A very good rpg by Son,y a very good first try, but had a few problems with FFVII
Thanks~
Rpgs were always very overlooked. In fact, a lot of people didn't really care. Rpg was just "that genre" of game that was out there. Of course, then came a game that changed Rpg history for life. That game was the epic Final Fantasy VII. Now, I'm not doing a review on Final Fantasy VII, but a game that came out shortly afuld say it's a copycat, and many could say "Go rangers go!" from the infamous Power Rangers. This was a game of many mixed feelings, and it was The Legend of the Dragoon.
The last two posts were babies compared to how en-depth I am about to go. I will also give some information on the storyline (you may or may not want to read, it'll go very in depth). I will also start trying to provide some vids on games, but some (Especially ps rpgs and up) I can't, but many of my older reviews, especially Snes will have some viddies! This game either had two titles: Sony's most epic game ever, or a complete rip off piece of s**t rpg. Now, I'm not one for supposin', but to be honest either seem very extreme. There has yet to be an rpg to top FFVII (which I disagree completly, FFX ftw yo?), but either way the "important people" think FFVII is the rpg-Jesus. So, this game coming out 2~3 years after Final Fantasy VII, and the characters have such a resemblance... well, the main character anyways.
\
Now I have to admit, there are some huge similarities. The hair. height, and the fact they wanted to work solo, it's so very similar. Anyways, this isn't part of my review yet, so I'll leave you to think if Dart is the reincarnation of Cloud or not.
The first thing I should cover, is the general storyline. At the end of the post I will give a better well done version of the storyline. Now, I've beat this game recently, so I know what I'm talking about (for once), and I figured it was best to post all this before it left my horrible excuse of a memory.
Pretty much, you start out as Dart coming back to his hometown, his 'Second' hometown, and you realize your childhood sister/sweetheart, Shanna, has been kidnapped by Sandora knights. (Find it ironic FFXI has San D' Oria as a nation). Anyways, the kingdom of Basil (Again, Bastok?) is trying to fight them and end a war in the region of Serdio. You go to the Hellena prison she is at and rescue her, meeting a friend named Lavitz who takes you to Basil to try and find more information on something that bothers Dart, the monster that killed his hometown, his father, and his mother, the Black Monster. Without ruining the game, the games story goes VERY MUCH deeper than that, as you progress throughout the game you unlock a special ability (Dragoons, oooo spoiler there!), and Dart realizes what his destiny really is. The game's storyline did -not- rip off FFVII, I must give it that. Infact, this is one of the better storylines I've seen in a while. Of course, like 90% of all games religion is evil in this game, pretty much. (Jp games onry). Now I can't really go too much indepth in the storyline with that except you are Dart, you have Shanna, Miranda, Lavitz, Rose, Haschel, Kongol, Albert, and many other players who fit into the storyline. If you wish to know more about the storyline, read at the end of the post.
Storyline Rating: 9/10, it had me engrossed, I put 70 hours into this and I could have put at least 200 if I wanted max level, etc.
Gameplay:
This is another part of the game that is far different from FFVII. You have basic world map, running features, etc, and a lot more real good CS with the best graphics of our time. Really, the game-play has to be the main reason I loved this game. You fight in a party of three, and your party members you're not using get a bonus 10% of the xp in that fight. I.e. You kill a monster and get 30 xp, Rose/Dart/Albert get 10 each, and everyone else gets 3 as a bonus. It's a very neat leveling system, but it is HARD TO LEVEL. It is almost impossible to get 60, but if you manage it you're main attacking will make your Dragoons pathetic and you'll have 5k+ hp, which is insane. That is a big downfall to the game play, while I'm at it. While everything is self explanatory, your average dungeons, storyline, world map, etc, the main part I wish to cover on "Gameplay" is the battle system. It's hard to level, and the max level is 60. After you're 45+ all Dragoons are worthless, and that kind of takes the fun out of it. Why? Because your Dragoons arn't based on YOUR STATS, no no, that'd make too much sense, right Sony? No your Dragoons have levels. Everytime you get Sp (I'll explain soon) that's basically xp for your Dragoon levels. lv1 dragoon you can be a dragoon for 1 turn, lv2, etc, and it caps at level 5. Getting max level is easy, compared to other things, but also rather dissapointing. Every level except 4 you learn a Dragoon magic, and while they are useful early on, at disc 4 almost all of it is worthless. Also, your Dragoons physical attacks arn't even based on the weapon you have equipped, but rather the Dragoon level. So Dragoons are very weak, which is dissapointing. Now, the reason I cover Dragoons first is because that is the only flaw in this fighting system in my opinion. It's turn based, clearly Agility affects how fast you go, Strength is Damage, Vitality, defense, basic stuff yeah? When it is your time to go you can use items (healing potions heal %'s, making the healing dragoon worthless, by the way), run away, fight, use dragoon, etc. But you don't "just fight" like in a FF game, no you have additions. What's an addition? Well you hit fight and a box appears on your screen and when the blue line hits the box outline you tap X, if it's orange that means counter and you hit O (if you fail that, your monster will counterattack you) This is the most original fight system I have ever seen. You have to do an addition 80 times to max it out, and it gets strong every 20 successes. Every level up it usually gives SP too. And usually people who move slow get more sp. Example: King Albert's final move does 202 Sp, Roses does 100. Because Rose can go 2.5 times before Albert goes once, making it fair, eh? Al in all the battle system is perfect almost. Dragoons suck, items are overpowered heal wise, but additions make it so damn hard it's okay. You'll spend hours just trying to master doing that. Anotehr flaw would be 75% of the xp you get is from bosses, not monsters. Boss gives 6k xp, monsters give 300. That is not an exaggeration, I promise you. Another final thing, 100 sp = 1 Dragoon gauge, I figured this is obvious, but yeah. The gameplay is amazing, not too many glitches, due to high def. CS you have to put discs in based on what area you are in... >>insert disc 2insert disc 3