Legend of Dragoon: A Year in Flames |
Welcome, friends, to the show that never, ever ends. Of all the reviews and all the features ever run on the site, by far the most "popular" was the Legend of Dragoon review posted one year ago today. While it's impossible to say exactly how many pieces of feedback the review attracted due to a lack of foresight on keeping them properly archived, a safe guess would be several hundred responses; as many as ten of these were positive. (And that's just the ones we received--as you can see here, we're not the only ones to face their wrath.) Come with us on a tour of representative samples, but be careful. It was the rare correspondent that minded his or her manners, and offensive language is abundant--especially near the end!
We'll start with some of the most benign, including a letter that may or may not actually be a flame.
| the legond of dragoon has been being sold for about 4 years now so i think
you need toupdate this website. thank you
|
| I think you are wrong in your statements to say that LoD is a shallow and bad
game. You just so happen to not like it yourself. It's my favorite game for
Playstation and it is much better than alot of others.
|
| I thought it waz unfair that u had given this game a 1/5. I no this is my
first fighting rpg but i thought it waz really good. I think all u need iz a
bit of patience and a lot of time to actually see wat the game has in store
for u. It is also related to final fantasy bcuz they use the same software
not bcuz they wanted to copy it but i c ur point on some things.
|
| I got the game for Christmas, and me and my friend started to play it..... it
has been very creative and interesting. It makes a lot of sense to both of
us... I like the challenge and the characters (especially Lavitz!) Me and my
friend give it a 9 out of 10!! We even think it is better than Zelda. So
please play the game a few times and consider the imagination that went into
that game.... Think of the originalty of the names and the people......
BYE
|
| your review of legend of dragoon was completly and totally wrong i bet u
can't even beat the game thats why u don't like it and u must not comprehend
the storyline so if u were smart then u would shut up
|
| Hi Nick,
I just wanted to say that your wrong. I don't know what game you
played because it definetly wasn't The Legend of Dragoon. I wanted to know,
what the HELL where you thinkin when you played the game. I have played just
about every RPG you could amagin and this was the best one yet.
From,
wouldn't you like to know
|
| Hello
I just read your review of The Legend of Dragoon
and was utterly amazed. Never have I
read an article in which I actually disagreed on every single point... until
now. Not only do I disagree, but I do so vehemently. I found myself
playing LoD last night wondering why it didn't gain more attention, now I
suppose I know the answer. I am horrified to think that a representative of
such a popular gaming site wrote this review. If I were slightly more
paranoid I would believe that this was a conspiracy, that you actually work
for square and discredited this game knowing that it is far superior to
you're own Final Fantasy series (Which, by the way, seems to be an oxymoron
- How can you have Multiple final fantasies?). I don't have the time to go
into detail and argue each of your points (right now), and I can't think of
a courteous way to conclude this, so...
|
| Have you ever played The Legend of Dragoon? Any part of it? Well I am on the 3rd disk, and I think that it is a great game. Plus on that web site that is your thought of the game, you make it sound like the whole worlds thought of it.
From
[names removed--ed.]
P.S. I'm 10 years old and I don't have 60 hours of my life to wast!!
|
| YOU guys should stop bashing legen of dragoon its a well mad game with nice
fmv the only reason ff7 was such a good game is that people thought the game
was actually the fmv ff7 was cooool but it was the best game of all time u
guys should read the gamefaq message board lots of peeps like lod better
than
ff8 and i know its gonna be better than ff9
Yall some Bitches
LOL sorry yaa made me a lil mad bashing a good game like lod
|
Most of the above seemed to at least recognize that a review is at its core nothing more or less than an opinion given by one person. Moving on, however, we see the true bile start to seep up to the surface. Loss of faith in the site as a whole was a common theme:
The GIA shines a little less brightly today for as I read your review of
Legend of Dragoon
Reviewed by one Nick Maragos...
