After watching the cartoon show (same name Legend of Korra) i somehow heard that Platinum Games were making it. That idea alone got me hyped enough to try it.
The game starts in an arena, where you (Korra) by using all kinds of bending (manipulating elements, earth,air,fire,water) try to reduce the number of evil spirits. Its a simple tutorial that doesn't say almost anything, just gives u an element, bunch of enemies and says: "kill em all". Not the introduction most players would expect, but it does the job of giving you the taste of what element does what and what is the fighting style of each element.
This is all done in very clear cell shaded (similar to borderlands) visual type that looks almost identical to the one in the cartoon (show). The screen is filled only with required elements such as background elements, paths,enemies, platforms to jump on and breakable objects.
On some occasions the screen looks empty due to that, but that feeling doesn't last for long, because there is usually enough of enemies to keep your attention.
When all of the enemies are gone, and you destroy all the breakable objects, empty screens become more noticeable and disheartening. There aren't terribly rich backgrounds with exceptional details that fill every inch of the scenery and the enemies also suffer from recoloring of the same or very similar design, at least for the first half of the game.
To put it all into one line, the game lack proper assets and resources to be more of what it currently is.
But what it has, and what it does with it, is quite good. Number of opponents, their attacking styles, formation leads to some really fun (and challenging) fights. I haven't experienced any "cheap" moments in the game, on the contrary, the game is trying to put such focus on the fights (and its mechanics), that you actually don't have much time to think about the enemy design and poor details.
The game knows its small in scope and does good in trying to hide it.
But lets talk about the main dish. The combat mechanics and the world. Typical to the most of game of this genre, the stage (level) is a consistent one but when a fight starts, it turns the segment where the players is, into an arena, usually by spawning spirit-like-walls around it. There are no loading screens, just the enemy pops up, walls pop up, and the only way to continue your journey is to kill all the enemies.
The way you do that is by using several commands, which are bound to keys/buttons:
Light attack, Heavy attack, Jump, Block, Dodge. Additional keys are cycling of the bending styles (earth, fire, air, water) , consumables, focus-target. But there is where the game expands on its simplistic input methods.
Holding a Light or Heavy attacks, chargers the attack.
There are few states of charged attacks. Too small charge results in a normal (heavy or light attack), perfect results in the most powerful attack, then goes the charge that is grater then perfect (but still a miss from perfect) that results in an attack that is stronger then normal but weaker then perfect and the last, when you "forget" to release the button, and the attack just dispels doing nothing.
By filling the charge gouge, all moves become more powerful, so you need to balance between spamming the attacks and filling the gouge, which isn't always easy to do when facing opponents that can attack you from all sides. Its always a risk, because those 2-3 seconds needed can break you charge or fill it. Every element has its own style and effects, benefits and weaknesses, as the effects of the charged attacks.
Combos are performed by combining light and heavy attacks, charged attacks and dodge (attacks).
Similar to that, the block, if timed right, can trigger a counter that is set of action(s) that can result in a huge damage burst. The same way, when an enemy attack you, by combining movement directions, you can block the damage and if successful add a counter-attack at the end of it.
Combining all those elements, with enemies that have different range and style (and their resistances) can sometimes be a challenge, that will force you to go to the shop and buy some healing items.
At every death, you have an option to visit the shop and spend your valuable resources on consumables or items that add different modifiers to the game (halves the health but doubles the damage for example). Its a simplistic part of the game, that doesn't invent anything new, but does the job right. The currency used for that is the currency you get from fighting the enemies and finding collectible items. The typical thing here, the higher the combo, the more resources you get. But you also get experience from the enemies. Using bending to kill the enemies, levels that bending which results on things like a greater charge gouge or higher hp pool.
The world also has lots of platforming involved, some optional, some required. The movement controls (and camera control) requires some adjusting from the players side,as they feel kinda wonky at the start, for the player to perform in a way he really wants to. Its not the worst thing out there, but certainly it isn't the best. Interesting thing also is that the chests that contain collectible items, sometimes require a certain bending style, and the rewards they offer depends on how much damage you can provide in some time window. The collectible items also can be vanity items, different "skins" for Korra to wear, after she clears the Story mode.
As for the controls, keyboard and mouse setup isn't recommend, but can be played on it (not impossible).
Also in the game there are two "minigames".
Pro-bending, which is a bending match or later as a separate mod, bending championship, that is unlocked after you finish the story. I found it really interesting, and kinda sad that there isn't a multyplayer for this mod.
Running game, where you ride Naga and try to get from one location to the other in a very small amount of time (which results in great speed, hard turns, many deaths, and usually by remembering the whole path by heart until the next checkpoint, and then again till you reach your desired location). Some players may really enjoy this segment, while some others may not, really depends on how much you like running games.
Sound is good, but nothing to write home about. Some lines are repeated so much, that cause frustration, but if you keep the scale of the game and price in mind, that is nothing out of the ordinary.
So this game, is a small game, in length, resources/assets, story, but tries to mix it up with interesting fighting combinations, styles. Its like a filler-game, that is made to be fun for few hours, but not outstay its welcome. That is probably one of the reasons it costs only 15$ at release. And with all that in mind, i would give it a 7 as overall experience for that price. Its good enough to be fun, but not good enough to be great.