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Thread: WK's Top something or other... let's just say "games" and call it good list.

  1. #511
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    #103
    To continue the trend of remembering back when Konami was a beloved game developer and not the butt of every pachinko machine joke, let's go back to 1999, when Konami decided they wanted in on all of that survival horror money Capcom was making with Resident Evil. I was never a fan of RE, I don't find zombies interesting and especially in today's market, I feel they are a bit overused. The original RE1 was goofy fun, but hardly a game I felt I needed in my gaming collection, or one I wanted to bother playing through its sequels. Silent Hill looked more pedestrian by comparison to the gory head shots and B-Movie antics of RE, but I kind of liked the slower pace and heavier focus on narrative and puzzles. It took me years to get around to playing the first game, and I was honestly surprised. I really felt starting with the later entries would have made this game feel lackluster in comparison, but instead I simply could see how well it was actually designed.
    The original Silent Hill is the story of Harry Mason, a widower whose only family is his adopted daughter Cheryl. One night, while driving through the back woods in good old Lovecraft country New England with his daughter. He sees a teenage girl on the road and swerves to avoid her, only to crash the car and be knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, he finds his daughter Cheryl is missing and that he is in the mysterious town of Silent Hill, a former vacation spot with a darker history than most places. The town is deserted and filled with a mysterious fog, and strange creatures out for his blood within it. He desperately searches the town for his missing daughter who continues to leave clues for him to follow. Clues to a girl named Alessa and a strange cult that rules the town from the shadows waiting for the day their dark god will be reborn anew. The town is mostly abandoned except for a police woman named Cybil who followed Harry into the town after discovering his wrecked car. A strange religious woman who keeps pushing Harry to find the demon who is turning the town into a nightmare. Dr. Kaufman, the head of the town hospital who is worried about the sorry state of the town. Finally there is Lisa, a nurse trapped in the nightmare world version of the hospital. Harry must explore the haunted town and uncover its mysteries in order to save his daughter and finally wake from the nightmare once and for all.
    Silent Hill was born in the intervening time between Resident Evil's release in 96 and the SH's eventual release in 99. Konami saw the huge success of Capcom's juggernaut franchise and wanted in on that action, so they built a team to try and make it happen. Unfortunately, all of their A-teams were busy working on other projects so Team Silent ended up being filled with all the employees who simply kept failing within the company or were kicked out of other teams for poor performance. The Konami heads wanted them to make a Resident Evil clone, which is why the game is very close to design to Capcom's franchise, but as time went on, the exec became more and more convinced the title wasn't going to live up to RE and soon stopped controlling the project, finally letting the team do whatever they wanted since Konami assumed the game would flop regardless. This move of giving the team more creative control allowed them to steer the title into a different direction from a RE clone and instead they decided to make an Western Style horror game based off of works like Stephen King, Twin Peaks, and David Lynch films. This Japanese take on foreign style of horror ended up creating a really unique experience, and I feel that's a large part of why the Team Silent entries are often cited as the most successful entries because the Japanese sensibilities adds a lot of restraint to Western Horrors more over the top nature.
    While Silent Hill 2 gets most of the series glory, I feel SH1 is still the most well known. I'm sure with the exception of a few details, most people could probably recount the plot summary I gave. Harry's story is the most well known of the all the protagonist simply because the game has been around forever and simply because the game has had the most lip service of any entry in the franchise. Even the lukewarm film is nothing but an adaption of this game's plot. For me, I love the fact that Silent Hill took a lot of the elements I hated from Resident Evil and worked them in a way that actually made sense. Combat is a chore in this game thanks to cumbersome tank controls and slow ass animations, but unlike RE1, it makes sense here cause Harry isn't some special forces agent, he's a 9 to 5 stiff who has never held a gun in his life. The puzzles in RE1 always felt incredibly obtuse and have long been a bit o a joke among RE fans for their impracticality. In SH1 though, they exist as games by a malevolent force screwing with you and serve to raise the tension of the narrative. It doesn't change the fact that SH1 can be a pain in the ass to play, but here it feels a bit more immersive in its cumbersome nature whereas in RE1, I always felt these aspects destroyed immersion when Chris Redfield, who is built like a brick house, is struggling to fight off a single zombie. Whereas Harry, who has only ever seen a gym when he passes it every morning to get his coffee reacts pretty well to some average person using a heavy metal pipe to swipe away monstrous ash children who keep swarming him. I still hate the nature of the control scheme cause I've always hated tank controls, but here it works.
