Legacy of Hestia is an adult themed dungeon crawler / turn based rpg game that wishes to do many things that other games don't, but fails to appropriately execute some of them if not most. Gameplay is... Rough. Only 3D thing about this game is the labyrinth like sequence where you get to explore and wander the dungeon levels, frame by frame. It is inadequate and poorly designed. Also, chalk full of grind like any other Japanese game I played. I repeat the same line on every single Japanese game i review or play, and this one is not an exception. Story is decent if you are into fantasy games. It's not amazing so it won't dazzle and make a fan out of you for the genre. But it pushed me to play more despite having ungodly amount of recurring problems. It’s only fair to say now that i couldn’t finish this game. Not because i didn’t want to, but i couldn’t. Game froze after I cleared dungeon 9 and no matter what i did after that, it stuck at the same place. Anyways, more on that later.
The music, is amazing. Ambient sound is good. I kinda feel like media in this is pilfered from other games, but i’m not 100% sure. Maybe 90%. Characters are very much likeable, cute and well written. Though, you feel like they are missing something. Something not essential yet you feel like it’s suppose to be there. But I can’t put my finger on what it actually is. Pacing is good too. I like when stuff develops. Feels more realistic in my opionion. But some people may not like that. It’s easy to get impatient when it is this slow, i admit. But i don’t mind that at all. Combat is nothing to write home about. Infact, it is bad. And on top of the grind, you feel like it shouldn’t even be there. I could have tolerated all of this, because i played worst games on this website and this one has actual effort put into it unlike many of the ones i reviewed, but this game is a bug ridden heap of mess. It falls short... Well, no, FAILS HORRIBLY at every aspect it tries to grab on to because of the bugs, soft and hard locks through and through. Saves get corrupted randomly, so you play the same parts over and over just to get a game freeze before you reach your former point. I can't begin to tell you how nerve wracking it is to get a sudden CTDs and perma freezes that happens like every 5 minutes or so while exploring or during dialogues. I'm not exaggerating. It happens. So. Friggin. Often. You can’t trust your saves, you can’t trust where to tread on, you can’t decide if you should open that chest in that dungeon or go though a campfire sign, because you don’t know if it is going to freeze again or not...
Well... The only way i can describe the feeling i got from playing this game is this. Let's say a friend of yours bakes you a cake and gives you a juicy slice for you to try. It’s a homemade cake, nothing too professional, but it has the ingredients you like. Once you take a bite and start enjoying it, your friend yanks the plate from your hand throws it to the ground, for no reason at all. And before you have a chance to turn and ask “what the hell?” he/she says “sorry i’ll get you another slice”. You accept even though you are a bit angry and confused now. Because you like cake and you like your friend. You want to give it another shot. Once you do that, your friend looks you dead on the eye and tells you "oh, by the way, the cake has cyanide in it, hope you don’t mind. You got like 30 minutes before you go to a hospital." Yes. That’s exactly how i felt while playing this game. It's a mess guys. Stay away from it until dev fixes everything i mentioned.
Edit: Dev has more excuses than fixes to the problems i mentioned. Takes stuff personal and full on petty defense mode when confronted. Do yourself a favor and don't even try this game.