"If you can bypass the really slow battle, its one great game..."

Farland Saga for the Saturn is an other port from the Farland series on the computer (this one was originally designed for the Jap WIN95 OS). What I can say to begin this review is that its surely a really bad port. I've never played the original version, but seen many screen shots of it. What you have here is a version with a lot of loading, battle that are too slow, and inferior graphic when you compared them to the PC version. But beneath that, I think its really one great game, and a good option if you cant find the WIN95 version (Its not a very common title to begin with). Anyway, lets start!

Story:
My Japanese is really poor, but I can say that the story is great. At the beginning of the game, some princess got falsely accused of the murder of a hero from your country. Your primary goal is to protect her, but you will soon discover that there's a darker plot that is going on behind the scene. It may seem classic, but it works well. And the interaction between all your character is perfect. You will learn all about them and their personality. Even with no knowledge of Japanese, you can really appreciate the story.
8/10

Gameplay:
Unlike Farland Story, who was using a "Shining Force" battle system, you now use a engine that works like "Tactic Ogre" or "Final Fantasy Tactic", but with less complexity. It stills works great. Each turn, you have a Player Phase and an Enemy Phase. During your phase, you can do one move and one action (attack, magic, item) and you decide of course what you wan to do first. You will have nine character during the game and all of them are different. They all have their strong and weak points, so you will have to use some strategy to win the battle. Sadly, the AI is weak, but not as weak as in Farland Story, and some of the later battle can be challenging (well normally, problem is I boosted 3 of my character to lv 99 halfway in the game , so it cuts a lot in the difficulty department)

Now, theres some problems that plagued the game. First, and surely the biggest one, the game is slow as hell. You will never see a game so slow. Everyone walk like a turtle, and with a bad frame rate. Its really horrible to the point where you want to destroy your Saturn (believe me). Whats more, you have to see every enemy make their move, and that can take a lot of time Second, to make the game even slower, theres the longest loading time I've seen in history. And not only when you load a battle map. When you move, it loads, when you make an attack, it loads, and even when the music change in the game, it loads (argh...it can kill the atmosphere, trust me). Theres one way to make the game less painful, its to cut the battle animation. Of course it stupid because if the game were not so slow to begin with, it would not be a problem. But still, if you can overcome all theses problems, you will find a lot of enjoyment (I sure did). Its just too bad, because Im sure the PC version was perfect (from what I read elsewhere), its just a bad port.
6/10 (8/10 if you forget the slow-motion mode)

Graphic:
They're great. Every character are well detailed, the attack and magic look impressive to me. Every character (allies and enemies alike) have a lot of different anime portrait, and you will see some CG pictures of great quality during the game. The battle map can be too plain sometimes, but most of the times, they look cool. The snowy battle maps are just too beautiful, and in some battles, you will see some cool lighting effect. The good point of all this slowdown is that you will have time to enjoy the graphic. I will only vut one point, because from what I saw on the screen shots of the PC version, the graphic were a lot better on the original, with bigger portrait and character, with more details.
9/10

Sound:
The music is kinda good. Nothing memorable, but you wont put your TV on Mute. The sound is standard, I can say much more. But where the sound department really shines its in the voice acting. Every single line of the game are dubbed with a lot of emotion. That will help you to understand a little more the scenario (I cant read Japanese, but I recognize some spoken words). The only problem I see with the voice is that the volume for them is too low. Most of the time, the music will cover them. Its just too bad.
7/10

Replay value:
Well, once its over its over. BUT, normally you finished the game at STAGE 25, but wait till the credits ends, because you will be asked to save your game. That will allow you to play an extra 25 STAGES (4 normal battles, and a tower of 21 floors where you find the best equipment for your party). This was a good surprise. But after this bonus of 25 battle, its really over. Still just for this great addition, the replay value get some points
6/10

Conclusion
TOO SLOW, this is the real only problem I can see with this game. Because apart from that, its really a great game. I found a lot of enjoyment in this one, and like most of import RPG, its really cheap. So even if you didnt liked it, its not such a waste. Because of this game, I really want to play to part 2 now (also available on Saturn), and maybe, who knows, try the PC version to see if this one was perfect...
8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/13/04