Bulletpoints: The Legend of Korra The Game The Review

So faster than you probably expected, here’s a Legend of Korra The Game review. 

First, the backstory. The game is developed by Platinum Games studios, the guys responsible for great games like Wonderful 101, Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising, Anarchy Reigns, and Vanquish among their other titles as Clover Studios. The game is published by Activision who is considered evil by some but I’m kind of neutral on them since they aren’t EA or Ubisoft. The game takes place between seasons 2 and 3 (though I was originally informed seasons 1 and 2). That’s all about the game you need to know prior to going into the review.

Also, if you aren’t familiar with Avatar or Legend of Korra and you’re reading my blog in general… then you don’t need me to fill in the backstory here. Go check out other posts on the subject. Short-version for those too lazy to do even that: Avatar is the god-like figure who can bend all four elements in a world where people normally can only bend (manipulate) one. The elements are earth, wind, fire, and water and Korra just so happens to be one of those Avatars in question.

Let’s focus on the weakest part of this game, the plot. This was always going to be the Achilles’ Heel of any licensed tie-in game since a good game tells a story but a game about an established world/story from another media can’t tell one that conflicts with the original story. So the plot is very much separated from the plot of the show, but still incorporates elements from the show. By that, I mean you’ll still get token nods and references to events from the show, but none of the stuff in the game has any chance of affecting what takes place in the show after the fact. Which is kind of a shame, but understandable. This unfortunately makes the plot of the game feel rather side-story-esque where the events don’t really matter and the stakes don’t feel all that important.

An old man from the spirit world wants Korra’s chi so he can revitalize himself into some kind of new-god-like figure. So he attacks Korra with armies of Chi Blockers, Triad members, and evil spirits each of which have different arrays of attacks (some of which are easier to deal with than others). You fight in various locations to regain the bending powers that get taken away in an early part of the game, slowly becoming more powerful as the game continues (aka Samus-Power-Armor-Syndrome).

The only characters from the show to make an appearance in the game outside of Korra are Naga (her dog) and Jinora (Tenzin’s daughter). This is also a shame because the show has so many wonderful characters it would have been fun to play as, against, or with through the course of the game. I get it’s Korra’s show, but it would have added a touch of variety that this game kind of needed.

The plot itself is incredibly flat by Avatar standards and feels more like an event from DragonBallZ. Even the final boss fight comes off as a super saiyan battle more than an actual Avatar battle and that’s… rather disappointing but not wholly unexpected. Given the amount of resources I expected this game got based on the price and brevity of the game, they did the best with what they had to work with and it’s still a rather competent game. But Platinum Games aren’t really known for their story as they are known more for their really well-designed combat systems. So let’s go on to gameplay.

The gameplay is your action-game affair. You have a slow attack, fast attack, dodge, counter, and jump with one extra button used sparingly for finishers. You use a combination of slow and fast attacks to make… well… combos of cool looking but powerful attacks to deal with foes. But defensive gameplay is also important, so learning the dodge and counter mechanics is essential for victory, especially early on when your attacks are pitiful at best. But unlike other games where dodge and counter are tied into one-another or needing to push a directional input when countering, you only hit the counter button. Doing anything else risks the chance of overriding the counter entirely and you get damaged. It took a while to get this and the timing of counters down properly. Especially when some animations of enemies aren’t clear as to which point you’re supposed to counter.

Then you have enemies that (when first encountered) can only be damaged by counter attacks. But you have to wait several minutes before they’ll fire off an attack you can counter. In between, you spend that time dodging all their attacks that can’t be countered due to electricity or whatever else. Additionally, swarms of enemies aren’t dealt with as well here as they are in, say, Bayonetta. In Bayo, if you’re fighting multiple enemies, the AI only have one monster attack at a time so you can’t be stun-locked into a corner indefinitely. But Korra seems to not have gotten that memo, so you’ll get hit by multiple attacks from multiple enemies multiple times requiring multiple restarts. This isn’t necessarily game-breaking, but it does feel frustrating that a game coming off so simple feels so difficult. Because it’s not necessarily difficult, just not streamlined to the same degree as most Platinum titles.

In combat, once you have all your bending back, you have the four elements you can rotate between for different attacks. Fire-bending provides close range offense. Water-bending is more about the long range. Earth-Bending is a slight mix but has the added trade off of speed for more power. Lastly, Air-Bending is all about hitting multiple targets within a medium distance (so area of effect). You unlock more combos with each one, but there isn’t an insane amount of combos like other Platinum titles and you really only need to use a few to make progress. And, unlike other Platinum titles, you can really button-mash for the most part through fights barring the needed counters and quick-time-events to counter bigger foes.

Another part of SOME stages are the runner-sections which aim to rip off those Temple-Run games on your mobile phones. Basically, you hop on Naga’s back and collect spirits while avoiding obstacles. These are probably some of the least fun segments of the game, which is good that they’re short and fast to get through. On the plus side, it’s a better version of Temple-Run than the original Temple Run because you actually get to do something akin to a boss fight during one of these segments and it really isn’t bad. It is just a shame you can’t do more than shoot fire at them which needs to charge after about 15 seconds. So you’re sitting there doing nothing for about 30 seconds because you’re out of attack options.

The other gameplay variation that only appears at the beginning and end are your Pro-Bending matches. The full version only appears at the end during the credits, which I actually enjoyed. More games need to have playable credits so I have a reason to stick around when they’re rolling. But the rules change so you can only use one element and your goal is to knock the other team back or knock them off within the time indicated. These actually could be kind of fun and certainly should have been an option for an online mode where you and your friends could fight opposing teams online. Why this wasn’t an option (beyond potential cost) is beyond me, but it feels like a missed opportunity.

Legend of Korra the game is by no means a great game. It’s short. It lacks the polish most Platinum Games come with. It’s plot is as meaty as a piece of lettuce. And it packs in gameplay types that aren’t really needed or more engaging than the core gameplay. That being said, it’s probably the best Avatar release to date and one of your better licensed property tie-in games. That, in itself, should be reason to celebrate, but it’s still a lackluster title overall. If you’re a fan of Legend of Korra and don’t mind the $15 charge, then I suppose it’s worth it. If you’re into this more for a Platinum Game, you can do better. And if you’re aren’t interested in either, I suppose you just saved yourself $15. See ya next time.