Previews

Mythic Legends preview - "Auto battling its way through a crowded marketplace"

Mythic Legends puts just enough spin on the genre to warrant your attention.

Mythic Legends preview - "Auto battling its way through a crowded marketplace"
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| Mythic Legends

Auto battlers are a perfect match for mobile platforms. Offering a combination of skill, strategy, and quick play sessions, the genre has become a hotbed of innovation over the past few years. Auto Chess kicked off the frenzy in 2019, followed by Dota Underlords, Teamfight Tactics, Might & Magic: Chess Royale, and countless others trying to find their 15 minutes of fame.

Mythic Legends is the latest auto battler joining the fray and – while it's a perfectly enjoyable game – it doesn't do much to innovate on the well-worn formula. If you've played an auto battler in the last three years, you'll know what to expect when loading Mythic Legends. Still, my brief hands-on preview showed off a polished game with a lot of potential, although I'm uncertain there's enough compelling content to convert the Auto Chess and TFT diehards.

What is Mythic Legends?

If you're unfamiliar with auto battlers, the premise is simple. The action plays out on a battlefield that looks like a chessboard, with you on one side and your opponent on the other. Before each match, you'll strategically place units on the board, earning various bonuses for synergies between the deployed units, before the action unfolds automatically. Typically, there's little to no user input once the battle has become – hence, the name auto battlers. Different games will offer different twists on the formula, such as the ability to level up units or purchase power-ups, but most tend to follow this oversimplified formula.

Like most auto battlers, Mythic Legends gets off to a fairly slow start. You're originally given only a few choices of Champions – units placed on the battlefield – and Heroes – Mythic Legends fairly unique twist on the genre, which confer unique passive and active bonuses but don't get placed on the battlefield – leading to incredibly slow battles.

This is fine if you're new to the genre, but for stalwarts coming over from TFT, you'll be left slogging through low-end battles that you stopped caring about years ago. These opening battles are an unfortunate necessity, however, as new players and auto battler veterans alike learn the Mythic Legends systems and slowly work their way up the ranks.

What characters are featured in Mythic Legends?

A big draw of any auto battler is its assortment of collectible characters – and that's where Mythic Legends absolutely shines. With dozens of Champions to collect and several unique Heroes, you'll want to keep playing to see what new creatures are just around the bend.

From the cuddly but deadly Snowstream to the nightmare-inducing Gloomdoc, the variety of auto-battling Champions on display is staggering. There aren't nearly as many Heroes available, although each comes with its own special abilities that cater to various playstyles and confer interesting on-field benefits.

Mythic Legends preview

For example, one high-level Hero – Deathmist – gives ally Champions a bonus to their damage output, while also jumping onto the battlefield and finishing off any opponents that dip below a certain Health threshold. Combining these Hero synergies with those of your Champions on the battlefield allows for a surprising amount of depth, and one that will provide plenty of room for creativity and high-end play.

While the Hero and Champion dynamic is a thrilling take on auto battlers, everything else is fairly run of the mill. You'll be able to earn various currencies along the way to level up your characters, have access to various rewards as you progress through the game, and slowly build up an army of Champions to take into battle. In other words, there's no shortage of dopamine-inducing unlocks and carrots dangling just out of your reach to keep you playing.

Summary

After spending a week with a preview version of Mythic Legends, there's really not much to complain about. It provides quick, strategic matches that only last a few minutes, a robust roster of characters and upgrades, and its combination of Heroes and Champions bring a fairly interesting twist to the auto battler formula. It's hard to say if that twist will be enough to win over fans of Auto Chess or Teamfight Tactics without an aggressive ad campaign, but I've no doubt it'll be another fun addition to the ever-growing auto batter roster.

Jon Bitner
Jon Bitner
Jon is a freelance writer with a focus on video games and technology. Before starting his career as a writer, he worked various jobs in the Biotech industry. He holds a degree in Biology, and when he isn't writing can usually be found traveling, reading, or playing the latest game release.