I was invited to be a guest on the Retro Reloaded podcast – specifically for their episode on Legend of Dragoon! Originally this was meant to happen some time ago, but the host’s voice gave out (ouch). We just recorded it last night! You can find the episode here. The host is Lance, who runs RR, and the other guest host is Wobeeyert, an RR regular. Lance tried LoD with the fan port Severed Chains and got through half of it, while Wobeeyert played the game long ago and did a refresher without SC. The theme of Retro Reloaded is to revisit old games and evaluate whether it’s worth another go these days.
The main focus on the podcast was about the game itself – how good or bad was it, and why? There was also a bit of talk about the surrounding development, as well as Severed Chains. I am really grateful for the opportunity to speak and share a few insights. It was also good to hear that Lance really liked how SC took care of several pain points in LoD. I hope I didn’t talk too much – there was a lot worth saying, heh. Some things, I just couldn’t bring up or elaborate on for time. I’d like to share some of those thoughts here.
Lance asked me what kind of remake LoD should get, or just a remaster. I tried to answer that in an abbreviated way, so I didn’t answer the first part of the question: Should it be like FF7Remake? This is a loaded question in itself, because from what I’ve seen FF7R classes distinctly as a reboot instead. Ultimately, it could go either way. Personally I think it’s safer to avoid over-expansion of minute things, and avoid retcons to the story (generally speaking). At the same time, LoD is really dense, and many aspects of the story/gameplay do need to be fleshed out better / streamlined. There would have to be fundamental changes, because LoD’s original selling points are no longer rare or unique. It has to stand on its own two feet and draw people in with good story & combat. The QA also needs to be on-point, unlike the original release or the PS4/5 re-release (nobody checked Dragoon magic??).
Ultimately, I think a bold remake is necessary compared to a conservative one or a remaster. Games are best when lore and game mechanics / combat line up. LoD is really bad about this. In no unclear terms, humans “cannot use magic.” That is the point of the Wingly species – they’re basically humans who can use magic. And yet, humans have a magic stat that affects the damage of thrown “artificial” item magic. For a game made in 1996 that’s totally understandable, but for a modern release this would be a total undermining of the game world’s most basic rules. There’s no reason for Dart to deal more damage with item magic than Lavitz, if it’s not coming from their own bodies. This alone would require a big change to combat, so.. bold remake it is. I think I should start writing a remake outline to go along with the prequel concept I’m designing on paper.
Lance also brought up how game publishers can overly lock down IPs even when doing nothing with them. I think we all agree that copyright protection is important, but needs to be modernized. It’s too easy for companies to demonize people who have the space and time to preserve old games, or even give them new life. At the same time, the industry is a hot mess, and there are legitimate reasons why IPs sit idle for decades. It’s incredibly complicated, in LoD’s case. Regardless, it was great to see Stop Killing Games movement get a quick mention.
One thing I keep coming back to in my mind, is that for people who don’t end up liking LoD, it’s probably because of Chapter 2. The previous chapter is a near-ideal self-contained story with good pacing start to finish. It’s an intimate local scenario with a strong finish. Chapter 2.. it’s a different region, and the capital city’s population has a special focus (stars & astronomy). However, going from civil war to bandits feels less serious than what the party just went through. Combine that with a more sparse map and tiresome backtracking, I believe a lot of players fall off at this point. It would explain why many detractors say the story isn’t anything special, because the story does get unique from Chapter 3 onward. Chapter 2 could use some shoring up to help players stay interested until things get more exciting in terms of backstory.
We touched on accessibility, including automatic additions without need for Ultimate Wargod. I mentioned there’s no shame in it; I use it sometimes. However, a better example I forgot to mention would have been item magic. It’s really hard to get full power on the item magic, especially with hand issues, so the Auto setting for that is quite valuable too.
I also wanted to mention how, at launch, LoD’s additions are something many players weren’t ready for. QTEs were new to the RPG space, and also we’re talking about kids here. It worked for me because I happened to have experience with Tekken 2. That game has a training mode where you can pick any combo and press a button to “simulate” it. Your character will do the whole combo automatically so you can see how it plays out. However, when you try the combo yourself, the game expects you to press all the buttons at a different rate than the simulation (my combo kept breaking because I was pressing at the specified rate, instead of doing it faster). So, it was really really hard. By contrast, LoD provided actual guide markers for the hits, so it was way more accessible! I think lots of players didn’t happen to have that context, so LoD’s addies were still too tough.
In conversations about LoD, the background images for locations are often remarked with awe. It was good to take a look at some of the weaker points about it for once, like the “dollhouse” point of view for Lohan’s interior. Navigation is tricky sometimes, but I was happy I could tell Lance and Wobeeyert that the devs deliberately created a “maze” layout for some areas of the game (for better and worse).
All that said, I’m mega happy about all the talking points we did fit in. When Nobuo Uematsu was mentioned, I had to stifle rather than bring up his work in Lost Odyssey. I was impressed by the flow of the podcast. I am better with structured segments, but Lance did a good job of oscillating between different topics to keep it dynamic and I had a blast sharing my thoughts on LoD and hearing what people outside the fandom had to say about it. Thanks to Lance so much for having me on the show, and to Wobeeyert as fellow guest host.
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