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The Best RPG Ever Made

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 41 / 47
Date: June 23, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The Legend of Dragoon is the best RPG ever made for any game system. The graphics surpass even those of Final Fantasy VIII. The game itself has an extremely immersive storyline. After you get into the game a little, you get the ability to transform into a "Dragoon" during battle, (Similar to the "Limit Breaks" of the Final Fantasy games) Which is a warrior that has the power of a dragon. each magic spell has a cinema that is completely different from the one before, unlike Final Fantasy where each character kind of had their own little motion that they went through to cast a spell, Also there are things called "additions" that when you hit the attack button at a certain time you will unleash a devastating barrage of attacks. I reccomend this game for anyone who loves RPG's it is the best game I have ever played. It will take some doing for any future titles to even come close to what this game achieves. Did I mention that all the cutscenes have voice acting, and when you cast a spell or correctly achieve the addition that the character yells the name of the spell or addition.

Learn to master those additions

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 23
Date: March 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The Legend of Dragoon has a very innovative battle system that uses combination attacks called "additions". This is innovative partly because it does require constant concentration and precise timing to execute. Basically, additions allow your characters to increase the damage caused by their physical attacks. You have to push the controller buttons at the precise moment in order to execute these additions. And, do not expect to master all of the additions for any of the characters. The most powerful additions require too many timed button presses to execute reliably.

The story is fairly standard RPG material. You play as the main character, Dart. Dart is on a journey to avenge the destruction of his village and the death of his parents. Along the way, he meets up with some very eccentric adventurers who follow him on his quests for their own personal reasons. What starts out as a journey for revenge turns out to be something more significant. As the story unfolds, it turns out that what people have believed for 10,000 years may not be the actual truth. What God had in mind for humans may not be in our best interest. Dart and company travel across three nations to try and unravel the mystery.

This game is a very good alternative to the Final Fantasy series for those who love to hack, slash, bash, and cast spells. The battle system here is much better than Final Fantasy X's. This is perhaps the most sophisticated RPG for the original playstation. Playing the game in a PS2 supposedly gives the graphics a boost, but I have not had a chance to compare them side by side. I can say that on a PS2, the graphics are very good. The soundtrack sounds great and the variety is wide enough so that the game is pleasant to play for long hours at a time. I believe it took me over 100 hours to finish the game and the side quests.

The Legand of Dragoon

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 28
Date: June 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

For all those who played and loved Final Fantasy VII, here is the sequal you've been waiting for! 3D redering background graghics, and select targeting,(meaning that when you attack with your sword, whip etc. you can target the waist, arm etc.) you'll love this game! Ohh and did I forget to mention that Legand of Dragoon is made by sony. Also, the difference between FF7 and LD is that remember those limit breaks, well now you have Dragoons. This is where you transform into a monster of that certain charecter, and as your charecter and your party get stronger, you're Dragoons learn new moves. Aside from the great graphics, Lengand of Dragoon seems to [draw] you into the story, and leaves you hanging on what's going to happen next. You'll also love the cinematic scenes!

Great battles-beautiful story-a must buy!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: June 21, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If you are looking for an RPG that is extremely well designed, you have found it! Here in Legend of Dragoon, you take controll of Dart, a guy on a quest to avenge the death of his parents. I must say that the battle system is one of the best I've ever seen...period. You take the standard three characters into battle with you. They have the usual commands: Attack, Defend, Item, and Run. But The Attack command is much different. By using this, you gain access to that character's special attacks. When the boxes align right on top of the attacker, a tap of the X button causes the character to attack again. You continue until the character executes the special attack. But enemies can counter attack during this sequence. Then the lines turn red, it's a sign to hit the O button rather X to block and keep attacking. But this isn't the end. The more you fight, the more SP (Spirit Points) you obtain. When you have at least one, you gain access to yet another command, Dragoon. When you select this, that character will transform into a Dragoon. Depending on how many SPs you have, the number of turns you remain in that form is determined. In this new form, your character dons really cool armor and wings. They now only have access to two commands, but they are the best you have. The first is Attack, but it's different from before. You now have a circle on the right side of the screen with a mark on the top. When you press the X button, a light will move clockwise around the side like a clock on steroids. Pressing X when the light meets the mark will increase your power. When finished, your character will pummel the target with devistating attacks. The next command enables you to cast spells. Depending on the character and level, different types of magic are avalible. The only real problem with the game are it's graphics. The backgrounds are great, but the characters could look better, although they still look okay. Also, the spells take almost as long as the Guardian Force summons in Final Fantasy VIII. Other than that, I highly suggest this to anybody looking for an RPG with a Final Fantasy type atmosphere, yet a highly original and addictive battle system.