    Yet, I feel what works the best for me is Silent Hill's nature as a more of a psychological horror piece with some Lovecraftian undertones. Though I prefer how SH2 showcases the fact that Silent Hill was a smurfed up place long before the events of Silent Hill, I like the idea of an evil location that just attracts dark forces to it. Silent Hill's horror works better for me because it's not so much "jump scare" focus, rather its designed to make you feel uncomfortable and oppressed. The Dark World scenarios are not any more dangerous than the fog world places, but they do feel more claustrophobic and unsettling. To me, that's the best horror can do for me. I have a surprisingly high tolerance for horror I've learned, so for me, the best kind of horror is the type I still dwell on long after the credits roll or the book is finished. That's what Silent Hill does better than other horror games I've played. It stays with me and I think is because the game's have always tried to focus on more fundamental human fears and needs. Harry's journey as a parent trying to find his lost daughter is unsettling for anyone who has had to look after a child. The game feeds on the fear of being lost, and some of the game's camera work is designed to illicit the feeling of being watched. The opening section of the game where Harry is exploring the back alleys' has this awesome camera work that gives the impression someone is watching him from above on the rooftops, and it helps just add to the creepy factor of the game.
    I also feel the fugly low polygon graphics of the PS1 only help to add to the eeriness of game. It's interesting how the PS2 entries and Origins play around with filters to give the setting a more aged film grade look as though they were trying to recapture that dirty look from the PS1 era. It works too cause watching videos of the more recent entries, the cleaner graphics detract from the experience despite technically looking better. Course nothing gets the atmosphere spot on like Akira Yamaoka's creepy industrial inspired soundtrack. It leans much heavier on the eerie factor than later entries that incorporate a bit more rock and jazz used for character moments, but the soundtrack is completely unsettling. To give an example, the final boss theme uses the sound of a dentist drill to create the effect of Harry's radio going completely crazy while fighting a dark god. Hell SH honestly has some good audio design in general as Yamaoka effectively uses both his unsettling score with bouts of silence to really unnerve the player. You never known which is worse, wandering the halls of the Nightmare World listening to score that can best be described as listening to an untuned piano being violated by steel pipes, only to walk into a room that takes the form of a classroom with no one in there but a single desk in the center of the room and in complete silence outside of Harry's footsteps and grunts. I feel where Silent Hill has always excelled is in its superb execution of atmosphere.
    The other element I really did enjoy about SH1 and this became more apparent as I got further along in SH3, was how much I enjoyed exploring the town. In fact, it's rather surprising how big the town was in the original compared to later installments. It has a lot of literal broken bridges to limit where you can go, but it was really interesting to explore the town, especially since doing so was the only way to get the Good+ ending and to finally figure out what was going on with Kaufman. I feel that's what is so amazing about this game is how it turns its weaknesses into strengths, the most famous of course being the fog element the series is known for was the design team trying to compensate for the PS1's terrible draw distance, but even how effective the cast is used to to cover the game's lonely and claustrophobic gameplay. I really liked the game's side characters. While most of them wear their motives on their sleeves, it was still interesting to discover what Kaufman's role was in the story, to run into Cybil and ultimately save her from the town's influence, to Lisa, dear god Lisa is one of the most tragic figures in this game behind Alessa herself. Despite the small cast, you do find yourself a bit endeared to them on some level, likely because the lonely atmosphere of the game always makes it a bit welcoming to encounter another person and not some weird flesh creature trying to tear you a new asshole. It made the story beats impactful and made their final conclusions all the more cathartic.
    Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the original Silent Hill. While it won't surpass its superior sequel for me, it ended up being a pretty fun game that hit all the beats I wanted. While it may be the clunkiest entry just due to technology limitations and the teams own inexperience, I still feel the core of the game is fairly strong and still worth playing through.


