Preliminary: Welp, time to finally properly review this. I absolutely loved this when I played it some years back. I am, again, going to do a well-rounded team rather than just brute forcing through the game with 4 humans. Thinking 2 humans, 1 mutant, and 1 monster to experience the variety of classes and how they work in this game. I still love the Meat idea for the Monster changing :-p Here goes nothing! I'm hoping it's not like FF2 where on replay, I was super disappointed.

Oh wow just realized this game is actually from 1989. Even more impressive that it was before FF3. And so early in general for the GB. Also, seems there are some significant differences between the 1989 original Japanese release and the 1990 NA release, namely several bugs introduced. Hm. Disappointed tho that there is no fan translation so it'll have to be the 1990 release after all.

Early Game

Great starting screen tune. I'm glad to see the walking is faster than most its contemporary NES RPGs, tho still a tad sluggish. Just like last time I played it I love how there are these towns amidst this tower or whatever, this Super Mario 64 conception of reality, the paradise motif, the mutants and monsters part of town, hard to explain unless you just play it. Very... surreal.

Oooo now I remember what I loved so much about this game. The Mutant had a sorta FF2 style leveling, Humans had their own (purchasing upgrades), etc. So neat. And I like how the Monsters have certain abilities which remind me of Pokemon.

I'm not really understanding when and why my Mutant does level up its stats but it finally did thankfully. Sorta like FF2 I suppose heh. And this really is full of so much messy stuff, like you use the King's Armor on the statue but there's no indication that it's been done. It just disappears from your inventory. Very rudimentary stuff here. However, it is a GB game, and turns out its 89. Plus the tunes are staying interesting and have that classic GB sound.

What good music, surprisingly fast walk compared to its contemporary NES RPGs, and surprisingly forgiving random battle frequency. No wonder I liked this so much the first time. Feels like a JRPG brought to your handheld device but with extra touches that would even make it stand apart as a console game. I love the plot. And there is so much customizability, since you can basically choose how to level up your humans and monsters. Well, mutants too, but quite literally can pick and choose--could even choose not to level up for an extra challenge--humans and monsters.

For some reason this opponent is giving me Pokemon vibes. I read this influenced Pokemon after all.

Wow I mean cmon, so pokemon esque. And the music too at this part.

I love that it remembers what command you last picked during a battle. Just full of great things, while still being very retro and GB-limited. Love it all around. I wish I had devoted more time to this this week, been trying out an Ironman on OSRS and regretting it

I love the little side worlds along the way, sometimes with a healing fountain, sometimes serving seemingly no purpose. So cute. Some negatives tho: I really don't like how Mutants' equip/skill screen works. It seems to always have the most useless stuff on top.

I got lucky that my Old Man riddle was Battle Sword, since I already had one :-p Would've been a chore otherwise. The game definitely tries to throw the usual early RPG/adventure game chores at you, but with a guide, it avoids the far too common tedium of its contemporaries.

Mid Game

I still love the tunes, but I have to admit the limited number makes them get a bit repetitive. But a) that's normal in a JRPG due to grinds/etc, and b) it still has such a cozy GB sound to it which makes me feel like I'm pushing up the On switch and settling down to play my portable RPG!

Such a cool variety of Monsters and npc sprites in towns throughout your journey. And mwahahah I love when you get a meaningful jump in your Monster when in a new area with stronger enemies. I love the variety of training methods in this game for the different "classes"/races.

Argh I wish I had knew to plan on this many Medusas turning all my characters to Stone...

Still, just loving the game left and right. So many things to praise about it. Especially for its time. (tho I do wish Esp uh did something, and the order of the Mutant spells was more logical/customizable).

I keep thinking how well-balanced this game is. I always tend to want to be overpowered for early RPGs, but in this case, I keep being in the right place. Despite the guide I'm referencing expecting much higher levels, I keep managing to get through the bosses in 1 or 2 tries, the number of tries I like :-p Love it love it love it. And I love the falling-down-a-drain-hole-to-another-sideworld sidequest :-p Welp I'm on the final main world now so figure it's time for Late Game

Late Game

The girl-chasing aspect is definitely the tackiest part so far, but I still love the setting/concept/plot nonetheless. Such a huge and absurd concept of multiple worlds along this tower. I don't remember exactly what the big climax is with the final boss but I vaguely remember it and makes me love it all that much more

Bite as an attack ability, Power Plant as a location, the Su-Zaku sprite, ahhh still so many influences on Pokemon. I mean cmon look at this

The Skyscraper Tower is hell, definitely had to completely rely on map/guide for that one. But I love the Subway part, reminds me of Matrix.

