Hey, I was one of the lead testers on the English translation of this game, and played an instrumental part in translating the game to English while keeping it culturally accurate. Thanks for this review. It’s a well loved and underrated game.
Oh, dude, that's awesome! I have, like, a million questions! But I love this game, while I'd probably word some things different (a lot of things are supposed to be a joke and I sound 100% serious, listening back to it 2 years later), I'm glad this review has been fairly popular!
Really enjoyed the review! I haven't played Legaia 2 for years, but I absolutely loved it. Watching videos out of nostalgia and I am dying to play it again.
Hey Ayne pushed that staircase that one time! In all seriousness thanks for reviewing this game. Imo its a gem in the ps2 catalog, really underappreitated. Legend of legaia 2 and final fantasy X are the games that got me into RPGs
My brother played back in the day. He borrowed it from his ex-girlfriend when they were dating at the time. I watched him play it a lot. Back in 2012 I graduated high school and I was thinking about that game a lot and then I bought it. I asked him about the name Lang. I could not remember the name of the game so he looked it up. Then I bought it he did help me though a little. I fished it in a few months I think. This is of my favorite game of all time. I bought with the graduation money I got. This game is very underrated and a ton of fun to play.
I remember how this game got slammed by magazines. Picked it up because I consumed JRPGs like junk food back then, playing through so many ones, I had to try it. And even though I didn't finish it, I was close, and couldn't understand the critics back then. Yes, it's campy (mainly because of the voice acting), but I played it because it was fun to me. And nowadays I love trash films, so maybe there is a correlation, hehe. Anyways, I didn't really get tired of it, unlike many high budget RPGs at the time. It still holds a place in my heart, and it reminds me of funner, campier times. Thanks for your review, I enjoyed it. It's a good game, honestly.
I love this game I adore how it brought gameplay and story together such as Maya unlocking her inner strength against Zoan Stoora and my absolute favorite the "Sleeping Dragon" event at the wind tower
I was thinking of replaying it on my PS2 Slim that I bought from my next door neighbor. I played the game as a kid but I never beat it. Now that I'm older and good at games. I want to replay it. The combat system in the game is fun.
This game has been apart of my life since it came out when I was like 7-8. My older brother, my dad, and myself adored this game, it was one of the few games we *all* truly got into together. Such an outstanding jrpg, absolutely worth checking out. Also, Ayne may be low on artes, but he has the best variable artes, get him and someone else Tireless ribbons and its ez dps
Legaia 2 compared to Legaia 1 is a little bit divisive amongst the fans, some love it while others dont like its changes but personally I prefer it far more than the OG, but I also played Legaia2 first you know? When I went back to the first game, I didnt quite jive with it as much as some of the later refinements in L2. The combat is a little slower as they made each art more weighty, varied and cinematic, something I ended up enjoying more tbh lol. They also got rid of any "partial arte blocks", which pissed me off to no end going backwards in the series XD You just earn a new input at certain levels as you progress. I think 2s visuals hold up insanely well, the story is solid enough JRPG fare, and it has an incredibly amazing soundtrack that is TOO SLEPT ON @@weglarz
I agree with you on Maya. It's probably why, ever since playing the game, whenever I make a female magic user in a game with character creation I name her Maya. For example, in Phantasy Star Online on the GameCube my most used character was a HUmarl named Maya who tended to alternate between healing and blasting whenever I could play with my friends.
First I'm glad to see love for this game because I so often just see hate comments. Second, you said that Lang looks an awful lot like Vaughn from the first game, well you must have missed the guy in his hometown that looks EXACTLY like Vaughn, including blue hair and red vest.
Is there a 3rd game in the series? I'm not familiar with any prequels to this game. I know there Legend of Legaia but that's the first game in the series, not a prequel Legaia 2 Duel Saga is a sequel.
@@dextersbeard3472 There's only 2 games in the series. I seem to have mixed up the concept of a prequel and a previous game when I left this comment a year ago.