  2. #512
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    #104It took me way too long to get around to this entry. Made only weird because I've already played a good chunk of the franchise by this point, but until a few years ago, I had never made a serious attempt to check out this classic and I feel a bit bummed about that. It has been nice to see the remake revive both interest in this entry as well as the franchise as a whole. For those wondering though, this assessment will be based off the original 16-bit version. I haven't had a chance to pick up the remake and have only played a bit of the demo. I say this now, because some of my comments really only apply to the original. Long, long ago, the world was plunged in darkness, until the Mana Goddess used the Mana Sword to fell eight God-Beasts and sealed them away in megalithic Mana Stones. She then used her power to create the world and transformed into the magnificent Mana Tree and fell asleep. The Mana Sword still by her side in the Holy Land. Time passed and the story fell into legend. Races emerged from the created world and built nations in time using the power of Mana. Though the God-Beasts slept, darkness still roamed the land in one form or another. When the story begins, Mana is slowly disappearing as the Mana Tree begins to fade. Three kingdoms begin to wage war on their neighbors, the Magic Kingdom of Altena attacks the Grassland Kingdom of Forcena, the Desert nation of Navarre attacks the Wind Kingdom of Rolante, and the Beast Tribe of Ferolia attacking the holy land of Wendel. Six souls from each of these lands will find themselves caught up in the wars and uncover the dark forces plotting to use the Mana Stones to break the seal on the Holy Land where the Mana Tree stands and take her power for themselves. Concerned, the Mana Goddess sends out some Faries to find the Chosen One, who will save Mana. Unfortunately, the dwindling power of Mana makes the journey difficult and only one survives long enough to find anyone, and they are not their first pick...
    • Angela is the magically talent-less Princess of Altena, whose lonely childhood has made her grow into a childish and vain woman who shirks her magic studies. When her mother the Queen and her advisor Koren tell her they plan to sacrifice her life in order to channel the power of the Mana Stones to increase their Queendom's waning power, she is forced to flee the queendom and travels to Wendel to gain advice about the strange behavior of her mother and learn to channel her emerging magical talent.



    • Duran is the son of the former Golden Knight Loki, who perished in a triumphant duel against the Dragon Lord fifteen years ago while defending his king. Now fully grown, Duran is Forcena's most talented swordsman. One night, while keeping watch, the castle is attacked by Koren, who single handily defeats the king's guard with his magic including Duran. Humiliated and thirsting for revenge, Duran learns from a local fortune teller that he may find a power that will allow him to surpass Koren in Wendel and thus he leaves in the dead of night to get his revenge for his wounded pride.


    • Hawkeye is an orphan in the city of Navarre who was adopted by the Thieves Guild, their leader Flamekahn has been joined by a mysterious woman named Isabelle and disband the guild to transform Navarre into their own kingdom and militarize the Thieves Guild members to wage war on Rolante. Disturbed by the new attitude, Hawkeye and his friends Eagle and Jessica follow Isabelle to discover what she's really after, Instead they see a bit too much and Eagle is killed, Hawkeye is blamed for his death, and Jessica is cursed so she will die if Hawkeye tells a soul what he saw. He escapes with the help of his Neko friends and travels to Wendel in hopes of finding a means to break the curse on Jessica.



    • Rietsz is the Princess of the Kingdom of Rolante, the Castle that Never Fell. She leads the amazonian guards and is well respected by all. Her greatest treasure being her little brother Elliot whose birth cost the life of their dear mother. One day, Elliot fails to show up for practice, instead he meets two desert magicians named Bill and Ben ho perform tricks and promise the young boy they can revive his mother if he takes them to the chamber that generates the wind storm that protects the castle. Elliot believes them and takes them there, and they deactivate the spell allowing their ninja forces to attack the castle after dispersing a sleeping agent to neutralize the forces. Rietsz finally finds her brother and tries to protect him, but he is kidnapped by the two scheming charlatans and finds herself in a life or death battle. With her father dead, her kingdom in ruins, and her brother kidnapped, Rietsz choose to leave the lands after restoring the wind and head to Wendel to seek advice.


