Concept and characters:

     Legendary combat yes, story...not so much. The Legend of Legacy is a JRPG where you have the choice of seven different playable characters who each have different reasons for wanting to explore the mysterious continent of Avalon. The story, however, is spontaneous and pushed aside for most of the game to be brought up whenever it seems convenient to do so instead of working it into the overall game. The people you follow throughout the plot aren't well executed either. Every character is given bland dialogue and undeveloped to a point where you don't care about the plot anymore.

 Combat:

     Finally, moving onto the highlight of the game. Combat in Legend consists of formations rather then your normal JRPG combat. Formations allow you to assign each character a role in combat such as attack which focuses on being on the offense, guarding where the person in the front of the group will attempt to defend other party members from incoming attacks, and support which focuses on increasing healing abilities. Use these roles enough times and your characters will learn new skills accompanying their main role. Throughout the game you can also collect objects called Singing and Whispering shards. These will allow you to form contracts with a certain element and perform skills with that said element. Dying and retreating are given new costs. When you die and you are attacked, you lose base health and that is carried outside of battle instead of the usual spamming heal spells to aid your party and bring them back to full health. Retreating as well has a new twist. When you retreat, you are taken back to the beginning of the  map, not the beginning of each sector. This makes you think of whether you want to pay the cost and retreat from a battle. Combat is challenging, but fair...for a while. For most of the game combat allows you to either focus on leveling up your character or explore and delve into combat at your own pace. About 3/4 of the way through the game, the enemies are forcefully tougher and you are no longer able to take a mixture of exploration and combat, but must level up to actually progress in the game.

Exploration:
New areas in the game are either able to be found by connecting areas in already obtained maps, or by purchasing maps from the salesman in Initium, the main town you'll stop back to regularly for supplies. Each map is its own mini open worlded area. Exploring all the different sectors will increase the price of selling the map and its info in Initium. Enemies do lurk in these maps. Enemies are not random encounters, but are visible enemies that each have their own movement and can be avoided if wanted.

Sound:
 Every area is opened with a fantastic narration that isn't overdramatic and highlights the fantastical elements of each area and its physical features. Music also plays a prominent role in keeping the player engrossed within the game. Music is mainly orchestral and changes based on each area and sectors within. Battle music changes only a few times, but isn't played off as repetitive or annoying.

Conclusion:
The Legend of Legacy may have a weak story and characters, but it does so much right. It pushes so many new boundaries and tests many new mechanics. The combat is fantastic and gives a refreshing take on the JRPG genre. In the end, The Legend of Legacy is not for people looking for a story driven game, but those who adore exploration and great turn-based combat.