Post by Matthew on Jul 21, 2003 17:37:37 GMT -5
Title: Legaia 2: Duel Saga
Release Date: 10/2/2002
Genre: RPG
Publisher: Eidos
System: PS2
Plot: Legaia 2: Duel Saga is similar to many Role Playing Games as far as storylines go. You start the game as a young warrior named Lang who works for the local vigilance group and their purpose is to protect the village. The village's water supply is ran souly on a precious stone that floats above the waterfall in the village. One day, a villain breaks into the village and steals the stone and runs into the forest, injuring a few men of the vigilance group along the way. Lang decides to go after this "monster" and retreive the stone and restore peace to the village. Lang chases after the villain in the forest only to find he cannot defeat him. After much thought Lang decided to start a journey to defeat the "monster". Along the way he meets new friends, as well as enemies. Lang's new friends join forces and go on a quest to save the world. I do not want to spoil everything so to learn more you will need to go and play the game to find out for yourself. I rate the Plot 7/10
Graphics: The graphics in Legaia 2: Duel Saga are not all too great, in fact once you start the game you might think about quiting, don't. I am going to be honest and say the graphics in this game are not quite Playstation 2 potential but if you are willing to look beyond style and actually play the game, you will find that the awesome gameplay makes up for the loss in graphic styles. The cutscenes are still nice and overall the graphics are not as bad as some PS2 games, but not as good as many others. I rate the Graphics 7/10
Audio: The music was quite nice, I really enjoyed it. The audio selections for each theme of the game fit nicely and was good. For example, you have an low tone, dark sounding track at parts we something bad happens and you have a high tone, "town theme" when inside a village. What I am basically trying to say is that the game's music goes together with it's environment. The voice acting during the battles are magnificent as the characters say catchy lines based upon how you control their movies. Very good music and adds an excellent effect to the game. I rate the Audio 9/10
Gameplay: The most important part of any game and is high for Legaia 2. Featuring a unique battle system as used in Legend of Legaia, Legaia 2 has a Side View Battle System with a Combo Attack feature. During battle characters choose from four basic commands (Left, Right, Up, Down) in which can be put together to create powerful attacks called "Arts". They're five types of Arts in the game, Normal Arts, Super Arts, Hyper Arts, Variable Arts, and Mystic Arts. Unlike the first Legaia, you do not use a Spirit command to raise AP. In this game Normal Arts raise AP and all other Arts lower AP. Normal Arts and Super Arts can be learned by putting the right combination of moves togehter, Hyper Arts can only be learned by items that the characters find throughout the game, and Variable/Mystic Arts are obtained through the Storyline. Each character has two Variable Arts and it takes two characters to use it, they both attack an enemy and do extremely high amounts of damage. Each character has one Mystic Art and it can only be used if you meet the following requirements:
1) Have less than 1/2 of your Maximum HP
2) Have 100 AP
3) Have 100 MP
It may seem hard to pass that first requirement but once you can it is well worth it, Mystic Arts do massive amounts of damage to an enemy. Instead of acquiring Seru likes in Legaia 1, each character has an Origin. An Origin is a mystical creature that lives inside the soul of the character, and has powers (spells) to help out during battle. Late in the game there is a Challenge where you must fight 100 battles in a dungeon, and if you leave you must start over again at 0. I finally beat it after it took around 3 hours. The reward at the end is worth the time.
The maps are all right, but nothing special. The minigames are hard, but fun, and that is what makes them so good, it takes time to beat them. All in all if you liked Legend of Legaia you will love Legaia 2: Duel Saga. I rate the Gameplay 9/10
Overall: 32/40
Release Date: 10/2/2002
Genre: RPG
Publisher: Eidos
System: PS2
Plot: Legaia 2: Duel Saga is similar to many Role Playing Games as far as storylines go. You start the game as a young warrior named Lang who works for the local vigilance group and their purpose is to protect the village. The village's water supply is ran souly on a precious stone that floats above the waterfall in the village. One day, a villain breaks into the village and steals the stone and runs into the forest, injuring a few men of the vigilance group along the way. Lang decides to go after this "monster" and retreive the stone and restore peace to the village. Lang chases after the villain in the forest only to find he cannot defeat him. After much thought Lang decided to start a journey to defeat the "monster". Along the way he meets new friends, as well as enemies. Lang's new friends join forces and go on a quest to save the world. I do not want to spoil everything so to learn more you will need to go and play the game to find out for yourself. I rate the Plot 7/10
Graphics: The graphics in Legaia 2: Duel Saga are not all too great, in fact once you start the game you might think about quiting, don't. I am going to be honest and say the graphics in this game are not quite Playstation 2 potential but if you are willing to look beyond style and actually play the game, you will find that the awesome gameplay makes up for the loss in graphic styles. The cutscenes are still nice and overall the graphics are not as bad as some PS2 games, but not as good as many others. I rate the Graphics 7/10
Audio: The music was quite nice, I really enjoyed it. The audio selections for each theme of the game fit nicely and was good. For example, you have an low tone, dark sounding track at parts we something bad happens and you have a high tone, "town theme" when inside a village. What I am basically trying to say is that the game's music goes together with it's environment. The voice acting during the battles are magnificent as the characters say catchy lines based upon how you control their movies. Very good music and adds an excellent effect to the game. I rate the Audio 9/10
Gameplay: The most important part of any game and is high for Legaia 2. Featuring a unique battle system as used in Legend of Legaia, Legaia 2 has a Side View Battle System with a Combo Attack feature. During battle characters choose from four basic commands (Left, Right, Up, Down) in which can be put together to create powerful attacks called "Arts". They're five types of Arts in the game, Normal Arts, Super Arts, Hyper Arts, Variable Arts, and Mystic Arts. Unlike the first Legaia, you do not use a Spirit command to raise AP. In this game Normal Arts raise AP and all other Arts lower AP. Normal Arts and Super Arts can be learned by putting the right combination of moves togehter, Hyper Arts can only be learned by items that the characters find throughout the game, and Variable/Mystic Arts are obtained through the Storyline. Each character has two Variable Arts and it takes two characters to use it, they both attack an enemy and do extremely high amounts of damage. Each character has one Mystic Art and it can only be used if you meet the following requirements:
1) Have less than 1/2 of your Maximum HP
2) Have 100 AP
3) Have 100 MP
It may seem hard to pass that first requirement but once you can it is well worth it, Mystic Arts do massive amounts of damage to an enemy. Instead of acquiring Seru likes in Legaia 1, each character has an Origin. An Origin is a mystical creature that lives inside the soul of the character, and has powers (spells) to help out during battle. Late in the game there is a Challenge where you must fight 100 battles in a dungeon, and if you leave you must start over again at 0. I finally beat it after it took around 3 hours. The reward at the end is worth the time.
The maps are all right, but nothing special. The minigames are hard, but fun, and that is what makes them so good, it takes time to beat them. All in all if you liked Legend of Legaia you will love Legaia 2: Duel Saga. I rate the Gameplay 9/10
Overall: 32/40
