Review

Legend of Dragoon Review
By: Michael Lu
10 out of 10!
Plot: The plot is very complex. As each totally different plot at the end, all come together, this game will keep you guessing intil you finish the game.
Gameplay:This game may take you over 40 hours of play, and never getting bored, as long as you keep trying against the same stupid boss 50 times! (curse you Lenus) Fun and violent! (lol)
Graphics:The graphics are very good for an old game, and some of the scenes are soooo cool!
Sound: The songs are catchy and aren't those annoying ones, that make you go mad!
Value:Worth every penny.
Total:10 out of 10!

Legend of Dragoon Review
By: Game Spot
6.4 out of 10!
Plot:The Legend of Dragoon starts out the same way as many other RPGs. The spiky-haired Dart already has one vendetta against the mysterious Black Monster, who killed his father, but it's time he had another. For unknown reasons, the Sandora Empire burns down his village and imprisons his childhood friend, Shana. Infuriated, Dart impulsively storms out to rescue Shana. Shana's kidnapping is merely the tip of the iceberg of a much grander, more sinister motive. During his globe-spanning quest, Dart is transformed into a Dragoon, a warrior cloaked with the power of the Red Eyed Dragon. To defeat the Sandora Empire, Dart will have to find the other six Dragoon Spirits and people to use them so the Legend of Dragoon may be fulfilled. Along the way, the magical septet will learn about one another, accrue additional vendettas, and save the world.
Graphics:Legend of Dragoon lacks a visual style to make it interesting to look at - the character designs are missing personality and innovation, with characters often only describable by the color of their clothing. The world, too, follows the same line of thinking, resulting in a boring world rendered by some rather talented 3D artists. The large number of CG movies that fill the game's four discs are technically impressive, but they still lack that certain visual edge needed to really captivate you. The real-time 3D graphics, however, aren't as technically impressive as the prerendered stuff. Fraught with rendering errors that seemed to disappear long ago from most other PlayStation games and being low on textures, the game's real-time graphics fit somewhere in between the flat-shaded sameness of Final Fantasy VII's art and Final Fantasy VIII's textured wonders. The models themselves are blocky and heavily jointed. As Legend of Dragoon is generally devoid of magic, the minor spell effects aren't impressive in the least, and the Dragoon magic sequences are overdone and overlong.
Sound: The game's sound is neither technically nor aurally impressive, relying on hackneyed instrument samples and uninteresting musical composition to push the game along. While token voices do appear in CG scenes or when characters call their moves, they don't particularly add to the experience.
Value:Worth every penny.
Total:6.4 out of 10!

