After the rise of the award-winning animated series: Arcane, Riot has invested their time in expanding League of Legends’ universe through other games. First they released “Ruined King”, and then “The Mageseeker” followed. Both of which have very positive reviews on steam.
Now in 2023, Riot Games has made great strides in one of their biggest projects of all time: Project L. It is a 2D fighting game where you can play with your friends as a duo. The game became more popular this year as it was playable in EVO Las Vegas last August. Fans got to learn more about this upcoming fighting game.
To get you more excited about this, here are 10 things you must know before it releases.
1. A 2v2 Team-Based Fighting Game
Project L’s biggest selling feature is its 2v2 mechanic. Synergy is the name of the game. You can play together with your friend and take down other duos. One of you will control the character on the screen, while the other will wait for the right moment to tag in.
There are a lot of ways to abuse the 2v2 mechanics. For example, you and your partner can execute unbreakable combos giving the enemy no chance to counter, or another instance would be when one of you will save each other from a clutch moment that can turn the game around. These are just some of the moments waiting for you to be experienced.
If you’re in the mood to just play alone then Project L has you covered. The game isn’t strictly 2v2, it also has a 1v1 feature and a 1v2 feature. Solo players have the power to control two champs at once, a gameplay similar to “Dragonball FighterZ” and “Marvel vs Capcom”. If you want more information, check out this dev diary about the duo tag team feature of Project L.
2. The Playable Characters
There are 164 playable champions in League of Legends. Since there are a lot of choices, the team behind Project L will have a challenging time to narrow down the starting characters.
For now, there are only four characters that have been tested by the public, and two other confirmed champions according to the game’s videos and trailers. The latter two are Jinx and Illaoi. Jinx is one of the icons of League, as she is the main character of the award winning show, “Arcane”. Illaoi is also quite popular as she was one of the protagonists in League’s RPG: The Ruined King.
The other four characters are Ekko, Ahri, Yasuo, and Darius. They have been all played by the public as part of the demo that was available at EVO 2023. More information about their playstyles will be in the next paragraphs.
3. A Free Game for Everyone to Enjoy
As the title says, Project L will be a free to play game. Anyone can play and fight as a League of Legends character. Unfortunately there are no confirmed platforms on where Project L will be released. We do know that you can use a fightstick to play Project L as this was shown the “Devs Play Duos”.
It is highly speculated that Project L will be released on PC as a lot of Riot’s fanbase use this platform. Their main game, League of Legends, as well as their RPG game, Ruined King are both released on PC. Riot also has Valorant on this platform.
Project L has been in development since 2016, and unfortunately there is still no official release date for the game. Devs have announced that the game will be unlikely to be released this 2023. There is a speculation, however, that the game will be out for testing by 2024, and it will be released around 2025.
4. Each Character’s Unique Playstyle
Project L was available to play back on August 4 and 5, at EVO Las Vegas. With this opportunity, fans got a chance to feel the different playstyles of the four released champions. We are happy to share that the characters’ playstyles are well integrated with their lore and background.
Yasuo’s damage is low compared to most characters, however he makes up for it through his deadly and unbreakable combos. Just like in League, he also has his windwall that can prevent attacks.
Darius has slow movements but deals a huge amount of damage just like a true Noxian. If Darius wounds the enemy, their health will slowly drop overtime. This ability is similar to his passive in League called “bleed”. Some of Darius’ abilities are named grievous wheel, apprehend, and Noxian guillotine.
Ahri is an aerial character that loves to dash around with her foxfire. This gives her an advantage to strike you from any direction, making it hard to block or parry. Her abilities are tied mainly to her agility and magic such as foxfire dash, spirit flash, and spirit rush ground.
Ekko is a unique character that can reposition easily due to his time winder. He would use this ability to go back to his previous position, allowing him to dodge combos where he would get 100 to 0. All of his abilities are tied to time such as strike rewind, burst rewind, and flexible rewind.
5. There are a Lot of Bars to Keep Track Off
Just like in every other fighting game, there are a lot of bars on Project L’s screen. The two huge green bars at the very top are health bars for you and your partner. It’s important to note that even though you (or your partner) are K.O-ed, you can still save your teammate through a move called “Dynamic Save”. More on this in the following paragraphs.
The other bars at the bottom left and right are called the “Ultimate Bars”, and they stack up to three. The ultimate is a move that you can use to finish a combo. It has a short cutscene that makes it look epic. There are different levels of ultimate from level one to three, with different costs and different cutscenes.
