Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story demystifies yordles’ existence in a way that emulates some modern simulation favorites like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. While its gameplay skews more straightforward, guided, and simplistic, Bandle Tale is presented in a way that is charming and contains ample mystique thanks to its glorious pixel art and soundtrack.
Bandle City has remained one of Runeterra’s most elusive, yet mysterious lands. While small lore drops and character introductions in League of Legends and Legends of Runeterra have chipped away at some of that mystique, there is still quite a bit players have to learn about Bandle City and its yordle inhabitants. Thankfully, Riot Forge’s Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story has pulled back the curtain on Runeterra’s most elusive inhabitants.
I’m going to pause there, as some of you might not know what I’m talking about. Bandle City? Yordles? Runeterra? What on Earth am I talking about? I got you, fam.
Yordles are a race of small, occasionally fuzzy, and definitely magical beings in Riot Games’ universe. If you play League of Legends like me, Teemo is a yordle. So is Veigar. And Lulu. Rumble, too! If you’re unfamiliar with League or Legends of Runeterra and/or Teamfight Tactics, then this review might contain some new but cute information about another gameplay universe that’s worth diving into. That said, Riot Forge’s collaboration with Lazy Bear Games contains all of the magical goodness, charm, and yordle fun that many players will appreciate. If you’re interested in a charming simulation meets adventure title, read on.
Bandle Tale put me in the shoes of a yordle who, up until that point, was unable and less-than-willing to leave their home because of my struggles with walking. Thanks to a magical leg, I could now leave the safety of my home to hang out with the other yordles! I was free to run and play!
Right off the bat, I got this feeling of warmth and silliness from talking to the other yordles. Life seemed carefree and just as magical as I had imagined a yordle’s existence to be. When I run around, trails of sparkles, rainbows, and electricity emerge from my footsteps (err, pawsteps?). Parties are held early and often to add some fun to the lives of those knitting portals, cultivating crops, and slapping together impressively large machines. Flora and fauna bristle with magical energy, allowing creatures to go wherever they please through Bandle City’s impossibly constructed pathways and structures.
Honestly, it’s a perfect setting a simulation game such as this. Farming, mining, fishing, cooking, and building are menial tasks. You and I can technically do them in real life, but that’s boring. The reason why so many players cherish the likes of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley is because of the magic that is the reward for task completion. You don’t just “level up” when cleaning your house and growing crops: You can do something truly magical with the crops you grow and sell in the form of bringing characters together and creating otherworldly dishes.
The gist of Bandle Tale’s gameplay loop felt familiar yet simple. I was given a list of chores to do. Completing a chore often involved a simple button press, such as walking up to a machine, pressing a button, waiting for the machine to do its thing, and so on. I gained experience in a progressive sense in that the first few times I did a task, I was granted a lot of experience; the more I did that one task, though, I would gain progressively less amounts of experience. I was then forced to start looking to do ALL OF THE THINGS to gain experience.
Once I had enough experience, I could spend my experience on ability upgrades like portal fishing, growing more kinds of crops, and harvesting new resources to build new things. Abilities cost gradually increasing amounts of experience, so my progression was artificially gated by me searching for things to do to gain enough experience to unlock the prerequisite skills that eventually lead to the abilities needed to complete my current chore.
Bandle Tale gave me quite a many tasks to accomplish in order to rebuild the world after a festival gone awry. Like Bandle Tale’s competitors, I had to do things like growing crops, building and repairing structures, selling unique items, and fishing (but in magical portal pools that would yield me with less-than-fishy things). This gameplay loop felt familiar, albeit less hands on thanks to how I could walk up to a workbench, start the process of combining items, and wait the 15-30s for the workbench to produce the item I needed.
Once I had the resources I needed, I could do things like host a food stand for hungry, yet impatient, yordles. I could also throw a festival if enough of the yordles were satisfied with my progress thus far. Of course, more things and tasks were unlocked along the way, but the gameplay of tasks and chores ended up feeling one-dimensional.
