The Legend of Dragoon Review: Score 6/10

     I bought this game when it first came out and got to the fourth disc but never finished, so this week I decided to pick it up again. I chose the Legend of Dragoon, which took me 35 hours to complete. Since I just finished it today, I thought it the best and freshest opportunity to compose a fair and balanced review.

     Pros: Very imaginative character designs and a concept alone that didn't try to copy other games of its era TOO too much..
    

     Cons: This game smells an awful lot like Final Fantasy VII which was released before this title. However, it's missing many elements that made FFVII the masterpiece it is. There's a very archaic menu design and visible errors. Many though, only a careful eye could discover. The story is poorly translated (and if it is a good translation, the story is just extremely boring). Many of the scenes in the game could have been removed, and it's noticeable Sony added many scenes just to lengthen the game. I love stories in RPGs, but this one is base, unoriginal, and downright boring. Treasure in dungeons... oh boy, at the end of the game you'll want to skip them because they're all filled with useless crap.

     Pros: Graphics and art direction are ahead of its time. Nice battle scenes, and a noticeable improvement on FFVII's out of battle models.

     Cons: Poor design on many pre-rendered backgrounds, especially the over complicated cities. By the end, many battle animations may bore the player as you will have seen them possibly hundreds of times.

     Pros: This is not exactly a soundtrack you'll find yourself humming when you're not playing the game, but some very nice tunes nonetheless. Sound effects are adequate.

     Cons: The english dubbing when it's present is extremely poor and laughable. Movie scenes and "dragoon magic" were annoyingly louder for me than the rest of the game. I frequently had to manually lower my volume during these occurances.

     Pros: In the beginning of the game, the concept of the addition and dragoon systems are fun and fresh. Very welcome at their introductions.

     Cons: The addition system becomes burdensome after many battles, and you'll say to yourself... "Why do I have to do this every fight...?" The dragoon system slowly becomes something you must resort to when you need more defense. Dungeons are annoying, featuring frequent random encounters. Many locations you must travel are required and are downright pointless to the main plot. Just wait until you have to have an active role in sorting out everyone's story at the end of the game. I wanted to pull my hair out.  Seriously.

     Toward the end of the game I remembered why I quit in the first place. The end of this game is so poorly done and boring, I just wanted to finish it just to be done with it. The game will entertain you for a week or less, then bore you for the rest of the time. If you're asking yourself... "Why am I bothering to proceed?" Welcome to the club.

     This game does have a huge following and I'm a big fan of console RPGs, but it just doesn't feel right.  It doesn't meet the caliber of some much better RPGs of the era and for that reason, scores in various categories must proportionately suffer.  Would you like this game if you played it?  Honestly, you really might if you enjoyed Final Fantasy VII, just be prepared for a much lower quality experience.