Japan Studio's solo venture into JRPGs began with The Legend of Dragoon, which added transformations and an upgrade system to SMRPG's timing-driven combat. These simple chain combos improve via use-based mastery and carry a light degree of risk (by potentially triggering counterattacks which require different inputs), with items and transform-only skills playing the role of magic. But if the goal was to inject more user interaction into flashy, cinematic turn-based battling, its realization nevertheless fails to change its narrow and samey nature, featuring: At best, a set of tricky rhythm challenges that laid the foundations for Shadow Hearts - and at worst, a looping series of easy one-button microgames. The real highlight - ultimately, turns out to be its environments, whose variety of pre-rendered backgrounds and camera angles establish them as capable Squaresoft disciples. Other aspects testify to that production talent (i.e. cutscenes & animations), while the rest range from inept (dialogue, plot) to standard fare (dungeons & characters), yielding a traditional slow-burn adventure that's visually impressive but a little plain.