1997 was a slow year for Playstation RPGs. Although FF7 was released in September, the first several months of the year were decidedly uninspired. But amongst all the boring 3D platformers and non-creative fighters, there was one shining exception. Wild Arms was released in May, and even though it wasn't that great, it quenched our thirst for RPGs. It had a simple battle engine, decent graphics, and a story we've heard before. I didn't love it, but it was good, and a huge amount of Playstation owners thought it was excellent.

Flash forward to a couple months ago. The makers of Wild Arms announce a new RPG called Legend of Legaia, boasting an innovative battle engine and detailed 3D graphics. A few weeks before its release, I decided to find out as much as I could about the game. I read previews, downloaded movies, and saw countless screen shots, and then I finally decided that this game was going to be good. And as far as I'm concerned, I was right.

Many things about Legaia interested me. But probably the most important one was the battle engine. With Xenogears and Tales of Destiny in our recent past, the only way an RPG really succeeds is with a battle engine that requires more than just the push of a button. And that is Legend of Legaia's strong point. In your first battle, you have three options. You can use an item, use a thing called spirit, or attack. Instead of just pressing attack and being done with it, that decision brings you to a screen that has a long bar at the bottom, and four buttons on the right. High, Low, Left (later changed to Ra-Seru) and right (later changed to Arms). Each of these attacks takes up a portion of the bar at the bottom, and you use as many as you can to form combos. Left and Right hit almost anything, but Low misses flying monsters and High misses short monsters. If you're lucky, you will discover Arts, or certain combos that are significantly stronger than normal combos. These Arts deplete your AP gauge, and that's where spirit comes in. Using spirit will replenish some of your AP, and lengthen the bar at the bottom, granting you the ability to perform longer, and more powerful attacks. There are tons of arts in the game, and there are three kinds of special arts, Hyper Arts, learned by reading special books, Super Arts, that are discovered by pure luck, and the amazing Miracle Arts, that combine several smaller arts to create a devastating attack. Also, later in the game, you can use magic by absorbing the energy of special monsters, known as Seru, and you can raise the level of the magic by using it over and over again. Throw this in with some very cool items, great graphics, and well-designed monsters, and you have one incredible battle engine. Some people complain that this makes the battles too long, and although I think that is a good thing, for those people, there is always the auto command.

I really loved the battles in this game, they required a lot more thought than the average RPG, and there really were strategies you could use to defeat some of the tougher bosses. Instead of dreading the constant battles, you looked forward to them, hoping to find a new Art or magic. This made the game more fun to play, with Legend of Legaia, it wasn't a chore to fight monsters, it was a pleasure.

Another thing that made me happy was the difficulty of this game, it wasn't insanely hard, but it did require thought. You cannot whiz past some of the bosses, most of them are quite hard, and it helps to sit down and think of a good strategy to get past the monster. There aren't any puzzles, and you don't have to guess where you have to go next, in fact, it's quite linear, but not that bad.

I would have liked Legaia even if it had a horrible story, and even though it was no masterpiece, the story of Legaia was enjoyable, and much better than Wild Arms. In the beginning there were humans. Although humans possessed the wisdom of god, they were weaker than wild beasts and came close to dying out forever. God was concerned about the humans, so he created the Seru. Since the dawn of human memory humans and Seru have lived peacefully together. The Seru obey the humans, making them stronger than before. Alone, a Seru looks like a stone statue, but when worn by a human, it changes form and gives them secret abilities like flying and incredible strength. Then, all of a sudden the mist appeared. This mist was not harmful to humans, but it made the Seru crazy and they started attacking the humans at will. The Seru that attached to humans now controlled their minds instead of helping them. Human civilization was collapsing and all hope was disappearing. You are Vahn, a young man living in the village of Rim Elm, a town guarded by massive walls that keep the mist away. One day, the walls are broken down by a mysterious man, and the mist invades your town. You escape to a special place in Rim Elm. In the village is a thing called a Genesis Tree. You and the rest of the remaining villagers pray to the genesis tree for help, and it comes. A Ra-Seru emerges from the tree, and attaches to your arm. A Ra-Seru is a Seru that is not affected by the mist, and are found in Genesis Trees around the world. With the help of the Ra-Seru, you fight off the monsters in Rim-Elm, but this is only the beginning of a long journey to destroy the mist permanently.

Although the basis of the story is simple, the interesting characters and plot twists keep you excited throughout the entire game. You'll like the good guys and hate the bad guys, and important parts of the game are depicted through FMV sequences which are well done.

One thing I remember about Wild Arms was the incredible music. This was one of my favorite soundtracks because it was real music, with real trumpets and classical guitars, they actually hired professional whistlers to make it special! If the makers of Wild Arms had stuck with that, they would have made a good decision but, although the music in Legaia fits the mood, it's not very good. Most of it is sloppy repetitive beats, with horrible melodies (with a few exceptions, like Cara's theme). I really disliked the music of this game, and this was a major problem. Michiru Ohshima (the composer) tried hard, but did not succeed. Despite the failure in the music department, the sounds during the battles are very enjoyable, with many different varieties of battle cries and explosions, that are all top notch.

Most people I have talked to, said they disliked the graphics of this game, and I can't figure out why. The environments of the game are simple, but well designed, and the characters, although deformed a bit, are recognizable and are detailed. The normal graphics might have been sub-par, but the battle graphics are phenomenal. All the monsters (especially the seru) are highly detailed, and react differently to almost every attack. Your fighters look very real, and their attacks are very real looking, and some of the spells are amazing, as good as, if not better than FF7's summon spells. It's also the little things that made the graphics realistic. Normally in RPGs, if you equip a new weapon than your character will look different. In Legend of Legaia, if you equip a weapon, boots, helmet, or armor, than your character looks different. Even your Ra-Seru look different when they gain levels. Even a tiny thing like that can make the game a whole lot better.

Also, Prokion (the game designers) threw in a lot of mini games and secrets to keep you busy. In the world of Legaia, there is a place called Sol, the equivalent to the Golden Saucer in FF7. It has a battle arena, a slot machine, an arcade fighting game, a dancing club, and a theater. And if you win enough coins at the different games, you can trade them in for many accessories you can't find anywhere else. Also, there is a fun fishing game, that you can get special items from as well. And there are so many special items, that it's hard to find even 75% of them. Most of the items are accessories that give your character special abilities or enhance their strength and defense. By the end of the game you will have hundreds of weird little rings or amulets, some of them being almost impossible to find, but worth the endless search.

Legend of Legaia is a great RPG, with spectacular battles and graphics, cool mini-games, and an interesting story. Even though some aspects of the game are only decent, they are insignificant compared to the good aspects of the game. If you really like RPGs, and enjoy some difficulty in your games, than look for Legaia.