LoD Log 2k5: Intro and Game Start Welcome to the begining of my intense and detailed coverage of my 4th playthrough of my 7th favorite game of all time: The Legend of Dragoon. The game was released in 2000 by Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) for the Sony Playstation (1) and recieved mixed reviews, our very own Gamespot.com gave the game a 6.4, IGN a 7.0 and OPM gave the game 4.5 out of 5. The game does have its faults, I'll admit that much, for example: The in game dialog is sometimes horrible, if you thought FF7 was badly translated, then this game will blow your mind. Although if you have an imagination, you will enjoy the great story. That's pretty much enough to kill the game right there for most people and for others it's just a poor Final Fantasy clone, but to me it's one of my favorite games. Before we get started with the coverage, a little more intro is needed. I got introduced to the game in mid 2000 when I played the demo that was included with an issue of the Official US Playstation Magazine. It was about an hour long demo of a section of the game about 1.5 - 2 hours in to the full game. Of course some things where added to the demo to make it more interesting, like dragoon transformations (which in the full game you don't have at that point). But the thing that cought my attention was the game's "Addition (aka Additionals)" Combat system, where you have to press the X button the moment a blue timing square intersects the target's blue square. Each attack for each character featured different amount of button presses and each press reqiured different timing. It was a fun change to the kind of "hands off" approach that most RPGs took with attacking. If you still aren't getting it, please visit my page about additions at my Legend of Dragoon tribute site. If you'd like you can can explore that whole site and learn all about why I like LoD, but I think it's about time that we got on with the playthrough coverage, I'm sure you'll learn a ton more about this under-rated RPG while following along. By the way if you do find yourself interested in playing this game, you can usally find it around as a Greatest Hits title, for about $15.99cdn or I'm guessing close to $10us. And if you've never played the game and are interested after reading the intro paragraph, you might want to hold off or not read to far, because this journal will contain spoilers. Okay, the ado is over, so lets get to the coverage. The game starts off rather slowly with a FMV intro, that shows a town being destroyed by a bunch of soldiers, ther commander arrives and he walks up to this girl who is unconcious. He uses some sort of crystal to check to see if this is the girl they are looking for, sure enough it is and the FMV ends and the game gets started. It starts by showing a woman dressed in black armor, standing on a ledge overlooking a forest. All the birds fly from the trees and a dragon shows up. She jumps down the cliff and the name of chapter appears: Chapter 1: Serdian War. Now the game finally begins, we see Dart, the main character (he's in the red armor guy in the header image) reading a newsletter about the current war, when he hears the soldiers coming back from the village we saw earlier. After a confrination with a couple of them, that huge green dragon begins to attack Dart, he runs for his life and is eventually saved by that woman that was shown earlier. After learning about the village, which happens to be Dart's hometown, he runs off to find it razed to the ground. Now the game really starts, as this is the first time that you get to control anything other than the scrolling text boxes. You get into a couple of easy fights to start you out. At this point in the game Dart only has the Double Slash addition and the abilities to Gaurd which halves the damage you take for one turn and heals you for 10% of your total HP, use items and run away. Anyways, after winning a couple of fights Dart finds out that his childhood friend Shana (the girl from the FMV) was kidnapped by Sandora and sent to Hellena Prison. Before leaving the town you can find your first stardust (which if you collect a lot of you can trade for really good items) and have a knight by the exit teach you how to fight with addionals. After exiting the village and fighting through a small forest area, you finally reach Hellena Prison, Dart sneaks inside, in the back of delivery wagon. This part of the game is kind of like a sneaking part, but you really don't have to be that careful, because getting cought just means a regular battle is started. Eventually you'll trigger a scene where two knights of Basil are getting pushed around by the Hellena Gaurds, their head knight Lavitz comes to their rescue, the two knights eventually get knocked off an edge to their dooms, but Dart runs in to help Lavitz defeat the gaurds. After a little conversation, Lavitz, with his spear, joins up with Dart to help find Shana. Soon they find Shana and she also joins the group bringing along her bow and arrows. After a little reunion between Dart and Shana, all of them head for the exit of the prison, only to run into the Head Warden Frugal. This is the first boss fight of the game, first you have to defeat one "set" of Hellena Gaurds before you can even touch Frugal. Once the two guards are defeated Frugal calls in some Hellena Elites to help him out, these guys are a bit tougher and when you take them out they use a fire attack as a last ditch attack. Now that the guards