Yes, I'm going to cheat again and list two games together, but part of my issue here is that I can't quite decide which one I actually like better. Since neither title is exceptionally long, and the overall gameplay structures are similar, I felt I could get away with doing a double feature here instead of writing two smaller entries. You know it actually surprises me when you think about how many of the SaGa entries actually made it to the West. At this point in time, only the Game Boy remakes and two mobile titles from the early 2010s have failed to make it over here. Made even more surprising when you realize the Legend titles did fairly well here back in the day. At least good enough that Square managed to release all three entries here.
Makai Toushi SaGa (roughly translated as Warrior in the Tower of the Demon World ~ Sa·Ga) takes place in a world with a mysterious tower at the center of it, and legends and myths pertaining to great treasure and wonders that await at the top for anyone who manages to reach it. Many have tried, but all have failed. The player party chooses to climb the tower where they discover it actually serves as a something of a Norse Yggdrasil in that the higher floors contain entire worlds with various problems ranging from an oceanic world where two rival dragons are in conflict, to a sky world ruled by a wicked monarch, and even a post apocalypse Tokyo that is being oppressed by Suzaku. As the heroes travel to these worlds and smaller pocket ones with some really disturbing implications, they uncover that these evils of the various worlds are the works of a demon king named Ashura who resides near the top of the tower, but is he the true mastermind after all?
Let's start with a little history lesson. After Final Fantasy II was a success, Square started to look at ways to expand their influence on the gaming market. While most of the core FF team were tasked with working on Final Fantasy III, the Square execs thought it would be nice to try and dabble in the new handheld market Nintendo was pushing with their recent Game Boy system. Nintendo had actually asked developers to make games for the system after the smash success of Tetris. Not wanting to make a puzzle game, the lead designers of Akioshi Kawazu (Final Fantasy II battle system) and Koichi Ishii (Mana series) opted to make an RPG instead. What is interesting to note is that the two developed the game with travel in mind. The first entry can be beaten under ten hours and was designed that way on purpose so an average player could beat it on a plane trip from Japan to Hawaii which is roughly that time. The encounter rate was also raised in this game so that players on commute would be able to have at least a few battles during their travels.
Kawazu became very invested in the game, being deeply involved with the main scenario and gameplay mechanics. Kawazu largely poured his own interests into the game that would spawn his franchise. He likes deep character customization that doesn't follow typical tabletop D&D conventions that most other RPGs use, and he prefers more challenging gameplay with mechanics that are not always telegraphed to the player. Hell, half the fun of his titles is just trying to figure out the hidden rules to his games. To compensate for the game's short nature, he purposely made the game a fair bit tougher than Final Fantasy. He also implemented a scaled down version of FFII's battle system but added other features for different classes to give the game better variety. Nobuo Uematsu was tasked with music, and initially struggled with the hardware, he eventually found his stride and many of his musical pieces can still be heard in later series arrangements. The game proved to be a real success and soon the team was tasked to build a sequel. Square also optioned to have the game brought over to the West in order to capitalize on the success of the first Final Fantasy in the western market. The game was re-titled The Final Fantasy Legend and also proved to be a success there as well.
Like the original Final Fantasy, the player is tasked with building a four member team based on three classes of either a Human, Esper (Mutant), or a choice of four different Monsters. You may also choose the gender of the humans and espers but it doesn't actually affect anything but their sprite. All three races have their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as unique ways to build them. Humans can carry and use most armor and weapons. They raise their stats by purchasing and using steroi...er magic "stat potions" to permanently raise their HP, Strength or Agility. Their weakness is their inability to use magic and being very expensive, making them weak in the early game but ultimately being one of the strongest classes by the end. Espers are the only class that can use both magic and use equipment, but their magic uses equipment slots so they are far more limited than humans in this capacity. They grow using a simplified version of FFII's battle mechanics where stats are raised based on what they use in battle. Unfortunately, their spell selection also works this way with them learning a random spell and sometimes pulling a MegaTen where they try to change useful spells to useless ones. As you can imagine, Espers can both be really powerful, and really weak depending on how their growth goes. Monsters are probably the most unique element of the game. They transform into stronger monsters based on eating the meat of fallen monsters. It does have a complex algorithm to it, but surprisingly, monsters tend to be early game breakers as it doesn't take much to game the system get something significantly powerful. In fact it's possible to get a mid-tier monster that can carry your party for half the game in the starting world if you know what you're doing.
