80%PlayStation

Epic high fantasy Rpg with an interesting Plot.

Combat felt engaging with active button presses but lacked a bit of substance.

Could rival the Square FF Ps1 Trilogy but can't quite reach the Top.

70%PlayStation

Seeing the massive success of the Final Fantasy franchise, Sony realized that they needed to make a JRPG of their own, and the The Legend of Dragoon was their most serious attempt. At first glance, anyone would be excused to think that this game is another sequel of Final Fantasy VII or VIII (my uncle thought so when he saw it in gaming magazines), that is how much surface resemblance there is.

However, other than its looks, this game is not nearly as polished as Square's marquee JRPG, nor was it ever as well-received as any of them. Yet, in some of its awkward delivery and various hiccups, there is a rather good game. Unfortunately, that game takes about two CDs to show itself.

The Legend of Dragoon was made with a clear brief: A Sony-made JRPG that can rival Final Fantasy VII. In that way, the game borrowed a lot from its rival without ever reaching that venerable status, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Even if this game did not come close to critically matching its inspiration, it was still crafted as a good JRPG with some unique attributes. With its unique music and action-focused attacking system, it did not imitate Squaresoft's JRPG more than on a surface level. Yet, it is in that surface-level imitation that the game mostly falters in its graphical looks. Today, we can see how ungracefully its polygonal characters have aged, and how muddy its backgrounds look.

Ultimately, while this game is not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, it was always good enough in both gameplay and story for most of its run time, and it could have even been great with better editing and tweaking across its many systems. Alas, we never got a sequel to the game, and this "Super Sentai" JRPG is not left as little more than a memory for many people.

70%PlayStation

The Legend of Dragoon is an ambitious project, that remains impressive even decades later. Much of this is owed to the game's unique, macabre aesthetics of its otherworldly elements. Graphics are incredible for its time, and combat animations are very fluid. The plot is solid, and the party is nicely developed, with no one feeling like a tagalong. The combat, however, is rather limited; QTE attacks are an acquired taste, but the game's trademark Dragoon forms are a liability at times, and you're locked to one Addition in battle. 7/10.

100%PlayStation

One of my favourite games of all time. 10/10. Played it many a time growing up on the original PS1 as well as through emulation, but never finished it until my stream-through of the game back in 2020. Beautiful hero's journey with a stellar turn-based combat system. The addition system just hit different, and yes - even though there have been systems inspired by that over the years, nothing comes close to it for me. Shame that sony forgot about this game. I'm just glad that a very dedicated team is working to keep it alive and bring mods to it. I wish them all the best!

Check out my thoughts at the end of my playthrough here (timestamped): https://youtu.be/z91-n59aiQk?si=-NC_SWxdEsNDJ_u5&t=29000

85%PlayStation

UPSIDES
- Outstanding Presentation
- An excellent story full of fascinating lore, emotional moments and great action scenes
- Story has excellent pacing
- A Whole Party of really fleshed-out characters
- Always something new around every corner
- Additions add a necessary dose of skillful training that takes up the entire game
- Character Animations are erratic but that can lead to some genuinely funny moments

DOWNSIDES
- Shana & Miranda are comically useless in gameplay because they have no Additions
- Enemies' Counterattacks can really mess up your Attack Timing even when repelled successfully
- Dialogue is mostly understandable, but nonetheless poorly translated
- Even for the time, the game severely lacks a lot of QoL improvements - for example, no warping until endgame
- Dragoon Forms are ironically not that useful outside of Boss Battles and can't even be turned off when activated

OVERALL
By all accounts, I should probably dislike The Legend of Dragoon. When I said it lacks of quality-of-life improvements, I meant it. A good portion of my final time could have been trimmed down if they had implemented more expedient functions, such as being able to select Additions from a Battle Menu instead of constantly having to go to the pause menu to change things around.

But clearly this game had to have done something right. Admittedly, without save states, I probably would have been a lot more irritated. But that just goes to show what a simple remaster or even a remake can do. At its core, The Legend of Dragoon is a solid JRPG, albeit not very unique. While it suffers from QoL issues and poor translation, the story and characters shine through. And it scratched my JRPG itch well enough without ever dragging its heels or wasting my time, which is admittedly a rarity of the genre.
I highly recommend this game if you're into JRPGs and can put up with the awkward intricacies of the time.

