Legend of Dragoon
Reviewed by Dyson Turner
Well, this is my THIRD update to this review and even
reviewers change their opinions over the course of time.
Maybe I should have played through it twice, because the 2nd
time I reviewed it I didn't give it much of a chance. I did
beat it, disgusted by my outrage I vented out on this poor
game. Now after playing through it again doing a FAQ on it,
and I started to enjoy it. Maybe my one was unjust and it
was spur of the moment, because then I really started to
hate the game. Now I feel quite different about the game, it
isn't really bad, it still isn't the greatest RPG but it's
decent. Enough about me let me talk about the game! Legend
of Dragoon is a pretty decent RPG made by Sony, it isn't as
good as Legend of Legaia but they are pretty much like each
other except this game has a story that's more involved.
That has many plot twist and different things to keep things
new and fresh. Some of the characters I disliked but for the
most part this game did deliver in a lot of different ways.
I suggested this game for any body who is a Final Fantasy
VIII fan since the graphics are similar and other things
about this reminded me of Final Fantasy VIII that I didn't'
even think about it. This is a type of game you have to take
in to enjoy it won't hit you like other RPG's when you think
about it this game is pretty good.
Story 8. 0/10
The story was about Dragons, Humans, and Wingly's . Basically
the premise was Wingly's were the last race. Wingly's were
feeling threatened over a certain event that was to occur
and since they were superior they decided to stop this.
Eleven thousand years later things have change the world is
at a brink of destruction with wars and evil men in power
doing things to ruin the world, as we know it. Each
character has a different reason to be on their quest, some
are more open than others, which leads to mass speculation
and leave you in amazement. Plot twists in this are
plentiful and that's one great thing about it, but these
sadly don't start to really make an impact to the 3rd and
4th disk. Well on to the characters
Dart: Your basic hero, he looks like a cross between Squall
from FF8 and Locke from FF6, he's young and he has a good
heart and he is very brave. He is the most balanced
character in the game and he is fast and powerful like a
hero should be.
Shana: Dart's childhood friend these two grew up together
and Dart always felt he had to watch over her and keep her
out of trouble like an 'Older Brother' would. She is not
as goofy as Rinoa but she also doesn't kick as much butt as
Rinoa. I barely used her in a game dominated by
'Additions' her no addition bow really wasn't effective.
Rose: Dark and cold as steel. She introduced you to being a
Dragoon, and she is pretty mysterious and she's all
business. She is attracted to Dart only because he is a
Dragoon, and wants to see what happens to him, her real
objective is mysterious. She is one of the best characters
in the game her stats are similar to Dart's except she
doesn't have the vitality he has.
Haschel: a 60 year old Kung Fu Expert. He is deadly with
just a pair of gloves on, and he is pretty funny. His
objective is to find his missing daughter who left his
hometown years ago, although he knows its in vein he will
never give up the search. He is the fastest male in the
game, but he lacks the real power during the earlier levels
if you stay committed to him things will brighten.
Lavitz: King Albert's first knight and loyal friend and
companion. He originally just wants to report to his king
but when Dart's and Lavitz's bond becomes tighter he decided
to travel with him as well. Lavitz is skilled with the spear
and unleashes some deadly attacks. Lavitz is slightly
stronger than Dart but much slower.
King Albert: A fighting king who will fight for what is
right after some events he decided to join you in the good
fight. He is also skilled with the spear and he is pretty
strong and in my opinion he seems faster than Lavitz and his
speed is almost equal to Dart's.
Well that's your main party there are actually 3 more
characters but you don't get them to later in the game and
some of them are considered spoilers. Overall these
characters were quite interesting, even though I didn't use
every character in the game much each one or almost each one
got their own share of spot light and at least an hour or
close to it dedicated to their story line.
Visuals 10/10
Ok the graphics are fantastic I can't lie about that the
FMV's next to Final Fantasy IX are the best I seen on
Playstation thus far. The character size is fairly large and
just about the same as Final Fantasy VIII. Even the magic
spells looked spectacular. Especially the water and the lava
flowing all of these things looked spectacular. The
beautiful graphics and the splendid backgrounds like the
Crystal Palace instantly stunned me. Everything looked just
as perfect as it could be and a lot of effort was put into
the graphics. This has to be Sony as a video game maker best
effort at a game. Well graphic wise the backgrounds were
splendid especially in some of the towns. These towns are
fairly long and it will take a while to look through them
completely. Each house that you barge into has so many
things going on that you will not know what is for you and
not. They put so much into making them look either fancy or
rustic. The dragoon Transformations are usually great and
you actually see the armor form on each character. The magic
spells are usually as long as a common FF7 FF8 summon, and
that's just the spells. The Summons tends to be equally
long, and you could have had two rounds of battle and did
way more damage. The FMV's look as real as possible, the
graphics rivals some of the Hollywood efforts.
Overall I am still stunned by the graphics but they are not
leaps and bounds over things I have seen already.
