Remove Ad, Sign Up
Register to Remove Ad
Register to Remove Ad
Remove Ad, Sign Up
Register to Remove Ad
Register to Remove Ad
Signup for Free!
-More Features-
-Far Less Ads-
About   Users   Help
Users & Guests Online
On Page: 1
Directory: 104
Entire Site: 6 & 903
Page Staff: pokemon x, pennylessz, Barathemos, tgags123, alexanyways, supercool22, RavusRat,
03-29-24 05:30 AM

Forum Links

PlayStation -The Legend of Dragoon
My first review in a while, hopefully it turns out ok.
Related Threads
Coming Soon

Thread Information

Views
742
Replies
0
Rating
0
Status
CLOSED
Thread
Creator
Redrunelord
06-05-11 07:52 PM
Last
Post
Redrunelord
06-05-11 07:52 PM
Additional Thread Details
Views: 143
Today: 0
Users: 0 unique

Thread Actions

Thread Closed
New Thread
New Poll
Order
 

PlayStation -The Legend of Dragoon

 

06-05-11 07:52 PM
Redrunelord is Offline
| ID: 393654 | 1960 Words

Redrunelord
Level: 65


POSTS: 82/1049
POST EXP: 118329
LVL EXP: 2333117
CP: 2807.5
VIZ: 93325

Likes: 0  Dislikes: 0
When one should consider an RPG adventure game for the original grey PlayStation, the most obvious role-playing game the casual gamer would state will probably be Final Fantasy VII. However, a game that is often considered "a cheap clone" comes to my mind more readily: The Legend of Dragoon. The Legend of Dragoon could easily have gained the same level of fame as the final fantasy series, except for two factors: bad timing, and the lack of sequels. The latter of these two factors will be addressed later, but it is worth noting the first disadvantage TLOD (as The Legend of Dragoon is often abbreviated to, and will be the term used during this review form this point onwards). Basically, the Final Fantasy series left Nintendo due to the N64 using a cartridge based system, and transferred to Sony's PlayStation. While this have attracted fans to the PlayStation, it may have took centre stage and made other games on the console appear insignificant. It really is a shame, for TLOD easily matches, and in some respects surpasses, the Final Fantasy Games that can be found on the original PlayStation.

Firstly, the graphics are well worth noting. They are doubtlessly the most beautiful graphics that I have seen on the PlayStation, and they in some respects surpasses games on the current generation of consoles. The game's graphics are largely 2.5d in that you are in a 2 dimensional environment but with 3d models. I always compared games like this to how certain scenes in King Kong would have been filmed (basically the actors acting in front of a projection of other footage). Now, these images are scaled and textured to an extremely high quality, especially by the Console's Standards, with the only notable graphical glitches being clipping during certain animations in some battle sequences, and some minor issues you may see from time to time.

The important factors with any game's graphics however is clarity, and general appeal. For myself, the recent Call of Duty Games do not have the worlds most appealing graphics despite the immense detail. Some fans of newer consoles may comment on TLOD appearing "dated" but remember this: they gets the job done. I do not recall ever spending time trying to figure out what something was supposed to be, unlike some games. Furthermore, the visuals and environments in this game are extremely diverse so it do not feel like one long dungeon, but a true adventure. Overall, to sum the graphical department up, the visuals are quite stunning and have aged much like fine wine. Whether or not they're appealing largely depends on the player's perspective, but they're not crippling by any means.

While you gaze upon the beautiful graphics, you may consider listening to the almost hypnotic beauty of the soundtrack. The composer utilized what can be called an orchestra style soundtrack instead of using songs in the pop culture. To the public knowledge, Takeo Miratsu had every song composed specifically for this game; if he hadn't then he concealed that fact well. Each song used fits the individual game environments to near perfection, and some considerably creates the appropriate mood.

