Unlimited SaGa: Board's opinion

RPGC Community SaGa Maniac Community
#5

I bought a playstation 2 today, and I’ve been able to play for about a half an hour. Here’s what I think:

So far, I noticed the new style of the game, and the menu screen music sounds a lot like SaGa Frontier II. I like the personality that the developers gave the characters during speech, and I like how the character will think in speech and talk in text. The dungeons seem to me to be entertaining, I don’t mind going through them, I feel they give the same satisfaction as if you were to have full control over your character. The battles are easily avoidable, but sometimes I go into them just because I like the battle system.
The battle system proves to be fun. It seems like they took the best of the last two SaGa games and improved on that. The only problem I see is that I can’t just chose a couple of moves instead of having to go and do all five commands.

The “boss-like” battles at the end of the adventures have been somewhat challenging but the game so far has been easy.
My opinion may change in the future, but so far I’m convinced that for everyone else, an evil game jumped in and took Unlimited SaGa’s place instead and had them convinced that the game is bad.

#6

A couple hours in, and the battles get a bit tougher. (mostly the side quests, though.) But seriously, I’ve got two games here, Kingdom Hearts and Unlimited SaGa. I like them both, as they are both opposite in terms of the way the game is presented and played. But, after a little while in Kingdom Hearts I have to go back to U.S…something about the game draws me in.

#7

Oh well no doubt, the game is addicting. But just trust me and Kag, chances are you’ll be prrretty damn pissed once something goes wrong that took you forever. Do a really long sidequest event, then lose. Do it again, then again, and see if you still wanna play the game. :stuck_out_tongue:

#8

Oh, I know what you mean. Sometimes the game can be very addicting, but it completely loses that for me when I end up in some impossibly hard battle. Like in one of the story scenarios for Mythe, I bumped into the Phantom Tiger thingy (which had no warning, notice or anything). It attacks you and proceeded to do ~300 damage per hit and 2-3 LP. Now, that’s just ridiculous. A monster like that shouldn’t just be lying around in the middle of a plot mission. That’s when I put the game down. Again.

#9

I love it… i enjoy the difficulty level and the story, as well as the uniqeness…the only thing that concerns me is it seems to tax my system with the way it constantly loads

#10

I bought Unlimited Saga because am a fan of the series. I really haven’t gotten into it. My first impression was good, I liked the presentation. What I couldn’t really understand was the battlesystem, but am sure if I play the game for an hour I would get it.

#11

I love the game a lot. I’ve also beaten the entire thing. It’s really not that hard at all. It’s just matter of realizing the game is about management. Plus I tend to be the type to try multiple ideals and set ups so I can deal with whatever the game gives me.

In my case once I got to my third quest most of it was smooth sailing after that. If you can learn to adjust to what you get and experiment things really work out in your favor. Heck most of the hard parts are few and far between. So perhaps the problem is the game jumps in difficulty in quick bursts rather than gradually.

Also in most dungeons, I actually spend maybe an hour there max. Maybe a little more or a little less. There are actually plenty of FAQs for the game at Gamefaqs. I even have some myself. Yeah.

#12

Yeah, but you have to think that in the beginning, Ajora, it’s a pretty fucked up game. Consider these two factors:

  1. The game starts you off with very little help, cos of that stupid Hall of Valor contest. At least in SaGa Frontier 1 and 2, there was enough info in the manual to get you through the game.

  2. Isn’t every SaGa game a little something like this: You start the game, you get to the end, you get wasted. Then you REALIZE you’ve done evrything wrong and start over? Well, in SaGa Frontier that wasn’t bad, because scenarios were only like 6-8 hours tops (Some of them are only like 2 1/2 hours :P). So, if you’re doing it wrong, it’ll be like half that time. Not a lot of time out of your life. In SaGa Frontier 2, the game only took about 15-20 hours to do the entire thing, then you’ve figured the game out by then and you do it again. That’s not SO bad. But, Unlimited SaGa…the first tie you play, it’s not only this same kind of hell, but the scenarios are 25-ish hours, and there’s SEVEN OF THEM. So, 25-ish hours, plus the times you’ve died and wasted time trying to figure out the game, only to get to the end and realize that you haven’t done it right. That’s a LOT of TIME to just waste. That’s an entire day out of your life. :open_mouth:

And, THAT’S what’s annoying about Unlimited SaGa. Sure, just about every other SaGa game does that (FFL3 and RS3 being the only ones that didn’t so far), but Unlimited SaGa just wastes waaaaaaay too much time. It was enough to make me stop playing for 9 months before I finally picked it up again :stuck_out_tongue:

#13

Actually I never had to start a single quest in Unlimited SaGa over. And my problems were more of a case of losing to a boss a few times. Trying again and eventually winning. Okay I admit in some cases my win against the last boss was close enough to be considered luck. Maybe I just press on too much.

Plus I didn’t really have that much trouble picking up the game. I may not have learned everything fast. But I got enough to get by while I learned more. Plus with many of the side quests being the same. New quests became even simpler.

Maybe it’s my playing style. Or maybe I’m a stubborn idiot who keeps trying again and again before giving up. To the point where I may eventually luck out. Really the only SaGa I had to start over was “SF II” and that is because I saved in the last area over my safe save with a terrible set up.

#14

I think it might have simply just been a matter of the scenario you played first :stuck_out_tongue: If you played Laura’s quest first, you’d understand why Sidequests are the devil. Some of the FIRST sidequests available to you are ‘Abandoned Castle’ and ‘Knight’s Masoleum.’ In other words, two of the freeking hardest sidequests, before you even have a full group. Or better yet, a full group with even 200 HP :stuck_out_tongue: Of course, being new, you’re GONNA try it. A few times. :stuck_out_tongue: And boy, is that every obnoxious.

