Legend Of Legaia

by Manufacturer: Sony

Product Features

• RPG
• Hardware Platform: Playstation
• ESRB Age Rating: everyone

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00000IM2T
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: March 17, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (122 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,632 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Product Description

A strange mist blankets the world of Legaia. It has brought madness and rage to all it touches. To survive, the people live on the outskirts of civilization. They thought they were safe from the Seru creatures, which have been changed into killers by the mist. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Still, there is hope. In the town of Rim Elm, a young man named Vahn has bonded with a food Seru. With the help of some new friends, Vahn sets off to restore the seven genesis trees--the only hope left for Legaia.

GameSpot Review

Early last year, Sony released an RPG that would likely have made more of a splash had the world not been waiting for Square's epochal RPG, Final Fantasy VII. Sony's RPG, Wild Arms, featured a lengthy, involved quest with three distinct characters to play as, cool 3D battle scenes, and familiar old-school gameplay that fit like an old glove to the many RPG fans who bought it. While there's no sign of a Wild Arms 2 on the horizon, SCEA has released the next best thing, the Legend of Legaia. Developed by Contrail, an internal development team headed by Wild Arms producer, Takahiro Kaneko, Legend of Legaia bears numerous similarities to its spiritual predecessor, while taking distinct steps further into the genre.

The storyline focuses on a trio of adventurers (Vahn, Noa, and Gala) whose mission is to stop the ever-present danger that threatens the land in the form of a mysterious mist. This mist mutates whatever living being it touches into something entirely more sinister and dangerous. In order to quell this threat, Vahn and company must seek out the numerous Genesis Trees that are scattered throughout the land and revive them. The trees in turn will radiate a magical aura that causes the mist to dissipate.

Like Wild Arms, the trio of playable characters is made up of two males and one female. Unlike Wild Arms, the Legend of Legaia is a fully 3D RPG, completely rendered in polygons. Aesthetics aside, the most significant feature in the game is the battle engine. Instead of the typical menu-based scheme, Legaia focuses on an almost fighting game-style interface. While not exactly Tekken 3, the fight scenes feature large, detailed characters and cool special effects. Think of the battle scenes in Xenogears and you're more than halfway there. You trigger commands and other inputs by using the directional pad to indicate item use, fight, escape, and so on. Assuming you choose to fight, the D-pad then dictates things like high-attack, low-attack, kick, and special attack. While some might wonder why Contrail didn't just make a simple fighting engine, it actually works out very well this way, and it's engaging enough to keep from getting stale. As you progress in the game, you'll learn more powerful attacks called "Super-Arts." You will also need to find something called a "Ra-Seru" for each character. The Ra-Seru is an incorruptible creature that each character wears like a symbiotic companion. Each Ra-Seru acts like a weapon and adds to each character's attack options.

When you're not in battle, you'll be traversing the countryside in search of, among other things, the Genesis Trees. During your travels you will, naturally, have to interact with the various townspeople you meet and occasionally upgrade your inventory (weapons, armor, and so on). The cool part about upgrading your inventory is that you actually see the changes the next time you're in battle. The attention to detail in the game is thoughtful and welcome indeed.

Graphically, the game lookss competent, if not spectacular. Everything is adequately realized, yet a touch on the blocky side. The textures can be grainy, but the graininess is counterbalanced by a substantial amount of gourad-shading, which helps the characters stand out from the backgrounds, which are comparable to the overhead map in Xenogears. The music is the standard fare you find in your average RPG, which is unfortunate, because Legaia is better than your average RPG. While not necessarily poor, the soundtrack definitely takes a backseat to the excellent gameplay.

On the downside, your progress on the overhead map moves kind of slow, and, as a result, you'll find yourself in a lot of random battles as you try to go from here to there. Of course, you can always choose to run away from the fight, but then your levels won't go up as fast. Faster movement on the map and increased level advancement would have helped Legaia a bit. Additionally, the battle engine, around which the game revolves, can also drag the pace down, with all the loading and whatnot. Overall, the game feels a bit sluggish, but this shouldn't be a problem with patient gamers.

