Hand of Merlin is a turn-based strategy game published by the Versus Evil team. If the name “Merlin” sounds familiar, it’s because the title is based on the legend of King Arthur. Merlin is his trusted mage. The game adds a twist to the legendary folklore of a multiverse story that started on Steam before moving to the console. The only question is whether it was worth the wait. It’s a little “yes, no” situation.
Let’s start with some good things. The Hand of Merlin features story-driven gameplay that tracks a band of heroes in a land full of danger and conspiracy. The story literally unfolds through a huge book, revealing new situations every few pages.
My favorite part of this is the non-linear, self-selecting adventure storytelling style, with choices displayed at the end of each page. Are you brave enough to investigate that creepy tombstone? If you find a child at risk or come across two knights fighting, do you choose to join the stage on the left or end quietly? Some choices simply advance the story. Others offer rewards such as money, food, and mana. Sometimes your choice depends on chance and you will be asked to draw cards from your deck to determine the result. These can be as serious as encountering a witch, or frivolous as when playing hide-and-seek with local children.
In some situations, you will be dragged into the actual battle. These form the second part of The Hand of Merlin, which takes place in the isometric field with a turn-based approach similar to Fire Emblem. As expected, the team’s actions are selected and executed before the enemy selects and executes the team’s actions. And so on until the entire team loses one. The battle works very well and is a fun pastime from the fairy tale scene.
Now for some negatives. The first impression of The Hand of Merlin was one of the annoyances. First, the game starts very slowly and welcomes you with a very long loading screen. And “very long” means almost 2 minutes. These loading screens are a recurring issue that will be shorter in duration, but will delay greetings before each battle.
Second, I was constantly dissatisfied with the user interface.I have Many Despite having a dedicated help page, the number of options in play seems great, except that it’s confusing and inadequately explained. For example, a “useful” popup kept me reminding me to level up my character – how exactly?There is a menu wherever, At first, none of them make sense. It’s very cluttered and difficult to navigate. The use of the “+” symbol in some areas is also confusing. This does not mean using the + button I was expecting. In fact, I still don’t know what that means.
I get the impression that this game is not optimized for Switch. It also explains that the load time is short. For example, one menu prompts you to “move over” to a particular option in the information. However, this is not possible without a mouse. These issues may be tolerated if touch screen controls are included, but they are not particularly present.
Graphically, Merlin’s hands carry better and show off dark aesthetics during combat that fits the medieval theme. The battle is also well energized and you will encounter interesting enemies, including some beast beasts. The storybook approach works well, but the text is skewed and can be a bit confusing. After all, it’s designed to look like an open book. However, each page contains some neat still images that accompany the text.
Overall, The Hand of Merlin is a tactical game that works well if you can overlook long load times and user interface issues. At first I put off with a complicated menu, but once I get the hang of it, decent visuals and fascinating battles are fun. It’s probably a bit expensive, but fans of turn-based strategies will find subtle fun here.