My Monster is finally Ki-Rin, one of the endgame Monsters I wanted to settle on! No more Meat for me. Thank goodness these bosses been dropping Meat left and right.

Lol I love that simply an icon of a Shoe is a late game item

As epic as the boss rush aspect of this final re-climb of the tower has been, it is very repetitive just going back up the stairs. It fits with the concept/plot though so it's forgivable. I love the it's a game concept and the mysterious choice the characters make after the final boss >.>

Ok uh but that final boss..... That was ridiculously hard. I highly recommend doing the Saw technique like I did the first time I played this, cuz doing it "normally" .... is brutal. the Confusion status... And then the actual ending sequence was disappointing. Not a super new, sentimental song just the usual one with screenshots from throughout the game. Still, overall, a great game!

Look: 8.5/10 Classic GB Look, clear influences on the epic Pokemon

Sound: 9/10 Classic GB Sound, with several tunes I particularly likes. Would've been higher but the GB limits capability so it got repetitive, and failed to have a super special final tune.

Play: 9/10 So much potential here. You can play this is so many different ways. Other than the obnoxiously hard final boss, I can't complain: this shines among early JRPGs, and to think it was for the GB! So many niceties, from a reasonable random battle frequency to a forgiving Save/death feature!

Feel: 9.5/10 Super special to me, especially now that I have replayed it and confirmed it still excites me.

Attachment: 9/10 Welp, indeed, I've already replayed this. And I see this being high on my Best FF Games list, even as I get into the newer ones.

Overall: 9/10

History:

I've never played this game, nor any of the SaGa games.

Expectations:

I really hate going into a game negatively, but that's kind of what I'm doing here. Not only have I managed to hate every RPG I've played on the system so far, but just looking at this one fills me with... meh! I'd love to proven wrong, but, I'm kind of seeing a trend here...

Day 1:

Uuuuuunnnnghghghhhhhh......

Aside from dialogue that causes internal bleeding, the systems in Final Fantasy Legend aren't actually that bad. Combat is a lot better than Dragon Warrior and the whole "weapons and spells have uses" concept is easy enough for me to get my head around.

Music is fine, graphics and map design are on the mediocre end... well, the sprites themselves are okay, but I don't think they're being used optimally.

The story, near as I can decipher, is that there's a tower that I need to climb because RPG. I've recruited a party of humans, mutants and monsters and must now acquire the key to the tower. The key, of course, is missing. To recovery it I need to obtain special items from three kings. I was able to get one of the three, and lost most of my party in the process, but hey, progress...

I really need to do some reading to betting understand the systems in Final Fantasy Legend, but I'm actually seeing some potential here.

Day 2:

Today I did a bit of research before starting my lunchtime play session, and as a result decided to restart my game. I hadn't gotten very far to being with, so it wasn't that big of a loss. I made a new team of two humans and two mutants, and set forth with a better understand of this game's progression system.

It's strange, and the stranger part is that I don't actually notice it as much as you'd think. In this "Final Fantasy" game there is no experience system. Humans increase their stats through equipping better items and drinking stat/HP potions. Mutants increase their stats through battle, based on what kind of weapons their using. Monsters get stronger by eating bigger monsters... which is kind of rad.

As a result of this system, gold becomes king. You need gold to buy gear, and gear deteriorates over time, so you'll be buying a lot of it! Gold buys potions and spellbooks and revives and inn stays at the cost of 1g per HP restored!

This, in addition to the unique mutant ability system wherein mutants will learn and forget random abilities at random, makes me play this game with a very different mindset than any other game I can think of, except maybe Dark Cloud. That is, with complete detachment. Just buy an awesome new sword for a couple hundred gold? Well, 50 swings later and it'll be gone. Mutant just learn Ultima? Well, use it to blow away goblins because you never know when it'll vanish from your ability list. It's interesting, and in a way, liberating. In the case of my human characters, it's also incredibly expensive...

This reliance on gold also causes you to tackle grinding in a different way. I did a lot of grinding today, and more than once I found myself in a loop of taking two steps forward and a step and a half back. You can kill a monster for 40g, but if you took 25 damage from that fight, you'll be charged 25g at the inn, netting you only 15g. Fight three monsters for 120g but you've sustained a combined 90 HP in damage across your party, well, you get the idea.