The other infamous aspect of the game is that SaGa introduces breakable weapons, which are the bane of less confident players, and not a really big deal for others. Generally speaking, especially if you're playing the North American version since they increased the number of uses, you're likely to get access to something more powerful before you run out of a weapon use. The only exceptions come from late game gear that is incredibly powerful but has limited uses to compensate and if you're the type to farm a lot, especially if you were silly enough to make a full human team that needs stat potions. Oddly enough, the game mechanics sort of detract you from seriously trying to power-level because outside of Espers and money, there isn't much point. If you are using a guide for monsters, then you're not really going to farm much for monster meat because it will hit a plateau at a certain point and you won't need to bother with monster meat until nearly the end of the game to gain access to the highest tier monsters. Likewise, Espers gain stats more often from battling stronger opponents, so sticking to one area too long isn't going to do anything but dwindle your resources. Money is probably the only reason to bother fighting all the time, but even then, I'd argue that it's only really important in the early game when you need to power humans up so they're not dead weight, and close to the endgame when you need to actually bother twinking them to godhood, and even then money won't be much of an issue by that point. Overall, it's an element of the game I see often criticized but I think too much of it really stems from players resorting to the usual "this is too useful to use! I must be conservative" mentality. That might make sense when you start getting really good stuff, but then becomes a moot point when almost every treasure chest is just handing you awesome equipment and no you have to start dropping gear to make room for it in your inventory. A lot of gear actually becomes obsolete fairly quickly, so just use everything with no regards. It makes the game more fun and that's honestly how it's meant to be played.
Traveling the tower itself is pretty interesting with the game having four major worlds and lots of mini-zones to screw with you. The worlds are based on the four classic elements and guarded by one of the Four Heavenly Beasts. Even more amusing is how the worlds kind of have their own gimmicks like the starting world of Earth involving a quest to collect the armor of a great warrior to summon Byakko who guards the entrance to the world. Seriyu's world has you riding floating islands and eventually diving underwater to storm his palace. There is even a bit of a puzzle to figure out where his brother is. Byakko's world is a bit more story driven with your party joining a resistance to overthrow the tyrant and dealing with a tale of two sisters. Suzaku's world feels like a MegaTen setting with your party riding a motorcycle in a destroyed city while trying to collect the computer gear needed to disable Suzaku's force field. The big surprise comes with the game's final boss. Like BoF2 before it, it actually amazes me that this game made it here considering the reputation of Nintendo of America's censorship policy. This game is dark, like easily one of the darkest entries in the SaGa franchise in general. Things like the room with the dead family or how often major characters get killed in this game, not to mention the final boss just feel like stuff that should have caused more outcry in 1990.
Moving on, obviously the game turned out to be a smash success for Square and so Kawazu was asked to work on a sequel while the main FF team worked on FFIV. -insert joke about the team giving him this series as an excuse to stay away from Final Fantasy after FFII's reception- and so Kawazu started work on SaGa 2. SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu, or Sa・Ga 2 ~ The Treasure Legend roughly, is an original story that simply keeps a lot of conventions from the original but has no real connection to the first game a la Final Fantasy. There isn't a whole lot of detail on this game's development other than Kawazu's desire to refine a lot of the ideas from the first game, as well as a slight change up with the music. Uematsu returned for his final SaGa soundtrack, but newcomer Kenji Ito joined the team as well to help out, and this game marks the beginning of his long history with the SaGa franchise as he's often associated as the series main composer.
