Buying Advice: The Legend of Dragoon

Hey guys,

I know a guy selling the PS1 classic "The Legend of Dragoon", he has $100 on it (decent price for a PAL copy, I live in AUS so there is no point getting a much cheaper NTSC copy). I've never played it but I loved the Final Fantasy games on the PS1, should I get it? WIll I be able to get into it not having played it back in its hey day? Should I just make a fake american account and get it off PSN for $10 instead? Having a physical copy is so much nicer though!

Advice?

Thanks!

Paying $100 for a game that isn't a collector's piece is kinda nuts, if you ask me. The $10 copy would do fine.

The game has some pretty bad voice acting but it does manage to get several things right that make it kind of an endearing piece of work. Soundtrack, overall plot, environment, character design - all are pretty good. Some of the voice acting is pretty terrible and the final areas (from my own recollection) are horrendously tedious. But overall, it's a decent game, and if you're in for a good fantasy game, you could do far worse.

Thanks for the advice, yeah I suppose you're right $100 is pretty insane.

@Basinboy: In all fairness, a PAL copy of Legend of Dragoon is a collector's piece. This game was very common in North America and Japan, even had re-releases via Greatest Hits and such. But in the PAL region, it had only a limited print and was not widely available in stores. It has always been a rare item. Not as rare as Blockids, for example; but has consistently been priced anywhere from $100 used or $200-250 sealed, sometimes more.

@DaHaloGod If you're not into collecting, then you might as well just get a digital copy off the US PSN. Much better option if all you want to do is play it.

Collecting games is a very expensive habit anyway, as I can attest. I have both NTSC-J, and NTSC-U (Greatest Hits) versions of this game. Had the PAL version many years ago. I think it was AU$140 retail when I bought it new. I sold it for $170-ish about 5-6 years ago.

@Lhomity: Thanks for the advice, I'm sort of a collector in that I like to own an array of the best games each of the consoles I have has to offer and I'm especially attracted to The Legend of Dragoon given that its a JRPG (a genre which introduced me to gaming) and from an era where the genre was arguably in its prime. But the collection I have is very much still in its infancy only about 10 titles for the PS1, 20 or so for the original Xbox and 40ish for X360.

I'm not interested in amassing giant hordes of every game I can get or owning games simply because they're rare and may have high monetary value. But my gut is telling me I should heed your wisdom and not get myself too into collecting haha, I've only recently started researching into 'gems' from previous generations. I think that's a sign its starting... I should get out while I still can! :P

I'm gonna say skip The Legend of Dragoon, just because - and this is my opinion - it's possibly one of the most generic JRPGs ever made. The voice acting is cheesy (definitely not a surprise there, considering it's a PS1 game). the gameplay is severely unbalanced I believe, because having to constantly defend to gain health back while you're also taking an unnecessary amount of hits, while the combo system is overtly precise, is a bit of a problem for me. You don't even get to see a turn order for what is essentially a turn-based RPG, and that's a strategic problem. The visuals are pretty, sure, but that's about the only thing I don't have a problem with. The story and characters are very forgettable, and the villain is obvious right from the beginning, and it never throws you for a loop or anything. The equipment balance is also bad. Your items are severely limited in terms of how many you can carry, and the amount of space you have for armor pieces you can hold in total is larger than it needs to be. I don't think it's a horrible game by any means, but I think people have WAY too much nostalgia for it.

Damn son, I'm from Australia too and eBay pricing is through the ROOF! $100 to $200?!?!??!.... get the $10 version through the PSN store mang. Don't be the sucker who pays for these kinds of things, because than everyone will start abusing it.

This game is remembered for a reason, very strong story, characters, twists ... The power and equipment management is quite generic. The combat system uses a similar device as in Shadow hearts where you have to time the press of a button for maximum effect. The system seemed strange to me but you get used to it fast as it's quite forgiving.

Haha. I loved "The Legend of Dragoon"! There was something about the combo system and rough boss battles that just stuck with me. Granted I already own a copy from when I was a kid and I'm not sure how rare it is, but I'm not sure it's worth spending $100 just to collect. There has to be a cheaper option; for instance do you have it on the Playstation network in AUS? If you aren't sure it'll hold up to your current gaming experiences I would suggest that if you can THEN explore other options if you MUST have the physical copy.

@Rizer: Nah we have a pretty poor range of PSone classics on PSN over here in AUS and the Legend of Dragoon isn't offered here. But I've heard its relatively easy to make a fake american account and get access to much more, so I will probably just do that. From the way people talk about tLoD it must be pretty amazing even with the nostalgia factor, so I'm definitely keen - I'll probably end up getting other classics from PSN too like 'Xenogears'.

........it's $10 on psn.