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LEGEND OF LEGAIA
SCUS-94254
Copyright © 1999 Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.
Sony Playstation, 1 Player
RPG
Memory card: 1 block
Analog Controller Compatible
Vibration Function Compatible
Available Now in the US
$39.99
Where to buy
FAQ
—by Eri Izawa
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LEGEND OF LEGAIA qualifies, like too many recent games, under the
familiar heading of, "Just how desperately do you want to play a
console fantasy RPG?" For all its pretty 3D graphics and drawn-out
plot, LEGAIA somehow simply fails to draw the player into the world
and its characters. (If story and characters are more important to
you than 3D graphics, go out and get LUNAR: SILVER STAR STORY COMPLETE
instead.)
The story is reasonable, if a bit overused. The hero is a young man
(with big anime-blue hair) who teams up with another young man (Gala)
and a cute young woman (Noa) to save the world. In this case, the
threat seems to be a mysterious Mist that is converting certain
magic-item-like entities (the Seru) into evil monsters, and even
worse, is converting the people who wear the Seru into mindless
creatures. Unfortunately, most of the world population relied on
Seru, so by the start of the story, most of the world's population is
made up of mindless creatures who have been stuck that way for ten
years.
Our heroes are encouraged and aided by "Ra-Seru," special Seru that
give them magical abilities and which are unaffected by the evil Mist.
Each person has one special Ra-Seru that he or she wears, much as
TALES OF DESTINY paired people off with swords. So, this party of
three humans plus three Ra-Seru must go around the world reviving the
holy Genesis Trees (which help reduce the Mist and empower the
Ra-Seru), and also destroy the sources of the Mist. Of course, they
are thwarted by evil characters, including a bunch of bosses whose
origins aren't explained until near the end of game, and one highly
obnoxious and unfortunately poorly developed character by the name of
Songi.
Like many RPGs of this type, combat plays a large role within the
game. Perhaps it is here where LEGEND OF LEGAIA fails most obviously.
The box cover proclaims a "New combat system based on fighting games."
Arcade excitement? Hardly. It's the same menu-driven system you'd
find in most fantasy RPGs, just with pretty 3D animations. That in
itself wouldn't necessarily have been bad, if only the combat moves
(and the spells) didn't take forever to play through. And if the
standard combat music wasn't so darn self-important. And if the
characters were less irritatingly smug in their triumph poses. And if
the spells weren't so expensive to cast ... Suffice it to say,
something about combat just went wrong.
On the other hand, something about combat did go right: the monster
design and animation are perhaps the strongest features of the game.
LEGAIA's monsters include some familiar figures (ogre-like, or
lion-like), but many of them are just plain bizarre, original, and fun
to watch. As mentioned above, the creature and character combat moves
are somewhat time consuming but otherwise well-done and compelling.
The main characters' faces are also expressive, detailed and nicely
done in 3D.
Too bad the same can't be said of the main characters themselves.
They're theoretically interesting ... they just fail to come across
that way. Our hero says very little, and too often comes across as
not the strong silent type he's supposed to be, but a mindlessly
silent type who has nothing to say. Gala is a monk-type who, taught
to never rely on Seru, must be won over to the use of the Ra-Seru;
other than this, though, we find little depth to his character.
Probably the most interesting character is Noa, the young woman. She
was raised by a Ra-Seru-possessed wolf in a sealed-off cave, a
promising start that is sadly unfulfilled. Her solitary childhood
seems to have little to no believable impact on her reaction to other
humans, human society, or even in her choice of words and her taste in
clothing (where did she find fashionable clothes to wear in her
closed-off cave?). She also has an unforgettably perky personality
which has its winning moments, but which sometimes can make the player
wish she were deleted off the game CD. Still, she shows the most
growth and the most insight of all the characters.
The plot itself has a few clever twists and turns, but more often than
not, just seems to plod along. Our heroes are treated too often like
heroes, with glad NPCs thanking them profusely and promising to tell
future grandchildren of their heroism. It mostly comes across as
hollow ego-boosting, repeated over and over and over again. Here and
there, small continuity failures (such as the unlikely ages of the
children in the city of Sol) and, even worse, forced and artificial
emotional scenes (such as a poorly executed teary family reunion) all
combine to weaken the overall experience considerably. It's as if the
designers tried too hard to put in "the right ingredients," without
really knowing how. Thankfully, the game gets more interesting and
intense towards the end, such as with a look at some of the bad guys
and a reversal of fortune for our heroes, but alas, it's too little,
too late. By the time the (predictable) ending occurs, it's hard to
care much. Console games need to draw the player into the plot and
characters early, and in this task, LEGEND OF LEGAIA largely fails.
Overall, LEGAIA disappoints. It's playable. It can be enjoyed. The
monsters and animations are cool. Too bad so little else
is. 
Rating: 6 / 10 |
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