#MAGLAM LORD | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

satoshi-mochida · 1 year

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Some thoughts and details on my last Gamefly rental, Maglam Lord(Switch Version).

The Bladelord Killrizark(whose gender can be chosen at the start) is attacked and severely weakened by a union of Gods and Demons uniting together against them, branding them a Hazardes, a threat to the whole world. They aren’t killed, however, and are saved and eventually revived by Balga, the Demon Lord of Iron, and his grandkid Satyus. They’ve been out of commission for some time, however, and their power has been greatly weakened, as well as losing their memory.

Soon after, a member of the Administration, Mamie, arrives, and informs Killrizark that they’re the last of the Demon Lords, and considered an Endangered Species.

Going into town, Killrizark meets a young girl named Lryica who isn’t scared of them at all, and is excited to meet the last Demon Lord, even giving them some food. Soon after, however, monsters called Mutabeasts attack the town, Killrizark deciding to fight them off after seeing Lryica is in danger. They find that they gain some of their power back from absorbing the defeated Mutabeasts.

Killrizark finds out however that using their own power also drains what they have left, so Satyus gets the idea to hire people from the Administration to wield them as a Maglam weapon. The ones sent, however, are two Heroes, Charme and her brother Darius, instigating conflict in the group(mostly from Darius), though they eventually reach a truce.

Satyus’ home serves as the group’s base of sorts. Here, you select everything there is to do in the game, though not everything is available right away.

Each character has Skills they can learn. Some are attack Skills used with X, and others are passive. I think you get Skill Points from leveling up.

You can equip 3 ‘Maglam’ weapons at once, which are all Swords, Axes and Spears, and are made from using materials to forge them at the Maglam Forge. You can also put decorations on them to raise stats and give them effects such as causing status effects and doing or doing more/taking less damage. Sometimes when forging a Maglam, a Partner will jump in and help, which raises the Rank of it. Higher Affection is what probably affects this.

The game’s shop is mostly like other RPGs, but a unique part of it is the ‘Happiness Tax’ section, where you trade in materials for items/equipment. Getting items this way makes Mamie’s like you more. I think I get why the name is what it is, but that may be a spoiler.

Requests are the main way of getting money, materials and progressing the story. Most can be repeated for grinding/farming, though story ones and ones related to events with other characters aren’t. With a couple later exceptions, they are all either ‘Collect X amount of Y’ or ‘Defeat X amount of Y’, which can get repetitive/monotonous, though some have an optional bonus condition of beating a stronger enemy somewhere for an extra reward(usually a lot of money).

The fields are in 3D, with enemies wandering around and items to be picked up(shown as a white sparkle), with exits to new sections indicated by green markers. Some sections will have a red Safe Zone portal that you can heal, save, change Partners, use the Maglam Forge and shop at.

Battles are done in 2D(think like the much older Tales of or the Summon Night: Swordcraft Story games), with the player able to move left and right until hitting the end of the screen(running against the corners will let you run away). Items dropped by enemies are automatically picked up.

Actions on the field/in battle are:

Attacks are done with Y. Attacking repeatedly and using different directions does combos/different attacks, respectively, both on ground and in the air, and you can hold then release Y for a charged attack. You can attack enemies on the field before fights as well, and hitting them in the back gives you an advantage(possibly; it seems a bit finicky). Your strike range is very short, though.

Pressing the Right Stick when the meter is full has Killrizark take control in a powered up form until the meter runs back out.

Switch Maglam weapons with Left/Right on the D-Pad

Jumping is B(in battles, you can double jump)

Guard is L(battle only)

Dashing is R(ground only; hold to run faster outside of battle)

X is a character’s Skills. Holding X stops the action and brings up a list of the available Skills you can set and use.

ZL is a Skill unique to each Partner. Using this button on the Field will bring up a prompt asking if you want to abandon the current Request(if possible)

A is to use Items. Holding A stops the action and brings up a list of the useable items you can set to use. If you stand idle for a few seconds, Killrizark will pop out and you can use A to talk to them.

