When cute crafting RPG Bandle Tale: A League Of Legends Story was first announced at the end of last year, I don't think I really appreciated the fact it was going to be the next game from the devs behind mortuary farming-me-do Graveyard Keeper. I keep turning this fact over in my head as I watch Lazy Bear Games' associate producer Vlada Redko play a portion of Bandle Tale over Discord for me, with creative director Nikita Kulaga and Riot Forge's creative director Rowan Parker telling me about what's happening onscreen in front of me. As Redko explores the whimsical, knitting-themed city of Bandle as one of League Of Legends' tiny fluffy Yordle creatures, it is, to put it lightly, quite the tonal shift from their previous work. But don't let its cute looks fool you.
This is a crafting RPG with a ferociously long set of skill trees to master, with 40-60 hours' worth of new abilities to learn, objects to construct, errands to run, friends to enlist and - crucially - parties to throw. For in the Bandle woods of Runeterra, life's problems are solved by having a good old fashioned boogie, including the rather urgent issue of fixing the world's portal network, which has collapsed in a mysterious accident. It may have a softer, fluffier-looking surface than Graveyard Keeper, but underneath it looks as though there's just as much to dig into here, so here's what I've learned so far ahead of its release on February 21st.