Tam Tackles: First Impressions - Legend of Dragoon!

Legend of Dragoon is a turn-based Japanese RPG for the Playstation, developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It recently came out on PSN, so I’ve been playing a bit of it in an attempt to understand why everybody adores this game so much.

I’ll skip the back-story and contextual part of this, because honestly, after 2 hours, I still have absolutely no idea of what is going on in this game.

From the outset, Legend of Dragoon’s combat is excessively boring.

I don’t mean boring in the sense that you’d rather this checkup be done so you can go home, I mean boring in the sense that you’d rather smash yourself in the face with a block of ice than go through the hassle of *just* twenty more random encounters. I assume it gets better, but hey - I’m only two hours in. Did I seriously just say that?

Two hours and I’m not transforming into a dragon-fueled monstrosity who breathes fire and shits destruction? I’m not yet able to shrug off random encounters, and instead I am strapped down and forced to sit there, idly, while generic ooze monster #409 takes his sweet, sweet time attacking who I assume will be my healing character?

Many of the game’s combat “hooks” haven’t come into focus at this point.

The fact that even 2 hours in, the combat is as simple as attacking a monster with the “attack” command is unsettling, to say the least. I have heard next to nothing but high praise for this now-12-year-old game that has, seemingly, amassed a sizable cult following. I am beginning to wonder why. What is the point of waiting until hour 5, or 10, or 20 to give me the ability to use magic and be a Dragoon?

Was it for narrative purposes? That would be a forgivable story-telling mechanism; plenty of Japanese RPGs do that. However thus far, Legend of Dragoon’s narrative is… not the best I’ve seen in a Japanese RPG. It’s certainly not the worst; but so far, it’s not good by any means.

The game is absolutely brutal in its expected precision.

Legend of Dragoon’s combat, so far, requires you to be super-precise. You see, there are these abilities that each character uniquely possesses called “Additions”, which allow them to perform neat combo attacks on enemies for greater damage. In order to execute Additions, the game requires you to perform a series of timed button presses.

Sounds fun, right? I thought so too. In practice, however, the polar opposite is the case. After the novelty wears off (after about 20 minutes), it becomes an exercise in frustration. Missing one button press by a minute fraction of a second could mean the difference between doing 10 damage and doing 30 damage. It’s incredibly frustrating, especially since neither the PSP nor the PSX controller were particularly responsive with their face button presses.

Legend of Dragoon is never gun-shy about tossing around terms which have no context whatsoever.

Within the first hour, a character you meet begins telling the player character, Dart, about these two kingdoms which are at war, throwing around names like “Serdio”, “Sandora”, and “Basil”. I don’t really know what any of those are because the game has given me absolutely no context; I am assuming Serdio is the continent, Sandora is the nation that is evil (?), and Basil might be the capitol of the nation they’re at war with. We’ll see.

Closing Thoughts:

I am, as I stated, nearly 2 hours into Legend of Dragoon and it is incredibly slow. If a game doesn’t grab me by the collar and have sex with my eyes within the first half hour, it’s an extraordinarily tough sell. I’m sure it will pick up eventually; for now, though, I think I’ll put it down. I have better things to do.