Platform: PlayStation 2
Published by: Namco
Price: US$49.99
Namco’s RPG Tales series has been running for quite some time, with the last installment being the excellent Tales of Symphonia that appeared on Nintendo’s Gamecube. I’ve been personally anticipating Legendia (lame title aside) for quite some time, and while it’s definitely a decent RPG, it fails to impress on a few levels.
Legendia’s storyline starts off pretty quick, introducing you to two of the main characters right off the bat. One, a white haired kid named Senel, has tasked himself with protecting his sister, Shirley. His devotion is put to the test when the massive ship known as “The Legacy” upsets their vessel, and its appearance opens an entirely new chapter in both of their lives. Shirley finds out she has some unique powers, including the ability to breath underwater, and comes to learn that she might be the fabled pilot of the Legacy itself. Shortly after these revelations, Shirley is abducted, putting Senel in pursuit, and the adventure starts from there.
The combat system is very, very similar to what was seen in Symphonia. You’ll battle it out on a 2D plane, where everything happens in real time. Your party members are AI controlled, with the ability to change their settings to certain presets (like Defense or Attack), while you run around the field bashing into enemies, setting up chains, and staying alive. Some battles can get a bit chaotic at times, but they hardly ever end up being truly challenging. Your friendly AI comrades remain pretty competent, so you won’t find yourself worrying about them too much. Here’s hoping that you enjoy the combat though, because you’ll be in it a lot. Legendia uses the old RPG staple of random encounters, and it uses them A LOT. Some pretty lengthy dungeons compound this, so you’ll find yourself doing a great deal of fighting. As you might have guessed, this does begin to wear on you after a point, and can become downright annoying at times.
Legendia’s presentation is pretty top notch. The visuals are all lush and colorful, the characters are distinct in appearance and personality, and the voice acting has been handled quite well. Even the music, which tends to be pretty glossed over in most titles, is very well done. It’s entirely made up in an orchestrated style, and quite a few locations will have you taking notice of the work that must have been put into creating it. However, the over world is a bit of a pain, with some limited camera options and visibility, and a pretty low detailed map/radar system. This system will have you wanting to crush your controller in frustration when you find out you have to walk all the way around a mountain AGAIN because you couldn’t make out what the map was oh-so-feebly trying to show you.
Legendia is a solid addition to the Tales series of games, and manages to rise above most of the standard RPG trappings. The storyline gets a bit crazy at times, but towards the end of the game you’ll really have a feel for the characters and a bit of emotional attachment to their outcome. The main game will last somewhere in the range of 30 hours or so, but once completing it you can go on a series of character quests to help tie up a loose plot point or two, which is a nice addition to have. If you’ve not tried a Tales game yet, definitely pick this one up and give it a go. The battle system is fresh enough to warrant trying out, and the overall presentation is fantastic. I definitely recommend this title.
- Dustin Chadwell currently resides in Ohio, USA. He's been playing video games since the Atari 2600, and believes he can whoop anyone's ass in Joust, and Galaga. Probably not Halo 2 though. New technology tends to confuse him.