![]() ![]() It requires thinking, planning, comboing, and a full grasp of SaGa Frontier and its myriad of gameplay systems. Actually succeeding means learning the abilities and aptitudes of your chosen warriors, training them in those specific areas, and then whipping out a Dream Super Combo after hours of hoping you chose the right martial artist for the job. ![]() Robotically “grinding” in SF means the encounters get stronger, but your characters do not necessarily gain the new skills to meet these challenges. What I projected would be a simple “mindlessly kill monsters, get stronger” experience required far more nuance than I ever anticipated. ![]() I tried to approach the game as a traditional Squaresoft jaunt, and I was rewarded for my hubris with a number of dead heroes and heroines. If you get it, you get it, but if you don’t, your protagonist is pudding.Īnd, gentle reader, let me tell you that, in 1998, I was not ready for SaGa Frontier. But can you imagine the tongue-dexterity of those that survived? They would be able to lick-brake in amazing ways! And they would probably be better at parallel parking for some reason! Kawazu games will make you better at all games, because they encourage creative thinking and cultivating skills you might leave to languish elsewhere… but these games are also notoriously brutal in their learning curves. Would plenty of people die thanks to this vehicle? Yes, obviously. These Kawazu Cars would seem completely normal, but you could only use the brakes by licking the steering wheel in just the right way. Like, to attempt a terrible metaphor for the masses that might not have grown up farming cactuars on remote islands, it would be like… Hm… Imagine if Kawazu made cars. And it is hard to describe just how different Kawazu directed games can be at times. What’s more, the origins of practically everything involved in SaGa was introduced in Final Fantasy 2… a game that never saw release/a strategy guide in the West. And you only played that franchise if you had a Nintendo Gameboy and a really high tolerance for staring at a tiny, pea-green square’s worth of text (and a similarly high patience for banana smuggling). And, while the SaGa franchise was familiar to fans in Japan, over here in America Town, Kawazu had only shown his hand in the Final Fantasy Legend series. SaGa Frontier was directed and produced by Akitoshi Kawazu. I had no idea what SaGa Frontier had in store for me, but I did have forty bucks of Summer spending I could spare for the experience.Īnd, yes, SaGa Frontier is certainly an experience. Final Fantasy was a known quantity, Squaresoft was where Chrono Trigger originated, and a return to “sorcery” (an aspect of older Final Fantasy games that had been gradually given over to techno worlds at the time) was all that I needed. Overwhelmingly white CD case with some Amano-looking wispy dude wearing a patently ridiculous clothing/amulet combo? Sign me the hell up. ![]() SaGa Frontier caught my eye for one simple reason: it was the same color as Final Fantasy 7. There would not be a monthly periodical arriving to inform me of all the grand games coming to my favorite console anymore, and, as a result, I was lost in the wilderness of Electronics Boutique during every visit. It was a long, N64-based time coming, but, for the first time in my life, I was no longer “connected” to the gaming world. I was a gawky teen/band nerd that mostly assumed women were another, significantly alien species and, more importantly, I had just let my Nintendo Power subscription lapse. It is certainly a cliché, but I was a different person in 1998. There is nothing like an old friend stopping by to remind you of who you were. ![]()
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