Zoids Battle Legends

Zoids Battle Legends is a series of Game Boy Advance (and later Nintendo DS) games based on the Zoids franchise, primarily released in Japan. The series encompasses four games and one international adaptation; Zoids Saga, Zoids Saga II (released as Zoids: Legacy in several English-speaking nations), Zoids Saga III: Fuzors, and Zoids Saga DS

The games are closely linked to the Zoids anime series. Because of the difference in time between these anime in the Zoids fictional universe, the games rely heavily on time travel.

Gameplay – Zoids Battle Legends

The games of the Zoids Saga series are party-based role-playing games, and involve the player character leading a team of Zoid pilots. The party moves around the overworld and through the dungeons, fighting off wild Zoids and enemy pilots as the player attempts to complete the game. The player is responsible for constructing the various Zoids available from captured technical data, assigning the pilots in his party to the Zoids, and organising them in a battle formation.

Combat is turn-based, and occurs on two opposing two by three grids, one for the player, the other for the enemy. Six of the player’s Zoids (previously organized into the two by three battle formation) are deployed, and the player must use a combination of the Zoids’ weapons, pilot skills, and special orders (deck commands) to defeat the enemy.

Zoids Saga DS: Legend of Arcadia – Zoids Battle Legends

A game which combines the stories of the previous three games, cutting some sections and expanding others. As might be expected, it features improvements in graphics and sound. In addition, it includes characters, Zoids and story elements from the Zoids Genesis anime.

Series Criticisms – Zoids Battle Legends

One of the major criticisms of the Zoids Saga series is the overly large number of Zoids and Zoid variants available for the player to select. Many of these are repetitive, at the most changing one weapon system for another. Each major character from the various series ‘visited’ during the game will usually have a ‘Special’ version of the standard Zoid they pilot available. This was primarily a problem with the first game; the later releases removed most of the character-specific Zoids, along with some of the extraneous variations.

Another common complaint is that Zoids that feature heavily in the anime (such as the Blade Liger, Liger Zero, and Genosaurer) that are commonly considered ‘all-powerful’ by Western audiences because of their use as character shields, are far weaker in the game than they are portrayed to be in the anime. The majority of these complaints come from people in Western Zoids fandom, and have little or no familiarity with the Battle Story originally associated with the models. The Zoids in the games are accurate to the Battle Story’s history and performance statistics, and as such reflect poorly when compared to the Zoids piloted by the main characters in the anime.

Zoids Battle Legends Soundtracks

1. Track 1

2. Track 2

3. Track 3

4. Track 4

5. Track 5