More experimental fare can be hit-or-miss, and in 1998, I reckon some reviewers simply weren’t ready for it. To be sure, many of my favorite games follow that structure for a reason: it works.
Saga frontier remastered differences free#
Much of the game’s critical apprehension at the time stemmed from its Free Scenario System, which flew in the face of the common and conventional approach to JRPG progression in which a singular protagonist gathers allies whilst traveling the world along a predominantly linear path. SaGa Frontier launched to a great deal of praise in Japan but a decidedly more mixed Western reception. The fresh face on the block is Fuse, an interplanetary patrolman who almost made it into the 1998 release before being cut for budgetary reasons. You have, in no particular order, a guy named Red who can transform into a superhero a half-Mystic named Asellus a fresh-out-of-mage-school bookworm named Blue an ex-con and former supermodel named Emilia a happy-go-lucky bard named - wait for it - Lute a fox-like creature named Riki and an ancient robot named T260G. SaGa Frontier Remastered doesn’t miss a beat in illustrating its plethora of enhancements, adding an eighth protagonist who is unlockable as soon as one or more of the other characters’ stories are completed.įor newcomers to SaGa Frontier, I’ll quickly go over the original batch of seven. In SaGa Frontier, choice presents itself right from the get-go the game’s opening screen immediately tasks you with selecting one of seven protagonist, beginning your journey with whomever you select.
Player choice is core to the framework of the SaGa franchise. It was also a bit of an ugly duck, with ill-explained gameplay systems galore, awkwardness around every corner, and the kind of mandatory tinkering that seemed quaint even 21 years ago.Įnter SaGa Frontier Remastered, Square Enix’s noble effort to not just prettify but genuinely improve one of the strangest yet most charming RPGs of its era. And it wasn’t a game about saving the world but learning to live in it. It wasn’t about leveling to 99, but organically mastering one’s inner talents. It wasn’t about destined heroes, but rather, a loosely affiliated ensemble cast each with a story of their own. It was a strange game, as all prior SaGas were those of us who played and enjoyed it had a somewhat difficult time explaining it even to fans of notable odd ducks such as Vagrant Story and Xenogears.
Released alongside a river of noteworthy RPGs and a veritable ocean’s worth of exceptional video games, the 1998 cult classic was destined to find only modest success on Western shores. Glued as I was to that very first Sony PlayStation, I quickly gobbled up every JRPG I could find. The game that changed my world was Final Fantasy VII.
Whether it was Final Fantasy VII Remake and Kingdom Hearts III, or Rad Racer and the original Final Fantasy, or perhaps - as I suspect is the case for a great many of us - somewhere in-between, there was a period of Square history that drew us in and never let us out. We all have our Square Enix origin stories.
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