The Legend of Dragoon

Developer: Sony Interactive Entertainment (but like, specifically Japan Studio IIRC)

Release Date: December 2nd, 1999

Time Played: A little more than four hours

Dubiosity: 2 out of 5

CD count: 4

Would I play more? Probably not, if only because there are so many other weirder PS1-era JRPGs out there. Still gotta touch them Suikodenzz… or like, Xenogears.

There’s something really interesting about The Legend of Dragoon, namely that it’s Sony’s few real attempts at making their own in-house first-party JRPG. It has high production values, sold quite well in both the West and Japan, and also… never really got a follow-up? To be frank, this game has a strong “Game people have fond nostalgia for because they were 12 but have not played since 2000” energy, but I also can’t say I had a bad time with it. In late 1999 and early 2000, your’s truly was too busy getting stoked about Donkey Kong 64 on his Nintendo 64, so I’m not exactly the best indicator of nostalgic quality.

I think the most complementary and most condemning thing I can say about Legend of Dragoon is that it seems to be a totally fine “game of this era.” It’s got that four disc sheen, which as we all know was the correct indicator of quality during this era. There are pre-rendered backgrounds, an evil empire that is using dark magic to take over the world, decently detailed polygonal character models, overly-long elaborate battle animations that make everything slightly too long. You know what this game is. That said, the biggest “addition” to the game is the “addition” system (see what I did there?) If you like Mario RPG-esque button timing properties, do I have the game for you! That’s right, rhythmically pressing buttons in quick succession with the added thrill of knowing you’re playing a PS1 game on an HDTV and thus have to anticipate a certain amount of input lag. Characters learn new attack strings as they level up, and there’s an interesting quality between picking ones you can nail the timing on and ones with higher damage potential. Also you can turn into a dragon and do weird super moves, which require a different timing window and interface… aaaand that’s about as far as I got with that mechanic. It’s basically a limit break.

Now while I definitely think it comes off a tad generic, maybe a bit stock outside of having timing-based attacks, the actual dubious quality of Legend of Dragoon is its translation. Final Fantasy VII gets a lot of flack for its “This guy are sick” gaffes, but it maintains a basic level of coherency for most of its runtime. Legend of Dragoon wears that “translated in two months by a small handful of people who were given a raw text dump of katakana” energy in everything, from basic-ass menu text to every stilted-ass line of dialogue. It borders between overly literal and incoherent, and as a result I had trouble getting invested in the adventures of Dart and Friends in their quest to… something something dragons. Like, the tree enemies you’d expect to be called Treants are just called “Trent.” On the other hand, there is a character named “Lavitz Slambert” so who am I to disagree with the choices made? No, seriously, Lavitz Slambert is the best JRPG character name. Prove me wrong. Bartz Klauser? Pffft.

In any case I think this is a case of me feeling like I *did* get a pretty solid grip on a JRPG for this feature, which is something I can’t say for stuff like The Last Remnant. I think outside of the translation, which is truly dubious, this game seems… entirely okay. Heck I might even say it’s quite possibly “good” depending on one’s tolerance of PSX-era JRPGs, of which mine is fairly low. Seems alright!

Code Vein

Developer: Shift

Release Date: September 26, 2019

Time Played: a little more than 2 ½ hours

Dubiosity: 3 out of 5

Anime: Yes

Would I play more? Yes. When there is a need, I will be there to play the mediocre anime souls.

As both a sales success and the most recent game featured for this wheel, I think Code Vein is probably a known quantity at this point. It was mostly on this season because I owned it and wanted an excuse to stream it. It’s frankly a bit of an anticlimax after having both Konung and King’s Quest VIII back to back (and, to be clear, those two games are a real fuckin’ trip) but on the other hand it was a good reminder that my thoughts and feelings on Code Vein have not changed. Like, at all. Which is to say that Code Vein is totally *fine* and also at no point would I say that it’s great. I’m probably gonna play more of it. The character creator is real good.

In the same way that God Eater is a much lighter, streamlined, and more anime Monster Hunter, so too is Code Vein the lighter, streamlined, and more anime Dark Souls. At no point is it entirely clear that the developers understand *why* Dark Souls is designed the way it is, but by golly they made an attempt. That’s an accusation I’m willing to make for a lot of “souls-likes” (just the worst term) but it’s especially notable in what Code Vein does well versus what it doesn’t. Picking up my roughly 10ish hour save file I was reminded that the way Code Vein handles mix-and-match skills and classes is neat… which was immediately followed up by my remembrance that the combat is airless and feels like it wants you to mash stuff out. You shouldn’t, because there’s still that big fat stamina bar, but the way your swings come out and the way the enemies react to them feel closer to the feedback I’d expect from a Musou game.

That back and forth was kind of my experience with the entire stream, TBH, between feeling entirely okay about the sad pretty vampires (many of whom are barely wearing any clothing) and then being reminded that every new “class” you acquire comes with its own set of melodramatic flashback sequences. It needs be said that your AI companions in this game are surprisingly effective most of the time, which definitely leads into complaints that the game is too easy? It is, but also I apparently haven’t gotten to the more bullshit parts of the game to see if things end up swinging the other way. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Alas, the start of various life events means I’m gonna be more busy than I used to be, and for better and worse Code Vein isn’t entirely up on the priority list right now.

And that does it for another weird, questionable, and obscure season of The Wheel of Dubious RPGs! If you’d like to join along with my future endeavors, consider following my internet twitch channel. I’m playing through Daikatana with Justin258 in anticipation of THE WHEEL OF DUBIOUS FPSes. That’s right nerds. You thought dubiousness was over? Well, I need a break from RPGs, and not just because I’m also sometimes on a podcast that covers RPGs (Our third and final podcast on Grandia II is now out!) so what if I played another genre I have fondness for and features an extensive array of weird shit? Look forward to it.