Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion gives players a mixture of interesting narrative and fast paced action RPG gameplay. Players will have to make quick decisions in not only the heat of combat but in critical choices that appear during breaks in the action. Maybe a revolt has occurred and you’ve caught the leader; what do you do? Choose wisely as the effects of your choice alter not only the tide of battle—choices give stat buffs and debuffs—but also the narrative story. In Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion, you need to stay on your toes as time will not cater to those who are unprepared.

Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion acts as another story in the Fallen Legion lore—the other title is on the PS4 titled Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire—that tells the story of Legatus Laendur. Follow Legatus as he tries to gain power from his family by staging a coup. Players should expect a deeper story of what power can do to those who seek it. Equally, prepare for a fast paced action RPG title where you must juggle between 4 characters on the screen. Players will need to be mindful of mixing in attacks as well as guarding to be successful in combat. With beautiful art, a deep combat system and plenty of branching paths Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion packs a lot in such a small package.

The Empire of Fenumia took over many lands including Legatus Laendur’s homeland. Tired of how the empire is functioning and wishing for a change, Legatus begins making moves to take over. Using his wits and cunning tactics, this young man is about to embark on a journey that will change the empire and himself in large waves. Legatus’ journey will challenge him as he gains new powers and learns what too much power can do to one soul. Find out Legatus’ fate as you enter in the tale of Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion.

The first thing we need to mention about Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion is that it acts as a separate story. We will get into talking about the differences later in this review but in case you have no idea about either version let’s start off by talking about the story, gameplay and the audio stuff first. Story wise, Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion aims to tell a dark story of a young man who ends up getting corrupted by power as time goes on. At times the narrative is very strong but the story does feel weak and sometimes overplayed at times. Legatus isn’t a likeable main protagonist and while we didn’t hate him at times too often we found we couldn’t care for his motives. This issue is also because Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion story isn’t fleshed out very well leading to a lot of who cares moments which is a shame because the lore has the potential to be impressive.

Now, where Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion shines—though weakly in comparison to its PS4 version—is the combat and gameplay mechanics. Battles are very unique in Fallen Legion: Flames or Rebellion as they require timing in not only combat but choice. During skirmishes, players will control 4 characters as they attack against various foes in real time combat. Your characters—which you gain more as the story progresses—must be used to deal damage and also must block with correct timing to ensure combos continue which allows special attacks to be triggered. You lose the battle if your three main characters die and Legatus gets hit once meaning either the stage must be restarted—though in One Life Mode this means restarting the whole game—or restarting the boss fight.

What’s also interesting is that after a battle, unlike most RPG titles, you don’t find the battle over but instead run into another fight. Occasionally during these transitions, events will occur that really affect battle and the next possible stage you’ll enter. These events can be things like someone stealing from funds or a prince has come to visit and will ask players what do you want to do. Choices usually range from helpful to neutral to strict actions, and depending on the choice gives players stat bonuses or debuffs. It’s a very interesting gameplay mechanic that makes battles feel unique and give reasons to be weary of choice.

Now let’s also talk about the two great elements of Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion which is the art and music. Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion is gorgeous with beautiful sprite design and animations. Equally we were blown away by some epic music and great voice acting—though the voice acting is sparse at times—which made Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion a title you’ll want to use headphones with to get maximum enjoyment. We only wishes there was more voice acting and a bit more music variety but these are more personal complaints and won’t be something everyone feels.

Now, let’s finally get into the most important topic of this review; what is wrong with Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion and which version is better? Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire—the PS4 version—ran smoothly during combat and that’s a must in a game as hectic as this. However, Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion suffers greatly because of constant frame rate drops that make fighting very difficult. In a game where timing can be life or death, having a sudden lag spike hit and then seeing a character miss a guard makes the game feel infuriating. This issue tends to happen a lot during some of the large fights and it kills one of the things we loved about the PS4 version. We here at Honey’s Anime hope that a patch or update can fix this issue but as it is it’s a big problem. Top that off with a weaker story in comparison to PS4 title makes Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion the harder of the two to recommend.

Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion may have the soul of its PS4 version but that soul doesn’t burn as bright. The combat and story take the biggest hits thanks to various issues with both concepts that we mentioned already and it really hurts Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion. The art and soundtrack still blow us away—in fact the soundtrack may be stronger than the PS4 in some tracks—but that isn’t enough for us to fully recommend Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion. We strongly advise that if you own a PS4 you should definitely pick up Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire as it is the superior version of the two in many ways.

We really enjoyed our time with Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire but less so with Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion. While it’s cool to see a new side of this world the gameplay suffers a lot on the PS Vita version and overall isn’t as enjoyable. However, Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion still is a fun title thanks to the combat and branching paths. We still recommend picking this up if you’re looking for an interesting PS Vita action RPG title but if you had to choose between the PS4 and or this one we highly recommend the former rather than the latter. That wraps up our review for Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion, we would now love to hear from you down below. Are you planning on picking this up or would you prefer the PS4 version? Don’t forget to also keep checking back to Honey’s Anime as we continue to create reviews we hope you amazing people will love.