League of Angels: Fire Raiders Review

The Demon King and his army are on the march, invading your lands, and corrupting your citizens. Your first attack goes poorly, but even though you are defeated and your heroes captured, there is still hope. Your only hope is to summon a host of scantily clad women and ridiculous-looking men to defeat your nemesis, the Demon King.

Immediately, League of Angels Fire Raiders thrusts you into the story, with you witnessing the Demon King’s victory over the Princess and her entourage. I was left scratching my head, as there was nothing to explain to me why I should care; maybe the Demon King’s a good guy and it’s just being misrepresented? Who knows. As I watched the Princess run away while her brave heroes defend her, I was left just waiting for my turn to do something, even until the battle ends. Battles in this are done mostly automatic with the player having control only over special attacks.

Once the battle ends, you’re guided through a tutorial in summoning heroes, many of whom are female, and dressed in somewhat revealing clothes on their character cards. While the tutorial is helpful, it’s rather frustrating because unlike many other tutorials, it’s only highlighted where you’re to go, and any attempt to deviate from it is met with a smiley face and a “please follow the instruction”, rather than merely hiding the option to deviate from it. Once you’ve recruited your heroes (divided into the typical ranger/warrior/mage subgroups), you also recruit an “Angel”, which is a party commander who offers a passive bonus to the stats of your team and occasionally takes an active part in the battle. After that, you’re thrust into your adventure, many options and abilities left unexplained or unavailable for the time being.

Through the first few battles (all of which are timed), you’re left waiting for something to do, as the game offers you no menus or anything with which to influence the battle, except a number of character portraits at the bottom of the screen. Occasionally, a pop-up from the Angel allows her to use special abilities, but I saw little else. Eventually, I tried tapping on one of the character portraits, and discovered that the “Rage” meter beneath it actually causes the character portrait to glow, and, when tapped, activate a special attack. Good to know, though I wish the tutorial had covered it comprehensively.

I later discovered that a number of rather useful features had been left inactive until after I reached certain stages in the game. These little things are minor, ranging from the ability to actually pause the battle, or allowing your party to battle fully on automatic (thereby making you, the player, redundant beyond just selecting a level). Several chapters in, you’re given access to a series of “elite” levels, which effectively are the exact same levels but with the difficulty increased and rewards that are more geared towards leveling up your characters.

Eventually, I grew tired of the adventure and elite levels, and began toying around with the game’s little hideout, from which you can access an almost dizzying array of things, many of which are tucked into submenu after submenu. It’s here that you can access things such as a multiplayer Arena, a Guild, and a shop (to buy things for your characters). There’s even an active chat system, through which you can communicate with other players.

The game’s download page warned me of in-app purchases, and I’m very pleased to say I’ve seen no mention of in app purchases or microtransactions, except through a small, almost discretely tucked away icon innocuously named “Recharge”, which allows the purchase of crystals that are used for special transactions (purchasing higher level characters, which you can also do for free once a day). This “recharge” becomes somewhat redundant, as they practically heap crystals on you for completing various challenges.

While the game, as an RPG, leaves some things to be desired, the mechanics are rather solid, if unexplained. The only things I can say negatively about it, beyond the lack of control and explanations, is that it plays like a Facebook game (no surprise, it’s a port of a Facebook game). I entered into the game without particularly high hopes, just from a brief glance of the information page, but I was pleasantly surprised by a game that, while not fantastic, is at least playable and consistent; it doesn’t introduce weird or obscure mechanics that feel out-of-place. Though this game might not be my usual style, it’s not a bad game either, and it’s one I would recommend if you enjoy something that’s simple and easy to follow.