IS Romancing Saga a good game?

[Drakron]

Because the damn banner ad keep showing it ...

 

[FrancoTAU]

I haven't played any of the newer ones, but the old ones on PS1 were two of the most frustrating RPGs i've ever played.

 

[Kamaz]

It promises different pathes and different quests for different characters. Buuuut design looks just gay and I am not sure weather we should believe such adds. But at least they promise non-linearity (to some degree).

Yes, this add caught me attention as well.

 

[Drakron]

It goes on and on and on ... if at least shown a ctagirl showing ample cleavage ...

 

[DamnElfGirl]

Well, the last SaGa game was pretty much universally panned, and Romancing SaGa seems to be continuing that grand tradition. Never EVER trust Square Enix if it promises non-linear gameplay... or really, if it promises anything innovative. Squeenix's idea of non-linearity involves randomly wandering around hoping to find some completely random event while fighting random battles. Blech.

(I have enjoyed one Squeenix game, recently, Radiata Stories. But it's still frustrating in terms of having to purposefully delay advancing the storyline if you want to explore and recruit characters effectively. And it is in no way an RPG. It's a quirky adventure game where your only character development choice is what armour and weapons you use.)

 

[Sarvis]

I haven't played Romancing SaGa specifically, but the general pattern for these games is that each character has their own quest that is relatively short and linear.

Give it a rent or try it out at least, they are a bit of an acquired taste I think. They tend to have a different, more involved, combat system than most rpgs... but I haven't even managed to complete one.

For God's sake though avoid Unlimited SaGa like the plague. Worst. Game. Ever.

 

[Drakron]

I just realized that Square forgot were the fuck is europe again.

 

[Jason]

Compared to most Square games, The SaGa series is relatively non-linear. You can choose different characters, travel to diffferent areas in almost any order, take or ignore subquests, and characters improve their ability or skill stats by using those abilities in combat. Keep in mind, I said compared to most Square games.
Another plus is that the series is much more focused on gameplay rather than the Hollywood production values of the Final Fantasies. A SaGa developer recently said something to the effect that FF is geared toward the mainstream audience while SaGa is for the hardcore RPG fans. As far as I know, the series has remained 2D and turn-based.
Romancing SaGa 3 for the SNES was the best of the bunch. Download the translated rom and try it on an emulator (like ZSNES).

 

[truekaiser]

Well, the last SaGa game was pretty much universally panned, and Romancing SaGa seems to be continuing that grand tradition. Never EVER trust Square Enix if it promises non-linear gameplay... or really, if it promises anything innovative. Squeenix's idea of non-linearity involves randomly wandering around hoping to find some completely random event while fighting random battles. Blech.

(I have enjoyed one Squeenix game, recently, Radiata Stories. But it's still frustrating in terms of having to purposefully delay advancing the storyline if you want to explore and recruit characters effectively. And it is in no way an RPG. It's a quirky adventure game where your only character development choice is what armour and weapons you use.)

the older romanceing saga games, the ones that did not make it to the states are better.

 

[almondblight]

Unlimited Saga was a pretty cool game, but one people are going to hate if they're expecting the typical "smash attack button during random battles until the next 10 minute cutscene" console RPG. It required actually strategy for combat, included a bunch of side quests, multiple characters (each with it's own story/quests), and had a bunch of cool non-combat skills (weapon making, diplomacy, map making, etc). The kicker is you had to put time into it to have fun - most people played for half an hour, didn't know what the hell was happening, said "this isn't Final Fantasy!" and returned it.

 

[Sarvis]

Unlimited Saga was a pretty cool game, but one people are going to hate if they're expecting the typical "smash attack button during random battles until the next 10 minute cutscene" console RPG.

No, it was just a shitty game.

It required actually strategy for combat,

spinning a wheel and hoping it lands on the attack you need is NOT strategy, it is luck.

included a bunch of side quests, multiple characters (each with it's own story/quests), and had a bunch of cool non-combat skills (weapon making, diplomacy, map making, etc). The kicker is you had to put time into it to have fun - most people played for half an hour, didn't know what the hell was happening, said "this isn't Final Fantasy!" and returned it.

IF you want to think that, go ahead. I've played previous SaGa games and knew it wasn't going to be Final Fantasy but I still only got a couple hours in. The trick is that in the few hours I played I made almost no progress, because combat is nearly unwinnable when you have to depend almost purely on luck to win.

 

[FrancoTAU]

The older ones did make the US.... they were just ported to Gameboy years afterwards. Those were actually pretty fun.

 

[almondblight]

No, it was just a shitty game.

Hard to argue with such a well formulated argument.

spinning a wheel and hoping it lands on the attack you need is NOT strategy, it is luck.

