Legend of Dragoon: a Classic Review

It was Y2k

Legend of Dragoon came out on June 11th 2000, in North America and I’m not entirely sure when I got it. I just remember playing it and it being the best game I had ever played. It was tough and you got to become some sort of dragon/human hybrid that kicked serious butt.

The Story

Every great game has to have an excellent story. While Legend of Dragoon is thirteen years old, its story still stands up fairly well in modern times. Some of the dialogue is cheesy but somehow it works with the nostalgic graphics. Throughout the game you learn about the Dragon Campaign and Dragoons and other things that go along with it. About seven hours into the game 3/4 of your team can become dragoons. The story is still fairly engaging even after all these years, and with minimal voiceovers. 

The World

This game is an RPG. While you don’t get to pick what skills you learn, you do gain experience and level up as you face various enemies. There are plenty of different enemy types with a multitude of special abilities and attributes to keep you on your toes during each new area you venture to. It’s a pretty big world, given the time the game came out, and is fun to explore. While not open-world it is open-world in the it’s the year 2000 sense.

The Gameplay

What it all comes down to is the gameplay. Most of the game is spent running around and solving very minor “how do I get there” puzzles and of course in combat. The combat in this game is still fantastic. It’s turn-based strategy but with sort of quick time events. It’s actually pretty simple but still quite challenging. These quick time events are known as additions. Each character, with the exception of two, have these additions and they gain new ones as you level up. When you choose your basic attack you have to press buttons at the appropriate time or your combo ends. Some enemies can even throw you if you mess up or they can counter you and if you don’t press the right button, circle, you will be hit back and take damage, also ending your combo. These additions level up as you successfully complete them and each one does different things. Some deal more damage as they level, others garner more spirit points, we’ll get to those in a second, and others increase both as they level.

Spirit points are gained by dealing damage to your opponents. Depending on the addition you choose and how well you complete said addition determines how many spirit points you gain. Once you get one-hundred spirit points you are able to turn into a dragoon, these only accumulate on characters that can turn into dragoons. After turning into a dragoon, depending on the level, you get to do a move in that form. You get one move for every Dragoon level, assuming you’ve accumulated enough SP to be at max dragoon level when you evolve. After completing all your move, one per turn, you revert back to your normal self. As a dragoon you do a regular attack, which had a spinning wheel to determine its effectiveness, sort of like the additions in regular form but in spinning wheel mode. You also have magic attacks. These magic attacks are based on your level and do different elemental effects.

Then it was done.

All-in-all Legend of Dragoon still stands out as my favorite PSOne game and I think it stands the test of time pretty well for such an old game. If you’re a graphics freak you probably wouldn’t be able to go back to it, but if you want a unique storyline, fun combat, and some seriously tough boss battles, then this is the PSOne classic for you. It’s still available on the PSN market for $5.99.