And it's worse than that, actually, since you'll be grinding for weapons and armor. That 40g helm just got a lot more expensive...

But I like it. It's different, and it makes me play differently, and that I'm still playing is a good thing. I still need a table or something so I can know what all these abilities do, and what weapon stats are so I know what to buy, but that's fine.

I played up to the point where I quit last night, and in much better condition, and hopefully I'll find time to pick it up again tonight.

Later...

I did actually play more in the evening, not for very long though.

Earlier I claimed the King's Armor, so now it's off to get the Shield and Sword. First stop is for the sword, because Shield King still won't talk to me. On my way to his castle I notice that combat is getting a lot easier, and as a result my gold supply is finally starting to improve! I get to the castle which is full of random encounters and patrolling guards, until I eventually face the Sword King himself.

I lucked out with some mutant powers, so the fight was actually pretty easy. After the king fell I was able to claim his sword, which had super high attack power and infinite uses... I knew I shouldn't get attached...

It's Tuxedo Ma... I mean, the dude who has the last piece of equipment I need!

The was this whole snafu in trying to get the King's Shield that culminated in me fighting that guy, who went down with a single hammer to the face.

Slyf has some anger issues... we're working through them...

By the way if you're wondering about the pallet change, I'm playing this on the Super Gameboy right now. I sure wish they updated it for playing Gameboy Color games... In any case, with all three pieces of King's gear in my possession, I headed back to the town of Hero (Yes really) and placed them on the statue, thus receiving the key to the tower. What I wasn't expecting to happen after losing all my equipment was this...

First real boss fight of the game! And my tank is naked!

Again I got lucky with some mutant abilities and was able to put a Barrier on my party, which was enough of a boost to completely negate Gen-Bu's melee attacks. After a good while of chipping away at him, the turtle beast went down, netting me a nice 900g.

With that I bought some potions to up my humans' stats and HP, and saved inside the first floor of the tower.

The ascent begins!

Day 3 & 4:

I've been playing, but not writing, and that's not a habit I plan on picking up. Memorial Day weekend and all that...

Still, I HAVE been playing, and enjoying it too! Last we left off I was getting ready to take on the first part of the tower. I made it to the end, but wound up circling all the way back because I was having some serious issues against the monsters.

The gold was good, and I was profiting quickly. I used it to buy a bunch of stat increases for my humans, and some armor upgrades all around. I was able to farm the first hallway in the tower to bring in some decent money. After a bit of grinding I was able to zip through the whole tower without much issue, leading me to the second world.

After restocking on weapons and buying some more stats, I set out to do some spelunking until I eventually found a floating island I could use as a boat. Exploring this ocean world, I eventually found an Air Seed, allowing me to breath under water, which I used to reach the Ocean Castle.

There was also an underwater shop, where I picked up some really slick (and expensive) weapons.

At the end of the Ocean Castle was Sei-Ryu, who proved to be... anticlimactic... Despite having two blinded party members he went down before he could even prove a threat, and now I have the key to the next section of the tower!

...Now I just have to climb back out of the ocean...

Day 5:

After climbing the next portion of the tower I found myself in a world in the clouds, quickly becoming involved in a classic empire vs resistance .struggle.

With that, I was set off to run some errands, rescue a girl, and eventually square off against Byak-Ko himself!

My HP is lacking on the humans, but my stats are so high and my gear is so good, that the cat beast didn't even last two rounds, and with that it was back to the tower and onward to World 4!

Day 6 & 7:

World 4 is set in what looks like a post-apocalyptic world, being terrorized by a giant bird monster. Travel is done through underground tunnels, people live in run down cities full of tall buildings... and you get a motorbike. It actually has a pretty strong 2300 AD vibe from Chrono Trigger.

Sometimes I have to express my own feelings for a game... sometimes the game sums it up for me!

So basically the big bad bird monster who looks suspiciously like Moltress is protected by an impenetrable force field. In order to break through said force field we must gather parts and build a nullification machine.

The build up to the encounter was pretty great. The encounter itself? Not so much. Like most bosses in this game this one went down after a few auto attacks.

Once done here, it was time for the final climb!

Ashura was waiting for me at the top of the tower.

