15th May 2008, 12:13 PM
Originally planned as Romancing SaGa 4, SaGa Frontier allowed you to play as seven different characters, each with their own storylines. Because of this, it plays more like its Japan-only predecessor Live-A-Live than its successor.
The game was produced and directed by Akitoshi Kawazu of Square's Production Team 2. His previous works included the Romancing SaGa and Final Fantasy Legend series as well as some game design work on the first two main-line FF games. The music was done by Kenji Ito, who worked on many of the same games.
SaGa Frontier was released in Japan on July 11, 1997 and in the US on March 31, 1998, placing it somewhere between the RPG juggernauts Final Fantasy 7 and Xenogears, which is likely one of the reasons it received so little attention.
Upon starting the game, you are prompted to select one of the seven playable characters. Each character has their own storyline that often entertwines with the storyline of other characters, often through shared NPCs, locations, and events. Each storyline usually lasted somewhere between 10 and 15 hours.
The gameplay in SaGa Frontier is standard RPG fare. You traveled from location to location looking for something to do, people to talk to, or monsters to fight. Nothing particularly ground-breaking there, but it fit in with the standard of the time. Fights were carried out through a quasi-3D battle screen in turn-based combat, also standard for the time, although it did mix things up a bit with twists like mid-combat technique learning and combos. Other notable gameplay features include the ability to save anywhere [even in dungeons] and automatic regeneration of HP and MP after a battle.
Aside from mutiple characters/storylines, SaGa Frontier was set apart from other RPGs by the nature of the storylines. Generally, RPG storylines involve huge, earth-destroying catastrophes that must be avert at all costs by a group of plucky youngsters who are, from some reason, the only ones who can do it. In Saga Frontier you generally were not facing such catastrophies and were generally involved in much more intimate events. At the very least, it was a change of pace.
Also of note are the diverse and intersting worlds. They range from modern-day to near-future to post-apocalyptic. Again, it's a nice change of pace.
Overall, SaGa Frontier has its flaws, which mainly deal with the fact that it's basically seven RPGs crammed into one package. On the other hand, it has some interesting ideas and allowed the creators to do some things that they probably wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.
The game was produced and directed by Akitoshi Kawazu of Square's Production Team 2. His previous works included the Romancing SaGa and Final Fantasy Legend series as well as some game design work on the first two main-line FF games. The music was done by Kenji Ito, who worked on many of the same games.
SaGa Frontier was released in Japan on July 11, 1997 and in the US on March 31, 1998, placing it somewhere between the RPG juggernauts Final Fantasy 7 and Xenogears, which is likely one of the reasons it received so little attention.
Upon starting the game, you are prompted to select one of the seven playable characters. Each character has their own storyline that often entertwines with the storyline of other characters, often through shared NPCs, locations, and events. Each storyline usually lasted somewhere between 10 and 15 hours.
The gameplay in SaGa Frontier is standard RPG fare. You traveled from location to location looking for something to do, people to talk to, or monsters to fight. Nothing particularly ground-breaking there, but it fit in with the standard of the time. Fights were carried out through a quasi-3D battle screen in turn-based combat, also standard for the time, although it did mix things up a bit with twists like mid-combat technique learning and combos. Other notable gameplay features include the ability to save anywhere [even in dungeons] and automatic regeneration of HP and MP after a battle.
Aside from mutiple characters/storylines, SaGa Frontier was set apart from other RPGs by the nature of the storylines. Generally, RPG storylines involve huge, earth-destroying catastrophes that must be avert at all costs by a group of plucky youngsters who are, from some reason, the only ones who can do it. In Saga Frontier you generally were not facing such catastrophies and were generally involved in much more intimate events. At the very least, it was a change of pace.
Also of note are the diverse and intersting worlds. They range from modern-day to near-future to post-apocalyptic. Again, it's a nice change of pace.
Overall, SaGa Frontier has its flaws, which mainly deal with the fact that it's basically seven RPGs crammed into one package. On the other hand, it has some interesting ideas and allowed the creators to do some things that they probably wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.