~*An Amazing Epic RPG*~

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: July 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Many people dislike Legend Of Dragoon, for various reasons. However, I couldnt believe the poor judgements people made on this game! As soon as I popped "Disc 1" into my Playstation, and watched the breath-taking opening scene, I knew this game was for me. The characters are beautifully detailed. From Dart, the mysterious young man, who is on a journey to pursue the Black Monster, to the lively Meru, the peppy dancer. The main villian often skips around a bit. There are shocking surprises throughout the game. The awesome looking towns, are full of Rich color. The battle system is simply unique, and you must press X at certain times, in order to execute a special move. The sound is impressive, and a few favorites of mine include the opening theme, and the World Map themes. The game expands on four Discs, with gameplay estimated up to 80 hours! The amazing plot will keep you on the edge of your chair, all the way from the beggining to the end! If you enjoyed Legend Of Legaia,or any other RPG then this game should be at the top of your shopping list...

Definitely not a FF killer...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 19 / 26
Date: July 16, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I read some articles about this game before buying it. Sony was claiming that this game was going to be the "Final Fantasy Killer" of rpgs.

It's not.

Instead, Sony has made a long, mediocre rpg that disappointed me.

Firstly, the game is quite long, spanning 4 discs. Unfortunately, much of the playing time is spent in towns or in conversation rather than actually fighting. It seemed that more than half of the "game" was wandering around in towns. At one point, I played for 20 minutes straight without an option of getting to a battle.

Don't get me wrong, I can enjoy a great story as the Final Fantasy series provides. But this story is nowhere nearly as compelling as any of the Final Fantasy games. I didn't care about the plot, love story or the characters.

Another problem is the lack of choice throughout the game. Unlike Final Fantasy, you can't wander anywhere on the map. You have a linear path that you must follow. You can only walk on the designated lines. How boring. I can't remember the last rpg that offered so little choice in where you wanted to travel.

Speaking of little choice, I found the choice of weapons, armor and items pretty limited. There are only a few different types of items, weapons and armor you can even buy at stores.

The Amazon review noted that there are a good choice of magic? Try a handful (under 10) magic spells per character.

Does anybody like turn-based attack? It doesn't use STB like FF games. You don't feel any need to get off a quick or good attack. The computer won't touch you if you are slow. That takes alot of the excitement of battles away.

The music is not anywhere as enjoyable as in the Final Fantasy games. Plain and simple.

After all this criticism, you're probably wondering how I even gave it 3 stars.

The Additions in the game do add some action with the rpg. You don't just press a button to fight. Instead, you have to press the buttons at a certain time to effectively attack. That is a bonus.

The graphics are all right too.

All in all, I would only really recommend this game to you if you really need something to tie you over until the FF9 comes out (which I did play in Japan and it is absolutely amazing). There are better games out there.

It has its flaws.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 23 / 34
Date: June 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Sorry if my rating seems pretty harsh, but, remember now, in accordance to my rating system a "3" indicates a good game that simply isn't quite perfect. Now that I've tried to discourage outright bashing, you may proceed to the actual review:

Legend of Dragoon is an "epic" (the word has lost all meaning a loooooong time ago...) 4-CD RPG, supposedly with 80 hours of gameplay (that almost always turns out to be half of that), and a rather unique semi-real-time combat engine. Sorry if I sound vague, explanations do follow. It's supposed to have an "old-school feel" (whatever that is...). Nevertheless, in my opinion Legend of Dragoon has its share of flaws that may limit the target audience.

