Legend of Legaia

"If youre waiting for Final Fantasy 8 in america, this game will do more than hold you over"

Well, I'm going to keep this short. This game is one of the better RPG's out there. In most ways it tops Final Fantasy VII. So, I'll start with the advantages.

The graphics on the field are more colorful, and they way the world moves as you do seems more realistic than Final Fantasy. The fighting method(much like Xenogears) involves imputting different combinations of the circle, triangle, square, and x button. It is more advanced than Xenogears in that way. As an avid game player, i enjoy it when the programmer includes as many things to increase experience gained, and prevent enemies from attacking when youre just trying to explore. Legaia has both of these. Experience can be increased over two times its original amount with a handy accessory. Also, there is an accessory to lower the enemy encounter rate, and the ability to escape encounters. And, if youre trying to gain experience, the bad luck bell is great(it increases enemy encounters. This makes a game much more fun to play. Especially when all you need is a few levels to get somewhere, or if you dont feel like killing groups of enemies over and over again. The story is pretty good, there is some betrayal, love, and other elements, much like any other game. It reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy, although it isnt quite as advanced. It has a great fun factor, and you probably wont get bored with it. There are some puzzles, as to what to do next, but it isnt a major factor in the game. As far as in dungeons and such, the graphics are pretty good. Going through a delapadated Conkram kind of reminds me of Silent Hill. Its very inspiring. I also enjoy it when a game sends you into the past as happens in Legend of Legaia. Ok, thats my take on its advantages.

There are a few bad things about Legaia. First of all, once again contrail has decided to go with only three characters(as in wild arms). Now, this isnt that big of a deal, but, i always like the excess amount of characters you can play in sqares rpgs(most of them, anyway). The three characters are all very similiar in strength, magic, and defense. At least the moves they do are fairly unique. Also, spells in this game are limited, there are only 22. Which, is ok, but a lot do the same thing. For instance, there are about 4 fire creatures, and they all do fire damage, of course. Basically each element does elemental damage, and has added bonuses(strength down...etc.) The holy element cures your party along with status......I think there should have been alot more spells. The effects shown by the spells arent spectacular, but they are ok. Dont expect Final Fantasy Knights of the Round or anything like that, but they are ok. Lastly, the enemies themselves are very boring to look at, and just dont do the game justice. Just pay attention to what they dont, try not look at them too much, you might fall asleep;)

Ok, I said I'd keep it short;0 In a nutshell, Legend of Legaia is worth the 40 bucks I paid for it. I think its better than Final Fantasy VII, for the most part. This might be because its newer, and I'm sick of Final Fantasy VII, but its still a great game. It will keep you busy until Final Fantasy VIII.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99