It sounded like a prophecy. My cousin, the biggest "culprit" for making me love video games so much, in the early 2000s told me about Dragoon and concluded with: "I think this will be your favorite game."
How right he could be.
Shortly after, I played Legend of Dragoon, one of the most revered cult classics in the JRPG genre. It's funny that even though I've played hundreds of games since then, it consistently remains my favorite. My top has changed a lot over the years, but the #1 spot has always been consistent.
I love everything about Dragoon: its pace reminiscent of a good shounen anime, its almost alien visuals, its gameplay system that is a pleasure to master, its color-coded and elemental-coded party, its soundtrack completely different from other games in the genre, the idea of drawing inspiration from cultures beyond medieval Europe.
And what a beautiful game cinematically, with so many beautiful cities, incredible places to explore, memorable scenes like Lavitz against Lloyd, Rose in the shipwreck and her past, or Dart and Shana in the castle in disc 2. The stakes get higher and higher. The lore is rich, with a story that spans millennia. Everything about it seems tailored to appeal to my tastes as a kid who grew up in the '90s, heavily influenced by manga, shounen anime, color-coded armored people, stories of existential crisis, the power of friendship, protagonists with spiky hair, elementals, and crystals. And Dragoon has all of this in abundance.
My strong emotional connection with it makes me understand that even though it may not have a story that reaches the levels of Xenogears or FFVII, a battle system as competent as the press-turn in Megami Tensei, a soundtrack or dungeon design like Wild Arms, the best party in the genre as in Persona 2 Eternal Punishment, Dragoon is still such a strong, cohesive, and competent package in everything it sets out to do. It transports me to such a happy time in my life, and with so many elements and tropes that I grew up loving, it will probably be my favorite game of all time until the end of my life. It represents much of what I love most about video games.
How right he could be.
Shortly after, I played Legend of Dragoon, one of the most revered cult classics in the JRPG genre. It's funny that even though I've played hundreds of games since then, it consistently remains my favorite. My top has changed a lot over the years, but the #1 spot has always been consistent.
I love everything about Dragoon: its pace reminiscent of a good shounen anime, its almost alien visuals, its gameplay system that is a pleasure to master, its color-coded and elemental-coded party, its soundtrack completely different from other games in the genre, the idea of drawing inspiration from cultures beyond medieval Europe.
And what a beautiful game cinematically, with so many beautiful cities, incredible places to explore, memorable scenes like Lavitz against Lloyd, Rose in the shipwreck and her past, or Dart and Shana in the castle in disc 2. The stakes get higher and higher. The lore is rich, with a story that spans millennia. Everything about it seems tailored to appeal to my tastes as a kid who grew up in the '90s, heavily influenced by manga, shounen anime, color-coded armored people, stories of existential crisis, the power of friendship, protagonists with spiky hair, elementals, and crystals. And Dragoon has all of this in abundance.
My strong emotional connection with it makes me understand that even though it may not have a story that reaches the levels of Xenogears or FFVII, a battle system as competent as the press-turn in Megami Tensei, a soundtrack or dungeon design like Wild Arms, the best party in the genre as in Persona 2 Eternal Punishment, Dragoon is still such a strong, cohesive, and competent package in everything it sets out to do. It transports me to such a happy time in my life, and with so many elements and tropes that I grew up loving, it will probably be my favorite game of all time until the end of my life. It represents much of what I love most about video games.