Format: Advance
Genre: RPG
Developer: Amedio Co
Publisher: Atari

Pokemon for Mechano-Animal fans. Zoids was a popular anime series based around giant animal-like robots called "zoids". As of my review in 2025, there was still a new season of the series in recent times called "Zoids Wild". This game, Zoids Legacy, pulls it's plot and resources from the entire series. That includes 'Chaotic Century', 'Guardian Force', 'New Century', the gameboy color game 'Liger Zero: Silver Beast', the gamecube game 'Zoids vs', and the prequel that was only released in japan 'Zoids Saga'. The real name of this game in japan is actually Zoids Saga 2. Zoids Legacy plays much like the atypical RPG, but hosts an enormous amount of variety and customization. Much like Super Robot Taisen, there's way too many stats and trying to figure them out is difficult at first. For example, the sensor stat is directly related to IV which is how fast a zoid can act in battle. The speed stat is not related to how fast a zoid can act, confusing yes. This game additionally also does not have a good translation at all. It's very rough, and because of that roughness, understanding how some game mechanics work can be a bit more of a challenge. For example; the character ability "End Battle+15" actually stands for something like "endurance battle +15%" which means it gets a 15% boost to evasion against combat(grapple) type attacks. There are 5 types of attacks in this game: "Bullets/Missiles/Lasers/Photon/Grapple". Each attack is attributed to one of these types, sometimes more. I'll touch back on more of the battles and stats but let's talk story. This game brings in characters from the whole zoids franchise and makes a jumbled mess of the world 'Zi world' due to multiverse theory. yeah, it's a multiverse problem. Without spoiling too much, a scientist invented something called ZOS(Zoids Overload System) which bends space/time and caused all the worlds to merge into one. As per typical zoids fashion, there are many competing evils in this world that all want to take over the world. Action is always at the forefront of zoids. Battles are quick, and random, as well as a few that are pre-placed. In a sort of similar fashion to SRW, you can upgrade your weaponry in this game, however, this only applies to a zoid's base weaponry. Some zoids have some really bad base weaponry, some have really strong base weaponry. You're also able to upgrade their defense and energy output as well as change their color. By fighting wild zoids, you're able to get new 'zi data' and 'cores' which allow the production of new zoids. Once you make a zoid, you can put one of your characters in to pilot it. It takes about 200 battles(yikes!) for it to fully achieve it's ultimate form. Just like pokemon, a trained zoid is stronger than a non-trained one. This is simply noted in it's TP level. 200 is the max TP a zoid can have, and it is a noticeable difference in Weight Limit and GEP(energy output). Each weapon varying amounts of energy, and has it's own weight. It's a great balancing game to find the best weapons for whatever zoid you're using and equipping them without going over the weight limit and burdening your zoid. There's a solid 151(heh) zoids in this game. Ranging between wolves, tigers, dinosaurs, bats, apes, and rhinos.. all the classic zoids are in this game. Personally speaking, I used Shield Ligers for a good part of the game and switched to a swarm of Berserk Fury by the end of it. You can have up to 6 zoids on your team, but sometimes there are fights in the game that restrict how many or what type of zoids you can use. This lines up with how they were done in the 'new century' anime. The key seller of this game is simply the amazing amount of options you get in the game. There are also things called "Deck Commands" which can change the flow of battle each turn. They do all sorts of things, like healing your units, reversing turn order, or doubling money earned. The true sweet spot of this game is it's music. ALL of the battle music is amazing and fully nails it. The overworld and dungeon musics do a great job too. The only true downside to this game is 2-fold, the translation isn't the best but funny sometimes, and the random encounter rate can be unforgiving. Luckily you have 2 chances to retreat but still there should have been an encounter-reduction item or ability. OH yeah there's also a "Challenge Mode" from the main menu options. Completing it adds stuff to the main game. Pretty Fun.

Hot Tips: Options menu has Battle Message options and Challenge Modes with Game Progression.

All in All, This game earned a 10.0 for it's enjoyment factor. The random encounter rate can be heinous by end game, Fully Upgrading units can cost more than 1,000,000G, Flying enemies are annoying, Bad translation makes the learning curve steeper, Plot is a bit wishy-washy.