A great competitor to Final Fantasy (Legend of Dragoon (PS))

Member Name: SimonCook

Product:	Legend of Dragoon (PS)
Date:	19/08/03 (378 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent Story, Good Characters, Nice Graphics

Disadvantages: A little too many battles

My only Role Playing Game (RPG) experience on the Playstation has been the excellent Final Fantasy series, however my opinion of the series is subjective as I have only other FF games to compare with. Therefore, I searched for a similar game to compare against. Having played Sony?s excellent Ico, I felt justified in expecting a very good RPG from Sony and thus I purchased Legend of the Dragoon. This game is not the first RPG from Sony, but form what I have read, it is their first serious attempt to produce a decent RPG after a few ?market? testers.

*****Introduction*****

RPG games have been around for years, initially being available on paper and then transferring to the computer. There are several types of this game; there are those that allow the player to really get involved in the rules and statistics, and those that tend to leave a lot of the number crunching to the computer.

This game is more of the latter, and while it does give some choices in the combat, it isn?t really a true RPG. It is more like a graphics-adventure with some RPG elements thrown in.


*****Story*****

What immediately stands out is that, although a little contrived, the story is well thought out and doesn?t have any serious flaws or problems. It is pretty typical for your RPG though, involving an orphan hero, and a big nasty evil monster to defeat.

You are introduced to Dart, a young man who is from a village called Neet that was mysteriously destroyed by a ?Black Monster? eighteen years ago; somehow Dart was the only survivor. As Dart wandered the burned village he discovered a memento of his father, a strange but seemingly useless stone that his father always carried. This stone grows in importance as the story unfolds as it holds the secret power of the Dragoons.

As he grew up Dart lived in a village called Seles and formed a bond with a young girl called Shana. On the return from a quest to try and avenge his home villag
e he is attacked by a Dragon and escapes with his life thanks to a strange and mysterious woman named Rose. As Dart approaches Seles he realizes that his new home village has suffered a devastating attack; fearing that the Black Monster has returned, he finds out that Seles was attacked by Imperial Guards; his childhood friend Shana is captured. Dart, finding survivors in the village, promises to rescue Shana. She is imprisoned in a daunting island prison, but despite the odds against him and with the help of an escaping Knight called Lavitz, Dart successfully rescues her.

However, while trying to return to their home in Seles they find their road blocked by Imperial soldiers ? this therefore leads to a detour that takes Dart to Lavitz? hometown. Once you get to this town you begin to learn what is happening in the world ? apparently the imperial soldiers are at war with Lavitz?s kingdow ? Shana seemingly is linked to the war and has an important role that only seems to be known by the enemy.

After much thought Dart and Shana decide to help Lavitz and fight the war. The three intrepid heroes are sent to a border town to help defend it ? when the town is attacked Dart finally comes across a fearsome beast named Giganto ? suddenly all looks lost as Dart is knocked down and Giganto is poised to kill him. Luckily for Dart, the mysterious woman that saved Dart from the dragon had sensed something special in him ? she again arrives and helps him to transform into an amazing winged being that is able to destroy Giganto.

Dart finds out that he has become a legendary Dragoon; the Dragoons were essential in the defeat of the Dragons in an ancient battle ? it also seems obvious that Dart?s father was a Dragoon too. The mysterious lady (Rose) teaches Dart how to use his new powers ? she is also a Dragoon. The four heroes now realize that to win the war they must destroy the dragon ? they set out to find the lair of the dragon, realizing that their ro
le in the world has changed and that things, although still mysterious and ever changing, may never be the same again?

*****Graphics*****

The graphics in this game are good, not quite the standard of the later Final Fantasy games, but on a par (or slightly better than) Final Fantasy 7. The game has concentrated much on the battle scenes, realizing that this is an important aspect of the game.