Legend of Dragoon Review
By: RPG Dreamer(Chi Phan)
9 out of 10!
Plot:The story starts off with our hero Dart, who's returning to his village after a few years away. Apparently, Dart was off on a trip to find the killer of his parents called the Black Monster. With little success, Dart has now returned from his long trip to the village he calls home, Seles. Just as you would know it, Dart arrives in time to see his village burned down and his childhood friend Shana kidnapped by the Empire of Sandora. Why was Shana kidnapped?? No one knows. So here the journey begins with Dart travelling to rescue Shana. Along the way he will meet up with a character by the name of Rose. Rose is apparantly a Dragoon. A person or human that have the power of a dragon and can tame a dragon. Whether it's fate or a bunch of b.s, it turns out that Dart too is a dragoon, in fact all the character that Dart meet along the way are somehow Dragoon too. We'll just ignore that since this is afterall a rpg game. Now the story starts off slow but quickly pick up pace. This is one of the best developed story I've seen or read in a long time. What is so great about the story is the plot twist, revelations, the who's gonna die and who's gonna live. The story keeps you on your toes and guessing at every turn. The story takes a long time to unfold but it's worth it. I was caught by surprised many times in this game. Who the Black Monster was, who the real villian behind Shana kidnapping is, and who the real villian behind the villian that is behind Shana kidnapping is. You get the idea. There's also some great sub or hidden plot lines much in the way of Squall and Laguna relationship storyline that makes you wanting to know more but the game won't give it too you. In the end of the story, you want to learn more about the Dragoons and more about the characters themselves and what happened to them. This is a great story that cries out for a prequel more than a sequel. The only fault I have with this game is that they try so hard to jam down Shana and Dart as a couple down our throat. Worst that Rinoa and Squall. Other than that, great story. Probably the best rpg story that I have enjoyed. The ending wasn't as good as it really doesn't give you any clues to some of the unsolve mystery. Maybe a sequel is in the making??
Graphics:The graphics is pretty much like FF8. You have a 3-D rendered background with detailed characters. Or detailed as a playstation can give you. The background graphics are very good in this game. At the beginning you don't really notice much as there's hardly any CG/FMV or any spectacular spells. As the game progresses down to the third disc, then you start to notice the graphics even more. The spells or Dragoon magic spell are spectacular. The FMV/CG are good too but nothing that you haven't seen before. The game really goes all out on dragoon magic spells or item spells. The downside is that this game really lack FMV/CG. Yes there are some or lots but most of them are way too short or goes by so fast that you don't really see anything at all. None that gives you a lasting impression anyways. Most of the impression of the graphics comes from background graphics and dragoon spells. A game that has 4 CD should at least have some major FMV/CG that says" hey this is why this game is 4 CD long." Which is what this game doesn't do.
Sound: Music wise, very good. Not as rich as say FF8 or so but good nevertheless. Some of the tunes are really nice. My personal favorite is the Bale Town tune. The drawback is that there's really not alot of tune selection. I think about 8 or 9 tunes in total. I could be wrong though. Still you need to have more music tune for a 4 CD game. As voice over goes, this is one of the best. I would put it up there with Metal Gear Solid. When listening to the voice overs, you kinda get the feeling that Sony is putting the stamp Made in the U.S.A on it. (lol)
Gameplay:Now where to begin with the gameplay. Well, the game uses random battles and non random battles. For the non-random battles, you have to touch the enemies to get into a fight. The game itself is very straight forward. It gives you an option like with FF7 on whether to have a green arrow showing you the way/exit and stuff if you have problem finding where the exit is. The world map travel is straightforward too. Just follow the dotted line to your next destination. Fights between enemies are pretty easy. The game itself is pretty easy for regular rpgers. The one thing to note is that when you get hit with a status ailment such as fear or poison, you're pretty much in a status state until you get an item to get rid of your status ailment or visit a town. This can be really annoying. Battle System: Okay, this is the main meat of the gameplay. First off, you can have 3 members in a party fight. You get up to 7 members to choose from. Of course each member has his or her own unique contribution. The battle system is broken into the human stage and dragoon stage. We'll go with human stage first. Like with most rpgs, your choice of menu is attack, defend, and items. The only thing you don't have is magic. You can only get magic in the dragoon stage. The fights are in a turn base although sometimes the enemy will cheat and take multiple turns. The game uses a unique system called Additional Attack system. Think of it as your combo attack or special attack. Every character starts off with one Additional Attack Skill. Except for your archers as they don't have any additional skills or special attack. When you attack, you will see a blue square at the center screen with a large rotating square collapsing into the blue square in the center. Your job after selecting attack is to press the attack button again but at the same time the large square collapses onto the square in the center. If you do it correctly you will get off a special attack. Each time you do it correctly you get one additional skill points. Once you have enough additional skill points. Your special Additional Attack level goes up. Of course depending on what Additional Attack you are using, you may have to do a combo of collapsing square inorder to get off one special Additional Attack. Now sometimes the enemy will use a counter attack and the blue large collapsing square will turn to red. You will then have to press the cancel button instead of the attack button at the right time. If done correctly you will continue on with your Additional Attack. If not, then you get hit back instead. This can be hard or easy depending on the Additional Attack you are using. It takes quite a long time to learn how to use this system properly. That's pretty much the basic of the human character fight. Now for the Dragoon fight. Each time your human character attack, they gain SP points. Once the SP bar is filled up you can change to a Dragoon. A Dragoon is an elemental stronger version of your human character. There are positive and negative about this. The positive is that you can use stronger attack and use elemental magic. Negative is that you can't use items, defend, escape, ect. Just magic and attack. Dragoon magic are basically strong elemental summon magic. When a Dragoon attack, you see a somewhat radar looking thing with a needle in it if you will call it that. The needle will spin around and around. You have to press the attack button again at the exact same point as to where the needle started off once it starts spinning. You have to do this correctly three times. Once done correctly, you will get off a Dragoon special attack. Again, this will take some time to learn correctly. Overrall, the game is pretty much basic rpg turn base stuff with the exception of the Additional Attack Skill System. That will frustrate many gamers from time to time including yours truly. But it can also be pretty fun too.
Value:Worth Every Penny
Total:9 out of 10!

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