True, and if that's how the game worked it might have been aweful. Good thing that's not how it works.

... but I still only got a couple hours in. The trick is that in the few hours I played I made almost no progress...

Well, seeing as you've only played for a couple of hours and demonstrated you don't understand the play dynamics at all, I see how it's fair for you to judge the game.

 

[Sarvis]

No, it was just a shitty game.

Hard to argue with such a well formulated argument.

Yeah, because that's where I stopped.

spinning a wheel and hoping it lands on the attack you need is NOT strategy, it is luck.

True, and if that's how the game worked it might have been aweful. Good thing that's not how it works.

... but I still only got a couple hours in. The trick is that in the few hours I played I made almost no progress...

Well, seeing as you've only played for a couple of hours and demonstrated you don't understand the play dynamics at all, I see how it's fair for you to judge the game.

Sorry, but the spinning wheels is EXACTLY how it worked. It spun around real fast, and you tried to stop it on the attack you wanted. If you did, there was another wheel to see if you could stop it on a good follow up attack, but that went even faster and was even more luck dependant to stop it where you needed.

On top of that it costs stamina points to use attacks, and you couldn't recover the few health you had so you get battered from both directions. STamina protected health SOMETIMES, but many enemies had attacks which would bypass stamina anyway making it nothing but a broken mechanic.


Fuck it, I dare any codexer to go rent the game and come back to tell us it's good. It won't happen.

 

[almondblight]

Sorry, but the spinning wheels is EXACTLY how it worked. It spun around real fast, and you tried to stop it on the attack you wanted. If you did, there was another wheel to see if you could stop it on a good follow up attack, but that went even faster and was even more luck dependant to stop it where you needed.

No, no, no, again, you didn't know what the hell you were doing so decided it was a bad game. You choose an attack, then the real comes up, which acts a a modifier to your attack. If you choose a fire spell and land on fire, your spell is stronger; land on water, it's weaker. Choosing a fire spell and landing on a water panel does not change your attack; the "hoping you get the attack you wanted" thing is BS. Think of it like criticals in Fallout, except you get a hand in trying to get them (when your skills increase, the number of good panels increase to, making it easier to choose).

Second - again, you didn't know what the fuck you were doing - you can choose to attack or hold an attack and combo. IF you decide to combo a second, faster wheel comes up. However, combos screw you if you don't know how to use them, so if you were doing it all the time thinking it was the "secondary attack", yeah, I can see you might have had some difficulty.

On top of that it costs stamina points to use attacks, and you couldn't recover the few health you had so you get battered from both directions. STamina protected health SOMETIMES, but many enemies had attacks which would bypass stamina anyway making it nothing but a broken mechanic.

Because stamina doesn't prevent LP loss all the time it's a broken system? That's like saying because AC doesn't prevent you from taking damage in Fallout all the time it's a broken system. Again, a BS argument from someone who tried to play for a couple of hours, got mad that it wasn't like other games and decided it sucked before even understanding how it worked.

 

[obediah]

No, no, no, again, you didn't know what the hell you were doing so decided it was a bad game. You choose an attack, then the real comes up, which acts a a modifier to your attack. If you choose a fire spell and land on fire, your spell is stronger; land on water, it's weaker. Choosing a fire spell and landing on a water panel does not change your attack; the "hoping you get the attack you wanted" thing is BS. Think of it like criticals in Fallout, except you get a hand in trying to get them (when your skills increase, the number of good panels increase to, making it easier to choose).

Still sounds like a pile of shit to me. Maybe I should start a PnP campaign where instead of rolling die the players make a cupcake and I rate it on a scale of 1 - 20. At least I could find people that enjoy making cupcakes, I can't imagine why anyone would still think timing button presses to stop a spinning wheel on a good space is compelling game play.

 

[Sarvis]

No, no, no, again, you didn't know what the hell you were doing so decided it was a bad game.

No, I decided it was a bad game because it IS a shitty, shitty fucking game. 90% of the amateur made modules for NWN were better, hell the NWN OC was better.

You choose an attack, then the real comes up, which acts a a modifier to your attack. If you choose a fire spell and land on fire, your spell is stronger; land on water, it's weaker.

I'm pretty sure I remember the wheel choosing attacks, but I could be wrong since I haven't played in over a year. Still, the wheel giving high chances to your attack being completely ineffective doesn't actually improve the system. I didn't give up because I didn't understand the system. I did at the time, but it was a shitty, unrewarding, uninteresting and unenjoyable system.

Second - again, you didn't know what the fuck you were doing - you can choose to attack or hold an attack and combo. IF you decide to combo a second, faster wheel comes up. However, combos screw you if you don't know how to use them, so if you were doing it all the time thinking it was the "secondary attack", yeah, I can see you might have had some difficulty.