However, when regarding audio within a game, the music is not the only focus: sound effects and, if present, voice acting must simply be acknowledged. The sound effects, while not nearly as memorable on the whole, works extremely well for what they are trying to achieve and can raise little criticism for casual gamers. There is a small amount of voice acting in this game: it can be found when you complete an
addition in combat ( which will be explained later) and specific cut-scenes. As far as the addition voice acting goes, it is only a few quick words, and perhaps a grunt or something similar, and it isn't bad, though perhaps it could get annoying after a while. The cut scenes, however, are a hit or miss. In one of the opening scenes, the voice acting is perfect for what the developers were trying to achieve.
However, in a few others like in a town called Flitz, the voice acting is atrociously bad at times. This shouldn't affect the overall game much since the voice acting is few and far between outside of battle. Overall, the soundtrack gets two thumbs and a pinky up.

The game-play in any games more complicated than the average Nintendo Entertainment System game is rarely a simple affair. This game's particular game follows the standard role-playing system on the most part: You travel from town to town, from one dungeon to another, proceeding with the storyline, buying and finding important gear, solving puzzles and engage in combat. In between each town /dungeon you travel on a linear path (to the most literal definition of a linear path) and you have a degree of roaming around each town. The controls are fairly good (trust me, controlling your character in The Jade Cocoon was an immense pain) and easy to pick up and play. The travelling and buying aspects of the game-play is fairly straightforward with little that is noteworthy.

The combat is fairly interesting and follows a basic turn based system much like a lot of other role-playing games. Your party will eventually contain seven characters with their own advantages and disadvantages with varying elements (which do impact how much damage you
will recieve/inflict), but in combat you get to use only three of them and one of these is a mandatory character (dart, your initial protagonist) that you're forced to use. After each character sustains so much damage, he/she will faint/die. After the battle, if you do not revive him/her, they are conscious again with one health point. If all three fighters are smitten by a superior adversary, then it is game over and you pick up from the last save point. This has always confused me because you got seven extremely deadly warriors, but if three are defeated, then apparently all hope is gone. Are the other four warriors incapable of mustering enough strength to finish the job? Each of the commands you utilize in combat do deserve a quick note though.

Whenever you attack, you use an addition. Additions are timed moves that each character must pull off to inflict maximum damage. In between battles, you get each character to select one addition to use (except your archer) in battle. When you attack, you have to time your hits according to what appears on screen to keep attacking. Sometimes an enemy will try to counter-attack, and your timings must compensate for that. Additions varies significantly from one another, and you must choose them with care. Each part of an addition you successfully completes gives you SP points which are necessary to turn into a dragoon.

Blocking/defending basically means you guard for that turn. When you guard in this game, your character will regain 10% of their health, reduce incoming damage by 50% of what it would normally be, and prevent status changes like poison.  Items simply allows you to utilize one of a maximum of 32 items you can carry around with you. It should be noted some attack items requires you to press a certain button as fast as you can to increase the damage it does.

Running away...exactly as the name implies. It may or may not work like in most games. Nothing special to say about it.

Dragoon mode...the dragoons are a major part of the storyline, and essentially what you will need to win this game without grinding for countless hours. When you turn into a dragoon, your attack and defense are significantly increased (except to a few foes). In dragoon mode, you can either do a glorified addition or use a powerful spell that has a 15-30 second animation sequence. Sometimes a yin/yang symbol will appear which means you turn your entire party into Dragoons simultaneously.

That is the basic combat system in brevity, and from a gamer's perspective somewhat unique, but still conforms to the standards you would expect. Sometimes a yin/yang symbol will appear which means you turn your entire party into Dragoons simultaneously. 

As a writer and avid reader, I regard story-lines in games as I would treat any novel. I do not like it when there are immense plot-holes, a plethora of undeveloped characters, poorly written text, bad translations etc. However, The Legend of Dragoon receives my vote for one of the greatest plots in video game history. If one was to try and make a novel using this plot, you would need to multiply the disks of this game by two in order to adequately convey it. It has a highly captivating plot with fewer holes than BB King's signature guitar. That is one of the biggest strength's and weaknesses of this game though: The plot takes a long time to complete and has no plot-holes that makes you go "what the (whatever your favorite explicit word is)". However, because the ending was encased in a titanium and chrome coat that fails to disappoint with its shine, there is no hopes for a sequel of any sorts.

