The Legend of Dragoon

THE BAD:
The bad is that two of your party members leave your team, and the fact that you can only hold a very small amount of items and sometimes it is a pain to get rid of items to space up for new ones, but you don't want to dicth it or sell it because you may need them in the next section. And also because some of the enemies are requiring of a special combination of items, though they are worth the trouble for their rewarding, uh, rewards. And also in some areas you run into horrible monsters too easily. And it takes a really long time to level up when you have a team bigger than three. The developers claimed that the game would have more characters and a huge sequel, but it apparently was not enough to score a rival or sequel. I signed a Petion saying it is more than worthy enough for things it has yet to obtain. 2007 would be the perfect year to start a sequel or prequel. They said that the game would for sure have a sequel, but it doesn't.

SUMMARY:
The game is unique because of its legendary Addition System, and even more famous Dragoon abilities witch allow you to use powerful magic in furious battles between hundreds of monsters and bosses. Your ability to use magic is introduced in the town of Hoax, when Rose saves you from Kongol the Giganto, who later joins you after showing great kindness. In total there are 9 playable characters, but only seven can be in your party unless you are a cheater and Game-Sharked all 9 in at once. Each character is no cheap knock-off of another character, and they each have a different personality and weapon type, unless you count Miranda and Albert, but they are replacements so they use the same items and weapon types. -Long story with unique twists -powerful foes threaten your cause -huge variety of weapons and characters -hundreds of NPCs -intricate missions, challenges, chores and battles -an unusual but satisfying storyline, with a shocking revelation

THE BAD:
They're are no voice overs except in FMV sequences and after characters complete additions. Also, the replay value is a little bit on the low side unless we have gamers who like to play games a second time. Also,you can only carry 32 items at a time and only 255 pieces of equipment. Other than these minor issues, this shouldn't discourage you from buying the game. And its at a reasonable price, too!

SUMMARY:
Legend of Dragoon, in summary, is a great game that will provide hours of fun. Despite the minor issues, you should go out and buy this game and have the time of your life. That's why I give it a 4.9/5.0.

THE BAD:
In my opinion, this game didn't have any bad in it... except maybe some tough bosses, and that annoying Stardust.

SUMMARY:
If you're looking for an in-depth storyline, LoD has it. All in all, it's one of the best games I've ever played. I'd even rank it beside some of the FF games. The replay value may not be the best, however. After you've gone through the game once, you probably won't want to spend a lot more time on it. I'd say that one of the best features is the Additions you can use in battle. Pressing a button at the right time gives your attack more power, and when you get to higher levels & use an 8-hit Addition... it's a lot of fun.

THE BAD:
low replay value after playing it once may lose its appeal.

SUMMARY:
the characters evolution is incredible its story involves the player so much that it appears much more like an interactive novel than a video game. The dragoon transformations are stunning for people that enjoy the 90's style computer generated graphics's. This game is amazing in how the story unfolds it creates more emotion for the player than any other game i have ever played. For any true RPG gamer that can enjoy a game for its ingenious story instead of modern graphic engines should play this game for the enjoyment of the story. Its not to difficult of a game but parts are trying. I would not suggest this game for people that only enjoy action and constant fighting but for anyone that can grasp a good story.

THE BAD:
But i didn't think they had enough equipment, and didn't like how instead of getting a new character, you got a different version of an old one.

SUMMARY:
I liked the Additions system because it is unique and really requires skill of the gamer. For the same reasons, i don't like Shana because she is weak and she doesn't use Additions even though she is one the most important characters in the game.

My favorite characters are Lavitz and Haschel because i think they are funny and cool(yes i have beaten the game, i just didn't want to give anything away).I think Hachel is the best fighter because he is strong, fast, and has good defense and hit points.

THE BAD:
The battles were boring at the beginning because it took forever to kill some enemies, and some characters got on my nerves.

