Legend of Legaia: a revisit to a classic

[sensui-tomo]

When people talk about J-rpgs on the playstation what are the titles you usually hear? Is it Final Fantasy, Xenogears, Legend of Dragoon, Star Ocean, Grandia, Suikoden, Lunar, Breath of Fire. For me its this little gem i found in a Sears clearance rack called Legend of Legaia.

At the time this gem came out everyone was trying to shove out RPGS left and right due to the financial success of 1997's FF7. This game was unique in the aspect that combat was done with a direction pad that you input to chain out attacks called Arts, in which you could do something like High, Low, High and do a kick flip or some other unique attacks

The other unique thing about this game that most other rpgs didnt do at the time, have equipment(weapons and armor) that changes for each character which at the time didnt really happen on many console rpgs.

Its a shame that this game(and its lackluster sequel) never made it for any digital release on the ps3/4 via classics. Hell i have no idea who owns the IP anymore but here's hoping they use it one more time in the near future.
I could go on and on about how I liked it but i'd rather hear from others here who remember this game (i know ya'll exist) So i'll end on a high note. (before i keep posting more pictures and gifs.... well maybe one more gif)

 

[robotzombie]

I really liked this game but also the only thing I truly remember about it is that it was such a grind getting money and stuff for new equipment, and without equipment things were punishingly hard. Am I remembering that wrong? I'd love to replay this some time, but that always kept me away

 

[squall211]

I remember playing and beating the game. Pretty sure I enjoyed it overall, but if memory serves your character moved slow as hell on the world map and I think it really annoyed me.

I also remember it had some kind of a point card where you could save up the points then unleash them on an enemy? Pretty sure I used it to help take out the final boss.

 

[SageShinigami]

I really liked this game but also the only thing I truly remember about it is that it was such a grind getting money and stuff for new equipment, and without equipment things were punishingly hard. Am I remembering that wrong? I'd love to replay this some time, but that always kept me away

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I came here to say the same thing. Getting money in this game was a pain, and the first time I truly had to "grind" on PS1 just to get things done.

 

[Deleted member 9584]

I was just thinking about this game and I really want to replay it but my original copy doesn't work anymore. This game was the reason I got a PSOne and it's what got me into the PlayStation ecosystem.

Who owns the rights to this game now and why have we never seen it as a PSOne classic release on PS3?

Spoiler

The music in this game is fantastic and I frequently listen to it on YouTube.

 

[Greyline108]

Gaza and Songi... I never finished the game, but I remember those bosses causing me so much rage. And I remember how cool it was to see a Miracle Art for the first time after finally being able to do enough attacks.
I also remember the absolute terrible disappointment I felt after finishing the sequel, but that's a topic for another time.

 

[Syril]

Who owns the rights to this game now and why have we never seen it as a PSOne classic release on PS3?

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The title screen says copyright Sony Computer Entertainment.

 

[sensui-tomo]

The game definitely had a grind, hell the way to get Juggernaut (one of the best serus/summons) was to get to level 99 which iirc required more exp than 1-98.... yeah nobody earned that dude the legit way.

 

[Deleted member 9584]

The title screen says copyright Sony Computer Entertainment.

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Sony.... what the hell?! Why was it never rereleased...

 

[Cordy]

Man, that was a great game. Even after finishing it the game I wanted to keep playing. One of my first ever RPGs.

 

[MilkBeard]

Cool to see someone make this thread since it was mentioned in the Legend of Dragoon thread.

This was a pretty cool little game. I have good memories with it.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

I really loved this game. Why can't I play it on PS4/Vita Sony?

 

[Thrill_house]

I absolutely loved this game. The money grind was real but once you figured out how to game the arcade to get soru bread to sell, its not an issue anymore. I loved experimenting to find new arts, the combat system in general and the cool minigames. The sequel on ps2 sucked but man this game is one of my goats for ps1 rpgs

 

[RedlineRonin]

I really, really, really, really liked this game a lot.