    • Kevin is a half-beastman and son of the Beast King of Ferolia. An outcast to both his beastmen and humans whom he shares blood with, Kevin grows up in a lonely world until he befriends and wolf pup he names Karl. His father Glauser is approached by a mysterious clown known as the Deathjester, who offers the Beast King a chance to avenge his people whom were persecuted in the past by humans. Gauser is initially not interested, but uses Deathjester's power for a certain end. On a full moon knight, Kevin is attacked by Karl who is consumed with dark power and turns vicious. Kevin tries his best not to hurt his friend but his beastmen blood activates and Kevin transforms into a werewolf and slaughters Karl. Grief stricken, Kevin buries Karl and returns home where he overhears a conversation between his father and Deathjester, revealing that Deathjester had used his power to make Karl evil in order to force Kevin to awaken his beastman heritage. Enraged, he attacks his father and is soundly defeated by him. Hurt and afraid to return home, he encounters Deathjester again who tells him the Priest of Light in Wendel may have the power to revive Karl. So Kevin leaves to find a way to save his only friend.



    • Charlotte is the granddaughter of the Priest of Light. Though she is unaware of the tragic circumstances of her parents, she still dreams of them. When she overhears her grandfather and her friend Heath discussing the ominous omens that have struck Wendel and Astoria, the Priest orders Heath to investigate. Worried he may fall into danger, Charlotte tries to go after him but her grandfather bars her from doing so and locks her within the temple for her protection. With the help of one of the servants, she is able to escape the temple but instead of landing in Astoria she lands outside the magic barrier her grandfather erected to keep Wendel safe. She eventually tracks down Heath in the Rabite forest where he is attacked by Beastmen hoping to invade Wendel. Though the beastmen get repelled, Deathjester appears and strikes down Heath. Taking a peculiar interest in him, Deathjester takes Heath with him and leaves Charlotte alone now desperately trying to find him.

