I hate irony...

That is a huge misconception. It was in development at the same time as FFVII. It was a vast improvement on all FF games in terms of mechanics; notably, it had a far more in depth battle system (which is still my favourite for a turn based RPG to date). Most importantly, it had a far more coherent story and well-fleshed out characters compared to FF. The only thing it and FF have in common is the three-person party system.

Give it another look. It might come down to which you play first. I played Legend of Dragoon before playing anything but the GBA combo of FFI & II. I hope you can get past that bias, but alas.

Legend of Dragoon has a lot of great qualities. They are qualities I haven't seen any game before or since try to incorporate to the same level. The way it is told, the focus on character development, and the differences in how you interact in battles make it a unique experience compared not only to FF, but to any other game I've played.

 

I think that's the big difference here, you played it early, I played it VERY late. I've had pretty much a banquet of great JRPGs for years, so anything less than fantastic kinda stands out.
But anyways, you've re-piqued my interest, I'm downloading it back as I type

 

I have to be in a pretty good mood to gring on LoD. It just takes forever to get anywhere ... unless you have a butt load of satchets, then you can instakill rainbow birds all day long.

I am able to grind easily on Tales of Xillia just because I like the leveling system a lot more and the battle style is a lot more fun. Turn based RPG's were pretty cool back in the day but now you've got realtime battle RPG's ... button mash anyone?

-Nights

 

I had never heard of this game and decided to look it up. Of course it's not on the EU PSN. Nothing good ever is ._.