The replay value of The Legend of Dragoon is immense. The average game should take someone, even if they know exactly what to do and mastered everything, 30-40 hours each time. Speed runs can be done but you have to literally fly through the dialogue, and even then you will be extremely lucky to clock 24-30 hours. After the initial play through, the main reason you would want to return to this game is to either complete the side-quests (like stardust) or to try and beta the game with a different strategy. This game isn't like a lot of first person shooters nowadays where you got to follow a very specific path to complete the game, but you have almost complete freedom in strategy.

To conclude a review that quickly covers a gem in the PlayStation library, here are my two cents on this game. It is nigh-on impossible to review because of the immense detail this game has, and it is simply difficult to do this game justice without playing it. This game, on average, will go for 40-60 dollars second hand if in good condition. The fact that the game takes four disks to hold is a testament to its magnitude for the time, but this makes getting the game annoying because you have an increased chance of a disk being damaged and rendering the game unbeatable. My own copy has a problem near the end of chapter 2 (aka disk 2) and parts in chapter 3 which makes the game nearly impossible to complete. However, if given the opportunity I would pay the sum of money for a good condition copy of this game in half a hummingbird's heartbeat. If not for the mesmerizing storyline, game-play and beauty it withholds over a decade after release,  I would return to it for simple nostalgic purposes. I must have plugged away countless 360 degree turns of the clock's hands with a Sony controller in my hand moving through a true adventure of a game. If you own a PlayStation of any kind and wants to play through an adventure, hunt down a copy of this game. Perhaps a re-release is in order, but for now, the simple nostalgic package will have to suffice: it has for me.

'When the clash of swords echo,
The journey chasing the past ends and The journey to know today begins.
One soul seeks another and Pledges their sworn friendship to another.
One mystery begets the next and the doors of fate are opened.
"You are free to sever the chains of fate that bind you...." '


-The Legend of Dragoon Introduction
When one should consider an RPG adventure game for the original grey PlayStation, the most obvious role-playing game the casual gamer would state will probably be Final Fantasy VII. However, a game that is often considered "a cheap clone" comes to my mind more readily: The Legend of Dragoon. The Legend of Dragoon could easily have gained the same level of fame as the final fantasy series, except for two factors: bad timing, and the lack of sequels. The latter of these two factors will be addressed later, but it is worth noting the first disadvantage TLOD (as The Legend of Dragoon is often abbreviated to, and will be the term used during this review form this point onwards). Basically, the Final Fantasy series left Nintendo due to the N64 using a cartridge based system, and transferred to Sony's PlayStation. While this have attracted fans to the PlayStation, it may have took centre stage and made other games on the console appear insignificant. It really is a shame, for TLOD easily matches, and in some respects surpasses, the Final Fantasy Games that can be found on the original PlayStation.

Firstly, the graphics are well worth noting. They are doubtlessly the most beautiful graphics that I have seen on the PlayStation, and they in some respects surpasses games on the current generation of consoles. The game's graphics are largely 2.5d in that you are in a 2 dimensional environment but with 3d models. I always compared games like this to how certain scenes in King Kong would have been filmed (basically the actors acting in front of a projection of other footage). Now, these images are scaled and textured to an extremely high quality, especially by the Console's Standards, with the only notable graphical glitches being clipping during certain animations in some battle sequences, and some minor issues you may see from time to time.

