The SaGa series is.. strange. Almost some sort of weird Enigma. Originally, it was released as Final Fantasy Legends, for the Gameboy. Legends actually got three installments even.
Final Fantasy Legends
Legends was plagued with some translation problems, which led to some confusion as to what certain abilities, or maybe weaponry would actually do in combat. For all intents, the first Legends was certainly the worst of the Saga series. But, for an RPG on the gameboy, questionable graphics and music can really be overlooked, and hardware limitations certainly played a role. At any rate, a lot of what plaqued the first Legends was quickly mended with the sequel, Final Fantasy Legends II. The music and graphics got a good overhaul, a stark contrast to the previous installment, the storyline and gameplay were reworked, and the translations weren’t a huge damper this time around. Not to mention, Legends II actually had a coherent storyline to it. Legends II is arguably the best out of the three, with Legends III being the second best. Although the first was kind of a mess, the other two were more than solid entries.
The coolest thing about Legends II, was the fact that you could essentially build your team from the get-go with a handful of archetypes. The robot, the human, the mutant and the monster. This allowed for the player to essentially mix up their strategies before even getting into the game, giving the game a surprising amount of depth to it.
The humans are basically your attackers while Mutants are your mages, Humans utilize physical attacks well, and gain plenty of HP, while Mutants utilize magical attacks well and gain plenty of MP. Robots and Monsters, however, are sort of unique in their playstyles.
Robots boast great physical defenses, but their HP isn’t the best. The thing about them that’s interesting is that they don’t actually level up, and rely entirely on upgrades and equipment, unlike other party members, the robot can equip just about any assortment of equipment the player wants to throw on ’em. Robots utilize firearms to deal damage to their opponents. Unfortunately, they’re rather squishy when it comes to magic.
Monsters are another weirdo. they basically change forms almost sporadically by consuming meat. The fact that they can change into different monsters certainly makes them a jack of all trades, but, that means they are simply the master of none. By far the most versatile unit one can pick, at the same time they lack the polish of the other three ‘classes’ in particular.
The first Legend came out in 1989 for the gameboy, and it was poorly recieved, Legends II was certainly the most praised, with Legends III lagging just slightly behind the sequel.
Romancing SaGa
I have no idea what’s going on here.
Romancing Saga was the first ‘SaGa’ game, withe SaGa in the title. The game largely resembled Final Fantasy in its art style and combat system, how it differed was the non-linear storytelling, which became a mainstay of the series for certain.
Instead of being settled down with a Main character and being forced to deal with them, the player was allowed to pick from one of eight main characters, not only that they basically had to pick who the character’s parents were, which ends up determining their role in combat.
For the most part, it was an alright game, nothing substantial. I’m rather convinced that Square utilized the SaGa series to experiment with different concepts and mechanics. It also got a remake for the PS2, which was so-so altogether, and aside from a graphical facelift, remained much the same as the original.
And then.. Romancing Saga II came out, and it was pretty much entirely different than the first game in the series. The battle system and art style was relatively the same as the first game, be it some minor improvements.
Oddly, instead of offering a full cast of characters to choose from, you pick either the Emperor or the Empress of ‘Avalon’, a castle to which you’re trying to keep afloat. Your party ends up consisting of well, recruits and other such fellows, who grow stronger as the Lord of the castle does. The whole game essentially revolves around trying to expand your Kingdom. Unfortunately, the more time you spend expanding it and leveling your units, the stronger the bosses get in the game, which ensures they always end up being challenging. Romancing SaGa 2 was really confusing for me, perhaps expecting more of the same was the wrong mindset to have, but it feels completely different from the first game in the series.
Then came Romancing SaGa 3. which was wildly different from Romancing SaGa 2. I’m starting to see a pattern here. One thing about Romancing SaGa 3 though, was that it clearly set the groundwork for SaGa frontier, such as implementing the LP system as well as bringing back the ability to select from a cast of characters. There’s 8 to choose from in it, one in particular, Mikhail, plays way differently than the other characters, as you’re essentially leading squads of nameless soldiers through wartime squirmishes, issuing commands and the like during the battles in particular. The other 7 have similar sorts of battles, except they don’t utilize armies of faceless soldiers, but more-so a tight-knit squad of six. In my opinion, the best of the Romancing SaGa series, it’s curious to see how various features in this title would end up bleeding over into Saga Frontier. The first came out around 1992, only a few years after Legends saw the light of day, it was a console game however, as apposed to a gameboy title.
