"Where are the production values?"

Zoids: Legacy is an RPG based on the Zoids anime series based on the Zoids line of toys. They're a bunch of giant mech animals, most of which are based on dinosaurs of some sort or another. The animes featured some of the most amazing graphics to grace a television. Of course, if you're even considering getting the game, you probably already know that. I can't recall any game that's received less media coverage and fewer reviews that I've known of.

The game defines the essence of mixed bag, and is a case study for production values. Some parts of the game are incredibly well done, showing the still awesome abilities of the GBA. It's obvious where the spit and polish went. It's equally obvious what parts of the game were not focused on, and that's a problem.

Graphics: 6/10
The graphics are one of the big mixed-bag points. When the Zoids are actually on the attack, a high-resolution image of the Zoid shows, and it looks great. There is no question that the same amount of effort was put into make the game look good in combat as in the show. The effects of the weapons are high-detail, and impressive. Unfortunately there are probably only two dozen weapon effects, and that's a generous estimate. This quickly gets boring, especially when every attack features the zoom in on the Zoid attacking and targeting, and it's not possible to cancel this.

These battle graphics are really the only strong point of the graphics in the game. Elsewhere the game is only visually functional at best. Every single town looks exactly the same, the overworld has only six or so tiles. There's also the battle command screen which appears whenever an attack is not being committed or chosen. This screen shows all the Zoids present in combat, but unfortunately does this through scaled icons. The Zoids wind up either scaled so small they get blurry, or scaled so large every pixel becomes obvious.

The tiny tileset of the over-world map becomes even more of a problem while traversing dungeons. There is literally no variety in dungeon texture, and so they become unnavigable. Perhaps this is intentional, because the dungeons are simple mazes, not even bothering with switches. Golden Sun, this is not.

Sound: 5/10
The sound is forgettable except for a few unfortunate notes. There's a theme tune for combat but it doesn't do anything. The only point where the music did become memorable was one single conversation early in the game where the music hit a note high enough to be shrilly painful through the GBA's speakers.

Story: 6/10
The story is the most entertaining aspect of Zoids: Legacy. In a normal RPG the story is what keeps the story moving forward, and a well done story creates a game's replay value. That story is not told in Legacy.

Instead the story present here is a poorly written multiverse fanfic, contrived solely for the purpose of bringing all the characters from the various Zoids series together. The entertainment value comes in with the fact that all of the dialogue in this game is written in brilliant Engrish. Cut scenes make no sense, dialogue often consists of people saying things like "Screech!" Cause and effect have been completely thrown out of the window. The path of the game is so linear as to not allow any choice. Until halfway through the game it's not even possible to choose a destination.

Detracting further from the story is the fact that it's constructed from excerpts of the animes and previous video games. If you haven't watched them, you're going to be completely lost as to what's going on for a very large portion of the game. It can actually be ignored completely without losing anything of the game.

Gameplay: 9/10
This may seem an unusually high score, and to a degree it's inflated. The reason this game gets all the points it does is that this one of the few RPGs around that actually forces the player to think tactically to succeed at combat. In most RPGs hammering away with the most powerful attack is usually enough to get the job done. Here, the energy used to power attacks is started lower each battle than it is in most RPGs. Almost every weapon uses energy, and more powerful weapons use more energy. Use too much and it's possible to not be able to pull off an attack for the next two or three turns.

Most battles allow for up to six Zoids on each side, and each Zoid is fully customizable in weapons and in who can pilot it. Each pilot, of forty some, has a unique skill-set, and how their stats increase at each level can be determined by the player. The pilot's stats affect the Zoid, and all of this means that there is a huge amount of customization that the min/maxers can fiddle with if they want to.

Unfortunately game balance is thrown out the window upon game clearing. At this point it's possible to get the most powerful weapon in the game, and several Zoids so strong that even using one stacks the odds to an unbelievable level.

Miscellaneous: 7/10
There's a lot of collection and customization available here. The total number of Zoids in the game is exactly equal to the number of Pokemon available in the first game. Unfortunately, unlike Pokemon, most of the Zoids are just variations of basic forms. Expect to see a lot of cat, raptor, and pteranodon-shaped Zoids.

There isn't too much length to the game, and most of the best Zoids join the player's party, reducing a lot of the challenge. There is an additional "Challenging" mode buried in the options menu, and it can be a lot harder than the normal single-player.

Overall: 6/10
Despite some innovative twists to the gameplay, and some high quality graphics, this game suffers from poor production values. This is very much an acquired taste, and is only going to have appeal to people who like Zoids. If you don't, skip it, and if you do, there's still a very good chance you're not going to like it. If you can, try renting it first.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/16/04