"Great battle systems"

Saga Frontier II is a big game from Square. It was rather unfortunate that Square chose to release it a month after Final Fantasy VIII, so the game is very rarely mentioned.

The game has very nice graphics. The cartoon-like backgrounds and characters may not appeal to everyone, but personally I think they are drawn very nicely. Seeing these beautiful graphics, I can say that Square has redefined 2D graphics once again. Battle backgrounds are drawn in 3D, which increases the loading time. In my opinion, it would have been much better if the battle backgrounds were drawn in the same cartoon style as the normal backgrounds.

Compared to the graphics, the musics of the game are not very impressive, but they match the game very well. There are a few good battle themes, but I only like one of them. I have not noticed any tracks that are particularly good either.

The game is arranged in an event-based system. This is very different to traditional Japanese console RPGs. You do not get to explore the world map, but you will get to "open up" more events on the world map when you progress. You can choose any events to play. When you finish an event, it will be added to the chronicle.

The main character of the game is Gustav (the Steel XIII), a prince who was exiled with his mother Queen when he was 7 years old due to his inability to use magic. While the story develops, you will be able to use many other characters as well. Gustav may or may not be in the party.

The event based system may be the downfall of the game because you can be stuck in a town with no access to the world map or battles. But that's probably because I am only a novice in the Japanese language. The same goes to the story, because I can only understand very little of the Japanese.

The game does not feature random encounters, but you will actually see enemies walking around in the dungeon. You can normally dodge them unless you are stuck in very narrow corridors. (If you can dodge zombies if Resident Evil 2, then you should have no trouble avoiding battles in Saga Frontier II!)

However, who will avoid encounters when a game is featuring excellent battle systems? There are two main battle systems in Saga Frontier II, Group battle and Duel battle.

Normal group battles are like the ones in traditional RPGs where your whole party will be present to fight a group of enemies. You can adjust the party formation in the main menu. You can use arts (consumes WP) and magic spells (consumes JP) during group battles. If you are lucky, you can also trigger group combo attacks that can deal very large amount of damages.

The game will sometimes allow you to fight duel battles. In a duel battle, you can choose a member in the party to fight an enemy in an one-on-one battle. In the beginning of a turn, you will have to enter 4 commands from a range of simple techniques that are unique to the weapons and accessories the character is equipping. Correct combinations of these simple techniques will trigger new arts and new magic spells. In my opinion, the duel battle system is the best feature in the game.

The game has Pocket Station compatibility. There are two "minigames" for the Pocket Station. I regard neither of them as real games. The first one is Combo Pocket. It allows you to exchange learnt combo attacks with your friends. Since I don't have any friends who are Pocket Station owners, this "game" is essentially useless. The second one is Go! Go! Digger. It allows you to find new items. Go! Go! Digger is useful, but is rather boring, with no gameplay what-so-ever.

Overall, I think the game is very innovative. Very nice graphics (9/10), matching but repetitive musics (6/10) and absolutely great battle systems (9/10). I give an overall of 8/10 for this game. The score will probably be higher when the English version is released.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99