PlayStation

The Legend of Dragoon

The Legend of Dragoon definitely lives up to the hype. While comparisons to FF are inevitable, LoD stands on its own as the game to play this year. It is an intelligent, intense, and challenging game that breaks new ground with its inventive battle system. These eighty plus hours of adventure shouldn't be missed by anyone.

In conclusion, The Legend of Dragoon is a great addition to the genre and should be experienced by anyone who likes great stories, challenging puzzles and events and fun gameplay.

I purchased the import of Legend of Dragoon a year before the U.S. version came out, and when I looked at the back, I thought to myself "Wow! What pretty screenshots!" Sadly, I never got around to playing it until a few months before the English version came out. Knowing what the Japanese game looked like, I was not disappointed with the English version because it was much better than some of the other 4-disk games….

Legend of Dragoon is een prima RPG met een nogal slechte vertaling en houterige voice-overs maar vooral een originele battle-interface, prachtige graphics en gruwelijk mooie CG movies. Geen enkele RPG-er zal zich vervelen tijdens deze game.

Un premier essai réussi de la part de Sony mais qui ne fera pas d'ombre à la série des Final Fantasy. On accroche facilement à cette histoire de créatures légendaires, et le système de combos lors des combats donne une personnalité à ce titre qui satisfera les amateurs du genre.

Legend of Dragoon truly fits the mold, where its whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts. Even more important than flashy elements, in the final analysis -- I found the game enjoyable, so much so, that I couldn't put the controller down until the very end (which took me about 45 hours to complete). To its credit, few RPGs as of late have entranced me to this level. The story was good enough to hook me, and in the end it proved to be well worth the price of admission. While Legend of Dragoon didn't exactly become the paragon of RPGs Sony intended, the end result is a "pretty good" game. If traditional RPGs like Wild Arms 2 or Legend of Mana haven't satisfied the gamer's penchant in you, Legend of Dragoon may just be the ticket.

Legend of Dragoon är ett bra RPG, om den saken råder ingen tvekan. Men det kunde ha blivit ett mästerverk, om Sony inte hade varit så fega. De har följt mallen hela vägen, och verkar anse att förändringens vindar alltid blåser åt fel håll när det gäller rollspel. Därför blir inte Legend of Dragoon mer än ett gediget hantverk, som kommer att tilltala alla som gillar klichéfyllda rollspel. Vi andra kan faktiskt klara oss utan det.

Malgré de bonnes idées (enchaînements manuels lors des combats, signaux annonçant les risques d'attaque, notification des accès vers les autres tableaux), Legend Of Dragoon souffre d'un scénario un peu trop classique, et n'a pas la magie d'un Final Fantasy IX.

Keine Sorge "Legend of Dragoon" ist eines des besten Rollenspiele, die hierzulande für die PSone erschienen sind und somit ein klarer Kauftip. Die Story als solches ist zwar keine Revolution in diesem Genre, aber ausgeklügelt und später immer mehr fesselnd, und auch das Gameplay stimmt. Die Effekte sind einzigartig geworden und stellen bereits alleine einen Kaufgrund dar. Viele Stunden Spielspass sind mit Sicherheit garantiert.

The other conspicuous feature of combat is Dragoon Transformation, and the spells and special attacks that accompany your neato sentai transformation into a winged, armored master of dragons. At certain points in the game, your characters acquire Dragoon Spirits, allowing them to transform into Dragoons. The transformation is powered by Spirit Points, which you earn by connecting with more (and more powerful) regular attacks. Once you transform, you can execute Dragoon Attacks, a variation on your ordinary combos based on a similar sort of timed button-tappping, or Dragoon Magic, the fun part, a set of powerful offensive and defensive spells.

After Final Fantasy VII hit the streets, RPGs finally got their due. As the laws of economics dictate, this spurred everyone to develop RPGs. Envying Square and touting similarly large-budget potential, Sony itself entered the fray with The Legend of Dragoon. While it's a good first try, Sony's inexperience with the genre shows through, resulting in a highly generic RPG with some out-of-this-world FMV.

Whilst not a bad try overall, The Legend of Dragoon holds nothing up to the likes of the Final Fantasy series, and while it looks great it is also beaten down by older games such as Grandia and Suikoden also. It will still fill a nice spot on the gaming shelves of RPG fans, as long as they are willing to accept that this will only ever be a decent title which has borrowed from the timeless classics of the past.

Dragoon is four discs full of contrived storytelling, repetitious action and RPG cliches. More importantly, it's an effective lesson on how to cash-in on a popular game franchise. Sony was hoping to unleash an RPG milestone on the gaming populace, and ended up embarrassing their entire internal development division with a game that not only refuses to distinguish itself from anything else out there, but steals all of its ideas from an established bestseller. If The Legend Of Dragoon is expected to leave any kind of legacy, it will be as Sony's attempt at buying their way into a crowded RPG market.

It may be the year of the Dragon, but it sure ain't the year of the Dragoon. You keep playing, waiting for something to change, things to develop, but that never happens. Despite the hype, Legend of Dragoon is a soulless creature, a subpar game held aloft by deceptive marketing. Don't trust it.

The one original concept I do like is how defending successfully replenishes a little bit of your health. It makes no physical sense mind you, but it sure helps when you're out of healing potions! All in all, this is a nice first try for Sony, but gamers should save themselves the $3.50 this game is worth and invest in a beer instead.