I’ll be honest, I almost forgot about Lynked: Banner of the Spark after I previewed it last October. I really don’t mean that as a criticism, it’s kind of like when you put on a really nice pair of socks and they’re so warm and comfy that you forget they’re there. I would go so far as to say it did everything so well during the preview demo that a part of me honestly thought it had been released. So it was genuinely nice to dive back into Lynked: Banner of the Spark this time with a somewhat renewed perspective.
Like I mentioned in my Empyreal review, I’ve been revisiting the 2006 Dreamcast/Gamecube classic Phantasy Star Online: Chapters I & II, and it’s been causing me to re-evaluate how ARPGs approach their design, so I was curious if it would change my initial thoughts on Lynked: Banner of the Spark. Thankfully, everything I remember from the game holds up pretty well, and the game’s combination of dungeon-crawling and townbuilding still makes for a satisfying... Read more