League of Legends and Stardew Valley are two games that I thought I'd never put in a sentence. But Bandle Tale, an upcoming life sim set in a mystical pocket of Riot's universe, marries these two very different worlds far better than I expected. Developed by the team behind cult hit Graveyard Keeper as part of the publishing label Riot has used to develop a growing suite of indie spinoffs, it's clear that Bandle Tale has a close eye on what makes its genre tick.
"Farming first," says Nikita Kulaga, creative director at Lazy Bear Games. "Every crafting RPG has farming, and we have farming as well." The crops we farm become the food we cook for the NPCs we meet throughout the game, but that's only one part of a bafflingly intricate gameplay loop. Just one of Bandle Tale's multiple research trees features dozens of recipes and skills to unlock, and different characters have their own specialisms that you'll unlock as you explore more of the game's mysterious world.
That world is Bandle City, one of the most enigmatic parts of the League of Legends universe. The lore isn't particularly clear about where this mystical city can be found, but the conventional wisdom is that it's its own pocket dimension, where squirrel-like inhabitants known as Yordles live their gentle, meandering lives in a world shaped by a Fae-like magic. Imagine The Shire, with the Yordles filling in for the Hobbits, and you're not too far away from how Bandle City fits into this world.
Yord of the Rings
"We tried to make everything magical in Bandle Tale," Kulaga says as he plucks glowing bananas from the boughs of gnarled, purple palm trees. Magic is inherent in this world, and the team has gone to great lengths to capture that whimsy in everything from its level design to its characters. You'll run amid intricate, floating platforms, interlaced like something out of a color-sprayed MC Escher painting thanks to the studio's complex combination of 2D and 3D art. That means unique crafting, far from the logs and bricks that are a closer staple of the survival genre. "This place allows us to make everything that we would like to make in a crafting RPG," Kulaga explains. "We have a magical world with unknown physical and magical laws."
It's an interesting line to draw. On the one hand, Bandle Tale leans all the way into the magic of its setting, but on the other, the team is keen to exist within at least some form of convention. Kulaga points out that he made his own life sim hit with Graveyard Keeper, without ever playing Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon, but senior game designer Amanda Jeffrey notes that "we have to be aware of what players' expectations are for the genre." Citing fishing as an example, Jeffries points out that "we know what players consider to be absolute staples, so we were making sure we weren't going to disappoint players who come into this."
This place allows us to make everything that we would like to make in a crafting RPG
Bandle Tale isn't just following the conventions of the genre, however. Lazy Bear has attempted to make its own mark on the life sim, seen most effectively through your home. Part backpack, part caravan, it can be brought with you and set up wherever you can find enough space to build, ensuring that you don't spend hours tracking back and forth to your initial base, even as your reach over Bandle City grows.
As you journey through the narrative, you'll gain access to new parts of Bandle City, those dedicated even further to its magical tendencies, or locked inside a mechanical, chaotic take on that world. Those different areas will bring you into contact with more Yordles, including those from preexisting League of Legends canon. Bandle Tale bucks the trend of Riot spinoffs, which have put you in the shoes of known characters. This time, in keeping with the game's deep customization options, you'll be your own Yordle, befriending the LoL cast rather than playing as them.
And it's in those friendships that Bandle Tale's loop draws to a pleasing close. You'll befriend your fellow Yordles by throwing parties for them. Different Yordles have different preferences for their gatherings, and if they enjoy themselves once they arrive, you'll be able to gather their joy and use it to unlock new skills. New skills mean new party favors and new Yordles to meet, and the cycle continues to spin outwards, pulling in more and more different aspects of this magical world.
In some ways, Bandle Tale is the most unlikely of League of Legends spinoffs. This is a series all but defined by combat, and with one exception these other games are based around the same kind of mastery as the original game; top-down brawlers, parkour Metroidvanias, and traditional turn-based RPGs all place intricate skill at their heart, but Bandle Tale sets off in a whole new direction. It'll be interesting to see how well that loop comes together, but if there was ever a pocket of this universe designed to let players kick back, relax, and carve a life for themselves, it's this one.
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