Games I Played: Legend of Legaia

 

And now: these are my ramblings and thoughts about Legend of Legaia.

Back in January, when I wanted to replay Legend of Legaia, I wanted to write my thoughts on this game as I went along with it.  Back then, I asked if this game still stood as well as I remembered.  And now, I can give a verdict: yes, this game was still as good as I remembered.  Legend of Legaia is such a neat RPG for the PS1 with great story, memorable characters, and a fun, unique combat system that I have not seen imitated ever since, aside from its sequel.

Right from the get go, the game really wants to tell a darker story than the usual RPG plot.  The mist is a constant force of evil as it crippled civilization, as well as turning serus against humanity.  I feel the story immediately sets its tone when they show Juno’s dead body.  

And it doesn’t stop there.  The zombie-like nature of the human-seru monsters, the dreaded seru bride plot, or even how humans get corrupted just from the mist itself.  

referring to Gaza with that last comment

And to have this in an E-rated game is quite ballsy to say the least.

Though… sometimes they go too far with their frightening stuff.  Such as Conkram and Juggernaut.

I'm not showing the insides of THAT place again

 

But anyways, despite that, they still manage to keep some lighthearted moments, and it helps when you have such memorable characters such as Noa and Gala.  Noa being the bright eyed child, curious about the world, and Gala being the stoic no-nonsense party member.  

 

I only pick screenshots of their best moments

These characters play very well with each other.  And while Vahn is the silent protagonist and serves as an avatar for the player, you do see some bits of his character shine momentarily.

The Ra-Serus, on the other hand… I wish they had a bit more defined personalities from each other.  Meta and Ozma mostly serve to explain the plot.   

Terra seemed like she stood out the most, as she acted as a mother figure to Noa, but by the time everyone’s gathered, even she kinda falls into the trapping of being plot exposition.  They’re not super boring, but they kinda blend with each other.  Like I feel you could replace one Ra-Seru’s line with the other and it wouldn’t feel that different.  I think if our characters interacted with the Ra-Serus more often, I think we could get a little more of their character.

Speaking of characters, how about that Songi?  Songi is such a fantastic villain; he is a character you love to hate.  Arrogant and malicious, Songi is a constant active force that only makes our heroes’ lives that much harder.  He goes from betraying his fellow monks in the monastery to guilt tripping our heroes in beating up Gaza (and corrupting him with a Sim-Seru in the process) to developing a god complex and tried to take over the Seru Kai.  I also love the comparison and contrast to Gala.  

Both were trained in the monastery and were great fighters in their own right.  Songi desired the seru for power, so much so that he would violate the Biron teaching, but in the end, he cursed the seru for not helping him achieve what he wanted.  Meanwhile, Gala initially resented the seru, but felt he had to join with Ozma to chase after Songi, and in the end, he saw Ozma as a friend.  There’s some really great writing there.

Honestly, I feel Songi is a better written villain than Cort is, despite Cort being the main antagonist of the story.  What they did with Cort was still good; a lot of his character is left in mystery for a good majority of the game.  The only thing you know about him is through name.  

It ups the mystery and intimidation of his character, but it’s revealed that he’s simply a mad scientist driven mad by the mist, and it kinda drops that tension for me.  He’s no more of a pawn of the mist than any other mist henchmen, I feel, unfortunately.  Of course, the fact that he’s Noa’s brother complicates the matter, and I feel that's pretty well done in that regard.

I’ve already gushed about the music.  The ambience it creates is so effective, and it sets the tone of the world very well.  I love how unique the battle theme is, how it’s mostly drums and very little melody.  I mentioned before that the percussion plays an important role throughout the entire soundtrack.  Sound effects also deserve a mention as well.  Each hit in battle feels hard and crunchy, it’s something I can’t get old of.

The graphics is still really endearing.  The polygon character design is a product of its time, but it has a charm of its own, much like FF7’s “popeye” character models.  One thing I’m impressed by is how many different battle backgrounds there are, even for “throwaway” places you may not visit at all, like the Biron Monastery background with the statue!   

 

That’s some dedication right there.  The monster designs are really cool and unique, especially the serus.  I think the best part about them is that they look so distinct from the regular monsters, you can easily identify them as a seru.

Like I said before, the game’s combat system is incredibly unique, and it’s something I haven’t seen tried again in any other RPG aside from Legaia 2.  

Inputting commands kinda like a fighting game is so cool to do.  Even better is being able to string these arts into a combo.  The game rewards you for being creative with your combos.  That said, however, I think they really focused their all on the arts system, because everything else in combat is a bit one-dimensional.  Magic, while great, mostly does damage or heal.  There is a bit of nuance to elemental attributes, but that’s mostly it for magic.  Bosses don’t have too much strategy outside of “beat them up with your best combos and heal when necessary.”  Or maybe I’ve played other RPGs that require a lot more strategy like Etrian Odyssey.  I dunno.  Despite some shortcomings, I do feel the arts system is really great, and it carries the gameplay part well.

Legend of Legaia is such a fantastic ride, and I’m so glad I decided to replay this game.  It is a bit on the slow side, but I found myself invested with the game’s plot, the combat, the engrossing soundtrack, the lovable characters, and so much more.  I definitely recommend playing through this game if you got a chance to.