The important factors with any game's graphics however is clarity, and general appeal. For myself, the recent Call of Duty Games do not have the worlds most appealing graphics despite the immense detail. Some fans of newer consoles may comment on TLOD appearing "dated" but remember this: they gets the job done. I do not recall ever spending time trying to figure out what something was supposed to be, unlike some games. Furthermore, the visuals and environments in this game are extremely diverse so it do not feel like one long dungeon, but a true adventure. Overall, to sum the graphical department up, the visuals are quite stunning and have aged much like fine wine. Whether or not they're appealing largely depends on the player's perspective, but they're not crippling by any means.

While you gaze upon the beautiful graphics, you may consider listening to the almost hypnotic beauty of the soundtrack. The composer utilized what can be called an orchestra style soundtrack instead of using songs in the pop culture. To the public knowledge, Takeo Miratsu had every song composed specifically for this game; if he hadn't then he concealed that fact well. Each song used fits the individual game environments to near perfection, and some considerably creates the appropriate mood.

However, when regarding audio within a game, the music is not the only focus: sound effects and, if present, voice acting must simply be acknowledged. The sound effects, while not nearly as memorable on the whole, works extremely well for what they are trying to achieve and can raise little criticism for casual gamers. There is a small amount of voice acting in this game: it can be found when you complete an
addition in combat ( which will be explained later) and specific cut-scenes. As far as the addition voice acting goes, it is only a few quick words, and perhaps a grunt or something similar, and it isn't bad, though perhaps it could get annoying after a while. The cut scenes, however, are a hit or miss. In one of the opening scenes, the voice acting is perfect for what the developers were trying to achieve.
However, in a few others like in a town called Flitz, the voice acting is atrociously bad at times. This shouldn't affect the overall game much since the voice acting is few and far between outside of battle. Overall, the soundtrack gets two thumbs and a pinky up.

The game-play in any games more complicated than the average Nintendo Entertainment System game is rarely a simple affair. This game's particular game follows the standard role-playing system on the most part: You travel from town to town, from one dungeon to another, proceeding with the storyline, buying and finding important gear, solving puzzles and engage in combat. In between each town /dungeon you travel on a linear path (to the most literal definition of a linear path) and you have a degree of roaming around each town. The controls are fairly good (trust me, controlling your character in The Jade Cocoon was an immense pain) and easy to pick up and play. The travelling and buying aspects of the game-play is fairly straightforward with little that is noteworthy.

The combat is fairly interesting and follows a basic turn based system much like a lot of other role-playing games. Your party will eventually contain seven characters with their own advantages and disadvantages with varying elements (which do impact how much damage you
will recieve/inflict), but in combat you get to use only three of them and one of these is a mandatory character (dart, your initial protagonist) that you're forced to use. After each character sustains so much damage, he/she will faint/die. After the battle, if you do not revive him/her, they are conscious again with one health point. If all three fighters are smitten by a superior adversary, then it is game over and you pick up from the last save point. This has always confused me because you got seven extremely deadly warriors, but if three are defeated, then apparently all hope is gone. Are the other four warriors incapable of mustering enough strength to finish the job? Each of the commands you utilize in combat do deserve a quick note though.

Whenever you attack, you use an addition. Additions are timed moves that each character must pull off to inflict maximum damage. In between battles, you get each character to select one addition to use (except your archer) in battle. When you attack, you have to time your hits according to what appears on screen to keep attacking. Sometimes an enemy will try to counter-attack, and your timings must compensate for that. Additions varies significantly from one another, and you must choose them with care. Each part of an addition you successfully completes gives you SP points which are necessary to turn into a dragoon.

Blocking/defending basically means you guard for that turn. When you guard in this game, your character will regain 10% of their health, reduce incoming damage by 50% of what it would normally be, and prevent status changes like poison.  Items simply allows you to utilize one of a maximum of 32 items you can carry around with you. It should be noted some attack items requires you to press a certain button as fast as you can to increase the damage it does.

Running away...exactly as the name implies. It may or may not work like in most games. Nothing special to say about it.