They trip to reaching him was very "final dungeon-y" as I picked up all the best spells and weapons during the climb, or so I thought. Ashura was a rough fight, taking two of my party members with him, but before I knew it he was beaten. Once the fight was over, I was dropped back at the base of the first tower, where I was able to purchase even stronger items.

This final climb had me fighting all the game's bosses for a second time, while collecting some really great armor and eventually the Masamune. When I reached The Creator I was down one party member, but I was pretty sure I could still handle him.

Oh yeah, I got this...

Yep... right where I want him...

So the first attempt didn't quite go as planned, but the second did. I saved after every floor in the final tower, running from encounters to keep my health up, reaching the final boss at full strength.

Yay...

Conclusion:

One thing I was really curious about when I started this game was whether or not it could really have been passed off as a Final Fantasy title here in the US in 1989. Frankly, yes, it easily could have. Sure, the story was pretty mediocre, but it did try to tell a story, complete with cutscenes and recurring characters. The combat was different, unique and interesting, but turn based and familiar. Plus, I mean, I was hunting down magic spheres, which at the time screamed Final Fantasy.

Now, in judging it on its own merits as Makai Toushi SaGa, I actually found a pretty compelling game. Yes, I have complaints, but in the context of other RPG's of the time, well before games like Final Fantasy IV and considering the confines of the Gameboy itself, it was actually really decent. That's saying something considering my expectations.

I really enjoyed the race system. It was unique, fairly fun, and I don't think I've seen anything quite like it from any other game so far. If I do give this game another playthrough, I'll probably have to mix it up a bit to experience different aspects of it, especially having monsters in my party. That said, I didn't love the executions. Mutants gained HP pretty rapidly, leaving my humans feeling very weak for most of the game, and making me even question why I was using humans at all at certain points. This balanced itself out, but it didn't change the fact that getting my humans to that point felt extremely grindy. 300g for a 2 point strength or agility, 100g-5000g for a random HP boost. Character sheet only shows stats up to 99, even though they level past that. Tiny inventory means I can only buy a few stat items at a time... you get the idea. Alongside that was the interesting weapon system. It was a different experience having my characters hold multiple weapons for different occasions, and planning ahead for when those weapons inevitably broke. I feel like it's something that should have been annoying, but instead it just added another sense of uniqueness to the game that I appreciated.

Aside from that, I found this to be a pretty enjoyable little adventure that didn't stay too long beyond its welcome.

Liked:

- Fun and unique race system.
- Weapon system had to constantly planning, and never getting too attached to any one item.
- Music is still stuck in my head... actually not sure if that's a good or bad thing.
- Story wasn't great, but the game still made a decent effort at telling it.

Disliked:

- Buying stat items for humans was tedious and expensive.
- Random encounter rate felt frustratingly high at times. And random encounters in boss rooms? REALLY!?

Personal Score:

I can't list the Wonderswan color, and I think it's a very worthy remake to play, along with the great fan translation it got, but to summarize...

It RULES. It's an amazing early portable RPG. The variety of environments in the form of new worlds connected to different levels of a magic tower, the 3 different character progression systems depending on if your character is a human, esper or monster and the freedom to mix and match... I was charmed and blown away, and the simple story still has a lot of little charming moments that, with the pace of early gaming storytelling, never get in the way of the exploring and fighting.

It looked beautiful on my Analogue Pocket, makes me wanna check out what other wonderswan color games might've been fan translated.

The only real downside for me is that the encounter rate is absurdly high, specially late game, and it can get very annoying in a couple sections, but it's not too hard a game by any means (if you only take max 1 monster with you at least lol)

I'll be playing the whole franchise now... oops! Next up, fan translated DS remake of Saga 2 and 3 (although I probably will try out the gameboy originals since these are a lot more different)

Just some thoughts before this game completely passes through my mind. I'm also going to refer to it as Saga as a compromise to avoid writing out the full title.

Saga is, at its peak, a functional but cumbersome RPG experience with all of the paint scraped off that's been left outside to the elements.

While traversing through the tower setting is nice, the individual worlds are a step beyond bland. The final level, Heaven, meant to evoke a feeling of emptiness and blinding light, is comparably similar to the first world, a multi-biome medieval countryside. Saga simply didn't invest or have the technology to provide simple, satisfying environments.

