Legend of Legaia

Move over God Of War, move over Final Fantasy VII. Legend of Legaia needs a remake, or a re-release if nothing else.

Trope page.

Probably the only RPG I played more obsessively than FFIX or FFX. I never did get past the halfway point though - I was stuck in a boss battle with a Made of Iron Badass Normal motherf'cker named Gala (or was it Gaza). Heh, I probably still have the save file, if only I had a copy of the game.

edited 19th Aug '15 7:17:17 PM by Soble

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

I remember the game for it's unique combat system, where it was up to the player to discover the various combos by mixing up the attacks used, but otherwise then that the game wasn't very outstanding. The plot was basically another Final Fantasy too, nothing truly unique or remarkable about the world it took place in.

Maybe bringing it back onto the Playstation Store would be a good idea, but I don't see a full-on remake having much hope, especially since the sequel bombed.

edited 20th Aug '15 7:08:47 AM by SgtRicko

~Soble & ~Sgt Ricko

Well, nice to know there are at least two other people on this site who are Legaia fans.

I totally agree. For a late-'90s RPG, it was really innovative and groundbreaking in many ways, particularly in its combat system (I've yet to see or learn of anything similar to date), the whole "kill particular type of common monster to gain it as a Summon Magic spell" (ditto; all other examples of acquirable Summon Magic that I know have the summons in question be bosses rather run-of-the-mill monsters), and the surprisingly detailed characters models in battles (at least by the standards of the time and in comparison to the nigh-superdeformed simplistic out-of-battle models). Just its luck that Final Fantasy VII and other big-name titles had to debut that year or the year before.

For me, it was the first RPG I ever played, period (I was in late elementary school at the time, incidentally). It also has the honor of being the first video game that made me weep in sorrow, when the game just had to crush my heart right after I finished the Absolute Fortress dungeon and was happily making my way back to Conkram, naively believing that I'll see it liberated from the giant Seru monster and reunite Noa with her parents.

My heart still twists just from remembering that scene. <sniff>

You mean Gaza, the Master Swordsman. Gala is the third protagonist.

There's at least one emulator version for the game, as well as Legaia 2; I know that, because my younger brother has them. It might not a perfect solution since you can't import your PlayStation save file to the PC, but at least you could play it again.

... Excuse me? You will have to elaborate on how the game and its setting are "nothing truly unique or remarkable".

Oh yeah, I had always questioned how Legaia 2 was supposed to be a sequel to the first game since it was effectively Legaia In Name Only, with the only common factors being a handful of gameplay elements. Even the various installments of the Final Fantasy series have more in common with each other than the two Legaia games, and that's saying something considering how little in common the FF games have with each other!

Edited by MarqFJA on Aug 3rd 2018 at 5:18:33 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I used to play Legend of Legaia on the PS 1. Love playing it. I even used a Gameshark so the characters can do very long combos that would never happen in the normal game.

I think the game was very notable for me for having the player at the end of the game given a choice to decide how the ending goes for Vahn where he either 1. travels around the world alone, 2. becomes a monk, 3. find his teammate Noa or 4. travel the world together with his love interest and childhood friend Mei. I always prefer ending 4 since i shipped Vahn with Mei and one of the other endings had Mei married another guy who was in love her who i didn't like.

Hmmmm... how would I revive this franchise? What new ideas would I inject into it?

First thing that comes to mind is bringing back and expanding the monster capturing and summoning system. The ever so infamous "gotta catch 'em all!" aspect of Pokemon is a proven, winning formula, and the idea that the player could potentially capture and control almost every creature they encounter certainly has it's charm. To expand upon that, perhaps make the game a sort where you could choose to fight alongside of the monsters instead of the player either sitting back while they wreck havoc or changing forms. Basically, imagine Ash fighting alongside and supporting Pikachu instead of merely barking orders or giving aid items. And if the developers can make it that the whole party can do this as well during battles, even better.

As for the setting and plot... my opinion hasn't changed, Legend of Legaia was pretty average JRPG material, nothing special. Can't even think of a single thing that stood out from the usual genre tropes aside from the combat system. I won't be missing anything if they decide to begin with a brand new setting again.

You might've noticed that I ignored the combo system. It's because I can't seem to think of a way to make it fun or deep without feeling tacked on merely for the sake of "tradition". If it's still going to be a turn-based game, then that means the combos are mostly cosmetic, and the player is still reliant upon the random number god or whatever RPG mechanics exist behind the scenes, not actual player movement skill and dexterity. And if it's an action-RPG, with the player actually controlling the movements, timing hits, dodging enemy attacks, etc? Then you've got something akin to Dark Souls, except with much more fancy combos, hits, summons, etc.

Me, I lament the fact that there's no option to take Mei on a trip around the world and meet up with Noa, thus implying the possibility of a Marry Them All resolution. But yeah, though I don't exactly hate Ixis, I don't like the idea of him getting together with Mei if I go after Noa; the least Prokion could've done was put some Character Development for him that makes him actually likeable. Really, I find Dein in the nominal sequel more likeable than Ixis.

Yeah, I was thinking about exactly that just a few hours earlier, after I made my previous post.

Clarification, though: The original Legaia only allowed capturing of Seru monsters; the regular monsters were off-limits.

... And I'm still not understanding how you're considering the setting and plot as "nothing special". Granted, I do agree that they could've done a lot more with both, yet did not. Maybe our definitions of "stand out" and "special" in this context differ enough that we're reaching different conclusions when it comes to Legaia.

You know, that's one thing that I've been pondering: Is the turn-based nature of the game integral to Legaia?

Also, since you mentioned it, is a combo system really workable in an Action RPG? I haven't played Dark Souls, nor have I watched a playthrough video of it, so I have no idea, but it seems impractical at first consideration. At the very least, I haven't heard of an Action RPG where you can switch between your playable characters during a battle (i.e. you're stuck with the main protagonist while the other ones are AI-controlled and serve to support you rather than having a chance at winning the battle for you).

edited 22nd Aug '17 1:23:59 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

The latest Final Fantasy tried to add some action/combo elements into the combat, and it was partially successful, mostly by tying the more advanced attacks and combos to your mana meter or a timed cooldown. But, as you can certainly imagine, the buddy AI is still pretty dumb, needs lots of special exceptions and moves to be worthwhile, and still gets knocked out all the time by the stronger enemies.

The Dark Souls games don't really have combos, per se - what counts is the type of weapons you wield, what special weapon art attacks they have, and how much stamina or mana they consume per use. As a result, you're always having to carefully monitor your stamina consumption to make sure you don't run out right in front of an enemy, nor can you constantly spam attacks, lest you exhaust yourself too quick.

I think the whole mist thing and the way it impacted the setting (each town being totally isolated, etc) was pretty interesting and something I haven't seen in other RP Gs. I honestly can't even remember the main plot, but the setting was interesting, at least.

The main plot can be summarized as "We have to liberate the world from the Mist!", with the usual emergence of unexpected twists and complications in the course of the long journey.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

On a different note, am I the only one who thinks that Noa and Gala ought to have their advantages and specialties as combatants reworked in some fashion? For one, it just doesn't make sense to me that Gala, who trained under expert martial artists for about 10 years and got as far as to be named "Master Teacher" (implying he became one of the best, if not the best, in Biron Monastery), starts off with only two art blocks available and having to use the Spirit command to gain extra blocks. And why is he the best at casting magic? You'd think Noa, who spent 10 years with a Ra-Seru as her foster mother, would have the best affinity to Seru magic among the trio, not the guy who spent those same years bearing nothing but absolute hate towards all Seru and still has much trouble fully trusting the Ra-Seru.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.