Time Machine Review: Legend of Legaia

For those who may be unfamiliar with my reviewing prior to this point allow me to fill in some gaps. I am a player of the past, older video games with “crappy” graphic quality do not hinder me. When I play a game I play for the story as well as the gameplay elements. With that all cleared up allow us to begin the first of many possible “Old Timer” reviews, where I take a previous generation game that I have recently beaten or am currently playing, and give it a proper review for the new age. I cannot think of a better spot to begin with than the most recent run I am performing in SCEA and Contrail’s masterpiece Legend of Legaia. If you have never played Legend of Legaia I can simply sum it up as being one of the most unique JRPGs of all time with a very good story attached to it. With that said if you haven’t played it and just read that summary it is time to go buy it.

As always with my reviews we will begin with the gameplay elements. Legend of Legaia is the first JRPG to have a fighting style that makes it distinctly different from others. This in depth combat system makes any Final Fantasy game look incredibly mediocre in comparison.

Miracle Arts win fights

In a typical ‘Legaia’ battle you will find yourself manually entering all of the attacks you want your character to perform, down to left and right handed punches or low or high kicking. This element’s only drawback is that due to the elaborate setup battles can take longer than in most games. The introduction of Martial Arts moves makes battles more interesting, ‘Arts’ can be performed by entering the right attack commands in a specific order, dealing extra damage and doing a cool move in the process. As stated before this combat system will make fights longer than the normal RPG battle which is probably the only downside since there are many available arts to keep battles fresh.

With the primary gameplay elements out of the way let’s go over the storyline of Legend of Legaia. 

Being that this is an older game and I am not the only individual who has or will play it we will be keeping spoilers out of this section. A brief summary of the storyline would be that you follow three heroes in their quest to vanquish the mist that has engulfed their world and turned once civil creatures into foul beasts. Using divine creatures of their own you control the very fate of this world. As in any game before it the storyline is well put together and has well developed characters. The only flaw here that could take the audience away is a slight childish take on some of the primary characters.

The storyline is definitely the primary reason, apart from martial arts, that anybody would see this Legend to the end.

All in all I would give Legend of Legaia a fair 9/10 since it implemented an original combat system, had a well put together storyline, and had a great cast of characters. The only downside with this title would come only if the player is not as patient as most since combat draws out from time to time. Definitely give Legend of Legaia a try if you have yet to do so.