Legends of Talia: Arcadia

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

.

Review:

Legends of Talia: Arcadia is a Visual Novel released on PC in 2017 and ported to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2021. It follows the titular warrior, Arcadia, as she encounters a young woman in need of help on her travels in a medieval fantasy world, only to find herself caught in a situation that forces her to confront how she sees herself and those she has helped, as well as those she has failed to help.

Legends of Talia clearly aims to be a dark and gritty story with a grizzled protagonist weary of a lifetime of bloodshed. Unfortunately, this game has a bit of a tone problem. Right off the bat, it starts out with graphic descriptions of slaughtered innocents, which doesn’t seem to fit the clean-looking anime-style artwork of the characters in this game. It certainly doesn’t fit with the extremely fan-servicey poses these well-endowed female characters seem to almost exclusively find themselves in. This game’s cartoony art style also can’t help but give away one of the story’s major twists, either.

Now, to be clear, I don’t have a problem with fan-service or scantily-clad women in videogames. But when one character is giving a Solid Snake-esque “I’m not hero… war is hell… the world is a terrible place” speech to a bouncy, bubbly girl whose outfit appears to be barely capable of containing her, there is definitely a disconnect going on here.

Beyond this issue, the story here is good, not great. Its characters are mostly pretty interesting, and the situation they find themselves in has some good storytelling potential, but the arc of the plot is extremely predictable, and the story stumbles into cliches and unnatural dialogue at times. It also doesn’t help that there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors.

As far as features go, players will unlock access to the game’s (very limited) art upon completion of the 1-2 hour story (depending on how fast you read. And as there are no choices to make so there’s no real replay value. However, for a mere $3, it’s not a terrible value. I should also note that this game does support save states and the Nintendo Switch’s touchscreen, although you’re not likely to need either.

Will Legends of Talia be worth your while? If you’re looking for a Visual Novel in a medieval fantasy world, you could do far worse, and for $3, you’re not risking much. It’s not a story that’s likely to stick with you for long after you read it, but it’s entertaining enough that I’d say it’s worth a look.

tl;dr – Legends of Talia: Arcadia is a Visual Novel about a warrior who rescues a young woman from danger only to find herself dealing with more than she bargained for. The story’s gritty tone and the cartoony, fanservice-filled artwork clash pretty terribly here, and the story is somewhat predictable, but the characters are likeable and at $3 for an hour or two of reading, it’s a decent option if you’re a fan of Visual Novels.

Grade: C+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are MB, Andy Miller, Johannes, u/RamboFox, Exlene, Eli Goodman, Ilya Zverev, Stov, Connor Armstrong, and K.H. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}