    Trials of Mana, better known as Seiken Densetsu 3, is a pretty interesting title overall. In a lot of ways, it was the Mana team getting a chance to build a game to utilize a lot of the features that got stripped out of Secret of Mana such as branching story paths and multiple endings. The player gets to choose their three member party at the outset of the game. Each character has their own intro sequence and ending , though teaming up characters with story connections fills in a lot of holes in their plots as you'll get the other side of the story in many cases. The final boss and main villain will also change depending on who your lead character is. If you choose Angela or Duran, then they have to face off with the mysterious Darkshine Knight and Koren who are trying to revive the power of the Dragon Lord who gave him their magical powers in exchange for a piece of their souls. If you choose Hakweye or Rietsz you face Isabelle and Jagon who are trying to use the Mana Stones to revive the Dark Prince, Ruler of Mavolia. If you choose either Kevin and Charlotte you face off with Deathjester, a servant of the Dark Priest who was banished from Wendel. What is actually kind of neat about the game's narrative for me is that even if you don't choose certain characters, all three plot lines are still valid. The three party members you didn't choose will still show up in places in the early game, and even appear during certain climatic moments when your party journeys into places dealing with their plots. So Duran will still encounter Isabelle, Rietsz will still have to fight Luger the Beastman captain, and Charlotte is still going to have to deal with the Altena's Magic Golems. The main narrative puts the chosen main character to track down the eight Mana Spirits in hopes of reaching the Holy Land and using the Mana Sword to restore the seals on the Mana Stones. Following basic RPG formula, the party ultimately fail, their token villain ends up wiping out the other villain factiosn to be main villain, and the Mana Stones shatter alowing the Eight God-Beasts to be revived. The second half of the game is the battle to take down the beasts in almost any order they like. The big thing to take away here from it's predecessors is player freedom and replayability. The first half of the game is fairly linear, but the second half is incredibly open ended until the final dungeons open up. The player has six different scenarios to play through and multiple party builds. I haven't even mentioned the Class system which further expands player options and party builds. This all especially works when you realize how short this game is. My playthrough hit around 25 hours and that involved a bit more grinding than I meant to do. So even just dropping the game clock down to an average of twenty hours, that still means playing through all six characters scenarios still gives this game about a 120 hours of overall game time which is about three times as much as Secret of Mana. The game also improves on a lot of battle mechanics from SoM while trading off other features. Trials of Mana may play like SoM but the feel of the games are very different from each other. Trials of Mana biggest improvements over SoM is a few QoL changes such as an expanded and better developed inventory system, the removal of charged attacks and replacement with limit break style Tech Attacks, and overall better challenge brought on by the class system. While SoM is hardly an easy game, it's not as difficult as classic Trials of Mana where player choice can find you with a party build that lacks things like healing or debuff magic. So you can actually make this game as hard or as easy as you like if you know how to build your team right. What the game drops from SoM are things like the Power Meter which gave the original a more methodical approach to combat as you would have to sometimes wait for your character to reach full strength before you swing their weapon again. Likewise weapon variety is gone as well. the six characters all use unique equipment and the environments are no longer interactive so you lose out of going all Indiana Jones swinging with a whip or using as Ax to break down heavy barriers. It's a little sad to see these features go, but I feel the trade-off works. Another change is magic, it's not nearly as powerful as it was in the SoM without the right build for it and you can no longer chain cast spells and stun lock bosses for a good chunk of their health like you use to. Goes a long way into showing why boss battles are more brutal in this entry. Enemies also now have counters for certain magic spells and techs being used on them, forcing ou to adopt different strategies instead of trying to vainly heal through it. Also new to the game is the option to choose your party stats at level up.It was nice to have control over your character's development and it made stat gains feel more impactful. Helping this situation is how abilities and skills are attached to stats, so even if you were to upgrade Kevin or Duran to a class that can use magic, if you've been neglecting their INT and PIE stats, you'll likely not get access to their spells right away.
    The Class system is actually a pretty neat feature. Once the party reaches Lv. 18, which is about the time they'll reach the midpoint of the game, they can go to any of the Mana Stones and have their character choose a Light or Dark class to transform into. These classes offer better stats for your characters, access to new equipment, and new spells and skills to expand their playstyles. Duran is a pretty straightforward melee grunt in the beginning but going Light class will transform him into a Knight and give him access to Shields and healing magic. Going Dark class turns him into a Gladiator who uses two-handed swords and has access to elemental weapon enchantments. Once the characters reach Lv.38 they can travel to the Mana Holy land and use an item dropped by late game monsters to transform into a different class though the classes available depend on your previous choices. So Knight Duran can go Light/Light and become a Lord or Light/Dark and become a Paladin. Whereas Gladiator Duran can go Dark/Dark and become a Duelist, while Dark/Light will become a Swordmaster. These unlock additional skills, spells, and Techs as well, so careful party planning is advised. Overall, each character has six classes to choose from marking 36 classes in total which further expands the game's high replayability options.
