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The Legend of Dragoon (PS1)

The Legend of Dragoon PSX
Genre: Role-Playing (RPG)
Perspective: Bird's-eye view
Pacing: Turn-based
Published by: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Developed by: Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
Released: 2000
Platform: PlayStation (PSX, PS1)

Universal evil, as you know, is indestructible even in video games. The messengers of hell on earth, Square, not only systematically destroy the remnants of good taste and freedom in gamers, releasing their satanic games one after the other (guess what games I'm talking about three times), they also manage to hide behind a screen made of high-quality silicone from our views, many games that deserve much more attention than their beautiful, but insanely one-sided offspring. It was such a sad fate that befell the game that I want to tell you about today. The Legend Of Dragoon is good for everyone, it is beautiful both from the outside and from the inside, it is moderately long and excessively interesting. But, in spite of all the efforts of the developers, the game did not manage to avoid unhappiness - due to a coincidence, due to the intrigues of Square's secret agents or for some unknown reasons, but The Legend Of Dragoon came out at the most unfortunate moment, which only one could choose - right after the ninth incarnation of silicone satan. But in real life, good does not always conquer evil. And this time, stunned by huge sales of silicone miracles (treasures), The Legend Of Dragoon could only crawl somewhere into a quiet corner and die there quietly, while the satanic bastard with the number nine on his forehead, playing with silicone muscles and biting pearly teeth, as if a Hollywood movie star triumphantly walked around the planet, seducing the path of true innocent gamers and simultaneously freeing their wallets from despicable metal.

So, the European version of the culprit of today's celebration was born in the already close 2001. Which, between us, was the sunset year of the first PlayStation and spawned a considerable number of games that became the golden fund of this console. In connection with this fact, it is not surprising that The Legend Of Dragoon is one of the best role-playing games released on this system. As befits any role-playing game of epic proportions (and The Legend Of Dragoon is just that, don’t even dare to doubt it), the game has a strong and interesting plot intrigue. Adventures begin with trifles like kidnapping a friend of the protagonist and destroying his native village, but gradually the plot spring is unclenched and by the end of the game you will have to deal with such serious tasks as saving the entire universe and protecting the offended and oppressed. The characters are also selected very interesting. They all survived a lot in their lifetime, and almost everyone fights not only with common enemies of flesh and blood, but also with enemies in their souls. The story of The Legend Of Dragoon is full of unexpected and often sad events, filled with some elusive sadness, ethereal shadow hovering around the heroes of the game. Now let's pay attention to the name of the game: The Legend of Dragoon. Without going into insignificant details, Dragoons are dragon lords. There were people in the ancient world in the game world who could subordinate these mighty monsters to their will and use them to their advantage (dig a garden there or fry a pork carcass ...). A lot of time has passed since that ancient time, but the Dragoons still exist and not somewhere beyond seven mountains, but right under the player’s nose. The heroes of the game are the very lords of the tailed lizards. Another question is that they themselves do not know this yet, and how to use their power they have no idea, but this, as you know, is only for the time being. As if confirming the name of their game, the developers equipped The Legend Of Dragoon with a considerable number of various legends, rumors and tales, which, undoubtedly, gave the game world a fair amount of credibility (relative, of course). The Legend Of Dragoon belongs to that class of games in which the plot, as it should be, is the core, and everything else after meeting with him seems no longer so important.

But no matter how insignificant such “trifles” as graphics, combat system and gameplay may seem to me, for completeness of the review I will have to tell about them. I'll start with the external design. All kinds of videos in the game in their quality and direction, in my opinion, are inferior to the devilish beauty of Square's creations, they do not have that riot of colors and the beauty of movements. But the game graphics are good. 3D battle arenas are pleasing in variety, the image quality of the participants in the fights also does not cause special complaints. During battles, the camera tries to demonstrate the beginnings of intelligence, occasionally giving out very unexpected and beautiful angles. In addition, the player is allowed (lo and behold!) To independently choose her position. Magic is also rendered in a very high quality, which is especially noticeable at the beginning of the game, when this magic itself is not so much. But the global map, familiar to JRPG games, looks somewhat angular, but PS one owners have long been accustomed to this. The sound accompaniment did not cause any special enthusiasm or angry remarks. There are very worthy compositions that I want to listen to again and again, but most of the melodies left me indifferent. It seems to me that in this case the composer lacked a little inspiration, the results of his efforts often sound somewhat flat, do not hurt the living. But, despite this, the music "leads" the game very well and some tunes, let me repeat myself, are really good.

Combat system. In principle, the familiar classic, but with some very tangible innovations. The Legend Of Dragoon uses a turn-based battle system with some splashes of the arcade. If it’s not necessary to talk about the step-by-step part (for each character we select an action, and then see how he performs this action), then it’s worth focusing on the arcade component. During the execution of a blow by your character, a decreasing square appears on the screen. As soon as this square reaches its smallest value, you must press the attack button. If the action is unsuccessful, the character will strike one blow and return to its place, and if you press the button on time, then an additional attack will follow (somewhat reminiscent of combos from fighting games). Each character has several types of such attacks (new ones are given upon reaching a certain level of experience), which have their own experience scales and, with proper training, become more and more powerful. The idea of serial attacks, I tell you, is quite good, original and, most importantly, introduces some variety into the tedious process of "pumping" the characters before the battle with particularly powerful bosses. Now about magic. As such, it is not in the game, in order to use all sorts of otherworldly forces, it is first necessary to turn into a Dragoon. The transformation into it occurs under two conditions: the character has a special cobblestone (the spirit of Dragoon) and the filling of a special scale (which is filled as the enemies are beaten). If both are available, then your character can easily turn. Immediately after this process, he will gain a pretty-looking wings and considerable power, which should immediately bring down the enemy. You can also use the magic of dragoons, very powerful and very "expensive." In general, it is recommended to use the Dragoon mode only in emergency situations (boss fights), ordinary enemies can be easily destroyed with ordinary attacks.

Well, it’s time and honor to know, I’m finishing talking. In the end, I’ll say this: The Legend Of Dragoon is a game with a capital letter, a real representative of the JRPG genre with all its inherent attributes and a number of its own unique finds. The game is undeniably interesting and worthy of being acquired. Not without flaws, of course (almost no representative of this genre managed to avoid them), but overall - high-quality and interesting.

Bugfix

  • Gives non-active party members the same XP as active party members, instead of half.
  • Fixes the bug in the original game that lowers the encounter rate when running up/right.
  • Increases maximum inventory capacity from 32 to 64.
  • Replaces the "black goo" in the censored US Demon's Gate animation with the red-blood version from the Japanese game.