It got super hard a bit later on without grinding though. I don't think I ever finished it.

One of those formative RPGs for me as a young guy.

 

[VariantX]

I really liked this game but also the only thing I truly remember about it is that it was such a grind getting money and stuff for new equipment, and without equipment things were punishingly hard. Am I remembering that wrong? I'd love to replay this some time, but that always kept me away

Click to shrink...

Yep it was grindy. You had to grind EVERYTHING. Leveling came slowly. You had to keep whailing on the same enemies to be able have your Ra-Seru to learn the spell. Everything was expensive so you couldn't really wander too far away from a town because you couldn't just buy a ton of healing items and not give a shit. Otherwise, that new set of armor and accessories for your party members would only get that much further away. When you did get your upgrades and accessories, you basically get the satisfaction of doing a victory lap and blazing straight to the next area. Despite the grind, it was a pretty satisfying loop for me. It was the second RPG I ever played and finished. Would love a remaster or at least a re-release. Never grinded enough to even dream of fighting Lapis yet. And even If I did be lapis, what would i even do then but put the game away lol

 

[Deleted member 26768]

The title screen says copyright Sony Computer Entertainment.

Click to shrink...

Nobody has the copyright anymore, people on legendoflegaia.net did digging years ago and the IP doesn't seem to be owned by anyone anymore.

Michiru Oshima's work on this soundtrack was MAJOR, one of the best soundtracks i have heard to this day.

 

[Kouriozan]

Replayed the game twice, I don't think I ever finished it but I still love it very much.
Everytime I stop near the very end, dunno why.

 

[Qwark]

I freaking loved Legaia so much. The sequel was just eh, but I still wait for the day it comes out as PS2 on PS4.

Legaia had a small monster-collecting aspect as well, didn't it? You could acquire spirits I believe?

Sony.... what the hell?! Why was it never rereleased...

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I remember hearing that it had emulation problems on PSP, something about game breaking bugs. But they probably could've fixed that by now.

 

[Psxphile]

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Noa is precious.

 

[LakeEarth]

One of those classic PSone RPGs that I bought for my PS3, but never tried once. Saving it for my retirement, apparently. Hopefully my PS3 will last forty years.

 

[Qwark]

Nobody has the copyright anymore, people on legendoflegaia.net did digging years ago and the IP doesn't seem to be owned by anyone anymore.

Michiru Oshima's work on this soundtrack was MAJOR, one of the best soundtracks i have heard to this day.

Click to shrink...

Not that I don't believe you, or that site... but how could the sequel have been rated for PS2 on PS4 if nobody owns the rights?

 

[Keym]

I remember this game being hard as balls. I could never tell if it was because the game waa actually hard, or because I couldn't figure out how the battle system worked exactly.

 

[FallenGrace]

Never beat the original though I did Legaia Duel Saga. Neither were top tier games yet I had pretty good fun with how unique they were all the same.

Duel Saga got the PS4 treatment right? Tempted to get it and mop up the trophies.

 

[sir_crocodile]

fun little game.

 

[Qwark]

Never beat the original though I did Legaia Duel Saga. Neither were top tier games yet I had pretty good fun with how unique they were all the same.

Duel Saga got the PS4 treatment right? Tempted to get it and mop up the trophies.

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It was rated for PS4, but it hasn't been released yet :|

 

[FallenGrace]

It was rated for PS4, but it hasn't been released yet :|

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Ah dammit! I did question my memory after posting that... :(

 

[Mister X]

One of the underrated classics of PSX

 

[Deleted member 29354]

This game has been on my mind for the past week!! Great thread OP. I remember this being my first foray into JRPG territory, even when I had no clue what I was doing (dating myself, but I was 8 when the game came out and 9-10 when I actually remember playing it). More than anything I remember the battle theme music:
This was honestly the most blood-pumping music I had heard up until this point. Those deep, thumping, bass drums and repeated piano chords.

 

[mute]

Had a wonderful time with this after discovering FFVII and wanting more of that.

