Bandle Tale review: The less intense League of Legends we deserve

League of Legends is a competitive game that demands concentration, focus, and knowledge of both the champion and the map. By contrast, Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story is a cheerful crafting RPG that’s equal parts whimsical and satisfying. Bandle Tale stars a Yordle, a furry little fae-style creature who lives in the realm of Bandle City. A party goes haywire, and the portal network connecting the islands of Bandle City falls apart. Luckily, the protagonist has just completed a hundred-year apprenticeship that lends them the ability to magically knit the portals back together — with a little training, elbow grease, and can-do thinking.

Bandle Tale is a heftier game than its fellows in the Riot Forge catalog, the publishing arm for the League of Legends Story games we’ve gotten so far — The Mageseeker, Ruined King, Song of Nunu, and Convergence — as it takes at least 40 hours to complete. It’s also a game that is far more focused on the journey than the destination. The player creates their custom Yordle, attends the fateful party, and sets out to save their home through the power of crafting.

You have a few tools to help you on your way: a handy backpack that when placed down expands into a full home, a talking sock, and a magical book. Every task in Bandle Tale comes down to crafting, completing quests, earning badges, and unlocking new crafting recipes. Stories often unfold in the style of the old lady who swallowed a fly; I set out to complete one seemingly inconsequential task, like claiming my backpack home, only to be obstructed by an unexpected problem — in this case, a nest of snailcats who refused to move unless I found them a new home. I couldn’t move them, as everyone knows that would be 800 years of bad luck. So I had to scout out a new place for the snailcats to settle, and on the way, I encountered a couple of crabs who were having a marital dispute. You know, just normal Yordle things.

This whimsical, weird feel carries over through the entire game, and it best manifests in the environments. Bandle City feels comfortable and cozy, but it’s not particularly normal. In Yarnville, the streets are made of wide-knitted scarves that wind and bend around every corner. Other islands have giant hourglasses embedded into the terrain, or Escher-esque geometry that doesn’t make sense to the naked eye. Some islands are soft and pastel, while others are vibrant with coral coloring, but they’re all a little strange.

It’s appropriate, as this is the home of the immortal Yordles. Being immortal has done some weird things to the Yordle psyche — see the villainous Veigar, who constantly cackles about his evil plans, as an example of how that can manifest — but many of the neighbors I’ve met along the way have been oddly mundane. It’s a fun contrast; a nice old lady down the road taught me how to grow beets and gave me compliments… It just so happened that she was complimenting me on my new magical yarn leg, which generated a rainbow trail whenever I sprinted.

In order to rank up skills and unlock new recipes, I’ve had to go out and about in the world. Sometimes that means I’ve had to go solve quests, repairing bridges and forging new pathways through Bandle City. Other times, I’ve had to build up the home fort to host an absolutely banging dance party with plenty of refreshments for my guests. As I complete tasks, I fill up emotion orbs that are visible in the top left of my screen. Once they’re filled, I sleep, and that energy converts into skill points that I can spend in crafting talent trees. In order to unlock the trees, I need to earn badges in that profession.

Image: Lazy Bear Games/Riot Forge

This all creates a loop that’s very similar to a game like Stardew Valley, where I am focused on both maintaining my own home and adventuring out in the world to assist people around me. Bandle Tale is less focused on farming and making money and more on exploration, helping characters in the world solve their issues, and stashing goods to make sure you’re only throwing the freshest and most popular parties. It’s not exactly high-octane action, but that’s the point.

While the pacing is a bit slow, it helps that a lot of the writing is cute and amusing. Even though we’re dealing with a portal network collapse, the Yordles are by and large pretty calm about things. At one point early on, at the disastrous party, a couple of Yordles who think they’re stranded on this small island decide to start planning their new professions on this lonely island, and one of them declares that they’ll be a journalist. It’s a funny, charming moment, and Bandle Tale is full of these silly little interactions that keep a smile on my face.

Bandle Tale is one of the biggest departures in the League of Legends franchise yet, but it’s a hugely welcome respite from the more serious games in my backlog. It does take a bit of a time investment — somewhere between 40 and 60 hours — but it’s enjoyable to amble from objective to objective, taking breaks to host epic parties. It’s a shame that with the end of Riot Forge, we won’t be seeing these experimental titles anymore. While League can be an intimidating prospect, I found myself wholly welcomed by the comfy, silly nature of Bandle Tale.

Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story releases Feb. 19 on PC and Nintendo Switch. The game was reviewed using a pre-release download code on PC provided by Riot Forge. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.