It's the kind of RPG that fans shouldn't miss
- Beautiful graphics and environments
- Wonderful Music
- Excellent production values
- Fun battle system with a variety of playable characters
Negative
- Random encounter rate is a bit high
- Battle system is almost button-mashing
- Moves at a slow pace
- AI sometimes weak
There's no denying that Legendia is one-eye catching game. It's a great RPG experience and made even better with its awesome looking environments, music and fun battle system. Despite not being the best of its class or genre, it's still a memorable adventure.
Legendia is situated in a fantasy world. The story isn't the main highlight of the game but once you get into it, it is worth following. The game stars Senel, a young man who with his sister is escaping a danger but ends up on the Legacy, a floating ship. Basically throughout the game Senel and his friends will fight to find Shirley, Senel's 'sister', a younger girl then he is. The story revolves around Shirley who is though to be the merines, which is though for some people to be a savior.
Party is up to 4 players in each battle, you can take Senel out of the battle party, but he's the easiest to use in battle. Other characters such as Will and Norma can be difficult to use since they use more magic skills and healing. But using Senel only, the game can turn into button-mashing since his combos are that way. Throughout the game more characters will join and they play separately which is a good thing.
There are a ton of encounters but the battle system is very rewarding. After a battle you will earn 'grade', the result of the battle you just did. If you defeated an enemy which being hit by a combo, or attacked its strong element, no character died, finish the battle within 10 seconds or full HP or TP you will be rewarded. But if you suffer in battle the grade will go down. In normal battle you earn normally about less than 1 grade, it's more like +0.15 or something and if you did badly it's minus. Every action in the battle has effect on the grade.
The climax bar is a very effective way to defeat your enemies without hurting you. This is best used against bosses to lower their health since they can be severely tough at times. Battle system is fought in 2D which can put some people off, but immediately turns some of them on with its fast moving and beautiful visuals. When moving on the map, you will encounter a lot of battles since you move at a slow pace. At least you can save when on the map which lowers the frustration. The AI is weak sometimes; mostly those who can fly keep moving even if you hit them, but the bosses AI is pretty good.
The graphics are simply impressive and very eye-catching. Everything is colorful, including the battle system, character/enemy and level design are top-notch. Sound is wonderful as well. Voice acting is great and the background music is very good. The dialogues are good and there is a lot of voice work. Cutscenes are good as well; the only thing that really doesn't fit is that the characters are like dolls everywhere. They aren't life like.
One will encounter some puzzles which make you use your mind. But this is a pretty useless idea since you can just give up and tell your other characters to do that for you. The view you get in dungeon and on the map is a bit short on distance and the forward view is very limited at times.
Tales of Legendia is an excellent, engaging RPG experience which is more than just worth playing. With beautiful graphics, music and a great combat system and worthwhile story, is enough to make you overcome can minor issues when it comes to pace and encounters but Legendia makes that up with everything that you should expect from a role-playing.
Graphics = 9.4
Really outstanding in almost everyway. Stunning looking environments and great enemy design. It's a fantasy game and characters should have looked better but overall beautiful.
Music = 9.3
Memorable background music. Voice acting isn't as great since it seems a bit off sometimes but overall nothing exactly noticeable for some people.
Presentation = 8.6
The cutscenes are great, and some anime cutscenes help. AI is a bit weak though, not bosses that is. Art design is good and so are the production values. Load times are ok.
Gameplay = 8.4
A 2D battle system which is a lot of fun but some button-mashing. There's a variety of different playable characters and no. of enemies. The world which set in is big and practically great score only to be held back by slow pacing and encounter rate.
Camera = 6.7
Does cause some problems in battle, since the camera is only focused on the character used. This can leaves some enemies and characters out of the action. When on the world map, the view can be limited.
Story = 7.6
It's a lengthy and worthwhile story which is helped by the cast of characters. There are RPGs with a much better story though.
OVERALL SCORE = 8.3 / 10
Looks and sounds awesome and a well crafted battle system make this Tales title a successful one. Though some minor issues hamper there is not reason why fans of the series or RPG fans shouldn't play this game. Why? Because it has almost everything you would expect from a role-playing.