BEST PART
Undersea Cavern

WORST PART
Corrupted Gravity

75%PlayStation

Could have been better than any other PS1 JRPG, but very long load times and a few unoptimized design choices set this game back.

I'd describe this game as Super Mario RPG meets XenoGears.

Honestly, I was enjoying this game more than any main series Final Fantasy, but the long load times and repetitive combos wear on you. Of my ~ 50 hours playing, ~15 hours was loading before every battle. If this game were better optimized, and had more attack variety, I'd be giving it a 9.5/10 instead.

✅ Amazing story and atmosphere. Not quite as good as XenoGears, but better than most Final Fantasy's.
✅ Additions (Super Mario RPG like attack timing) are fun and satisfying
✅ Peak PS1 graphics and even voice acting. Seriously, at times this looks like a PS3 game in low resolution. The texture has 3d mapping, and the facial expressions are really good. The pre rendered backgrounds and cut scenes are probably the best on the PS1.
❌ Long Load Times - Every single battle has a ~10s load before you can do anything.
❌ Unskippable Special Attacks - You can skip the Dragoon transformation, but you can't skip the special attacks.
❌ Additions cannot be swapped mid battle, and doing the same combo every battle is repetitive.
❌ Lack of item variety, some equipment stayed on for 15+ hours.
❌ Lack of special attacks as Dragoons. Some Dragoons only have 2 special attacks.
❌ Only 32 item slots, but 255 weapon slots. Feels like this was an error because I never had more than 30 weapons before selling, but I was always discarding items.
❌ Lots of backtracking - In most JRPG's when you beat a boss, you move on. In Legend of Dragoon, you need to exit the Dungeon/Area the exact same way you came in. Honestly, 10-15 hours of this game is just backtracking for no benefit.

So overall, they are too ambitious with this game, but I still recommend it. It's very similar to FF7-9 and XenoGears. Honestly this could have been the best game on PS1, but the loading and repetitive combos really do take away and make is "just" great.

70%PlayStation

The game is pretty cool (though extremely slow). The translation was god-awful though.

Lots of crashes related to using dragoon powers, which is also terrible.

95%PlayStation

Phenomenal game. The combat system definitely inspired other RPGs to come. Definitely a top 5 PS1 classic

90%Emulated

I love the gameplay mechanics in battles. A little bit of annoying backtracking, but great game overall!

100%PlayStation

One of my favorite RPGs of all time. Interesting battle system with the addition mechanic that makes fighting challenging as you master it. The story and characters engaged me to the end and I liked the soundtrack. One that I’ve replayed many times.

100%PlayStation 5

Loved this game. Wanted to play an old school turn based JRPG and this was perfect with the exact gameplay I was looking for. Story was dated but interesting.

100%PlayStation 4

Fiz 100% desse jogo, platinado, conferir na minha conta PSN MRaizenK., jogo na minha vida, amo esse jogo, Sony poderia remasterizar, lançar um remake, um spinoff, sei lá, reviver esse jogo, merece demais.

80%PlayStation

The game was fun and interesting, but due to emulator issues, I'm stuck at Kazas castle. Hope to get back to this game in better circumstances.

100%PlayStation 4

Still a special game to me after all these years, deserves a FF7R style big budget remake or prequel.

85%Emulated

Played the game tons as a kid, never actually got past the first disc. Decided to give it a go and it's a great little piece of PlayStation history. Worth trying if a fan of jrpgs. Neat twist on turn based combat.