I remember a huge grind to Lvl 99 though.

 

[Deleted member 29354]

I really liked this game but also the only thing I truly remember about it is that it was such a grind getting money and stuff for new equipment, and without equipment things were punishingly hard. Am I remembering that wrong? I'd love to replay this some time, but that always kept me away

Click to shrink...

Game was definitely grind-y from what my preteen brain can remember, perhaps even more so than other contemporary JRPGs. However, OP's comments about the Hyper Arts input systems kept things fresh enough in battle to avoid becoming too stagnant IMO.

 

[Cats]

I have really fond memories of the first few hours. This game always seemed really dark and sinister to me due to the intro stuff but that made it kinda special. It was also brutally hard for us as kids (another thing I liked). Once you go past the mountains and get the second party member, then hit the huge world map part, that's where I always got bored with it. I felt like the tone/scope changed and it felt grindy suddenly.

 

[Tizoc]

Been years since i lasted played it but id only go back to playing it on an emu at least if it offered a 2x speed option or the like @_@

For some reason i recall the reg battle the e being rather dull?

 

[Deleted member 32822]

I remember renting this from Blockbuster but never getting to finish it. I would rent it over and over. A remake would be pretty cool!

 

[MZZ]

This game is cherished for me. I played it again sometime 5 years ago and I still liked it. As a kid, I replayed the game many times from start up until around the juggernaut fight at the castle. I can't remember if that was the final boss fight. Some runs, I get stuck on the poison plant boss on top of the tower in continent 2 or at the bison boss in the lava area also at continent 2. It really depends on how prepared you are so that you don't get stuck at these casual filters.

All the minigames are amazing. I was addicted to the slot machine until I got all the prize and the talisman. The fishing mini game was also great, Its up there with breath of fire 4.

I remember the rock paper scissors coliseum fights to be really hard.

One of the best things is the capturing of special enemies to be used as magic/summon. Pokemon back then to me is just another game so I didn't associate the monster collecting to it very much. I remember that you have to defeat enemies without overkilling them. Those can be frustrating but you just go with it to get to those damn awesome summon attacks.

The combat mechanics was something that was unique to this game and was not really adapted to any other game. The mechanics were awesome. By simply guessing around you will eventually learn the arts which has an amazing feeling of discovery. Then once you get the full bar at the end game, there is the secret arts or mystic arts which is a full combination of different arts. It's really something. Me and my friends associate this combat system to tekken.

Its really fucking grindy but those were the games of that generation. I think it had lots of great ideas given the limitations they have back then.

 

[Toth]

A really excellent and overlooked RPG for sure. That battle system...wow was it fun. The world and lore were also very well done. You really had the sense of despair whenever that Mist was around.

It was hard to replicate as the sequel proved (not a bad sequel but weird characters and changes hurt the experience).

 

[Naar]

What I remember most is looking at the world map and thinking it was a small game and thinking to myself that I reached the boss relatively quickly.

Only to beat the boss and have the game open up and realizing I had hours of exploring and fighting yet to do. Don't know why, but I didn't play that much except remembering that I enjoyed my time with it.

 

[gebler]

Nobody has the copyright anymore, people on legendoflegaia.net did digging years ago and the IP doesn't seem to be owned by anyone anymore.

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When I saw that claim in a past forum thread, in turned out the poster didn't understand the difference between trademarks and copyrights. Trademark status is easy to check since a trademark is only valid if properly registered and then renewed periodically. If not actively maintained, trademarks will expire, but that doesn't change the copyright status. In this case, the trademark had indeed expired, but there was no real information about the copyright status. Copyrights are valid for at least 50 years (in many countries 70 years) without any need for renewal, and if Sony once held the copyrights for this game, they would still do unless they actively reassigned it to someone else.

 

[Instro]

I'd heard of the game, but I didn't know it had that combat system. I always thought it would be neat to see an RPG that took Sabin's move inputs, and built it out to a whole game system. Apparently it had already been done lol.