PIECE-BY-PIECE:

Graphics are probably the strongest part of this game. At least the pre-rendered parts (pre-rendered means that the backgrounds are like paintings - pixels, not manipulable polygons). In places the backgrounds are simply beautiful. Most are very much realistic and have a certain unique, picturesque feel to them, especially the ones where you can appreciate the details - in cities and such. However, during the drawn-out battle scenes the view changes to a rather choppy vista of the battleground which is never too pretty in itself, plus the enemies and your characters. They say the bigger the canvas the more detail you can fit on it. Not so with Legend of Dragoon. You can count the polygons on the your larger adversaries (Crystal Golem, anyone?).

Speaking of the battle system, it really is pretty unique. There are two squares, a smaller one that is stationary, and a larger rotating one that is "collapsing" into the smaller center square. The success of each attack is determined by the timing of your button press when these two squares overlap. Believe me, it takes little time to get used to the system, as in the beginning it forgives quite a lot of error. Additional attacks are different for each character (in fact, each has from 3 to 8 of them, attained at different levels), and they range in pacing and difficulty. The problem is that you are forced to pay attention to the featureless squares rather than the scenery, or most of the attack is lost. Not that there's much to look at in battle.

I didn't like the music at all. I played Phantasy Star some 5 years ago, and I still remember most of the characteristic tunes. I played Legend of Dragoon a few days ago and I remember literally nothing except the ever-present battle tune. How a Genesis game can pull off better tunes than a Playstation is quite beyond me.

The story isn't cluttered or overly complex, but just shallow. Events seem to be thrown together in a hurry and you are given little notice before you set off for someplace. The travel part wouldn't have given me as much trouble if travel hadn't been so convoluted. You only get one path from here to there, and it always goes through a volcano, a haunted forest, and a savanna, and there's no way way to bypass them. Most of the characters seem flat and shallow throughout the game and change rather little. This is probably the only game in which the hero enters a life-or-death competition directly after saving his fiance's life. I don't know who created the plot, but it certinaly wasn't a competent writer.

The gameplay itself is actually pretty fun. If not for the rather slow level gain, acquiring new magic and additions is quite interesting, as is the wealth of items (that you only get well after the beginning - and that may turn off the casual gamer). Some of your foes are at least imaginative (if not bizarre), and the art alone is worth half of the price. However, the game has a lion share of profanities (stuck in the conversations for no obvious reason - probably because of the inaccurate translation from Japanese. In a word - beware.

