Legend of Dragoon for PlayStation 1

There's that old saying, "once you become obsessed with the enemy, you become the enemy". In that respect, perhaps Sony shouldn't have hyped the Legend of Dragoon as a "Final Fantasy Killer". Dragoon in fact looks and plays similarly to a Final Fantasy game. These similarities were obvious enough to one of my friends that he spent 10 minutes poring over the CD case looking for a Squaresoft logo...and I kept telling him he wouldn't find one.

Before I start, I must tell you this. I'm on my third trip through Dragoon's world, and like subsequent trips through a good book, you put the details together a heckuva lot better than the first time. Similarly, this is my third review of Dragoon. I could have edited my original review but I decided against it, so I deleted it and started afresh.

Do you want the long or short version of my review? Short version is this: "Third time around, and this time I'm cynical".

... Or do you want the long version? Clear your calendar, I'll give it to you anyways.

I read through all the hype, flaming/acclaiming reviews in a magazine, and decided to rent it. Got halfway through disc 2 in two days. Then I bought the game and played through it over the course of a month or so. Now I'm on disc 4 for a second (and, perhaps, a final) time. My friend (I'll call him George) likes it, and he visits regularly to get farther on it--he's midway through disc 3, and I'm watching.

But I'm rambling. 30 kilobytes isn't enough for one of my reviews, so I've got to pace myself or I'll run out of space.


The story of Dragoon starts when Dart, a young fighter who's spent his last five years searching for the "Black Monster" that torched his hometown (and parents), discovers that his new hometown, Seles, was torched by Imperial Sandora and his childhood friend, Shana, was taken to Hellena Prison. Dart sets out to rescue her, but questions multiply. Why was she taken away? Before long, Dart gets enlisted by Basil to fight against Imperial Sandora. Along the way, many elements foreshadow what ultimately is to come in the game, but that's the adventure that you'd just have to play to learn.

Now for the ratings. I cannot rate Dragoon until I've rated myself. It's a little rating called "Reviewer's Tilt"--my personal bias for/against this game.

Personal Tilt (on a scale of -5 to +5) : -3 (somewhat biased against)

Cynicism fits in really well with this rating of myself. I'll be blunt. Sony could have done a much better job on Dragoon, and the typoes are the first reason I notice. Yes. Typoes. I frequently see the continent of "Endiness" referred to with only one 'S' (instead of two). Not to mention that I can't pronounce "Endiness" with a straight face; it sounds too funny.

Now for the Dragons. Species #105 of the world. One look at a Dragoon's dragon and you'll most likely ask yourself, "that can't possibly be a dragon!?!". I sure did, and I won't call them dragons even if my review depends on it. These six-eyed freaks of Japanese art were doomed to extinction from day one in Dragoon's world. No two dragons in Dragoon have an even remotely similar shape or physiology. Feyrbrand has 4 hind legs and 4 front claws, looking somewhat like an overblown grasshopper; Regole looks like a large fish (appropriate since Regole is a sea dragon), and Micheal (disc 4) looks & sounds more like an F-16 than any dragon.

How can a species be doomed from extinction since day one? This is my opinion, plain & simple, but the scary fact is that Legend of Dragoon backs it up! True. First off, the Dragons are soooooo powerful (attacks & strengthwise) that their world's creator, "Soa", limited their intelligence to create a balance. But what a hostile and volatile balance that is. Haschel states in Disc 1 that "a good sword requires a good sheath." Dragons must then know how to control their powers. But with limited intelligence, it's a difficult prospect. Therefore, it was species #106, the Humans, who were predestined to rule Dragons with their intelligence & wisdom. This is where the Dragoons step in. Dragoons control & command dragons. However, as a dragon fights, it becomes a savage beast, even up to the point where a Dragoon can't control it anymore. Which is why (SPOILER ALERT!) Rose killed her own dragon with her bare hands (disc 4). She did it because Micheal (her dragon) became a menace after the Dragon Campaign. Not to mention Shirley's disc 1 comment "Dragon? Oh, they are still clinging to life." Put it all together and I conclude that the dragons were doomed to die out. They couldn't survive alone (because of their limited intelligence), but with human (er, Dragoon) masters, they would eventually deteriorate until they are killed for their own good.

