Legend of Legaia is a 1998 Sony PlayStation role-playing video game
created by Contrail. The game was followed by a 2001 sequel video game,
Legaia 2: Duel Saga for the PlayStation 2 which, rather than continuing the
first game's storyline, provides an original story set in the eponymous
Legaia. Plot
The game takes place in a world called Legaia, populated by humans and objects
called Seru, which can join with humans to grant them fantastic powers. While
humans and Seru had once peacefully coexisted, about ten years before the
game begins the world was covered in a mist which drove Seru mad when it came
in contact with them. Seru were transformed into monsters that attacked
humans, and human civilization nearly collapsed. At the time the game begins,
human survivors have banded together in remote regions to hide from the mist.
The game follows Vahn, the quiet main hero; Noa, an excitable feral child; and
Gala, a curt warrior monk, on their quest to revive ten Genesis Trees
throughout Legaia in an attempt to vanquish the evil Mist which covers the
world. The three heroes join with entities known as Ra-Seru, which grant
them powers like Seru but are immune to the effects of the Mist. They travel
across three continents, reviving Genesis Trees that push back the Mist
over small areas, and destroying the Mist Generators that create it; at times
they come into conflict with Songi, Gala's childhood rival, who has joined
with a Seru and is progressively mutating into a monster.
Towards the end of their quest, in the devastated city of Conkram, the heroes
manage to travel back in time to locate the origins of the Mist to put an end to
it once and for all. They discover that the Mist was created as a biological
weapon by Prince Cort, Noa's brother and the prince of Conkram. They are unable
to save Conkram or Noa's parents in the past, but when they return to the
present they destroy the final Mist Generator and defeat Cort. Unbeknownst
to the heroes, however, before dying Cort manages to merge with Juggernaut, a
Seru that has grown gargantuan through exposure to the Mist.
The heroes return triumphantly to Vahn's hometown of Rim Elm, but are soon
attacked by Songi and the giant Seru Juggernaut, which devours the entire
town and its citizens. After defeating Songi, the heroes must travel inside
Juggernaut to face and defeat Cort again. The game ends with the
destruction of Juggernaut, the rebirth of Cort into a baby, and the ultimate
restoration of Rim Elm and all its citizens.
Characters Vahn
Voiced by: Wataru Takagi The game's main protagonist who lives in
the town of Rim Elm, in the far south of Drake Kingdom, along with his young
sister Nene and crippled father Val. He has a love interest in the form of Mei,
the local seamstress. His weapon of choice is a sword or knife, and his
Ra-Seru is Meta which is affiliated with fire. Having grown up sparring with the
resident ex-Biron monk, Tetsu, Vahn is an adept martial artist.
Noa Voiced by: Sachiko Sugawara
A female orphan who has been raised by the Ra-Seru Terra who is a wind
elemental. Due to living most of her life alone in Snowdrift Cave with Terra
the wolf, Noa is childish and ignorant as the outside world is new to her. She
wants to see the world and meet her parents who call to her in her dreams.
She uses claws or tonfa batons to fight. Later in the game, she discovers that
she is the daughter of King Nebular and Queen Minea of Conkram.
Gala Voiced by: Jin Yamanoi
A warrior monk from the Biron Monastery and the second-in-command and called
"Master Teacher." He is sent with Vahn and Noa to revive the Genesis Tree in
West Voz Forest, but fails because the Genesis Tree has already been killed by
the Mist. He finds the egg of the Ra-Seru, Ozma, who is affiliated with
lightning, and Gala is subsequently excommunicated after it hatches. Gala's
weapons of choice are clubs or small axes. In contrast with Vahn and Noa,
Gala distrusts and greatly dislikes every kind of Seru because of their
violent behaviours when affected by the Mist and their corrupting any living
creature that wears them. Through the course of the game, he starts treating
Ozma better, like a close friend, instead of just a tool for fighting the
Seru. Prince Cort
Voiced by: Jūrōta Kosugi The game's main villain and the boss of
Zeto, Dohati, Zora, and Jette. He is the son of King Nebular and Queen Minea, and
is the older brother of Ra-Seru hero Noa. Cort was contacted by the evil
Ra-Seru called Rogue who taught him how to create a Mist Generator. He later
fuses with the Sim Seru called Juggernaut and proceeds to absorb the
people of Legaia. Following the Cort/Juggernaut's defeat, Cort is
reincarnated as a baby that Noa takes care of. Cort has an assortment of magic
both offensive and defensive, and when in critical health, he will resort to
summoning Juggernaut to finish the fight. It is imperative to defeat him
quickly at this point. Zeto: A master magician who is one of
Cort's henchmen and the first one that Vahn encounters. He is responsible for
spreading the accursed Mist around Drake Kingdom. He was also the one responsible
for using the Juggernaut to bring down the walls of Rim Elm so that the Mist
and the Seru can enter Rim Elm. Zeto was later responsible for sending the
Caruban monster on Noa and Terra the Wolf at Mt. Rikuroa. Vahn and company
fight Zeto at the first Mist Generator and defeat him. During the fight, Zeto
takes the form of a giant crab monster, and summons tidal waves to attack.