90%Emulated

Great game for it's time if you can overlook the endgame cutscene animations. A little tedious if you can't fast forward the loading times of everything: transformations, battle starts, skills, items, magic, loading screens...
Better emulated

65%PlayStation

Okay, before I start, I'll just point this out: In the credits, I found that the Art Director of the game was also the Cinematic Director of the game's FMV sequences.. This guy is, unquestionably, the game's MVP, and I mean, by a long shot, as his job was done to absolute perfection!
I'll be frank – Many people classify the first Disc of this game as being arguably the best part, and many of those same people classify this as the greatest game of all time; there was actually a poll done, and this was classified as the best Playstation 1 game of all time by the most votes, and this absolutely baffles me. Now, I will say, starting in late Disc 2, and all throughout Disc 3, I was actually much more engaged in the story, and now that I've finally gotten through the game, after owning it for 21 years, I do see why a lot of people like this story! It features some really neat concepts and plays out with a few genuine twists. However, Disc 1 is nothing but bland characters, stock story-beats and cliché concepts, so to those that love it the most, I politely, but strongly, disagree. Along with that, the music is nice, and the battle system is decent, or at least it would be, if it weren't annoying in regards to how accurate you need to be (like, within a 50th of a second, no joke), and the fact that each battle goes for OVER 10 SECONDS before the first move is made! Oh, and if you need to grind (which is a necessity in this game), this is an ENDLESS process, as having each character gain 1 level via standard battles can easily take over 45 minutes! And since the characters are pretty generic, and the dialogue is pretty poor, this makes long stretches of the game feel painfully long, each zone taking hours to get through! There is talk of remaking this game, and honestly, I'd be down for this – hopefully I'd like it more than the original game, which is very much a good-not-great game! In regards to overrated games, I'd say this is up there with something like Chrono Trigger -- No, it's not nearly as high as Chrono Cross, and it's not anywhere near the insane over-valuing of Ocarina of Time; Legend of Dragoon, while overrated, is WAAAAAY better than either of those. It's on PSN for not much, so I'd recommend it for the ~$15, if you like old-school JRPGs.

75%PlayStation 5

Good game, had to play on the ps5 digital new edition and was kind of dissapointed with the loading times, lack of some life improvemnts too, game desearves a remake, maybe even a sequel?

60%Emulated

Japan Studio's solo venture into JRPGs began with The Legend of Dragoon, which added transformations and an upgrade system to SMRPG's timing-driven combat. These simple chain combos improve via use-based mastery and carry a light degree of risk (by potentially triggering counterattacks which require different inputs), with items and transform-only skills playing the role of magic. But if the goal was to inject more user interaction into flashy, cinematic turn-based battling, its realization nevertheless fails to change its narrow and samey nature, featuring: At best, a set of tricky rhythm challenges that laid the foundations for Shadow Hearts - and at worst, a looping series of easy one-button microgames. The real highlight - ultimately, turns out to be its environments, whose variety of pre-rendered backgrounds and camera angles establish them as capable Squaresoft disciples. Other aspects testify to that production talent (i.e. cutscenes & animations), while the rest range from inept (dialogue, plot) to standard fare (dungeons & characters), yielding a traditional slow-burn adventure that's visually impressive but a little plain.

80%PlayStation 2

This is a Ps1 game but I beat it on Ps2. Solid turn based rpg and the transformations reminded me of power rangers lol(not a bad thing). The story is great but I have an issue with the transformation system. Magic can only be used while in dragoon form, which would be fine, if it was not for the fact that it has to be filled and the animation takes forever!. I am not sure how the new remaster is but my score would not change without a speed up of some kind. Another positive is the combo system, loved it. Also pretty eclectic party members.

80%PlayStation 5

The addition of trophies and rewind features for ps5 really helps revive this classic. Though nearing it's end I was very much ready for it to be over, it is still an enjoyable adventure with a unique combat system.

100%PlayStation 3

DOUBLE SLASH! HARPOON! WHIPSMACK!

---

***Themes and age rating***

The game's theme are somewhat dark however it's restrained, coming off light hearted in many parts. The game is not afraid of color and it shows in many of the pre-rendered backgrounds. It is a fantasy rpg with a few violent and graphic moments however they are somewhat mild, like out of a manga or comic book. If you can handle power rangers, you can probably handle this game.

-

***Story Thoughts***

The game starts you off as a character named Dart returning home after investigating a mystery revolving the destruction of his birth place and the one responsible. Later on a mysterious warrior awakens a latent ability that causes Dart to turn into a Dragoon warrior, those who are said to be gifted with controlling the power of dragons. From here things happen (Spoiler Free Review). The game gives each character introduced a little time for background however it does not deep dive. The game is written in a style that feels like to me, was expecting a sequel or additional media additions that never came. The script has many typos, strange translations, odd localization and often funny sounding phrasings of the late 90's. The game also seems to have a free pass to swear, but only a limited number of times, often reverting to childish pseudo-swears. DARN! HECK! DANG! SHOOT! (Yo, whachu mean this guy are silly?)

