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[phubans]

Originally this thread was going to be a place to post "mini-reviews" on games you've just played, but it ended up turning into a full-blown review for a game very dear to me; Makai Toushi SaGa. I've just played through the WonderSwan Color remake of this wonderful yet obscure JRPG and I was in the mood for giving it a little more exposure to the rest of the world. So without further ado, please enjoy my review of the game, which isn't exactly indie but might as well be.

Makai Toushi SaGa



This game was originally released in Japan by SQUARE on the GameBoy in 1989. It was one of the first (if not the first) portable RPGs of its kind. For marketing purposes, this game was released in the US as Final Fantasy Legend, and was the first SQUARE title to sell over 1 million copies. This game was the first in the SaGa series, with two more sequels following on the GameBoy and a few other versions being made for other platforms. This review is for the 16-bit color remake of Makai Toushi SaGa, which was only released in Japan on Bandai's WonderSwan color handheld.



The game itself is extremely rudimentary; the most basic elements of a traditional JRPG have been boiled down to the lowest common denominator here. In spite of that, the game remains refreshingly simple and approachable in terms of gameplay mechanics and themes. Even the game's premise is basic; choose a character, form a party, and climb a tower reaching into the heavens. While the gameplay offers nothing new in terms of turn-based RPG fare, this game was notably revolutionary for being one of the only handheld RPGs of its time, being one of the primary inspirations behind the original Pokemon games.



In this game, you'll start by choosing a character and forming a party. The playable characters in this game include Humans, Espers, and Monsters. Humans are a basic class that relies on equipment and expendable stat-increasing items, which can be expensive but gives the player the most control over strengths and abilities. Espers are characters that grow in the traditional RPG sense, increasing abilities at random after battle. The only drawback to Espers is that half of their inventory slots are allocated to their special and magical abilities, and these abilities come and go at random. The monster character class is an interesting and unique feature of the SaGa series; these characters have the same stats and abilities as their enemy counterparts you'll find in the game, with the unique ability for your monster to change into an entirely different species of monster by consuming the dropped meat of an enemy monster.



The game begins with your party at the foot of a great tower; it is said that this tower reaches heaven and many have tried to climb it. The world at the base of this tower is a straight-forward medieval fantasy setting of castles, forests, and mountains. By solving the scenarios of this world, you'll acquire a crystal that breaks the seal on the tower's door and allows entry. By scaling this tower, you'll find yourself traveling to other worlds, including a tropical island-themed water world, a sky themed world that tells the tale of two sisters, and a post-apocalyptic futuristic urban wasteland.



What's most interesting to me about this game is that it manages to compartmentalize each world and theme into its own contained area; there is no real over-arching story apart from the fact that you're trying to climb this tower for whatever reason. Instead, the player is treated to these vignette-style sequences of worlds and themes that are vastly unique but still keep within the framework of the game's base mechanics. In some cases, doors inside the tower may lead to smaller sub-worlds that tell interesting non-sequiturs that may leave some scratching their heads at how these pieces fit into the bigger picture, but their presence is both peculiar and interesting nonetheless.



The game's graphics are mostly colored and re-touched versions of the original sprites, with vast improvements to the tileset, which was basically non-existent in the original GameBoy version. The music still sounds the same as it did in the original, however, and this is by no means a setback; the OST is one of the most hearty chip soundtracks you'll hear on such a small device. All in all, Makai Toushi SaGa is far from the most sophisticated RPG, but if you're looking for something that returns to the basics while managing to be extremely unique and charming, this game is definitely worth your time.

BONUS:



If anyone has owned the US version of Final Fantasy Legend, you might remember this horrible(?) Americanized manual art


PM me if you're interested in acquiring the patched ROM

[Kramlack]

I see you talking about this port a lot. Where's the love for SaGa 2 and 3 DS?

[phubans]

This one holds a special place in my heart because it was probably one of the first five RPGs I had ever played, and the novelty of being able to play it on GameBoy made it doubly interesting; the fact that I had this entire world in my pocket was great.

Truth be told, Final Fantasy Legend II (Hihou Densetsu SaGa) was my favorite game of this series. It took everything that was great about the first one and made it even better with more polish and a more coherent plot. On the contrary, it wasn't quite as charming for lacking the simplicity and obscurity that the first one had.