    One area that Mana titles have always succeeded for me is in their gorgeous graphics and excellent music. Moving to a 36 Mbit cartridge allowed the devs to do some real cool touches on the game's art direction and graphics. It looks less flat than Secret of Mana and gas more texture and shading added to them. Not that SoM looks bad, but Trials obtained more of the storybook style that Koichi Isshii wanted. The God Beasts get special mention as the Mana team crafted some pretty snazzy looking monster designs and pulled off a few more tricks to add a cinematic flair to the game like Muspell's animated arms, or Dangaard's battle on top of Flammie in the sky with perspective changes and everything. The game is still visually impressive even today and even makes some later entries look poor in comparison. Course with the visuals we have to talk about the musical score. Trials of Mana was the second, and last OST Hiroki Kikuta composed for the Mana series. The other was Secret of Mana, and I feel it shows how well his scores were received that many of the composers who followed him have still tried to emulate his style. Whereas Kikuta was a bit of a control freak with Secret's score, he allowed to have a sound engineer help him with Trials which gave him the time to compose three times more tracks than even Mana. Trials's OST is pretty damn solid. I still think SoM has better tracks overall like Fear of the Heavens, but it's counterpart in Trials, Where Angels Fear to Tread is a worthy successor. The score is really good and I feel my preference for the other is more nostalgia than anything but I feel Kikuta still nailed it overall with this score and I'm disappointed he left Square after this title because I would have been happy to have him as the series composer or just working on more Squenix OSTs in general.
    If I have any real problems with Trials of Mana it comes down to a few minor gripes. The main menu system for instance is visually interesting, but completely non-user friendly involving too many obtuse design options. I'm grateful the remake opted for a more traditional one. The game is also quite buggy. Maybe not as buggy as FFVI or Romancing SaGa 1, but it's pretty bad. Switching characters in battle tends to reset characters battle A.I. making them just kind of stand around and take hits. Kevin's werewolf form will also do the same thing once he finishes transforming if he's either not controlled by the player or close enough to an enemy to register them. The better graphics takes a toll on loading, so the original game sort of has to deal with the magic queue issue from FFXII where a characters magic or techs can be held up having too much going on in battle. It's not apparent in the beginning when you're limited, but by endgame it becomes an issue you'll either exploit or get decimated by. Item drops become a bigger pain in the ass by endgame as well when you're hunting for class change seeds and Final Weapon/Armor seeds. Seeds can be taken to planters found in inns to grow items. Most of it is just consumable nonsense, but the final classes and gear are locked behind them. Thankfully class changing seeds are not an issue unless you're trying to gauge the system and unlock them as early as possible at which point your options a re a bit limited. Most of the enemies in the final two dungeons only drop these two types of seeds so getting them isn't actually as much of a pain at first. The real issue is the final equipment because each character will have at least four pieces of gear they can get from these seeds and the algorithm gets really annoying when you've unlocked all but one of them. So there is some heavy farming that goes on towards the end. None of this is helped by the extra step of having to leave the dungeon and visit an inn to find out what you have. What truly makes this annoying is that there is a weird algorithm for what you get that is designed to kind of screw players who try to save scum their way around the issue, even with save states. It's still a pain, but at least drop rates are better than SoM. These are nagging issues, but not enough to tank this pretty awesome game. One other issue is that not all of the stats work the way they are suppose to. Stats like Luck and Dexterity don't work the way they do, but it's not as big of a deal as it seems since most spells and skills are attached to stats so while dexterity is useless to most of the cast, Hawkeye still needs them for some of his class skills.
    Overall, I feel Trials of Mana is a pretty solid game and shows more of the pedigree of Square's staff in the 90s. I was also happy to fill in a major gap in my RPG list. My only regret is that it took me so long to get around to it because I could see this game being ranked much higher as a favorite if I had grown up with it. Hopefully the remake will help to spurn on the franchise more cause I've really been digging SE finally revisiting and trying to revive their old IPs I grew up with.


  3. #513
    Witch of Theatergoing Karifean's Avatar
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    The remake has kinda made me more interested in playing the original myself. It does feel pretty amazing how much replay value this little 20 hour gem of an ARPG has though.

    I hope you're ready for localization whiplash when playing the remake =P

  4. #514
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Karifean View Post
    The remake has kinda made me more interested in playing the original myself. It does feel pretty amazing how much replay value this little 20 hour gem of an ARPG has though.

    I hope you're ready for localization whiplash when playing the remake =P
    I played through the demo, so I'm well aware a lot of things have changed. Hell, I knew they were going to be called Benevodons before the game was officially ported/remade simply because that's how they are referenced in Children of Mana and Heroes of Mana. I just think God-Beasts sound cooler, and a little perplexed they didn't just stick with Mana Beast because the Japanese term they use for the eight of them is the same one as the final boss in SoM.

    If I can ever get a disposable income again after this pandemic, I'm looking forward to playing through the Remake, because the demo really impressed me.

  5. #515
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    #105
    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.


  6. #516
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Did another update or two for anyone interested.

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    Newbie Administrator Loony BoB's Avatar
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    Loony Bob (Twintania)

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    I believe he did, the opening post of the thread was edited The changes are noted in it.
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