Bandle Tale is the lower-stakes League of Legends story we all deserve

polygon.com:

League of Legends is a competitive game that demands concentration, focus, and knowledge of both the champion and the map. By contrast,Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story is a cheerful crafting RPG that’s equal parts whimsical and satisfying. Bandle Tale stars a Yordle, a furry little fae-style creature who lives in the realm of Bandle City. A party goes haywire, and the portal network connecting the islands of Bandle City falls apart. Luckily, the protagonist has just completed a hundred-year apprenticeship that lends them the ability to magically knit the portals back together — with a little training, elbow grease, and can-do thinking.

Bandle Tale is a heftier game than its fellows in the Riot Forge catalog, the publishing arm for the League of Legends Story games we’ve gotten so far — The Mageseeker, Ruined King, Song of Nunu, and Convergence — as it takes at least 40 hours to complete. It’s also a game that is far more focused on the journey than the destination. The player creates their custom Yordle, attends the fateful party, and sets out to save their home through the power of crafting.

You have a few tools to help you on your way: a handy backpack that when placed down expands into a full home, a talking sock, and a magical book. Every task in Bandle Tale comes down to crafting, completing quests, earning badges, and unlocking new crafting recipes. Stories often unfold in the style of the old lady who swallowed a fly; I set out to complete one seemingly inconsequential task, like claiming my backpack home, only to be obstructed by an unexpected problem — in this case, a nest of snailcats who refused to move unless I found them a new home. I couldn’t move them, as everyone knows that would be 800 years of bad luck. So I had to scout out a new place for the snailcats to settle, and on the way, I encountered a couple of crabs who were having a marital dispute. You know, just normal Yordle things.

This whimsical, weird feel carries over through the entire