As for the third game, I haven't played the DS remake and I didn't really even enjoy the original GameBoy version nearly as much as the other two. For some reason it just didn't have the same spirit; it tried to hard to be even more polished and complex than its predecessors and lost the beauty of its simplicity. Either that or I just didn't like how the game was previously a nice blend of medieval fantasy with some sci-fi tech elements sprinkled in; this one was too heavily steeped in futuristic sci-fi themes for my taste.

That said, I plan on playing through the DS remake of SaGa 2 for a second time; I did play it through to the end before the English translation was completed, so I'm looking forward to playing it again with the full translation. Hopefully by the time I'm finished with that, there will be a translation patch for the DS remake of the third one (there might be one already; I just haven't been interested enough to find out)

Not to mention, the US version DID have some pretty amazing box art:



I want that helmet

[Dragonmaw]

You might be interested in this musing that Mesh did for my little gaming site way back when it was even remotely active.

[Hangedman]

I recently picked up mint boxed copies of Legends 1,2,3. And am now trying to play them all at once. Great, great, OLD stuff. Charmingly so. The four letter names, the terrible abbreviations, the unexplained spells. Takes me back.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

Played the crap out of all 3 FF legends.

I also loved 2 the most. 3 was ok but significantly easier than the first 2 as well.

One thing I loved was the martial arts items like Punch etc. I would use those and try to get them down to about 3 uses less for bosses.


Also the glass sword is boss. One use, massive damage.


The stories were also really quite good. I like the whole portion of FFL2 where you meet Apollo and certain things ensue.

[The Monster King]

the 2nd was coolest, the best saga game is saga frontier this is my opinion and MY OPINION IS FACT

[SirNiko]

I never played the PS1 SaGa games except for a brief rental, but I really should go back to those someday.

I loved the setting for Final Fantasy Legend 1. The concept of a mysterious tower filled with strange worlds was the perfect concept for an RPG. I kept wanting to finish each world because I wanted so badly to see what the next had in store. I really liked the interludes where you just climbed little inconsequential floors of the tower between the big "World" floors.

Final Fantasy Legend 1 was spoiled by some awful design choices, though. Having characters who could die permanently didn't really add anything meaningful to the game. Since you didn't level up like a traditional RPG, you had to constantly maintain a really positive cash flow or your weapons break and you are basically back at level 1. Monsters and mutants just seemed useless because they leveled up in such random ways.

I got to the nuclear reactor in world 4 and couldn't kill the boss, but because I couldn't turn back I was stuck and quit the game out of dispair.

Final Fantasy Legend 2 hit the sweet spot by getting rid of a lot of those pointless problems and by offering up more worlds with much more variety. The only regret was the setting wasn't as fun as the original game, since they cut out the mini floors between the big floors. It was really close, though.

Although given the choice of the two, I much prefer Square's Seiken Densetsu series over the SaGa series. My only regret was Dawn of Mana was only mediocre and might have marked the end of that franchise.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i played 1 and 3, but never played 2. i did watch a let's play of 2 on hcbailly's account on youtube to see what i missed though. i also played saga frontier and unlimited saga. i like the first one the best of those i played. i also own but have not yet played saga frontier 2 for ps1, and romancing saga for ps2. i like the system that weapons have limited uses, it makes fighters more like spellcasters, and adds some strategy to even normal battles

[phubans]

After playing this game I really, really want to make a mobile RPG in the same vein; compartmentalized worlds connected by some HUB dungeon, weapon durability, and monster characters that can change by possibly eating the meat of other monsters (unless I can think up a better idea that isn't an exact rip-off)... Of course, the game would be entirely original in terms of assets and stories, but with obvious references to the SaGa series (much like how The Indie Game Legend was to The Guardian Legend)

I still need to finish our current mobile project first, but I don't think it would hurt to start writing a document for this game now Though speaking of iPhone J-style RPGs, I found this little gem that I'd totally buy if I had an iPhone: http://9thbitgames.com/
Definitely more Dragon Quest influence here than SaGa, though... Which is just as fine with me

You might be interested in this musing that Mesh did for my little gaming site way back when it was even remotely active.

