Unlimited Saga

"The most misunderstood game on the PS2"

On my 2003 birthday in July I got Unlimited Saga. The funny thing is, this game was pretty much new and I had read many reviews about it, a lot of them stating that it was basically not worthy my money. Why did I still want it?! I really don't know why but it's taken me almost a year to begin enjoying this game. Read the review to find out why.

Graphics: 13/20

The problem here is lack of graphics. The graphics that exist are gorgeous. There are a few problems.

The worste of these problems is the fact that there is literally no walking around in this game. Well what does this have to do with graphics? Envision the game as just a painting with figures that pop in and out and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Towns are just a painting (a beautiful one at that) that just have locations that you can click on and go to which bring you to a new painting with some menus. Dungeons take place on a boring map (think of a home designers sketch) that have little paintings that pop up to show your local. Unfortunately, you never get to walk through these locals and it's a shame because they could have made the game so much better.

Another problem is the animation. Sprite animations have very few frames of motion and sometimes, while in a battle, the camera will switch around sometimes almost confusing the game of which camera angle you should be looking at your character.

However, don't let this flaw turn you off from the game. The game takes advantage of a pretty new idea, ''sketch motion.'' I believe some, if not all, of this games graphics were done using a version of Photoshop. This games artwork is simply GORGEOUS and you can't help but gawk at some of the enemies, especially the bosses. Magical effects are also really good looking and same with the CG sequences.

Sounds: 7/10

Music: 5/5
Mmm, you just gotta love this music. I can't really place it in a genre because there's a mix between jazz, symphonic, and sometimes even techno. It's all beautiful music and is very soothing.

SFX: 2/5
Eh, the SFX are decent but nothing spectacular. Weapons are generic sounding and monsters don't really have any noises either. The characters have a little voice acting but it's really not that great and they talk in what seems to be just random spots whenever the designer felt that they wanted to hear some voice acting. Whatever. There is nothing here that is annoying, just lack of quality stuff.

Story: 14/20

Suffice it to say, there's not much depth to the story here either. Each of the seven characters has a different plot but none of them are really engaging or deep. These are just generic RPG storylines and they at least attempt to keep you some-what interested. Don't buy this game for the stories (which end up sort of meshing into one story at the end) or else you'll be deeply disappointed. If you're one of those people who like a wide variety in the cast, then this game has it. Character development isn't very deep but they all have a distinct look and personality.

Gameplay: 35/40

Ah, the meat and bones of this game. This is why you buy this game. This game is unique in every way, has deep character development, and has epic, strategic battles. This is also where the game gets a lot of people. They play this game and go ''What the hell is going on'' and they really have nothing else to keep them interested and this is a fatal flaw in Unlimited Saga.

So why does this game confuse so many people? My theory is that they are so used to the infinite amounts of generic, cliched RPGs that exist these days. They get into their first battle and wonder where the attack, magic, and item buttons are and what's all this reel stuff? Can't I just attack?! The answer to that is no...each move must be planned and must have a reason. Let me elaborate on the gameplay.

As stated above, towns are paintings that have several locations you can move the cursor over and visit. The main building being the Inn where you can gather information, save, buy generic items, and go on missions. Going on a missions takes you to a map, which I described as looking like a home designer's sketch. From here, you have a little black and white sprite of your main character that you move around the map. You'll have several directions you can take and by holding the directional button in those directions you will move your sprite to the next portion of the map. Sometimes you will encounter treasure, traps, enemies, and things like buttons, switches, etc.

One of the most unique features about this game is the reel system. It is use both in battle and out of battle. Out of battle it is used when doing certain abilities like lockpicking a treasure chest or trying to repair one of your weapons. A reel comes up (much like a slot machine reel) and you must stop it. Your goal is basically to stop it on the green dot. There are also X's which is a failure and dynamite which is even worse than a failure.

