I was so excited to play this game when I got it for Christmas two years ago. Now, I can honestly say that I strongly consider this the Final Fantasy VII of the Tales of series, meaning that, although we acknowledge its existence, we don't really like to draw attention to it, and it would have been better if it never existed at all. Tales of Legendia was a huge--nay, colossal disappointment in every possible way imaginable. Ridiculously crippled plot, confusing and downgraded gameplay mechanics, a soul-crushingly boring combat system, and a lack of any kind of likeable or rewarding side quests...Like I said, a disappointment in every possible way.

STORY: 3/10
Pitiful on all accounts. The story centers around the cliche' concept of "save the damsel in distress," focusing on a single character, Shirley, and the fact that she gets kidnapped every ten minutes. And you have to save her every ten minutes, only to lose her again and have to go right back to saving her...every ten minutes. Get used to this practice; you'll be doing this sort of thing for the next 30 hours. Well, when you're done with this completely boring and otherwise pointless plot, you get into the second half of the game: the Character Quests, which are basically individual chapters centered around the development of each member of the party. In all honesty, the only reason I give this game's Story anything higher than 1 is because of these quests. The second half of this game, though there's no voice acting whatsoever, was almost addicting. I seriously found no reason to stop playing until I at least completed an entire chapter or two at a single point. I know what you're thinking: is the 30 or so hours you have to spend in the main plot worth getting to the second half? For the hardcore gamer, of course. For the casual gamer, no chance in hell.

GAMEPLAY: 5/10
Practically a downgraded copy of Symphonia, with only a few changes. However, these changes will become apparent almost immediately. For starters, you don't have the option to include another player as another character, so you can't have a team of you and your buddies fighting on the fields of battle. You're limited to only one character controlled by a player. Second, the battle system itself seems pretty good at first, but after about seven or eight battles, you'll get so sick of it to the point where you wish you had ripped off your thumbs. Leveling up has become even more of a chore, and I have yet to see anybody other than myself who has LEGITIMATELY reached Level 255...regrettably wasting about 350 hours of my life, of course. There aren't any visible enemies on the maps you'll visit, unless you're stupid and you count the monsters or foes you see during cutscenes. This game relies heavily on a crippled random encounter system, as seen in literally hundreds of RPG's before its time. You can't synthesize any powerful items or equipment until the second half of the game, by the way, which is a HUGE contrast to Symphonia, seeing as you can literally craft new stuff when you enter Triet, the second town.

PRESENTATION: 6/10
Although the actual story itself was horrendous, there were numerous things that made it easier to bear. The voice acting, for example, is actually very good. You can hear the effort put into their voices for these characters, and honestly, if this game is ever revamped, I could never imagine anybody else doing the voices for these characters. Also, the anime feel to this game gets incredibly strong as the game progresses. You start to feel as if you're playing a huge role in a massive, expansive anime. The anime cutscenes are stunning, intense, and sometimes tremendously emotional. There are a few that even managed to pull at my heart strings, too! Still, it's not perfect. They definitely could have included more of these awesome features in the game, and to be honest, it would have made the game MUCH easier to play through. To add insult to injury, they completely remove voice acting from the game during the Character Quests, which is literally the entire second half of the game. In other words, you'll play yet another 30-40 hours of the game without hearing any real voice acting, not including the stuff you hear over and over during every battle you'll inevitably fight along the way. That was definitely something they could have done better. The skits are still hilarious, and surprisingly, they're much more interactive than in other games, allowing you to continue on with them whenever you push the X button. Still, the skits could have been more bountiful, and they could have been easier to obtain. The only way you're really going to learn everything about this game is to get the guidebook for it, or go online and search walkthroughs and item lists. Who wants to do all of that, anyway?

SOUNDTRACK: 10/10
Godly. Gorgeous, Beautiful. Other big words that make it sound amazing. Simply because that's what this game's soundtrack is. It's my second favorite game soundtrack in all of history. Hell, the music MAKES this game. To make things even more appealing, they play powerful songs at the perfect moments. When the current mood is sad, the music is sad, as well. When the situation is intense or angry, they play angry or intense music. You see where I'm going with this? I can't believe that such a disappointing game has such an outstanding soundtrack. If anything, it's the sole-defining feature that holds this game on its hind legs.