Good read; I am in concurrence

the 2nd was coolest, the best saga game is saga frontier this is my opinion and MY OPINION IS FACT

Hmm, that's the fairly rare PSX game, isn't it? I wanted to play that before I knew that the Final Fantasy Legend games were part of the SaGa series and related to this title... Had I known that when I was 17, I would have made a much greater effort to acquire the game... Not sure how well the graphics hold up to now, though; 2D ages nicely but 3D doesn't

[The Monster King]

saga frontier is in 2d but maybe some of the ugliest 2d and it does have 3d special effects. i think a lot of the monsters are also 3d prerenders. what im saying is that it's an ugly game. but fucking shit its good.

it makes monsters and robots and humans and mystics a million time more interesting, there is an actual story but at the same time it is very loose, there's no generic characters but there's a bunch of them and they are ALL COOL (ok maybe not all) and Alkaiser is the greatest hero

humans level up their stats as you use them, and they gain techniques for weapons they use (there's only 3 weapon types though, punch (which isnt a weapon A TRAP), sword and gun), punch and sword get it Romancing SaGa lightbulb style
theres different magic schools though and maybe 5-8 spells each for 8 magic schools? and about as many total swordtechs and punchtechs, maybe half as much guntechs (there are guntechs)

Robots like in legend 2 get stats depending on their gear but they can also have programs (aka abilities i guess) and also SPOILERS laser swords? ??

monsters absorb abilities from other monsters instead of becoming an existing one, except they DO become existing monsters if they have key abilities and high enough stats, but they can have more moves, so you can basically be a fire dragon that also has a ice breath or something!! crazy. except for the part where im not sure you can be a fire dragon... hm.

mystics are lame they have sword or something idk

anyway its a good game and my shitty explanations cant do it justice, emulate it or something


also I am unable to enjoy Unlimited SaGa please help

[phubans]

I'm semi-watching a Let's Play by a rather, erm... flamboyant Australian fellow. The game is really ugly, especially with the backgrounds for most of the battle sequences so far... But this is to be expected from PS1 era games I guess. I do like the charm of some of the pre-rendered 3D environments, though... It's very reminiscent of Final Fantasy VII in more ways that the SaGa games I've played so far.

[s0]

btw: theres a smartphone remake of the first two saga games supposed to be coming out sometime this year.

also unlimited saga is pretty awesome

[phubans]

Really?? Where'd you get this info? I'd be very interested in these remakes, especially if they kept them in full-color 2D/16-bit, like this remake. Not to say I didn't enjoy the 3D one on DS, but I'd love to see a remake of the second game in the same fashion that the first one was done. I'm guessing this will be a Japan-only release?

[s0]

oops forget what i said. the game is already out in japan but its called "final fantasy legends" and is a new game with no relation to saga. the thing about it being a remake bundle containing the first two saga games was just a rumor apparently.

EDIT: there IS a mobile remake of saga 1 (which is a port of the wonderswan version) but its for regular cellphones (not smartphones) and japan-only.

shame. i'd have loved to play a remake of this classic on my iphone. it was one of the few good jrpgs we got in europe during the 8 and 16bit era. we didn't get chrono trigger, super mario rpg or any main series FF before 7 and a truckload of other well known jrpgs.

[Bree]

I have a copy of Romancing SaGa for PS2 that I haven't touched yet (backlog 3 miles deep), but I loved the Final Fantasy Adventure/Legend games on GB as a kid. I didn't make much progress, but I loved just running around with characters and making them eat meat and turn into cyborgs and other weird stuff.

[The Monster King]

also unlimited saga is pretty awesome

explain

[phubans]

There is a remake of SaGa 3 on DS in Japan as well. The very first fan-translated patch was released just a few days ago, actually. It's not complete yet, but there's a lot of stuff done so far.

So lately I've been trying to play the SaGa 2 DS remake. I've actually played through this in its entirety last year, before it was fully translated. Then, the final translation patch came and I figured I'd try again. Well I did, but anti-piracy measures on the ROM prevented me from getting far. There is one emulator that will allow you to get by, but it runs pretty slow. The last time I played through I had some kind of bypass crack for the AP measures, so I was able to play the entire game using an old R4 my roomie let me borrow.

This time, there doesn't seem to be a solution. I'm really angry at the people who decided not to release this game in America, because I'd gladly throw ALL MY MONEY at them for a localized release of this Now I guess I just have to keep looking for some way to bypass the AP, buy a different flash cart, or just play through it on the bad emulator :/

[s0]

also unlimited saga is pretty awesome

explain

it is a good game and has unusual mechanics (a rarity in the jrpg world)

[The Monster King]

you can take your reel and shove it up your ass