On to battling. This is the most confusing part of the game and is mostly why it took me almost a year to understand. The reason why it took so long is that there are no tutorials in this game and the instruction manual doesn't go in depth on anything, so that when I first stated playing, a lot of stuff was being tested and no one could have real solid help. However, with the help of the GFAQs message boards, I am now fully capable of playing this game. You basically have five actions that you can take and you can have a maximum of seven characters per missions. Each action takes HP and sometimes durability. If you use a piece of equipment to do an attack or cast a spell you use durability (sometimes it only takes one and sometimes it take two). Once you are out of durability the weapon breaks. You can do a quick-fix which will repair a weapon under 20 durability but it'll only repair it up just a little above 20 (a reel pops up and you can either improve the weapon or damage it even mroe) or you can take it to the blacksmith and forge a new weapon out of it. After choosing your five actions, the characters go into a formation depending on the order you chose the actions in. You then can choose in any order you want to do these actions in by choosing that action then stopping the reel. Stopping the reel on basic attacks will stop it on a colored panel, green being a level one skill and yellow being the max at level five. Higher levels must be learned and they are random. Magic also uses a reel but on this reel are elements and if you land on your magics corresponding element it will be more powerful. When using an action, you have the choice of executing the action or holding it so that you can chain it with another action to perform a more powerful combo move. However, if you choose to hold an action the enemy can break that combo and mess up your plans. And unlike popular belief, the reel system does not rely on luck like a slot machine but more on skill at stopping the reel.

Another unique thing about the Saga games are the HP and LP idea. HP is basically a shield in this game. Dropping to zero HP will not kill you. Dropping to zero LP, however, will kill you. The more HP you have the less of a chance the enemy has of hurting your LP. There are also certain moves that deal more HP damage and some moves that deal more LP damage.

This battle system might not seem so deep. Lower the enemies HP so that you can do LP damage more consistently, but that's just putting it into simple terms. There is much more strategy than just that. Each weapon, which have their own unique qualities (i.e. axes being great HP damagers), has usually up to four different moves it can learn (the exception being guns). Each of these moves have different purposes. Some of them might be more accurate but do less damage or some might be weak but they can stun the enemy. On top of these, each of these moves have five more skills you can learn, each of which might do more damage or lower some stat on the enemy. I mean, just with one weapon you have a plethora of attacks to choose from.

The last unique thing I wish to talk about is the panel system. After each quest you complete you get an HP increase as well as a selection of four random panels for each character that you must place in one of their seven slots. Panels have different uses, some enabling skills for you to use (i.e. locksmith) and some just help you with certain attacks. The panels, which are little hexagons, are arranged into a big hexagon. Each little hexagon has certain attributes to the character it corresponds to (i.e. attack) and depending on what panel you place in that slot will affect your character in some way. This is the only way to make your character develop stat wise. You can also get even more bonuses from placing the same types of panels in certain ways.

Many of the bad attributes to this game come from things that people like to call ''annoying'' when in fact they are just things that make the game challenging. Yes, you can play a quest for an hour and die. So be it, do it again if you want to. All quests, besides story quests, are optional in this game. However, trust me, the second time you try a mission it will go by much, much faster. There is also the fact that if you don't develop your characters well, you might be royally screwed when the end of the game comes near. However, don't fear, this wont happen unless you really don't pay attention to what you are doing. It also might require some fooling around with the game then deleting your file and starting a new one. I've seen many people do this so you won't be the only one.

There are many more things to talk about gameplay wise but I can only explain the basics. This game has deep gameplay that many aren't willing to take the time to understand. However, once you understand the gameplay you will be having so much fun with this game.

Control: 9/10

Besides not being able to control your character freely ever, there is nothing wrong with the control.

Overall: 78/100 (rounded up to 8/10)

This game is highly underrated. Lack of support from Square Enix, lack of graphics and a unique, but mostly unexplained, battle system are the flaws in this game. However, if you are willing to accept the downsides to this game and are willing to learn a totally new way of battling, you will have a lot of fun. Boasting seven storylines, each one with different story quests, characters, and difficulty. This is probably one of the longest and most enjoyable RPGs on the PS2 and from the saturated RPG market these days, this game is a huge breath of fresh air.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/04