Square Enix may never give us another SaGa game, but at least they gave us this GameBoy entry (and its two sequels)

It's kind of hard to believe in 2014 that there was a time when Westerners had little to no access to Japanese RPGs.

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.

The first JRPG that really had an impact on me, though, was 1990's The Final Fantasy Legend, a GameBoy title that began life in Japan as Makai Toushi SaGa (aka SaGa).

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).

In a way, that kind of surprises me, as I distinctly remember being confounded (and even disappointed) by some aspects of this portable adventure. The breakable weapons are one example, and the Dragon Quest-esque (i.e., invisible party members) battle scenes are another.

Both of those niggles eventually grew on me, of course--or maybe I should say I grew to respect, if not completely adore, them.

Anyway, I mention all of this in order to explain why I recently picked up the complete-in-box copy of the Japanese version of The Final Fantasy Legend, SaGa, that can be seen throughout this post.

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.

If you're looking for a few additional reasons to purchase your own copy of SaGa, you may want to consider the photos of the game's instruction manual that I've published here. Needless to say, it's chock-full of awesome illustrations.

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

A new gaming blog draws near: Gaymer Quest

Although there are a lot of positives associated with maintaining a gaming blog, I'd be lying if I said some negatives didn't also come with the territory.

A particularly noteworthy negative, given the focus of this post, is that it can be difficult to keep up with all of the great gaming blogs other folks are busily maintaining.

I'm going to do whatever I can to keep up with a new gaming blog I was introduced to late last week, though--with the blog in question being the fabulously titled Gaymer Quest.



It was started by--and will be maintained by, obviously--a bloke who calls himself "Kaze" (kah-zay), who some of you may have spied in the comments section of this very blog.

Kaze, a self-described gaymer and aspiring Japanese translator, says he launched Gaymer Quest "as a fun outlet to discuss all the nerdy things I'm passionate about. So, expect a lot of posts about retro video games, modern video games, anime, manga, Japanese culture, gay culture and who knows what else."



Gaymer Quest's home to just three posts so far, but two of them--one of which focuses on the first Final Fantasy Legend GameBoy title, while the other discusses the GaymerX event and "the power of safe spaces"--proved to be intriguing reads (the first was little more than an introduction), so I'd say this is a blog that's well worth keeping an eye on for some time to come.

Oh, and should you want to check out or follow Gaymer Quest elsewhere, its Facebook page can be found at facebook.com/gaymerquest and its Twitter account can be found at twitter.com/gaymerquest.

Recommend me some GameBoy RPGs

My recent obsession with Final Fantasy Adventure--and the memories that game conjured up of my past obsessions with the first two Final Fantasy Legend titles--has me itching to check out a few other quality GameBoy RPGs.

The problem is, I don't know of many. In fact, the only ones coming to mind at the moment are the following:

* Dragon Quest I, II and III
* Dragon Quest Monsters I and II
* Final Fantasy Adventure
* Final Fantasy Legend I, II and III
* For the Frog the Bell Tolls (aka Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru)
* The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
* The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons
* Pokemon Blue, Green, Red and Yellow

Am I missing any that you think would be worth a look?

I'm primarily interested in RPGs that were made for the original GameBoy as opposed to the GameBoy Color, by the way--despite the fact that a couple of the ones mentioned in my bullet-pointed list were GBC releases.

Oh, and feel free to name Japanese RPGs that weren't translated into English--as long as you're sure they're top-notch examples of the genre.