Just beat Legend of Legaia! End of Game Discussion.

[AlmaElma123]

I have been playing Legend of Legaia For just over a week now, with a few days off since I wasn't feeling the best, and beat it with no guide what so ever! Here are my end game stats:

Anyone else play this game and have good memories of it?

I thought it was great but had issues with the dragged out battles and the fact here in the NTSC area we had EXP/Gold gain reduced because screw us I guess. I explored as hard as I could and still missed a ton of treasure

 

[4C374552A1CA2638]

This patch says the NTSC version had 75% EXP and 50% Gold income. Maybe using this patch would be a good way to experience the game for the first time... or maybe after playing a while without to see the difference it'd make.

How bad would you say the grind was? It sounds like you'd have to grind more for money than EXP, but did you find/win items to make up for the lack of funds?

 

[otogirisou]

some items are literally hidden so it's normal that you missed them

 

[AceOfAces]

This patch says the NTSC version had 75% EXP and 50% Gold income.

The NTSC-U version of the game was a casualty of the "stop people from renting games" thing. The game only runs at 30fps so I would recommend just playing the PAL version, which doesn't have this issue and runs at 25fps (so not a great loss or slowdown).
The grind can be pretty brutal on the NTSC-U version, especially for gear (the endgame kind of ameliorates this by having a full set of the best gear for each character in the final dungeon, but the entire last quarter of the game is pretty deadly if you're behind on gear). One thing that wasn't changed was Seru XP, so magic is proportionally more useful in the NTSC-U version.

@OP Getting 90% of the treasure blind is really good though, and if you weren't using a guide for the Arts then doing as well as you did on the damage front is genuinely impressive, especially if you didn't have the Point Card. I think that may be part of why you felt the battles were dragged-out; if you didn't have your Super Arts or Miracle Arts available and didn't have your full set of regular Arts then you were going to be losing a lot of damage. There's a lot of fights you can just skip with the Point Card or with a Miracle Art rotation.

Incidentally, this game managed to escape the "if there is any voicework it has to be dubbed" rule that PSX and PS2 games were cursed with, possibly because the battle grunts were mistaken for generic noises. This game's voice cast is actually pretty significant: Vahn's VA is Takagi Wataru, best-known as the voice of Garrod Ran in After War Gundam X (this is actually the voice he uses for Vahn); Isshin Chiba is Cort (I think, he might be Cort's scientist offsider), the voice of Jin in TEKKEN; Songi's VA Nagasako Takashi is the voice of Donkey Kong and the current JP voice of Big the Cat, as well as Greil in Fire Emblem. Noa's VA, Sugawara Sachiko, is particularly interesting, as while she occasionally has bit part voice work (most recently as Li Feimei in Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card), she is probably better known as being a character designer, modeler, and drama camera designer for Silent Hill 2 through 4.

 

[AlmaElma123]

This patch says the NTSC version had 75% EXP and 50% Gold income. Maybe using this patch would be a good way to experience the game for the first time... or maybe after playing a while without to see the difference it'd make.

How bad would you say the grind was? It sounds like you'd have to grind more for money than EXP, but did you find/win items to make up for the lack of funds?

I saw in the comments that it didn't work good anyways x-x

Also it was pretty bad. I was always behind it felt like, gold the most and I can now see why.

some items are literally hidden so it's normal that you missed them

Ah, that tracks. I mashed X where I could lol

The NTSC-U version of the game was a casualty of the "stop people from renting games" thing. The game only runs at 30fps so I would recommend just playing the PAL version, which doesn't have this issue and runs at 25fps (so not a great loss or slowdown).
The grind can be pretty brutal on the NTSC-U version, especially for gear (the endgame kind of ameliorates this by having a full set of the best gear for each character in the final dungeon, but the entire last quarter of the game is pretty deadly if you're behind on gear). One thing that wasn't changed was Seru XP, so magic is proportionally more useful in the NTSC-U version.

@OP Getting 90% of the treasure blind is really good though, and if you weren't using a guide for the Arts then doing as well as you did on the damage front is genuinely impressive, especially if you didn't have the Point Card. I think that may be part of why you felt the battles were dragged-out; if you didn't have your Super Arts or Miracle Arts available and didn't have your full set of regular Arts then you were going to be losing a lot of damage. There's a lot of fights you can just skip with the Point Card or with a Miracle Art rotation.