Finally, the last unique yellow bar that sits below the health bar is called the “Dynamic Save” bar. A dynamic save is when you can swoop in to save your partner from a deadly combo. You can only use dynamic save when the yellow bar is full. Once used, the bar will instantly go empty and you have to wait for it to be filled up before you can save your partner again.
6. Old and Familiar Movesets
A fighting game is never really a fighting game if you can’t taunt your enemies. Luckily Project L got us covered. They also have a lot of the basic controls that you can find in any other fighting game.
While the photo above speaks for itself, Project L has light, medium and heavy normal attacks that you can mesh together to create a combo. They vary with directional input as well as the moment you apply them in the air.
As for defensive options, Project L has a lot of them. One is a parry that works similarly to Street Fighter and Dragonball Fighterz. Parries cost one ultimate bar meter but if the parry is successful you get the cost back. For more defensive moves, there is also block, push block, anti-air and so on.
7. The Unique Tag Movesets
Now how does the tag team element come into play in Project L? There are a lot of unique controls under this category. They include moves that can ambush an enemy, a quick swap or an aggressive swap with your teammate, or having a “last stand” after you are K.O-ed.
Let's start off with “assist action”. These are the attacks that can act as an ambush to catch your enemy off guard. Only the player outside the screen can use these actions. When it comes as a surprise, it will most likely hit the enemy and can come off as a deadly combo, so be sure to use assist actions wisely and synergize with your partner.
“Tags” allows you and your teammate to swap at any time of the game. “Quick tag” is the simplest way but “handshake tag” is a faster option. It also attacks the enemy as you (or your partner) enters. Finally, there is “tag launcher” where your teammate can come in swooping while you’re doing aerial combos against your enemy. For a live gameplay of these mechanics, here is a video where the devs explain it all.
These are just some of the unique movesets you and your friend can play around in this 2v2 fighting game. Once you’ve mastered them, you will surely make your way to the top.
8. The Fuse System
Another unique feature of Project L is its fuse system. It gives three different options that have different strengths and benefits. Be sure to pick the one that blends well with you and your friend’s playstyles. For a demonstration of all of the fuses, the devs uploaded this video so you can check it out.
First one is “Double Down” where you can combine your ult with your partner. For example, you can deal a level one ult to your enemy and your teammate will come in and do the same thing. Your ult will deal twice the damage compared to a normal ultimate.
Second is “Fury” and it is meant for newer players. The feature is more forgiving as it has a special dash cancel. In addition, this feature allows them to deal more damage when they are lower than 40% health.
Last is “2x Assist” where you can use two assist attacks back to back. Remember that assist attacks are the ones that can catch an enemy off guard and can chain up into a deadly combo. In this fuse, you don’t have to wait for the assist cooldown.
There is also the “Fuse: Freestyle” where it gives more freedom and outplays for you and your teammate. It allows you to do a handshake tag multiple times. It is better to experience these fuses in person, so be sure to check out Project L once it comes out at launch!
9. Project L’s Netcode
The team behind Project L has a long relationship with fighting games. Tom Cannon, one of the heads in Project L, is also the founder of the largest fighting game tournament worldwide, the EVO Championship series. With this background, the team knows how frustrating the games can be if internet connections are unstable. Back in 2022, they posted a video discussing how Project L will avoid this issue.
Tom and Tony promised the fans that the game will have a high quality netcode. Their team made sure to invest a lot into this, and as a result they stated that the quality of the offline mode will be the same as the online mode. A lot of fans don’t doubt this statement as Tony is the one who used and innovated the rollback netcode. This will ensure that there is barely any low input delay when you go online.
Peer-to-peer connections won’t be used in Project L’s core, and will instead route players through Riot Direct. This internal network is already being used in League of Legends and Valorant. This feature will also track who rage quits in a match and will properly punish them for it.
10. Chromas are Available!
In League of Legends, you can buy chromas to see a skin in different beautiful striking colors. This feature will also be available in Project L. If you are interested to see the chromas, here is a video that shows all of them.
Yasuo has 10 chromas available, with my recommendation being purple, and black and white. Ahri also has 10 chromas, and all of them look lovely on her. It was hard to pick a recommendation but pink, and black and white are the chromas you should check out. Darius has 10 chromas, and it shows that it was difficult to make all of them look natural on the Noxian warrior. His default chroma is definitely his best. Ekko, with 10 cool looking chromas, is the last character on the list. He definitely looks great with black and white, and misc.
If you are interested in fighting games, here are more articles you can read.
