PS1 REVIEWS: The Legend of Dragoon
However, other than its looks, this game is not nearly as polished as Square's marquee JRPG, nor was it ever as well-received as any of them. Yet, in some of its awkward delivery and various hiccups, there is a rather good game. Unfortunately, that game takes about two CDs to show itself.
#A13: The Legend of Dragoon:-
Genre: JRPG.
Publisher: Sony.
Developer: Sony.
"From the time the Dragon Spirit starts to shine, you have to accept your fate as a Dragoon"
One broad description of the plot can be that it's a Super Sentai story, with the seven Dragoons being this game's version of the Power Rangers, and that won't be much off the mark.
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| And like the Power Rangers, all heroes are color-coded |
The seven Dragoons and their individual stories and personalities make up the majority of the game's plotting, and that's not a bad thing. The three relationships that define the game are all reasonably strong: Dart's relationship with his childhood friend, the party's relationship with each other, and the Dragoons' relationship with the mysterious Rose.
Unfortunately, some of the plot is affected by awkward dialogue choices, terrible localization, and generally subpar translation. That is apparent in the extremely literal translation of Dart's love interest to "significant other", but is also obvious in many other instances.
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| The romance between Dart and Shana is reasonably strong despite the awkward dialogue |
Also, a weakness is the pacing of the game, which takes until the end of the 3rd disk to finally raise the stakes and provide a strong overarching plot. That's about three-quarters of the game gone by then, with 1 CD worth of stuff frankly being redundant.
"Our opponent is so enormous. We have to combine each of our strengths, or none of us will survive"
Taking its inspiration from Final Fantasy, it was obvious that this was always going to be a turn-based battle system. However, three elements differentiate this battle system from its peers.
First, and most importantly, is the "additions" attacking system. Additions are your standard attacking option, and all of them require you to push the Action button in rhythm with an on-screen prompt, similar to the system in the Super Mario RPGs. While this makes attacking a more involved process, two major flaws are readily apparent: You can't change additions in battle, and the timing and on-screen prompt are annoyingly hard. Still, the system does have its pros once you "get good".
Second, there is the Dragoon transformation ability that each party member has. Once you accumulate enough "Spirit Points" by attacking and defending, you can transform into the more powerful Dragoon form for some turns (depending on your Dragon level). This form increases your base strength as well as gives you access to powerful magic attacks, but it is not so overwhelming that it cheapens the game's challenge.
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| The Dragoon forms are not immune to damage |
Third, there is a limited inventory management system. With magic locked behind the Dragoon forms, using items serves as a kind of magic system in the game. Yet, due to the limited number of items you can carry, it both discourages you from using too many items and forces you to use them at suboptimal times.
These three elements combine to create contrary effects: normal battles are more annoying than usual, while boss battles can both be challenging and fun.
"You have given birth to sorrow, pain, agony, and our anger!"
Outside of battle, there isn't much to talk about in The Legend of Dragoon. Dungeons are linear affairs riddled with an acceptable random encounter rate, while the few side quests in the game are mostly forgettable. Upgrading your characters is based almost exclusively on leveling up and the usage of "Additions", which is a bit annoying since standby characters are left behind in some way. Also, there is no way to change characters mid-battle.
In general, this is a rather linear game that has a set path towards the end, with the only customization you can make being limited to which characters you choose before a fight and rather consequential accessory choices, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
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| Although boss battle can get challenging |
However, the menu system is a bit annoying, with too much time spent sorting out what equipment to wear and which "Additions" to use. More streamlining in that front would have been appreciated. Especially at the end, when some of the few side quests in the game require you to change discs.
"Rose has been carrying the weight of the world all alone while shedding tears of blood"
If the spiky-haired blond protagonist did not clue you on the influence of Final Fantasy VII on this game, then the polygonal models against hand-painted 2D backgrounds definitely will. This game looks like a mix of the first two PS1 Final Fantasy games in more ways than one.
Even in battles, with the larger polygonal models, it doesn't look much different. Not when making regular attacks, and certainly not with the (unskippable) mega magic attacks. This is not a bad thing, since Square's work was pioneering at that time, but it's frankly not as good. Both outside and inside battle, the polygonal models lack the charm and detail of other games, and they seem to be a bit "off". Not to any great degree, but they haven't aged gracefully at all and don't have any "charm" to fall back on.
This is not the case for the rather impressive CGI scenes, which are top-of-the-class as expected, but there are far and few in between to be consequential in any way.
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| Here is a classic sky beam |
More important is the game's soundtrack, which can be said tried to be different from its peers. The soundtrack, co-composed by Dennis Martin and Takeo Miratsu, tried to differentiate itself from other famous JRPGs and therefore leaned more on Eastern sounds and unconventional instruments. This resulted in a divisive soundtrack that I frankly appreciate.
While it lacks a truly brilliant song, and its battle themes are not spectacular, it does have several memorable tracks that stuck a chord whenever I heard them. "Lloyd's Theme" and "Tense Situation" were both tense tracks that conveyed the party's predicament, while "Royal Capital" is one of the many great city themes in the game that ground those places within the reality of the game.
In Conclusion:
The Legend of Dragoon was made with a clear brief: A Sony-made JRPG that can rival Final Fantasy VII. In that way, the game borrowed a lot from its rival without ever reaching that venerable status, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Even if this game did not come close to critically matching its inspiration, it was still crafted as a good JRPG with some unique attributes. With its unique music and action-focused attacking system, it did not imitate Square's JRPG more than on a surface level. Yet, it is in that surface-level imitation that the game mostly falters in its graphical looks. Today, we can see how ungracefully its polygonal characters have aged, and how muddy its backgrounds look.
Ultimately, while this game is not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, it was always good enough in both gameplay and story for most of its run time, and it could have even been great with better editing and tweaking across its many systems. Alas, we never got a sequel to the game, and this "Super Sentai" JRPG is not left as little more than a memory for many people.
Final: 7/10 (Recommended with caveats)
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| Oh, Meru, never change |
Pros:
- Solid story and characters.
- Power Rangers RPG
- Nice "Active" attacking system.
- Dragoon forms are cool.
- Nice challenging boss battles.
- Unique and very good soundtrack.
Cons:
- Weak localization effort.
- Limited inventory system.
- Regular battles are annoying.
- Linear dungeons and few customization options.
- Polygonal graphics did not age gracefully.
- Too many unskippable actions.
Tips:
- Choose "fast" transformation for Dragoon forms.
- Element weaknesses are very important for both enemies and allies.
- Use "Additions" for their power stat.
- Avoid utilizing the full party Dragoon transformation, since it reduces your options.
- Don't ignore your magic users, who will become more important in the later stages of the game.
- The last member's Dragon stone can be bought from the merchant's town once you get him.
- Don't neglect your standby characters.
- Don't neglect using attack items.
- Most of your healing will be done through items as well.
- One battle is really hard if you don't use an instant-death Talisman to cheese it.
- In general, boss battles will need some planning before you approach them.
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| Don't always depend on Dart |
Series:
For those reading one of my PS1 review blogs for the first time, here is the basic concept: I already reviewed both major Generation 4 consoles, and am now reviewing Generation 5 consoles. I already finished reviewing the Sega Saturn, so I am now reviewing the PS1. In these reviews, I take a top 100 games list and review the games that interest me in that list. This time, my review series is based on this list from Retro Sanctuary and other sources, since the PS1 can handle a list bigger than a top 100.
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| HULK SMASH |
Next Game:
Also, based on my experience with Vehicular Combat games that didn't age gracefully on the PS1, I suspect that I won't be completing this game either, but I hope I am wrong this time.
Stay Tuned
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