RPGolf Legends Review

There are so many sports and each of them have their own areas of influence. The sporting world dominates much of the media and even spills into gaming. There are many popular titles and series that work to capture the authenticity and realism of how sports are played professionally, but they tend to be very strict in terms of escapism. That’s why it’s up to game designers like those at Artic Net to provide creative twists as they’ve done in RPGolf Legends. The very real sport of golf has been introduced to the very popular genre of RPGs with interesting results.

Legendary Golf Stories

Sometimes the concept of a game is so unexpected that you’re more likely than not to roll with whatever story it presents. In the universe of RPGolf Legends, the sport of golf is the only reason for living. Golf courses covered the land and people from all over would travel to play the different holes and prove their skills. Sadly, this happy time came to an end when a dark force sealed all the golf courses behind an unbreakable barrier. Years later, an aspiring golfer named Aerin has tried to replace golf with fishing when she accidentally saves a golf fairy. By taking energy from the surrounding monsters, the fairy is able to break the barriers so people can golf once again. It’s up to these two to break release all the golf courses and you’ll be able for the drive.

Under Par

The general rule of golf is the lower the score, the better. RPGolf Legends gets some pretty low scores itself. The first is the sense of freedom. After the game fills you in on the story, you’re free to roam the surrounding area discovering whatever you come across. As you aim to unlock all the courses, you encounter a lot of different points of interest as well as plenty of side tasks that you can complete for easy rewards while expanding your inventory. Despite this being an RPG, dialogue is quick and light so as not to slow you down.

Then there’s how golfing is implemented. For the most part, it captures the sport quite accurately. The primary goal of the game is to play all the courses which all have different layouts requiring different types of thinking. There are also the types of clubs you’re using, ball power-ups, and the direction of the wind to affect how you approach each hole. There are also golfing challenges and even boss encounters that test how you’ll play through in order to get the best outcomes.

When out fighting, combat is fast and blunt. Enemies spawn and patrol randomly to keep you alert and provide excitement in-between playing holes. There's no lagging in between battles as monsters will roam freely with multiple kinds overlapping in the same areas. You can choose to run past them all or grab your favorite golf club and just start swinging.

Too Many Strokes

Golf is a game that requires a lot of concentration and precision, but messing up can quickly cause frustration that leads to a worse score. There are moments RPGolf Legends should’ve taken a step back before swinging wildly. The aesthetics definitely could’ve used some closer examination. Though there’s nothing wrong with pixel art, this game has a somewhat flat look to it. Many of the enemies are simply recolors and there are moments when objects clip into each other and animations that don’t look natural.

Then there’s the main objective of the game. You need to play all the holes but in order to do that, you need to break the barriers. In order to break the barriers, the golf fairy needs energy that you get from slaying monsters. Even though combat is fast, killing monsters is very slow. You can choose between different classes to affect your attacks, but it doesn’t change the fact that you need to kill a lot of monsters to gather energy. What makes it worse is that there’s no noticeable difference in energy values between most monsters even though some are stronger than others.

There’s also a lack of overlap between golfing and fighting monsters. More accurately, they’re two separate rooms that happen to be in the same house. When you’re golfing, monsters don’t attack or interfere, and when fighting monsters, you can’t golf or do anything except deal with them.

Fore!

RPGolf Legends is a 2D pixel RPG where you run around a fantasy world slaying monsters so you can play golf. It’s supported by quick exploration, fun golf mechanics, and fast fighting. However, it suffers from lackluster pixel art, slow objective pace, and little mixing between the two elements. Yet, if you’re looking for something colorful that’ll keep you busy, join this country club.

TechRaptor reviewed RPGolf Legends on Nintendo Switch with a copy provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Playstation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.