SUMMARY:
Overall, this was one sweet game. It was a fantastic RPG, which Square seems to be quite famous for, and this is definetly no exception. First of all, the story is really amazing as it starts out as you are Dart, and apparently there is this village monster whom claims his parents lives'. So basically the story is to find the monster that took his parents away from him and get revenge. Although its a bit on the traditional side, its still pretty good. The gameplay is quite fun, and that mostly refers to the battle system. It is turn-based, but its more on the creative side of things. When you go in for an attack, there is this little box and another box outside it. The one oustide will get shorter and shorter as you close in for the attack and when it gets in the middle, you're supposed to hit the 'X' button, and if you do, then you'll get added damage. With that, you can only imagine the other combinations that you have the option of doing, so the combo's are really versatile. As for the graphics, its pretty interesting. They aren't really in the same shape of how FFVII looks, but more on a FFVIII graphics engine; which fits the game quite nicely. As for the playability, there is a lot of stuff to do, seeing as how tLoD spans 4 disks. As you start playing more and more, then you'll really get addicted, because its just.. a really fun game.

I would recommend it for anyone to play, because its just a great all-around RPG. If you're a fan of Square and also have a playstation, then there is no reason this shouldnt be sitting in your collection somewhere.

THE BAD:
Limited Item Space, No Voice overs.

SUMMARY:
I remember Legend of Dragoon, it was my very first RPG game I played and the game that brought me to Neoseeker! So I decided to buy The Legend of Dragoon and re-live the experience.

The story begins with a quiet village at night, all seems well until the village is under attack by soldiers. Carnage is everywhere and we see a girl captured, the commander holds some kind of gem to her forehead and some weird magic occurs. Then they ride of back to where they came leaving destruction in their wake. The next day a man in red armor is in the forest reading a paper about the War in his country. He is the main hero of the story, Dart. Dart hears soldiers riding their (horses?) into the forest and checks it out, he encounters two of them and prepares to fight but is interrupted by a bigger enemy. A giant green dragon appears and attacks the three, Dart tries to run away but can't keep it up and gets injured. Luckly he is saved by a woman dressed in a very dark blue. He learns from her that soldiers attacked a village nearby and WE learn that the village is where Dart lives. When he arrives he encounters two soldiers attack a wounded village and fights them.

The battle system is kinda weird. Take Final Fantasy and Parapa the Rapper and put them together to make this game. The battle system is turned based, characters stand in a line and wait for their turn to attack or defend or whatever. Attacking is very interesting because instead of just watching the character run up and slash an enemy like Final Fantasy, you see this blue square on the screen with a bigger blue square around it shrinking. The way to attack is to hit the X button and stop the bigger blue square when it lines with the smaller one, when done correctly the attack continues longer, like a combo. These are called Additions and every character except two has them. As you level up you learn more and stronger Additions, but also the Additions are longer so you find yourself pressing the X button a numbers of times for one combo. Interesting thing about Additions is that they grow stronger the more you use them. (successfully of course) But its not all easy as the enemy may be able to counter-attack during Additions, when this happens the blue squares turn red and you must now hit the O button to counter the counter-attack. Failing to do so will interrupt you in the middle of your attack and blast you back to the others. Another option for battle is Defend, Defend works just like it sounds... the character defends himself. When defending the character will take less damage from attacks and as a nice added bonus, characters regain 10% of their health when defending. The next option is to use an item. You are able to hold 32 Items in the game. In the items menu you can use items such as healing potions or status recovering items, there is also "Magic" items here too. "Magic" items is the games way of casting magic, Magic items can be casted on one enemy or the whole lot depending on the spell. When a magic item is used you must rapidly press the X button as fast as you can to raise the percent level, doing this makes the magic attack stronger and more impressive looking. (My best was 243%) The next option is the all too famous Escape, never use this though because you always need the experience and if you are about to die then you can also resort to the best option. Dragoon is the final option during battle and is by far the strongest. When you choose Dragoon your characters goes through a transformation is now wears nice looking Dragon Armor, complete with wings. Also nice to note that Dragoon form will have you take less damage from attacks. Dragoon has two of its own options for battle, Attack and the Dragoon Magic. Attack is different though because you use things called Dragoon Additions, you get a pictured of a dragon eye with a line at the top. A small glowing thing begins to circle the eye, you must press the X button as the glowing reaches the line at the top to make it go around again, as you do this the glowing thing moves faster and faster. If you hit the X button too soon or too late the Dragon Eye vanished and your character begins his attack. If you manage to make the glowing thing cycle the eye all 5 times you get a perfect and the Dragoon Addition is stronger and has a bonus explosion type attack to finish the Addition off. Dragoon Magic is the game's real magic. Dragoon Magic is simple really and doesn't need any fancy button pressing, just pick your magic and you cast it. However Dragoon has its drawbacks. You are unable to stay a Dragoon for a long while because characters only start out with a Level 1 Dragoon, in order to level it up characters must gain Sp points by performing Additions. The higher the level the longer you may stay a Dragoon. Another drawback is that when you are a Dragoon you MUST attack, there is no Dragoon Defend or Revert. Even though Dragoon is pretty powerful you'll want to try to level up other characters only the have the Dragoon finish off the bad guy. Its also a pain when you are in the middle of Dragoon power during the games most annoying boss. (Grand Jewel...)