-

***Graphical Presentation***

PS1 graphics. Very polygonal 3D models. Low resolution textures and a product of it's time. The game appears to have run at 240i, so it was meant to squished, distorted and with some blurry fuzz. I played it on a PS3 from PS1 data on an HD screen so all imperfections can be seen including dithering dots. I observed the game using framerate to creatively give feeling to games, such as slowing down to a low framerate for impact in rendered cutscenes, but sometimes ramping to fast frames to give a smooth feel of motion. The game's backgrounds are all pre-rendered with a ton of detail. The FMV's look amazing for the time but the compression noise is very visible on modern displays. Spell effects, magic and other rendered animations look very good, about as good as it gets for playstation 1. This game does suffer from slow load times, slow battle animations and the general stiffness of playstation 1 era video games.

-

***Audio and Sound Presentation***

This game's sound is quite good for a game of it's era. Most musical BGM is fitting and sounds quite good. The battle themes are top notch and quite varied. 4 normal encounter themes. 3 boss themes. There isn't really a track I don't like. The recorded voice lines sound somewhat low quality but I can't fault the game since voice acting was still quite new to video games. It's first FMV's sound is iconic. It's main theme, played when you first boot the game is also great. ["If You Still Believe"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBabT4hDZts) from the soundtrack is honestly one of my fav themes for an RPG.

-

***Main Gameplay***

This is a RPG with two modes of play. The first mode is an overworld, where you walk around maps or pre-rendered worlds and explore, talk to characters and generally learn about the world and the game. The second mode of play are battles, which are often triggered either by walked footsteps or by encountering a visible enemy on the map. The battles are turned based, giving command to three characters of your choosing to overcome enemies.

Everyone in the battle has strengths and weaknesses. The strategy comes into play with finding correct match ups for attack and defense. The game can be played with little to no grinding if desired. The game has a level up system and the character level system can be brute forced however this can be time consuming and not worthwhile. The game vastly rewards mastery of the addition system and using correct magic types. The addition system is similar to a fighting game combo system, when attacking you can extend your attack, thus doing more damage. As you level up, you gain access to more and more complex additions. Mastering each addition yields a master addition in the end. This is the worthwhile grind.

The hidden strategy of swapping character type ups and elements made me realize the game has a more in depth battle system than I had gave it credit for 20 or so years ago. I did opt for a 100% playthrough, so I could put this game to rest for good. There are many many optional bosses to explore, which in turn will make you powerful by the time the game reaches it's conclusion.

-

***Conclusion***

I went into LoD expecting it to leave me unimpressed. After all, it's a ps1 game that I loved when I was 12. Let's be truthful, kids aren't dumb but, also their bar is lower when it comes to standards of quality. Let me tell you, 12 year old me was not a dummy. There is a sense of love and

70%PlayStation Vita

The fighting mechanics are unique to this game, but it starts to become a hindrance a few hours in. Fun to play once, though.

100%PlayStation

Me ha gutado 👍

80%Emulated

An ambitious game that subverts while playing closely in anime and JRPG storytelling tropes, Legend of Dragoon exceeded my expectations ten-fold. It's a game that has been hyped up and considered by many to be sorely overlooked in comparison to its peers at the time. I can see the sentiment as well as why this game has a strong cult-following behind it. It's lore, music, art-direction, character writing, and plotting are top-tier. There is hardly filler in its story and everything feels motivated and cohesive for the most part. There are a few minor issues in the game and flaws that were glaring, i.e. the dialogue/characters kind of just becoming best friends so quickly, inventory, the underwhelming Dragoon mechanic to name a few. It was easy to overlook, however, due to its sheer scope and originality. It's a shame it hasn't seen a sequel, but despite this, it is definitely still worth checking out and is one of the best games I've played from that time, and maybe one of the best games in general.