Regarding the Dragons' intelligence, it is impossible for me to look at these six-eyed Dragons in combat and find one tiny example of intelligence. Six eyes is fairly evident of the japanese style of dragon. There's a cartoon show called "EscaFlowne" on the Fox network; it has a robotic dragon with six eyes (not to mention many other elements similar to Dragoon--resonance, hard-armor-but-frail-core, etc.). Translation: I hate Japanese dragons--give me Spyro or Draco from the theater anyday.

Now for the Dragoons. Their armor looks cool, their attacks kick some serious monster, but what IS a dragoon? Popular definition is "Knight of the Dragon". Rose herself will confirm this halfway through Disc 1. What do knights do??? They serve their liege--and Shirley will tell you this (also in Disc 1). Therefore, the Dragoons (logically) should serve a dragon. Unfortunately, the tables are turned and it's the Dragons who serve their knights.


I've rambled a bit, right here. Now that you know where I stand on Dragoon, it's time to rate the game.


G R A P H I C S: 5 out of 10

Technical aspect: 2 of 5
Cinematics: 3 of 5

Dragoon uses three styles of graphics. The first style is for scenery--which I proudly give a 1 of 5 technical rating. Why? Scenery graphics are pre-rendered, upon which 3-dimensional characters walk across (think FF 7). Let me be blunt. Pre-rendered scenery was created using different hardware than the PSX's own, and you're merely looking at an image. A dang good image, mind you, especially with the realistic water reflections and flowing surfaces. Unfortunately, it's still an image. How much technical power does it take for a game to display an image??? Not much at all--thus the low technical rating. The scenery is also flat and distant. Camera angles are by definition not a problem, but usually the scenery is so zoomed-out that your characters look one (or two if you're lucky) inches tall onscreen. Sneaking into Kazas Castle, I could navigate the entire underground maze in no time because I could see the entire thing. Four-way scrolling in the scenery doesn't do anything for its flatness. Taking Zelda 64's pre-rendered graphics in comparison (like Hyrule Castle Town Market), those pre-rendered graphics were drawn panoramically, which gave them a flawless--and immersive--3D feel from otherwise-2D graphics. Even Quest for Glory V (on PC) used panoramic graphics to put a quality 3D spin on pre-rendered graphics.

The second type of graphics is combat graphics, which are pure 3D. I'll give them a 3 of 5 technical rating. They're good, but they're flawed. Most of these flaws are because of the PSX's aging graphics hardware. Hard-skin 3D character models look nice at a glance, but up close they're downright glitchy. "Hard-skin" models are the worst thing for the PSX engine to draw, because they exhibit a lot of graphical sorting & clipping flaws (most noticeable in a character's joints). Speaking from a 3d-modeling standpoint, "hard-skin" models are assembled piece by piece (each leg, arm, hand, body segment is separate from the rest), then stuck together like a mannequin, or a toy action figure. They are jointed & blocky. "Soft-skin" models are different; they're composed of one large, flexible 3D model--think of a stuffed animal, or better yet, load up Spyro. Soft-skin models like Spyro, Croc, or Lara Croft in TR4 display noticeably less glitches with the PSX hardware, and they also look better, because as the character moves, their textures move & flex with them. You'll probably notice right away that King Albert's supposedly smooth, flowing green cape has all the smoothness of a chain-link fence--and I'm not joking. If he performs "Rod Typhoon", you'll see his cape crack at the seams as it whirls around with him, with graphical errors galore.

The third type of Dragoon's graphics are the FMV movies. They're good, but as with the scenery, they're pre-rendered. Thus, you're watching an animated image, and I give it a 1 of 5 in the technical aspect. The quality of the FMV is great, but remember that the FMV's were made beforehand, with different hardware; they're not being created from scratch at 50-60 frames per second like the 3D combat graphics. In fact, the FMV's are TOO good--they outclass the combat and scenery graphics. Thus, after watching the first FMV sequence in Disc 1, I quickly was disappointed with the pre-rendered scenery.