Please in the future if you wish to have a ten year old sports fan write
a review for a fantasy RPG..please find one that can appreciate the
medium
|
| Hi, i have just read the Legend of Dragoon review by NIch Maragos and I just
like to say it is the worst bull i have ever heard. I have now lost my
faith in thegia review gaming. LoD is one of the best RPG ever, my friends
who own it agreed with me, almost everyone agreed with me. I don't know
what his problem is for dissing LoD like that, but I feel that he should be
fired. LoD is a great game, and i feel that Nich Maragos just played the
first disc and gave it a bad review so he could play Crono Cross. anyway,
thats my opinion and now i have lost faith in thegia review.
|
| How much of an idiot can u be!? u gave Legend of Dragoon a 1!? come on!!!
that game is almost if not better than Final Fantasy 7!!! why don't u quit
writing reviews cuz obviously u suck at it. you are a disgrace to gamers!!!
|
| Your review of the Legend of Dragoon was terrible. If you actually give
the game some time it's alot better than u expect. I think if u wanna
waste your time giving bad reviews then don't do it at all because if u
actually beat the game then you'd see but u can't waste more than five
minutes of your time on a good game, so u just give it a bad review. My
message to you is get your facts straight before u screw with a good
game.
U suck
|
| Well so you think that legend of dragoon is just a poorly made game
that has no story line ,well have you even played the game? You obviously
have no idea what the hell you are talking about! First of all some of
the points you made about the game were not even right, like the main
villain of the game was not a white-haired, armor-clad.... awh shut your
mouth his name is Lloyd! If you played the game your little self would of
realized that the main villain is the wingly emperor Melbu Frama, and not
only him but dart's father zieg. Another utterly ridiculous point you
have made was the fact that the characters in the game are just traveling
randomly throughout endiness not knowing why. Well if you didn't have
your thumb up your ass and you paid any attention to the plot at all you
would have found out that... guess what they all give their reasons why
they want to travel with dart. All the other points you have made were
your choice and I can't tell you what games to play, maybe RPG's are just
not up your alley, hell video games in general may not be up your
alley! So why don't you try something else like ballet or table tennis,
and thats all I got to say about that. So before you go complaining about
a game you never even played,all you did was just read the back of the
game case at the store, you should make your argument accurate and not
little bits and pieces of what some idiot told you!
|
One fan wrote separate flames to both the author and to staff@, apparently suffering from the delusion that staff@ doesn't reach, well, the staff. The first was sent to the critic, the second was the staff@ missive.
| How could you!? Legend of Dragoon deserves at least a 3!!! A 1? You're
such an idiot! Only give 1's to games that are BAD, you stupid fool! I
thoroughly enjoyed that game, and if you weren't such a dumbass maybe you
would too!
|
| I read that "review" of Legend of Dragoon just recently. It puzzles me how
such a great game could get just the opposite of the score it was meant to
get. I recomend firing the monkey who wrote that review. I recomended
Legend of Dragoon to all my friends, and they enjoyed it just as I have. It
makes me sad thinking that this shoddy review would keep others from
purchasing and, most likely, enjoying the game just as my friends and I
have. I think maybe the reviewer should re-write that Legend of Dragoon
review after playing a second time, with a clear mind. If the pitiful score
stays the same, then check yourself into a mental institution. You need
help.
|
Then there was at least one attempt to get the author blacklisted from the industry.
| what is your problem
legend of dragoon is a kick ass game one of my favorites
it has awsome graphicks sweet story and u turn into dagoons
whats better
now i dont know if you do alot of reveiws but since u thougt L.O.D
wasnt good i took the liberty of e-mailing some major game,magazine, and
web sites telling them about my opinion on L.O.D and your f**ked up reveiws.
|
Several readers decided that if they could only write a long enough letter, they might be able to elicit a revision of the review. Please note that all formatting and paragraph breaks, or lack thereof, have been preserved intact throughout this feature and where ASCII art came into play, every effort was made to ensure that the full effect was not lost.
| This e-mail is concerning your Review on Legend of Dragoon. While I agree
with some of what you're saying, I thought I'd point out a few major
mistakes you made.
First, your comparison of Lloyd with Sephiroth from FFVII. You mentioned
that Lloyd was a black-clad, silver-haired, trenchcoat-wearing villain who
seeks to alter the world to his own design. Only two of the above "facts"
are true. If you'd bothered to pay attention to the details further along
in the game, you'd have noticed that Lloyd doesn't wear a trench-coat, he
doesn't seek to alter the world to his own ideals, and he isn't even really
a villain! He was working with who he thought was the long deceased Emperor
Diaz who was in actuality Zieg controlled by the spirit of Melbu Frahma.
