A lot of that changed around the time I first got into gaming--which is to say, around the time Nintendo published the original Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games in North America in late 1989 and early 1990, respectively.
I mean, I spent a bunch of time with both of the above-mentioned NES RPGs as a gaming noob, but neither of those titles sucked me in like The Final Fantasy Legend (and, a few months later, the North American version of Final Fantasy IV).
Both of those niggles eventually grew on me, of course--or maybe I should say I grew to respect, if not completely adore, them.
Admittedly, nostalgia wasn't the only reason I bought this copy of SaGa. Two more reasons were: this particular copy was pretty darn cheap (less than $10, including shipping) and I hoped it might be another game that could be put to use in my journey to learn the Japanese language.
Have any of you played any version of this handheld JRPG? If so, what are your thoughts on it, or what are your memories of it?
See also: previous 'Year of the GameBoy' posts
I loved the Final Fantasy Legend games. The first one was as bare-bones as a story can get, but they got better. If they ever turn up on 3DS Virtual Console, I'd probably end up playing them again for nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteI had a roommate in college who loved that game, and still broke it out every now and then to play. At the time I wasn't really interested, but Jeremy Parish did a rad Gameboy World episode about it a couple of weeks ago that made me wish I'd paid more attention to it! It seems to have an incredible amount of content in it for what a lot of people figured would be a Final Fantasy Lite adventure.
ReplyDeleteAnother fan! Yay :) Also, yes, the first one barely had a story, but I loved it anyway. I loved the second one even more, though, I have to admit. Of course, I've always been a sucker for gods and goddesses and such...
ReplyDeleteOh, I didn't realize Jeremy had published a GB World episode about it! I'll have to check that out ASAP. Thanks for letting me know about it, Zach! BTW, you really should check out these games at some point--especially the second one, IMO.
ReplyDeleteI played through that first one 3-4 times at least. It was addictive.
ReplyDeleteOh, wow! I think I've only played it through about two times myself.
ReplyDeleteI'd really like to! I need to get a decent rig together for playing GB/GBC games again. All I've got is an antiquated GBA that's sound is on the fritz.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, I understand that, Zach. Another possibility would be to buy them off the 3DS eShop--if Square Enix ever bothered to put them there :|
ReplyDeleteOn a tight gaming budget, it was a good replay value because you could try different team configurations. I did not beat it with four monsters. lol
ReplyDeleteI love these games so much! How often do you get to kill God with a chainsaw?
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Very true, Terry :) BTW, I don't think I've used a monster while playing this game. Ever. I always go with humans and mutants, for whatever reason.
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly, Reynaldo! What a wonderfully weird series this has been over the years :)
ReplyDeleteHave you tinkered with the other SaGa games and generally Akitoshi Kawazu works like the Last Remnant. If you liked FF Legend, you shuold really investigate if you haven't already. http://store.steampowered.com/app/23310/
ReplyDeletethere are remakes of 2 and 3 in Japanese on DS btw.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, I've played a number of SaGa games over the years, Rowan. All of FFL 1 and 2 (or at least I think I played all of the second one), just a tiny bit of FFL 3, some of each of the Romancing SaGa trio (although not much, due to the language barrier), all of SaGa Frontier and a tiny bit of SaGa Frontier 2. I also own the Romancing SaGa remake and Unlimited SaGa for PS2, but I've yet to play either of them XD
ReplyDeleteYep. And funnily enough, someone else reminded me of them on Twitter yesterday afternoon. I'll definitely pick up both of them sometime next year!
ReplyDeleteWhen i first played SaGa 1 (as Final Fantasy Legend), it was borrowing a copy from a friend. I think i lent him Kirby 2 in exchange, or maybe it was even the first Kirby game. I remember how much i liked the game, but i always got lost in the tower! I also interpreted "Creator" at the end of the game as the creator of the game instead of God, so it was a really weird meta video game moment for me!
ReplyDeleteI've started it a few times since, but the farthest i've gotten is the 2nd world. I need to play it again! My battery finally died after 20 years so it probably won't be on the original cartridge.
[profound sigh] don't remind me~
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Hey, at least copies of these games aren't too pricey on eBay at the moment, Zach :)
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a great memory, finchiekins! I'm sure I got lost in the tower, too, although I can't remember much about that portion of the game right now, sadly. I guess that means I have to play it again--and soon! Hopefully you can get around to it, too :)
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