The characters in battle are well drawn and animated, giving much detail. They don?t suffer from the usual distortion or pixelation that seems to occur with the early Final Fantasy games and this gives the battle sequences a more real feel. The enemies are just as good, especially some of the ?bosses? ? I was particularly impressed with Giganto ? somehow the graphics does make you feel that this character is very large, and the axe he wields is particularly awesome.

The combat graphics are interesting ? I was quite amused and surprised by some of the enemies attack methods. One enemy uses a chain to grab you, lift you up and smash you to the ground. Giganto often charges you, grabs the two characters in the battle and bashes your heads together ? these idiosyncrasies in battle make the game less monotonous.

The graphics of the battle magic are, but don?t quite seem as ?epic? as the Final Fantasy games. Some of them are spectacular though, but don?t give me quite the feel that I required. They do seem a little more ?personal? though ? they seem to concentrate on the ?inner being? of the character and see much of the power being drawn from inside.

The graphics outside of the battles are perhaps not quite as good. The ?settings? are excellent, giving a very atmospheric feel to the game. Some of the spot effects such as water, fountains etc are very good ? I did find the design to be a little annoying at times as traveling through these pre-rendered screens wasn?t always intuitive. (Sometimes I would be moving down the screen, w
hen the next screen appears I often found that I had to change direction ? this was confusing and often led me back in the direction I came from ? I also had trouble locating my character on the screen occasionally.

The animation and design of the characters seemed to lack a little ?pazzaz? ? they weren?t bad they just weren?t outstanding. This lack of interest also meant they were hard to find at times in the colorful and highly detailed settings.

This was a little disappointing as the other graphics were generally very good or excellent.

Like most other games of this type there are quite a few ?cinematic? sequences. Now I have been spoiled with the Final Fantasy ?cinematics? but was generally pleasantly surprised by the quality and detail of the Sony cinematics. Sony really have challenged Squaresoft in the cinematics battle! {I would point out as this is a PS1 game, the Cinematics do not compare with FF 10 - this is a PS2 game). It should be noted that the first decent Cinematic doesn?t appear until the second disk, but it is worth the wait.

Overall the graphics are very good ? a little flawed at times perhaps but good nonetheless.

One interesting thought though ? having played Final Fantasy X, where the graphics are amazing, I suddenly realize that this can be at the expense of the game ? although FF X is a very good game, if they had perhaps not concentrated so much on the graphics they probably could have produced the perfect RPG. Thus I feel the graphics in this game compliment the game play very well and do not overshadow it.


*****Sound*****

I am very spoiled in this aspect ? the sound in the FF games, especially FF X that includes speaking characters is exceptional ? the music is fantastic, the talking is excellent, the only downfall is the spot effects at times.

Thus I was a little disappointed with the sound in this game. The music is very nice, and often atmospheric but seems u
nemotional. With FF you really get a feel of how the characters are feeling as the mood of the music changes, I didn?t get the same feel I this game.

This doesn?t mean the music is poor, it just doesn?t compare to the exceptionally high-class music in FF.

There are no voices in this game, which is disappointing, but given that it is designed for the PS1, this is understandable. It did mean that I had to do a fair amount of reading just to keep up with the plot.

The spot effects and battle effects are on par with FF, nothing special but generally good.



*****Gameplay*****

Generally the game play is very similar to FF; moving through a pre-rendered world, you move from location to location speaking to characters and finding clues that will help you continue the story. This game had a few more traditional type puzzles than FF, i.e. spin the wheel to open the door etc.

What I liked about this game was that the game play wasn?t too complicated ? I feel that FF went overboard in this aspect and thus often made game play a little too challenging.

**The Battle System**

The game is a turn based system so that when it is your characters turn, the action essentially stops and gives you time to think. You then have various options available including the most wonderful ?flee? ? however I would point out that if you flee from battles then you will not gain experience and will find it difficult to beat tougher enemies.