Interact with items on the field with Y(make sure to remember that and not assume it’s A, aside from the one situation above, making you waste a bunch of items by accident like I did).

- Button brings up the map and + Button brings up the menu/pauses the game(out and in battle, respectively).

A bit into the game, Killrizark meets ‘Love Guru ‘G.G.’ who tells him about love and dating. Once Partners start joining, Killrizark will decide to try and date one of them(plus Mamie) since they need an heir as the last Demon Lord. How this system works is that each Partner has an Affection meter that can be seen when visiting the Love Guru, shown by the amount of Hearts next to their name(any Partner can be dated by Killrizark regardless of gender),and once it gets high enough, you can go on dates with them. The Date events have Killrizark and whoever you pick going to, or rather being teleported to, various date locations for them, and having you pick dialogue choices.

A good number of these are full events with voice acting, but some in-between those are very short events that are just ‘pick location->they liked or didn’t like it->certain amount of Affection is gained’. You’ll be able to pick all of those locations if you keep raising Affection and doing the Dates, though.

There are six characters to date, though only 5 are playable:

Darius

Charme

M.O.A.V.

Julette

Acklao

Mamie(not playable)

The ways to raise Affection aside from the Dates are:

Take your Partners into battle

Use certain healing food items that show a character’s face on them while out on a Request(each character has their own favorite foods, even KIllizark, who likes sweet stuff)

Pick dialogue options that favor them/show their face next to it.

Buy Items from the ‘Happiness Tax’ part of the shop(only way to raise Mamie’s aside from Dates with her)

The deciding moment on who KIllizark will get an ending with is near the very end of the game at the Request ‘The Big Date’. Also, if you want, during this, you can pick to just ‘have a strong bond’ with whoever you selected instead of it being romantic. Or pick no one at all. The character’s ending will be shown after the credits. For Mamie’s ending, though, there’ll be a choice before the final boss that only appears if you did all of her Dates and maxed out her Affection, which will also override whoever you picked previously.

Though you can’t get an ending with them, there seems to be an event with Satyus you can miss easily. I think you need to pick choices that favor them to see it, though I’m not 100% sure, myself; their event might have been the last of the CGs I missed.

Also like in the Tales of games, the playable characters can earn Titles. They’ll have different effects such as raising stats, doing more damage to specific enemy types, and more.

There are other Endangered Species you can find in the Field stages(seems they can’t be missed, so they can be found while repeating Requests). Finding them gives you more items you can buy or new Requests. They’re indicated by a flashing red light on the Fields, but they’re still hidden pretty well, so I had to use a guide to find them. The main characters, aside from Mamie, are considered Endangered Species, too, for different reasons, so they’re listed there, too.

Of the characters, I liked pretty much everyone, with them all getting some nice development, though Julette’s voice could unfortunately get crating at times.

The game is, in a way, a spiritual successor to the Summon Night games, with the Dating and weapon crafting aspects, as well as staff from them, and the battle gameplay done similarly to the same style as the Swordcraft Story spinoff games.

If you want to see more background lore for the game’s world, you can look at Satyus’ Notes under ‘Teach Me, Satyus!’ in the base menu. There’s a lot here, and more gets added as the game goes on. The best time to read through it would be before the final battle.

While there is a NG+, sort of, nothing actually carries over, unfortunately. You do get some bonuses, such as more starting money and Affection rising faster, but that’s about it. Not even already seen CGs.

The game’s character artist, lack, is on here, if you want to check out their work.

An amusing text error I saw a few times was the words ‘café’ and ‘naïve’ being shown as ‘caf?/na?ve’. I guess it can’t figure out how to properly show accented letters? ^^;

I was a bit lukewarm towards the game at first, but it grew on me more as it went on, met more of the characters, and got better at the game. The story was good and the characters got well done character development. I think it’s probably best worth getting when it goes on a sale.

Next game being sent is: Super Mario Odyssey.

#Maglam Lord #Thoughts on my rentals

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