So finished FFXII....onto The Legend of Dragoon

[LINK398]

So I finished Final Fantasy XII and I actually thought the game started to get better towards the end unlike every other entry in the series,which in my opinion tend to drag on towards the end. I probably liked this game more than X but again thought it was a good RPG but only a decent Final Fantasy game as I tend to hold the series on higher standards. (Not on purpose I guess it's just from playing the older games as well as other squaresoft games). Not saying that Final Fantasy is the greatest RPG and all games aspire to the quality that these games bring because I've been pleasantly surprised with other games that are some of my favorites (Lunar series, Fire Emblem). After I completed the game I decided to start The Legend of Dragoon which I've had for a while just haven't really played. I've read mixed things about this game from "Greatest RPG ever" to "Many cliches not worth playing" So far I can see horrible localization by Sony which is surprising because it looked like they tried to cash in on the genre while it was probably at its peak as far as popularity and spent a lot of money on it. There's voice acting which wasn't the norm back than and the graphics are probably top notch. It's just almost too obvious Sony's inexperience with the genre because I've read they hired a huge team to work on the game and it kept getting delayed but it's just kinda bland so far. I'm not that far into the game even yet. Kind of just looking for opinions on the game and also things that were good and bad in people's opinions about it. I read the review if that means anything lol

[MeshGearFox]

You should play Carnage Hearts.

[Aeolus]

Would suggest Carnage Hearts EXA instead as that's getting a localization.

That said, my opinion on the matter is that LoD is basically Medieval Power Rangers the JRPG. Its a mediocre game with an awful localization and the occasional flash of brilliance and the best parts either involve Lavitiz or the original Dragoons.

[insertnamehere]

The first fourth of Dragoon plods on in a very generic way but after that it picks up and gets pretty interesting.
Only a few of its music tracks stand out for me as being memorable, and item storage is pretty damn tiny especially considering all magic attacks are consumable items.
This is about all that comes to mind as negative, besides additions but those are entirely optional.
Press select to gauge if you're about to fight or not, and avoid using Dragoons on an enemy called the Grand Jewel.
Did you like the story in FF12?

[GuardianBoi]

I played through Legend of Dragoon 3 times because I had to use each set of characters. I remember enjoying it each time I played it. The localization may leave something to be desired, but for the time, it was pretty good. It was the battle system that did it for me. It was fresh and challenging and rewarded you for mastering it.

I hope you enjoy it. I thought about re-starting it, but I think now a days, it might be a little to slow to play over again. The best advice I can give you, use the old guy. He may seem silly, but he's pretty much the strongest character. haha. :)

[LINK398]

I see where they tried to make FF12 different in the story department as in not focusing so much on character development and love stories, drama, etc.... The problem is that's what I like in a Final Fantasy game. The story wasn't horrible it just felt distant I guess and the lack of Vaan really being a driving force in the game once in a while left me with a what the heck am I playing this for kind of attitude. For me the game was more difficult towards the beginning and middle than I would say once the party reaches the empire wasn't as tough. I only slightly prefer this one over X kind of like as my favorites I slightly prefer VI over IX those two are both great games but there was just something about the former that I liked a little better. That being said the same can be applied to X and XII I l disliked X more than XII I guess it could be put. The story also confused me at points and then the whole humans taking their own destiny without the help of those other things didn't make sense really. What was that one who was helping out the empire benefiting from doing that. The whole nethicite thing and manufactured nethicite just kept going on and on at points

[deathsaber]

Yeah, supposedly Vaan was sort of a last minute addition- Square wanted an "everyman" character for the player to expereince the storie's events through. 

None of the story, short of the intro really belongs to Vaan- once he is absorbed into the party along with his "girlfriend", they are largely just silent observers to the stories real main players (Ashe, Baasch, and Baltier, with Ashe as arguably the "main" lead)

[PotRoast]

I can't say I minded the presence of Vaan or Panelo, but they definitely weren't needed. That said, I think the idea of telling a story in an RPG where the main protagonist is actually someone like Vaan should have been could be quite interesting. That is, someone who is on for the ride, immature, out of their league, and generally in the way. It could be a really great coming of age story. Though, it would probably kill the power fantasy most gamers seem to require out of the main protagonist.

