Leximan Review

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Fast Facts

Words on a Game about Words

Leximan is a narrative-focused RPG which integrates language into the battle system. This seemed like an innovative way to divide dialogue segments, and I was excited to try it out. Moreover, I played and enjoyed Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun, a game from the same publisher earlier this year. These factors left me cautiously optimistic about Leximan. Did it live up to my hype? Find out in this Rapid Review. 

To begin my adventure, I was introduced to a school filled with magic students. I met and slowly became acquainted with them along my journey. To be entirely honest, at the beginning of the game, I was not sure how much I would like the characters, as I was immediately thrust into a world with a lot of people. These early stages in the game were mildly overwhelming, as there was so much to take in. However, the more time I spent with the game, the more Leximan focused on the important characters. In the end, I found myself attached to each character that surrounded me, which was excellent. The game does a great job of introducing characters and keeping me invested in them throughout my journey. 

Moreover, the storyline did a great job of keeping me engaged. There were interesting locations to explore and continuous new developments. Though the plot was nothing groundbreaking, Leximan is simply a fun adventure. These places remained so interesting because the writing was funny. This is a major selling point of the game, as not only is the game funny, but it does so without being childish or vulgar. The writing is a major selling piece, I enjoyed getting immersed in the world.

Making it a Game

As enjoyable as the story was, the gameplay must also be interesting for the game to be truly great. Leximan already has a leg up though, as it features a system I have not seen in other titles. Instead of traditional turn-based combat, for the majority of the game, I combined fragments of words that then materialized and were used in combat. As someone who enjoys typing and word games, this was an excellent gameplay loop, and it kept me entertained throughout. I felt a particular joy about not having to play traditional turn-based combat. However, this system is not without its flaws. Having words floating out towards me made the game very easy. 

Based on the trailer, I imagined Leximan would be similar to The Henry Stickmin Collection, where the outcome would not be obvious, and watching how different silly outcomes reside would take up a major part of the gameplay. However, that was not typically the case. There tended to be one clear solution, made fairly obvious from the context. This made combat a bit trivial. However, despite this issue, I still had fun. These sections simply served as a brief intermission to the story. Though it was a bit disappointing that these sections were guided, I still enjoyed watching the different things I could create.

I also enjoyed a variety of other game modes. There was a miniature point-and-click adventure, a more traditional turn-based RPG segment, a couple of bullet hell sections, and even a few areas that featured combat similar to Vampire Survivors. Again, none of these segments were overly complex, but I had fun with them. The variety in segments works well in this story-focused title. 

Setting the Scene

I also found that the music was solid. During action scenes, the music swells and gets intense. However, during times when I am catching up on background information or different lore, the music is quieter and less energetic. This makes it easy to read the dialogue. This duality made Leximan feel great to play. 

On the other hand, the visuals did not stand out, but they did the job. There were some great animations, especially during attacks. However, more often than not, the visuals were nothing special. At a glance, many of the characters did not stand out. This could be because they were white, lacking color which could help differentiate them, but it also could have been due to the sprite work. However, since the character sprites looked drab, the developer focused on developing personality in the text and even adding colour there. This helped differentiate the characters a lot. Plus, of course, the text is labelled per character. It was easy to tell who was who, but many of the character sprites lacked the personality and charm that I was able to get from the story and writing. 

As a whole, however, I think Leximan is a lot of fun. The personality of the characters shines through, and I found it very refreshing to play a story-focused RPG with a unique style of turn-based combat. Where Leximan truly excels, however, is in the writing. The storyline has a bunch of interesting developments, and the characters are funny. Though this is not the most mechanically complex game, it certainly struck a chord and left its mark on me. 

4 out of 5

4

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