All That Glitters Is Not Videogaming Gold

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 24 / 37
Date: August 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I happen to love RPGs. From the day I bought my first game (Final Fantasy VII) for PlayStation, RPGs have been my favorite type of videogame (see my review of Front Mission 3 - "An Excellent Strategy Game - But Not Without Its Problems"). So, when I heard about Sony's new "Final Fantasy killer," I knew that I had to buy it. The Legend of Dragoon is no Final Fantasy killer. There's nothing terribly wrong with the game, but there's nothing that it really excels in either(with the exception of the graphics). I think that there are five main features in an RPG - gameplay, storyline, music, replay value, and graphics - and that while some of the five are more important than the others, they should all be there to make the game truly great. The most important feature of an RPG (or any game, for that matter) is the gameplay. Here, the gameplay is okay, but not great. The Legend of Dragoon is probably the least original RPG I've ever played, so almost every aspect of the game seemed as if it was yanked out of another game, but not done quite as well. The battle system is the only exception to this, providing the game's only innovations. First, there are the "additionals," which are timed attacks that HAVE TO BE DONE every time you select "attack" on a character's battle menu. While this seems like a great idea at first, it really starts to bother you that you can't just press "attack" without having to start a chain of precise button presses. Personally, I think that timed button presses in an RPG shouldn't have to be done every five seconds. Second, there are the dragoon transformations. If you've attacked enough with additionals to build up a little gauge on the bottom of the screen, you can turn into a Dragoon. Once again, this seemed like a great idea at first, but after a while, it started to feel as if I was playing a Power Rangers game, with the leader (Dart) being the red one, and the other characters with their own colors (silver, gold, dark blue, light blue, green, and purple). They even dress in their dragoon colors when they're not transformed, just like the Power Rangers! Magic in this game is a joke. You can only use it when you're a dragoon (taking up valuable dragoon time, since you turn back to normal after a few turns), and there's not much to choose from. Each character can only use 3 to 5 different spells, and since they're all character-specific, that makes less than forty spells in all. I have no problem with character-specific spells, but if there are going to be that few of them, there's really no point. This was done MUCH better in the game "Star Ocean - The Second Story," where each character only had their own spells, but they each had about 10-20 of them. Mix that with eight party members, and you have plenty of spells. The other aspects of The Legend of Dragoon's gameplay feel ripped off of Final Fantasy 7, but not done NEARLY as well. The world map is extremely restrictive, since you're kept on a TRACK. It's not even like in Final Fantasy Tactics, where they rightly figured that if they're going to keep you on a track, they might as well make the map two-dimensional so you can see everything. In The Legend of Dragoon, Sony had the nerve to make the map three-dimensional, so not only can't you explore, but you can only see what's near you. It just seems that with The Legend of Dragoon, the game motto is "we're gonna take a nice idea, and then screw it up." The menu is okay, though. It resembles a Final Fantasy menu, but, as usual, one thing was messed up, and in this case, it was the item-carrying system. This is the third game I've owned where there was a real restriction on the amount of items you could carry (games where the item limit is practically unreachable, like FF8, don't count), with the other two games being LUNAR: The Silver Star Story and Grandia. Of the three games, LUNAR executes the idea the best, Grandia is a not-so-close second, and The Legend of Dragoon is dead last. With LUNAR, although the characters could hold only six items each, there was a character named Nall who held ninety-six. So, if there was no room for a person to hold an item, Nall could accomodate it easily. Grandia did this in almost the same way, but not quite. In that game, each character could only hold a small amount of items, but if you had no more room, you had to find a "stashing place" for your items, which, unlike Nall, could not go with you. So, you would have to discard item after item until you found a stashing place. In The Legend of Dragoon, you can hold a total of 32 items, and THAT'S IT. There's no place to hold your extra items, meaning you have to be REALLY picky in deciding which items to keep. The second most important feature in an RPG is the story (which includes character development), and The Legend of Dragoon has a story that doesn't come close to the great storylines of such games as Final Fantasy 7 or Xenogears. I think that it is important that an RPG should have characters that are realistic, have problems just like the rest of us, act like people (and not like they have scripts), and have individual personalities that make you like (or dislike) them. The Legend of Dragoon has very little of the above. As with just about every other RPG, the main character has feelings for the main female character (with the exception of Final Fantasy 6, where the main character WAS female), but won't admit it, while it's blatantly obvious to everyone else (including the player) that he loves her. The problem is, Dart (the main guy) has no real personality, and Shana (the main girl) acts like some generic damsel-in-distress, so it's easy not to care what happens to them. The other characters,(Lavitz, Albert, Haschel, Rose, Meru, Miranda, and Kongol) are even LESS interesting, and, unlike any game with good character development, most of them apparently had no past before joining Dart. Between this, and the fact that the bad guy, who looks a little like Sephiroth with a short haircut, Lloyd, actually becomes your FRIEND, the storyline is a bitter pill to swallow. Third most important in an RPG is the music, since it should create a certain atmosphere, making joyous parts more joyous, making sad parts more sad (the end of disc one in Final Fantasy 7 comes to mind), and giving each character or place something extra to remember them by. The music in The Legend of Dragoon, while not all that awe-inspiring, is good enough. I do find it kind if strange that the menu would have it's own separate music, but it's a catchy little melody. Most of the music in The Legend of Dragoon is nice, but there's never anything in it that you'll never forget (like Aeris' theme or Sephiroth's theme, which had it's own "Sephiroth choir" - both from FF7). Fourth most important in an RPG is the replay value. If a game isn't good enough to be played more than once, then why buy it? In those cases where the game can only be tolerated once, it should either be rented a few times (if you're that interested in the game) or borrowed from a friend. The Legend of Dragoon, sadly, is one of those games. I really do not think I want to play through The Legend of Dragoon again, since about halfway through the game, it got so boring and repetitive that I was only playing it to finish it. Finally, the least important part of an RPG is the graphics, and damned if that isn't The Legend of Dragoon's best feature. The graphics are beautiful and colorful, and are some of the best that I have ever seen, but that doesn't make the game itself better. It just makes it look a lot nicer than it actually is.