Cinematics (how effectively the graphics are used--a somewhat subjective rating), I would give Dragoon a 3 of 5 cinematics rating on its graphics. They may not score well on technical aspects, but the descriptive action in those graphics compensates. Dragoon is the first game I've played where the characters regularly gesture when they talk (no joke!). Big difference from other RPG's like Final Fantasy 6 or even Legend of Mana. I especially liked it when Rose punched Lavitz when he tried dragging her off for a play-date of sorts at Lohan's arena.

There are a few cinematical flaws. The Divine Dragon supposedly has 7 wings. 7 is an odd number, but if you look closely, it's more like 7 1/2. I still prefer to think that the Divine Dragon has six wings and that Lloyd chopped one wing clean off during the fight. It sounds a bit more heroic that way. In addition, the Dragon Buster is a magical sword with a blade composed of pure energy. You'll get the Dragon Buster just in time to fight the final boss of the game. Rose is the only one who can use it. Why then does the energy-based Dragon Buster look like an ordinary metal sword when Rose wields it during combat??? Keeping the graphics simple enough for the PSX hardware just cost Dragoon a cinematics point--even in the closing FMV sequence, Rose is shown holding the genuine Dragon Buster in her hands. Why not during combat?


M U S I C: 2 of 5

Dragoon's music is okay, as synthesized background tunes go. However, it got to me after five hours of play. There are only three different combat tunes (the "Wingly City" combat tune was my favorite) and four different boss tunes (the "Virage" boss tune was scary, the "minor boss" tune [think Jiango, Lenus, or Kamuy] was pretty good). The last tune was, of course, used for the final boss (I'll discuss that particular fight later). Scenery tunes ranged from ambient to bland. My favorite was the "Dabas' Antique Store" tune, but alas, that tune wasn't played often. I kinda with there was some sort of jukebox for Dragoon, but there isn't.

One thing I have learned to hate is the combat music. If you remember Final Fantasy 3 (FF6 in Japan), it had several sequences (i.e., save esper from Kefka, escape from Vector) in which the background music didn't change when combat started. I prefer this. The Chapter 2 World Map tune was a cool tune, but it kept cutting out every 5 seconds because I kept walking around and starting combat. How can you listen to a good tune when it keeps getting interrupted? You can't.

Overall, many of Dragoon's tunes aren't quite as memorable as the FF6 tunes. They don't seem to have that Squaresoft polish, either...even Final Fantasy 3, with the 16-bit SNES hardware, had music that can beat Dragoon's orchestra hands-down.


S O U N D F X: 3 of 5

This includes voiceovers in the FMV movies. The voiceovers are a nice touch, but there seems some mismatch between a character's FMV voice and their combat voice. Rose's line "Oh no! It cannot be!!" at the end of Disc 3 lacked panache. Nor did it sound like Rose's assorted combat jeers and shouts. It sounded like a different actor entirely. Other than that, the sound FX in Dragoon are quite capable and fit the slashes, cuts, arrows, and etc. that fly back & forth during combat. There are a few kooky sound FX too...the "stretching rubber-band" type of sound when you get hit by the walking tree monsters, and the "hollow coconut bop" sound when one of the toadstool monsters attacks. Those two are absolutely comical. A nice touch.


G A M E P L A Y: 6 of 10

This is a big one. To start out, Dragoon has most of your typical RPG fare in the gameplay department.

Most noticeable is the HUD markers displayed on-screen at all times to help you wander around. You can identify shops by blue markers, inns/clinics (usually including save points) by yellow markers, and you can tell when the random combat will happen because the HUD above your character will change from blue, to yellow, to red before a random combat event actually happens.

Some areas abandon the random combat altogether, instead placing roaming security guards or monsters. In those areas, combat only happens if you come into physical contact with the enemy. It's nice because you can choose to fight or elude the guards--sneaky!

Combat reminds me of FF5 combat. It's turn-based; each character has an "Agility" statistic that determines how often their turn comes up. For example, Meru, with an Agility of 60, gets combat turns twice as often as Kongol with his agility of 30. I haven't played FF7 or 8, but I think of FF5 because when a character's turn comes up, you can't put them on hold like in FF3. You must give them an order.

