Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes offers a multi-faceted gameplay system that revolves around three independent progression trees—Adventuring, Crafting, and Diplomacy—each with its own quests, challenges, and rewards. Adventuring feels familiar to seasoned MMORPG veterans: you travel through varied zones of Telon, confront monsters, complete story and side quests, collect gear, and allocate skill points to refine your build. The cap of level 50 provides a clear sense of progression, while the 17 distinct classes, sorted into Offensive Fighters, Defensive Fighters, Arcane Casters, and Healers, make party composition and solo play both strategic and engaging.

(HEY YOU!! We hope you enjoy! We try not to run ads. So basically, this is a very expensive hobby running this site. Please consider joining us for updates, forums, and more. Network w/ us to make some cash or friends while retro gaming, and you can win some free retro games for posting. Okay, carry on 👍)

Crafting in Vanguard stands out thanks to its depth and branching specializations. Starting as a general Artificer, Outfitter, or Blacksmith, you eventually choose a sub-profession—such as Tailor versus Leatherworker at level 10—opening up new recipes, resource requirements, and work orders. The dual path of “craft-for-self” versus “quest-crafting” lets you either gather materials in the world or accept work orders that supply ingredients in exchange for gold and unique rewards. This system ensures that crafters remain busy, whether they’re stocking up on potions for themselves or selling high-end gear on the player market.

Diplomacy introduces a refreshing card-based mini-game that rewards strategic thinking and knowledge of your deck. While parleying with NPCs, you play cards that influence dialogue outcomes, reveal story hints, or trigger additional buffs. On a larger scale, city diplomacy tasks you with managing trigger points—such as “Preparing for War” or “Festival Planning”—which, when pushed past thresholds, unlock events that confer zone-wide benefits. This meta-layer encourages both competitive and cooperative play, allowing guilds or groups of players to work together to shape the fate of a region.

Graphics

Graphically, Vanguard takes players on a tour of Telon’s vast, flat landscape, punctuated by dramatic coastlines, sweeping deserts in Qalia, and wind-blasted tundras in Thestra. Each region exhibits a distinct palette: icy blues and muted whites in the northern reaches, sun-bleached sands and ochres further south, and lush forests peppered around the island of Kojan. The environmental variety helps reduce visual fatigue during long leveling sessions.

Character models shine thanks to a robust character-creation toolset. With sliders adjusting height, facial structure, body build, and even eyebrow color, the customization options rival those of more modern titles. Race-specific visual flourishes—such as the moonlit runes on dark elves or the tribal tattoos of orcs—further enhance immersion. Armor and weapon skins scale well across quality tiers, ensuring you can spot a legendary helm or chestplate from a distance.

While Vanguard’s engine is dated compared to current next-gen standards, it remains serviceable. Textures can appear soft at times, and draw distance shrinks in highly populated zones, but dynamic lighting and weather effects—blizzards sweeping across Thestra, sandstorms rising in Qalia—are handled competently. Performance settings allow tweaking to maintain a stable framerate on mid-range rigs, and the UI, though busy, is highly configurable, letting you hide or resize panels as needed.

Story

The narrative of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes centers on the shattered world of Telon, a perfectly flat planet fragmented into islands and continents by cataclysmic events. Players begin by choosing one of three major landmasses—Thestra, Qalia, or Kojan—each home to unique climates, cultures, and indigenous races. Humans are found on all three, but local dialects, attire, and even combat traditions differ markedly as a result of environment and history.

Racial lore runs deep: Dark Elves skulk in the jungles and swamps of Qalia, practicing forbidden arts alongside sorcerous plants, while Orc clans on Kojan honor their ancestors through blood-soaked rites. High Elves remain aloof in Thestra’s ice-clad fortresses, guarding arcane secrets in the face of war with frost-borne monstrosities. These conflicts play out through a series of region-specific quest arcs and world events—many of which are unlocked via diplomatic influence or city triggers.

Beyond the main quest lines, the Diplomacy tree’s parley encounters weave together personal character stories and larger political intrigues. As you negotiate with rebel leaders, corrupt governors, or ancient spirits, the outcome of each debate can shape the local quest hub, opening new missions or altering factional allegiances. This interactivity gives the game’s sprawling story a sense of co-authorship, rewarding players who pay attention to lore and deck-building alike.

Overall Experience

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes remains a niche classic in the MMORPG space, catering to players who crave multi-threaded progression and a strong emphasis on choice. The adventuring, crafting, and diplomacy systems each function as full-blown mini-games, offering dozens of hours of content even at the maximum level. Switch between trees to find the gameplay loop that fits your style, or specialize deeply to become a master artisan, a cunning negotiator, or a powerhouse in combat.

Though the graphics engine shows its age and new content has slowed, the game’s world still feels lived-in, thanks to its rich backstory and active community events. Group content, including dungeon runs and world boss battles, remains challenging, while lords and guilds can vie for city-level diplomacy objectives—providing endgame goals beyond simple gear acquisition.

For potential buyers weighing the investment, Vanguard delivers a uniquely layered experience. If you value depth over flashy visuals, player-driven politics over hand-hold­ing quest markers, and a sense of genuine world impact over treadmill leveling, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is well worth exploring. Its flat world of Telon may be geometrically simple, but the possibilities for adventure, trade, and intrigue are anything but.

Retro Replay Score

6.9/10