Legend of Dragoon for PlayStation 1

You know, if games were movies, The Legend of Dragoon would have hired basically the whole cast from Final Fantasy VII, Cloud Strife returns as Dart, Tifa Lockhart as Shana, Aeries Gainsborough with dyed hair returns as Miranda, a Yuffie Kisagari with purple hair is back as Meru, and last but not least, Sephiroth returns with shorter hair as Lloyd!

Now that that?s past us, I would like to get into the review, shall we?
The Story

A long time ago something called the Divine Tree was created by a god named Soa. It was made on a barren earth with no life on it. Soa said that each fruit the tree bore would become a species, it would have 108 fruits at the end of it?s life. The 105th race were the powerful Dragons. The 106th race was the Humans. They were soon enslaved by number 107, the Winglies, who built high kingdoms in the sky and had strong magical powers and wings. The last fruit to fall was a fruit bearing the mysterious Virages. Each fruit got more corrupted then the next, in my opinion.
The humans were wimps then, so like I said, they got enslaved by the Winglies, who built flying cities and such. Soon, the humans got bored of slavery, and formed a secret rebellion. They learned to tame and harness the power of the Dragons, and trapped the spirit of seven Dragons into seven human warriors, called Dragoons.
The Winglies responded by learning to manipulate the powerful Virages, and that started the Dragon Campaign, a long war. Soon the Dragoon warriors killed the Wingly king, Melbu something or other, and later you learn that only one of them survived.
Back to the future, we come to young Dart, a man who is looking for a legendary monster called the Black Monster. The Black Monster burned his hometown to the ground and killed his parents. Now Dart has only a shiny red stone to remember his parents by. After leaving his adopted hometown of Seles five years ago, he comes back to visit his honey-poo, Shana. He soon finds himself in an awkward position, after being chased by a green and yellow Dragon and finding his new hometown burnt to a crisp in search of his very own sweetheart (sigh). He finds she?s been taken to Hellena Jail, and he goes to save her. There he meets Sir Lavitz, so forth. It gets a LOT better after Disc one, believe me. The beginning is lackluster, so just stick through it.

The Graphics

Remember Final Fantasy VII? How about Final Fantasy VIII? Well, The Legend of Dragoon is like the space in the middle. It?s a lot better than FF7, but misses the mark for FF8. The cutscenes are glorious, each one better than the next. The game has a LOT of them, too, over forty minutes. That?s a whole lot of eye candy. The character designs are a little better than FF7?s, but still don?t belong in this generation, with games like Chrono Cross and such taking up great graphics for characters, that whoever made these should be fired.
But the towns really make up for it. My favorite is the city of Fletz at night, WOW is that beautiful. The stream reflects the moon?s light...it?s just amazing. I?ve never seen anything like it in a PlayStation game in my life.

The Gameplay
Pretty cool. The learning curve is very easy, and the Addition system is cool. What it is is when your character is attacking, two white squares appear, a big one and a little one. When the big one overlaps the smaller one, press X, and if you did it right white flashes and you can continue the Addition. It?s very fun, and you NEED to master them or you won?t beat the game, plain and simple. The other icons in battle are Run, Item, and Block. Run and Item are self-explanitory, and Block is when you defend. Half the damage from the next attack will be taken off, PLUS you get some HP back. So it?s pretty handy. Enemy Counter Attacks are when you?re doing an addition and the red like shield happens. The only way out of it is to press O instead of X. Then you can continue your Addition.
Soon, all your characters will get Dragon Spirits, enabling them to turn into Dragoons. In Dragoon form, you have two choices; Magic or Attack. In Attack, a clock like structure is set. You have a Dragon eye and a kind of clock hand going in a circle. If you press X when it reaches the top, you have completed a step of a Dragoon Addition. Dragoon Magic is just some Magic junk, and you have MP to use it, and you gain more MP whenever you grow a level. Pretty basic stuff.

The Characters

Each with the usual tragic backgrounds, the mysterious pasts, and the quests for revenge, you get really close with the people from this game. I liked them, all of them. So I've decided that I?m just going to go through all of them, nine characters in all, two get replaced:

Dart--as said before, parents killed by the Black Monster. His Red Eye Dragoon is based on fire and powerful attacks.

Lavitz--a knight in shining armor that is blindly loyal to the king of Bale, King Albert, his father was killed by his best friend. His mother is gonna be lonely veerryyy quickly, too. His Dragoon is the same as Albert?s.

Shana-- a pretty weak fighter, her White Dragoon spirit is based towards healing more than attacking. She is pretty useless in battle because of her low HP and no Additions. She is forced to regect her spirit in the third disc to...

Miranda--same stats, etc as Shana, and her background was that she was abused and abandoned by her mom.

King Albert--Replaces Lavitz, has the Jade Green Dragon Spirit, and is a pretty good fighter. His Magic Defense is the worst in the game, even worse than Kongol?s. He?s got a funny romantic side, and has made me laugh more than once. (Princess Emille:When will I see you again?...King Albert: When a thousand stars light the sky. ...Dart: You could just say ?tonight?, you know.)

Rose--A sullen warrior, she?s got the good all around stats. Her Dragoon is the best in the game. Her past is cloudy, and she might even be one of the original seven Dragoons! Her only weakness in battle is her HP and maybe her more complicated Additions, because they are weak, but if that?s so, just change her Additions to the low ones and give her a Physical Ring.

Haschel--He has mastered a very cool and hard form of martial arts. After pushing his daughter, Claire, too hard on mastering them, she ran away and he?s been searching for her ever since. He?s humorous and his Additions are powerful. His thunder Dragoon Spirit is also powerful.

Meru--A Wingly that is crazy and acts like a child. She is a child. She left to see the world, and trying to come back, she finds out she?s been banished! Her Water Dragoon Spirit and skimpy outfit are unique.
Kongol--The last of the Ancient race of Gigantos, the first two meetings with the heroes are hostile ones. He?s a tough boss, but he?s a strong fighter once on your side. His mass of HP and strong attacks and defense are wonderful, but his magical attacks and defense are lackluster.

Overall

A great game well worth the price. Great story, great gameplay, great characters, and many plot twists are it?s main point. Four discs and fifty hours long, don?t listen to the bigwigs at IGN.com and get the game. It?s powerful. Really powerful. And those of you who loved to hate FF7 and it?s Materia system will find the magic system and Additions pretty appealing here. Tell me what you think, your comments are always cool with me.