Its visuals are up to the current standard, but Legaia 2: Duel Saga can best be described as a throwback to the role-playing games from five years ago, which themselves weren't much different from RPGs dating back to the early '90s. That's because this popular genre is born out of some solid conventions, even though some of these have become harder to accept over time. On the one hand, Legaia 2 has a strong cast of anime-inspired characters, a good story, and an interesting combat system. It's also lengthy and at times very challenging. These are exactly the sorts of things that fans of the genre look for. Yet on the other hand, Legaia 2 exhibits many of the most frustrating, most dated traits of console role-playing: countless random battles, a generally slow pace, and repetitive gameplay. In spite of all this, Legaia 2 is still a good game that can be recommended to hard-core fans of console role-playing. But it's suitable only for that crowd.

You'll guide Lang and his various companions in a lengthy, treacherous quest.

As is the case in many RPG series, Legaia 2's connection to its predecessor is purely thematic. The sequel doesn't require or even expect you to have played the original, which was released in the United States for the PlayStation back in early 1998. If by chance you did play Legend of Legaia, you'll find that the sequel offers a similarly dynamic-looking combat system, which remains central to the gameplay. Beyond that, Legaia 2 introduces a new hero--an intense teenager named Lang, or whatever you choose to name him instead--who'll join forces with other characters in his quest, including an emotionally distraught girl named Maya and a weathered martial artist named Kazan. Early on, Lang leaves the safety of his humble village in an effort to recover the village's life-giving relic, which has been stolen by a mysterious man with gold eyes. But, as things go in role-playing games, matters of even graver importance eventually arise, and soon enough Lang and company will find themselves not just saving a village, but saving the world. Along the way, you'll learn a lot more about each of the game's main characters and also see them grow much more powerful. You'll also learn all about a race of people called the Mystics--branded with elaborate tattoolike birthmarks, these people are fused with sentient elemental forces called Origins.

Structurally, Legaia 2 works like many other role-playing games. You move from point to point on an overworld map, and new areas are revealed over the course of the game. Within most areas, you'll guide your party of up to three characters (represented by just a single character at a time) down winding or even mazelike paths, often stumbling upon random encounters with enemies, and you'll sometimes break from the main trail to find hidden treasures. The plot unfolds using fully 3D cutscenes that seem to serve as a reward for your hard work slogging through all the combat. In between the predominantly dangerous areas, you'll explore towns where you can buy and sell equipment, chat with the local populace, and relax a little. Most of the game's dialogue is spelled out in text onscreen, translated adequately from the original Japanese, though you'll actually hear the characters speak during combat sequences.

The combat in Legaia 2 looks good, but you'd better get used to seeing it.

Much of your time spent playing Legaia 2 will be in battle against various foes, so it's a good thing the combat sequences look good and offer some depth. When you run into a random encounter, the scene shifts to a close-up view of your characters and their opponents. Combat is purely turn-based, and unless you're ambushed, at the beginning of each round you'll get to input commands for all your characters. You can use items, go into a defensive posture, try to run, unleash one of your symbiotic Origin's special abilities, but usually you'll just fight. Selecting the fight command lets you then input a sequence of moves by pressing up, down, left, and right in a particular order using the D-pad or left analog stick. These four directions correspond to different types of attacks that your character can execute, and the total number of attack commands possible is largely determined by the character's experience level. Experimenting with different directional combinations will reveal a number of different special moves unique to each character. These flashy-looking combos deal more damage than just random strings of normal attacks, and they sometimes have other properties, like a random chance to stun the target.

More importantly, there are numerous types of these combos, and knowing when to use the different types is the key strategy in battle. Normal arts will be your most common attack type. You're free to use these as often as you like, and using them makes your character accrue AP, or action points. AP are then used to trigger various more-powerful types of arts: You can discover super arts that are stronger than normal arts, you can learn hyper arts that are stronger than super arts, pairs of characters can use variable arts that are stronger than hyper arts, and mystic arts are the strongest of all. Experienced characters can execute multiple types of arts in a single attack, leading to impressive and highly damaging results. Discovering new arts and then balancing normal arts with more powerful ones can make the combat quite rewarding at times.