05/02/01

Legend Of Legaia

Platform: Playstation

Players: 1

Supports: Analog Control

Developer: Contrail Inc.

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

    The Playstation is well known for some of the best RPG's to ever hit the market. One of these games happens to be Contrails Legend Of Legaia. Contrail, a very new company at making RPG's gave the RPG market a shot and hit the sweet spot with this underrated RPG hit.


    The story of Legend of Legaia happens to be one of the best I have seen in some time, it kinda takes me back to why I loved RPG's in the first place. Having one of the best plots in all of RPG history, and you can quote me on that. Here let me explain the basics of Legend of Legaia. God created the heavens, the earth, and the seas. After creating all things int he universe God created humans to rule over this world (No this is not from the bible). While possessing the wisdom of the gods, humans were physically weaker than the wild beats, and impulsive at spirit. Many times the humans came close to death and leaving the world forever. Concerned about the humans, the gods gave them a mighty force with which to aid them. It was a Seru. Since the dawn of time itself. Humans have lived peacefully with the Seru side by side. The Seru always obeyed the humans and gave humans incredible strength. When not worn by a human, a Seru would look much like a stone figure, however when a human touches a Seru it instantly attaches itself to that human and gives them new abilities. The history was peaceful, both living gracefully side by side, however this era came to an end. Appearing from out of nowhere, the Mist covered the land, bringing to an end the world of prosperous symbiosis between humans and Seru. After the Mist had came, the Seru who at once obeyed humans, began to rebel and attack them. The Seru attacked humans at will, and when attaching themselves to humans, they had the power to control their minds and turned them into evil beasts. As if Fate herself predicted it.  Human civilization collapsed. With almost no hope or inspiration left. The remaining humans hide themselves away from the mist, locked themselves up in huge towers that went beyond the clouds, or built large walls to shield out the mist. yet still, all is lost to the world. You are Vahn, a young boy who is about to become a hunter in the small town of Rim Elm. One night your town is attacked and the giant walls that once protected it came crashing down as the evil demons of the mist invaded the defenseless town of Rim Elm. Rushing to protect your home town you go to pray to the Genesis Tree, a magical tree of light. A light awakens from the mighty tree and from inside it comes a magical Seru, a Ra-Seru. This Seru is unaffected by the Mist and joins with you to battle the forces within your town. Thus begins your adventure......



    The control of Legend of Legaia handled very well, and to my surprise was quite enjoyable. The battle system though is what sparks up conflict. unlike RPG's like Final Fantasy VII and Suikoden. LoL uses a different type of battle engine. Very fast paced and colorful, the 3D battle engine mixes in Chrono Cross like attacks with a large list of special attacks. You have a choice between Defend, Physical Attack, and Magic Attack. Each has its own effect. Using a Physical Attack can sometimes take longer then a FF movie sequence. Unlike the FF series, LoL hits your opponents repeatedly, sometimes 1, 2, or 54 times! now count seconds in your head. Now it can sometimes take a full minute to end a physical attack. As for magic attacks, these can vary in movie length. Not having the same feature as FFIX as to not having to view the same movie over and over again once you use the attack. In LoL your forced to see it repeatedly. Magic attacks are different from most RPG's and similar to the Chrono Cross style of attacks. In LoL you gain your magic attacks from the enemies you face. However you don't need to use a special spell to capture them or buy them, in LoL, once you defeat that enemy their powers are now yours, hehe. This makes for hundreds of different attacks! Now that's a impressive library!


    Music is beautiful! A A+ ranking from yours truly. Music by Michiru Oshihima and Kouhei Tanaka, these guys have the same qualities as any Final Fantasy track. Not only is the battle music good and the theme of the game good, but the sound effects and voice overs can be up there to. Keeping the original Japanese voice overs the battle cries are as constant as Ryu's fireball chant, but hey it's a funny thing to hear time and time again. There is one downfall though, this mixes with the repetitive hits to. Hearing "Bang Bang Bang" over and over again when your guy is hitting an enemy makes you want to mute the television! Now this sounds strange but believe me, after the 3407 time you hear it in the same hour, you will also be wanting to quality of the beautiful mute button.



    The graphics are pretty good in LoL. Nothing really to jump up and scream at, but decent in a PSX RPG title. Having a 3D map, towns, and battle system, LoL really makes other RPG's have a run for their money. Some of the towns characters "Squareish" looks are not attractive but mostly you see nothing but smooth layouts. The character designs are also impressive. Using a mixture of a more ninja meets Old Navy clothing, it's hard to tell if their cloths are current or old.



    My over all views on Legend of Legaia are pretty simple. If you enjoy a good long game with great character development and a great plot, go right now and spend spend spend! However if your in a hurry for a game that won't take years to beat, I would rent to see. LoL has the stuff to be a great RPG, trust me when I say this game is worth a buy. However trust me when I say that you can turn a year older by the time you beat this game. The game is long! Only on one disk to! LoL can span way over 80 hours of gameplay and that's mostly up into the plot area! With random battles ever 8 steps your time is bound to shoot up the second you buy it. However, if your brave like me, you will buy it, you must buy it!

-Control: 8: Control on this game was really good and I had no real big complaints to it. I only wish most games were as solid as LoL is.

-Music: 8: Oh the sweet sound of The Legaia! Not only does this game have its very own soundtrack out (Yes it's called The Legaia) but it also features some of the weirdest battle cries this side of Survivor!

-Visuals: 7: After playing games such as Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasy VII and IX. You will expect much more out of LoL. However it's still a great piece of eye candy.

- Reply: 3: Now I know what your thinking, how could I give this game a reply value of only 3? Well after spending well over three months on the title I can tell you that the odds of you actually playing through the game again are almost none. Sure you might get on to play some of the very few mini games, but when I say it's long, I mean it's looooong.

-Over All: 7: I really enjoyed LoL. It had a mixture of all types of themes. War, Rebellion, Love, and the ol' mighty save the world theme. I'm sure you would love LoL, just make sure you bring your aging cream next to you.

                                                  

                                         
-Jake

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