SaGa Frontier
Who knows what they were smoking. The game was great, though.
SaGa Frontier was my first SaGa game, and it was one quirky amalgam. It featured Seven characters (The Eighth character was dropped from the game.)
T260G is the first, he was a robot, who had a mission, he just so happened to forget that mission. He’s a bit weird to control, but the scenario he stars is in actually pretty entertaining.
Blue is the second, he is essentially a magician, and his primary mission is to learn just about every damn spell he can so he can amass the strength to kill his twin brother, Rouge. The cool thing about Blue’s storyline, is that if you lose against Rouge, the game continues and you play as Rouge for the remainder of the game.
Emelia is the third character available. She’s basically out to go avenge her murdered fiance, because, fuck it. Generally, the ‘gimick’ of her scenario is that she likes to change up her outfits throughout the course of it.
Asellus is the fourth character available, she’s a half-mystic who totally gets her ass kicked by a carriage at the start of the game. Generally, you spend a lot of her Scenario in a big ole’ castle, but that doesn’t make it terrible by any semblance. Her primary mission? Well, she wants to figure out who she is.
Lute is the fifth character available, he’s pretty much a chill dude who likes to play tunes. His scenario is probably the weakest in the game, mostly due to the fact right off the bat, the game’s like, yo here’s the final area, level and come back later.
Riki is the sixth character available, its quest is all about gatherin’ up some rings, so the planet in particular that Riki is from doesn’t die out. Riki is not the strongest character by any means, and despite being able to transform into monsters you defeat, Riki is ususally wholly underpowered compare to the rest of the party. That being said, Riki gets to visit some of the most interesting locations in the game, though Riki’s scenario is also one of the most challenging.
Red is the seventh and final character available, and personally my favorite by far. He’s a super hero, basically, and he’s fighting super villains. It’s pretty cut and dry in that aspect. Red’s scenario is roughly the longest in the game, not to mention Red’s arguably the strongest character in the game by a considerable margin, mostly due to the fact he transform into a superhero at various points in the scenario. Red’s scenario is no doubt the heart and soul of SaGa frontier.
The Eighth character you ask? Well certainly. Due to time restraints, an entire scenario was cut from the game. The character was named Fuse, a member of the IRPO, a group of officers who weren’t really touched upon very heavily in the game, most likely because they planned on fleshing it out with Fuse’s scenario. Fuse honestly looks pretty cool compared to the rest of the cast, it’s a shame we’ll never see exactly what the scenario had to offer.
Now, I consider SaGa frontier II to be the last Saga game in the series, certainly they had Unlimited SaGa and Emporers SaGa, but both of which weren’t the best reviewed games ever, and weren’t really anything special.
I still think SaGa is just some sort of weird experiment by Square, as almost every game in the series differs rather heavily from other installments, SaGa Frontier II is no exception. The story plays out in a rather non-linear way, you don’t get to select your character from the start, and in fact you never really have a stable party throughout the game, it switches around erratically from one group of fellows to another, SaGa frontier II in my opinion, had the most entertaining gameplay of the series, the biggest downfall with it, was actually the non-linear storytelling, while at the same time, it was one of the best aspects. Certain scenarios you’re thrown into can be rather lame, and not all characters are completely enjoyable.
That being said, the game spans generations, characters get old, they die, you play as their children, their children get old, they die, then you play as THEIR children. It’s kind of cool to see such a massive storyline pushed into a single game.
The SaGa series has fallen from grace since Frontier II, though we saw Unlimited, it wasn’t much to really note. It’s unfortunate that Square’s lab rat known as SaGa isn’t being touched upon anymore, because when it comes own to it, the SaGa games were some of the strangest and most unique RPG’s ever created.
Oh, and obviously coolest thing by far to come from the SaGa series, was of course.
ALKAISER!
FLG 