Great review! A lot of people really dog on this game, I never picked it up until very recently due to the middling to bad reception it has online as an inferior sequel. I completed it tonight and loved the whole experience, despite the last boss kicking my ass lol. I also bought Legend of legaia so I’m gonna beat it too. Just goes to show if a game looks interesting try it for yourself before you completely rule it out I suppose.
Any thoughts on the difficulty (without getting into hidden 10 millions hp boss sidequests)? I'm bored of RPGs that don't make use of their battle abilities, and in which basic attacks with a healing spell here and there can get you through most of the story.
Legaia 2 maintains a fairly even-handed difficulty curve with one or two areas that cause it to spike a bit. While it never gets absurdly difficult (provided you aren't running from every encounter), the game gives you ample ways to fight back, between levels having pretty noteworthy powerups each, the camp-crafting system, and so on. I wouldn't call it hard, especially if you crest over level 70-ish before the final dungeon (whereupon you'll begin trivializing the game), but otherwise, it's a fun romp.
Legaia has one of the hardest end game bosses (in the arena) I've ever faced, and I've played literally everything when it comes to RPGs. If you want a challenging endgame, this is one of the best choices.
Interesting. I got a complete copy of Mr. Mosquito for about $30 a few years back and beat it. It's pretty pricey nowadays and pretty uncommon. It's an ok game and I seriously doubt I'll ever play it again, but I'm glad I picked it up when I did and got to play such a weird game.
@@medmuscle games like that are good to own to use them as trade value towards games you really want. I just traded in my copy of Tomato Princess for NES ($300 loose) for Fire Emblem PoR for GameCube
Ayne is easily the second strongest character in the entire game dude!! As soon as you get his first hyper art in the first level you can use him, (volcano) he can dish out as much damage as Sharron with far fewer hits. And near the end, his combo arts with Lang are FAR more powerful than anyone else'. Yes he doesn't have attack magic, but that is because he doesn't need it. He does have pretty good support magic though. Also he is the only member of the party that if not a Mystic, so the fact that he is so strong a big credit to him (the fact that he is a giant also helps in the department.)
Okay, okay, I admit I was overly harsh on the big lug. But... I just don't like him. And when my options are hot pirate, cute moeblob, and awesome master, I tend to lean towards my favorites. Though your points are sound.
Nope, not at all. Completely different timeline and universe, near as I can tell. There is a small easter egg referencing an early game enemy, if you know where to look, but other than that, it has its own separate storyline. Enjoy!
I wasn't this game's greatest fan, even though it improved a lot of what I disliked in the first game. For example, the sidequests in this game were a breath of fresh air. The first one didn't have too many sidequests available. Also the dialogue between characters in camp that change depending what you've accomplished during the game is good too. Keeps the game from going stale. I guess my greatest critique for this game is something that really isn't its fault; the fact that it wasn't a direct sequel to the original game. I actually loved the first game for the story, the characters, the music. I wanted a continuation of that. To be fair, I was looking at this game through nostalgia goggles and I didn't really give this game the recognition it deserved. Great review by the way
personally liked the combat in the first one better. until recent years i figured they just copied it over from the first one and just screwed up. (the arts giving you AP)
Arts giving you AP was entirely the point, though. It facilitated combos. In the first game I found myself just using auto battle, or using meaningless inputs. Hyper arts expending AP and regular arts gaining them gives you incentive to use regular arts, instead wasting turns saving up, then expending all at once. Or, that was my takeaway.
Unfortunate that my ps2 doesn't support this game and had to play it on damon ps2 emu and the emu is owned by bunch of greedy Bs Man, i always dreamed to finish this game but it seems it won't be happening
What model PS2 do you have? As far as I know Legaia 2 doesn't have issues running on any of them so I'm very curious. Either way I've always hated emulation and have found it's always better to play a game on the original hardware it was intended to run on so if you really want to play it just spend the few bucks to pick up a used fat PS2 in good shape.
