a game with a huge potential ,but it never lived up to its potential. A title that I am really very happy to see again.
Years later and much to our initial surprise, a follow-up was announced and it appeared that the game had more secret fans than public ones. A popular underground favorite on message boards, newsgroups, and other such gatherings, the critically hacked first installment was in fact, a much-appreciated success (or at least, in silence it was). Weary but open-minded, I quietly sat in curiosity to see what measures could be taken to improve upon the original, while maintaining the same cautious nervousness that I felt when the game was first mentioned across the wire.
Luckily for me, I wasn't expecting too much. As it made what I did experience in Legaia 2: Duel Saga all the more sweet. As I continued to play, I noticed that there had been plenty more positive changes than remaining negativities. Though the game was far from perfect and is certainly not among the PS2 elite in terms of the RPG hierarchy, what it does offer is some decent time-wasting adventure: even if it does venture on the side of repetition.
Story
Sure the plotline is a bit cut and dry, but if there's anything the years have taught us, it's how to embrace the fact that most RPGs focus on the "guy/girl who can save this planet/reality from some kind of power hungry king/madman/entity." Beginning in a small arid village called Nohl, Legaia 2 is the tale of the hero Lang and his buddies. A member of the village militia and protector of the town's Infinite H2O supplying Water Crystal, Lang is suddenly tossed into a monster infested land when the crystal he protects his stolen right from under him.
Stolen by a mysterious traveler named Avalon, the theft of the Water Crystal soon plunges the land into an abysmal state. The sun is eclipsed; the monster population increases, and people all over the world are slowly being overrun by an approaching darkness. Bound by the duty of protecting the crystal and a need to protect his village, Lang sets off into the world to get the crystal back and end the mayhem around the countryside.
As you would expect, the twists and turns from here aren't too numerous. In fact, it?s a straight forward as it gets. Progressing through the somewhat canned story is like watching a rerun of your favorite episode of Matlock; you already know who did it, it's just the journey of getting there that fuels your desire to continue. Without giving too much away however (and yet, still giving everything away), there's plenty to be discovered -- Things aren't as they seem, allies you didn't think were allies are, and Avalon is much more dangerous than you first think. Heard all this before? Yeah, me too? let's move on!
Gameplay
The real star of Legaia 2 is the Tactical Arts System. Reminiscent of Zell Dincht's fighting game-like combination moves from Final Fantasy VIII, Duel Saga's rendition of the technique is slightly more complicated. Broken down into five different classifications, what arts you choose and how you perform them is key to inflicting the most damage in battle.
Learned through scrolls, Arts combinations, and story-based events, the different techniques can all be chained together to form bigger more powerful attacks and some serious ass whipping on the party's behalf. Though most of us (me included), will find one or two combos we prefer over the rest of selections, the massive variety of possible combos are almost mind-blowing. If you're not into the whole combo system though, you can stick with your basic attacks like Up, Down, left, right, and your character will make their move in those appropriate directions. It's a fantastic system, and when mastered can make for an awesome series of creature bullying.
Unfortunately the rest of the game's meat doesn't quite compare with the battle engine. Packed with mini-games like cooking and gardening, you can create new items and dishes for use during combat sure, but when compared to titles with similar features like Suikoden and Harvest Moon, these mini-game's uses are easily dwarfed. Similarly, the need to use an item you create in battle are few and far between as you become more prolific in attacking. As your characters will take fewer and fewer damage points, while you learn the combat system. Which reminds me of how unbalanced some of the areas are in terms of jumping between difficulty settings (especially so in the beginning).
The only other major gripe I have is that there should be more battles than what we end up with. Though it could be in direct response to the battle-minded action of the first game, Legaia 2 is the complete antithesis of games like Grandia Xtreme. Where in that game, it appeared you had no breath between battles and skirmishes, you'll end up with plenty of opportunities to relax in here. Despite the difference in approach by these two games however, they left me with the same word springing to mind as I played them: Repetition.Duel Saga is full of dialog, city walks, and vast open expanses that see nothing more than an occasional battle. And while not everyone may agree with me, it's always been my philosophy for RPGs that if you find yourself walking around looking for fights more so than trying to advance the story, it's because there's something missing. In Legaia's case, it's the slow-paced nature of world exploration and the lack of action between those moments. It was somewhat baffling to me that the developers would put together such a great gameplay engine only to under-use it.
Graphics
I'm not sure if it?s the lack of variety in different areas that you can travel to, or the far-off nature of the overworld map, but the visuals in Legaia 2 aren't impressive in the least. In fact, I think it's the biggest deterrent contributing to holding this game back from the mainstream audience. Liken to a PlayStation One game in high resolution, the models and obstacles in the environments are too small to appreciate and there's a lack of detail that finer RPGs like Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts toss around like horseshoes.
Come to think of it, the amount of detail in the game is at such a sub-par level that the dungeons and cities are almost boring to walk through. Saved only by the conversation and abundance of items and goodies to find in the nooks and crannies, the surrounding areas are so bland and uneventful, that it made me re-think how much I enjoyed this.
The battle graphics are a different story all together. More detailed and packed with pyrotechnics, the still-basic character models are a better example of how to properly handle a game like this. On a humorous note, Legaia 2: Duel Sega can at the very least claim the mantle of "most realistic-looking hands" in the entire PlayStation 2 RPG universe. Why couldn't the rest of the game look as good as the opposable thumb and accompanying units?
Truthfully the game isn't as bad looking as it may sound, but with the huge leap in visual presentation over the last year or so, Legaia 2 doesn't appear to have wanted to catch up. Too bad.
Sound
A very important aspect in any Role-Player, the soundtrack here is not epic enough. More relaxed than Owen Wilson, the tunes were apparently inspired by some of the more prolific adventures of the Genesis RPG days. Subtle even when approaching key moments in a "dark" plot, the heavy piano just didn't seem to fit.
It's obvious that the composer listened to a lot of jazz when piecing together the score for this one, but it ignores the first rule of jazz and videogame RPGs -- don't mix them. It didn't work in Breath of Fire III and it doesn't work here. At least the sound effects are decent, and there's a notable attempt at spatial separation for surround sound users (not true support, just simulated).
Closing Comments
In spite of all my criticisms, Legaia 2 is a nice change of pace from the usual turn-based RPG fare. Much more interactive than the typical genre entry, there's enough ingenuity and exploration here to persuade fans to give it a try. It's a shame that more development time wasn't spent with this actually, as a closer view to the action and an adjustment to the battle frequency would have done wonders for the sheer playability of it all.