Some of you might find that criticism to be harsh or unfair, especially since similar slice of life/simulation titles utilize daily life as a gameplay mechanic. Stardew involves oodles of watering crops until you progress to the point of unlocking basic sprinklers. Spirittea’s core involves rushing around and maintaining a bathhouse for needy spirits. APICO let me save the bees all the while managing multiple inventory windows of different minigames.
Here’s where those titles differ from Bandle Tale: the monotony of chore completion is broken up by moments of surprise that delight the player and wake them up from undergoing singular mechanics. Bandle Tale’s chores would feel less chore-y if there were more involved minigames attached to them, like timing button presses, engaging in drag/drop sequences, or something else altogether. As is stands, much of Bandle Tale’s chores feel like idle minigames that I see in the mobile space.
If you’re looking for the Bandle Tale approach, it’s as follows: Here’s what you can do, but you have all of these other tasks and chores to complete. If you’re unsure what you need to do, you should try completing another task or completing a litany of other voluntary tasks to acquire experience to unlock the ability needed for your current task.
In prior reviews of Riot Forge games, I’ve discussed that you need not be thoroughly invested in Runterran lore or an existing LoL/LoR player to understand or enjoy the game you’re playing. For Bandle Tale, my assessment remains true. The game gives players just enough in-game lore to get by while including small elements in the form of character dialogue and items that should look and sound familiar to those knowledgeable of Runeterran lore.
But if you’re a fan of Teemo (like me), Lulu, Tristana, or any other Yordles that are prominent figures in Riots’ games, you’ll be quite pleased with what you see.
I’ve enjoyed the Riot Forge games I’ve had a chance to play over the past few years. Ruined King tested my RPG chops in managing the ragtag group of Yasuo, Braum, Ahri, and more. CONVERGENCE put me in Ekko’s shoes to fluidly explore Zaun in a platformer/metroidvania setting. In Song of Nunu, I got to go on an adventure with my big fluffy yeti pal, Willump! In Bandle Tale, I got to throw festivals with all of the Yordles!
It pains me to say this, but I’ve enjoyed Bandle Tale the least out of all of the Riot Forge titles I’ve reviewed. When I say that, I mean that I had a good time spending hours and hours of time party planning and doing mystical chores, but I didn’t get that same degree of delight and surprise that I got from playing the other Riot Forge titles. I was too caught up in figuring out how to complete tasks rather than enjoy the smaller details that Bandle Tale had to offer.
Looking back, I appreciate how much thought was put into designing the mysterious islands of Bandle City. Each biome was chock full of fauna and unique plants, offering a distinct vibe to compliment Bandle Tale’s plucky orchestral soundtrack. The spritework was quite detailed while the backgrounds utilized impossible objects and optical illusions to emphasize the fantastical nature of the Yordles’ world. I never imagined Bandle City to exist the way Lazy Bear games had envisioned the bandlewoods, but I fully buy into their vision. It all makes sense in my head.
When I think of who might enjoy Bandle Tale, I struggle to identify the best type of player who would enjoy this simulation meets adventure game the most. Simulation fans will agree that much the core gameplay too straightforward compared to other lifestyle sims. Adventure/narrative players may appreciate the charm oozing from the game along with its gorgeous visuals, but the monotony of the chores leading up to festival-throwing may be a turnoff. Existing League players will definitely enjoy seeing their favorite yordles brought to life, but the game’s large time requirement may prevent these players from seeing the story through to its charming conclusion.
Regardless of which player you may be, there’s a good chance you’ll find aspects of Bandle Tale to be enjoyable. You may just need a guide to help you optimize your playthrough so that you don’t follow in my footsteps in trial and error to best optimize your playthrough in a way that allows you to proceed without spending too much time doing similar-feeling busywork.
Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story demystifies yordles’ existence in a way that emulates some modern simulation favorites like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. While its gameplay skews more straightforward, guided, and simplistic, Bandle Tale is presented in a way that is charming and contains ample mystique thanks to its glorious pixel art and soundtrack.
A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
