League of Legends is a competitive game that requires concentration, focus and knowledge of both the champion and the card. On the other hand, Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story is a cheerful crafting RPG that is both playful and satisfying. Bandle story plays a Yordle, a furry, elf-style creature that lives in the realm of Bandle City. A party goes haywire and the portal network connecting Bandle City’s islands falls apart. Luckily, the protagonist has just completed a centennial apprenticeship that gives him the ability to magically knit the portals back together – with a little training, elbow grease, and can-do thinking.
Bandle story is a heavier game than its peers in the Riot Forge catalog, the publisher of the League of Legends Story games we’ve gotten so far – The Mageseker, Ruined king, Song of NunuAnd Convergence – as it will take at least 40 hours to complete. It’s also a game that focuses much more on the journey than the destination. The player creates their own Yordle, attends the fateful party, and sets out to save their home through the power of crafting.
You’ll have a few tools to get you started: a handy backpack that, when you put it down, grows into a full-fledged house, a talking sock, and a magical book. Every task in Bandle story comes down to crafting, completing missions, earning badges and unlocking new crafting recipes. Stories often unfold in the style of the old lady who swallowed a fly; I wanted to complete a seemingly unimportant task, like claiming my backpack home, but was hindered by an unexpected problem – in this case, a litter of snail cats that refused to move unless I found them a new home. I couldn’t move them because everyone knows that would mean 800 years of bad luck. So I had to find a new place for the snail cats to settle, and along the way I came across some crabs having a marital feud. You know, just normal Yordle stuff.
Image: Lazy Bear Games/Riot Forge
This jagged, strange feeling is felt throughout the game and is best expressed in the environments. Bandle City feels comfortable and cozy, but it is not particularly normal. In Yarnville, the streets are made of wide-knit scarves that twist and bend around every corner. Other islands have giant hourglasses embedded in the terrain, or Escher-like geometry that doesn’t make sense to the naked eye. Some islands are soft and pastel, while others are vibrant with coral colors, but they are all a bit strange.
Which is appropriate, as this is the home of the immortal Yordles. Being immortal has done some strange things to the Yordle psyche – see the evil Veigar, who constantly cackles about his evil plans, as an example of how that can manifest itself – but many of the neighbors I met along the way were strange everyday . It’s a nice contrast; a nice old lady down the road taught me how to grow beets and gave me compliments… As luck would have it, she complimented me on my new magical yarn leg, which generated a rainbow trail every time I sprinted.
To improve skills and unlock new recipes, I had to go around the world. Sometimes that means solving quests, repairing bridges, and forging new paths through Bandle City. Other times I’ve had to build up the home fort to throw an absolutely rocking dance party with plenty of refreshments for my guests. As I complete tasks, I fill up emotion bubbles visible in the top left corner of my screen. Once they are filled, I sleep, and that energy is converted into skill points that I can spend on creating talent trees. To unlock the trees, I have to earn badges in that profession.
Image: Lazy Bear Games/Riot Forge
All this creates a loop very similar to a game like Stardew Valleywhere I am focused on both maintaining my own home and adventuring in the world to help those around me. Bandle story is less focused on farming and making money and more on exploration, helping characters in the world solve their problems, and stockpiling goods to ensure you only throw the latest and hottest parties. It’s not exactly high-octane action, but that’s the point.
While the pacing is a bit slow, it helps that a lot of the lyrics are cute and funny. Even though we’re dealing with a portal network collapse, the Yordles are generally pretty calm about things. At one point, at a disastrous party, a few Yordles, who think they are stranded on this small island, decide to plan their new professions on this lonely island, and one of them declares that they will become journalists. It’s a funny, charming moment, and… Bandle story is full of these silly little interactions that keep a smile on my face.
Bandle story is one of the biggest deviations in the League of Legends franchise yet, but it’s a hugely welcome change from the more serious games in my backlog. It does require some time investment – somewhere between 40 and 60 hours – but it’s fun wandering from goal to goal, taking breaks to throw epic parties. It’s a shame that with the end of Riot Forge, we won’t see these experimental titles again. While Competition can be an intimidating prospect, I found myself completely welcomed by the comfortable, silly nature of Bandle story.
Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story releases on February 19 on PC and Nintendo Switch. The game was reviewed using a pre-release download code on PC provided by Riot Forge. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. You can find Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.