CLOSING STATEMENT
If you're a hardcore Tales of fan like myself, this whole review was probably pointless, seeing as you're going to get it regardless of what people say. If you're an average RPG player, don't waste your time or money on this game. It's not a noteworthy game to play, and you can literally live your entire life just fine without this "experience."
I was so excited to play this game when I got it for Christmas two years ago. Now, I can honestly say that I strongly consider this the Final Fantasy VII of the Tales of series, meaning that, although we acknowledge its existence, we don't really like to draw attention to it, and it would have been better if it never existed at all. Tales of Legendia was a huge--nay, colossal disappointment in every possible way imaginable. Ridiculously crippled plot, confusing and downgraded gameplay mechanics, a soul-crushingly boring combat system, and a lack of any kind of likeable or rewarding side quests... Like I said, a disappointment in every possible way. STORY: 3/10
Pitiful on all accounts. The story centers around the cliche' concept of "save the damsel in distress," focusing on a single character, Shirley, and the fact that she gets kidnapped every ten minutes. And you have to save her every ten minutes, only to lose her again and have to go right back to saving her... every ten minutes. Get used to this practice; you'll be doing this sort of thing for the next 30 hours. Well, when you're done with this completely boring and otherwise pointless plot, you get into the second half of the game: the Character Quests, which are basically individual chapters centered around the development of each member of the party. In all honesty, the only reason I give this game's Story anything higher than 1 is because of these quests. The second half of this game, though there's no voice acting whatsoever, was almost addicting. I seriously found no reason to stop playing until I at least completed an entire chapter or two at a single point. I know what you're thinking: is the 30 or so hours you have to spend in the main plot worth getting to the second half? For the hardcore gamer, of course. For the casual gamer, no chance in hell. GAMEPLAY: 5/10
Practically a downgraded copy of Symphonia, with only a few changes. However, these changes will become apparent almost immediately. For starters, you don't have the option to include another player as another character, so you can't have a team of you and your buddies fighting on the fields of battle. You're limited to only one character controlled by a player. Second, the battle system itself seems pretty good at first, but after about seven or eight battles, you'll get so sick of it to the point where you wish you had ripped off your thumbs. Leveling up has become even more of a chore, and I have yet to see anybody other than myself who has LEGITIMATELY reached Level 255... regrettably wasting about 350 hours of my life, of course. There aren't any visible enemies on the maps you'll visit, unless you're stupid and you count the monsters or foes you see during cutscenes. This game relies heavily on a crippled random encounter system, as seen in literally hundreds of RPG's before its time. You can't synthesize any powerful items or equipment until the second half of the game, by the way, which is a HUGE contrast to Symphonia, seeing as you can literally craft new stuff when you enter Triet, the second town. PRESENTATION: 6/10
Although the actual story itself was horrendous, there were numerous things that made it easier to bear. The voice acting, for example, is actually very good. You can hear the effort put into their voices for these characters, and honestly, if this game is ever revamped, I could never imagine anybody else doing the voices for these characters. Also, the anime feel to this game gets incredibly strong as the game progresses. You start to feel as if you're playing a huge role in a massive, expansive anime. The anime cutscenes are stunning, intense, and sometimes tremendously emotional. There are a few that even managed to pull at my heart strings, too! Still, it's not perfect. They definitely could have included more of these awesome features in the game, and to be honest, it would have made the game MUCH easier to play through. To add insult to injury, they completely remove voice acting from the game during the Character Quests, which is literally the entire second half of the game. In other words, you'll play yet another 30-40 hours of the game without hearing any real voice acting, not including the stuff you hear over and over during every battle you'll inevitably fight along the way. That was definitely something they could have done better. The skits are still hilarious, and surprisingly, they're much more interactive than in other games, allowing you to continue on with them whenever you push the X button. Still, the skits could have been more bountiful, and they could have been easier to obtain. The only way you're really going to learn everything about this game is to get the guidebook for it, or go online and search walkthroughs and item lists. Who wants to do all of that, anyway? SOUNDTRACK: 10/10
Godly. Gorgeous, Beautiful. Other big words that make it sound amazing. Simply because that's what this game's soundtrack is. It's my second favorite game soundtrack in all of history. Hell, the music MAKES this game. To make things even more appealing, they play powerful songs at the perfect moments. When the current mood is sad, the music is sad, as well. When the situation is intense or angry, they play angry or intense music. You see where I'm going with this? I can't believe that such a disappointing game has such an outstanding soundtrack. If anything, it's the sole-defining feature that holds this game on its hind legs. CLOSING STATEMENT
If you're a hardcore Tales of fan like myself, this whole review was probably pointless, seeing as you're going to get it regardless of what people say. If you're an average RPG player, don't waste your time or money on this game. It's not a noteworthy game to play, and you can literally live your entire life just fine without this "experience. "