The Legend of Dragoon

While many of its key points could've been better, Legend of Dragoon is still a satisfying journey from start to finish

 

Developer:  SCEA
Publisher:  SCEI
Release Date:  Jun 11, 2000
Platforms:  PS
Genre:  Role-playing


 

Legend of Dragoon shows a world that has a lot of heart, but it's not to say that this game doesn't have its share of problems. While its gratifying storyline and enjoyable game play mechanics are definitely attention-grabbers, there are clearly many things, like voice acting and character development, this game could've been better on. But, if you're patient enough to get through all that, Legend of Dragoon can turn into an unforgettable experience.

 

Endiness is the fantasy continent where the game takes place. You play as Dart Feld, a warrior focused on a mission of revenge, from what happened on his hometown of Neet when he was still a child. His mother was killed during the destruction of their village, and Dart's recollection of the events always lead him to a creature called the "Black Monster," the one who destroyed Dart's village. Dart's mission is put on hold when his childhood friend, Shana is kidnapped by the kingdom of Sandora. He ends up rescuing her, and acquires a Dragoon Spirit, which grants the chosen user the ability to control dragons, and conjure powerful magic spells. Eventually Dart meets other people along the way, joining him in his quest to fight the kingdom of Sandora, while figuring out the mysteries of the Dragoons in the process.

 

Gameplay in Legend of Dragoon.

 

Legend of Dragoon has a great, solid story that is worthy enough to stand on its own. Some of the game's dramatic moments, plot twists, and revelations are pretty powerful, never losing their intensity. But overall, I felt like the game could've been longer. There's not much substance within the plot, and the transition from scene to scene is somehow fast-paced. That's kind of a bummer for me, because I was expecting more dialogue, and it felt like when you get to a major event in the game, all you get is a couple of lines in-between conversations, and then…next scene. This fast-paced storytelling leads to Legend of Dragoon's shallow cast of characters. There's not much room for character development. And for me, I felt like they should have explored on that more. I did say earlier that dramatic moments are kind of intense, but some of these bits between characters just seem so cliché. And you can't really avoid the cheesiness in role-playing games, but if they're really dull, they end up not having much effect on the plot itself. But overall, the game has a fulfilling storyline that many role-playing fans can appreciate.
 

The Addition Combat System is Legend of Dragoon's strongest point. This unique game play mechanic is really fun, and adds more color to the game's overall generic role-playing elements. Basically, additions are combo moves that a character can perform against the enemy. During battle, the character attacks, and a square appears on the middle of the screen. By pressing the X button at the right moments, you can successfully complete an addition. But be careful, because the enemy can counterattack during these sequences. Only by pressing the O button can you nullify the attack, and keep going from there. Constant use will improve these additions, and will most likely cause more damage next time. You will learn more of these abilities as you level your characters up, so it makes game play more entertaining.

 

 

The challenging part about this combat system is that it requires a great amount of precision. You have to press the button at the appropriate time to get the moves right. If you miss just one, the move never comes through, and when you miss the counter button, you take damage from the enemy. Additions get complicated as the game progresses, and would require more hand-eye coordination to pull off even harder moves, making things more frustrating. As for enemies, majority is more on the easy side, but boss fights are what makes battles exciting. They're no pushovers, I tell you. Additions are already challenging to master, and boss fights just add more difficulty to that. You could say that these events are what I enjoyed the most, and they're something worth looking forward to.

 

Other than the unique combat system Legend of Dragoon shows off, the rest isn't really revolutionary or anything. It just has a leveling up/experience mechanic and you get to unlock new abilities along the way. You will see some basic battle mechanics as well. In combat, it's just your standard commands, such as Attack, Guard, Escape, etc. Turn-based game play is implemented between playable characters' and enemies' actions in battle. You will also pick up Dragoon Spirits on your journey, and each playable character will eventually receive one. Basically when your spirit gauge is full, you can transform characters into Dragoons, making them much more powerful than in their normal state. You can fill your spirit gauge by performing successful additions on enemies. There's more content on Dragoons and additions as you progress through the game, but that's for players to figure out for themselves.

 

Oh, FMV.

As for the miscellaneous stuff, you can get weapons and armor for your characters, healing items, etc. Collecting Stardust in the game will grant you other helpful items, and yes; you can save your game when necessary. I was a bit disappointed about the game's world map though. In my experience of playing role-playing games, world maps were always massive in scale, and pretty much free roaming. Legend of Dragoon does have a world map, but it's pretty much linear and small, so I was left feeling indifferent about the whole thing.
 

Legend of Dragoon has got one of the top-notch FMV's for a Playstation 1 game. I was surprised of how well-done the game's various animations are. Movements are pretty realistic, though kind of rough around the edges. Characters interact in the game's world well, and most of the scenery is pretty detailed. The only problem I had is when I entered the world map; seeing the bland background was the only weak point of the game's environment.  Music is decent for the most part. It's all a mix of some rock and classical stuff, and some piano pieces sound satisfyingly mellow. However, I can't say the same for the game's terrible voice acting, although they did pretty well with the grunts and yelling out combo moves. But that alone isn't enough to cover up bad quality dialogue. Most of the time, characters tend to sound way too over dramatic, and some don't fit their roles very well. For example, I feel that Lavitz should have sounded huskier or Haschel could have sounded older. And Rose's orgasms--well, umm…I'll leave it at that. But despite the poor voice acting, the rest of the audio in the game sounds believable; footsteps, weapons, among other things were satisfactory.

 

 

So there are many key points about Legend of Dragoon that could definitely use some improvement, but this game is an outstanding role-playing game recommendable to many fans of the genre. There are memorable parts of the story that are hard to ignore, and it's easy for players to find amusement in its unique game play system. While weak voice acting, cheesy dialogue, and shallow cast of characters might wear on you for a while, I can tell you Legend of Dragoon is still a satisfying journey from beginning to end.
 

Rating: 80 /100

David Gabriel, NoobFeed