Help me Decide: Legend of Dragoon or Star Ocean 2?

TheAssist

TheAssist

Member
So I want to play a oldschool JRPG over the summer months.

I have got it down to Legend of Dragoon (PS4 version) vs Star Ocean 2 (the remake on Steam).

I dont really have the time to play both, so a decision has to be made.

Things I value in RPG's (somewhat in order):

- Characters (well written, interesting, making you feel like you are on an adventure with a group of strangers becoming friends)
- Music
- That feeling of adventure
- Combat
- World design
- fun progression system, with optional bosses to become overpowered by the end

So if you have played these games, what would your primary choice be (I bet both are great games, but you know, someone's gotta win).
 
SO2 Remake by a landslide. It respects your time much more and its just an incredibly fun game.

LoD was okay, but I found it already quite slow in 2000. Its a bit overrated though.
 
I tried Legend of Dragoon for the first time last year. I found it boreder-line unplayable by today's standards. It's like pulling teeth to do anything, it's so slow.

Star Ocean 2 remake is great. Maybe, LoD will get similar treatment someday, and I'll happily play it.
 
Tbh, difficult to choose which one. Legend of Dragoon is relic to the past, along with the clumsy game design at the time. SO2 is not without flaw though. But still fine as it got remake and some QoL updates.

SO2 in the long run, IMO
 
I will be the odd one out and say Legend of Dragoon. Sony's attempt at making their own in-house Final Fantasy VII.

Star Ocean 2 is undoubtedly the better game of the two, but LoD is charming in a very janky way.
 
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SO2 remake especially because of the quality of life features too, AND it hits every single thing you're asking for.

The end game dungeons and bosses are amazing stuff.
 
Star Ocean 2. One of the best JRPGs of the PS1 era, and the remake improves nearly every aspect of the original.

If you like becoming ridiculously overpowered and fighting optional challenges then you'll love it. Breaking the game IS the game. There are so many systems to exploit, OP equipment to find, etc. And with the higher difficulty levels you'll need it.
 
Arsic said:
LoD is really a product of its time. It's in desperate need of a remake or remaster at least. Just having speed up options would be a blessing,
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Yeah, a "light" Remake could do wonders for the game. I think the base game is pretty good for LoD, but it just sucks in QoL department.
 
TheAssist said:
So I want to play a oldschool JRPG over the summer months.

I have got it down to Legend of Dragoon (PS4 version) vs Star Ocean 2 (the remake on Steam).

I dont really have the time to play both, so a decision has to be made.

Things I value in RPG's (somewhat in order):

- Characters (well written, interesting, making you feel like you are on an adventure with a group of strangers becoming friends)
- Music
- That feeling of adventure
- Combat
- World design
- fun progression system, with optional bosses to become overpowered by the end

So if you have played these games, what would your primary choice be (I bet both are great games, but you know, someone's gotta win).
Click to expand...
My wife absolutely adores Legend of Dragoon. She talks about it all the time.

Don't tell her, but I think judging from your list you'd probably like SO2 more.
 
SkylineRKR said:
LoD was okay, but I found it already quite slow in 2000. Its a bit overrated though.
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Fuck you

Sooner said:
I tried Legend of Dragoon for the first time last year. I found it boreder-line unplayable by today's standards. It's like pulling teeth to do anything, it's so slow.
Click to expand...

Fuck you

Azure Crystal Gaming said:
Dragoon. No contest.
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You're cool

IAmRei said:
Legend of Dragoon is relic to the past, along with the clumsy game design at the time.
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Fuck you

You fuckers are all going on a list, Soa as my witness.

OP, unsurprisingly, my vote is Legend of Dragoon. It hits every point on your list except for maybe the optional super endbosses. There are mostly optional (not super) bosses, one maybe two I would consider to be endgame.

In seriousness, you make some fair points. The battles are slow, the dragoons mechanics also are half-baked (dragoon additions are just bad, magic too limited). One boss fight is just bad (everyone who has played the game will know which one). The graphics are pretty rough moment to moment, though I enjoy the pre-rendered backgrounds and the FMVs are great. And the last 20% of the game was rushed. A lot of people will be chased off by the age of the game alone, especially considering the great job the industry has been doing with remakes of old JRPGs that it needs to compete against. LoD absolutely needs updating for a new audience and to further flesh out things the original game was not able to achieve. This is all worthy of discussion, especially for new players - with some caveats that it did not sin any worse than other JRPGs from its time. Going in with that mindset is key, and OP seems to have that understanding in their request.

But you can't knock the world design, feeling of adventure, or soundtrack (full orchestrated would be even better, but the chiptunes still rock). It is one of the grandest games in scope from that era, and does a lot more world building than the game itself utilizes. It's ripe for a prequel and certainly a remake that could explore the world and its inhabitants further.

TheAssist TheAssist make sure you play Dragoon eventually, even if you don't play it first. I think you will still enjoy it despite its age and flaws.

Wolf Of Wall Street Goodbye GIF by Jordan Belfort
 
I love both games, played both back in the 90s in all of their glory, worth to play both, more ppl will recomend SO2(or rather its recent remaster), but ur call in the end OP, u wont be dissapointed either way, personally like majority here i would go with SO2, but im biased, played/finished it with all secrets 3 times, including universe difficulty(i know remake got even harder chaos difficulty ;)
 
Star Ocean 2 remake does the good thing of keeping enough of the old-school structure, but refining out some of the tedium with better visuals.
 
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My wife has come to read my post. She yelled at me, and told me I forgot to mention the "really awesome fan project" called "Severed Chains."

I vaguely remember reading about it a little while ago. I think it's a decompilation project or something to that effect. If so, it could make a modern-day playthrough that much more enjoyable.