Xain: A seru controlling a large monster in the form of a centaur. He is dumb
muscle on behalf of Prince Cort's crew, laying waste to the town of Octam by
destroying pillars which hold to houses over a large chasm. Initially believed
to be the result of earthquakes, the party investigates and confronts Xain
down below, where his seru component shatters shortly after the battle. His
battle strategy centers on using his two-turn Terio Punch attack, similar to
Zeto's water waves. Dohati: A fat and bald wizard who is
also a minion of Prince Cort. He guarded the second Mist Generator that's located
on the Sebeccus Islands. Dohati tricked Lord Saryu of Ratayu into wearing a
Sim-Seru that took over his mind and used him to create a Juggernaut. The
good guys fight him at the Mist Generator and defeat him. His Seru form
is a giant green bird creature with venomous breath and high attack power.
Gaza: An aged knight and protector of Sol Tower. He journeys alone into the
mist to find what is causing it in the lower levels of the city. Gaza is fought
twice, once in his regular form, and once after he is taken away by Songi and
possessed by a sim-seru. He bequeaths his trusty Astral Sword to Vahn after
being defeated the second time. Zora: The ruler of the floating fortress
in the Kingdom of Sol who guards the third Mist Generator that's located on
Karisto. She initially uses her personal cadre of assassins, the Delilas
siblings, who ultimately fail to kill the party at Nivora Ravine. As opposed
to Cort's other minions, Zora does not change into a monster, but fights as
herself, a thin woman in black with wings. She was at Cort's beck and call,
thinking that Cort had feelings for her. She was crushed to find out that she was
being used as a tool the entire time. Songi then kills her following him
destroying the third Mist Generator. Zora uses her Dark Typhoon spell
liberally in battle but can also use a petrifying Glare attack to create
problems for slower teams. Jette: Cort's assistant who guards the
path to the fourth Mist Generator that's located on Karisto. His Seru form is an
armored humanoid. He can create copies of himself in battle and use Shadow
Break, a deadly attack to the whole party. Fortunately, this big attack
relieves his deception and he can be distinguished from his clones because
they will only ever use basic attacks. Songi
Voiced by: Takashi Nagasako Gala's rival and power-hungry fiend.
Over the course of the story, Songi attempts to backstab the other
antagonists and obtain greater and greater power. Eventually however, the
power becomes too much for him to bear, as each time he is seen, he becomes more
like a monster. Gameplay
Combat in Legend of Legaia is turn-based. At the beginning of each
turn, the character inputs a command for each available character, selects
appropriate targets, and confirms the selection. This initiates the action
phase of the turn, during which each character and opponent perform their
actions. The order of action is prescribed by each character's speed,
status, and equipment. Damage is instituted through the game's
'Tactical Arts' battle system. Instead of simply selecting a 'Fight' command in
order to initiate a physical attack, the player specifies the location of each
attack; 'Right' and 'Left' will strike with the right and left arms,
respectively, and 'High' and 'Low' strike at their respective heights. Each
direction has its own pros and cons, depending upon the opponent, weapons
equipped, and level of the character's Ra-Seru. For example, equipping boots
will increase the power of kicks, but 'Low' will not strike a Killer Bee,
since it flies above the ground. To attack, the player creates a string of
these directional strikes for each character; as the game progresses the
length of this string or "action bar" increases, allowing the player to deal
more damage each turn. The number of strikes the character can execute is
affected by several factors, including level and weapon. Certain weapons can be
used by more than one character, such as small axes that can be wielded by both
Vahn and Gala. However, Gala's affiliation with axes are better than
Vahn, so if Vahn equips the axes, his 'Left' attack will occupy more space in
the action bar, and thus he cannot make as many attacks overall.
Certain strings of attacks initiate combos known as "Arts," which deal
substantially more damage than would a non-combo string of comparable length.
The player can uncover each character's Arts by experimentation, or through
non-player characters throughout the game who reveal Arts to the characters.
"Arts Points" is necessary to initiate Arts, which drain AP in quantities which
are proportionate to the length and power of the combo. Inputting an Arts
sequence without the requisite AP will cause the character to simply perform
the string of attacks, without the Arts animation or damage bonus. AP can be
earned in three ways; dealing physical damage without performing Arts, taking
damage from opponents, or by foregoing actions for one turn in order to charge
up using the Spirit command. Arts can also be linked by the last and first
inputs. For example, an Art that ends with 'Down' can linked with another Art
that starts with 'Down', allowing the player to use two Arts in a row costing
fewer inputs. The Spirit command causes a character to
take a defensive stance for a turn, in lieu of attacking. This allows the
character to take reduced damage for the turn, increases his/her chance to block
an attack, regain AP, and boosting the length of his/her action bar for the
next physical attack. Some boss battles involve enemies that do massive damage
that the characters can only survive by using Spirit.
Each main character eventually partners himself or herself with a Ra-Seru, who
lends its powers to the human. Once bound, a Ra-Seru strengthens its
partner's primary arm for use in combat, and allows the human to absorb the
powers of Seru defeated in battle. The human can later use the absorbed Seru's
powers as spells; consistently calling upon that Seru's power will level it up,
making it more powerful and causing additional effects. All Seru possess an
elemental affinity which determines what type of attacks it will use in battle.
Ra-Seru also possess elemental affinities which influence how effective
they are in casting spells of various elemental types.
Reception The game received an average score of
77.33% at Game Rankings, based on an aggregate of 23 reviews.
References External links
Legend of Legaia Shrine at RPG Classics Official Legend of Legaia soundtrack at
BlueLaguna