Doji Grovesai

Legend of Dragoon review

Usually, a great game like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time doesn't come often, and you're left with nothing to do before the next cool game. In most cases, you get certain cravings. Unfortunately the latest in the realm of RPGs was not up to par.

Luckily, thanks to my way cool wife, we own many RPGs. Specifically every Final Fantasy game (except FF3), and some that I picked up. As the title indicates, the game is Legend of Dragoon, a PSX title. Its a SCEA game (Sony made it, if you don't recognize the acronym), so I was a little skeptical at first.

I got the game from my brother back in 2001. He bought it for me while I was on my mission in San Antonio and gave it to me when I got back. I played it for a little bit, but put it down in lieu of other games that were more appealing at the time.

I picked it up just a few weeks ago for something to do. Sony actually manages to not screw everything up, though they do have some bugs.

Dart, the main character, has all the trappings of Square: spiky hair, uses a sword, and it seems like Sony was trying to sell "Cloud v2.0." Thankfully, Dart's sword is a normal size, and while a little blocky, the sprites do not look like they were built with over-sized Legos.

As for other graphics, the backgrounds are well done. Though not exquisite like many Square titles, the backgrounds fit. Nothing is so bad as to make you hurl, but let it be known that we aren't looking at FFIX, either (had to use a PSX game for comparison).

So the rest of the game...

The battle system relies on Additions. When you attack, you go in for your first strike, there's a little blue box that rotates in on another blue box, and you press X. If you're too fast, the inside of the inner box looks grey. Too slow, and it's blue-ish. If successful, it's white and you move to the next attack in the combo. Combos range from 2 hits to 7 as you get higher in levels. This is one of the innovative parts of the game, but also a low point, depending on how you look at it.

Additions are granted as your level goes up, but the enemies you fight hardly give lots of experience (more on that later). But this provides an opportunity to level up your additions. Every 20 successful executions of an addition bring it up a level (max 5). Each level increases the amount of damage done, and the SP (more later) gained. Where it gets interesting is that each character not only has their own additions, but each has a completely different tempo and rhythm as well. On top of that, the enemies have the opportunity to counterattack. During one of your a characters additions, the enemy might counterattack, where the screen pauses for a bit, the blue squares turn red, and you press O instead of X. Now, if you miss, your addition doesn't just end, but you take damage as well. This is to be expected, except that the counterattack itself also disrupts the timing of the addition, increasing the chance that you'll miss. This is really only a problem with two characters, as their additions have the strangest rhythms.

In addition to this groovy little thing called additions, you have another ability. As the game implies, it has something to do with Dragoons. You get Dragoon Spirits, which are used in battle, to grant the user more powerful attacks. When you perform additions, you accumulate Spirit Points (remember this?) which fill a Spirit Meter. When you get 100 SP, you can turn into a dragoon for one level. As you progress, you gain more levels (again, max 5), each level good for 1 turn as a Dragoon. Dragoons have two commands: attack and magic. Attack gives you an addition, but everybody gets the same type of addition (as far as executing it). And then you get magic: 4 spells when you've reached Dragoon Level 5. So that's combat in a nutshell.

Oh wait, I forgot about items. You get 255 slots for weapons/armor/accessories, and 32 for curative/battle items. Yes, that's right, 32. I suppose it makes for easier item management, especially since the items are very general. Your "cure 1 person" items either restore 50% of your max HP or 100%. Same with "cure all in party" items. To cure poison and paralyze and other such ailments, you use a "body purifier." For Confuse, Berserk, etc., you get "mind purifiers." Pretty easy. You also get reusable items like "power up," "speed up," and the like. And since you don't get to use magic unless you're a dragoon, you get attack items. These are very helpful in the first two discs, and mostly useless in the second two. When you use one (there are a few for each element), you can press X repeatedly to raise the power level of the attack item. Especially useful if you have Tony's Trigger Finger.

The characters are really good, also. Everybody is related in some way to the others (in some cases actually related), and the plot demonstrates it. Unlike many Square titles, it also has an evolving story. Each disc is one chapter, and has its own central plot. But each chapter also has other elements which hint at a larger plot and segue into the next disc. This also brings characters into your party in a more intricate fashion than "Hi, join my party to save the world." As the plot unravels, you get more connections between the characters. Not like Final Fantasy, where it's "let's go save the world" from the very beginning (excluding FFX, of course, where that was the whole reason two characters were even there).

The plot (again, implied by the title) centers around Dragoons, and as the game evolves it's pretty clear that the only real purpose of the Dragoons are to move the plot. Since you cannot guard (which gives you 10% of your health back) or use items (essential since only one dragoon spirit allows you to heal), and you cannot change back without expending all your Dragoon turns (or dying, of course), sometimes using dragoon stuff is actually detrimental to the party.

Thus, since Dragoons are nothing more than a plot point, you run into the problem of bosses. Advancing your dragoon levels requires leveling, as does your actual level, and your use of additions also requires lots of battles. And advancing your additions quickly turns into DDR with your thumbs and no "groovy dance tunes." The enemies hardly give out any experience, and in true RPG fashion, it's xp/3 points for each party member. But there's a similar number given to your unused party members. So they can keep up, though they won't stay as current as your most used party members.

Another little thing that I like about the game is that the numbers stay kind of small. It's not like FFn (n>3) where any character can get "ultimate weapon n+1" and do 9999+ damage. The weapons and armor are always affordable (except for three ultra-powerful exceptions), and you don't have to go killing things just to buy weapons, nor do you have to decide between armor and recovery items. You can get both.

All in all, the game is ok. There isn't anything remarkable about it, but it's a solid game. The only other SCEA game I've actually enjoyed (across all genres) was Wild Arms 3, another RPG (the other two weren't very good). But, like I said, it's not something landmark. But it satisfies the cravings.