SaGa Frontier 2

"An extremely fun RPG, to say the least"

I think this game is great. I'll talk about all the various factors, blah blah, etc etc about why I think so.

Gameplay:
This game is fun. Others have talked about what the game is about, and I'm sure most of you know about the two-character scenarios. Well, let me tell you about the some of the details that I liked about this game and made it really fun. The best improvement Square implemented for this game was the skills system. Now, you don't have classes and char. lvls anymore. Instead, everybody you get (like 24 characters) have levels in all the weapon skills and magic skills. That is not all. Each character has an expertise in certain skills, so like one character may be really good with an Axe and Stone magic, while another may have Tree, Tone (like music/wind), and Bow. The more you use a weapon or magic skill, the more lvls it gains. So instead of the 15th lvl mage & 8th lvl fighter, you have a character with Axe-lvl 13, Stone-lvl 4, sword-lvl 0, etc. Very customizable, yet with individuality. The skills are very reminiscient of Secret of Mana's skills system. The more you use, the better you get, basically. And the better you get, the more skills you can learn in that one field. So a guy with Tree magic can learn like Bushfire, Lifewater, & others.
I also like the fact that mundane wpns break after a while. So that Hunter's Bow might break after 40 (having 40 charges) attacks with it. What this does is it makes the rare weapons & items (the ones with infinite charges) that much more special. I was so happy when I first found the Kris Blade, and the Beast Lance, etc. These rare weapons become more than just weapons with an attack number. They become something you can keep bonded to your characters. Another thing they have is that everybody in the world can basically use magic (except for Gustave & some others.. for plot purposes) so long as acquire items (called Tools & Quells) and equip them. So if you have a character that has a Hunters Bow (it gives Fire) and a Blue Water (it's a water quell), your character can use any spell you already know that is equipped & uses fire, water, or any combo of the two. It adds a whole new element of strategy to how you manage your resources.
This time around, the battles are more improved as well. The normal battles sometimes have different objectives, such as to flee or to plug up a wall or something. I like the duel battles that the game offers, as well as the strategy battles. The duel battles give you the chance to fight with a character one-on-one against an opponent. It makes your characters seem that much cooler. It also gives you the chance to learn new skills because if you hit off the right combo (you're allowed 4 moves to make per round) you can execute a skill (every skill is made up of elementary moves, so like Cross-slash may be slash/backslash and Bushfire may be tree/fire) by doing its elementary moves and learn it if you're high lvl enough (& lucky enough... there's still an element of probability to learning there, but much higher than in normal battle mode). The strategy battles let you move several different parties of men around, & archers have a purpose! If you place an archer near another party when they get into a fight, the archers actually injure the enemy with arrows in the beginning of the round!! The battles in this mode are similar to Ogre Battle, because each battle lasts a round and you basically try to damage the enemy as much as you can in one rnd, and the lose gets forced back a step.
Another thing to note is the fact that you can play up to 4 characters in battle, who can join up to do 4-player combos (I know, because I finally got one to work today... it was GREAT). In that respect, it's similar to Chrono Trigger's double & triple combos, except here it's a little random. However, another aspect of the game is that you can assign your characters different roles in the party, so one can be a Marksman, another can be a Cannonball, another an Ace, etc. There are well over a dozen different roles to choose, and each gives that character a special adjustment (Marksmen do more dmg with Bow, Cannonballs will go first almost all the time, Aces have higher chances of doing combos, etc). This adds even more spice to your characters. And isn't an RPG all about characters?
Now that I've talked about most of the gameplay, I can also say that outside of the battles, it's fun too because the game also offers puzzles and obstacles for you to solve. And the characters you have will grow old, and you'll get to play their children, etc, and it makes the characters really grow on you. I kinda dislike Narcisse in the beginning, but by the time I was going to Weissland, I thought he was really cool. He was also 10 yrs older than when we first met.
Oh yeah, and other cool aspects: you can save ANYWHERE at ANYTIME. Yes, anywhere. No save pts. They DO include save pts as well in between scenes. And, you can also quick save in 1 sec or less by pressing Triangle & confirming. It's that easy. Menus pull up very fast, there are shortcut buttons to get to equipment & arts, and if you don't know what a certain item or art does, just press Triangle (similar to FFT's Select button). Now let me talk about the other aspects.