When you attack, a spinning target square appears on-screen to help you perform your weapon techniques. These are known as "Additions", and are best likened to the "Timed Hits" in Mario RPG. Press the X button when the spinning square overlaps a small square in the center, and if you timed it correctly, your character continues with their technique rather than stopping. The easiest way to master the Additions is to concentrate on the target squares rather than the action. This was a natural for me, but difficult for my friend George to master. Enemies can counter your additions with their own attacks, in which case you'd need to press the Circle button instead of X--and if you mess up, they counter. Even if you block an enemy's counterattack, it can throw you off and cause you to screw up on the next hit. Unfortunately, enemies don't counterattack enough--they can counter only once per Addition. Say you perform a 8-step Additions technique. The enemy counters after the first hit. You block that counter during the second hit--shouldn't the enemy try again before your character finishes the technique?? Of course so!

Dragoon additions give you a "Spirit Meter" (as Rose calls it) with a spinning light on it. Pressing the X button when the spinning light reaches the 12 o'clock position increases the strength of a Dragoon's addition.

About status ailments: Dragoon's status ailments are more realistic than FF. There's no fantasy elements like "zombie", and petrification doesn't literally turn a character to stone, it just knocks them out with paralyzing fear until combat ends. In fact, half of Dragoon's status ailments end after combat (poison, fear, and dispiriting doesn't), and any status ailment can be remedied by a Dragoon transformation. Remember the "Muddle" confusion from the FF series, where a character suddenly starts to attack your party & heal the monsters?? Dragoon has a better definition of that--it's called "bewitching", and conveniently, it can be dispelled by killing the particular monster who befuddled your team member. That's not like "confusion" in Dragoon. Dragoon confusion means a character doesn't know what to do; either they'll attack your team, they'll guard, or attempt to flee--you never know.

Which brings to mind one element from FF3 I liked. In FF3, you could stage a "partial retreat". You could, say, retreat two of four team members off the battlefield, leaving the other two still fighting. If the remaining two win, they get the experience. If they lost, at least you still have two guys left alive on your team! In Dragoon, if one character flees combat, the entire team flees combat. I don't like this very well.

If a character is KIA'd during combat, they're not dead--just wounded. In Final Fantasy, if a character gets wounded, they stay that way unless revived. Not so in Dragoon. At the end of combat, they'll recover, but with only 1 HP. This way, they're still around to help out, but with 1 HP, they can't fight for long (unless cured).

Now onto guarding. This is a cool feature of Dragoon's combat engine and a vital tactic in many battles. Guarding reduces the damage a character receives by 50 percent. In addition, it recovers their HP by 10% of their maximum and protects them from every status ailment! Cool...in the FF games, "guarding" did nothing but reduce physical damage. In Dragoon, guarding reduces damage from spells too! Protection from status ailments is probably the most important about Dragoon's "guard" command.

Some Dragoon bosses were pretty tough. Lenus, Kanzas, Syuviel, Belzac, Zieg, Lloyd, and Faust top the list. These bosses in particular perform more counterattacking than actual attacks. If you strike them multiple times, they'll respond by attacking consecutively. This is a bosses' privilege seldom exercised in Dragoon. Faust in particular performs 1 counter-move for every 500 HP of damage you inflict on him. Hit him for 2,000 points, don't be surprised if he comes back by casting 5 spells in a row (and when I did that, he did!). A boss's tactics vary depending on who you have in your team--I'm not entirely sure on this matter, but Emperor Doel used one particular attack on my group twice as much as on George's team--probably because of a different team selection.

However, the final boss wasn't among this list. He only attacked once at a time, and a good half as often as any one character on my team. Even with 40,000-plus HP, he was no challenge. Either that, or I was too good. Having two characters guard while the third attacked turned out to be a brilliant move against him and many other bosses (especially Lenus).

Another nice touch is the lack of the "end-of-game-cash-fest" prominent in many RPG's. Generally speaking, every enemy gives you the same amount of gold when defeated. I collected perhaps 40,000 gold throughout Dragoon, of which I spent almost every penny.

