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| Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song; Square finally gets it right. | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 7 2005, 01:48 AM (526 Views) | |
| Trippy Skippin Tomato | Nov 7 2005, 01:48 AM Post #1 |
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TOTALLY SEXY GAMER DEMON GOLFER
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God created Man, but Man creates his own SaGa. So, responding to some fans complaints that Square is losing touch with it's old self, they went ahead and did what everyone wanted them to. Dug into their archives, grabbed a classic piece of videogame lore that never made it stateside, updated it beautifully, and released it for all to enjoy. And by god, they've struck gold. The first thing I have to comment on is that this game is just rediculously beautiful. I've always said that if Square knows how to do one thing, it's graphics, and after playing Romancing SaGa, well...they've outdone themselves. The "sketch motion" used during the storyline cutscenes and when entering towns for the first time is just absolutely breathtaking. The character designs are just amazing, and the in-game character models capture their style and grace with absolute precision. It's hard to describe to you exactly how good this game looks, but I can say without a doubt that it's probably the most impressive looking game to come out of Square ever. The music is pretty good too. The towns are nice and peaceful, the dungeons and caves ominous, the battle theme is catchy enough that you don't get bored of it(despite all the fighting you do), and the boss music is...well, let's just say I'm still humming it right now. overall, it's not as good as the other SaGa games(I'm looking at SaGa Frontier specifically here. God, what a beautiful soundtrack that game had!), but it's enough to put you in the mood to play for a loooong time. And it's a good thing too, because the game is looooong. You start out picking by a character from eight candidates, and you follow his path through the world of Maridas. Though "follow his path" isn't really the best way to put it. None of that characters really HAVE a set 'path' to follow, save for a few basic quests to get you into character right near the beginning. In fact, no character has any story buildup past their first quests, you just go around and perform tasks for the people, build up riches and train your party to be badass, and then go on to one of the game's three endings, which all the characters share. That's what Romancing SaGa is about. You write your OWN adventure. Spin your own tale, and discover the history of Maridas(With help from the mysterious Minstrel, whom ties all the adventures together.), and maybe eventually save it from ultimate destruction or something. Now, I'm pretty sure I just turned off about 9/10 of the forumers right there. "No story? I only play my games for the story. Don't bother me with this bullshit TST." But you have to realize that there is a story here. It's just not about the people acting out the story. It's about the world those characters reside in. It's a very different approach to storytelling(At least I've never seen it done before), and it's really amazing when you see it all unfold. Battles are pretty fun, which is good, because you'll see a lot of them. You can have a party of up to 5 people at once, and each character is fully customizable, allowing you to make your parties any way you like them to be. You see, stat growth is tied to the weapon the character is using, and the types of attacks that character uses in combat. If Hawke uses his Hand Axe a lot, and tends to use powerful attacks, his STR will rise sharply, but his INT and COM(Compassion, affects results of healing spells/items) will generally suffer. In addition, each character has a set stat "Growth rate", so certain stats are harder to build for that character. Hawke has an "A" in AGI, but a "C" in STR. So his Speed stat will rise faster with speed-based skills than his STR will with power-based ones. It sounds complicated, but it basically means that each character is good at certain types of actions, but if you work at it hard enough, you can make any character good at anything. Which, in my opinion, is the way it should be. Techniques in battle are learned semi-randomly. Each character can obtain skill levels with weapons by learning them from masters in exchange for rare jewels earned for completing various tasks. With each skill level, that weapon's skills tkae less MP to use, use less WP(Weapon points, if you run out, your weapon's power is halved), and you learn skills with that weapon much faster. In addition to this, learning skills allows you to access new classes(sorta like FFT, but not) that give you special bonuses, like raising the effectiveness of STR-based attacks(Fighter), or making it easier to find hidden items(Thief), or whatever. There's so much more in this game, but it's all too complex for me to cover(Besides, I haven't figured out how some of the game systems work yet. So sue me.). But suffice to say, this game is more than worth the $50 price tag. If you need something to do for the next three or four months, this is your game. If you want something a little different from the kazillion Final Fantasy rip-offs and clones(Especially the ones SQUARE THEMSELVES are pumping out right now.), this is your game. If you want to explore a vast world with tons of things to do and people to see and places to conquer, this is your game. Buy it people. Tell Square they'r eon the right track. And maybe, just maybe, we'll see something this beautifully original come out again soon. OMG HINT FOR PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY BUY THIS GAME 1: Get the guide. There is so much to do in this game, even I got lost starting out. The guide, while far form perfect(In fact, I'll say it: It outright stinks. Bradygames can't write a guide to save their lives) at least has the quests organized so you can see pretty much what you need to do next to finish them, as some of them have very outside-the-box things you need to do to finish. OMG HINT FOR PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY BUY THIS GAME 2: Recruit every character with a name. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Kick out old characters if you have to to make space(If you've already got a full party that you want to keep, if at least one of them is a "main" character, you can kick them out and recruit them again 100% of the time; they never die or dissapear if you give them the boot). Almost every named character adds new locations to your world map, allowing you to keep exploring. There are other ways to find the places, but they're generally a lot more complex and time-wasting(The guide doesn't tell you about them, either.) Also, if you see Gray, get him immediately. He knows about half of the map, and fills in a huge number of towns and other various places when you recruit him. You don't have to keep him(He's a decent fighter/mage, he does everything well), but at least grab him for a second so he tells you all about the places he knows. *NOTE*DO NOT POST ON SITE, WILL FIX LATER FOR SITE POSTAGE*/NOTE* |
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