Legaia 2: Duel Saga

Legaia 2: Duel Saga is the first PS2 entry in the series, and acts as sequel to a very popular title on the original PlayStation. In Duel Saga, you steer your hero through a quest to retrieve the stolen Aqualith'a stone that supplies water to your village. Along the way, you'll discover that you are a mystic'a member of a superhuman race which has the power to employ Origins (spirit creatures with amazing powers).

Fighting is the main focus here, and the tactical system is based on Arts'fighting combinations that you discover over time. As you gain experience, the number of 'art blocks? in your attack mode increases, allowing you to make multiple moves during your turn. (Yes, fighting here is turn-based, which takes a little getting used to if you are used to a real-time fighting mode.)

Graphically, the best moments come in the attack animations, which are very smooth and quite impressive. Unfortunately, some of the backgrounds and regular character animations are a tad old-school and a bit low-poly for the mighty PS2.

Two major things keep Legaia 2 from being a Recommended Buy: the heavy emphasis on fighting, and the long, long cut scenes. The game has some nice RPG elements, such as the ability to combine raw materials with basic items to form better items. But you literally cannot run more than ten paces on a map without encountering a foe. Since you can't see enemies until you run into them, you can't even run away without stepping through menus to do it, making exploration frustrating at times. It is also easy to get lost since there's no in-game level map. Finally, the cut scenes I mentioned can run up to 15 minutes, while you sit waiting to play, or'more importantly'save. The net effect is that the RPG elements, which were obviously planned carefully, are lost in the mix.

Legaia 2 does have a lot of redeeming qualities, and I recommend it to fans of the genre. But the minuses here keep me from recommending it to everyone.