Back to the story, after you clear the village you learn that Dart's childhood friend Shana has been taken away to Hellena Prison. So the you go over to the Prison to rescue her and stuff. Fast forward into the Prison, inside you meet a knight in green carrying a spear. The knight is Lavitz who is one of the head knights of the Kingdom. He was also captured but managed to break himself out and needs to give his report to the King. He learns of Darts quest to rescue Shana and decides to help him because Hellena Prison is a dangerous place to go through alone. When you do rescue Shana you learn that Dart has been away from the village for 5 years. Eventually you escape and head with Lavitz to the Kingdom City Bale to give the report and learn about the Serdian War as well as the all important Dragon Campaign. Dart then decides to help with the War and such. Along the way in the story you do things like defend a fortress and receive the Dragoon Spirits, find and fight a half dead Virage, fight a dragoon and a dragon, and many more all in the 1st disk!

The graphics for the game... what can I say? The graphics by today's standards are pretty bad but Legend of Dragoon did come out around the year 2000 for the Playstation and it is pretty damn good looking for its time. The music is also a nice treat, Various normal battle music and boss battle music as well as character themes. (My favourite has to be the sad character death music and the Virages music)

Now I will explain all the bad things. The games item capacity is 32, it may seem like a lot but its not. For example: I need to carry around at least 8 Healing type items, 6 revives, at least 3 of each status healing. That alone is 23/32 items. Then we need the item magic, one of each element to be safe so add 8 and that leaves us with 31/32 items which means one more items of our choice is left. Something else I don't like is no voice in the game. During battle and the FMVs they have voice acting but not in the main part, just a lot of text. Another problem is with the Greatest Hits version, when you use the Greatest HIts version the game will somethings not load and all you get is a black screen. Though it may just be the disk type or because I'm playing it with the PS2, just beware if you pick up the Greatest Hits version.

Well that was my review for The Legend of Dragoon, it is a must have for any RPG lover. Also remember is brought me here so all the more reason to pick it up! Have fun.

SUMMARY:
I love this game. I had to steal my friends PS2 and copy of Dragoon just because it's that good. The storyline is all there and they way it links the characters together is amazing. I actually felt depressed when a certain character died in the game. The other major plus to this RPG is that you don't just choose an attack and watch your character execute it. When you attack you have to press a button sequence to pull off a powerful "addition" as its referred to in the game. The creators also left room to upgrade, by gaining levels, additions, buying stronger weapons and armor, and of course, the ultimate upgrade, A dragoon spirit. When you become a dragoon you can pull of magical attacks and dragoon additions that just make you weep with joy. The game also holds the essentials for any RPG, great bosses, great FMVs, the ability to use magic, gaurd, attack, and run, and an awesome soundtrack. Other than the fact that you have to wander around for a while before you find what you need, this game has all positive factors.