Remember the FF days where it takes 40 or so Healing Potions to fully cure a level 80 character's HP?? Dragoon isn't like that. Healing potions restore half of a character's maximum HP. Plain and simple. 100 HP means 50 recovery. 1,000 HP means 500 recovery. You never need more than 2 healing potions to completely cure a character! There are still varieties in the healing potions; like a "healing Rain" which recovers all HP and a "Healing Breeze" which does a healing potion on everybody.


Gameplay is not without flaws, though. Top of the list is the Equip screen "called 'Armed' on the menu screens). Access the Equip screen, and it automatically starts you on changing equipment. You can't use the Equip screen just to view a character's stats--you need to use the "Status" command for that.

Dragoons are powerful in combat, but limited. Some bosses use special attacks against Dragoons, the worst of which are the Dragon Buster and Dragon Block Staff. In times like this, I really wish that you could force a Dragoon to transform back into a human state. But you can't. Furthermore, Dragoon's can't guard against attacks, use items, or flee combat. If you've got a Level 5 dragoon during combat, but the other two guys get killed by a boss, you're stuck as a dragoon for a good five turns before you can do any recovery (except for Shana & Miranda; they have healing magic)--provided that the boss doesn't kill off your remaining Dragoon.

I must mention the physics of Dragoon science now--and I'll be quick about it. Kill a dragon, take its soul at the moment of its death, and that soul becomes a "Dragoon Spirit". Lloyd himself demonstrates this in Disc 3. Fortunately, you won't have to do this to get Dragoon Spirits--you'll generally have to fight an enemy dragoon to earn that dragoon spirit. Anyway, once you've got a Dragoon in your team, you collect "Spirit Points" during combat. For every 100 SP you collect, you can spend one turn as a Dragoon. Dragoons have twice the defensive strength as humans and at least 50% more attack power. Collect loads of Spirit Points (think up in the thousands) during combat and the character's Dragoon Level increases, giving them better Dragoon abilities.

Spells are pretty cool, but at the same time, they take a long time to cast--the "quickest" spell in the game still takes a good 10 seconds to complete. Human spells come in the form of magical items. There are three per element (and seven elements), and with most of these spells, you can mash the X button to increase their firepower when using them. Dragoon spells are genuine spells and require MP to cast.

The element system in Dragoon is simple, but too simple. Enemies belong to one element. This entitles them to 50% damage from same-element attacks (i.e., fire on fire) but double damage from that element's "Opposites" (i.e., water on fire). Vice versa applies too--wind destroys earth and earth destroys wind. Light & Darkness, dark & light. Unfortunately, Thunder-types have no weaknesses, but fortunately, this also means that no one is vulnerable to thunder-based attacks. Too bad the "ice" and "water" elements were combined into a single element. Ice doesn't necessarily douse fire and fire doesn't exactly melt water. I'd much rather go for the Pokemon element rules and fry Regole with some good old Thunder magic. (Then again, Regole had a pretty low magic resistance...) Many of the later bosses are "non-elemental" which means no strengths & no weaknesses.

Element-based weapons are nice, but not good enough. A character's attack power is divided into two parts--body and weapon. If an element-based weapon is supereffective against an enemy, only the weapon's power gets doubled. So if you'd normally inflict 100 (body) + 50 (weapon) damage on an enemy, an element-based weapon will mean you inflict 100 + 100 damage--not double damage, but more like 133%.

The FMV sequences are nice the first time around, but after that, I really wish you could skip them. Disc 3 had an overdose of FMV movies--eight in total! While the FMV in itself is nice quality, it outclasses the graphics, so in Disc 3 you can really see how the FMV graphics clash with everything else. If you ask me, Disc 2 had the best FMV movies. You get to see the Black Monster torch the city of Neet in one of the Disc 2 sequences (Librarian Ute's sermon on the Black Monster during disc 3 pales in comparison), and you also get to see a very cool movie taken from the front lines of the Dragon Campaign (the stories told by Minister Noish in Disc 1 and Librarian Ute in Disc 3 also pale in comparison). In particular, the first FMV sequence of disc 3, given to you by the preacher in Deningrad, gives you the 411 on world creation--and just to let you know, I hated that sequence with a passion (religious reasons here).

