Knights of Legend/Gameplay

The story
Once, in the kingdom of Ashtalarea, there was a great war. For a time it seemed the forces of evil would triumph, but through the valiant efforts of Seggallion, the greatest knight in the land, the forces of the dark lord Pildar were finally driven back and defeated.

All was well for a time, but years later Pildar had grown powerful again. From his dark tower he wove his evil schemes, and managed to capture the Duke, and the great knight Seggallion as well. With his greatest foe out of the way, he was prepared once more to set out on a campaign of conquest.

In those troubled times, a party of great heroes arose. After many perilous adventures they finally won their way to Seggallion's prison and set him free. They then set forth to discover what had become of the Duke...

— (extract from the text in Ultima VI: The False Prophet)

Introduction
In Knights of Legend you control a team of six adventurers in a quest across the fantasy realm of Ashtalarea. During the game, the party members can progressively acquire several weapons and armors, but also many other items and a limited array of spells.

Knights of Legend is a strategy & role-playing video game.

A strategy game is a game focused on battles. The original ancestor of all strategy games is Chess. Knights of Legend is specifically noteworthy for the amount of details and options available in battles. For example, characters can move at different speed on the battlefield, target specific body parts, use different defensive skills.

Three aspects that can define the genre of role-playing video games are listed here, and they apply to Knights of Legend as well:
 * 1) Text is an essential part of the game, and the characters have to talk and interact with non-evil characters to proceed in the adventure;
 * 2) There are permanent upgrades, in the form of enhancements of the various attributes of the characters (attack, strength, magic etc.);
 * 3) There is freedom of exploration, all the areas are connected by an "overworld", and areas that have been previously cleared can usually be re-visited; in other words, the game is non-linear.

Japanese-style RPVGs focus more on the plot, while American-style RPVGs (like Knights of Legend) focus more on exploration and "body-building" of the characters. Nevertheless, all three aspects are present in every RPG.

Area types
There are three modes of play: safe area, enemy-infested area, and in-battle.

When the party is in a safe area, usually in a town, they can walk around as much as they want. The party can talk to non-player characters (NPCs), buy and sell items, and rest at an inn.

When the player is in an enemy-infested area (the overworld), random encounters will happen and battles will break out. Traveling on the overworld is necessary to get from town to town, or to find quest areas.

When the party is in battle, the perspective shows the characters from a above and the nearby enemies. The player then select a command and take turns with the enemy and allies. The characters can attack, defend, cast a spell, and so on. If the party wins, the characters gets adventure points (experience), looted equipment and occasionally gold.

Gaining experience and gold allows to train any character's weapon skills; after 2000 AP (adventure points) spent training, a character must fight a solo battle in the arena. A victory in the arena results in attaining a level which improve all attributes of the character.

Saving the game
You can only save your game at the inns that are found in every town. If a character has enough money, he/she can save at a safe inn; if a character has not enough money, he/she can only save at a free shelterhouse, where he/she will "pay" by losing his/her remaining gold and a random item.

Attack system
In order to attack, you have to double-click on the "attack" icon, then choose the target tile (where the enemy is or where it will move), then choose how to attack (5 options: vertical hack, horizontal slash, etc.), then choose where to aim (3 options: head, legs, torso & arms), then choose how to dodge enemy attack (6 options). And after these five slow double-clicks, the character can still miss the enemy and fail to dodge its attack.

This can be frustrating.

The game includes three ways to improve on this: (1) foresee enemy attacks; (2) archery; (3) magic. Every character has two attributes (foresight and intellect) that allow to foresee the enemy action. As a turn-based game, all characters and enemies choose their action before anyone performs it. An enemy with low foresight chooses its action before a character with high foresight; if the character has not only good foresight, but also good intellect, he/she can see the action that the enemy is going to perform, and react accordingly. Still, you have to slowly double-click five times.

If you choose to attack with a bow, you do not have to choose how to attack (there is only one way to shoot arrows), nor how to dodge (the enemy is far away). You cannot choose which body part to aim, either, and the arrow will hit a body part at random. You only have to select the attack command and the target tile. Still, there are six separate body parts (with six separate body points bars) and 20 arrows per character per battle.

If you choose to attack with magic, you can target the seventh "health bar" only: the endurance points. If an enemy wears heavy armor and/or it is injured, its actions will use up blue endurance points (that turn into red fatigue points). Some spells can specifically hit the endurance points of an enemy. An enemy can literally "die of fatigue": this can be more effective than shooting arrows to random body parts. Still, there are no "magic points" in Knights of Legend: a spellcaster uses up some of his/her endurance to cast spells.

Summarizing:
 * 1) Select a party that includes characters with good foresight and intellect.
 * 2) Try and keep a distance from the enemies; attack with arrows.
 * 3) If you use up the arrows, drop the bows; let some characters unsheathe close-combat weapons, let the others cast magic.

Similar games
Knights of Legend is an early strategy-RPVG. Let's see a quick chronology of these games:
 * 1989: Knights of Legend released in the USA only.
 * 1990: the first Fire Emblem game is released in Japan only.
 * 1993: the first Ogre Battle game is released in Japan, and later localized abroad.
 * 1997: the first Final Fantasy Tactics game is released in Japan, and later localized abroad.
 * 2003: Fire Emblem 7 is the first game in the series localized outside Japan.

Therefore, Knights of Legend has the characteristic of being older than the three famous strategy-RPVG series, and also it is the only one developed in the USA.