Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story is a crafting RPG set in the charming, peaceful, and cozy world of Bandle City, where parties are the norm. However, after a party goes wrong, the portals that connect homes get destroyed, and chaos ensues. You must use your knitting magic and backpack house to restore the portals and reunite the Yordles living there. If you’re a fan of this genre and looking for a review before venturing into Bandle City, here are my thoughts about this Riot Forge and Lazy Bear Games offering.
Bandle Tale Review
I played and reviewed Riot Forge’s previous game, Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story, which was all about the friendship between two unlikely companions – the child ‘Nunu’ and Willump, the Yeti. I had a lot of fun playing it, and like Bandle Tale, it is a cozy game with Puzzle elements.
However, Bandle Tale is an out-an-out crafting game, and let me preface this review by saying that I am the target audience of this genre – Animal Crossing New Horizons is my jam. Games like Spiritfarer and Stardew Valley are right up my alley. There’s no combat in Bandle Tale; instead, your focus is to throw parties, cook, knit, and eventually save the day by helping others and fixing the broken portal network.
You start as a cute little Yordle with a customizable look so that you can choose its adorable ears, fur color, hairstyle, outfit, and more. What’s more – you can name the character after yourself so that you are truly part of the Yordle community. Then, as you cutely waddle to meet and speak to others on the island, the story starts to unravel. There are no voice lines in the interactions themselves, but the pop-up dialogues are engaging and never dull — they are even sprinkled with humor here and there.
For those familiar with League of Legends, you’ll come across multiple well-known champions of Bandle City in this game, such as Tristana, Rumble, Lulu, Corki, and Veigar. But Bandle Tale stands strong on its own, so you don’t need to have any experience in League or knowledge of its lore before playing this one! All you must know is that Yordles are a race of spirits who look like mammal-like bipeds. Here’s the background from LoL if you are curious to know more before diving in.
Your journey in Bandle Tale begins with you crafting some items, which eventually becomes a task of crafting various structures, food items, and materials for completing objectives and unlocking essential skills.
There are 4 Skill Trees with loads of Skills to unlock – Magic, Knitting, Engineering, and Nature. Nature is all about snacks, baking, cooking, and using bugs; Magic is about Potion making, Magic Auras, and Blueprints; Engineering is about Tools and special Workbenches; and lastly, Knitting is about resources like Threads, Festivals, and many more crafts. The mechanics can be slightly confusing initially, but if you keep at it, you’ll discover faster ways to craft, collect, and complete goals.
As I progressed, I started noting down the things I needed for crafting, where to find them, and the locations to farm them, which is a testament to how immersed I felt in the world. Many crafts are interconnected, so you have to keep track of what to do because things get complex as you unlock different workbenches.
This, combined with cute and colorful pixel-style art, makes it a complete package, especially for fans of relaxing games (but with much less farming like in other similar titles). Although navigation on the maps, designed like impossible objects, takes some getting used to at first — after a while, you’ll know the path like the back of your hand. Getting the hang of it quickly enough is essential because there’s a lot of back-and-forth traveling to do here, but the Portal Yarn makes things much faster.
The crafting is easy to do but not without its challenges! For example, initially, I found myself scurrying to complete cooking for individual requests during Food Stands because each guest will only stay for a little while, a la Overcooked. So they will leave if you don’t prepare the food in time. Eventually, I got a hang of it and was fully prepared for their requests, which was nice.
You will need more Emotion Orbs, Skill Points, and Stars regularly, so thinking ahead is key. But the best part is that things never get overwhelming – it’s a laidback experience, and you can choose your pace of playing the game, which I appreciated. If things got a bit too ‘grindy’ after sinking hours into Bandle Tale, I took it as a sign that I was done for the day, but excited to continue the adventure tomorrow.
How you manage all of this comes down to one crucial element – your mobile home. You carry around a backpack that transforms into a home with all amenities, perfect for all your knitting, cooking, and crafting needs.
It starts as a small house with the basics, but after hours of gameplay, it becomes a massive area where you can get almost everything you require for your objectives and badges.
This portable house will help you during your travels across islands because some ground auras can only be found in specific places, and some items can only be purchased from specific merchants. Your house has different carpets attached, and you can use the ones you need so the screen doesn’t get too cluttered at a time.
Even with pixel graphics, I was pleasantly surprised by how the devs have made it look inviting, with some fantastic lighting during parties, details in the animations, and intricate backgrounds in the environment, all of which change as per the unique island you’re currently on. Some areas are darker with a more somber atmosphere, while some zones are bright and eye-catching.
It’s genuinely a whimsical world where sometimes the homes are made of giant pumpkins, trees are made of parchment, bridges are made of piano keys, and some rocks have faces carved on them! The art team has pushed the envelope for how lively and gorgeous pixel-style can look in-game.
Bandle Tale can take anywhere from 40 to 60 hours to complete, so I recommend this one for players looking for a cute and immersive crafting RPG.
Some might feel like the gameplay is a chore, but personally, it did not feel like a mind-numbing loop because I could focus on different targets based on the island I was working on. So, if I wanted a break from the more machinery-focused island, I headed to the nature-focused one for slightly different goals. This game isn’t supposed to be completed fast because it is slow-paced, meant to be enjoyed over a while as a break from the other high-octane games one might be playing. I enjoyed playing Bandle Tale after being hyper-focused on “winning” in Overwatch 2 daily.
Bandle Tale Review Verdict
While playing Bandle Tale, I was impressed by the positive environment that it created, and it became my go-to game after a long day of work. The music is calming and very, very addictive. Special shoutout to the music creators — I caught myself humming the tunes at random times of the day.
If you’re a fan of comfy, stress-free games focused on crafting, Bandle Tale can be a welcome addition to your collection. The graphics are mind-blowing, a huge variety of items to craft, and the in-game characters and interactions are adorable. Bandle Tale can be fun for League of Legends fans who want to venture into a different genre and those unaware of the lore but enjoy chill, heartfelt, and relaxing games.