GamesRadar's Mahin Kesore chats to Jasmine Gould-Wilson who's played Minecraft Legends.
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00:10 >> We don't have much time, but just enough to show you a thing or two about these tools.
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00:16 >> Hello, I'm Mahin and I'm here with Jasmine.
00:19 As you can tell, she's played Minecraft Legends.
00:22 >> Yes, I have.
00:23 >> Now, Minecraft have their funny little ventures with like Minecraft story mode and Minecraft Dungeons.
00:29 What's their new venture like? What is this?
00:32 >> So basically, Minecraft Legends places you into the shoes of someone at the front of your very own legend.
00:39 It's like a piece of mythology taking place in the world of Minecraft a few years before the main events of the main game.
00:46 >> Okay.
00:47 >> Yeah, it's more of a strategy-based tactics game as opposed to being the standard building and sandboxy vibe of the original.
00:57 But it does still have those elements, but this time it's presenting it more through this lens of strategic combat.
01:03 >> Okay, because I've seen a bunch of trailers and yeah, it does look very tactics and strategy-esque,
01:07 but it's not like Final Fantasy tactics or Fire Emblem.
01:10 It's not like a grid-based thing.
01:11 You're like running around and doing active stuff, aren't you?
01:14 >> Yeah. So basically, what you do is, so there are two modes in the game.
01:18 You have the campaign and the PvP mode.
01:20 In the campaign mode, it's just you against enemies in the wild as you experience them.
01:26 So it's all RNG like in regular Minecraft.
01:29 So all of the maps, all the biomes, they're all randomized.
01:32 So everyone will have a very different looking overworld.
01:35 As you go around, you basically have to do a mixture of things.
01:39 So you have to gather materials and also make like walls and structures and things and spawn points
01:46 so that you can basically protect villages from these things called piglins,
01:51 which are ugly little beasts from the nether who have come up to the overworld.
01:57 And they basically are just wreaking havoc and trying to take all of the goodness back down to the nether.
02:01 And it's up to you to sort of use what you can gather and make in order to protect the villages.
02:08 But also, I guess, just to reinstate peace and harmony in your very own legend.
02:13 >> Okay, so I'm guessing there's like phases or something like you build your structure first
02:17 and then you get waves of enemies attacking.
02:20 >> So, yes, again, so when I played, I played only about 40 minutes of the campaign mode.
02:25 So it wasn't too much in terms of getting into the stories, but I got the basic gist of it.
02:31 And what you can do is, like you said, it does come in waves.
02:35 However, from my experience, they can be quite short.
02:38 There's not much time in between being told, like, right, okay, you need to set up arrow towers
02:44 and spawn up some creepers and stuff in order to protect the villagers.
02:49 You get maybe like 30 seconds to throw up all of these things.
02:53 So the idea is while you're exploring, you have to passively send these things called allays,
02:59 which are like sprites, and they go off and they can, you know, they find stone and wood.
03:04 And those will help you later on to put up all of these structures really, really quickly.
03:07 Because if you don't do that, and then you find yourself in a really tough position
03:11 when you have all the piglins arriving as night falls, because there are night cycles and day cycles.
03:17 Daytime does feel distinctly more dangerous than daytime.
03:21 Yeah, so is the camera always third person behind your player character?
03:24 Oh, okay, so it's not like a top-down view.
03:26 No, no, it's very much, yeah, third person sort of, like, there is a kind of character customization component to it.
03:34 Like, I think there were a grid of characters to choose from.
03:38 So you can't, you know, alter the hair and the clothes, but they all look very, very different.
03:42 So you can choose what your hero looks like.
03:44 This is a question just for me. I saw in the trailers you get to ride this, like, purple chubby tiger.
03:50 Did you see the purple chubby tiger at all?
03:53 Yes, I did. So that's one of the cool things about it.
03:56 And I actually found this out during the PvP mode, but you can ride on various mounts.
04:01 So in the PvP mode, you start off on a horse, but you can swap it for a tiger or, like, a ladybug.
04:07 A flying ladybug. There was this guy on the team opposite mine during the PvP.
04:12 And he was very loudly proclaiming every cool thing that he found.
04:16 So I was just stealing his information.
04:18 He managed to find a ladybug which can fly over walls.
04:24 So, like, he can just get into your encampment, really.
04:26 And I was like, "Oh, my gosh, that's genius."
04:29 So then, of course, I copied him, as did everyone else in my team.
04:32 Because we were like, "We are sitting opposite you, even though we're on opposite teams, right?"
04:37 Right, so you were there playing, like, PvP with other people there.
04:40 Yeah, with other people.
04:41 What is that like? How competitive was it? Tell me what that experience was like.
04:45 PvP, to me, that's where this game really, really shines.
04:48 Okay.
04:49 You know, like, I enjoyed the campaign, but again, I would have liked to see a bit more of it.
04:53 But that's okay. I'm sure I'll see more of it in a few weeks' time.
04:56 But the PvP was so interesting. I did not expect to get as into it as I did.
05:01 Honestly, as someone who's never played Minecraft before, I never really saw the draw.
05:06 But, my goodness, this was really cool.
05:08 Basically, with the PvP, you can go in two teams of up to four players on each team.
05:13 So, basically, each team has to protect a tower.