are gone you can bash away at Frugal, at this point in the game you are pretty weak, but you can use Multi-Magic items (Items with elemental properties, that can be powered up with button mashing) and that does quite a bit of damage. Once Frugal goes down, the party escapes Hellena and runs to a plain. This is actually the point that the demo version of the game starts, just so you know. After running away and ditching the presuing gaurds, they head to a nearby cabin to rest. Dart then tells the story of how and why he was on a quest for revenge to destroy the Black Monster which ravaged his original hometown of Neet and killed his parents, 18 years-ago. After the little flash back (which will come up a few more times, even from different views), he shows of his father's momento, which is a glowing red stone. A wierd little note about this part in the aformentioned demo version there was a slight dialog change between the demo and the full version. It's a little comment that Lavitz makes after Shana warns him that his wound isn't fully healed. In the demo version Lavitz says: "You'll make a good wife someday." and in the retail version he just says: "You'll make a good wife." It's just a little change, probably just due to the time between the demo and the full game. Anyway you have to chop down a dead tree to use as a bridge to cross a small river. The next section takes place in a lime stone cave, there are couple of interesting things to talk about in this section, so let's get to it. The first is a scene where Dart and Lavitz have a moment, that truly makes them friends. The second is a little scene with "Rock Fireflies", the only reason I mention this is because the game makes such a big scene about these fireflies and their healing properties, but there is only one other place where the fireflies even exist in the whole game. The final thing is the 2nd major boss of the game, the cave gaurdian, a giant poisonous snake. Defeating it is easy, but takes a bit of time, because it crawls up in to a high spot and Dart and Lavitz can't reach it so it's up to Shana to hit it with arrows and use Multi's to get it to come back down. For your information, this is the the end of the Demo version of the game. Once defeated you move on to the town of Bale, which is the home of Indels Castle. This is the first major city that you visit in the game and the first chance to upgrade your weapons. A little tip though, don't by the weapon for Shana here (sparkling arrow), because you'll find it once you explore the castle. This is also home to at least 5 stardusts so you can have some fun looking for them. After meeting King Albert you get to hear the story about the Dragon Campaign which the original Dragoons faught 11,000 years ago, they defeated the Winglies which had oppressed and dominated the human race with their great magical powers. After visiting with Lavitz' mother, they group heads for the fortified town of Hoax, to help the forces there stop the upcoming attack from the Sandorians . I actually managed to take out a Golden Bird, these types of birds have only 6HP, but you can only do 1HP damage a hit and they run away very quickly, but if you can defeat one you usally get a big reward, in the case of the Golden Bird, 300Gold! After Sandora attacks Hoax in the night, Dart and Lavits end up facing off against a Giganto called Kongol. After nearly getting killed by Kongol, Dart is saved by that black armored woman from earlier, this time she is in Dragoon form. She unlocks Darts Dragoon Spirit (the momento) and he bursts out with his new power and takes down Kongol, for now. After learning how Dragoon form works from Rose (the Dark Dragoon), the party which now includes Rose, heads in to the swamplands to help out the 7th knighthood against the raiding Sandoras. After clearing the area, you head towards Volcano Villude, but just before that make sure to take that Canoe to all the locations and pick up the Magical Stone of Signet, which allows you to stop an enemy from moving for 3 turns, it also a (rep.) item that never run out so it's a great pick up. In Villude you face your first Virage, which was the Winglies answer for the Human's Dragons. You also face a second boss in the Fire Bird (aka Phoenix), this is quickly dispached with any Ice based Multi's you have. That does it for Villude on to the Dragon's Nest! The dragon's nest area is a small forest section with the nest at the very end. After running and climbing around you eventually meet the controller of the Green Tusked Dragon, Feyrbrand. His name is Graem and he was the man, who killed and betrayed Lavitz' Father. I usally choose to defeat the dragon first, as it's use of poison is annoying. The I take out Graem who is now in Green Dragoon form. After the fight Lavitz gains the power of the Jade Dragoon Spirit and Shana feels the effects of Feyrbrand's poison. So they take her to the Commercial town of Lohan, which just happens is the home of the "best doctor in Serdio". After reciving Shana's diagnosis, the group learns they need to find a rare plant called Dragoni and that it's in a shrine nearby the Dragon's nest. That's where I stopped for tonight, man this was a long entry. I played almost 6 hours straight and didn't even really realize it. I'll have more here tomorrow and I'll try to work on keeping it as detailed, but also as concise as possible. I'll also try to inlcude more of my personal thoughts when possible. (5hours, 47minutes) POSTED ON MAY 29th, 2005