I remember that part now, and no I didn't use it all the time. In fact, it seems like using the second attack was often a bad idea... perhaps increased stamina costs, and the faster wheel made it hard to use effectively anyway.

Because stamina doesn't prevent LP loss all the time it's a broken system? That's like saying because AC doesn't prevent you from taking damage in Fallout all the time it's a broken system. Again, a BS argument from someone who tried to play for a couple of hours, got mad that it wasn't like other games and decided it sucked before even understanding how it worked.

A better analogy would be a standard AC system, where 2/3 of enemy attacks ignore AC and every attack YOU make worsens your AC.

The whole point of stamina is that when stamina runs out you start losing real health, in tihs system stamina is meaningless 2/3 of the time and drains away too fast to be useful for the other 1/3.

 

[Sarvis]

No, no, no, again, you didn't know what the hell you were doing so decided it was a bad game. You choose an attack, then the real comes up, which acts a a modifier to your attack. If you choose a fire spell and land on fire, your spell is stronger; land on water, it's weaker. Choosing a fire spell and landing on a water panel does not change your attack; the "hoping you get the attack you wanted" thing is BS. Think of it like criticals in Fallout, except you get a hand in trying to get them (when your skills increase, the number of good panels increase to, making it easier to choose).

Still sounds like a pile of shit to me. Maybe I should start a PnP campaign where instead of rolling die the players make a cupcake and I rate it on a scale of 1 - 20. At least I could find people that enjoy making cupcakes, I can't imagine why anyone would still think timing button presses to stop a spinning wheel on a good space is compelling game play.

Exactly.

 

[almondblight]

I can't imagine why anyone would still think timing button presses to stop a spinning wheel on a good space is compelling game play.

The reel is a small part of the system that breaks up gameplay a bit giving you some input into special attacks. I never understood why rolling a 20 sided dice among grown men to see if you passed the intelligence test to convince the high elf etc etc. was compelling, but hey - different strokes.

No, I decided it was a bad game because it IS a shitty, shitty fucking game. 90% of the amateur made modules for NWN were better, hell the NWN OC was better.

And the fact that you seem to not understand the gameplay at all does so much to further your argument.

I'm pretty sure I remember the wheel choosing attacks, but I could be wrong since I haven't played in over a year. Still, the wheel giving high chances to your attack being completely ineffective doesn't actually improve the system. I didn't give up because I didn't understand the system. I did at the time, but it was a shitty, unrewarding, uninteresting and unenjoyable system.

No, it doesn't make the attack ineffective - if you get a bad one, it might do 20% less damage. Again, you make it pretty clear you didn't understand the gameplay.

A better analogy would be a standard AC system, where 2/3 of enemy attacks ignore AC and every attack YOU make worsens your AC.

Ah, like Fallout.

 

[Drakron]

Holy crap, we got a Unlimited CaCa fanboy here ... quickly someone stun him so we can save that indanger species.

 

[Sarvis]

Again, you make it pretty clear you didn't understand the gameplay.

Like I said, it's been a while. I understood it perfectly when I actually played the game, and it fucking sucked.

Ah, like Fallout.

I didn't like Fallout's combat either, but at least each round your AC came back up to full whereas in Unlimited SaGa your stamina it only constantly drained. I don't remember attacks ignoring AC in Fallout though, nor you only having like 6 hitpoints.

 

[Barghest]

Romancing SaGa, eh?

Never played the original, but I did put some time in with this one. Doesn't play at all like a typical 'Final Fantasy' JRPG.

I can see why your typical FF fanbois will hate it though. You have to use your noodle to progress. You are not lead around by your nose...

Don't listen to Sarvis either as a lot of the elements have changed. He must have earned that dumbfuck label...

The character models are NOT that bad. Just a little bit on the freaky side.

Worse bits? It is just too easy to walk into a no-win situation. Just lucky that you can quicksave anywhere.

 

[heiamll]

Somebody here sucks at Unlimited Saga. Don't feel bad though. That is like saying you suck at getting boned by horses.

 

[Drakron]

Most reviews bashed the combat system for the exacty same reasons Sarvis pointed out ... the fact we find some people defending that horrible system means nothing because some people are Square fanboys to the core.

I just link to GameSpot review:

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/unlimit ... eview.html

 

[Barghest]

Most reviews bashed the combat system for the exacty same reasons Sarvis pointed out ... the fact we find some people defending that horrible system means nothing because some people are Square fanboys to the core.

I just link to GameSpot review:

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/unlimit ... eview.html

Sounds bad, but Romancing SaGa has also had bad reviews. I took a risk and bought it. Turned out to be better then I thought it would have been.