Plot:
The plot is pretty good. To tell the truth, I haven't finished the game yet, but I have such a major urge to write this review and tell people how great this game is (down with videogames.com's review! It makes it seem too mediocre!). If you like reading about historical events, especially during the medieval times, you will like this plot. It's very grand, because it's not constrained by time. After all, generations go by. So in this way, it seems more real to you, compared to ''FF7 happened in the span of a week in their world?'' Ok, maybe not. But, well, the pace here is different & it tells a different kind of story. In fact, there are many scenes where you'll get no interaction at all and it's just reading (mainly Gustave's.. Wil's are more of the go out there & adventure while Gustave's are ''I must rule this kingdom blah blah blah). This might let some people down because it'll seem very non-interactive. Which is a downer. But there are other scenes to compensate for that.
Anyway, the plot's good, but I must also say something about how the plot is executed. I think that some scenes need more improvement in terms of presentation. See, in FFT when events are executed very well. They can make you laugh, or cry, or hate certain characters, etc (don't want to give anything away), but in this game, many of the scenes just seem like you're reading a history tale that took place many years ago & doesn't really concern you. Basically, I thought they could have used a better director & scriptwriter. Some scenes that should really have strength & emotion, lacks them. And that just hurts the game's plot in the end. You'll know what I mean when you play it.

Graphics:
Awesome, awesome graphics. In terms of 2D, I don't think anything else on the PS beats it. The visual effects in battle are awesome (try Bushfire for the first time, or Firestorm.. man...). Combined with the sound effects, which I will get to later, it's a real treat. Artwork is EXCELLENT, for the most part. Backgrounds are beautifully drawn, but battle graphics are only a slight improvement over the previous SF. Ok, more than a little. Basically, the battle backgrounds are pixelated, and you'll be able to tell. Also, in the duel mode, you can really see your characters, but I have a complaint about such close-ups. Why does it seem like they have chicken feet??? They ALL have chicken feet!! Aside from that, they're well detailed. Once again, the artwork's very well done. Definitely more pleasing to look at than more other games.

Sounds/Music:
Music is state of the art. Quality is excellent, definitely better in sound quality than say FF7. More like FFT or Xenogears. If you have stereo, play it with stereo. If you don't, connect it to a stereo & try it out. It's awesome to hear any of the sounds coming out of the game. Music may not sound as GOOD as some of the other Square games, but they are definitely good. Sound effects are top-notch. Like I said, play it with stereo, and listen to it. It makes a big difference in the experience. Bottom line is: I think music makes a big difference on whether you like a game (or movie, for that matter) or not. Good examples, Chrono Trigger, Braveheart, others. Well, the music in this game makes me enjoy it more, so if that matters to you, there you have it.

Misc:
I think there's definitely replay value, for even though you basically play through a time line, and all the scenes are set before you, the way you develop your characters can really differ. And since the skills are kinda developed randomly, it makes each time you replay it different. Maybe I'm wrong, since I haven't even beaten it the first time, but even now I keep thinking, what if I had played it this way instead, with this weapon, and tried to develop this skill instead, etc. I even heard that some character's futures lies in your hand; some may leave or die depending on what you do. So that effects your replay as well. Finally, I would like to say that this game is a statement to all those other RPGs that use extensive FMV, that it is indeed possible to make a great RPG still with just 2D, great artwork, gameplay, music, & story. It doesn't have to be ''cinematic''. Ok, I think I've said enough now. I'll shut up.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/01/00, Updated 03/01/00