This game sounds so great, but like some games in the SaGa series, it feels like it doesn't have an original charm or personality from looks alone, which is something that I really love about jrpgs. Thanks for the review !!!
Thank you for the feedback! Legaia is deceptive, looking simple on the surface, but it's actually quite complex and robust. I think even its flaws add to its charm!
Having not played but Persona 4, I can't say. But the social systems used in Legaia 2 are just delightful - just deep enough that the curious will really enjoy cracking it open!
Calling FFX "Not a good installment" with disgust is ridiculous and only serves to discredit your opinions. It is universally considered one of the greatest games of all time. I'm sure we all have games that we dont like that are popular, but not all of us phrase our statements as facts. For me, Elder Scrolls Skyrim and OOT are terrible games. That doesn't mean I'm going to call them "Bad games." I'm honestly fine with taking a hard stance on something, but your argument that Legend of Legaia 2 did poorly because of FFX being overrated isn't really valid to begin with (And you dont even explain why you think FFX is bad. ) . Legend of Legaia 2 did poorly for a variety of reasons and wasnt just because FFX was overrated. It had a poor budget, received terrible reviews mostly because of dungeons you had to repeat 3x+, and was a sequel to relatively unpopular game. I loved Legaia 2, but it is so far behind FFX in every aspect whether that be combat, skill progression, music (legaia 2 did have good music), graphics, and ambition. Games like Legaia 2 can be appreciated because they are genuinely fun to play and don't need to be compared to projects with 1000x the budget and audience. I did enjoy your video. PS: the MC saying ANG (instead of Dang because the sound got clipped off) after not killing an enemy always annoyed the hell out of me
wait hold on you hate FF X? SOrry man but NO!!!! FF X has stand the test of time and prevailed, that doesn't make it bad. I like legaia 2 but you sounded super butthurt there. FF X is fantastic and you proabably don't know how to play blitzball or that you can Skip a bunch of grind plus The story in FF X is just better and I can prove it, also the Voice acting was ok. If people want good early voice acting Rpgs aren't the best choice. The best Voice acting we ever had in gaming were Metalgear solid 1 2 and 3 on PSX and PS2. If you don't believe me then I can tell you this, Dragon quest 8 beats the shit out Legaia 2 and FF X with no problems. All 3 games were fantastic.
Hey, I was one of the lead testers on the English translation of this game, and played an instrumental part in translating the game to English while keeping it culturally accurate. Thanks for this review. It’s a well loved and underrated game.
Oh, dude, that's awesome! I have, like, a million questions! But I love this game, while I'd probably word some things different (a lot of things are supposed to be a joke and I sound 100% serious, listening back to it 2 years later), I'm glad this review has been fairly popular!
@@TheHipsterSnek oh, the stories I could tell, not just from this game but from countless others…
So glad somebody is doing a review of a game I grew up with and am currently doing a play through on.
Really enjoyed the review! I haven't played Legaia 2 for years, but I absolutely loved it. Watching videos out of nostalgia and I am dying to play it again.
Ah, a fellow Legaian. I tip my hat to you. It is fantastic. If you can track it down, you should!
@@TheHipsterSnek thanks! Now currently playing again. Enjoying myself so much.
Hey Ayne pushed that staircase that one time!
In all seriousness thanks for reviewing this game.
Imo its a gem in the ps2 catalog, really underappreitated.
Legend of legaia 2 and final fantasy X are the games that got me into RPGs
its nice to see someone else who liked this game ive seen so many reviews trash it but i really like it
You sold me. I'm going to try it.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
@@TheHipsterSnek if nothing else, it will be nice not to have to waste turn after turn selecting "spirit."
My brother played back in the day. He borrowed it from his ex-girlfriend when they were dating at the time. I watched him play it a lot. Back in 2012 I graduated high school and I was thinking about that game a lot and then I bought it. I asked him about the name Lang. I could not remember the name of the game so he looked it up. Then I bought it he did help me though a little. I fished it in a few months I think. This is of my favorite game of all time. I bought with the graduation money I got. This game is very underrated and a ton of fun to play.
