Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story Keeps Things Cozy and Cuts Out the Grind

Of all of Riot Forge’s League of Legends spinoffs, Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story seems the furthest away from the core League of Legends experience. It’s single-player just like the other Riot Forge games, but even from watching a hands-off demo of the Yordle-filled game, it’s got a sense of calmness to it that one could never hope to achieve on Summoner’s Rift. It’s a game that actually seems to have a grasp on what a relaxing game should look like instead of just cashing in on the wave of games masking grind and tedium behind the guise of being “cozy.”

That makes Bandle Tale an attractive alternative to nights of plummeting LP in League, but the appeal of this game has a sting to it, too, given how this is the last Riot Forge game that we’ll get. Amid broader layoffs, Riot Games announced recently that it was shutting down Riot Forge, the publishing arm of the company that put out games like Bandle Tale, Ruined King, The Mageseeker, and other League of Legends stories. Bandle Tale developer Lazy Bear Games will of course still be making games, so if you like games like this one and Graveyard Keeper, keep an eye out for that studio’s next projects.

ComicBook.com spoke to Lazy Bear creative director and co-founder Nikita Kulaga and Riot Forge creative director Rowan Parker ahead of Bandle Tale‘s release to learn more about the game and how Lazy Bear captured cozy while embracing League lore. Based on what we’ve seen, it’s shaping up to be the perfect game to unwind to.

This interview and preview was conducted prior to Riot Games announcing the end of Riot Forge.

Settling into Bandle City

“Whimsical,” like “cozy,” is a word that’s used all too often to describe games like Bandle Tale, but in the case of the Yordle home of Bandle City, there isn’t a more fitting word. Bustling with Yordles and bursting with color, Bandle Tale’s rendition of Bandle City manages to seem both outlandish while also making perfect sense because of how comfortable everyone is in the setting. It’s got baffling geometry where you twist down one path and end up a level above where you previously were and portals that go to all different places. Your home is your backpack which expands far beyond its exterior limitations once you’re inside to allow for plenty of room for whatever it is Yordles do day to day. “Just roll with it,” seems to be the motto in Bandle City.

Bandle Tale is unique among Riot Forge games in that this is the only League of Legends spin-off where you’ll be able to create your own character. While you’ll see other Yordles like Corki, Tristana, Teemo, and other characters who were made exclusively for this game, Bandle Tale puts you in charge of your own original Yordle design.

When asked about this decision to create your own Yordle, creative director Nikita Kulaga said the feature was necessary to make sure you could self-insert yourself into the world of Bandle City and create your own story rather than living out the expectations and backstories of established Yordles. Of course, you can change pretty much every part of your character’s appearance at any point, too, by doing so through your backpack abode, because being stuck with one appearance you made very early on would be frustrating.

Removing possible instances of frustration like that was a key part of Bandle Tale based on the preview and the conversations with Kulaga. When asked what he defined as a “cozy” game given how so many games in the genre have adopted the term after pioneers like Stardew Valley paved the way, Kulaga said the game as “focused on good vibes” and avoiding frustration.

“If you have time or skill limitations to beat the game, it’s not cozy,” he said. “If you don’t have [those], it’s cozy.”

Much to Do

So, what does a player’s Yordle actually do in Bandle Tale? The aforementioned portals are pivotal to Bandle City and allow Yordles to travel to different regions and worlds in an instant, but the portal system is in trouble in Bandle Tale. After “everything is thrown into chaos,” according to an overview of the game, it’s up to players to set things right.

The story was talked about surprisingly sparsely during the preview of Bandle Tale. Whether that was to guard from spoilers or to get straight to the festivities, it left plenty of time to focus on the day-to-day responsibilities of being a Yordle.

Broadly, those culminate in just hanging out in Bandle City. When bopping around to the different islands in the city, you can interact with different Yordles like Corki and more while building rapport with them and helping them out with their own quests. Creating gadgets and cooking using items you’ve found or cultivated throughout Bandle City are key components of the game when it comes to making friends with other Yordles, and there’s of course the homebuilding side of things, too, where you tend to your on-the-go backpack home. You can fish as well, but that activity of course has a Bandle City twist on it in that you fish through portals, not the oceans, and pull up items from beyond your city’s limits.

Many of these smaller activities culminate in a big part of Bandle Tale: throwing parties. After deploying their workspace that’s coupled with their backpack home and setting the stage for a party, players can choose what kind of party they want to have and have to then invite guests that fit the vibe. If you want to invite someone who prefers lots of music, for example, you’ll need to pick a party that fulfills those requests. Cook food, entertain guests, and make sure everyone’s having a good time, and you’ll collect what are effectively different emotions from visiting Yordles which translate to “points” players invest into skill trees. These skills you unlock translate to things that make cooking and other Bandle Tale activities more rewarding and easier.

There are some things you can’t do in Bandle City, but the absence of those features meshes with Lazy Bear’s philosophy on games like Bandle Tale. There’s no combat, so don’t expect to be diving into dungeons for precious resources as you would in other like games. The game is confined to Bandle City itself, too, so you won’t be seeing characters from outside its boundaries. For those particularly partial to one of League’s Yordles or another, you should also nix the idea of romancing anyone here, though you can deepen relationships with different characters.

When speaking with Riot Forge creative director Rowan Parker about how this game seemed perfect for those who grow so frustrated with League of Legends that they need a break with something far more relaxing, Parker joked that that’s a key target audience for this new game. We’ll see if that’s the case very soon when Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story releases for the PC and Nintendo Switch platforms on February 21st.