The Legend of Korra: A New Era Begins

- Reviewed on 3DS -

The Legend of Korra: A New Era Begins released on October 28th, 2014. 

Based in the world of Avatar, The Legend of Korra: A New Era Begins is a turn-based strategy game that actually takes place during books (seasons) two and three of the mainline series. 

Though Avatar fans would enjoy this title, the laggy input, absurd cutscenes, and dated graphics wouldn't appeal to audiences (I feel) now a days. 

This review WILL have Major Spoilers so keep that in mind before continuing...

The Legend of Korra: A New Era Begins revolves around Korra being stripped of her bending. 

The first few missions in this 3DS title are to familiarize the player(s) with how the turn-based combat works. 

After you complete missions, you'll eventually unlock the Water, Earth, Fire, and Air bending elements. 

This game mechanic blends in well with the mediocre story of Korra facing these chi-blockers and facing off against a new antagonist, Hundun. 

With three save slots, you'll be able to replay finished missions within individual chapters. 

Each chapter in The Legend of Korra: A New Era Begins has a few missions each, and each single mission has a primary objective and secondary (bonus) objective.

Completing secondary objectives earns you yuan (currency in The Legend of Korra: A New Era Begins) that you can spend on items in the Shop (though completing these aren't necessary to beating the level).

In the Shop, you can buy useful items to help defeat enemies and also revive allies. If you need to earn quick yuan though, you can also sell items too.

The items you can buy include... 

    - Dumplings

    - Water Satchels

    - Noodles 

    - Rice Cake Tarts

    - Ginger Root

    - Tea

    - Spirit World Berries

    - Fish

    - Lychee Juice

Along with the Shop, you can also access Team and Sparring in the main menu. 

The Team mode is where you can view all of your (unlocked) playable characters' stats and moves.

There are six playable characters. These are...

    - Korra

    - Mako

    - Bolin

    - Tenzin

    - Kya

    - Lin

These cannon characters all have their own unique elements (Water, Earth, Fire, and Air) and knowing the strengths and weaknesses of these elements is extremely crucial to finishing this (average) 11-and-a-half-hour story. 

The last mode is Sparring (as mentioned), and this is your typical practice mode where you can earn yuan and level up. 

Going back to The Legend of Korra: A New Era Begins' story, it may have been the 3DS's capabilities, but the dreadful cutscenes in this game were just atrocious!

Simple text (with short bland tunes) and just cutout pictures of characters moving along the screen does not interest me at all in what happens next. 

I do appreciate the dialogue fitting the cannon characters behaviors from the show, but overall, the story and cutscenes were just not interesting to me, and the actual gameplay didn't help either.

The actual gameplay (as mentioned) is a turn-based strategy style. 

Each mission has its own (actually good looking) tile layout and decorative design, where your team of benders will face off against various enemies. 

These enemies can be the standard Thug, to a Mecha, or even a Dark Spirit. 

They (you and the enemy) all have weaknesses and strengths, and critical hits can make quite the difference. 

You will take turns (team after team) with the enemy, moving your team across the tile playfield and attack, defend, use items, etc. 

Some mission's primary objectives could also include getting to a specific tile (escaping) or defeating one specific boss. 

Hovering over characters will display (on the bottom 3DS screen) their current level, name, power, defense, agility (ability to go farther on the board at one given time), health, shields, energy, and experience. 

When the experience bar fills, you can then choose one of two given upgrades. These could be moves or stat changes (to name a few). 

The gameplay does take a long time to finish (per mission) as the lag and long aminations can be a hassle to sit through. 

You can skip the actual fighting animations, and to be honest they're not that great to begin with.

I wanted to like this game when I started as The Legend of Korra, and Avatar as a whole is one of my favorite series. 

The Legend of Korra: A New Era Begins provides a great deal of enjoyment if you're a patient gamer. 

The long animations, poor graphics, and uninteresting story just didn't sit well with me, but the attention to detail and loyalty to the streamline series was a plus! 

If you see this game for cheap or on sale, then I would pick this up! 

Otherwise, The Legend of Korra: A New Era Begins doesn't have to be on your must-play list.  

Pros: 

    - Cannon Characters from the Show

    - Great Music (except during cutscenes) 

    - Good Variety of Game Modes

Cons:

    - Horrible Cutscenes

    - Long Animations to Sit Through

    - Laggy Gameplay at Times

    - Bland Story / Plot

    - Dated Graphics

My Rating for The Legend of Korra: A New Era Begins (on 3DS):

3 / 5

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Disclaimer

All Reviews, Ratings, Pros, Cons, and Opinions Shared on this Blog (Press A Reviews) are my (Connor Butler) own Thoughts and Feelings.