Although, what I remember most about LoD was its utterly abysmal translation. Ha, wifey can't defend that.
Standout line: "The fire puts me in the mood to DO IT."
Oh, boy.
 
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I really enjoyed LOD at the time because I was a teenager and obsessed with rpgs. Game is entirely front loaded on disc 1. Each disc feels so disjointed from the previous one. Replayed it a few years ago and it hasn't aged well.

The story is pretty good but the characters kinda suck and the game is a chore to play. The addition system is done terribly.
Who thought it was a good idea to time attacks to spiralling squares lol.
 
Walliwallipaloo said:
My wife has come to read my post. She yelled at me, and told me I forgot to mention the "really awesome fan project" called "Severed Chains."

I vaguely remember reading about it a little while ago. I think it's a decompilation project or something to that effect. If so, it could make a modern-day playthrough that much more enjoyable.

Although, what I remember most about LoD was its utterly abysmal translation. Ha, wifey can't defend that.
Standout line: "The fire puts me in the mood to DO IT."
Oh, boy.
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Yeah I actually saw that yesterday, but it does seem a little bit of a hassle to get running since you do have ti import copyrighted assets yourself "from you own game".

Though I do respect your wife and her personal taste (than again, she did choose you at some point), I might just watch LOD at some point. This talk about lacking QOL features has me turned down a bit. I totally get that the game was amazing when it came out, I've heard a lot of people who played it back than say its amazing, but reading this thread it seems to me its amazing...for its time.
 
My hidden gems:
Star Ocean The Second Story R
Suikoden II HD Remaster
Chained Echos
Triangle Strategy
Unicorn Overlord
Witch Spring R
Romancing Saga 2 Revenge of the Seven
Octopath Traveler II
 
Based on your preferences I'd say probably SO2. Unless you are a big OG FFVII fan and if so, LoD tried to be an FFVII lite. But it doesn't have very much exploration as the world map blows, there isn't one, it's just you follow dots to the next area. But it has gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds for the towns and dungeons, which looked amazing for its time, but in 2025 won't look great. SO2 has more exploration, better combat, amazing soundtrack.
 
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As someone who has beaten LotD around 4 times in the ps1 days, it's a favorite. Seen modern reviews and I agree with some of the critique points, but it's an almost 30yo game after all. There's a fan mod community that tries to improve the game a bit if you wanna check it out
 
TheAssist said:
So I want to play a oldschool JRPG over the summer months.

I have got it down to Legend of Dragoon (PS4 version) vs Star Ocean 2 (the remake on Steam).

I dont really have the time to play both, so a decision has to be made.

Things I value in RPG's (somewhat in order):

- Characters (well written, interesting, making you feel like you are on an adventure with a group of strangers becoming friends)
- Music
- That feeling of adventure
- Combat
- World design
- fun progression system, with optional bosses to become overpowered by the end

So if you have played these games, what would your primary choice be (I bet both are great games, but you know, someone's gotta win).
Click to expand...
SOTSSR aka Star Ocean 2 Remake.

It was a looker in the 90s, a great story and a joy to play...

It is a looker in 2025, a great story and a joy to play. 😎👍🏻
 
DragoonKain said:
But it doesn't have very much exploration as the world map blows, there isn't one, it's just you follow dots to the next area.
Click to expand...

Slightly off topic, but I was thinking about this point a lot. My initial reaction was "who gives a shit, there was barely anything to do on the world map in FFVII to begin with". It's why JRPG fans keep asking for the world map, or an airship, and hate the fast travel nonsense. I was thinking about this a lot when playing Expedition 33, and how even some of my favorite RPGs that didn't have a traversable world map (like FFX) made it a lot more difficult to understand and remember its world. A traversable world map gets the player more acquainted with the geography and even if it's empty, I think it's an important part of the world building as well.

Legend of Dragoon does have a limited traversable world map point A to B, but the perspective you experience it feels a lot different from the "official" perspective of how that world looks on a map. It's a weird halfway solution, and while I don't think it detracts from the experience except for the frequency of the random encounters on it, I think a full fledged world map you could wander in would have been a big improvement.
 
LavitzSlambert said:
Slightly off topic, but I was thinking about this point a lot. My initial reaction was "who gives a shit, there was barely anything to do on the world map in FFVII to begin with". It's why JRPG fans keep asking for the world map, or an airship, and hate the fast travel nonsense. I was thinking about this a lot when playing Expedition 33, and how even some of my favorite RPGs that didn't have a traversable world map (like FFX) made it a lot more difficult to understand and remember its world. A traversable world map gets the player more acquainted with the geography and even if it's empty, I think it's an important part of the world building as well.

Legend of Dragoon does have a limited traversable world map point A to B, but the perspective you experience it feels a lot different from the "official" perspective of how that world looks on a map. It's a weird halfway solution, and while I don't think it detracts from the experience except for the frequency of the random encounters on it, I think a full fledged world map you could wander in would have been a big improvement.
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I think world maps bring the world to life even more if done well. And in FFVII, some of the biggest secrets in the game are found exploring the world map. In LoD, there is not that potential. Any secret you find is strictly in the towns because of the lack of a world map. I think it would've been cool if they went the extra mile and created a world map, because the towns and graphics for the time were really cool. The dungeon and town designs were some of the best things about the game to me. It certainly wasn't the battle system.
 
Star Ocean 2 is much better plus you'll get to play a much better looking port. LoD needs some quality of life updates, especially a speed boost.

I'd recommend Wild Arms 2 after SO2. Idk if I'd ever recommend LoD unless they've played every other classic JRPG on PS1.
 
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