Summary

• Bandle Tale delves deeper into League of Legends lore by exploring the world of Bandle City and its Yordle inhabitants.
• Gameplay involves filling Emotion Orbs for skill points and engaging in crafting, cooking, and party planning.
• The game features unique mechanics and locales but is held back by grindy elements.

Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story is a new crafting-centric RPG that marks the League of Legends' franchise's first foray into the cozy gaming world. The title is developed by Lazy Bear Games, which previously released life sim Graveyard Keeper, and published by Riot Forge, a Riot Games subsidiary dedicated to exploring new genres within the LoL universe. The game expands upon established ideas in satisfying ways, and takes its cozy concepts in a fairly unique direction through an eclectic blend of mechanics, but some sections of the game that drag hold it back from perfection.

Whereas the last LoL spin-off focused on just one of its champions, Nunu, Bandle Tale delves deeper into the franchise's lore, largely drawing inspiration from the Legends of Runeterra Beyond the Bandlewood expansion. It expands upon the established region of Bandle City and its mysterious Yordle inhabitants, with players taking on the role of a heroic, customizable Yordle whose journey is told storybook-style throughout. A cozy game at heart, the title explores a mix of familiar and lesser-seen mechanics for the genre, combining crafting, cooking, party planning, and magical knitting to create a unique - albeit sometimes very grindy - experience.

Bandle Tale's Story & World

Bandle Tale's protagonist is a knitter, possessing one hundred years of training in the magical art form. After a mysterious disaster strikes a party and knocks out the realm's yarn-based portal system, the player will embark on a quest to restore magic to the world and find their lost friend Clover. There are four distinct realms to explore: music-themed Inspiration Isle, botanical Greensprout Gardens, mechanical Gadgeton, Bandle Center, a sort of hub home to Bandle University, and the protagonist's hometown of Yarnville.

Each region has its own resources that can be gathered, and a standout UI feature is the ability to view these gathering spots on the map. However, even with this feature, the supply chain still becomes convoluted at times depending on how many times something must be processed in order to produce the desired result. The world is also dotted with auras produced by landmarks which are necessary for some crafting recipes, like a harmonious aura in Inspiration Isle, though these can also be produced by the player via magic.

Earning Emotions & Skill Trees

Overall progress in Bandle Tale is very dependent on two things: filling Emotion Orbs, which translate into skill points while the protagonist sleeps, and utilizing those points in the game's four skill trees, Knitting, Engineering, Nature, and Magic. Players can fill these orbs in a myriad of ways, like crafting, repairing items, and even viewing new scenic locations. However, the catch is that any earning activity will eventually become too repetitive, ceasing to fill any more past a certain point. There are a few other ways to earn points, like festivals and quests, but emotions are the core method.

This mechanic is fun at first, but there are points where progress requires several costly abilities concurrently, leading to an extreme grind. I typically don't mind this labor-intensive element of crafting games, but in similar titles like My Time at Sandrock this is offset by the opportunity to do other things like getting to know townsfolk. It could be argued that the lack of secondary elements is because Bandle Tale is more RPG than simulation, but there's barely any semblance of side quests and characters have little to contribute outside of cutscenes, making these times really drag.

Crafting & Carpets

A core feature of Bandle Tale is the protagonist's backpack, which is essentially a portable home that can be set up in various designated locations across each area. This home base has different carpets that can be rolled out and stowed at will, which is a fun way to customize several workspaces in one place. There's a vending carpet for selling crafts, allowing for ive income via stocking its shelves and returning later for payout, a workbench carpet for crafting, a party carpet for festivals, and a cooking carpet for food stands.

The backpack's aesthetic can be customized, though not hugely, and the adorable in-home Poro sadly has no interactions at all. Over the course of the game, players' carpets will fill up more and more with specialized equipment, from basic recycling machines to magic conductors. The amount of things that can eventually be produced is impressive, but the processes for some can feel painfully belabored; for example, frequently-necessary magic rubber loops require the use of bug catching, clay harvesting, a casting press, a spooling bench, a special workbench, and the use of a motion aura - it's simply too much.

Food Stands & Party Planning

Both food stands and festivals in Bandle Tale are a sort of combination minigame and puzzle to organize and execute, and the two feed into eachother mechanically speaking. Each area has three scores for happiness, residents, and orders. The first two are used as a sort of currency for festivals, being spent on guest cards for attendees; orders are used to hold food stands, which when run successfully increase the two prior scores. Orders are earned through the aforementioned vending carpet, altogether forming a sort of triad of ever-changing prerequisites.

Some specific festivals are required to progress the story, but players can also throw them of their own volition to earn skill points. Each festival has a required amount of vibes in three categories - chill, pretty, and music, that can be tweaked through the placement of the right party items. During the actual event, players will need to run around collecting party yarn from attendees before it disappears. Food stands are more like a significantly-less-stressful Overcooked, with players setting the menu and then dashing between prep stations and cookware to produce and serve orders within a time limit.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

Yordles have long been known as some of the cutest League of Legend champions, and though they've had their lore expanded somewhat through Runeterra, Bandle Tale has been able to truly showcase the adorable creatures' magical world in a whole new way. Much of how it iterates on the cozy genre is enjoyably innovative, but some long-term lulls in the game's approximately 40-hour story are hard to get past. The game's mechanics often feel quite intuitive, like the ability to draw from inventory anywhere, though this makes the absence of features like inventory organization puzzling.

The world is full of beautiful locales, and seeing beloved characters like Teemo and Rumble not only brought to life but made incredibly entertaining is a lot of fun. With a lower price and a slew of content, the title is a delightful new way for fans to delve into the world, and contains hallmark mechanics that make it worth a look for cozy players even if they aren't familiar with LoL. Despite its lulls and occasional overcomplications, Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story is an adorable, imaginative take on an established universe that has a lot to offer.

Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story will release February 21 for Nintendo Switch and PC. Screen Rant received a Steam code for the purpose of this review.

Source: Riot Forge/YouTube