Incidentally, this game managed to escape the "if there is any voicework it has to be dubbed" rule that PSX and PS2 games were cursed with, possibly because the battle grunts were mistaken for generic noises. This game's voice cast is actually pretty significant: Vahn's VA is Takagi Wataru, best-known as the voice of Garrod Ran in After War Gundam X (this is actually the voice he uses for Vahn); Isshin Chiba is Cort (I think, he might be Cort's scientist offsider), the voice of Jin in TEKKEN; Songi's VA Nagasako Takashi is the voice of Donkey Kong and the current JP voice of Big the Cat, as well as Greil in Fire Emblem. Noa's VA, Sugawara Sachiko, is particularly interesting, as while she occasionally has bit part voice work (most recently as Li Feimei in Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card), she is probably better known as being a character designer, modeler, and drama camera designer for Silent Hill 2 through 4.

Figures. The whole rental thing was huge in the 90s so it got strays from that I guess. I played the NTSC version cus I like to play the versions we got here where I am from to judge it based on that so I can write a proper review after. Good to know 90% Was a great score too!

I just used the arts that did the most and they ranged from 1500 to like 2500 if I was lucky! I had my healing spells/items too for that last boss.

Also nice bit of history there! I love learning stuff like this

 

[Metroid_Hybrid]

I played & beat this about 25 years ago. Unfortunately, I don't remember everything about it, other than I generally enjoyed the journey. I really got hooked by the whole Ra-Seru theme, and of course, the unique combat system. The music had a really neat atmosphere to it as well, from what I remember..

 

[AlmaElma123]

I played & beat this about 25 years ago. Unfortunately, I don't remember everything about it, other than I generally enjoyed the journey. I really got hooked by the whole Ra-Seru theme, and of course, the unique combat system. The music had a really neat atmosphere to it as well, from what I remember..

I liked it all too but it really really needed a "last option" button for battles to make it go faster. Auto battle just uses moves at random it seems so you almost never want to do that in certain areas.

IMO anyways.

 

[AceOfAces]

If you choose manual -> attack, it does keep your last action in the bar, and it's even smart enough to separate them for before and after you used Spirit, which is pretty nice. The real trick to it is learning how to combine your arts and learning the (hidden) Super Art inputs, there are specific breakpoints where those are better than regular arts combos.

The combat system is really fun though, I'd really like a newer game that used a more refined version of it. (Legaia 2 is not really that)

 

[diapered]

I have been playing Legend of Legaia For just over a week now, with a few days off since I wasn't feeling the best, and beat it with no guide what so ever! Here are my end game stats:

View attachment 196217

Anyone else play this game and have good memories of it?

I thought it was great but had issues with the dragged out battles and the fact here in the NTSC area we had EXP/Gold gain reduced because screw us I guess. I explored as hard as I could and still missed a ton of treasure

No guide!? Damn that's impressive O_o I needed a lot of handholding via gamefaqs and savestates to get through this fucker >_< This is not an easy rpg to beat imo.

But I love the story and characters ^_^

Anyone else play this game and have good memories of it?

My only memories are frustration I really liked the game as a child, but could never beat the green asshole munching on the genesis tree, and even with a good strategy I found on gamefaqs it was still a tough fight O_o It was extremely cathartic to finally beat this game ^_^

 

[rugal]

have played it alot and its one of my favorit ps1 games
best part is the music and combat system

some treasure and items are really well hidden
so its no wonder you did not find all of them
but gettin 90% is really good


because you do not have all the arts your maximum damage is low
getting the arts is really important because right art on right enemie or boss do alot of damage but getting as many as you did without using a guide is good


i hate 1 things in the game and that is to cleare muscle dome

 

[AlmaElma123]

I played & beat this about 25 years ago. Unfortunately, I don't remember everything about it, other than I generally enjoyed the journey. I really got hooked by the whole Ra-Seru theme, and of course, the unique combat system. The music had a really neat atmosphere to it as well, from what I remember..

I enjoyed it too, I just wish combat was snappier. Music was indeed top notch!

If you choose manual -> attack, it does keep your last action in the bar, and it's even smart enough to separate them for before and after you used Spirit, which is pretty nice. The real trick to it is learning how to combine your arts and learning the (hidden) Super Art inputs, there are specific breakpoints where those are better than regular arts combos.

The combat system is really fun though, I'd really like a newer game that used a more refined version of it. (Legaia 2 is not really that)

I know it saves your attack but it's still a bit too many presses for one combat turn imo. Considering the menus take a second to snap into place each time for the next imput too so you can't just spam X to fight you gotta X, Right, X, X, X, Right, X, X, X, Right, X, X, X to do a combat turn with your remembered moves. Sounds fast but you gotta add that small delay and it just got a bit bleh for me as a whole since you have to grind a lot thanks to the slash in exp/gold gain but I still did it fine enough and do enjoy the combat when you got that grove going.

Shame about LoL2 not being that great. I did hear its meh vs the first one

No guide!? Damn that's impressive O_o I needed a lot of handholding via gamefaqs and savestates to get through this fucker >_< This is not an easy rpg to beat imo.
View attachment 196288
But I love the story and characters ^_^

My only memories are frustration I really liked the game as a child, but could never beat the green asshole munching on the genesis tree, and even with a good strategy I found on gamefaqs it was still a tough fight O_o It was extremely cathartic to finally beat this game ^_^

Wow! Amazing work! Your damage is CRAZY high vs mine lol. I too loved everything about the game but the grind made slower thanks to the slash in exp/gold

have played it alot and its one of my favorit ps1 games
best part is the music and combat system

some treasure and items are really well hidden
so its no wonder you did not find all of them
but gettin 90% is really good


because you do not have all the arts your maximum damage is low
getting the arts is really important because right art on right enemie or boss do alot of damage but getting as many as you did without using a guide is good


i hate 1 things in the game and that is to cleare muscle dome

I did find out that some treasure is just stupid hidden. Expected for a JRPG. I did find out that I could have done WAY more by the end but it's just how I ended up rolling in my playthrough.

I beat beginner dome but expert I could barely get passed round 5.

 

[diapered]

Wow! Amazing work! Your damage is CRAZY high vs mine lol. I too loved everything about the game but the grind made slower thanks to the slash in exp/gold

Eh, can't really take any credit, I had a guide and went in with the goal to minimize any grinding. For damage, like @AceOfAces was saying, there is a way to chain super/hidden arts or whatever together for huge damage. I forget though: it's been awhile and as usual for most long rpgs, I was really drunk through most of it >_<

 

[rugal]

I did find out that some treasure is just stupid hidden. Expected for a JRPG. I did find out that I could have done WAY more by the end but it's just how I ended up rolling in my playthrough.

I beat beginner dome but expert I could barely get passed round 5.

getting to expert round 5 is quite good

beating muscle dome without having all arts is alot of level grinding and having really good EQ

the first time i cleared muscle dome without having all the arts
i did grind to level 75 and it was still a bloody challenge to cleare

doing it with all arts one can be as low as level 45

 

[AceOfAces]

I know it saves your attack but it's still a bit too many presses for one combat turn imo. Considering the menus take a second to snap into place each time for the next imput too so you can't just spam X to fight you gotta X, Right, X, X, X, Right, X, X, X, Right, X, X, X to do a combat turn with your remembered moves. Sounds fast but you gotta add that small delay and it just got a bit bleh for me as a whole since you have to grind a lot thanks to the slash in exp/gold gain but I still did it fine enough and do enjoy the combat when you got that grove going.

Tapping X will automatically select Manual and Fight*, so if you're pre-set you can just tap X to get through action-bar-target part of the menu. It is a little clunky (it would be better if you could target using the shoulder buttons without needing a separate menu) but it's from 1999 so that's kind of unavoidable. I don't find the menus super slow but I've also been playing the game on and off since it came out since I actually own a copy, so I'm used to navigating them. I wish you could speed up the Seru animations though, they are nice but they are REALLY SLOW.

Speaking of which, did you notice that the game actually has a functional positioning system? Certain aoe attacks (most notably Threeder) hit in an actual aoe relative to the target, which uses the actual displayed position of the character on the battlefield. Threeder hits in a cone with the target at the center of the furthest extension, so it's very prone to only hitting some enemies instead of all of them. This usually works in your favor because your party tends to end up spread out, but most of the really nasty enemies have "global" AoEs. The only other game I'm aware of that really works like this is The Last Remnant (which is also fantastic, unfortunately the remaster is kind of ass and you can't buy the old version anymore). Pretty cool for 1999.

*You may need to set this in the settings menu.

 

[AceWhatever]

I have fond memories of playing Legaia (not so much the grinding though, and this is actually the first time I heard of the xp/gold nerfs. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised). It and Pokemon were probably(?) my first encounter with the dreaded RNG mechanic. The only other problem is that even regular battles took way too long because you pretty much had to waste a turn using spirit for everyone. Nobody ever died from just random strings of hits or just whatever spirit/combo length you had available at the start.

Good job finishing it!

 

[RageBurner]

I remember playing Legaia. Finished somehow, mostly meandered through it on console. Loved the graphics and the battle system, they were the strongest aspects IMO.