Lloyd was lead to believe he was working to create a Utopia. You also
mentioned that Lloyd was the sole survivor of an ancient species. This also
is not true. Meru and Lenus, whom you SHOULD have met if you knew what
Rose's true mission was, were also winglies. There was also an entire
village of winglies living in Mille Seseau.
On the other hand, Sephiroth's mission was to augment himself into a god by
acquiring all of the knowledge of the long-lost ancients. Speaking of
which, if you had paid attention to the details in FFVII, you'd have learned
that Sephiroth was NOT the sole-survivor of the ancients. He was not even
an ancient; rather, he was a piece of the monster "Jenova" that fell to the
planet 2,000 years before the time that the game takes place during. He
wasn't even a sole-survivor of Jenova, being that the main body of Jenova
was still alive, and the hundreds of pseudo Sephiroth-clones roaming the
planet.
The fact that Lloyd and Sephiroth shared two physical similarities is
completely irrelevant to the major point. If you really want to point out
physical differences, you should have included that their personalities were
different, their SKILL as fighters was ENTIRELY different, they used
completely different weapons, their HAIR-CUTS were different, they wore
DIFFERENT styles of clothing, they had majorly different magic... the list
goes on.
I'd also contemplate the differences between Weapons and Virage, but I
really don't have time.
Have fun, and thanks for reading.
|
| I just read your review of Legend of Dragoon. I must say, before you write
your next review, make sure to have mommy give you some formula and change
your undies! I've never heard someone whine so much! I've been playing FF
since the first game, and gave it up at the second game, cause It just
wasn't getting any better! I've been checking out RPG's for years, off and
on, and have yet to find one that really grabbed me in style. then I read
a review for LOD, and I must say, it looked interesting. When the game
came out I thought "what the hell, I'll try it." I ended up playing for
hours! I'm a realist, I'm in college, I have a job, a life, and all, but I
still find time to play this game when I can, just because of all the
little things you can miss/not have by the end. I'm reading a FAQ and
seeing stuff in there I never encountered, and I try to check on
everything! There are side quests, you can take certain sections
non-linearly, and the story is great. Remember that it was meant for all
ages, so the story had to be explainable.
I agree with you on a few points, such as the translation aspect, it was
bad. I loved the graphics however, dispite the monsters being really
disjointed, they were origional as hell! I mean, monsters you can't even
get in the entire screen without makeing the charictures, mini's! (the
devine dragon for one). All the stuff you stated, or at the very least
most of it, is opinion. Take the time to say "hey, I didn't like the
story, but it may be your cup of tea." And the music was good, especially
the ending piece, which could almost hold it's own on the pop charts today
as a ballad! I'm not trying to bash you, just your review. Some of us
liked the game, and while I know that I did, I know others may not have.
But I would never state my opinion as fact for all, including some who may
have loved the game but read a review like yours and never even tried it!
I'm not sure what is up with your load times, but I think you have a messed
up playstation. Mine is a couple years old (I didn't even buy it, I traded
a pos paint gun for it) and I have no real problems with load time. Hell,
the web and most peoples computers have worse load times than that game. I
also thought that the aditionals system was great, an inovation from those
who don't want to hold down their autofire and have it kick ass with out
them doing anything. Fortuneately, the game doesn't abuse this system.
The battles are fairly far between if you want them to be, and the switch
off from pop up battles to touch battles in some levels was a nice touch
too I thought. Again, this is all my opinion, but at least I say it's my
opinion and not that it's true and thats all there is too it.