The game takes place in a world where after the Old Gods created the known world, they left behind a statue of Isis that was broken into 77 pieces. These pieces, called MAGI, grant extraordinary power to anyone who possesses a piece and as you can guess, a lot of bad people are trying to collect them. The player created MC is awaken by their archeologist dad who bears a striking resemblance to another famous 80s archeologist of film. And people think SE only stole Star Wars plot lines from George Lucas.... Anyway, Dad tells their child that he is leaving to find a treasure and to take care of his mother. He hands them a piece of MAGI that has the power to sense other MAGI shards near it, and then departs out the second story window of their house because he's quirky like that. Years later, the MC has come of age and tells their Mom that they are going to find Dad and his connection to the MAGI. As they say their farewells to their professor and classmates, three of them volunteer to join them on their journey and thus the story begins proper with the party discovering that their world is one of many connected by a strange crystal tree like thing that is never quite explained very well. They soon travel the worlds and discover that a force known as the New Gods have been trying to amass MAGI for their own purposes and are being stopped by a multi-world organization known as the Guardians who are trying to keep MAGI from falling into the wrong hands. The game has a pretty interesting twist toward the end much like the first game, though it's less meta than that one.
As you can tell from the description, SaGa 2 is a more jovial experience than the first title. Filled with a bit more humor than the first entry. That's not to say it doesn't have it's fair share of drama as well but overall the game comes across as the most lighthearted entry in the franchise. This is also projected in the worlds you visit which are just as quirky as the first game. One world has you navigating a Giant's village, another one has you enter a dragon race that monsters try to jump, there is even an Edo era Japanese world that plays out like a 60's Samurai detective drama. Instead of the Four Heavenly Beasts, the New Gods re based off various deities from different pantheons including Ashura from Shinto, Odin from Norse, Venus from Roman, and Apollo from Greek. The settings are more fun and some of them even require you to visit a few extra worlds to resolve the conflict in one of them. The game also gets hit a bit harder with censorship than the first one did, with the most obvious and hilarious being the Edo story arc which originally involves a tale about smuggled opium, now being changed to...wait for it...those evil banana's the kids keep getting hooked on. Damn zinc addicted kids. Anyway, this game is both funnier, has quirkier NPCs to interact with, and world's that are more fanciful than tragic. It's like Kawazu and his team were told to cool it after the first entry.
Gameplay has been both expanded and refined compared to the first one. SaGa 1 had some quirky mechanics, but a major gripe with it is how unbalanced it was with monsters and humans being stupidly broken, and Espers being a crap-shoot on if they were going to be useful or not. Kawazu's team fixed a few of these complaints, and then kind of accidentally messed up again as well with the new race. Humans no longer level up through items, instead they use the same system as the Espers but the mechanics were streamlined and easier to figure out with stats being directly connected to what weapons you use with Bows and Rapiers raising agility, swords and axes raising strength, and spells and magic weapons raising magic. Humans can even use magic now, though they can only use them through tomes and magic weapons, whereas Espers can actually learn magic. Speaking of, learning magic sticks to the RNG issue of the first game, but now the game will only replace the last spell in your Esper's inventory and the player has the ability to rearrange spells meaning you can choose which ones to drop or keep. Even more useful is that Espers start with a powerful elemental spell now, though if you're foolish enough to lose it, it's lost forever. Monsters have also been retooled and now have triple the amount of options from the first game. The mechanics for monster changes are far more complex in this entry, almost staggering actually. Even with a table, you're still probably going to need a calculator and some basic math skills to figure out what you'll actually wind up with. The tiers have also been re-balanced so there isn't as much of a discrepancy between monsters of the same tier, making it more difficult to break the game with monsters, but also giving the player more options on monster builds. The newest addition to the game are Robots. This class sort of takes on the attributes of Humans from the first game. All of their stats are based on what equipment you give them following the description above, but robots cannot use magic and have no magic stat to protect them from spells. Items given to them lose half of their uses even if unequipped from them, so you have to be really careful before you give them an item. On the brighside, monsters can regenerate uses by staying at an inn, so you can build them around using powerful weapons if you want. Even better, they are glitched when it comes to martial art moves and can gain crazy high stats if you give them a martial art move with only a single use left. So as I said, they balanced all the returning classes but the new one winds up being the game breaker.
