Legend of Heroes: Prophecy of Moonlight Witch

Promising series with terrible localization.

This is the latest Legend of Heroes or Eiyuu no Densetsu series that i finished. Possibly this series is the weakest out of 3 titles for this series known as Ghargharv Trilogy considering this game is actually the first part of the trilogy while the game is released as the 2nd part of LoH in USA. The story moves in very slow pace but in the last 2 chapter it proves itself that this game deserve to be the part of the franchise. This is the 2nd Legend of Heroes that i played since i finished Tear of Vermilion first few years ago. Legend of Heroes is one of the biggest franchise that Falcom had other than Ys which are pretty much the Ys counterpart since it focus on the story rather than gameplay.

While Tears of Vermillion takes place in El Phildin, the Moonlight Witch story takes place in other continent known as Tirasweel which is the part of Ghargharv universe. The Ghargharv consist of 3 continents which are separated by mystical rifts that prevent contact between the continents and each part of the Ghargharv Trilogy takes place in the 3 continents respectively. Probably this series doesn't have any strong relationship with the rest of Ghargharv Trilogy as the story takes place around 50 years after the other 2 Legend of Heroes.

The main characters of Moonlight witch are Jurio and Chris who are childhood friends who live in Ragpick Village. The story focus about their pilgrimage story throughout 5 temple in Tirasweel as rite of coming of age in their village. Throughout the journey they travel with different people and helping to solve problems in places they visited. During the pilgrimage they also learn revelations of bad omen going to happen in Tirasweel which are similar with the Prophecy from a maiden known as Moonlight Witch in the past. Later on the prophecy seems to be reality and it is up to them to prevent the catastrophe to happen.

The story consist of 8 chapters where most of the story covers the journey of Jurio and Chris. i have to admit that the story pace of this game is rather slow compared to other RPG but in the last 2 chapter, the story becomes a real deal and worth to play.

The gameplay of this game is classic turn based RPG which are pretty straightforward which makes the game is boring from time to time. The handicap of the game is quite easy since levelling is not a big deal in this game and the final boss is not that hard anyway. I heard that Namco Bandai changed the gameplay way too different with the original remake by Falcom for the localisation which make this series hard to attract new fans for this series. Fortunately Xseed handles Trails in the Sky really well.

Throughout the game the main party will consist of Jurio and Chris only since most of the party that joins you temporarily but most of them will appear near the end of the game supporting the main character to prevent the impending disaster.

While the Moonlight Witch never really shown herself until near the end of the game. The main story revolves around her and probably she is the real hero of the game. Her actual name is Gueld and 20-30 years prior the game begins she travels around Tirasweel and warn people about the impending disaster that will happen on Tirasweel. Her appearance is 18 years old girl with beautiful white hair who has sadness in her eyes. The main characters in this game apparently serve the role of Gueld's will successor.

The real mastermind of the disaster is Queen Isabelle and her henchman Revas( who look exactly like his father). The disaster that they are about to bring to Tirasweel is known as Wave of Raual which is the Negative energy caused by Blue Tribe's magic hundred years before the Ghargharv Trilogy takes place . The reason that they want to bring the catastrophe is that their world is under the threat of the Wave itself as it gets uncontrollable unless it is redirected to another world which happens to be Tirasweel. Gueld is aware of Isabelle's plot and that's why she begin to warn people through her pilgrimage across Tirasweel which cost her life in the end since she is killed by Revas. Queen Isabelle served as the final boss in this game which is not too hard since i recall that the boss in Tear of Vermillion is much harder,

While the gameplay is not that strong, the remake is definitely much better than the classic one. The graphic is dramatically improved as the new character design are well drawn and you can expect the music is worthy as well since Falcom usually have really good soundtrack in their game.

If you are into classic RPG you might try this series as the Story of the game is wonderful despite the gameplay is rather lacking. I will finish the 3rd Legend of Heroes which is the song of the ocean in order to finish Ghargharv Trilogy once and for all before continuing to the Trails of the sky series.