Really good review here! Was contemplating on getting it!
I bet you'll really enjoy it! It's fantastic!
Still one of my favorite games. Really need to get a new memory card for my ps2
I remember how this game got slammed by magazines. Picked it up because I consumed JRPGs like junk food back then, playing through so many ones, I had to try it. And even though I didn't finish it, I was close, and couldn't understand the critics back then. Yes, it's campy (mainly because of the voice acting), but I played it because it was fun to me. And nowadays I love trash films, so maybe there is a correlation, hehe. Anyways, I didn't really get tired of it, unlike many high budget RPGs at the time. It still holds a place in my heart, and it reminds me of funner, campier times. Thanks for your review, I enjoyed it.
It's a good game, honestly.
One of my favorites of all time and reminds me just a bit of chrono trigger in it's complete uniqueness and the combining of techs in some cases
Nice video it may take a while but i can see this channel getting fairly popular
Aww, thank you kindly. We're growing slowly but steadily and appreciate all your support!
I love this game I adore how it brought gameplay and story together such as Maya unlocking her inner strength against Zoan Stoora and my absolute favorite the "Sleeping Dragon" event at the wind tower
I was thinking of replaying it on my PS2 Slim that I bought from my next door neighbor. I played the game as a kid but I never beat it.
Now that I'm older and good at games. I want to replay it. The combat system in the game is fun.
This game has been apart of my life since it came out when I was like 7-8. My older brother, my dad, and myself adored this game, it was one of the few games we *all* truly got into together. Such an outstanding jrpg, absolutely worth checking out.
Also, Ayne may be low on artes, but he has the best variable artes, get him and someone else Tireless ribbons and its ez dps
How does it hold up compared to the first one? I loved the first one but somehow never got around to this one back in the day.
Legaia 2 compared to Legaia 1 is a little bit divisive amongst the fans, some love it while others dont like its changes but personally I prefer it far more than the OG, but I also played Legaia2 first you know?
When I went back to the first game, I didnt quite jive with it as much as some of the later refinements in L2. The combat is a little slower as they made each art more weighty, varied and cinematic, something I ended up enjoying more tbh lol. They also got rid of any "partial arte blocks", which pissed me off to no end going backwards in the series XD You just earn a new input at certain levels as you progress.
I think 2s visuals hold up insanely well, the story is solid enough JRPG fare, and it has an incredibly amazing soundtrack that is TOO SLEPT ON
@@weglarz
This game is so underrated.
People keep comparing to the first saga. At least the game gave you decent graphic for 2002 game.
The game got really exciting once you're able to create the tireless ribbon and the accessory that lets you cast arts twice
The accessories system lets you get away with a LOT of stuff it probably shouldn't have. Which, of course, is what made it AMAZING!
I agree with you on Maya. It's probably why, ever since playing the game, whenever I make a female magic user in a game with character creation I name her Maya. For example, in Phantasy Star Online on the GameCube my most used character was a HUmarl named Maya who tended to alternate between healing and blasting whenever I could play with my friends.
I always see people bitching and trashing this game, but I played this game a lot back then and when I want a remaster of this game.
I still want a Legaia 3
Thank you.
First I'm glad to see love for this game because I so often just see hate comments. Second, you said that Lang looks an awful lot like Vaughn from the first game, well you must have missed the guy in his hometown that looks EXACTLY like Vaughn, including blue hair and red vest.
There is a second???? I’ve never played the first as I always thought it looked lame but I d9 want to get around to trying them.
Loved this game and its prequel as a kid. It's up there with Legend of Dragoon as far as series' I hope get revived someday.
Edit:typo
Is there a 3rd game in the series? I'm not familiar with any prequels to this game. I know there Legend of Legaia but that's the first game in the series, not a prequel Legaia 2 Duel Saga is a sequel.
