-side could be an interesting experiment for JRPG fans, but neither is a must-play on its own.