05:16 So, it's a combination of, like, a capture-the-flag, tower-defense kind of situation,
05:21 where you have to, again, send people out to gather items and build structures and walls and towers
05:27 and things that you can use to protect your tower from the enemy.
05:31 All the while, they're doing the exact same thing.
05:34 Maybe they're spying on you.
05:35 Maybe your tower has the disadvantage of having water behind it, because people can go around the water.
05:41 We made the big mistake of thinking, "Oh, there's an ocean behind us. No need to build a wall there."
05:47 The piglins would come around. It was terrible.
05:50 So, there were loads of things that were, like, it was far more difficult than I would have expected.
05:55 With the previous stuff they've done with, like, Dungeons and Story Mode, it does seem kind of almost like,
06:00 "Is this the kind of game that's leaning more towards multiplayer or story?"
06:05 So, that's exactly one of the questions I asked the developer, Kevin Grace, when I spoke with Mojang Studios.
06:11 But the thing is, as he said, there is no main game mode.
06:15 So, even though I did feel like we were being presented with the PvP in a lot more of an obvious way,
06:21 we had about two and a half hours with the PvP and 40 minutes of campaign.
06:25 So, I did feel like that was unequally weighted.
06:28 However, he did say that there is no main mode, and they're not trying to push one or the other.
06:33 It's really to give us, you know, as much opportunity to play whatever we find the most interesting.
06:38 So, if you are someone that's a big fan of the Minecraft games, and you're really interested by the storyline,
06:43 and how this world kind of builds upon the lore of Minecraft and Minecraft Dungeons,
06:49 then you can always take a lot out of the main campaign.
06:52 But if you're like me, and you're like, "Actually, I kind of want to just load in with some friends
06:57 and, you know, wreak havoc and see what happens,"
07:00 then the PvP mode I found very accessible.
07:03 And it's something which, again, like, you can just play again and again and again.
07:07 And because there is the RNG, it means that it's always going to be a bit different,
07:11 and you spawn in various places.
07:13 There's, of course, like piglins. They are still wreaking havoc no matter what.
07:17 So, you now have two enemies of the piglins and the enemy team.
07:20 So, while I personally would say that this is leaning heavily into the multiplayer,
07:25 I do know, actually, that the campaign mode also has a multiplayer component to it as well.
07:30 So, you can play the campaign with a friend if you want.
07:34 But I feel like Minecraft has always had this idea of, you know, the co-op.
07:38 But I do feel like they've really nailed it. Like, it really does work with strategy.
07:43 So, whilst you were there, did you get any handle of the story?
07:47 Were you playing any of the story much?
07:49 So, the story itself, again, we have the very bare-bones idea.
07:54 So, you have to imagine it as if you are living through a bedtime story
07:59 being told to a younger villager by an older villager.
08:03 And the idea is that this, again, takes place long ago in the world of Minecraft
08:08 when the overworld was a very peaceful, placid place.
08:12 And because it was so lovely and peaceful and prosperous,
08:15 the piglins in the Nether, they got jealous,
08:18 and they wanted to rise up and steal all of the goodness from the overlands
08:22 and bring it down to the Nether.
08:24 And the idea is that you're, like, the chosen one, I guess, in this case.
08:28 You're selected by the villagers.
08:30 And also, there were, like, three characters.
08:33 I forget their names. They were called, like, Knowledge, Ambition, something like that.
08:38 And they choose you to basically fight back in the name of the overlands.
08:44 So, yeah, that's the story. That's, like, the gist of it.
08:48 That's who you play as.
08:49 So, you would say this is, like, more for the strategy fans or fans of Minecraft,
08:53 or maybe is it more action?
08:55 Like, it's hard to get a grip of what exactly they're going for here.
08:59 Well, yeah, I guess it's kind of a mix of everything, really.
09:03 I do feel like, to me, it felt, I would describe it as, like, an action strategy game, personally.
09:10 Because although there are the building elements, and that is a large role,
09:14 I think, right now, for me, that was mainly an important thing in the PvP,
09:18 where you're, like, scrambling to build up all these things.
09:21 I do think that, in terms of a specific genre,
09:24 I do think that Minecraft has the benefit of being able to straddle multiple genres
09:30 in a very comfortable way because it is a sandbox game
09:33 and because it does really sort of want to hone in on the fact that they want us to play
09:38 however we like it to be played.
09:41 So, I find that really cool.
09:42 I would say, again, I would see it as an action strategy game.
09:46 I personally do feel that the PvP sort of stood out the most to me in my gameplay,
09:51 and I think that the style that they're going for in this lends itself very well to the multiplayer.
09:57 Single player, I did have a bit of a hard time figuring out the controls,
10:01 but, again, I think that's because I am so new to it that the idea of, like,
10:05 "Oh, I have to build something, and then I have to gather these guys, and they come with me,"
10:09 that's one cool thing.
10:10 You have, like, a companion, like, these little dudes following you around, which is very cute.
10:15 I'm told that's new as well.
10:17 So, yeah, I mean, I'm excited to see what other people think because we don't know too much right now.
10:22 Cool. Well, that's Minecraft Legends, a seemingly more PvP kind of strategy game.
10:27 Let us know if you're going to pick up Minecraft Legends in the comments below.
10:30 Until next time, see ya.
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10:39 (baby cooing)