Romancing SaGa (1992)

Preliminary: This is the first RPG intro I actualyl watched/read through. As I was doing so I realized this is the first "true" SaGa for me since the earlier ones were Final Fantasy Legends to me!

Omg the Look of this is so fresh. I hope the gameplay comes through too. And the beginning of Albert's story reminds me of Legend of Dragoon for a few different reasons :-p Main complaint so far is the JRPG slow walking.

Yessss it keeps track of time in game, it allows you to save anywhere, this has so many QoL things that seems way ahead of its time. The battle system and walking is slow but hopefully the length of the game isn't too long so I will play through it all! This definitely will be a long one, and the combat really makes it long but luckily it's mostly engaging. Seems it will be worth it though.

Early Game

The factor of having to press forward to get close enoguh to attack etc is already getting annoying. And the way you level up based on what you use is nice and something I usually like but I'm wary cuz of how it went with FF2. Good thing the music and Look are great. I just hope the story develops into something, and the multiple characters becomes something more than just replayability within the same basic limits (tho still a neat idea regardless).

Hmmm I like the strong woman character in Albert's intro. And omg the music in Monica's house is sooo good. Looks like I'm truly getting to the era where I will have to slowly savor and digest these games. Ahhh makes me think of FF9 and Legend of Dragoon. The other map screen was better but still love the colors, reminds me of something not sure what

If it weren't for the slow movement this would feel like a fully modern JRPG. And it truly is the most modern one so far. It's like the next "big leap" after Ys I & II Remake made the last big leap in 89.

The main, triumphant theme reminds me of one of the KH1 tunes.

I'm really getting into this but like why wont their HP go up even after being battered? Giving me memories of FF2 >.< But I keep getting one shotted, well Albert does. Lol somehow Sif, who had 130 HP and rarely gets smacked, had HP go up but Albert still stuck at 50 which he can get one-hitted with... I hope this doesn't end up burning me out cuz otehrwise this is the most engaged I've been with a turn-absed RPG in a long time, possibly since I first started my FF playthroughs half a decade ago

I'm already over 3.5 hours in and not even through Albert's introduction >.< This game definitely has me sucked in. (Finally, Albert's HP went up . Seemed very random/RNG-based. Someone claimed it was based on the rank of the enemy but he finally got 2 HP Ups in a row against much weaker enemies then I had ventured to fighting. Odd. But thanks to fast forward, I'm enjoying just grinding to grind, like I used to do with RPGs :-p yayy. Screw finishing the backlog :-p )

I'm worried though that without an impactful plotline (collect fatestones after quest and build up power, defeat the dark god you expected to find, end--as presented in the intro), the frustratingly intensive RNG-based combat will tire me out. I'm already getting a bit annoyed where I am plenty trained, if anything I should be overtrained thanks to fastforward and chilling, yet here I am still sometimes being one-shotted, still sometimes struggling against regular enemies. Also the status ailments are ridiculously common for just an intro to a character..

Yea unfortunately the combat system's reliance on RNG and poor balancing burned me out. Otherwise this felt like a very modern RPG, but alas, great Look and Sound can only go so far when there's no sentimental plotline to hook ya.

Look: 8.5/10

Sound: 8.5/10

Play: 7.5/10 I couldn't deny the RPG hook but it was at Earthbound levels of RNG-based frustration without the unique enough qualities to get me to push through it. Sucks cuz I was really into this the first 2 days and was looking forward to pushing through, but my goodness, the crowds of enemies in these dungeons and fields.

Feel: 8/10

Attachment: 7.5/10 This is an important series for me, with the FFLs being real important to my adult gaming, and I am excited for future installments in this series, tho I'm a bit worried that they all rely on the FF2 style leveling and always have some experimental features, but this likely wont be one of the ones I return to except to marvel at the Look and Sound that set the standard for the mid 90s.

Overall: 8/10 (This really should be a bit below 8 but I guess the excitement for it helped override its flaws)

Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song - Minstrel Song has some cool things going on. The combat is very solid – I’d put it a step or two behind Scarlet Grace, right alongside the SaGa 3 remake. That is to say, I think it’s better than the substantial majority of JRPGs, but not quite up there with my absolute favorites. The sound track is excellent. I particularly enjoyed the flamenco guitar and wild vocals of Passionate Rhythm, one of the boss battle themes. Outside of the strange chibi proportions of the characters, I really like the art direction as well.

Despite the positive qualities, I initially dropped the game about ⅔ of the way in. The combination of fixed cameras, far too many enemies, mazelike dungeons, maps that you have to find, battle rank increasing as you try to explore, the whole proficiency system (why can’t I just have them all equipped??? do I forget how to jump?), and the overly vague or even non-existent quest directions really took a toll on me. After a little break from the game and listening to Passionate Rhythm again, I decided to come back and finish the game out. I stopped worrying about event rank/battle rank and just used a guide to find the quests I had left. Turns out, I really only needed the guide to point me to a couple of things – I was at the point where I’d already missed the quests I was going to miss anyway.

In the end, I have fairly mixed feelings about the game. It’s definitely in the bottom half of the SaGa games for me, having all of the annoyances of the series, but not having quite enough that stands out. I’m glad I came back to finish my playthrough, but I doubt I’ll come back to try out another route.