History YMMV / TheLegendOfDragoon

* ScrappyMechanic: Enemies countering during additions is mildly annoying early game but not to bad. It gets downright obnoxious late game though when it comes to the latter additions. Late game additions get so precise with timing and speed that reacting to an enemy attempting to counter becomes almost impossible without superhuman reaction time.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Most endgame/boss killer parties usually tend to consist of Dart/Meru/Haschel. Dart because you CantDropTheHero,[[note]]though Dart's naturally all around great that most would use him anyways[[/note]] Meru because of her naturally high speed that offsets her low strength and can be critical when it comes to healing against bosses, And Haschel because of him becoming a LightningBruiser with an element that makes it so he doesn't have to worry about the game's ElementalRockPaperScissors. Shana/Mirianda is a decent replacement for Meru, but requires some dedicated builds to really take advantage of her, and the fact that a lot of late game bosses pack a lot of Dragoon form hate.

* ThatOneBoss: Lenus, and ''how''. Aside from generally being a hard hitter, she's ''incredibly'' fast and will easily get two or even three turns in a row, and will actually choose her spells to exploit your party's elemental weaknesses: if she performs magic multiple turns in a row, it's not uncommon for her to wipe parties very quickly. Notably, when she's fought later in the Undersea Cavern [[spoiler: as a Dragoon and alongside a Dragon]], she's actually ''less'' dangerous than in her first fight.

** Lenus is the biggest example the first time you face her because [[TurnsRed the number of attacks she gets increases the more damage you deal, and she will spam her powerful magical attacks if you intentionally turtle]]. It gets worse: Lenus ''immediately'' takes the gloves off if you go Dragoon.

** From a gameplay perspective, Shana/Miranda. They're by far the game's best healer(s) once they get their dragoon spirit, and they have the easiest time building up their SP and dragoon level due to their singular attack increasing in SP gain with each dragoon level they gain, to the point that near the end their singular attack can completely fill a bar on the dragoon gauge. However, their damaging attack is absolutely pathetic, often dealing around 20 or so damage while everyone else is in triple digits by that point, and the limited inventory space of the game makes it hard to justify carrying around damage items over healing items, so they'll only really be able to take advantage of their magic stat while in dragoon form. To cap it off, they have the lowest HP and defense stats of the cast, meaning they often get three shotted by bosses at ''least'', making them a liability if they get hard targeted by a boss several times in a row. As such, while there are those who argue their raw healing makes up for it, there are also those who argue that if you ''need'' Shana/Miranda in your party for boss fights over another damage dealer, you're doing something wrong, with people arguing that once you get Meru (who also has a fairly potent healing dragoon spell but ''also'' has fairly solid damage on top of that), Shana/Miranda becomes flat-out useless.

** From a gameplay perspective, Shana/Miranda. They're by far the game's best healer(s) once they get their dragoon spirit, and they have the easiest time building up their SP and dragoon level due to their singular attack increasing in SP gain with each dragoon level they gain, to the point that near the end their singular attack can completely full a bar on the dragoon gauge. However, their damaging attack is absolutely pathetic, often dealing around 20 or so damage while everyone else is in triple digits by that point, and the limited inventory space of the game makes it hard to justify carrying around damage items over healing items, so they'll only really be able to take advantage of their magic stat while in dragoon form. To cap it off, they have the lowest HP and defense stats of the cast, meaning they often get three shotted by bosses at ''least'', making them a liability if they get hard targeted by a boss several times in a row. As such, while there are those who argue their raw healing makes up for it, there are also those who argue that if you ''need'' Shana/Miranda in your party for boss fights over another damage dealer, you're doing something wrong, with people arguing that once you get Meru (who also has a fairly potent healing dragoon spell but ''also'' has fairly solid damage on top of that), Shana/Miranda becomes flat-out useless.

** From a gameplay perspective, Shana/Miranda. They're by far the game's best healer(s) once they get their dragoon spirit, and they have the easiest time building up their SP and dragoon level due to their singular attack increasing in SP gain with each dragoon level they gain. However, their damaging attack is absolutely pathetic, often dealing around 20 or so damage while everyone else is in triple digits by that point, and the limited inventory space of the game makes it hard to justify carrying around damage items over healing items, so they'll only really be able to take advantage of their magic stat while in dragoon form. To cap it off, they have the lowest HP and defense stats of the cast, meaning they often get three shotted by bosses at ''least'', making them a liability if they get hard targeted by a boss several times in a row. As such, while there are those who argue their raw healing makes up for it, there are also those who argue that if you ''need'' Shana/Miranda in your party for boss fights over another damage dealer, you're doing something wrong, with people arguing that once you get Meru (who also has a fairly potent healing dragoon spell but ''also'' has fairly solid damage on top of that), Shana/Miranda becomes flat-out useless.

* HoYay: A fair amount is seen between Dart and Lavitz in Disc 1.

** Rose's general uncouth demeanor can ruin certain key scenes, or scenes intended to be dramstic. Examples such as when Shana learns she has the Dragoon spirit, or later when the characters are mourning the death of [[spoiler: Lavitz]], Rose is leaning against a wall, arms crossed, looking ''bored''.

* {{Narm}}: The voice acting in general, especially in the CG cutscenes as it tends to get progressively ''worse'' as the game goes on. Quite a bit of the dialogue, including those that aren't verbally spoken, can come across as downright corny.