80%PlayStation

This is an all-time classic JRPG for the PSX. I never got all the way through it and I'm glad I finally did. Great cutscenes with some voice acting, I enjoyed the timing based battle, great graphics, good story with a few unexpected twists. If you love class JRPGs on the PSX, this is a must play. 8/10.

90%Emulated

E m o t i o n a l D a m a g e

80%PlayStation

08/10 Story
08/10 Level Design
07/10 Characters
08/10 Gameplay
08/10 Graphics
07/10 Music/Sound

Battle System 7/10

Difficulty MEDIUM

Overall 82%

100%PlayStation

The FF7 from Sony. One of the best RPG ever created with the unique Additions System and Dragoon transformations. Really hard at some points, but way easier after you acquire Master Additions

90%PlayStation

Uno de mis juegos favoritos de PS1

90%PlayStation

https://podcast.zapnight.com/2017/06/013-legend-of-dragoon.html

80%PlayStation

Was able to obtain a Disc 4 from one of the local game shops to borrow and finish the game. The story starts off pretty slow and pretty generic, but really starts to chug along as you go. Gets very emotional and a lot of unexpected things go on to happen. Gameplay wise, its pretty much like any PS1 turn based RPG, except most of your characters attacks include combos call Additions. The additions start off pretty simple, then get very complex with timing later on. Can be frustrating at times, but once you get the hang of it, it is really no big deal. The soundtrack was very nice as well in my opinion, and battle music even changed depending on where you were at times. The game seemed to lack in two areas in my opinion, one would be the difficulty, the game was overly easy and I was able to beat the final three bosses barley losing any HP. Also the menus and items felt really underdone, you could only carry 32 items, which leads to a full inventory the entire endgame. Overall another great PS1 RPG during the golden era of RPG's.

90%PlayStation 3

9.5. A magnificent journey. The Additions system is engaging and rewarding; the Dragoons system is satisfying and epic. The music is honestly flawless. All characters are well developed throughout the story. The main plot proves to be rather cliché; however, what makes the story so attractive is the game's lore. The Dragon Campaign and the different legends within the story make you want to know more.

The bad. Monster Design was poor. The equipment system (weapons, armor & accessories) was clearly left unattended. Lastly, it is a shame, but the game feels as if content was cut out. The game is astonishingly dense content wise, but that same density made it appear like some aspects weren't fully developed.

Nonetheless, The Legend Of Dragoon is a gem. Another gem born in the golden era of the JRPGs.

70%PlayStation

It felt a little bit slow. Got through it, though. Can't remember much of it.

100%PlayStation

Underrated JRPG. Exp system kinda sucks because it's split between each character, making leveling up slow.

90%PlayStation 3

Great RPG and graphics for its time. Story is pretty good but could have been done better. The voice acting is bad, but the game makes up for it.

80%PlayStation

Speaking mostly from memory, but from what I remember this game was great. I loved the story and the game play. I tried to replay it recently but the out dated graphics and slower battle system was a bit of a let down for me. Still I have fond memories of this game and think that if your are a fan of turn based RPGs then this is a must play.

100%PlayStation 3

Amazing.

100%PlayStation

Legend of Dragoon, a perfect blend of weapons, magic, and amazing creatures. This game is excellent. Underneath the somewhat unappealing graphics (compared to today's) you will find a memorable story, with lovable characters. With the Addition system, you don't just pick what you do like other turn-based RPGs, you actually press buttons to increase the damage dealt. You usually don't put the controller down. All in all, give this game a try if you enjoyed Final Fantasy or any other RPG.

50%PlayStation

Game is overrated. Horrible translation. Too much grinding and story was very derivative. This game was never as good as people said it was. The only thing it had going for it was times button presses.

80%PlayStation

Very nice RPG from Sony. Great midi-groove soundtrack like the RPG's on the system usually had. The story-telling and character interactions were also very good, probably the best part. All the gameplay was pretty... unique. It was annoying at first but I just had to adapt to its rules and when I did it became pretty balanced. The final part was dragged as hell though.

90%PlayStation

Great RPG that makes great use of a timing system to keep you much more active in the gameplay than your standard RPG.

100%PlayStation

This is a phenomenal game. One of the best for the ps1. It just takes a little getting used to the battle system and having the patience to deal with a long game.