 

[Deleted member 26768]

I remember hearing that it had emulation problems on PSP, something about game breaking bugs. But they probably could've fixed that by now.

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The game ran fine on PSP but there was an issue with the PS3 emulation where they game would freeze during the time travel segment where the game would crash with no means to bypass it, i never saw a solution for it either.

Not that I don't believe you, or that site... but how could the sequel have been rated for PS2 on PS4 if nobody owns the rights?

Click to shrink...

i conflated misinformation as Gebler already cleared up

When I saw that claim in a past forum thread, in turned out the poster didn't understand the difference between trademarks and copyrights. Trademark status is easy to check since a trademark is only valid if properly registered and then renewed periodically. If not actively maintained, trademarks will expire, but that doesn't change the copyright status. In this case, the trademark had indeed expired, but there was no real information about the copyright status. Copyrights are valid for at least 50 years (in many countries 70 years) without any need for renewal, and if Sony once held the copyrights for this game, they would still do unless they actively reassigned it to someone else.

Click to shrink...

yeah i went back to look for it because i started to doubt my own statement and it indeed is the trademark that has expired, over time i must have started conflating them together in my mind :p In any case Sony holds the rights to the IP as Contrail was a production studio by them, Contrail also produced Wild Arms 2 and Alundra 2 btw (funnily an unused track of Legaia had been used in Wild Arms and Cara's theme also was used in Alundra).

 

[Hecht]

I remember playing this when it came out, and Final Songi was such a pain in the ass. Couldn't beat him. Finally played it again much later and beat him, but I'm pretty sure I needed to grind a little at the end before fighting him.

Pretty decent game though, overall

 

[Qwark]

The game ran fine on PSP but there was an issue with the PS3 emulation where they game would freeze during the time travel segment where the game would crash with no means to bypass it, i never saw a solution for it either.

i conflated misinformation as Gebler already cleared up

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Ah, I thought the homebrew community had problems with it on PSP, but I must've just mixed that up with PS3 issues.
At least there's no concern over who owns the IP... now we just gotta wish and hope for Sony to ever do anything with it.

 

[Deleted member 26768]

Ah, I thought the homebrew community had problems with it on PSP, but I must've just mixed that up with PS3 issues.
At least there's no concern over who owns the IP... now we just gotta wish and hope for Sony to ever do anything with it.

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it's easy to mix the stuff up, i just know the homebrewed psp works well because i replayed it on that system a few years ago
Sony in general has several of dead IP's like these that hunted for the RPG fame that would be interesting reboots i'd say

 

[PS_ycho]

I encountered that game breaking time travel bug on the PS3 when I replayed it about a year ago...so many hours gone. :( This should really be properly released on the PS3/PS4. Such a great and unique game with really good music.

 

[Chromax]

Played the hell out of the demo.

Was one of my favorite game back then, sadly I got stuck on the last boss because I was way under leveled.

 

[TinTuba47]

I remember playing this game nonstop for a week or so when I had a broken leg

It was fun

 

[VariantX]

This game has been on my mind for the past week!! Great thread OP. I remember this being my first foray into JRPG territory, even when I had no clue what I was doing (dating myself, but I was 8 when the game came out and 9-10 when I actually remember playing it). More than anything I remember the battle theme music:
This was honestly the most blood-pumping music I had heard up until this point. Those deep, thumping, bass drums and repeated piano chords.

Click to shrink...

Lets be honest, this games soundtrack was straight fire. It's hard for me to place one battle theme over the over.

 

[OuterLimits]

I know I'm in the minority, but I love the sequel as well. Music in both games is phenomenal btw.

 

[Djawed]

Didnt like it honesyly and this was me at a time when i wasnt very critical.

 

[Edge]

I LOVE this game. One of my ultimate favorites on the PS1 and I played hundreds of games there. The music, the characters, the fighting system!! This is a true PS1 classic. Thank you OP! :)

 

[PopQuiz]

Kudos to Legaia for basically putting Vegeta into their game and everyone being cool with it.