There is more, but I recently cut my index finger working and it is
hard(er) to type, so I will end this now. I know this may anger you, but
I'm trying to point out that your (anyones) view is NOT the view everyone
should have, and that includes my views!
|
| Ive read several Dragoon reviews and a lot of them have been bad and a
lot have been good, but yours is a very bad review. I feel that whether
or not the game was bad or not you went into these ridiculous little
quirks with the games that anyone who just wants to play a game doesnt
give a damn about. You people who review things whine about the stupidest
things, the graphics werent good enough and so on and so fourth. Well
that really usually only applies to the few that spend their only free
time playing video games. Furthermore, I believe that what you say is
very unfair, most reviews say the game is bad, yet everyone I know thats
played it loved it. So Im not trying to offend you or anything by sending
this, but I think your judgement of the game is misplaced. The games are
for entertainment and none are made to go into these tiny little details.
What are a couple of extra seconds for the screen to load? Oh my god
youre not going anywhere. If youre going to play an rpg its obvious that
time is going to be involved and if youre too impatient to wait a whole
extra ten seconds for a screen to load how can you expect to play an
entire game of any sort? As for having to guard a lot, I really only had
to do that on the first disc of the game. Yes, I agree there is too much
of a limit on items but its easy enough to handle. Just stop and think
for a moment and you wont have to spend most of your time guarding. Its
people that are impatient and want to win the easiest way possible that
always destroy games. Personally, Suikoden II battles drew out longer for
me then Legend of Dragoon and yeah its annoying when some low level bitch
gets in your way when you are just so many lvls ahead you say whats the
use? Yeah it pisses me off, but thats with every rpg man. I know its your
opinion, but a lot of people go off of reviews in the case of buying a
game and frankly you do the game no justice when almost everyone that has
played it has loved it other then people who do reviews, because they
over do it. I enjoyed the game a ton and thats part of the reason why I
am sending you this email, but the other reason is that you dont give a
fair aspect, one person says its horrid and thats the only taste left in
the peoples mouths. Well I think you should put up a good review and a
bad one, so they can decide, but just giving it a bombing review is
horrid. Its obvious the game is better then you have made it out to be,
as they are making a sequel. The fact of the matter is, you over
scrutinize the game and you made a huge deal out of tiny little things
that no one who just plays an rpg cause they like rpgs cares about. Any
fan of rpgs will love the game for what it is, not all the tiny little
crap about it. Thats why people are still making little rpgs on that Rpg
Maker thing even though the graphics are nintendo style and the music are
midis, thats how fans are they dont care about all the little stuff. Not
only that but you added in extra little descriptive words to down it even
more, yes you can discuss your dislike in things but its going over board
by saying it a FFVIII/Mario RPG/Vagrant Story system gone horribly wrong.
Thats overdoing it and I know a lot of people that like the additions
much more then even FFs popular limit breaks. Thanks for your time in
reading this, I hope you dont take offense to what I have said. I just
dont beat around the bush and didnt want to sugar coat my opinion on the
matter. Feel free to reply if you feel the need to justify to me the
reasoning behind your review.
|
| I was wondering HOW in the WORLD you could rate Legend of Dragoon with a 1?
That's ludicrous. The game is nothing short of great.
The only thing I can conclude is that you are a Final Fantasy VII fanatic,
which means you dub this game FF7.5 like the other FF7 freaks. Frankly, and
I am speaking the truth, I think FF7 stinks. I dislike this game about as
much as getting run over by a car, which I probably would rather do than
play it again. Some people call it the "peak" of Square's series, but I call
it the "valley". See, while many people say the story is great and the
characters are great and the battles are great, I just laugh at it. The
story is too unrevealing. It leaves so many unanswered questions, such as
did Holy eliminate the human race? The characters were either annoying, or
not a major part of the game. EVERYTHING revolved around Aeris or Cloud,
despite the small roll of Barret's and Nanaki's past. The only way to find
out about Vincent and Yuffie is to accidentily stumbled upon them...how do
you think that's fun? The battles just blew. You press X...and then press it
again...and then again. No skill, just point and press. Difficulty plays a
big part in my judgment of any game, especially RPGs. FF7 was SOOOOO
easy...I think I may have died twice in the whole game, and once was because
I bumped into Emerald going for the key, and the other was probably because
I wasn't paying attention, most likely assuming I don't have to pay
attention to win a battle. The final battle was so simple it made me cry. I
killed that guy in 3 moves. What's up with that? Just get your 13 giant
friends to kill him...you don't have to do anything.
