Minecraft Legends

Minecraft Legends is a 2023 real-time action-strategy  video game developed by Mojang Studios and Blackbird Interactive and published by Xbox Game Studios. A spin-off of the 2011 sandbox game Minecraft, it was released on Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on April 18, 2023. The game would later cease development on January 10, 2024.

The goal of the game is to defend the Overworld from an invasion of piglins, pig-like humanoid creatures from the Nether dimension, while the player gradually strengthens their structures and troops with resources harvested. The game has received mixed reviews from critics, with its gameplay being both praised for its execution and criticized for its repetitive nature.

Gameplay
Minecraft Legends is set in the Minecraft Overworld, an earth-like dimension filled with various biomes and natural resources that is currently under attack from the piglin hordes from the Nether dimension. The Overworld contains friendly villages, hostile piglin outposts, and the Well of Fate (the player spawnpoint and fast-travel hub). Similarly to Minecraft, the Overworld is procedurally generated, resulting in a unique world for each playthrough of the game.

Players collect resources to construct defenses, upgrade buildings, and summon troops. Players collect basic resources such as wood and stone by assigning friendly Allays to harvest them from deposits found in the Overworld. Other resources, such as redstone and lapis lazuli are used to build advanced structures and summon stronger troops but are locked behind Well of Fate upgrades. Prismarine, which is needed to construct some buildings, can only be collected by defeating piglin structures. The player can use resources they've collected to construct buildings and upgrade the Well of Fate. Defensive fortifications such as walls and turrets protect friendly villages and player outposts. Spawners summon friendly troops the players can recruit into their army. Offensive structures such as the redstone cannon, hurl explosive shells at targets from long range. Upgrading the Well of Fate unlocks more advanced buildings and troops.

The primary goal of combat is to destroy piglin outposts and defend friendly villages from periodic piglin raids. Players use their summoned troops to assault and destroy piglin outposts. Players travel around the Overworld on their mount, from which they can issue various orders command their army on the battlefield. These commands include orders to rally, halt, and charge. Players can also use their sword to attack enemies directly. Players build their army by constructing spawner buildings that summon troops or recruiting troops from camps found throughout the Overworld.

Minecraft Legends incorporates the same Minecoins currency as Minecraft Bedrock Edition. This currency is used to purchase additional skins and mounts within the game. The game is sold with an optional "Deluxe Skin Pack", which contains six additional in-game skins: one hero skin and five mount skins.

Game modes
The campaign is the single-player story mode of Minecraft Legends. It serves as a tutorial for the multiplayer game mode. Players must defeat the three piglin hordes, each with its own boss. Defeating the hordes unlocks the final boss, The Great Hog. Upon defeating the boss, the player wins the campaign. "Lost Legends" is a monthly challenge event that pits the player against difficult enemies. Completing the challenge rewards players with a special cosmetic item.

Minecraft Legends also features both co-op and competitive multiplayer PvP mode that allows players to compete with each other. In co-op, players work together to defeat strong AI bosses. In PVP mode, the players' goal is to work together in teams of 3-4 players to destroy the opposing team's Well of Fate while protecting their own. The first team to destroy the opposing team's Well of Fate is the victor.

Premise
Minecraft Legends is set in the Minecraft Overworld, which has been invaded by piglins from the Nether. Canonically, the events of the game are framed as a legend that has been passed down through generations of villagers. In response to the invasion, a great hero rises and repels the piglins by uniting the mobs of the Overworld, saving it from destruction.

Story
The game begins with the player mining in a cave when they are greeted by three beings: Action, Knowledge, and Foresight. These beings are called Hosts, caretakers of the Overworld. These three persuade the player to help them save their world, where a war has broken out between the Nether and the Overworld. The player is then transported to that world. After completing a tutorial, the player must save a few villages from being invaded by piglins from the Nether. Then, the player destroys three nether outposts that are preparing to invade villages. Subsequently, the player destroys nine Nether portals from three different world areas. In each of these three areas, the player has to defeat a piglin boss: "the Devourer," "the Beast," and "the Unbreakable". Once the player destroys all of the portals and defeats all of the bosses, the player fights the final boss: "the Great Hog."

Just as the player defeats the Great Hog, it makes a last attempt at destroying the Well of Fate. This backfires and his army is swallowed by a portal that sends them back to the Nether. Then, the Great Hog finally dies. After the battle, there is a grand celebration in the Overworld of their win over the piglins. Not all is well, however. The warrior villagers, who fought alongside the hero, resent the pacifistic villagers who did not, which causes a rift between the two groups. In addition to this, the Hosts have left the world to the Hero's responsibility and moved on.

Development
Minecraft Legends began development in 2018. The game was announced during the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase on June 12, 2022. After the show, a trailer on the Minecraft YouTube channel confirmed additional platforms. It is developed by series creators Mojang Studios in collaboration with Blackbird Interactive, a team founded by former Relic Entertainment employees, who are best known for developing the real-time strategy video game series Homeworld.

After the success of Minecraft Dungeons, which is another spinoff of Minecraft, Minecraft Legends was released on April 18, 2023. It was made available to play on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5|4, Steam, Windows 11|10, PC Game Pass, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

On January 10, 2024, Mojang announced that no more updates will be released for Minecraft Legends.

Reception
Minecraft Legends received "mixed or average" reviews, according to the review aggregator Metacritic. Critics generally found this game fun but repetitive and lacking in depth. Critics praised the game for its Minecraft-themed art style, resource gathering mechanics, and base-building gameplay. Critics also liked the multiplayer co-op and PvP modes. Some reviewers criticized the game's lack of strategic depth, poor AI,  and tedious gameplay. IGN called it "an engaging strategy game that does a great job streamlining a notoriously complex genre without sacrificing the ever-important element of choice and consequence." According to PCMag, the game's attempt to "make a complicated genre palpable … screws up the basics, bungles the complicated, and ends up feeling like an unformed experience."

Minecraft Legends reached 3 million players in the two weeks after its release in May 2023.