I couldn't play more than 45 minutes of Legend of Dragoon. I remember being incredibly annoyed. The only other RPG to do this for me was Beyond the Beyond. I have no interest in returning to either considering there are so many other interesting PSX, PS2, and PC RPGs that I'd like to look into.

[Annubis]

Legend of the Dragoon is a game with clear flaws.
If you can overlook the 2 worst ones (pacing and butt ugly 3D) there is some fun to be had.

[Dice]

I can't say I minded the presence of Vaan or Panelo, but they definitely weren't needed. That said, I think the idea of telling a story in an RPG where the main protagonist is actually someone like Vaan should have been could be quite interesting. That is, someone who is on for the ride, immature, out of their league, and generally in the way. It could be a really great coming of age story. Though, it would probably kill the power fantasy most gamers seem to require out of the main protagonist.

It was a good idea, probably one way to make having the player involved could work amongst the more interesting people (similar almost to the avatar in Fire Emblem I guess).
...A shame Vaan is such a wiener while Panelo pulls her dick out to keep him in check.

I never played Dragon passed that Earth[?] element big boss.  He kicked my ass and enemies kept giving dick-amounts of experience (i.e.' little) and lost patience and said WHUTEVA.  Given reactions here, I don't know if it's worth a take-two.

[Annubis]

Yeah, some bosses are... challenging...
The 'Divine Dragon' is probably responsible for some broken (aka tossed) controllers

[Aeolus]

I suppose that the biggest problem with FFXII's story isn't that the soap opera drama was dialed back so much as there wasn't anything willing to take its place. The politics kept happening miles away from anywhere you were and weren't really frequent or in depth enough for players to really get a sense of the intricacies of said politics.

Meanwhile the sense of adventure that the game was flirting with was never given a proper commitment and the treasures were useless beyond plot reasons ("Here Ashe. Have your own Dynast King sword. Its the exact same sword except blue and has the exact same bullshit 20 attack power. Now use it to take some more nethicite and kick everybody's ass with it, even though the three pieces you had did nothing but blow the fuck up tactical nuke style."). It didn't help that it always felt like there was something more important to do than to raid tombs and spelunk sewers, caves, and mines, and for the player there was even less to look forward to since this isn't Zelda and nothing has shit for treasure around here.

[Lard]

^ Agree with you about FF 12. The sense of adventure wasn't there and the politics (which I loved in Suikoden) were boring in FF12.

As for Legend of Dragoon, don't do it to yourself man.

There are far better games out there to play.

[Annubis]

There are far better games out there to play.

Listening to music it randomly selected "If You Still Believe" and just sent me on a giant nostalgia trip.
Some of the story elements / romance in Legend of the Dragoon were incredible. It's just sad that they're smothered under so much crap.

Man, I wish SE would come to my door and say please redo Legend of the Dragoon HD for PS4. You get total control and 20,000,000$ plus a full staff.

To-do list:
- Take a knife and remove some of that crap
- Fix the necessary grinding
- Eliminate the backtracking on that god awful overworld map
- Make traveling suck less late game (dude, everyone can dragoon fly... add an airship mode or something...)
- Rework the dungeons slightly and add more checkpoints. Über lack of checkpoints everywhere.
- Do something about Meru (obligatory tsundere banhammer bikini clad loli) and Kongol so that they fit better with the story.
- Either remove or rewrite completely the bow chick who nobody even remembers her name... yeah, way to make a character so sucky nobody ever used it. We all know you're just a replacement for the other bow chick we liked better than you. YOU'RE NO ALBERT YOU HEAR ME.
- Put a DDR kinda timeline for doing your attack moves. Make that shit compatible with DDR boards too while at it. Japan would go nuts for stuff like that.

Just doing this would boost the game's score by like 20%

...

Oh yeah, the music's good too.

[Klyde Chroma]

That said, my opinion on the matter is that LoD is basically Medieval Power Rangers the JRPG.

^^^^

Most appropriate summary of my impression of the title ever..... which also led to me consequentially putting it down and not caring to ever pick it back up loooong ago....

There will only ever be ONE set of power rangers worthy of my praise.... and if said cast doesn't include Jason David Frank playing Tommy Oliver I don't want anything to do with it!!