Now, as for Legend of Dragoon, well this game DID have its bad points, but
nothing to deserve a fricking 1/5. So the characters weren't as good as they
should have been. Who cares? Graphics aren't an important factor if you are
a TRUE RPG fan. They only care about it being fun and having a story that
tells everything. Legend of Dragoon was fun, FF7 was not. The story told
everything the player might wonder. The ending reveals all the questions
left to answer, while FF7 leaves you only to assume what you think is right.
Pardon me, but I'd rather KNOW what happened, then have to argue with all
the other "gamers" about what they think happened. The battles of Legend of
Dragoon actually require you to pay attention to what is going on. You don't
press X once and take off 100,000 HP, like in FF7. You have to time your
hits to get more damage. That, to me and lots of others, is fun. No
summons=good. Especially when a summon deals about 80,000-85,000 of damage.
That's just ridiculous. I like to actually have to try to win a battle, and
LoD gave me that pleasure.
Many people say LoD is the same story as FF, but aren't all RPGs the same?
One guy (maybe a girl) trying to save the world from destruction, or
domination? I can't think of but a few similarities between the games, and
those the ones that exist between all RPGs.
I hope I didn't come across to you as a bad person or anything, I just
couldn't let this go without me E-mailing you. I had to share my anger...
|
| I found your reveiw of Legend of Dragoon somewhat disturbing. First of
all I would like you to know that I and my friends are heavy RPG players.
We have played all of the Final Fantasies from 1 on regular Nintendo up to
The new Arrival of FFIX. We have also played and beaten the entire Breath
of Fire series. We are Squaresoft fans as much as we are Sony fans. Now we
not only found Legend of Dragoon to be one of the best written games ever,
we also found it to have some of the best movie scenes.
Now I know that challenging your opinion would be foolish, seeing how
you are a professional, well then ......I must be a fool! You see I would
figure that a professional critic wouldn't be so shallow as to really think
that a bit of challenge ruins a game. Yes I will admit that it is hard to
use healing magic frequently but I would hope that someone as "experienced"
as you could handle a diminutive challenge such as this. Yes I will again
admit that another fault (according to you) is that battles may last more
than two minutes but when did games become a race instead of an epic journey
meant to enjoy? I know that the game in length is nothing compared to
FFVIII or FFIX. I beat it in a mere 60 hours, which included all of my
additions, Dragoon magic and Lvl's, and all sub quest's complete. No one
that I have heard of that didn't use a strategy guide beat FFVIII in that
amount of time and yet you would use time as one of the factors to rate
Final Fantasy VIII over Legend of Dragoon.
Now let's discuss this little plagiarism accusation. Why on earth would
they spend three years on something they were copying. And you accused sony
of having no common sense. And now you yourself said that graphics don't
make a game so why on earth would you make such a big deal about them? One
last thing, I hope that a battle system more complex than button mashing
won't overcapacitate the ability of your mind. You yourself admitted to
hating button mashing but how can you call such a strategic form of fighting
button mashing.
I, as did all of my friends, found your review an insult. An insult to
games and rpgs everywhere. It was the type of game that gets new psx
players addicted to RPG's and you tore it apart crudely and un fairly.
Please reconsider what you have written and reprise it.
|
Among a certain stripe of fan, inquiries into the reviewer's sexual orientation were quite popular. Additionally, there were certain members of our audience who couldn't resist vicious ad hominem attacks. This is where it gets nasty.
| your all punkass bitches, the legend of dragoon was an awesome game, i have
had enough of you guys bad mouthing it, me and my friends use to come to your
site all the time but now were over you fags, learn what a good game .
|
| how dare you trash dragoon! the cinema scenes in that game were some of the
coolest scenes ever, rivaling that of even final fantasy (the most recent
editions). how can you talk trash about an epic battle that spans 11.000 plus
years?! the hunt for the moon child? the hunt for the "Black Monster?" YOU
SUCK GIGANTIC DONKEY COCKS!!!!!!
|
| hey asshole, I liked Dragoon. You're damn well entitled to your own
opinion, but try not to insult everybody who liked it. Your pathetic
generalizations are the reason I don't like you. I'm done with your
crappy, insulting site for good. Oh yeah, fuck you. You may think your
little comments are funny, but you just lost a reader. I'll remember to
spend my time at sites where I don't get insulted for my opinions. Gia
should stand for The Gaming Idiots Agency. How do you like it fucker?