Dragoon mode...the dragoons are a major part of the storyline, and essentially what you will need to win this game without grinding for countless hours. When you turn into a dragoon, your attack and defense are significantly increased (except to a few foes). In dragoon mode, you can either do a glorified addition or use a powerful spell that has a 15-30 second animation sequence. Sometimes a yin/yang symbol will appear which means you turn your entire party into Dragoons simultaneously.

That is the basic combat system in brevity, and from a gamer's perspective somewhat unique, but still conforms to the standards you would expect. Sometimes a yin/yang symbol will appear which means you turn your entire party into Dragoons simultaneously. 

As a writer and avid reader, I regard story-lines in games as I would treat any novel. I do not like it when there are immense plot-holes, a plethora of undeveloped characters, poorly written text, bad translations etc. However, The Legend of Dragoon receives my vote for one of the greatest plots in video game history. If one was to try and make a novel using this plot, you would need to multiply the disks of this game by two in order to adequately convey it. It has a highly captivating plot with fewer holes than BB King's signature guitar. That is one of the biggest strength's and weaknesses of this game though: The plot takes a long time to complete and has no plot-holes that makes you go "what the (whatever your favorite explicit word is)". However, because the ending was encased in a titanium and chrome coat that fails to disappoint with its shine, there is no hopes for a sequel of any sorts.

The replay value of The Legend of Dragoon is immense. The average game should take someone, even if they know exactly what to do and mastered everything, 30-40 hours each time. Speed runs can be done but you have to literally fly through the dialogue, and even then you will be extremely lucky to clock 24-30 hours. After the initial play through, the main reason you would want to return to this game is to either complete the side-quests (like stardust) or to try and beta the game with a different strategy. This game isn't like a lot of first person shooters nowadays where you got to follow a very specific path to complete the game, but you have almost complete freedom in strategy.

To conclude a review that quickly covers a gem in the PlayStation library, here are my two cents on this game. It is nigh-on impossible to review because of the immense detail this game has, and it is simply difficult to do this game justice without playing it. This game, on average, will go for 40-60 dollars second hand if in good condition. The fact that the game takes four disks to hold is a testament to its magnitude for the time, but this makes getting the game annoying because you have an increased chance of a disk being damaged and rendering the game unbeatable. My own copy has a problem near the end of chapter 2 (aka disk 2) and parts in chapter 3 which makes the game nearly impossible to complete. However, if given the opportunity I would pay the sum of money for a good condition copy of this game in half a hummingbird's heartbeat. If not for the mesmerizing storyline, game-play and beauty it withholds over a decade after release,  I would return to it for simple nostalgic purposes. I must have plugged away countless 360 degree turns of the clock's hands with a Sony controller in my hand moving through a true adventure of a game. If you own a PlayStation of any kind and wants to play through an adventure, hunt down a copy of this game. Perhaps a re-release is in order, but for now, the simple nostalgic package will have to suffice: it has for me.

'When the clash of swords echo,
The journey chasing the past ends and The journey to know today begins.
One soul seeks another and Pledges their sworn friendship to another.
One mystery begets the next and the doors of fate are opened.
"You are free to sever the chains of fate that bind you...." '


-The Legend of Dragoon Introduction
Vizzed Elite
A Lone Samurai


Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'

Registered: 05-01-11
Last Post: 4175 days
Last Active: 2337 days

(edited by Redrunelord on 06-07-11 03:42 PM)    

Links

Page Comments


This page has no comments

Adblocker detected!

Vizzed.com is very expensive to keep alive! The Ads pay for the servers.

Vizzed has 3 TB worth of games and 1 TB worth of music.  This site is free to use but the ads barely pay for the monthly server fees.  If too many more people use ad block, the site cannot survive.

We prioritize the community over the site profits.  This is why we avoid using annoying (but high paying) ads like most other sites which include popups, obnoxious sounds and animations, malware, and other forms of intrusiveness.  We'll do our part to never resort to these types of ads, please do your part by helping support this site by adding Vizzed.com to your ad blocking whitelist.

×