Plus, if you’d played Laura’s scenario first, you’d have probly gotstuck on the last boss too. I had to start over because I didn’t make good weapons (I had a few Platinum weapons but that was it), and I didn’t have enough Life Protection. Hell, I didn’t know what Life Protection was at the start; I probly sold a few items with Life Protection :stuck_out_tongue: The descriptions can be misleading anyways. Appearantly, Detect Blood lowers an enemy’s Life Protection, but the description is “Detects enemies with blood”. You can’t really make that sort of connection. :stuck_out_tongue: The game is particularly confusing, and personally, I think you were just a lucky one. :stuck_out_tongue:

#15

My first scenario started was Judy, but I completed Ruby first. I kind of put the Judy game on hold.

#16

I haven’t replied in a while because I thought the thread was dead. But I’ll give my input so far.

I’ve clocked about 22 hours (not counting dying) on Laura’s quest, and my opinion still remains the same. I’ve been a huge fan of the series, so after a few hours the game felt natural to me. I’ve got control of almost everything, except I don’t have any cure spells but I still manage to make it through the quests pretty well. The game is all about strategy, simply enough. In the battle system, even the simplest battles you have to have strategy so you don’t lose life points. The game is pretty challenging but it’s nothing too great to handle, but I do think people who are virgins of the series will have a harder time than I did.

To the guy that said something about how right at the beginning you have some of the hardest side quests in the game…yes. and I tried one and got my ass kicked. But I moved on because I realized I wasn’t at that level yet, and I hoped that there would be easier ones, and there were. You just have to be smart about what you do in this game.

I think the game is very addicting, even though it may seem to get repetitive if you play it straight through (you’re pretty much doing the same thing over and over) but all the side quests are unique in their own way so it still seems fresh. And I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of the battle system, which is probably one of my favorites.

One thing I noticed about this game is that the setup is a lot like SaGa Frontier than any other in the series if you think about it. You go on the main quest, finish it and then do as many side quests as you can until you are strong enough to face the boss.

EDIT: This is great, I finally get to see an intelligent discussion about this game instead of immediate bashing. I didn’t think it was possible.

#17

It’s possible- it’s just hard. I want to like the game so badly, but the game doesn’t seem to want to promote this mutual co-operation between the two of us. I’m going to eventually beat it though =P

#18

Budowear, if you don’t have Life Protection on every character’s Armlets and Armor, or are not close to it, then just start over. Trust me, just start over. :stuck_out_tongue: I’ve beaten that scenario now, and I can say that, while the last boss is much easier when you have Triple Life Protection, it still ends up being a really close battle. I hope you have some basic magic too, like Life Boost, and Purify. Those are very important. If you have Detect Blood, that’s nice too.

#19

I said that I didn’t have healing magic, not life protection. I know the importance of life protection, as it is important especially for your “meat sheilds.” Like I said I’m not a stranger of the game. I don’t know everything but I’ve got a good control of what’s going on. I’m probably going to beat all of the side quests before I go to the boss anyways. And yes, I have detect blood too. Haven’t been able to use it yet though.

Sword skills are probably the most fun…and I think it’s great that they’ve brought back some old skills such as dragon tail. Makes me want to go and play Romancing SaGa 3 again.

EDIT: Oh yes, I forgot I do have life boost, I just don’t have purify. I also have a lot of those medicine herbs that were picked in a sidequest (I’m sure you’ve all done it, it’s an easy one at chapa) and all of those restore life points, which I was surprised when I found that out.

#20

Well ok, as long as you have 3 Life Protections on everyone, and are getting some good weapons, then you’ll be ok.

#21

I can tell it’s going to be tough, and I’m thinking about running through it now just to see what it’s like, but I think by the time I finish all or most of the side quests I’ll be strong enough.
It’s funny, I haven’t even started a new character. Each character is an average game’s length all by itself. I’ll be playing this game forever before I beat it. Which is fine by me.

#22

Yeah, USaGa is one of the most addictive games i’ve ever played, and partially BECAUSE of the random difficulty. In many games the random monsters are never much of a problem, and mainly serve to train you up for the boss, in this, they can be a serious drain on your resources before you get to the boss, and you don’t Level Up untill after the boss… I also LOVE the fact that there are skill that are useful outside of battle (all the “Thief Skills”) as well as skills that are useful in and out of battle (casting water magic on lava to cross w/o taking damage!) While it’s true it can be repetative, It still is in my top 5 games list… (just below SaGa Frontier 1)

#23

I’m hoping to try this game but money is tight on account of having to replace the CD’s for two rare PS1 games (Legend of Mana and SaGa Frontier). :hyperven: I will say this: the first Romancing SaGa is the same way. It dumps you in areas where you may not be able to do everything and kill everything. The first wilderness area in Grey’s scenario has Triceratops’ in it that will kill your party in one round. You have to choose your battles, especially since too much idle time will lead to every monster in the area swamping on you like Night of the Living Dead. It’s hard, but it’s exciting.

Aside from SaGa Frontier 2 and it’s scenario/mission based system with lack of levelling opportunities, I’ve never had to restart a SaGa game except because of my inability to read Japanese. Intuition helps, but so do guides. :ah-ha!: For crying out loud, mainstream gamers, read the FAQs if you don’t understand something.

#24

I wouldn’t have had to start SaGa Frontier 2 if I hadn’t stupidly saved in the final area with no safe save. Then again I probably would have had to anyway.