Zel-kun’s Words

Its funny…

I bought SaGa Frontier a number of years ago and initially hated it.  But, times being what they were, with no RPG’s on the market and Square making fighting games and shooters for some reason, I pulled it out of its case and gave it another chance.  As I played through it, it actually turned out to be a pretty decent game.  Not terrific, but definitely better than a lot of crap that’s coming out today.

I bought its sequel, SaGa Frontier 2, and it was much better than its predecessor.  I played through it a number of times, and I feel its one of the more underrated RPG’s out there.

So, when I saw Romancing SaGa for the PS2 on the shelf at GameStop, a used copy for only $16.99, I picked it up.

The console RPG market is absolutely barren right now.  Every game is using this ‘active battle’ deal that was first done in Star Ocean.  It was fun the first time, but it has worn so thin by now.  When you try to cross action and turn-based, you end up failing at both most often.  The last good RPG I played was Dragon Quest, and that was more than a year ago.  I played Rogue Galaxy because everyone kept going on about it, and was bored by the third day of playing.

So, Romancing SaGa…

It uses the same system as the previous games, whereas the more you use a particular weapon, the more moves you learn with it.  Abilities and spells take Battle Points (BP), and they regenerate a fixed amount each round.  The amount is determined by some stat I haven’t figured out yet, but its nice when a mage has a powerful magic attack that costs 4 BP, and she regenerates 4 BP each round.  Yes, finally, console RPG’s making mages not suck.

Your stats go up at the end of nearly every battle loosely based on what you did.  For example, the mage might gain a point of INT and a point of WIL after a battle, whereas the swordsman might gain a point of STR and some HP.  There’s a noticeable change in abilities in a reletively short amount of time.

New to the series is the levelling of certain techniques.  You can go to a trainer, and spend points earned winning battles and completing quests to level up an ability.  Say, levelling up Terrology (Earth Magic) from lvl 2 to lvl 3.  This makes the magic more powerful AND cost less.  This can be done with dozens of skills that are used both in an out of battle, such as lockpicking, climbing, jumping, and disarming traps.  The whole thing seems like a Japanese take on the open-ended development systems of D&D.

Speaking of open-ended, this game is about as open-ended as they come.  You essentially start out with a vague goal, and then the world is open to you.  You can go exploring anywhere.  You can customize your team the way you want from adventurers and mercenaries in towns, and you can follow rumors about events and treasures hidden in dungeons.  You can actually piece together bits of legends and deduce where an ancient relic may be located, and search for it.

My one complaint is the challenge level.  I don’t mind a difficult game, but the increase of challenge can be seemingly random.  Enemies occasionally get stronger as you do, so you could be sailing through a dungeon, then suddenly a new random monster appears and kicks your butt.  And if you have the bad fortune of stumbling upon a boss (always optional, one boss I stumbled onto because I disturbed a grave in a catacomb) before you’re supposed to, its all over.  But you can save anywhere, so the best advice is to save often.

So, this game is definitely worthwhile, and lets me know that even in the barren RPG market, there’s still a gem or two to be had.

Zel-kun out.