Unlimited Saga

"When creating a video game becomes an art..."

This game has received uniformly atrocious scores from almost all American game reviewers, and after having played it for a couple of days, tried out several characters, and gone to see one of the ''seven wonders,'' I can finally say that they didn't know what they were talking about. Unlimited SaGa is in parts innovative, difficult, beautiful, occasionally frustrating, but ultimately enjoyable and engrossing for those willing to put a few hours into learning the system and getting over the initially huge learning curve.

Graphics: The overall aesthetic of the game is quite pleasing, though the execution may ruffle the feathers of some players. The game progressing mostly through still shots, with limited but satisfactory animation for battles. The CGs at the beginning of the game and at the festival that every character eventually reaches are the exception to this, though they are very short. However, the art design for the game is great; the limited animation of the enemies still manages to convey quite a bit of imagination when they attack (the ''needle fish'' and the ''hook ghosts'' are particular favorites of mine), and the enemy design is consistently original an interesting. The art for the player characters is excellent, but not quite as original as the enemy design. The spell and weapon technique effects are quite pleasing, using some nice lighting effects.

Sound: The soundtrack to the game is overall quite good, but it usually doesn't manage to really ''merge'' with the action of the game into a cohesive whole. The battle themes are the major exception, the music melding with the action wonderfully. The sound effects are pretty good; for example, when you use the ''bone crusher'' technique, you get a solid crunching sound. The voice acting, however... sometimes, the voices are passable, and the character lines during battles are often clever, but a lot of the voices are hideous and poorly acted (Armic in particular is terrible).

Gameplay: Though the game's presentation is different from most modern RPGs, the gameplay isn't that different from other games, just the presentation. Random battles? Yep. Finding treasures? Yeppers. Moving through a map to find the monsters and treasure? It's there. The difference is that the ''map'' is a very simplified representation of the area you're in, sort of like the kind you might have made on graph paper if you played paper-and-pencil RPGs.
The oft-mentioned ''reel'' used in battles and exploration takes a bit of getting used to, but it does help keep the player engaged in the fights, just as the wheel of destiny in Shadow Hearts did. It does take a lot of practice to learn to hit the reel just right, but it can be learned, and the game is technically playable without mastering the reel, though it would be more difficult.
And that brings us to the sticking point of the game, and the aspect that I think most reviewers got hung up on- the game is very difficult when you first start out, and the first quests of the characters are often harder than their later quests. The multiple sidequests are similarly tough, in general. Also, There are a few scenarios where the solution isn't obvious and there are few hints in-game as to what to do; Judy's ''bandit attack' scenario is one such example. After you get into the game, the pace picks up, battles are more interesting, and the game becomes great fun overall, but it takes a lot more effort to get to that point than it should.
The character growth in the game is also quite complicated, and there is little help to be found in the instruction manual. Trial and error is required to figure out how to get the most out of the game, though there are already enough FAQs posts for a player to pick up the basics. Similarly, navigating maps is ridiculously complicated for beginners, with a ton of skills that much be learned. Once you grasp these concepts, it comes as second nature to defuse a trap, unlock it, and open it, but for beginners it's just more complicated than it should be.
If this bit of the game was tightened up, this game could have achieved a near-perfect score, but the level of ''difficulty'' created by the poor game balancing and lack of clear instructions is unnacceptable. The game is a blast to play once you overcome those points, but you shouldn't have to spend five or six hours playing a game just to get to the ''good'' parts.

Replay/Value:
The game score pretty highly here, especially if you're willing to just have fun with the game instead of trying to ''beat'' it (and you have plenty of space on your memory card). There are seven characters you can play as, each with a series of unique quests, and semi-unique allies. Ignoring the numerous sidequests, the main storylines alone could provide tons of playing hours with very little repetition. Taking on the sidequests to strengthen your characters will add on to this, but the sidequests aren't generally character-unique, so you would have to repeat many of them across characters. I think the game can occupy your time for quite a while, definitely worth the price.

Overall:
This game is mostly not just a good game, but a great game... except for the fact that it can be unnecessarily frustrating early on, and the obtuse character development system and map navigation. This really kills the overall score, but once you're into it, this game is a true gem, and the game goes from a 6.5 to a solid 9 (had to round up to seven for the score posted on the main page.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/03, Updated 06/20/03