How bland...how incredibly bland.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 16 / 25
Date: June 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The much-lauded Legend of Dragoon is a moderately interesting 4-CD RPG, but its good parts (namely the graphics) are overshadowed by the game's awful shallowness and Sony's hope that players will not notice the above-mentioned shallowness if it dumps enough graphics on-screen simultaneously.

COMBAT:

This is really inovation for the sake of innovation rather than improvement. First of all, the incredibly frequent random encounters are so marvelously drawn out that after the first couple hundred you will crawl up a wall with ease. The battles aren't hard. It's just that every single time you have to watch for about fifteen seconds as the camera pans the (static) battlefield, then switches to up-close views of each of your characters (to let you admire the blocky polygons), and finally pans you foes, only then letting you take control of your characters as the camera wildly swings around in an enourmous 160-degree arc in order to take its place some fifty feet above your character's head. The precision of your character's attack is determined by how near your button press is to the moment when the two blue squares dilate into each other. A precise press allows you to continue your "addition" combo in the same manner. However many additions there are, they are all basically the same; some are just less realistic than the others - like the "Madness Hero" addition, which involves moving the sword up and down quickly several times, with no room to swing whatsoever. Switching between additions in battle is impossible, and soon they become very annoying as you are forced to perform them over and over again in order to succeed.

SOUND AND VOICING: The voicing is simply hideous in many places. They have no emotion and the only tonality they seem to be capable of manifesting is a sort of psychotic glee. One of the characters actually sounds like a parody of a superhero ("Summon 4 Gods", anyone?). Thankfully, there isn't much voice-acting in the game.

Music is (or at least appears to be) instrumental in origin, with instruments varying from violin to piano. While some of the tunes are explosive and fitting, others don't quite belong where they were placed.

GRAPHICS: Legend of Dragoon possesses groundbreaking graphics that dwarf most other games on the market. It is as simple as that. From full-motion videos to astonishingly-beautiful backgrounds, this game has it all. Nevertheless, I disliked the character models who have very few poses available to them and rotate without moving their legs, a bit like roasted pigs on a spit.

STORYLINE: The translation is hideous. From lack of apostrophe-"s" to fantastically stupid names for legendary items, this game has it all. "Oh, no, but we must get the Dragon Block Staff in order to stop the person wielding the Dragon Buster sword !" The dialogue is especially laughable: "I wonder why our arch-nemesis told us where he was going." "Yes, I agree." Granted, these aren't direct quotes, but there are more than a few moments when you will laugh at the characters' stupidity.

The underlying plot is part good, part awful. Where there is mystery and suspense in the problems that face Dart and his companions (the Moon Relics, the Black Demon, the Tree of Life and the 108 races), the way they deal with those problems will easily make you fall into despair. The plot follows no one road, instead throughing you all over the map in order to cover its amazing shallowness. What I like most in RPGs is their plots, and Legend of Dragoon just doesn't live up to the hype.

This game is too long to be a rental (I finished in about 50 hours - although the ads promised twice that), but it doesn't pardon the forty dollars that you will spend on it in new condition. Wait until its price drops - unless it becomes the new big thing, sooner or later the public will realize just how hollow its premise is...............

