THE 7TH SAGA (SNES)
oh man, this game has a terrible reputation. most people consider it horribly cryptic at times, with a story that doesn't make sense and padded out by grinding, which most modern sensibilities consider de facto bad design as well. this was all very shocking to me, as i expected the 7th saga to have "cult classic" admiration... hoo was i wrong. i went in blind to this game.
there is a lot that one can appreciate here. the partner system of recruiting from towns where they randomly show up, tho they may ask to fight or force a fight or say idle text instead of asking to join, is unique to SNES RPGs. party members can also turn traitor on you, which i didn't experience, but which i find just charming, tho certainly an instant reset button moment.
there is a decent plot twist near the end imo. i feel the complaints of the game being cryptic and nonsensical must come from such players who play their RPGs trying to avoid NPC text as much as possible, frankly speaking, other than two particular moments that use a seldom-employed 'push' mechanic. one of those is telegraphed if you check things which may have text normally enscribed on them (in this case, tombstones, which i of course do after the excellent RIP LINK in FF1), but the other is not telegraphed at all well, and is required for one of the necessary items for completion. oops. hidden items (found by using 'search' in a menu you open by pressing 'A', o yes it's that kind of RPG) are completely untelegraphed. you will never find them without a guide. period.
it must be said that the 7th saga is a grindfest of a JRPG. there is no peninsula of power here to help out either, and this is a huge turn-off for most people these days it seems. not me. i have games explicitly for grinding (hello disgaea) and this game hit the spot just right. well, mostly. enemies have a tendency to run, which is extremely annoying to deal with, and the amount of enemies in the mid and late game with revival spells for their partners makes grinding a real chore at times. certain party makeups threaten to make this process far more tedious than need be, and it is clear that certain partners are intended by the devs. this is somewhat hinted at by NPCs however. still, of my 35 hours, i am sure 20+ of those were spent grinding.
the rest of my time was spent in dungeons, on the overworld or in towns.
this is the moment i should talk about the 'crystal ball' key item, a circular 'minimap' in the top left of the screen in dungeons and on the overworld. it shows enemy encounters moving around (in white) and loot chests (in yellow) that are on the map you're currently on. this is a great feature for showing if you are going to be in an encounter, it also helps to dodge said encounters. it's unfortunate, then, that most dungeons and much of the world map don't allow for space to adequately dodge enemies. areas that narrow out leave you a sitting duck like simon on stairs in NES castlevania games. this sucks, and the design choices of the crystal ball and layout of land really clash. still, at least you know it's incoming in advance.
the world map feels large and towns actually feel quite connected in one large world with commerce and trade happening, NPCs refer to other towns and the other continents, it is very nice. this is sometimes lacking in RPGs so it's nice to see a world instead of a collection of villages. traversing the world map and towns is made easier thanks to the wind rune, gotten as the first one very early, being a fast travel item. this is good, as backtracking for item shops and party members makes going to old towns necessary.
dungeon maps are not too linear, tho most do end up having one final path to take. by following chests on the crystal ball, you will not get lost. tbh the theme music for dungeons is so fantastic tho that even if i did get lost i barely complained.
the music in this game is sublime, there are multiple town themes and multiple overworld themes, a very subtle difference in dungeon vs overworld battle themes, and a completely different battle theme in the late game. a ton of these songs are total fucking earworms too, and i can't recall a single song i disliked other than the theme that plays during a few success scenarios, and that mostly because it sticks out and doesn't fit the rest of the OST to me, and i can't describe why exactly. regardless, these tracks never wore out their welcome despite all the time spent grinding. i love the bloody battle theme for the bulk of the game (it changes for the last fourth of the story, and i like it too but not as much). i would expect it to tire on me thanks to how much you have to grind but nah.
the battle enemy sprites ooze style, they're very good. there's a lot of recolours but that should be expected i think for a 1994 rpg. they often end up syncing movement with the battle music, and i don't know if it was intentional, but it happened fairly often. very nice. in fact, battle sounds and animations very often seem to flow with the music, as if seamless. a few sound files are... suspect... mostly the ear-piercing screech they decided on for vacuum2 (which only comes very late game), and similarly, the flashing effects so often used back then that come off as seizure-inducing for some animations, but these are few and come fairly late game and not often at all, fortunately, but when they do it's excessive, though not atypical for the time if i'm being honest. overall however, good sprites, use of the processor's camera abilities to transition in and out of battle in a way only SNES could at that time and good music make a necessary presentation for the tedium of grinding.
in the west.
and here's where everything nice i have to say grinds to a halt because it must be addressed: elnard is the japanese name for this game, but in the west, elnard is the game before localisation to make the game into a grind that puts off even most rpg diehards. and elnard is clearly not supposed to be a grind, by design. the western localisation missed all of this subtlety. we got, instead, a tough as nails game with certain scenarios that can force a player into restarting files due to impassable difficulty spikes. elnard is not meant to be impassable, ever, because it isn't meant to get time from difficulty, but time from replaying the game.
the 7th saga has various unique scenarios for some characters, as well as actual player choice in its story. it is clear from the moment you choose one unique character, to having only one additional member of your party and all the way to the credit scene that this is a game that is shouting at you to reroll a new character, choose a new partner and do it again...! and unfortunately, the western game was mangled to discourage that very intentional design element. with hours and hours of grinding required for each playthrough, it's just too much of a pain to be bothered. and that's a real bloody shame, because JRPGs with story scenarios of differing results and certain unique interactions are rare from this era. it is this reason that if i play the 7th saga again, i will grab a romhack that restores the elnard leveling curve and enemy patterns and feel absolutely 0 guilt for it.
it absolutely has to be noted that the western release destroys the charm of party members turning traitor--turning it into a reset SNES moment--because the AI apprentices are their elnard counterparts. they have better stats than you, better equipment than you and are 1-5 levels higher than you and when they stab you in the back they rob you of all your runes in the process. these runes are the collectable plot tokens--but with actual usage, such as being reusable HP or MP potions, defence buffs, etc (once per battle per character)--and the AI is programmed to use them if they have them. at two points do you have to fight an apprentice for runes in the story, and one of these fights in particular can get so absurdly out of hand (thanks to their levels scaling and the push to grind in the same area thanks to an enemy with abnormally large XP output and, well, the grindfest nature of this game) that certain matchups for that rune become instant reset file moments. if they beat you in combat, they take all your runes. it's absolutely punishing in the western release--which destroys this entire concept that is a challenging, but intriguing and unique, moment in elnard instead of an instant console reset like in saga.
i am so charmed by the 7th saga overall, though. it certainly feels like a project of love and care and it is a damn shame that it is widely trashed whenever brought up. o, yes, it is flawed, and the western release is a bastardisation for a game that is clearly meant to be played multiple times over, but it is such an ambitious title that ended up buried by an avalanche of incoming SNES rpgs with static/linear storylines, level up systems, characters and parties that played it safe but had stories with happy endings that tickle power fantasy and were relatively straight forward to follow, no NPCs or manuals required. the title screen is a tombstone with the title carved into it, and in this context it is very appropriate. elnard is a cult-classic in japan as well, despite being an enix produced game.
for what it's worth, i like those RPGs too, and those are considered classics for a reason, but none of them really make me bite my lip in contemplation of whether pressing new game next week is too early to have another go. the 7th saga did this--is doing this now as i sit at the post-credits scroll as i type--and that alone is a testament to my newfound adoration for this game, flaws and all.
