Unlimited Saga

""One small step for man..." "What the..." "Hey! What's he doing!?" "He's running! He's running!""

The opening topic of my simulates the progression of the Saga Frontier series. I'll admit. I'm a huge fan of both 1 and 2. While the stories of 1 wasn't the best, I still enjoyed it, and although SF2 was too story-heavy (in Gustave's tale), I liked that too. But this game... this game... it just... well, it's like this. The series starts to take a giant leap in the right direction, yet winds up turning around and running in the completely opposite way. I'm serious.

The Saga Frontier series have been excellent games, and I own both SF 1 and 2 for PSone. I own a PS2. When I received word that the Saga series was making a huge leap to the PS2, I was ecstatic. More power, more gameplay, better graphics. It's a chance for this once not-so-noticed series to take a step out and shine. And the graphics which were displayed in countless magazines also piqued my interest. I was ready. I was ready for the Saga Frontier series to make a huge leap in this new title, Unlimited Saga.

So it sets itself up for the mark. It tries to clear the long jump -- in runs, leaps, and falls flat on its face.

Gameplay 1/10
First off, this is one of the worst gameplay I've experienced for a game. I cannot stand the idea that you have to move your characters across countless maps in order to progress, as if you were on a game board. I don't care for it, not at all. Of course, then there's the problem that it feels so restraining. I do not care for this game's interface. It feels like an old-school RPG ( pen and paper! ) when I was looking forward to a Next Gen. one.

Sadly enough, that's not the end of it. People have tried to defend this game saying, "It lets the player fill in the blanks with their imagination," and "allowing the player to experience the game through their mind." Some call it remarkable. I certainly don't. In fact, the only thing I can compare this to is an illustration of an artist selling you a picture for a million dollars. When you get your hands on the picture and glance on its canvas, you see nothing but white blank space. Then the artist exclaims "fill in the blanks with your imagination." Yes. Let's do that. Let's do that, and while we're at it, I'll take my million dollars back.

Sadly, this is the way the game operates. I would expect much better things out of this game, but instead we're given a blank canvas with which "to fill in the blank." I'll admit, it's not at all bad, as the battle system is at-least somewhat descent, but any fun I had with this game was completely halted by the fact that the Saga Frontier series which preceded this game was so much better.

Graphics/Sound 8/10
I'll admit, for the graphics which are there, they are nice. I love the character and monster graphics in the battle. And the music? It's great. The sound's really nice too. Of course, there's not too many graphics. The graphics that you do see are very pretty, many in watercolor. But that's just it. You cannot traverse these lands openly. You're faced with a generic looking board that you move your character across. Where's the payoff? Where's the exploration? There is none, and if you're looking for something to make all of those hours worthwhile in terms of graphics, you'll leave unfulfilled, as there's nothing to see other than some pretty battles and that generic board which begins to rot a hole in your brain the more you stare at it.

Replay 10/10
I bet this shocked you, huh? Surprisingly enough, there is a good level of replayability, as there are numerous characters to play as. You can go through a couple characters and never get the same story line twice. Each character is different. The score here is high, for the replayability. Then again, if you want to play through drudgery again, that's your wish, not mine.

Overall 5/10
I did not care for this game. I simply did it. From the lack of life, to the lack of interest, to the lack or a descent battle-system. Okay, wait. I'll admit it, the battle system was all right, but I personally do not care for the spinning wheel which is in a couple of games nowadays. Of course, I believe this could have been so much better. It should have, darn it. I feel so restrained when I enter the fight, knowing that I could always do so much better than I did. It's too bad, because that's just molded icing on a cake made out of lard. There's nothing delicious or of a rare delicacy when it comes to this game.

Then again, to rent or to buy? I would recommend that you rent this game. Do not buy it. In fact, you may be so repulsed from renting it, that you'll never make the same mistake I did. I purchased this game, then traded it in at the game stores for a much better game. Sure, there's some things to be enjoyed within this game, don't get be wrong, but any enjoyment you have will soon be over when you think back and say to yourself, "Hey, the Saga series has been so much better than this in the past."

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/06