Can it get any triter than this? Please tell me it can't.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: October 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I picked this game up about a year ago, after hearing so many good things about it and playing - and liking - the demo for it. I payed the full [price]for it even though it'd been out for quite some time already. I expected something grand and marvelous - it'd been in the making for many a year, after all. Surely something in production for that long had to be of Final Fantasy quality.

The discs currently serve as coasters in my living room. If you can assume precisely what I think about this game from that very sentence, then I I think you can skip over the rest of this review.

Graphics - 6/10
The cutscenes looked nice. The pre-rendered backgrounds looked nice. However, the sprites were so grainy, trying to guess where exactly Dart's armor ended and his arm began became a common practice. Character designs were so generic, I had to wonder exactly what kept this game from being made faster. The Dragoon transformations and magic were impressive, though I have to say a particular spell of Rose's made me raise an eyebrow. If you've played this game before, I think you'll know precisely which one I'm talking about.

Sound - 3/10
Generic, forgettable music ran absolutely rampant in this game. In fact, the only two pieces of music I can even remember are a boss battle theme that sounded remarkably similar to Final Fantasy VII's boss battle music, and the ending song with it's terrible lyrics. Sound effects were just as generic. "Swoosh!" said the sword! "Thunk!" said the arrow that pierced the air just above the monster's head! "Clang!" sang the spear! There was next to no variation. Voice acting was a mixed bag; if they weren't bad, they were at least amusing. I don't think I ever stopped laughing at Dart's voice the entire game.

Gameplay - 4/10
The battles are really what made this game, and were possibly the only thing I enjoyed. Legend of Dragoon made battling downright fun by means of combos and Dragoon transformations. However, everything else in the gameplay department is sorely lacking. Navigation is absolutely terrible; town layouts were easily forgotton, and even though there was a world map, you had to follow preset paths, which took out all the fun of having a world map. The characters battle-wise were sort of ranked on a tier of strength, and if you didn't use just the right team on the right monster, then say goodbye to your chances of winning. Meaning that you could rarely use the team you really wanted to use, unless you had a death wish or intended on growing a crazy amount of levels. The item system was horrible, since you could only hold a certain amount of items, and items of the same type weren't grouped together. You had to balance out your inventory with just the right selection of health-healing, magic-healing, resurrection, and magic attack items or else you'll be screwed over in the next boss battle you run into. And speaking of boss battles, those were the only times you could really gain a noticeable amount of experience (which is shared amongst THE ENTIRE CAST OF CHARACTERS, much to my dismay). The experience system was very poorly set up - much like the rest of the game.

Characterization, Storyline, and Translation - 2/10

Storyline - People who have played Final Fantasy VII, tell me if my summary of the storyline sounds vaguely familiar: Your main character is a blonde, spikey-haired young man who has to save his mysterious, brown-haired healing "friend" while they chase around man with grey hair and a big sword that dresses all in black. Because that is essentially what Legend of Dragoon is about. Along the way, you pick up a blank, personality-less, stereotypical cast of characters to add to the non-existent hilarity. Well, no, there is hilarity, but only if you're doing a sort of "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" thing while playing the game.

Characterization - What characterization? In this game, you're going to have the blandest characters imaginable at your disposal. The only character I even remotely liked was Rose, mainly because her lack of personality went along with her character. The only way you can possibly even become attached to these characters is if you've been hit in the head with a brick so many times, you have literally forgotten the difference between left and right. Or if you never even knew the difference between left and right in the first place.

Translation - Let me give you an example of what the dialogue is like in this game:
Shana: "Save me, Dart!"
Dart: "I'm coming, Shana!"
Albert: "My, what a...rowdy event!"
Haschel: "That tree is pretty."

Overall, this game is probably the single worst RPG I have ever played in my life. If you're anything like me, stabbing yourself in the eyes with pins while chanting a religious mantra of purification will become second-nature by the end of the game. Spare yourself some terror and play this game only if you don't mind wasting your time on [this game].

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