I have finally obtained Unlimited SaGa, and I hope it is as deliciously bad as I've been told considering the struggle it took for me to get a copy of it.

in SaGa 1, I'm traveling up the tower again, but I'm a little lost and the encounter rate is getting a wee bit annoying, though that seems to be a thing in this franchise in general.

SaGa Frontier 2, finished Elenore's first scenario and learned that Rich is actually Wil's son, who is apprenticing under her for the moment. Sadly, the Lost Woods scenario was actually kind of annoying but I got it done. In the Gustave path, the political situation of the game is getting interesting and I still really wish the game had an in-game glossary to keep tabs on characters. Gustave's scenario has switched to his best friend Kelvin and his son Philippe, except due to how a certain scenario played out, I don't think Philippe is Kelvin's biological son and instead might be Gustave's nephew except he might have been killed, but this kid has the Firebrand which is the holy relic of Gustave's former home and then he gets saved by a certain dragon that popped up the last time the Firebrand showed up, and all I really want to know is who the hell half these characters are. From what I've gathered on the Wiki/TV Tropes, a lot of the plot kind of got cut and only appears in the game's Ultimania of which there are no real translations cause SaGa doesn't have as big and resourceful fanbase in the West like FF does. Ugh...

To put this into overkill, I've also started dabbling in Romancing SaGa 1 via emulator. It's really interesting playing a game that graphically feels like the missing link between FFIV and V. You choose between eight characters at the start to be your lead, each with their own scenario. While you can rename them, the really interesting part is you get to choose their parents profession, which in turn changes the characters starting stats. I started with Albert, who pretty much looks like how I imagined the son of Cecil and Rosa would look before the After Years changed that. So I gave his parents their profession. Albert is the son of a local lord whom everyone pressures with his eventual rise to be a warrior king like his dad. Unfortunately, Albert is still young and his older sister is far more talented than he is which gives him a bit of a complex. When his scenario opens, a local cave near the castle has become overrun with monsters and Albert's hot-headed blood knight sister feels it is there familial duty to clear it out, so she drags you and some guards over to the cave to clear it out.

Mechanically it's interesting. Enemies can actually be seen on the field and engaged that way, though they tend to gravitate towards you. Also, depending on what direction your facing when you touch an enemy will change your party formation, so getting attacked from the side or behind can be quite disastrous cause formations are super important in this game as it utilizes a grid format reminiscent of Persona 1 but less stupid. It's also a bit scary when you walk onto a field and watch as fifteen to twenty monsters swarm you, so if you hate fighting in RPGs, you might want to set this one out.

On the brightside, weapons don't break like they do in the other SaGa games I've played, though I've read they will break if you use Weapon Skills you learn in battle too many times. Leveling is a bit tougher and I kind of feel like the game has two superflous stats that for some inexplicable reason get priority in leveling over something useful like HP or vitality. It does look like the game still takes points from SaGa and your equipment determines which stats go up. Albert begins with a Rapier, which is usually a speed/dexterity stat based weapon, and so he gets a few point in DEX but not strength, but once I equipped him with his sister's Iron Sword, he is now finally getting Strength stat upgrades. It will be interesting to see how this goes.