![]() ![]() This is something that had to have felt pretty alien in 1998, and it still feels a little off-kilter in 2021. Outside of combat, one of the strongest aspects of SaGa Frontier that has stood the test of time is the open-world traversal. Do you play it safe with what you got? Or drop one skill and hope something better arises? ![]() If you wish to learn new ones, you need to eliminate, or seal away, ones you already unlocked. One final, interesting wrinkle is that you can only have a select amount of specials on hand at once. It’s a system designed to make you experiment with different tactics, rather than constantly pushing you towards using the same ones over and over again. Once you have a suite of various attacks for each party member, you can stumble onto special combo attacks that can cause massive damage. Mystics can use specific attacks to absorb enemies and learn new skills, while monsters can also absorb them to learn. For the traditional warriors, using a regular attack will occasionally open up new specials. Depending on what class of character you use, the exact process will vary. Personally, my favorite aspect of the combat engine is how you go about learning new moves. Even then, though, they are good for grinding away at your stats. Of course, there are also plenty of other locations that serve almost no purpose other than trying to kill you. It’s important to make these detours as well - they are key to not only finding new party members but also uncovering new skills for your party to make use of. While you’re supposed to be accomplishing whatever main tasks are placed in front of you, you could easily waste hours just messing around the SaGa‘s expansive universe. I don’t want to say you get thrown to the wolves once you do select a character, but it wouldn’t be far from the truth. A newly added journal in the main menu helps give you the gist of things, but additional clarity would have been appreciated. Whether they’re barely explained or whatever explanation you are given is borderline incoherent, it can be tough following a story thread at times. However, some of the more important details from a character’s journey can be poorly relayed. With so much going on at one time, I was surprised at the amount of depth given to the adventure. By traveling to the game’s various worlds, you’ll uncover plenty of weird and funny stories. I think its universe is absolutely fascinating, and since you are pretty much given free rein to explore, I suggest doing so. That being said, I’m of mixed mind when it comes to Saga Frontier‘s storytelling. ![]() Having now played through it, I can safely say that its unique take on the genre is still worth experiencing today. I avoided it when it first came out, due to both my young age and the mediocre reviews it garnered. It’s a game that refuses to hold your hand, hardly explains any of the complicated systems in it, and can be soul-crushingly tough if the wrong decisions are made. Square chose to follow up its mega-smash with an esoteric, brutally uncompromising RPG that was unlike anything else on the market. Originally released after Final Fantasy VII blew up the charts, SaGa Frontier must have been quite the surprise for those unaware of its origins. ![]() Perhaps sensing there was still untapped potential, the series is being born anew with the release of SaGa Frontier Remastered. Akitoshia Kawazu’s cult series flourished in Japan but has struggled to find an audience here in North America. Smack dab in the middle of that was the PSX debut of the SaGa franchise. From the iconic Final Fantasy releases to cult hits such as Parasite Eve and Brave Fencer Musashi, it seemed like top-notch titles were dropping every few months. Square Enix’s mid-to-late 1990’s output is one of the strongest runs by a single publisher I can remember. ![]()
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