Keep your mouth shut next time.
|
| I READ YOUR SHITY ASS PAGE I MUST SAY NICE GOING TRASHING A GAME! YOU
ARE THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE ON THE FACE OF THIS PLANET!!!!! OHN AND LLOYD
HAS PLATIUM HAIR NOT SLIVER IDIOT! DON'T YOU EVER COMPARE LOD'S GRAPHICS
TO FF7!!!! THE MOST IHAVE SEEN FROM THAT SITE IS AL LIES! FIRST OF ALL
ITS NOT DONRU ITS DONAU!!!!! AND MERU IS A WINGLY YOU SHIT FACE MOTHER
FUCKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I KNOW THAT CAUSE I ACTUALLY PLAYED THE GAME YOU
PROBABLY ARE JUST A DICKLESS CRITIC WHO NEVER EVEN PLAYED
IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
|
| IN YOUR FACE GIA, LEGEND OF DRAGOON IS #1 FOR A MONTH. THAT THIS GOES TO
SHOW YOU WHO THE REAL REVIEWERS ARE. US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
|
| I have a few things to say about yopu Legend of Dragoon Reveiw #1 its
totally wrong LOd is a Great game and its layout is absolutly awsome #2 The
CGs Are NOT Poorly thought out or Hard to understand whats going on...you
just need to pay more attention to whats happaning ....#3 the backgrounds are
also a great standout to the game either you just don't have taste or you
need to check your eye sight <chuckle> also you donau wrong "Dornau" heh heh
#4 what you said about additions is absolutly wrong additions can be fun and
some can be boring its all part of the attack and FF7 was a great game but
its not screwing its afect and the graphics are good as well you just have
bad taste#5 the people of LOD are thought out just fine you stupid retard you
just like to insult on games that are better than your run of the mill
xenogears(peice of shit) plus you are just a tasteless 28 I.Q. also Your a
scar on the face of sociaty and one more thing before i close this YOUR MOST
LIKELY GAY!!!!!! A FAG A QUEERBATE !!!!! and besides that everyone in my
neighborhood has the game and they also think its a great game
and your TACKY remarks are so rude its also insulting everyone who bought the
game so your basicly insulting LOD fans all around....... bye you stupid homo
p.ss YOU SUCK YOUR DADS BALLZ!
8====(((()=> scrotum strecter
Dog rapeist )*( <=8
this was writen by a 15 yr old who hates you gay ass guts
|
And finally, a letter from one of our overseas readers who diagnosed the review's problem at a nationalistic level.
| Can I guess, from your incredibly clever, well placed bashing of The Legend
Of Dragoon that you are from the United States? How could I guess because
you are a type of person I classify as a DUMB ASS. You are the type of
person who writes 20 pages on something while completly missing the point.
Have you ever posted on http://st-armada.com? From what you hace said I have
pieced together the game that you were describing as an emulated game run on
a computer that just doesn't have enough system resources. There were no 15
second loading times. Did you expect Kongol to be a Nobel Prize winning,
financial worker? DUMB ASS!! You completly missed the point. The graphics
don't matter. Have you ever played Riven and the origional one that I
wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. At the time the game had ground
breakingly good graphics in yet still are possibly the worst games in
recorded history. I get it were you on the production staff for Battlefield
Earth, the person quoted as saying "Screw the script" You, and everyone like
you, are what's wrong with the video game world, you are the avarage that
makes us all shoved under the banner of Nerd. Well I have divised a
sub-banner for all of you...DUMB ASS. The type of people that whine and
complane whenever something isn't up to there almost unreachable "standards"
coughbribecough. So in conclusion you took a perfectly good game and
"Americanized"(took the game jumped on it, sold the parts for money too get
a permit to go to the forest to get a stick to threaten the bank teller with
so that you could get enough money to buy a gun to beat your self over the
head with after you relized that you forgot to buy bullets.)Got the jist of
it, eh?
|
Indeed I do, sir. Indeed we all do.
|
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