* UnderusedGameMechanic: One of the main points of criticism the game got was just how underused the titled transformation is, often being a major case of AwesomeButImpractical outside of ''very'' few situations. More often than not, the characters can often deal more damage with their base physical attacks or even basic magic items than with their dragon additions/spells. Early game, the characters will often want to grind additions more than transforming into a Dragoon and transforming into a Dragoon against late game bosses is almost suicidal thanks to several having some counter to the Dragoon form.[[note]]The [[WeaponOfXSlaying Dragon Buster]] sword or [[PowerNullifier Dragon Block Staff]].[[/note]] In the end, this only leaves a few mid-game bosses that are worth using the Dragoon form on and, even then, it's used more so for healing/when you run out of item magic more often than not. The only real exception is Shana/Miranda who, thanks to having several damaging spells that also heal the party, is often the one who will end up transforming into a Dragoon for the sake of healing the party and getting some damage in at the same time.

** [[spoiler:Rose]] is clearly intended to be sympathetic, given the tragic backstory. However, their [[spoiler:past as the Black Monster who regularly ''[[WouldHurtAChild murdered children]]'']] makes sympathy an extremely ''complicated'' matter at best, in spite of everything they've been through: [[spoiler:she's undoubtedly saved more lives than she ended through her massacres, but her lack of outward emotion makes her come across as uncaring and remorseless to it all, especially during the Phantom Ship, when her moments of emotion seem more focused on being called a monster rather than her regretting the lives she took while aboard. Though she shows more open signs of regret in Disc 3 and 4, the fact that she's forgiven so quickly by Dart and the party (swordfight aside) is a point of contention for some players.]]

* TierInducedScrappy:
** '''Mixed Tier:''' Shana and Miranda. Just as many things work ''for'' them as they do ''against'' them. They ''do'' pay off if you invest time into using them such as the objectively ''best'' spell in the game, but [[AwesomeButImpractical it takes a lot of time before you see payoff]].
** '''Low Tier:''' Kongol. He's slow as all get out, has the magic defense of a wet paper bag, and only has three additions, with the first two giving ridiculously small amounts of SP, making it an absolute ''chore'' to get his Dragoon levels up. Additionally, his final addition has a pitiful 300% modifier, the weakest of any final addition in the game, which holds back his ungodly physical might. With his slow speed, other characters like Meru or Haschel will end up outdamaging him. By the end of the game, Kongol, despite having the highest physical attack by far, only deals the fourth highest physical damage, bested by [[LightningBruiser Haschel]], [[FragileSpeedster Meru]], and [[GlassCannon Rose]], all of whom do higher magical damage as well. Not helping is that there's only two wind bosses after acquiring Kongol, both of whom are optional, causing his magic to never amount to much.

*** One of Dart's magic attacks, "Final Burst", is easy to mishear as "Vinyl burst".

* SpiritualAdaptation: This is probably the best ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' / ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' game ever made, especially with the themes, HenshinHero elements, and the fact it came from the homeland of ''Super Sentai''. When people weren't calling it a Final Fantasy clone, others were saying [[JustForFun/XMeetsY Power Rangers meets Final Fantasy]].

** [[spoiler:Lavitz's unexpected death near the end of Disc 1]] is a big PlayerPunch, especially since it happened early in the story and after [[spoiler:the whole Disc allowed the player to really appreciate him by showing his relationship with his mother, his friendship with Dart, his generous nature, and his loyalty towards his kingdom]].

** Jiango in the second Hellena visit. He's lightning fast, often getting two turns, and will most frequently spam a powerful whole party attack, provided he doesn't inflict Confuse on one or more of your party members. Unlike with Lenus, your party is low level and if you're using [[MagikarpPower Shana]] expect to get pretty thoroughly annihilated.

* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks: Bears some very slight similarities to the megahit ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', released two years prior. It's generally agreed that these are superficial in nature, since ''The Legend of Dragoon'''s storyline, gameplay mechanics, and characters are radically different.

** [[spoiler:Rose]] is clearly intended to be sympathetic, given the tragic backstory. However, their [[spoiler:past as the Black Monster]] makes sympathy an extremely ''complicated'' matter at best, in spite of everything they've been through: [[spoiler:she's undoubtedly saved more lives than she ended through her massacres, but her lack of outward emotion makes her come across as uncaring and remorseless to it all, especially during the Phantom Ship, when her moments of emotion seem more focused on being called a monster rather than her regretting the lives she took while aboard. Though she shows more open signs of regret in Disc 3 and 4, the fact that she's forgiven so quickly by Dart and the party (swordfight aside) is a point of contention for some players.]]

** Gameplay-wise, Kongol is considered to be the [[TierInducedScrappy/LowTiers worst party member]]. He's slow as all get out, has the magic defense of a wet paper bag, and only has three additions, with the first two giving ridiculously small amounts of SP, making it an absolute ''chore'' to get his Dragoon levels up. Additionally, his final addition has a pitiful 300% modifier, the weakest of any final addition in the game, which holds back his ungodly physical might. With his slow speed, other characters like Meru or Haschel will end up outdamaging him. By the end of the game, Kongol, despite having the highest physical attack by far, only deals the fourth highest physical damage, bested by [[LightningBruiser Haschel]], [[FragileSpeedster Meru]], and [[GlassCannon Rose]], all of whom do higher magical damage as well. Not helping is that there's only two wind bosses after acquiring Kongol, both of whom are optional, causing his magic to never amount to much.
** Shana/Miranda as well. Just as many things work ''for'' them as they do ''against'' them. They ''do'' pay off if you invest time into using them such as the objectively ''best'' spell in the game, but [[AwesomeButImpractical it takes a lot of time before you see payoff]].

* WhatAnIdiot: Lenus posing as Princess Emille. She doesn't even ''attempt'' to copy the latter's behavior at all, being rude and outright antagonistic to everyone around her, including Princess Lisa and the King. In addition, although everyone can't help but notice Emille is acting strangely, they just brush it off. In fact, it's said that the King was actually ''pleased'' that his daughter was finally acting more active about her royal status.