Legend of Dragoon is a game that fans loved, but critics found middling. The game has a Metacritic score of 74/100, and user reviews tend to give it overwhelming positive vibes, at least on Ranker, Neoseeker, and Google. It seems a bit contradictory, but it actually makes sense.
The game has its flaws. For starters, whoever localized it sucks, and a proper editor is desperately needed. Throughout the game are spelling mistakes, missing or odd punctuation, inconsistent spellings, and formatting problems. Some of these I have alluded to in my writings. What’s the proper spelling of Flanvell/Flambell? Is the city Fruni or Fanny? Why is Zieg’s name Jeek on the OST? How did you leave out a space before several key nouns!? I, for better or for worse, tried to keep some of these inconsistencies in my writings. Some, I did, point out at the time. Remember when I said the devs mixed up the Rose and Shana dialogue in the Gigantos Village? All of this leads me to believe that was the case, and not some sudden emotional shift in the two women. And yes, for the sake of fairness, some of the misspellings in my blogs are my own mistakes. Tell me how many times I mixed up Zieg and Zeig. In my defense, there's a lot of odd names in this game, man.
The music starts off great, but I don’t think it finishes strong. Some of the early chill tunes are perfect, but the ending tracks are just noise. The OST isn’t MIDI bloops or high orchestral symphonies, but, rather, synthetic pianos and sounds. A part of me likes it, but sometimes it doesn’t connect right. To complicate things, you never hear them for very long. World Map songs are great, but you spend so little time on world maps. Dungeon themes are often interrupted by battles and are short in their own right. The battle song is enjoyable, for what it’s worth. I’ll also note the Final Battle song. It tries to be something Final Fantasy-esq. Sadly, it ends up being a mishmash of compositions thrown into a blender with its lid left open. The blender stayed on until all the pieces spun out and wherever they fell was the order the sections were played in. It lacks any sort of memorable hook. No ominous sounding lyrics, spooky violin segments, or rock guitar to be found. I added several songs to my Spotify playlist, so it’s still a worthwhile listen. There was one track I left off because it didn’t fit the mood of my chill station.
I liked the battle system, but it’s not without problems. You can’t mindlessly grind because you need to be ready to QTE. It also takes so long to gain EXP in LoD. Bosses are the only real way to non-tediously gain levels. When it comes to SP and Dragoon levels, some characters just don’t have good ways to grind for that. When I finished the game, Albert’s best SP Addition was 55. Miru, however, was 200. And poor Kongol’s low speed makes him feel unrewarding. I also hated how little MP we had. It strongly limits what we can do in Dragoon. There are ways to train MP in battle, but I don’t like changing load-outs, so don’t hold that against the game. Dragoons are fun, but are they more limiting than anything? You can’t use items or transform back if you need to, so you’d better hope no one dies or needs healing, stat.
There are also many quality of life things that shouldn't have been a thing, even in 2000. One-hit KOs in Dragoon form don't just die. They transform back into human before dropping dead there. It takes time away from the action and makes me feel more annoyed than worried that I just lost a character. The amount of backtracking through areas is needlessly long. Just let me fast travel through The Valley of Corrupted Gravity, Vilude Volcano, and the Marshlands when I'm done with them. And I hated the 32 item limit. I guess I didn't need all of those magic items at the end, but I'm secretly a dragon and like to horde. At the very least, tell us what's in the treasure chests when I try to open them with a full inventory. What am I leaving behind? Text needs to scroll faster, too.
But what does the game do well? I like all the characters. Kongol doesn’t get enough screen time, and Albert is, clearly, second fiddle for Lavitz. Both have their moments and amusing quirks to make them worthwhile characters on their own, though. Everyone has their place in battle, with their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are good in Dragoon, while others are less so. Magic vs. physical. Tank vs. DPS. Buff vs. straight firepower. Everyone feels connected to the story and together. That’s always a perk compared to when characters feel randomly mixed. Removing someone from the setting would make the game feel less complete. Even minor characters have story. Lavitz' mom, Pete, Fa, and Guahaha all feel like actual people.
The story, mostly, makes sense. Some of the twists are a bit out there, like Shana being the Moon Child, but most of them are passable. I’ve said a few of them, like how did Dart wind up in Seles, but, ultimately, it’s a small qualm. It’s a simple story about seven chosen people saving the world from an evil tyrant. Those seven have traits unique to them, or at least their former counterparts, that make them perfect for the job. They all have their own reasons to join the party and hate the big bad guy. Now, it’s not perfect. I still have many questions, like how did Shana get to Seles? Why do so many people not recognize their offspring like Zior and Theresa? What was the point of the increased aggression in the forest story with Kamuy? For the most part, though, everything connects. A Sea Dragon spoken of earlier causes problems until we defeat it and things get better. Bandits, civil wars, vicious beasts, all addressed. And everything fits in a long, 55-hour epic. That length for a kid who can’t afford to drop money every week on a new game goes a long and rewarding way. And it even leaves some questions that are fun to ask? Was Rose the main character? Is Haschel Dart’s grandpa? Was it Soa or Melbu who wanted to destroy the world? Was Lloyd a good guy? How have the Winglies re-integrated after the game was over? There's a difference between wanting to ask questions and needed to ask questions. LoD makes me want to ask questions.
So it comes down to this: Did SCE make a game for sales or the experience? Ideally, both, but the sum of Legend if Dragoon is greater than the sum of its parts. It's a flawed but incredibly fun experience that I’m glad I replayed and hope I can remember this time.
But now that I’ve finished Legend of Dragoon, where do I go now? I have a few things in mind. Firstly, Trails of Mana for the SNES. The remake came out a few months ago, and it looks fun. While I doubt I’ll be playing that ever, I want to know where it comes from. After that, I planned to play Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Zelda games are great, and I've never beaten this one. However, ever since I played FFVII, I’ve been yearning to play VI with the Job Class Challenge. I planned out the run a while back, so I'm already prepared. So many choices! Find out what I do...Friday...?
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