Legend of Legaia

Plot

The game takes place in a world called Legaia, populated by humans and objects called Seru, which can join with humans to grant them fantastic powers. While humans and Seru had once peacefully coexisted, about ten years before the game begins the world was covered in a mist which drove Seru mad when it came in contact with them. Seru were transformed into monsters that attacked humans, and human civilization nearly collapsed. At the time the game begins, human survivors have banded together in remote regions to hide from the mist.

The game follows Vahn, the quiet main hero; Noa, an excitable feral child; and Gala, a curt warrior monk, on their quest to revive ten Genesis Trees throughout Legaia in an attempt to vanquish the evil Mist which covers the world. The three heroes join with entities known as Ra-Seru, which grant them powers like Seru but are immune to the effects of the Mist. They travel across three continents, reviving Genesis Trees that push back the Mist over small areas, and destroying the Mist Generators that create it; at times they come into conflict with Songi, Gala's childhood rival, who has joined with a Seru and is progressively mutating into a monster.

Towards the end of their quest, in the devastated city of Conkram, the heroes travel back in time to locate the origins of the Mist to put an end to it once and for all. They discover that the Mist was created as a biological weapon by Prince Cort, Noa's brother and the prince of Conkram. They are unable to save Conkram or Noa's parents in the past, but when they return to the present they destroy the final Mist Generator and defeat Cort. Unbeknownst to the heroes, however, before the dying Cort merges with Juggernaut, a Seru that has grown gargantuan through exposure to the Mist.

The heroes return triumphantly to Vahn's hometown of Rim Elm, but are soon attacked by Songi and the giant Seru Juggernaut, which devours the entire town and its citizens. After defeating Songi, the heroes travel inside Juggernaut to defeat Cort again. The game ends with the destruction of Juggernaut, the rebirth of Cort as a baby (who Noa takes care of), and the ultimate restoration of Rim Elm and all citizens.

Characters

Vahn (バァン, Bān)

Voiced by: Wataru TakagiThe game's main protagonist who lives in the town of Rim Elm, in the far south of Drake Kingdom, along with his young sister Nene and crippled father Val. He has a love interest in the form of Mei, the local seamstress. His weapon of choice is a sword or knife, and his Ra-Seru is Meta (メータ, Mēta) which is affiliated with fire. Having grown up sparring with the resident ex-Biron monk, Tetsu, Vahn is an adept martial artist.

Noa (ノア)

Voiced by: Sachiko SugawaraA female orphan who has been raised by the Ra-Seru Terra (テルマ, Teruma) (who while raising Noa attached itself to a female wolf) who is a wind elemental. Due to living most of her life alone in Snowdrift Cave with Terra the wolf, Noa is childish and ignorant as the outside world is new to her. She wants to see the world and meet her parents who call to her in her dreams. She uses claws or tonfa batons to fight. Later in the game, she discovers that she is the daughter of King Nebular and Queen Minea of Conkram.

Gala (ガラ, Gara)

Voiced by: Jin YamanoiA warrior monk from the Biron Monastery and the second-in-command and called "Master Teacher." He is sent with Vahn and Noa to revive the Genesis Tree in West Voz Forest, but fails because the Genesis Tree has already been killed by the Mist. He finds the egg of the Ra-Seru, Ozma (オズマ, Ozuma), who is affiliated with lightning, and Gala is subsequently excommunicated after it hatches. Gala's weapons of choice are clubs or small axes. In contrast with Vahn and Noa, Gala distrusts and greatly dislikes every kind of Seru (even the holy Ra-Seru) because of their violent behaviours when affected by the Mist and their corrupting any living creature that wears them. Through the course of the game, he starts treating Ozma better, like a close friend, instead of just a tool for fighting the Seru.

Prince Cort (コート, Kōto)

Voiced by: Jūrōta KosugiThe game's main villain and the boss of Zeto, Dohati, Zora, and Jette. He is the son of King Nebular and Queen Minea, and is the older brother of Ra-Seru hero Noa. Cort was contacted by the evil Ra-Seru called Rogue who taught him how to create a Mist Generator. He later fuses with the Sim Seru called Juggernaut and proceeds to absorb the people of Legaia. Following the Cort/Juggernaut's defeat, Cort is reincarnated as a baby that Noa takes care of. Cort has an assortment of magic both offensive and defensive, and when in critical health, he will resort to summoning Juggernaut to finish the fight. It is imperative to defeat him quickly at this point.

Zeto: A master magician who is one of Cort's henchmen and the first one that Vahn encounters. He is responsible for spreading the accursed Mist around Drake Kingdom. He was also the one responsible for using the Juggernaut to bring down the walls of Rim Elm so that the Mist and the Seru can enter Rim Elm. Zeto was later responsible for sending the Caruban monster on Noa and Terra the Wolf at Mt. Rikuroa. Vahn and company fight Zeto at the first Mist Generator and defeat him. During the fight, Zeto takes the form of a giant crab monster, and summons tidal waves to attack.