Audio 7. 5/10
The music is well not that great it is usual RPG music
nothing overly fancy about it except during FMV's then it
reacts to the mood of the FMV. If someone is telling you a
story it reacts to that with some quiet gentle music, or if
it's an upbeat event then that gets a different sort of
reaction. Some of the music is pretty good especially during
the demo opening music. The sound effects are pretty good as
well with the sword clashing and the Dragons wailing and
roaring that sounds pretty realistic or what a dragon should
sound like. Then they have 'voice acting' a huge RPG
blunder. Sony, we don't want to know what they sound like
that ruin it for us. Well for me it just doesn't sound good
at all, its pretty bad. The only good acting is when you do
an 'Addition' and they say the name of the addition like
Lavitz 'Gust of Wind Dance' they sound pretty good there
and when you use your Dragoon Magic. The voice acting is
pretty good there, so only the snippets of voice sound any
good. For most of the game the voices and music went good
with the graphics and demonstrated the dark atmosphere well.
Game Play 8. 0/10
This game is for one player only. (Note: I mention in EVERY
review how many players are in a game) You have a total of 9
playable characters but only 7 will be present at one time.
This game has a pretty weak magic system so you have to use
your 'additions'. Additions are skills like combos from
Legend of Legaia that you have to pull off in order to
damage the enemy. The difference here is real time unlike
Legend of Legaia where you had as much time as you needed to
pull off an Art, you have to time the buttons just right in
order for it to connect. Basically a small square will be in
the middle and a larger square will come out of the screen
towards it your job is to time the X button perfectly, it
may sound complicated but Additions are hard to explain. The
addition meter what I like to call it moves at different
speeds, so you have to be nearly perfect in order to do
critical damage to an enemy or a boss. You also have
Dragoons, each playable character will become a Dragoon over
the course of the game, and as a Dragoon you will have two
commands. Magic or Additions, Dragoon Magic is splendid and
usually long like a Summon but if you are in need for some
additional help turning into a Dragoon is a usual wise move
in this game. Then you also have Dragoon Additions, these
additions are slightly different than the ordinary
additions. You have instead of the Addition Meter a clock
like meter. I fount it tough to complete a Dragoon addition
the last hit would never work, even so you still pulled off
decent damage. There is also a side quest it may not compare
to the fun of Triple Triad but this side quest has people
talking. Its the Stardust side quest you have to collect
star dust in turn for powerful accessories and other good
things. I didn't really bother with the stardust side quest.
The difficulty on this game is Hard and this game requires a
block of memory.
Fun Factor: Medium
Some parts of this game was very fun, the beginning did drag
a little bit because of its epic 4 CD proportions. Later on
however this game forms into a pretty epic RPG, and I
enjoyed finding out what would happen next in this Neo
Futuristic RPG.
Replay Value: Medium
This game was average RPG fun, if you didn't like the first
time like me I would HIGHLY advise a second play through
because you can grasp the story better. Even though some
events may seem like you seem them before they do make sense
and help you piece together the overall storyline. So this
is at least a 2 play through RPG its hard to grasp and
review if you only went to the end once.
Good Points
Addition System was a nice change of pace
Graphics were excellent
A nice blend of characters
An overall good story line
Bad Points
Limited Transportation
No real air ship, you ride the boat for a little while but
most of the time you are going by foot.
The yellow line and the map telling you where to go
That made the game seem like it was for beginners, I wish I
could of had more freedom on the world map, it was quite the
bore having to use the yellow lines all the time. The far
away map view really ruined it for me; I was smart enough to
figure out where to go next.
Stardust Side Quest was too weak
There should have been a more fun main side quest like
animal raising, or even a nice casino place to perk your
interest for a while. I never looked for stardust only if I
happen to search something and find one.
Leveling Up was too difficult
Enemies gave you a limited amount of Exp. So it was pretty
hard to actually gain some tremendous levels for the boss
fights so you had to fight quite a few random battles to get
to the next level. The bosses were the meat of your
experience, which reminds me of Legend of Legaia.
Overall 7 out of 10
I go from 10 to 1 now back to 7. Well after making a FAQ for
it the game tended to get fun and I started to enjoy it was
that second in depth FAQ making play through that did it for
me. I looked at my score for it and looked at my review it
was unjust it was unfit. This game wasn't that bad I gave
games far worst than this one a higher score, I over used
that 1 there was many things I still don't like but I was
unhappy with certain events that is why I gave it what I
originally did. That's not how Dy$e does things and that was
wrong. Well anyway overall this game stacks up pretty well
its a hard hitting game with a story line a little rough
around the edges overall it leaves you satisfied. Even if
the graphics weren't as great as they were the story line
still had something to make this interesting, mainly a
better side quest than the one it has, its just too weak and
basic to support a game of this magnitude.
Debt Help - Free Credit Report - Mortgages - Loans - Cheap Flights 