Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia Review. You can refill Jim’s health by picking up healing items that are scattered throughout levels, or by using healing items that you may have purchased in Trollmarket. The game can be completed from start to finish in as little as a couple of hours. The game is now available on consoles and PC, and we had a chance to go hands-on with the Switch version of the game. Another ability allows you to ride a hoverboard across large gaps, and so on. It stays true to the story and delivers an okay yet shorter experience that I’m sure kids and fans of the show will enjoy. (In addition to regular enemies, some levels have boss battles against more powerful characters.). My first run of the game on hard collecting everything probably took between 4 and 6 hours. You can’t return to the middle of a stage. In Defenders of Arcadia, players take on the role of Jim Lake Jr., a trollhunter who must travel through time in order to defeat a trickster troll named Porgon and ultimately stop the time-pocalypse. Trollhunters Defenders of Arcadia is a kid-friendly video game inspired by the Netflix trilogy series Tales of Arcadia, which is made up of Trollhunters, 3Below, and Wizards. Platforming isn't any better than the combat mechanics. All the latest gaming news, game reviews and trailers. In addition to the game’s story-based missions, you can complete side missions for the citizens of Trollmarket, as well as play a couple of mini-games to earn more in-game currency. The storyline isn't awful, but doesn't hold up against the critically acclaimed Trollhunters TV show, and to top it all off the bugs make Defenders of Arcadia basically unplayable at times. Looking at only the first half, the answer would be “yes,” but the problems with the game’s later stages do drag the experience down. Disclosure: Outright Games gave SuperParent a code for Trollhunters Defenders of Arcadia for coverage purposes. © 2019 Xbox Tavern. There is little explanation as to how the time travel device works or why Porgon is messing with the timeline. Finally, while a single player can complete the entire game on their own, there's also the option for a second player to join in for some local cooperative multiplayer. October 2, 2020 10:11 AM. Next: What To Expect From Wizards: Tales of Arcadia Season 2. From my early days of gaming with Vectrex and eventually NES, I can't remember a time where gaming wasn't present in my life. Graduated from Midwestern State University with a BA in English where he worked as an editor for the University literary journal. Plus, there’s a problem with the game’s flying and jumping enemies, which makes them difficult to hit with your sword even if they’re right in front of Jim. Other times, the game would freeze at the beginning of the mission and crash. Rather, you’ll respawn near the location where you fell (or just in the middle of the boss battle). Stop the time-pocalypse. This makes it a decent introduction to the genre for younger or more inexperienced players. Granted that was my second run of the game. With this device he sends main character Jake into several alternate timelines that he must then protect. A new troll has appeared named Porgon who somehow managed to track down a time travel device. This second player will control Jim's friend Claire. As standard collectibles will be littered throughout the levels but aren’t needed to complete the game although achievement hunters will want to pick up everything for those sweet points and trophies. These friends will prove useful and necessary as the game progresses. Each level has a set beginning and end point, and they also contain secret areas where you can collect socks and gnomes that can be used elsewhere in the game (some of these items are hidden more cleverly than others). You can mostly find me achievement hunting these days. Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia brings the world of the Tales of Arcadia TV trilogy to our consoles and lets us take some control of our hero, Jake. There is also little incentive to kill enemies or collect coins and other collectibles, since the few upgrades that players can purchase do little to improve their abilities. Players will need to use quick reflexes to avoid oncoming attacks and defeat these enemies before Jim takes damage. Unfortunately, Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia, a 2.5D (3D characters played along a 2D slice of the game world) hack and slash game, falls into the latter category. I have been maining Xbox since the release in 2001 and enjoy genres of all kinds. Most of the levels in Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia are so generic and linear that players really just have to hold right on the control stick for the entire level and then jump whenever they see a pit or hanging platform. The storyline isn't awful, but doesn't hold up against the critically acclaimed Trollhunters TV show, and to top it all off the bugs make Defenders of Arcadia basically unplayable at times. The game never explains exactly how to do certain actions, like sliding, which is necessary to progress through certain areas. Trollhunters Defenders of Arcadia is a short game, with fairly simple gameplay compared to other side-scrolling platformers. Even the biggest fans of the Tales of Arcadia franchise are likely to be disappointed by this lackluster effort. This means new players likely won’t get as much out of the storyline as existing fans. This is noticed as there is a fair amount of dialog for how short the game can take which brings me to my last point. Please enter your username or email address. Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia has a storyline, but it is a very generic one that doesn't capture the charm of the property its based around. There were several instances of platforms that were supposed to move but wouldn't, which would force a game restart. Trollhunters Defenders of Arcadia Review. However, when you do, you’ll need to restart the level you left from the beginning. Jim has a limited number of hearts, and he’ll lose those hearts as he takes damage. Each of the character models look exactly like their TV show counterparts, and all of the trolls populating the game's hub world are full of life with each one having its own individual personality. Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia is a game that knows it audience and caters to it. Related: Journey Of The Broken Circle Review: A Platformer Looking To Become Whole. Cody Peterson is an avid reader and writer. You can jump and run side-to-side. However, the game doesn’t tell you which button to press to slide, so you have to randomly press buttons until you figure it out. The graphics are just okay but the voice acting is where this game shines. It was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows on September 25th and we were sent a code to review on the Playstation. However, it has quite a few problems that may really hurt their final experience with the title. This was fine for platforming games in the 1980s, but video games have evolved way past that point in the last 40 years. Most of the gameplay mechanics may be functional, but they are boring and repetitive.