The Legend of Dragoon

The Good
After playing Final Fantasy 9, I was addicted to the console RPG world and I wanted to sink my teeth into another epic. I remember playing the The Legend Of Dragoon demo (many times) and I knew that it would be the next one. Using some of the money I made from my summer job, I purchased it and got home, opened up the package, popped in the disk. Here are my thoughts:

+The artwork and packaging was beautiful. It looked cinematic and epic. Very inviting indeed.

+Beautiful in-game graphics. Characters are distinctive from one and another. Pre-rendered environments were “alive” with waterfall/river effects and so on.

+Turning into "Dragoons" was a nice twist instead of summoning super-powered beings like in the other console RPGs.

+“Warning indicator” for an incoming random battle was good feature.

+“Guard” command that heals some HP was another good feature.

+Compelling epic story with a lot of mystery, backstory and plot twists. It is helped further with the lovely cut-scenes.

+Interesting heroes and villains with their own distinctive personalities and motives.

+Beautiful intro and ending song: “If You Still Believe.”

The Bad
-Most music theme's could've been better.

-The main hero's love interest Shana, was too weak! I know she was filling the role of damsel in distress but come on! It's a disgrace!

-The game offers you choices and but what you choose, doesn’t matter. What’s the point!?!

-Bad translation and awkward dialogue. It brought down the storytelling a couple of times.

The Bottom Line
Not perfect but I would recommend it to those who don't play console RPG's often.

The Good
It's hard to believe the quality of the CG cut-scenes, and the attention paid to detail. The story pulls you in, giving you humor, suspense, and engrossing characters. While the button timing could occasionally gain a steep learning curve (having 5 button presses one after another with a small or no pause in between), it didn't make battling impossible or monotonous; if anything, it made it a fun challenge.

The Bad
There were times when there was such a strength gap between the monsters in one area and the next, I occasionally had to build my party outside of regular battling, which became tedious.

The Bottom Line
This is a memorable RPG with stunning graphics for the day and vivid characterization. With it's formidable opponents and involving plot, this is a great gaming experience.

The Good
In this game, I absolutely loved how, even though there was a ton of fighting and action, there was also an intriguing storyline that kept my attention all through the four discs. This is the only super long video game that held my attention all the way to the end, which is exciting and surprising. It really develops the characters and keeps you interested with video clips and stories. The graphics are awesome.

The Bad
Some of the areas were a bit too maze-like, but it all added to the fun. also, sometimes you get attacked a little bit too often.

The Bottom Line
A fantasy adventure game that takes you into the story of the heroic Dart and his companions on their quest to find the black monster, rescue Shana, and, ultimately, save the world. An exciting journey with a wonderful storyline and complex characters.