What I Learned from Legend of Dragoon

When I pause and reload my childhood gaming memories, I search for hidden Easter Eggs along the beaten path. Shining stars hiding among glittering coins. A shining pellet of righteousness that swallowed up ghosts of bad games.

Enough with gaming puns. Pressing continue on my main menu.

The earliest game that I can think of that was unarguably for my betterment was a game called Legend of Dragoon.

1) Good Stories Tickle the Imagination

When I was a child, I always loved to play using my imagination.

I’ve heard it said that video games are horrible for kids because they crush imagination and suppress creativity. While some video games are very much designed to be addictively replayed (Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, or any game based off a movie), most fall into the category of creative-yet-may-fall-into-a-“rinse-and-repeat”-play-style (Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, Tetris,Halo). I think it is bad for creativity, imagination, and innovation to ever fall into a “rinse and repeat” play style; it kills that initial twinkling that made you first want to pick the game off the shelf. 

Yet Legend of Dragoon fell into a kind of third category, a category where that initial twinkling is the spark starting something new.

For whatever reason (I attribute it to good story telling), this game  stuck with me. These were stories about knight and dragons, evil emperors who deceive youthful idealists, kings who pick up the fallen spears of their soldiers, fallen tyrants forced into heroism, troubled heroes forced into horrible decisions, fathers who try to save their daughters, sons who are forced to oppose their father, a true evil lurks behind everything and must be defeated, and that, at ultimate end of all things, justice and love will somehow come together and be united.

For me, this helped mature my childhood imagination into a kind of imaginative world that I always take with me. You may think of it as daydreaming, I think of it as playing in my head. As a result, I don’t know what kind person can be shown all that Legend of Dragoon has to offer and NOT walk away with a more vivid imagination.

2) Party Up (sorry, another video game pun. You can also call it “It’s Not Good to be Alone”)

I very easily could have been a loner in life, but I’ve come to enjoy people’s stories too much to ever be tempted by that.

I know a lot of people who find video games repetitive. They’re right….most of the time, but most things are repetitive. It’s true for movies and books too. You can often tell how good a book or movie is by if you care about the characters when it’s over. A good writer can have one beloved main character yet also have several supporting characters who are just as loved (if not more so) than the hero.

Like all RPGs, Legend of Dragoon starts off slowly introducing the characters, giving you time to meet them and bond with them (incidentally, that’s another complaint people have with video games: they take too long). You, as a player, start to develop favorite characters who you use more often than others. When I played it, I quickly realized that I would lose fights if I only used my favorite characters. Everyone had to get some game time.

This was most apparent in the one-on-one fights you occasionally had to do. No fights were harder than these. If you were stuck playing a healer in a one-on-one fight, you quickly longed for the damage your other players would deal. If you’re the big clunky guy, you began to miss out on being able to have that first, decisive strike.

But this is true for books too; the hardest part of the character’s journey is when he’s without his friends. The hardest part for the reader is missing out on the other characters you care for.

It’s doubly true for life, but that makes our story that much more precious.

3) A Virtual World is no Substitute for the Real One

I suppose the largest myth about video games is that it keeps them from playing outside. I will admit that, yes, playing a video game does not take place outside and, yes, people often substitute their real world interactions with a LCD screen.

I've been there; I've done that. It was an obvious mistake that was not-so-obvious at the time.

That being said, I am firmly convinced that a good video game can make your life better. Just as good books need not turn you into a recluse and good television shows need not turn you into a couch potato, good video games need not turn you into a troll.

Let me tell you how Dragoons taught me about the real world.

A Dragoon  is a person who is entrusted with the soul of the dragon. There are 7 (and it becomes 8) Dragoons. Each Dragoon (save one) has the power over one aspect of nature, which, in the game, are Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, Darkness, Lightning, and Divine (the only one that is not nature specific).

For whatever reason, this idea really captivated me. It made me really like going outside and wondering just what nature was capable of. It primed me so that when people talked about how nature was beautiful, I trusted them. I wanted to find beauty in this thing that I had already been wondering about.

More than that though, the game got me to wonder about people. C.S. Lewis talks about glory and realizing that the person next to you is budding either into a god or demon. The Legend of Dragoon had me treating people like that long before Lewis did. Which of my friends has the passionate but understanding spirit of the Fire Dragoon? Who is the whimsical yet aged spirit of Water? Who has passed into my life with the royal spirit of Wind who picks up the burdens of a fallen friend?  Where is the strong, silent, firm spirit of Earth? Where are the keen, kind eyes of Light? Who has the long tormented, all knowing spirit of Darkness? Who has the disciplined soul of Lightning, giving up everything in service to their beloved? Who among us has the powerful and tempered spirit of the Divine?

If you haven't looked at those you love and wondered "What makes them glorious?", I promise you it's a great thought to exercise. Who knows what you'll find?

All I know was that a video game brought me to wonder. 

(I decided to make the "What I Learned from...." a series where I go over life lessons from different things I grew up with. To see my last one, "What I Learned from Power Rangers", click here.)