@@dextersbeard3472 There's only 2 games in the series. I seem to have mixed up the concept of a prequel and a previous game when I left this comment a year ago.
Great review! A lot of people really dog on this game, I never picked it up until very recently due to the middling to bad reception it has online as an inferior sequel. I completed it tonight and loved the whole experience, despite the last boss kicking my ass lol. I also bought Legend of legaia so I’m gonna beat it too. Just goes to show if a game looks interesting try it for yourself before you completely rule it out I suppose.
The combat is fricking amazing
Althoug
The combat is fricking hard
I gave up at volcano grinding, I got filtered by the insta death characters.
Any thoughts on the difficulty (without getting into hidden 10 millions hp boss sidequests)? I'm bored of RPGs that don't make use of their battle abilities, and in which basic attacks with a healing spell here and there can get you through most of the story.
Legaia 2 maintains a fairly even-handed difficulty curve with one or two areas that cause it to spike a bit. While it never gets absurdly difficult (provided you aren't running from every encounter), the game gives you ample ways to fight back, between levels having pretty noteworthy powerups each, the camp-crafting system, and so on. I wouldn't call it hard, especially if you crest over level 70-ish before the final dungeon (whereupon you'll begin trivializing the game), but otherwise, it's a fun romp.
Legaia has one of the hardest end game bosses (in the arena) I've ever faced, and I've played literally everything when it comes to RPGs.
If you want a challenging endgame, this is one of the best choices.
Came across this gem at an awesome price. Noticed it was from it was same folks who made Mister Mosquito 😁
I COULD NEVER REMEMBER THE NAME OF THAT GAME. Never played it but i want to try it. If it'a half as good as Legaia 2 it's worth it i'm sure.
Interesting. I got a complete copy of Mr. Mosquito for about $30 a few years back and beat it. It's pretty pricey nowadays and pretty uncommon. It's an ok game and I seriously doubt I'll ever play it again, but I'm glad I picked it up when I did and got to play such a weird game.
@@medmuscle games like that are good to own to use them as trade value towards games you really want. I just traded in my copy of Tomato Princess for NES ($300 loose) for Fire Emblem PoR for GameCube
Ayne is easily the second strongest character in the entire game dude!! As soon as you get his first hyper art in the first level you can use him, (volcano) he can dish out as much damage as Sharron with far fewer hits. And near the end, his combo arts with Lang are FAR more powerful than anyone else'. Yes he doesn't have attack magic, but that is because he doesn't need it. He does have pretty good support magic though. Also he is the only member of the party that if not a Mystic, so the fact that he is so strong a big credit to him (the fact that he is a giant also helps in the department.)
Okay, okay, I admit I was overly harsh on the big lug. But... I just don't like him. And when my options are hot pirate, cute moeblob, and awesome master, I tend to lean towards my favorites. Though your points are sound.
Just recently grabbed this game pretty cheap. Do you have to play the first game?
Nope, not at all. Completely different timeline and universe, near as I can tell. There is a small easter egg referencing an early game enemy, if you know where to look, but other than that, it has its own separate storyline. Enjoy!
@@TheHipsterSnek cheers mate 👍👌
I wasn't this game's greatest fan, even though it improved a lot of what I disliked in the first game. For example, the sidequests in this game were a breath of fresh air. The first one didn't have too many sidequests available. Also the dialogue between characters in camp that change depending what you've accomplished during the game is good too. Keeps the game from going stale. I guess my greatest critique for this game is something that really isn't its fault; the fact that it wasn't a direct sequel to the original game. I actually loved the first game for the story, the characters, the music. I wanted a continuation of that. To be fair, I was looking at this game through nostalgia goggles and I didn't really give this game the recognition it deserved.
Great review by the way
You should try (the cursed) ephemeral Fantasia. This game and it are my favorites of all time, this one is just fun and ephemeral you need a brain.