Sony I think have a better system of combat than FF ? in FF although you choose what actions your character will do, there is no ?skill? element. Sony have introduced a skill element that essentially involves ?timing?; the better you are at these timing elements, the more damage you do ? if you are particularly good at the timing elements, your character will do a ?special move?.

Again this differs from FF ? in FF you gain points every time you battle ? as you fill a
meter with these points, you will always end up doing a special move. In Sony?s game, you essentially can do a special move every time you attack ? assuming that your timing is very good.

In a similar way to FF you can use items during combat ? again Sony have introduced a ?skill? element. As you use some attacking potions, you can increase the power by hitting the ?X? key very quickly. One thing to note is that Sony only allows you to hold 32 items at a time ? this is restricting, but adds an element to the game that doesn?t exist in FF ? the ability to manage your items well.

You can also ?guard? during a battle ? this reduces any attack the enemy does, but also heals your character. This is a useful feature as you will not have a massive supply of healing potions due to the item restriction. This adds a strategic element to the battle,

One element that is perhaps not as good as FF is Magic ? you can only use magic once you have become a Dragoon. As you battle you gain Dragoon points ?once you have filled a meter you can transform into a Dragoon for one turn of combat only.

You then have the ability to either attack or cast a spell.

Attacking is similar to standard attacking, but uses a different type of ?skill?. Magic is simply choosing a spell and casting it at an enemy. The only real advantage of transforming is that the attack and the magic are far more powerful than normal attacks. (note as you raise Dragoon levels, you stay as a Dragoon for one turn for every Dragoon level).

The system overall is similar to the FF games, not quite of involved but it does add a nifty skill element.

**Items and Skills**

Like most of these typed of games you can buy items that will improve your character. What I particularly liked was the way in which you could see what he item would do to your statistics before you decided to wear it ? this made choosing items far easier and intuitive.

Leveling
was totally controlled by the computer ? thus as you gained experience and raised levels, the computer raised the appropriate statistics. This was perhaps good for beginners but I would have liked a little control of my ?leveling? if only to give myself a little ownership of the character (as an aside I was a little disappointed not to be able to name my character.)

**Enemies**

The type of enemy you face is varied ? from simple foot soldiers, to bizarre monsters. I found it harder to find the weaknesses of each monster than in FF ? FF gave you spells that would help find weaknesses, but generally I was able to defeat most monster fairly easily.

There are quite a few ?boss? monster to fight, and quite often you faced these after several other encounters and didn?t have the chance to heal properly ? this meant they were tougher and more strategic ? I quite often found myself using ?shield? to avoid being hit and also to heal a little.

*****Storyline*****

One thing I found with the FF series was that the game often had peeks and troughs ? I found at times that I really didn?t have anything major to do, and was waiting for the game to start up again.

This game doesn?t really suffer from that problem. The story unfolds well, and although initially you are in the dark about the overall plot, and may be a little confused as things start to unfold, you do find that the plot begins to get more interesting as the game develops.

I liked the way in which my interest was constantly kept as the story began to add new elements as I went along. I never found myself lost looking for something to do, and generally enjoyed the story. There was of course the traditional love element, but this didn?t detract from the game.

While the game isn?t as large as FF and doesn?t have any of the sublots prevalent in FF, it was logical if a little too straightforward.

One thing I particularly liked was the way places
revealed themselves as the game continued ? I found that in FF I wandered into areas that I didn?t need to see early in the game, and thus nothing was surprising or particularly new to me.


*****Overall*****

It?s hard to compare these types of games, as some people will like the simplicity and ease of this game, whereas many will prefer the detail, the sub games and plots of FF.

I really enjoyed this game, feeling that it is perhaps a great introduction to the genre of RPG. It wasn?t too difficult, but neither was it too easy.

It also had an in built tutorial that gently introduced you to the game elements as you went along.

Overall I would say this is a very good game that will appeal to many gamers ? this type of game is becoming more and more popular as it gives value for money. Although the game is pretty linear, you probably will come back and play it eventually.

Summary: