#2
YoY: = My Rating: 9.8/10
There are obviously certain games where nostalgia plays a huge factor in how I view them. Some games I loved as a child end up not holding up all that well when replayed years later, for one reason or another. Fortunately, there are also certain games that I not only have an immense amount of nostalgia for, but which also hold up when I play them today. The Legend of Dragoon is one of them. I replay it every few years, and every time it seems like I end up liking it even more than I did before.
Now, there are obviously some elements that don't hold up to scrutiny anymore. First, this is a PS1 game, so the visuals have aged quite a lot, though many of the backgrounds still look great. The voice acting is typical of its time, meaning average at best and often just plain awful. Finally, the localization is unfortunately quite shoddy, the writing often coming off clumsy and unrefined. If there was one aspect I wish I could improve, it would the writing, because the English language dialogue and narration leaves quite a lot to be desired. At least there aren't any mistakes that change the story like in some other games of the era. With all that said, this is still my second favourite game ever, and nothing has changed that in over 20 years.
In some ways, the thing that makes The Legend of Dragoon stand out so much to me is difficult to explain. While I love the story, characters, battle system, and music, there's also an intangible element to it. A feeling that I haven't experienced with any other game I've played, an atmosphere that is wholly unique to this game. It's the thing that makes me want to start a new game every single time I talk about this game during these year end events, and since it has been quite some time since I last played it, I might just go and do that soon.
