Legend of Legaia: The
Genesis Tree

STORY

The world of Legaia has been covered with a mysterious mist that infected the Serus (monsters of Legaia) making them mad. The serus use to live in harmony with the humans but with the mist affecting them, they started to attack the humans. As the years go by, the mist slowly covered the entire world of Legaia. Only villages with a genesis tree have been safe from the mist. A genesis tree can drive the mist away from a village. Unfortunately, the genesis tree started to die and their power to protect the villages started to fade. Only with those who are good and pure at heart can awaken a genesis tree with the combine power of a Ra-Seru. Our story starts off at the village of Rim Elm. Vahn, a hero, from Rim Elm starts off on his quest to awaken the genesis trees around the world of Legaia. He'll meet the other main characters (Noa and Gala) on with his journey, The story of Legaia is a pretty good one. It will provide a few plot twist here and there. While not as in-depth as Wild Arms, it will keep you tuned in.

Score: 8/10

CHARACTERS

Most of the characters are centered soley on the three main characters. There aren't many secondary characters introduce in this game. Still each main characters are develope nicely with key personalities and backgrounds. I just wish there were more characters involve in this game.

Score: 6/10

GRAPHICS

Legaia graphics are centered around short polygons characters in a 3-D polygon background. The graphics aren't bad but it could be better. The colors are shady and dark in this game. Of course this is to show gamers that the world is covered in mist but it does hurt the visual effect of the game. The FMV are too few and too dark to see clearly. Graphics are better than average here. Some of the magic spells do look cool though.

Score: 7/10

MUSIC

Legaia doesn't possess a whole lot of musical tunes. The tunes they do have are perfect though. It fits the situation perfectly. A game like Legaia needs to have a lot of variety which Legaia fails to do. Still it's not a failure overrall in the music department.

Score: 6/10

GAMEPLAY

Legaia gameplay is pretty straightforward. But the overrall gameplay can be pretty hard for the average rpgers. There are a few things to be pointed out here. One is magic. Before you are capable of using magic, you must first acquire magic. Each seru (monster) carry a particular magic spell. When you fight a seru you are given a choice of absorbing that seru. IF you are successful in absorbing that seru, you will acquire it's magic. This is much harder than it sound. The chance of successfully absorbing a seru is random. The chance of having the fighter that you want to absorb that seru magic is random as well. It can be pretty frustrating when you're trying to absorb a serbu magic for all your guys, especially getting heal magic. This is probably one the things I don't like about the game. Another note is that the game uses a combo attack like with Xenogears instead of regular attack. Basically you have to input the type of attacks you want to hit the seru with. Type of attacks are high kick, low kick, right hand, and left hand. Each attack uses AP (arts points). Now if you are successfull in inputting the right combo of attacks you may get off a special combo attack called Arts Attack. Arts attack range from Hyper Art to Miracle Arts. It is a must that you try and learn some of the special combo attacks as soon as possible as most if not all the bosses are very hard. Throughout the game, there will be hits from villagers as to what are the correct combos to input to recieve a special arts attack. Finally the game uses a spirit gauge. The spirit gauge is very important. Before each fight, you should spirit up. Spiriting up will increase your AP points plus increase your defense. It's almost a must to increase your spirit gauge as without it, a boss can kill you pretty quickly. Other than those few points the game is pretty much like other rpgs. Explore dungeons, visits towns, use summon spell (Ra Seru), fight enemies in random battles. The gameplay can be fun but can also be very frustrating due to the difficulty of boss fights.

Score: 7/10

EXTRAS/REPLAY

In terms of extras, the game have a casino place in one of the towns. In the casino place you can play many mini games to get points to win cool accessories and such. There's also a fishing game. Basically you fish to get points. The higher the points the better you can get cool items. I personnally love the fishing game. For replay, that's strictly if you enjoy the game the first time around and want another crack at it.

Score: 7/10

Legend of Legaia is one of the most challenging rpg game that I have ever played. It's the first game where I've gotten killed numerous times on every boss fight. This is an rpg strictly for the experts here. The game may not be better than Wild Arms, but it is a good rpg that rpgers should pick up if they're feeling the need for a challenge.

Final Score: 7/10

~Chi