Legend of Legaia

1998 · RPG · PlayStation

About Legend of Legaia

Legend of Legaia (1998) is Prokion's PlayStation role-playing game whose "Tactical Arts System" turns turn-based attacks into input combos, set in a world where a mysterious Mist has turned humanity's helpful Seru against it.

Legend of Legaia in Depth

Random battles are turn-based, but attacking means building a sequence of directional strikes that the character then performs. Entering certain sequences in the right order unleashes powerful techniques called Arts, which can be chained by overlapping compatible inputs. Arts cost AP, regained by attacking, taking damage or using the Spirit command, which also greatly reduces damage taken and allows a longer sequence the next turn. Arts are found by experimenting in battle with enough AP or by talking to certain people, while stronger Hyper Arts must first be unlocked with items called Books. Equipping a weapon replaces one attack direction with Arms. The heroes also bond with Ra-Seru, rare companions who can capture the essence of enemy Seru to summon them with magic points, and who replace an attack direction and grow stronger as they level up.

In this world the magical Seru once helped people, alone or attached to them, until a Mist appeared and drove them wild, collapsing civilisation. On the eve of his first hunt, Vahn sees a giant Seru smash the wall of his village, Rim Elm, letting in the Mist. He bonds with a Ra-Seru named Meta, unaffected by the Mist, to awaken the village's Genesis Tree, then sets out across the world with the cavegirl Noa and the monk Gala to restore Genesis Trees and stop the Mist.

Making Legend of Legaia

Prokion developed the game for Sony Computer Entertainment, with Contrail as producer, and it was released in Japan in October 1998, North America in March 1999 and Europe in May 2000. Reviews recorded by GameRankings were favourable, and Next Generation felt its new fighting engine outweighed a trite story; Famitsu scored it 27 out of 40. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated it for console adventure/role-playing game of the year. It had sold over 300,000 copies by January 2002, and a sequel, Legaia 2: Duel Saga, followed on the PlayStation 2.

Legend of Legaia Trivia

Contrail handled its production for Sony.
The Ra-Seru are immune to the Mist because, it is revealed, the Mist is made from Ra-Seru.
Next Generation said that if players could "deal with the trite, hackneyed story, the new fighting engine makes this worth checking out".
It was nominated for console RPG of the year at the 3rd Interactive Achievement Awards.
It was released in Europe only in May 2000, more than a year after North America.