Hidden Dragon: Legend is a beat ’em up platformer with wuxia elements. The game features some very satisfying combat, nice platforming elements, and a cool upgrade system, but also has a few issues with its early game combat and overall localization quality.
Pros:
Fun combat. The combat in Hidden Dragon: Legend is ridiculously fun. There are numerous combos to be taken advantage of, plenty of different enemy types to fight, and several different features to make the combat more entertaining. Among these features is the special move (a normal addition for this type of game), dashing, hyper armor, grappling, ranged attacks, and different combo types for air and ground use just to name a few. I was constantly dashing around enemies, uppercutting them to bring them up into the air, hitting them with an air combo, then slamming them back down to the ground. The game’s combat was just so satisfying.
Upgrade system. To compliment the combat in the game, there is also an upgrade system that has several different uses. The first of which is the ability to unlock new combos and upgrade existing ones. The player is also able to equip a “sutra”, which buffs a certain stat and grants a unique effect depending on which sutra is currently equipped. These sutras can also be upgraded. The game also allows upgrading of weapons, both ranged and melee. Being able to constantly find new things to unlock and upgrade was very gratifying.
Wuxia goodness. Fans of wuxia film, TV, novels, etc. will feel right at home with this game. From the inhuman swordfighting to the ridiculous jump heights, all of the elements that make that genre fun are present here in Hidden Dragon: Legend. The story is very typical of the genre, but still fun regardless.
Cons:
Subtitle timing. I played the game with the original Chinese voice acting, so I had to have subtitles on to understand what was being said. However, these subtitles were horribly mistimed with the voice acting on-screen. The subtitles would often disappear while a character was still speaking a line. It was very annoying and I was tempted to switch to the English voice acting just to solve this issue.
The early game combat. While I did enjoy the game’s combat overall, the early game combat was a bit laughable compared to the rest of the game. During the early game, most enemies lack hyper armor, so they can easily be juggled without the player taking a single hit. The combat during this stage only ever becomes a problem once elites and ranged units are introduced, but before that point, the combat is a breeze.
Localization quality. Hidden Dragon: Legend does not have the greatest English localization, but it is at least passable. There are a number of grammatical mistakes scattered throughout the game, several of which can be found in the game’s tutorial segment. I was still able to understand what the game was trying to tell me, but any sort of grammar issue should still be noted.
Hidden Dragon: Legend is a great game all around. The combat is satisfying, the upgrades are cool, and the wuxia elements that make the genre fun are all present. Definitely recommended for fans of platforming beat ’em up games, or for fans of wuxia content in general. The story may not be stellar, but the gameplay makes up for it.
You can buy Hidden Dragon: Legend on Steam here.
I was provided a free review copy of the game in order to write this review. Read more about how I do my game reviews here.
cublikefoot 