The game also introduces guest party members which include your Dad (his weapons include a whip and revolver) as well as a samurai, a kung-fu kid, a detective, and your actual professor who is a powerful monster mage. This is nice to check out some cool items you may have never thought of using, and half of them have really high stats and end up caring you for parts of the game. Another new addition are a few new weapon types such as guns, artillery, and off the wall weapons like coins. Another new mechanic is the MAGI system. The MAGI you collect in the game can be equipped by your party to raise their stats or to grant them new abilities like the Aegis Shield MAGI that works like a magic barrier for the whole party when used in combat, or the Masemune MAGI that is a powerful unbreakable sword attack that does neutral and consistent damage. There is honestly way more variety and balance in the game leaving it a more fun experience overall. It only really gets difficult by the end game which is kind of par the course for the whole franchise, but the game just feels more satisfying to play.
With Uematsu and Kenji Ito helming the music, the two managed to come up with some really killer tracks for the tiny Game Boy system. Tracks like Prologue, which is more or less the Main Theme in minor key is surprisingly haunting even on the GB's limited sound system. He even manages to pull a few heart breaking tracks like Wipe your Tears Away and Requiem which help add the eerieness of the original game. Battle themes are still pretty strong especially Furious Battle, the final boss theme and ultimately show Uematsu's growing skill as a musician. Honestly the music combined with the scenario really show how absolutely odd ball the original SaGa was but it works really well. It's honestly one of Uematsu's most underrated OSTs if you ask me. Course most fans of the FF Legend series probably remember SaGa 2's score a bit better. Tracks like Burning Blood are well known in the remix scene and it has gotten quite a few arrangments on official albums. Other tracks like Heartful Tears and Wandering Shadows gives a real taste of the kind of tracks we would see in FFIII and RS1. The OST is bit more bouncy and has a few more blood pumping tracks than SaGa 1 which is likely why it's more popular with gamers.Overall both games have pretty excellent scores that show off the strengths of both the composers.
Between the two, I feel the second entry is a bit more accessible with more customization options, better difficulty curve, more personable NPCs and a heavier emphasis on plot than the first game, but I feel the first entry is such a unique experience that it's difficult to really say forget about it. The real shame for me is that Squenix has never saw it fit to release the remakes in the West. SaGa 1 got an FFOrigins style remake for the Wonderswan, and while it was later ported to mobile, it has stayed a Japanese exclusive. The graphics and music were upgraded to 16-bit level and it featured a few QoL changes such a bestiary, bug fixes and the ability to see a monster transformation results before committing to it. The real shame is SaGa 2, which was given a full 3D remake on the DS similar to the ones doen for FFIII and IV. This remake featured artwork from The World Ends with You team, and has a ton of new features like extra story parts, a new relationship system that coincides with a new combo system. An arena mode, and extra sidequests and QoL changes. The revamped soundtrack is also awesome and it's a damn shame the game stayed in Japan, though I guess there is always emulation. Maybe with the franchises recent resurgance in the West, SE might consider porting it along with SaGa 3's remake in the West as virtual console type deal for the Switch or 3DS. If you get the opportunity to, I'd definitely check out these two games. They are surprisingly fun and deep experiences despite being early Game Boy titles. Since I couldn't find any good trailers for the games, I'll end with a peak of what the SaGa 2 remake looks like.
Last edited by Wolf Kanno; 07-22-2020 at 08:28 AM.
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