The storyline is straightorward and inflexible. The world map is 3D, but not free-roaming 3D like in Final Fantasy. You travel from point A to point B along pre-defined travel routes. This is sufficient enough for most of us (even Mario RPG did this), but gets boring after awhile. In Disc 4 you get a flying creature, but flying around isn't free-flying 3D, it's a simple "pick-your-destination" type of flight from place to place. In Disc 3 the storyline slows down noticeably while the team waits for Lloyd to show up in Deningrad, but don't worry--at the end of Disc 3, you'll meet a hero from the Dragon Campaign who gives you the 411 on world history, legends, Black Monster / Moon Child, and sends you on your final mission in Dragoon's world--none other than saving it from total destruction. (True statements)



R E P L A Y V A L U E: 4 of 10

Dragoon is four discs long, which means a good 30 or so hours of adventure. Unfortunately, Dragoon's story is inflexible. It's the same story every time through. No amount of side-quests or questions asked of you will alter the direction you go. Playing a second time through, I've noticed that 90% of the time when Dart is asked an important question, the answer is irrelevant because if you answer wrong, someone in the team will speak up and force you to pick the "correct" answer. Once the game's beaten, the only thing left re-playing Dragoon for is missing Stardust pieces (50 total). But for me, I also bought the strategy guide and found all 50 (30 with no help) pieces the first time around.

If the storyline was flexible, Dragoon would have been much better. For example...
- What if Dart became a "man of the sea" on the Queen Fury in Disc 2??
- What if Dart killed Lloyd in Disc 3??
- What if Dart actually beat Lloyd during the Hero Competition?? (yes, that battle was staged...)
- What if Shana got killed by dragon's poison in disc 1??

Unfortunately, it's not. Having all the pieces from a previous trip through Dragoon, there's no mysteries left to figure out.


F U N F A C T O R: 4 of 10

To get a good entertaining experience from Dragoon, you must be a hard-core RPG gamer in order to look past the menagerie of flaws and glitches. Unfortunately, I'm not this type of gamer, and with the inflexible storyline, a second trip through the game has little fun-factor to speak of beacuse I know what to expect. Although Emperor Doel's surprise (final battle in Disc 1) still sends shivers down my back and the Emperor Diaz surprises (both of them) do no less the second time around.

One of the most important aspects of any RPG is immersion, but Dragoon fails to provide an immersive environment. Pre-rendered scenery viewed from a distance makes it awfully hard to get involved in up-close events. FMV movies are things to watch, not participate in. Most noticeably, though, is the passage of time--or the lack thereof. In Disc 3, when returning to Deningrad after a successful bout with the Divine Dragon, Fourth Sister Setie mentioned something to the queen like "It's been nearly a week since the dragon's howling has died down..." I read that comment and think, "one week, my foot! Two days at the most!!!!!!!" This is primarily because Dragoon lacks day/night cycles. You do get to see some night weather in the city of Fletz, Furni, Ulara, and on the Queen Fury. In an RPG, being able to view a city by night is absolutely amazing by any standard. When my team spent the night in Fletz, it "felt" like they were spending the night somewhere. The group had talked all day in the bar while the sun set in the west. I couldn't leave town even if I wanted to, and half of the places were boarded up for the night as well. I had to wait for morning to arrive, by which I ended up killing some time talking to Nello (King Albert literally talked all night long). That was moment in Dragoon that felt immersive.


Overall, I suppose that Dragoon isn't a keeper in my game library, despite the fact that I purchased it and played it (twice). I can't abide by Japanese dragons and the World History 101 being force-fed to me by the preacher in Deningrad during disc 3. The music doesn't hold my personal interest, and it seems a bit rough around the edges. The biggest downer for me, however, is the lack of immersion. The Quest for Glory series on PC, and even Zelda 64 provided day/night cycles to help immerse the player into the game. I can "get into" Zelda 64 at a moment's notice (it's that immersive), and the same thing goes for Quest for Glory, but when it comes to the "Knights of the Dragon", I sigh and think about how Sony could have done a much better job on this game, but didn't.