drunken monk
12-13-2009, 08:20 PM
So yesterday I got off a 6 day work stretch and had no idea what to do with myself. I wanted to play an rpg. Something old school. First I thought about the games in my collection I havent even played yet. Theres one game that Im ashamed Ive never played. Ill give a cookie to whoever can guess what that game is. Lets just say its sacrilegious for an rpg fan. Then I started thinking about replays. Ive been wanting to replay FFIX for years now so that was up there. Then I thought about LoD.
Its odd. When LoD came out it was huge. Probably the biggest rpg release on the psx that wasnt from Square. Everyone was talking about it and everyone was playing it. After I started thinking about that I cant even recall anyone even mentioning LoD here in a few years. I cant help but find that odd seeing as how big that game was in the past. So here I am with this thread. Its been a while so I figured it would be a good game to talk about... If anyone even remembers the game at all.
I know I didnt. I only played through it once and that was nearly ten years ago already. I have only vague memories of it so for the most part its a new experience for me. I remember back then the main point of discussion was LoD's similarities to FFVII. I was one of those people who didnt care. I still dont. Theres nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from something great. But theres a lot of similarities that I never noticed years ago and I have no idea how I missed them.
Graphically LoD looks just like FFVII. The characters move, jump, sit, with exactly the same animations that were used in FFVII. Its kinda creepy. Even the quality of the graphics are on par with VII which is odd considering it was released 3 years later. LoD looks better then VII sure. But nowhere near as good as CC or FFIX. It doesnt even look as good as FFVIII. Theres even some songs that remind me of VII. But overall the soundtrack in LoD isnt anything special.
Considering this game was meant to be direct competition for FF I would have expected LoD to have better production values. It didnt bother me back then but its more noticeable now. The art style still kicks ass though.
Another thing that bothers me so far is the script. Its very...juvenile. Like a 15 year old wrote it. I really hope thats due to poor translation and not what the script was like in the Japanese version. Overall Im not very impressed by the story. Im only about 9 hours in so Im hoping itll get better.
One thing that Ive had a change of heart about is the world map. Back then it really bothered me that I was lead through the world by dotted lines with no chance to explore. It doesnt bother me now. It keeps you on a deliberate pace and so far I havent had to grind which is nice.
The last thing Ill talk about is the battle system which I LOVE. I love the timed button presses for combos, counters and spells. It keep things interesting and forces you to pay attention instead of clicking through a menu and walking away to get a drink.
They even worked some timed button presses into the cutscenes which was cool.
The Dragoon transformations are still pretty badass. Thats one thing I still like as much as I ever did. Theres also some really cool cutscenes that take place after boss fights that use the graphics engine from the battle system which are really well done.
The battle system in LoD is definitely its strong point. Its really fun and its presented really well. Theres no static images on screen and they use dynamic camera angles for every attack. I love it. Its so good it makes me not cringe whenever a random battle occurs.
Even with my complaints Im still enjoying it so far and Im gonna try to finish it.
So what do you guys think? What were your impressions of LoD back when it came out and what do you think about it now? Is LoD a classic in your opinion or was it simply riding on FFVII's success?
Its odd. When LoD came out it was huge. Probably the biggest rpg release on the psx that wasnt from Square. Everyone was talking about it and everyone was playing it. After I started thinking about that I cant even recall anyone even mentioning LoD here in a few years. I cant help but find that odd seeing as how big that game was in the past. So here I am with this thread. Its been a while so I figured it would be a good game to talk about... If anyone even remembers the game at all.
I know I didnt. I only played through it once and that was nearly ten years ago already. I have only vague memories of it so for the most part its a new experience for me. I remember back then the main point of discussion was LoD's similarities to FFVII. I was one of those people who didnt care. I still dont. Theres nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from something great. But theres a lot of similarities that I never noticed years ago and I have no idea how I missed them.
Graphically LoD looks just like FFVII. The characters move, jump, sit, with exactly the same animations that were used in FFVII. Its kinda creepy. Even the quality of the graphics are on par with VII which is odd considering it was released 3 years later. LoD looks better then VII sure. But nowhere near as good as CC or FFIX. It doesnt even look as good as FFVIII. Theres even some songs that remind me of VII. But overall the soundtrack in LoD isnt anything special.
Considering this game was meant to be direct competition for FF I would have expected LoD to have better production values. It didnt bother me back then but its more noticeable now. The art style still kicks ass though.
Another thing that bothers me so far is the script. Its very...juvenile. Like a 15 year old wrote it. I really hope thats due to poor translation and not what the script was like in the Japanese version. Overall Im not very impressed by the story. Im only about 9 hours in so Im hoping itll get better.
One thing that Ive had a change of heart about is the world map. Back then it really bothered me that I was lead through the world by dotted lines with no chance to explore. It doesnt bother me now. It keeps you on a deliberate pace and so far I havent had to grind which is nice.
The last thing Ill talk about is the battle system which I LOVE. I love the timed button presses for combos, counters and spells. It keep things interesting and forces you to pay attention instead of clicking through a menu and walking away to get a drink.
They even worked some timed button presses into the cutscenes which was cool.
The Dragoon transformations are still pretty badass. Thats one thing I still like as much as I ever did. Theres also some really cool cutscenes that take place after boss fights that use the graphics engine from the battle system which are really well done.
The battle system in LoD is definitely its strong point. Its really fun and its presented really well. Theres no static images on screen and they use dynamic camera angles for every attack. I love it. Its so good it makes me not cringe whenever a random battle occurs.
Even with my complaints Im still enjoying it so far and Im gonna try to finish it.
So what do you guys think? What were your impressions of LoD back when it came out and what do you think about it now? Is LoD a classic in your opinion or was it simply riding on FFVII's success?