Mega Man Legends: Love it, or hate it.
Mega Man Legends on the PS1 was released Stateside in 1998 to critical acclaim and consumer rejection. In an extreme departure from it's 2D platformer roots, Mega Man Legends is best classified as an action RPG
Graphics:
An area where this game gets bashed frequently, I found there to be absolutely no problem. The blocky polygons work well with the anime inspired art style, as do the simplistic textures. Over all the graphics are easy on the eyes and easy on the hardware. In the ridiculous amount of time I've spent trying to cause slowdown (A problem in many a Crash title on the PS1) or texture fluctuation (A problem in the otherwise beautiful Soul Reaver) I found no problems at all, except for a few questionable animation choices
Rating: 9.5
Control:
This is the most frequently attacked part of the game. When talking about Mega Man Legend's control scheme words such as 'clunky' and 'counterintuitive' are frequently heard. In this case, your opinion is probably going to be influenced by your past gaming experience. If you played Quake on the PS1 or Saturn, after a trip to the options screen to change strafing to the L1 and R1 buttons, you'll feel right at home. If you were one to switch strafing on Quake to the D-pad (like me) You won't even need to do that. Even with Quake experience, turning will be a bit of a pain, until you notice that like in it's previous 3D Resident Evil games Mega Man Legends has a quick turn feature. Now if you don't have the Quake port or Resident Evil experience, It'll probably take a good 20 to 30 minutes to get used to the controls. If you have the patience to stick with it, you'll find the controls to be fluid (especially after you get the hang of the quick turn) My only REAL complaint is that using the lock-on forces you to remain stationary. However this is made up for by the fact that some of the weapons have a limited auto-lock.
Rating: 8.0
Camera:
I really don't see why people hate this game's camera... It is always in the same place in relation to Mega Man and pans smoothly. It's kinda funny. People bash the camera in this game, then turn around and praise the camera in Resident Evil 4 despite the fact that the camera in Mega Man Legends not only works in the exact same fashion, but also gives you a better view of what's happening on-screen. Go figure...
Rating: 10
Game Play:
As mentioned earlier, this is not just another Mega Man game. This game has depth. While it isn't a match to say Star Ocean or Chrono Cross (among other RPG greats), it's more than enough to compete with Zelda. Gameplay flow comes down to this:
Cut scene, Read some text, Dungeon crawl for a bit, shop, explore over world, cut scene, boss fight, cut scene, repeat
While this may seem boring, Mega Man Legends has dungeons that are complex and full of robots to dismantle and bosses that are both numerous and various. Furthermore, the over world is full if interesting and weird little quirks that can keep you entertained for hours. Little things like kicking ducks, trashcans, cats and cans can keep you entertained for hours
Rating: 10
Sound:
The music, while sparse, works well with the environments and adds to the mood when it's there. Despite this, there is nothing particularly memorable. The sound effects easily make up for the scarce music. Things like hearing the metallic steps of your enemies before you turn the corner, the grating sound of the mechanical doors in the dungeons opening to reveal a new area, the sound of weapons fire as you engage in a firefight, your mechanical enemies exploding after you deliver the finishing blow (sometimes accompanied by your enemy squirming as it explodes). Things like that are generally enough to make you forget why games almost always have music. The one exception to this rule is the god awful sound Mega Man makes when he walks. After a while it started grating in my nerves.
Rating: 8.0
Story:
While not deep by RPG terms, the story in this game is deeper than pretty much ALL the Mega Man games to date. I won't go into it much so as not to spoil it. The cut scenes used to aid in the telling of the story are rendered in the game engine, so don't expect anything as beautiful as the cut scenes from Final Fantasy VII. Despite this, the game has one advantage over the PS1 FF games: voice overs. The voice overs themselves sound really good for the most part. The major players in the game have some top-notch voice actors that manage to capture the characters emotions and essence rather well (Most notably Tron and Roll). However, many of the supporting cast have flat, stereotypical voice acting that truly grates on the nerves (Like the Mayor). Fortunately, most of the supporting cast only appear in one or two scenes. On top of the voice acting, during cut scenes the game renders facial expressions on the spot. No pre-rendered anything here. While this, again, is nothing compared to some of the expression work in some of the 'true" RPGs, it still manages to add some humor and endear you to the blocky, polygonal characters.
Rating: 8.0
Replay Value:
I have clocked over 150 hours on this game, and I know for a fact I STILL haven't done everything.
That says something
Rating: 10
Overall Impression:
This is a game that BEGS for analog support, and looks like a rain soaked puppy that just got kicked without it. This is one point where I can see why people don't like it. To add insult to injury, this game suffers from the same lack of "cool" as almost every Mega Man game I've played since Mega Man X2. And while the voice acting is well done, the fact that he sounds like a 12 year old kid might annoy many of the NES and SNES crowd. At the same time I have to note that this Mega Man game has the best voice acting of ALL the PS1 Mega Man games. Those two minor gripes aside, this game comes together to form an impressive first attempt at a 3D Mega Man game. An early attempt that was FAR better than the crapfest that was Mega Man X7.
Overall Score: 9.0/10