Despite the flaws that keep Legaia from being the world beater that it could have been, it still remains an engaging RPG for anyone who likes to play RPGs. After having obtained all three characters, you'll find yourself entertained for hours upon hours. Point blank, this is an ambitious RPG. Unfortunately, with all the RPG attention being paid to Square's Final Fantasy VIII, it seems as if Legaia might get swept under the rug, much in the way Wild Arms was overshadowed by FFVII. That would be a shame if it turned out like that. The Legend of Legaia is a worthwhile way to spend your time. --James Mielke
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very good, January 26, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Legend Of Legaia (Video Game)

first of all, this was my first RPG ever. its the reason i got into them at all. i rented it and loved the graphics and gameplay, so i bought it. after playing other RPGs like ff8 and chrono trigger, i'd have to say this isnt my favorite, but i still look back at it lovingly. the fight system is really amazing. you punch in each individual blow for every character, then watch as it happens, or you select your ra-seru to summon a monster who you've already beaten to attack. the seru videos are beautiful and the attacks are useful. the absense of the active time bar is a little lazy, but it allows you to really think it all out. the story is pretty good and when you revive a genesis tree and that music kicks in, it's very touching. speaking of music, the legend of legaia soundtrack is very good. i've read in reviews that the music wasn't that good, but i thought it was great. the boss music is particularly good. the graphics are great too. the fight scenes are very bright and colorful. i really don't see how they fit it all on one disc, other than the absense of many cinema scenes. the level of challenge is also a plus. the last boss took me six tries,... SIX. i only have a few complaints. first, there isn't very much room for exploration. in other RPG titles, some huge parts are optional and take place on secluded islands. second, the characters aren't very deep. really the most interesting is songi. Vahn is just a grapic basically, because you choose everything he says, making you the character. also, its a little too hard to level up. overall though, it's a great game, and a good first RPG.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Innovation you can enjoy, August 31, 2000

By 

Alex (College Park, MD) - See all my reviews

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Legend Of Legaia (Video Game)

I was very surprised with Legend of Legaia when I first played it. Although the basic RPG formula is still basically intact, there are a few radically innovative bits that seem to work quite well.

Take for example the amazing battle engine: while turn-based at its core, each character's basic attack is instead a series of kicks and punches that YOU enter (at the beginning of each round). Specific sequences of kicks and punches unlock "Arts" - combos that you can perform at any point in the game. Furthermore, you can chain Arts in combat if they share their first and last moves, and, what's best, you can perform any Art at any given time, giving you total freedom in combat. Most Arts are learned through experimentation, while a few are taught to you by a variety of casual mentors. To save you the trouble of writing the arts down, the game keeps track of the ones you learned in notes that can be called up either through the status menus or directly in combat. Magic in Legend of Legaia is all summoning. During combat you have the chance of absorbing the powers of a variety of enchanted monsters, and thereupon summoning them to cast spells. If you summon the creature frequently, it will increase in level, making the spell it produces more efficient and perhaps even add a side effect.

Seems as though Sony threw this amazing thing in and then forgot to capitalize on it. Makes me wonder why they capitalized on the far more restrictive battle engine in Legend of Dragoon.

Graphically, Legend of Legaia isn't much to look at (or listen to), with ungainly polygonal surroundings and fully polygonal characters who look like blocks on a string. Thankfully, in combat the characters are realistically proportioned and animate realistically. Also, their faces are very expressive and well-detailed.

A diabolic mist has enveloped the world years ago, turning the enchanted Seru into deranged monsters, and their human possessors into mindless zombies. It is up to you to revive the Genesis trees spread across the land in order to destroy the mist. If the story sounds off-beat and unexciting, it is still your formulaic save-the-world story we have come to know and love in many RPGs. The plot is as unobtrusive as they come. There is nothing unnecessary, no confusing tangents, no bland, endless dialog, nothing to detract you from the gameplay.

Now, to alerts: this is a slow, SLOW, S...... L...... O...... W game. Travel on the overworld is very sluggish. Character advancement is equally slow. Get ready for tactical level-building, lots of it, because the bosses are tough. If you like your games to move at breakneck speed and half-blind you with glitter of many explosions, Legend of Legaia may reduce you to tears in under an hour. But if you're in for a good, old-fashioned RPG experience, you will most certainly enjoy this game.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad game at all; especially for the price!, April 24, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Legend Of Legaia (Video Game)

Picked this game up because of the price, and I'd have to say that I definitely won on that deal (over 60 hours of game time). The battle sequence is pretty neat as you tell your character what his/her moves are to be and then sit back and watch the fight. This game I felt to be very easy to play. You catch on to what needs to be done in no time at all. Yes I'll agree that you move at a snalls pace between towns but it don't take one very long to do it. I thought the story line was not so bad. The characters were good; however, Noa at times is too whiney. But at the same time her innocence is cute. Songi, by the end I wanted to strangle him, the bully. One other feature I liked about this game is that with the many, many hours of game play there were only a few instances when the characters swore. This is nothing in comparison to other games I have played. In the end I'd have to say that it was definitely worth the money payed for it.