"I want a pet Lyps..."

Being a fan of the original Legaia, I really looked forward to this game... I wasn't disappointed one bit, as this game has been vastly improved over the original and much more fun...

Story... 7.5/10
The story starts off with a young boy living in a small village. One day while in Hunter's Wood, a big, bad guy comes and starts pushing his weight around. He takes the towns Aqualith, something the people depend on to survive. Lang, the main character of the game, can't just sit idley by... he must do something to get the town's Aqualith back. Everything sorta spawns off from that lil incident and it ends up turning into a journey to save the world. The story gets more involved as you progress through the game. Although, the story is good, it never really had me so I just had to know what's going to happen next or something. It's nothing to brag about, but it's nicely done. Also, I found the character cast pretty interesting... (BTW, Duel Saga's story and whatnot doesn't relate to the first at all)

Gameplay... 10/10
The Arts system is back and better than before. If you've played the first Legaia, you'll feel right at home with the battle system. It's like the first one, but there's improvements and new things. For those people who haven't played the original, I'll give a brief explanation of how the system works. Each character has so many art blocks, where you can input commands with the directional pad. Now, by doing the right combination of attacks, you can perform art attacks. You also have AP, which is needed to perform certain arts. First off, you have normal arts, which restore AP... Then there's super, hyper, variable and mystic arts. They all consume AP to use, so if you don't have enough AP, you can't perform them. Arts are learned either by luck or people showing you. Some arts, noteably the hyper arts, can't be used til you get a certain item to learn it from. Another noteable thing, is the variable arts, which is an attack between 2 characters... pretty wicked stuff.

The magic system is different from the first Legaia. Seru? There are none. They exist no more. There's a new thing called Origins. Different characters have an Origin of a certain element, which can perform certain spells. Origins gain experience just like characters do and learn spells via leveling up. Origins are also required to get past certain obstacles in dungeons (ie, Lang's Origin can smash rocks and stuff).

Difficulty wise, some battles can be a pain in the backside (mostly, the earlier battles), but it's not as hard as the original. Well, it depends really. The fact that you can make weapons, armor, accessories and other items... oh yes, that's right... you can make, or combine I should say, your own stuff. Not only that, but you can learn many different recipes through various means and cook. Cooking gives you temporary stat increases (some have decreases too). They wear off after so long, but hey, cooking something that increases your HP, strength and defense could make the difference in a battle...

Music and Sound... 7/10
The music is nicely done... I'm really fond of some of the calm sounding music in the game. Granted, there's not anything that'll make you wanna run out and buy the soundtrack or something, but it's nice and fits the game.

The voice acting in the game, is so-so. Some voices are nicely done, while others annoyed me to hear. The most voice acting you'll hear is during battles, which most of it is pretty good. There's some voice acting during certain scenes in the game as well.

Visuals... 8/10
The graphics in this game are nice and I really liked them, but for games of the time, you can tell they could've been better in areas. There's nothing wrong with them, just nothing that'll make you drool or anything. The attacks in battle look great really, and there's good detail and smoothness but just don't expect something on par with FFX in this area. Again, I'll say, the graphics are good, but they could've been better. It doesn't take away from the game at all, unless you're a graphics freak. I'm just saying cause people think I'm bashing the game when I say this... I'm just saying they could've been better for a PS2 game. That's all. Got it? Mmmk.

Replay Value... 7/10
Like most RPGs, it's possible to do everything (or most anyways) on one play through. Granted, there is times you get choices of how to answer to people, but that gets you nothing more than a different reaction. It is filled with MANY extras though, that may entice you to play through it again.

Overall... 9/10
A game that thrives alot on gameplay... needless, to say if you like the first one, you'll prolly love this one. If you didn't like the battle system in the first, you may not care much for this one, although it has been improved.. or if you haven't played the first, you may just wanna rent this before spending big bucks on the game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/22/02, Updated 10/22/02