Xain: A seru controlling a large monster in the form of a centaur. He is dumb muscle on behalf of Prince Cort's crew, laying waste to the town of Octam by destroying pillars which hold to houses over a large chasm. Initially believed to be the result of earthquakes, the party investigates and confronts Xain down below, where his seru component shatters shortly after the battle. His battle strategy centers on using his two-turn Terio Punch attack, similar to Zeto's water waves.

Dohati: A fat and bald wizard who is also a minion of Prince Cort. He guarded the second Mist Generator that's located on the Sebeccus Islands. Dohati tricked Lord Saryu of Ratayu into wearing a Sim-Seru that took over his mind and used him to create a Juggernaut. He would later be fought and defeated by the heroes at the second Mist Generator. His Seru form is a giant green bird creature with venomous breath and high attack power.

Gaza: An aged knight and protector of Sol Tower. He journeys alone into the mist to find what is causing it in the lower levels of the city. Gaza is fought twice, once in his regular form, and once after he is taken away by Songi and possessed by a sim-seru. He bequeaths his trusty Astral Sword to Vahn after being defeated the second time.

Zora: The ruler of the floating fortress in the Kingdom of Sol who guards the third Mist Generator that's located on Karisto. She initially uses her personal cadre of assassins, the Delilas siblings, who ultimately fail to kill the party at Nivora Ravine. As opposed to Cort's other minions, Zora does not change into a monster, but fights as herself, a thin woman in black with wings. She was at Cort's beck and call, thinking that Cort had feelings for her. She was crushed to find out that she was being used as a tool the entire time. Songi then kills her following him destroying the third Mist Generator. Zora uses her Dark Typhoon spell liberally in battle but can also use a petrifying Glare attack to create problems for slower teams.

Jette: Cort's assistant who guards the path to the fourth Mist Generator that's located on Karisto. His Seru form is an armored humanoid. He can create copies of himself in battle and use Shadow Break, a deadly attack to the whole party. Fortunately, this big attack relieves his deception and he can be distinguished from his clones because they will only ever use basic attacks.

Songi (ソンギ)

Voiced by: Takashi NagasakoGala's rival and power-hungry fiend. Over the course of the story, Songi attempts to backstab the other antagonists and obtain greater and greater power. Eventually however, the power becomes too much for him to bear, as each time he is seen, he becomes more like a monster.

Gameplay

Combat in Legend of Legaia is turn-based. At the beginning of each turn, the character inputs a command for each available character, selects appropriate targets, and confirms the selection. This initiates the action phase of the turn, during which each character and opponent perform their actions. The order of action is prescribed by each character's speed, status, and equipment.

Damage is instituted through the game's 'Tactical Arts' battle system. Instead of simply selecting a 'Fight' command in order to initiate a physical attack, the player specifies the location of each attack; 'Right' and 'Left' will strike with the right and left arms, respectively, and 'High' and 'Low' strike at their respective heights. Each direction has its own pros and cons, depending upon the opponent, weapons equipped, and level of the character's Ra-Seru. For example, equipping boots will increase the power of kicks, but 'Low' will not strike a Killer Bee, since it flies above the ground. To attack, the player creates a string of these directional strikes for each character; as the game progresses the length of this string or "action bar" increases, allowing the player to deal more damage each turn. The number of strikes the character can execute is affected by several factors, including level and weapon. Certain weapons can be used by more than one character, such as small axes that can be wielded by both Vahn and Gala. However, Gala's affiliation with axes are better than Vahn, so if Vahn equips the axes, his 'Left' attack will occupy more space in the action bar, and thus he cannot make as many attacks overall.

Certain strings of attacks initiate combos known as "Arts," which deal substantially more damage than would a non-combo string of comparable length. The player can uncover each character's Arts by experimentation, or through non-player characters throughout the game who reveal Arts to the characters. "Arts Points" (AP) is necessary to initiate Arts, which drain AP in quantities which are proportionate to the length and power of the combo. Inputting an Arts sequence without the requisite AP will cause the character to simply perform the string of attacks, without the Arts animation or damage bonus. AP can be earned in three ways; dealing physical damage without performing Arts, taking damage from opponents, or by foregoing actions for one turn in order to charge up using the Spirit command. Arts can also be linked by the last and first inputs. For example, an Art that ends with 'Down' can linked with another Art that starts with 'Down', allowing the player to use two Arts in a row costing fewer inputs.

The Spirit command causes a character to take a defensive stance for a turn, in lieu of attacking. This allows the character to take reduced damage for the turn, increases his/her chance to block an attack, regain AP, and boosting the length of his/her action bar for the next physical attack. Some boss battles involve enemies that do massive damage that the characters can only survive by using Spirit.

Each main character eventually partners himself or herself with a Ra-Seru, who lends its powers to the human. Once bound, a Ra-Seru strengthens its partner's primary arm for use in combat, and allows the human to absorb the powers of Seru defeated in battle. The human can later use the absorbed Seru's powers as spells; consistently calling upon that Seru's power will level it up, making it more powerful and causing additional effects. All Seru possess an elemental affinity which determines what type of attacks it will use in battle. Ra-Seru also possess elemental affinities which influence how effective they are in casting spells of various elemental types.

Reception

The game received a score of 77.33% at GameRankings, based on an aggregate of 23 reviews.