simply perfect

Gameplay: 10
Control: 10
Graphics: 10
Sound/Music: 10
Story: 10
Overall: 10

After all the hype on Sony's latest project, you'll wonder if The Legend of Dragoon will live up to our expectations. Well, two words: Hell Yeah! This game is already selling like hotcakes here in Southeast Asia.

The four CD set has everything every hardcore RPG gamer can ever dream of! From spectacular and eye popping FMVs with spoken dialogue! Superb music, awesome story, unearthly graphics, fluid control and hours of unstoppable gameplay.

The graphics are super and really make your Playstation work overtime! Unlike FF8 or other games with pre-rendered backgrounds, Legend of Dragoon contains pre-rendered backgrounds with some parts that actually move! From leaves being blown by the wind, snow, raging fires, smoke, fog and water! All of them seamlessly animated. We are talking water that actually looks like water here!

The story is awesome as well, , the FMVs, the actions of the characters and the music make it understandable! You can expect ferocious bosses, from the lowly Orc Lord to the fearsome Kind Dragon that will make you pee in you pants. You can expect humour, romance, tragedies, betrayal and unexpected plot twists!

The gameplay brings a whole new level in interaction in RPGs. The Active Combo system will make you thumbs blister and your palms sweat! Special grids with varying speeds will circle into a grid and you have to press the Square button at the precise timing to continue with the combo. The enemy can counter during your combo, in which case your grid will turn blue and you’ll have to press the X button to continue your attack without taking damage. A warning though, it is almost compulsory to master all the combos learnable by the characters to make battles easier! If you think this is cool, wait until you can use Dragoons!

The controls are smooth and with Analog and Dual Shock support in the game, who could ask for more? You’ll feel every explosion, weapon and spell in the game with a Dual Shock controller! The music? Super, ranging from soft to upbeat! Not to mention there are 3 different battle and boss battle music! This, not including those you hear in special battles and the Final Battles. The sound is awesome, shouts, sword slashes, lightning, explosions, dragon roars, wind, voices, machinery and anything you can imagine can be heard loud and clear!

After playing through 80+ hours of the most awesome RPG ever, I’ll say that Sony have really outdone themselves this time! I just hope that when the game is localized, Sony won’t screw up the text are voices like they already have for Star Ocean 2 and Grandia.

So, what are you waiting for? Import this game now and witness for yourselves what the fuss is all about!