The New Classics #25: Maglam Lord

 

The Backstory: We’re dealing with a hybrid game mixing VN, dating sim and ARPG elements. I already played a game boasting such a mix, and it wasn’t great; however, Maglam Lord is developed by Felistella and published by PQube, which means that I had to get my paws on it. 

 

 

The Game: The first major — and pleasant — surprise was how great the characters look, both in dialogue and combat sequences. We’re dealing with a rare beast here: a game in which the in-game character models look better than on the cover art. The female MC is particularly gorgeous and styley — which is exactly why I chose her over the male MC. 

 

 

The second major (and just as pleasant) surprise was how great combat feels. It’s slick, smooth and intuitive, and it wasn’t long before I was racking up deadly combos and whirling through the battlefield like a deadly wind. Talking about the battlefield, the choice of switching between 3D dungeons and 2D fighting arenas is unusual, and disconcerting at first; however, I got used to it real quick. Fighting can be a little repetitive, and there is just a tad too much button-mashing involved — but definitely not enough to make me swear off the whole thing.

 

 

I didn’t play long enough to uncover other major surprises; but from what I’ve seen, the romance is extremely promising, and the story seems wacky and entertaining enough for my taste. Like many other games I’ve played recently, ML features skippable cutscenes, which means a very happy little me. There should be a law or something that forces developers to make all cutscenes skippable, first play or not! 

 

 

The only downsides I spotted during my play are: a) the fugliness of the very first dungeon, which looks like a giant pool of vomit, and b) the boring ’20 Bears Asses’ sidequests. However, later dungeons show more promise, and sidequests are optional — in other words, no biggie. 

 

 

The Verdict: Maglam Lord is not my gaming crush of the century; but it’s definitely a game I wanna play more of, and that’s all I’m asking for. You’re allowed in the collection, buddy!