This allowed basic fights to be a place to test out potential combos and discover arts rather than purely repetitive auto-attack-fests. Just entering the correct attack commands unlocked new skills, rather than artificially gating a bunch of skills behind a level wall as so many games did. Rather than creating a bunch of skills that you have to learn as you level up, Legend of Legaia gave you a fighting game-esque combo system and left it up to you how best to use it. This balance between attacking, defending, and unloading spirit-boosted super combos made a deeply interesting and re-playable combat system out of what is usually taken for granted in JRPGs. On top of refilling your AP meter, defending extended the length of your attack bar for one turn after defending. This meter refilled a little by not performing arts on turn, or a lot by defending (the game called it’s defend move “spirit,” but it was essentially the same as defend in most traditional RPGs). The number of arts you could perform was limited by an AP or action point meter that prevented you from simply unloading your best attacks every turn. This attack bar would vary in length on a per-character basis and it would increase as your characters gained levels, allowing for more and more powerful arts and complex art combos. The lengths of your combos were limited by an attack bar that filled up as you entered commands. These attack combos could then trigger specific “arts” or special attacks based on the specific combinations for example, Vahn, the main protagonist, would perform a summersault kick if you entered high/low/high.
Selecting attack took you to a sub menu where you could choose which combination of right/left punches and high/low kicks to form an attack combo. Rather than simply having a normal menu with options like attack, skills, or magic, Legend of Legaia had ordinary item and magic use with a more complex attack system. Legend of Legaia’s combat system was purely turn-based with a unique input system. Now Legend of Legaia’s story is almost purely JRPG genre fare, complete with teenagers trying to rid a doomed world of darkness but, there was something about its combat system and its magic system that are still compelling to me. This seemingly forgotten gem was loaned to me by one of my friends in 1999 and he hasn’t seen it since. The vast majority of the RPGs I enjoyed were from Squaresoft’s late-90s hit-factory however, there was one game that I loved as much as the PS1 Final Fantasies: Legend of Legaia. I had some sports games from relatives that did not know me well, some THQ-made licensed games from grandparents with the best of intentions, and some RPGs that I bought for myself - those were my favorites. When I was little I did not own many games for my Playstation.
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