The 7th Saga

Review by Animand Arboreality

"This game would have been revolutionary..."

This game was a classic, if unpolished, game that deserves all the respect it receives and more. However, few people have the patience to sit down and play this more than a few times without getting frustrated. But I'm quite patient, and this game was kind to all my needs.

Story: 6/10

The story was nice, but severely lacking in the area of background. Ticondera is the planet, immersed in legend. You must create that legend, and you get to choose who does so and see the characters move through it. Talking to all the people and entering all the houses is fun, and useful information can be gleaned if you actually visit them all. If you don't, well, you lose the story and other things as well.

Graphics: 7/10

The graphics are fair enough. The ocean follows a particular pattern, but still has the feel of movement. Characters are big and well-drawn, towns have details, and backgrounds were simple yet well-designed. Offensive maneuvers were done nicely and are great fun to watch, but anything else is not nearly so pretty (maybe so that you will stop defending or healing and starting nuking and slashing again, and not choose a certain healing-based character with a green robe...)

Sound and Music: 4/10
(Since I believe these aren't as critical as the other things, and I try to keep the volume down)

The music was decent, but quickly sends chills down your spine... because you would rather be stabbed in the back many times with a rusty knife and take FIVE DAYS TO DIE WITH LOCKJAW AND BLOOD LOSS! But I must admit it wasn't so bad in itself, but after spending 20 hours leveling up, the over world theme is bothersome, and you want to cast your strongest magic spell on the conductor of the noise in the background. Good to start with, goes downhill from there. Oh yeah, if that bothers you, think of how unoiled robots would sound... [shudder]

Characters and the governing systems: 8/10
(The Characters, plus how they act while playing)

You got to choose your own character from a preset bunch, they were fairly well balanced according to play style, and they were highly unique from the others....usually. However, certain ones seem to end up powerhouses and unbalanced, and others are a pain in the backside and a chore to play with. But given the choice you choose the one for you, or you figure it out by trial and error. BY this I mean picking a char, wasting many MANY hours of your life if need be, and finally screaming at the TV so loud the cops are called and throwing your controller at the TV. If the TV breaks, get a new character, otherwise you hit pay dirt. You then repeat the choosing process for getting a partner, once you can convince them to join you. The best thing about this part comes into play when you start advancing. Simply put, you must follow linearly through your skills, but you are always given what you need when you need it. Certain partnerships work great, others may as well be read ''I hate my life and want to gain ungodly amount of experience JUST to beat the boss before I die of old age.'' It's great fun, but you have to work for it. Oh yeah, runes become necessary as soon as you obtain them, so master them and the enemies become possible again.

Unique items of interest: 10/10

This has a couple VERY unique things about it, and one of them I NEVER see mentioned. Many games have great battle systems, but never a way to choose WHEN you get in a battle or how to change the chances. Here there is a radar (the Crystal Ball) that does all of this for you, by showing the enemies. Using this you can TRY to avoid them, but fail miserably. Why? They're predictable, but not easily so. If you get a bit lucky and do well in avoiding them, sometimes you can traverse floors and even entire dungeons without hitting a random battle... it seems almost as if that is the major game skill and battle are punishment for getting caught by a blip on the radar....
The other thing is... [drum roll] LEFT-HANDED PLAYING! Once you realize that R, X, and Y are quite useless, and that L mimics A and Select mimics B, you no longer have a use for that right-hand! Except for those with smaller hands when they need to press Start for some weird reason. You can do something else while you mindlessly go through level gaining, dungeon crawling, and town business. I can do homework while gaining levels if I don't mind giving my L button a workout, or I can talk on the phone, the list of possibilities is endless! This alone is incredible, an RPG that does very well in creating a great game that can be played one-handed without any loss of gameplay. It's great, incredible, and anything else you could say!

Playability: 6/10
It's a great game, but definitely not for everybody. That is why it's not getting a good score here. It's a definite seller to RPG fans though. Buy this game so you can say you've beat it, and do it while doing something else!

Overall: 8/10

While not for everybody, it is STILL a great game, and it's many special feature make it a game you'll want to beat... even if it kills you. The special features make a good game even better, so definitely try it to expand your RPG horizons too. This game would have been revolutionary, but alas, it was overlooked by too many. Get this game, right the wrongs, and ease your conscience.