The story is also trim, but there's definitely an attempt at actual writing. Sadly, the plots and characters all feel a bit churned up by a weak localization effort. The game also relies heavily on physical narration and scenes, but its animation capability holds this back. Saga becomes one of those rare examples where more telling and less showing would have worked out for the better.

Despite feeling like a proto-game, there's a considerable amount of crunch and subsystems, though none feel like they're carrying the weight. You're given significantly different Races to play as (Humans, Monsters, and Mutants) only for the latter, which have access to vanilla, exp-esque leveling, to completely eclipse the others very, very quickly. Monsters also have to juggle a rather annoying 'eat your dead enemy' system to eratically evolve (and which you still have to deal with even if you don't have a Monster in your party) and Humans require multiple additional hours of grinding and/or menuing to buy and feed them stat items one at a time.

The difficulty curve is present, though for all the game's complexity, everything dies fairly easily. Even so, the wheels manage to fall off toward the end as the dungeons become longer, making the game less about battles and more about doing anything you can to avoid fighting in service of the weapon durability system.

All in all, a budding, possibly 2-star experience was held back by maze-like levels, overcentralizing weapon durability, and a lack of quality roleplaying elements. I can't suggest it and have no plans to touch it again, though I am not thoroughly against playing at least one sequel.

Makai Toushi SaGa - I played the Wonderswan Color version of Makai Toushi SaGa. Honestly, it’s only worth playing if you have a historical curiosity or made the bizarre life decision to play every SaGa game like me. It’s a simpler and worse version of SaGa 2 all the way around – game structure, narrative, game mechanics, even music imho. It definitely feels like a prototype, given the gift of hindsight.

That said, it introduced one of my favorite race systems ever. You have humans who gain stats through buying potions, mutants who randomly gain stats and abilities (including losing abilities) after each battle, and monsters that change into enemies through eating their flesh. The most enjoyable part of this game was a 15 minute period where I lucked into a series of monster forms that took my monster from the weakest member of my party to the most powerful by a noticeable margin.

Other than that, you’re climbing a tower and going to different worlds with a fairly thin storyline tying everything together. Oh, and you can only hold 8 items, which is extremely annoying since you need items to cure status effects, you want to carry healing, and all of your weapons have durability that can never be repaired. Annoying, but manageable.

What’s not manageable is the absolutely atrocious late game section where you get attacked by an immortal phoenix every 1-3 steps while you try to figure out where to go. Running away seems to be a set 50/50 chance, so you get to spend a lot of time failing to run and having status effects dumped on your characters or just having them take massive damage. I was finding the game chill, if not particularly inspiring, up until that point. From that point on, though, I only finished out the game because I'm stubborn and my goal is to beat every game in the series. Speeding through the final portion of the game left me with a very difficult final boss fight, but, barely scraping by on my third try was actually a nice way to finish my time with the game.

While I love the human/mutant/monster system and appreciate the foundation Makai Toushi SaGa laid, I just can’t get past how miserable I found such a large chunk of the game. It’s the only game in the series I have absolutely no interest in returning to in the future.

Story (2.5/5) | Characters (2/5) | World (3/5) | Gameplay (2/5) | Visuals (2/5) | Music (3/5) = 50% Overall Score

If there was one word I could use to describe FFL1 it would be "rough". I can't be too hard on it as it's the first JRPG for the Gameboy and came out in 1989, but it definitely was not an easy game to pick up on at first. One thing you will learn fast about these 3 is that they do not teach you any of the mechanics, reading a walkthrough is almost mandatory.

I created 4 female mutants as my main party. Females because of their high agility and mutants as they grow and level up through battle. Because of the way that mutants randomly learn and unlearn spells, this was frustrating as certain characters would roll in and out as useful and useless. Combined with the weapon durability system / expensive stores and the extremely limited inventory...yeah I didn't have a whole lot of fun with the gameplay. It got really annoying at times.

The world of the game is interesting at least, climbing a tower with different unique worlds on each level is interesting and makes you wonder what was coming next. However, the story is extremely barebones and there really are no consistent characters. Probably the most jarring thing was finding a "side world" where there was a bunch of dead kids in a nuclear bunker, kind of dark for a game rated 'E' for Everyone! https://i.ibb.co/qBb1Tzh/image.png

There isn't much variety to the sprites and the environments start getting repetitive. The music is alright for the Gameboy, with some tracks by Uematsu himself.

Time to Complete: 10 hours

Favorite Calm Theme: Title Theme

Favorite Action Theme: Final Battle