Good PS1 game just don't make games like that
But like last generation, this generation has more then one game at the top, last generations big timer FFVII shared the top with Xenogears, The Granstream Saga and Grandia, this generation has Legaia 2 on top together with Shadow Hears Covenant.
Now you should be enlightened enough to the kind of quality this game has to offer that I need no further explain.. so I'll go on with the scores!
Story: 10/10
Great, original story with just enough depth and plot twists.
Many characters to love and hate.
The story in short is you are a guy who has his physical body shared with the soul of a so called Origin, a powerful elemental demon. Anyone who has their body shared with an Origin is called a Mystic and has a tattoo-like birthmark on their body. You'll find more Mystics in the game, some good, some evil, the good will join you and the evil will try and kill you.
You have to awaken your dorment Origin before you can use it though, but no worry, you will wake it up and it will indeed kick ***.
System: 10/10
You can use any of the characters in your team to walk around as and you can use their Origins to interact with the environment to solve puzzles and so on, which is really cool.
There are many minigames to engage in too; from gardening (you plant stuff and harvest it), to cooking (you cook foods) to side jumping (it's a game where you have to jump from side to side better then your opponent) and other stuff.
You can buy and sell items, weapons and other equipment just like any other RPG but you can also rebuild and combine what you have to make different and new items, weapons and other equipment, which is good because then you can use your money to buy other things.
Battle System: 10/10
RPGs can either have hit or miss battle systems.. thankfully Legaia 2 has a hit in it's hands! It's battle system is much like the one in Xenogears, you use button combinations to make up attack patterns to deal out normal attacks, special attacks and combos. Then you have your Origin that works similar to how you use Summons in FFVII.
Graphics: 10/10
This game is from 2002 so one can simply not expect it to look as good as todays new games, but it does! It looks great and has lots of detail and special effects.
Character faces are all really well detailed and give life to the characters, unlike most games nowadays that mostly focus on the overall detail in environment and special effects.
The graphics engine take care of all cutscenes and do it well.
Fun: 10/10
I really enjoy this game, it's fun and looks good and is a joy to play.
RPG's nowadays lack that something special that make up good RPG's, they're trying to make as original games as possible and they deliberately leave out things that are good and should be there, this game on the other hand doesn't leave out the classic RPG elements that needs to be there and therefore does not lack what other RPG's of today do.
This is without any doubt a true RPG and any real RPG fan need to buy it, nay, must buy it, nay, shall buy it, NAY, they needn't buy it, must not buy it and shall not buy it because they already have it!
If you however do not have it and concider yourself a real RPG fan of any kind, find it, buy it, play it and love it.