I love this game. That is all.
As a kid I preferred this over Final Fantasy.
Were you in crack or something?
personally liked the combat in the first one better. until recent years i figured they just copied it over from the first one and just screwed up. (the arts giving you AP)
Arts giving you AP was entirely the point, though. It facilitated combos. In the first game I found myself just using auto battle, or using meaningless inputs. Hyper arts expending AP and regular arts gaining them gives you incentive to use regular arts, instead wasting turns saving up, then expending all at once. Or, that was my takeaway.
Unfortunate that my ps2 doesn't support this game and had to play it on damon ps2 emu and the emu is owned by bunch of greedy Bs
Man, i always dreamed to finish this game but it seems it won't be happening
I'm playing this on the pc right now, the ps2 emulator on PC is pretty stable
What model PS2 do you have? As far as I know Legaia 2 doesn't have issues running on any of them so I'm very curious. Either way I've always hated emulation and have found it's always better to play a game on the original hardware it was intended to run on so if you really want to play it just spend the few bucks to pick up a used fat PS2 in good shape.
Pcsx2
@@Jhayology I've known pcsx2 for almost a decade but unfortunately, i never have spared budget to own a pc
@@cory99991 Not sure what considered as model but it was matrix or something? That doesn't require a disc to play
This game sounds so great, but like some games in the SaGa series, it feels like it doesn't have an original charm or personality from looks alone, which is something that I really love about jrpgs. Thanks for the review !!!
Thank you for the feedback! Legaia is deceptive, looking simple on the surface, but it's actually quite complex and robust. I think even its flaws add to its charm!
Your vid has 1500 views!
Everyone today: Persona 5 is the best game ever.
Me today: Oh, persona 5 is just a boring version of legaia 2 ^^
Having not played but Persona 4, I can't say. But the social systems used in Legaia 2 are just delightful - just deep enough that the curious will really enjoy cracking it open!
Calling FFX "Not a good installment" with disgust is ridiculous and only serves to discredit your opinions. It is universally considered one of the greatest games of all time. I'm sure we all have games that we dont like that are popular, but not all of us phrase our statements as facts. For me, Elder Scrolls Skyrim and OOT are terrible games. That doesn't mean I'm going to call them "Bad games."
I'm honestly fine with taking a hard stance on something, but your argument that Legend of Legaia 2 did poorly because of FFX being overrated isn't really valid to begin with (And you dont even explain why you think FFX is bad. ) . Legend of Legaia 2 did poorly for a variety of reasons and wasnt just because FFX was overrated. It had a poor budget, received terrible reviews mostly because of dungeons you had to repeat 3x+, and was a sequel to relatively unpopular game.
I loved Legaia 2, but it is so far behind FFX in every aspect whether that be combat, skill progression, music (legaia 2 did have good music), graphics, and ambition. Games like Legaia 2 can be appreciated because they are genuinely fun to play and don't need to be compared to projects with 1000x the budget and audience.
I did enjoy your video.
PS: the MC saying ANG (instead of Dang because the sound got clipped off) after not killing an enemy always annoyed the hell out of me
wait hold on you hate FF X? SOrry man but NO!!!!
FF X has stand the test of time and prevailed, that doesn't make it bad. I like legaia 2 but you sounded super butthurt there. FF X is fantastic and you proabably don't know how to play blitzball or that you can Skip a bunch of grind plus The story in FF X is just better and I can prove it, also the Voice acting was ok. If people want good early voice acting Rpgs aren't the best choice.
The best Voice acting we ever had in gaming were Metalgear solid 1 2 and 3 on PSX and PS2.
If you don't believe me then I can tell you this, Dragon quest 8 beats the shit out Legaia 2 and FF X with no problems. All 3 games were fantastic.
A good game but.....not better than Final Fantasy 10 like you suggest.
I think it is better i didn't like ff10 that much I did like the romance story other than that legaia is better.