The Radical Child

The Emblem Awakens

I’ll confess that I’m not a huge fan of Nintendo’s flagship franchises, among them the strategy RPG series Fire Emblem, which wouldn’t release outside Japan until the Game Boy Advance came about. I didn’t play the initial translated titles, although I felt that the Nintendo DS remake of the inaugural entry, Shadow Dragon, would be a good diving board into the franchise. How wrong I was; it ended up being one of few RPGs I ended up unable to finish, with the final battle being a wall preventing me from seeing the ending, although I did barely make it through the endgame a few years later with the partial help of the player’s guide (although there were nonetheless many tough moments).

I more or less swore off the series, and when the first title for the Nintendo 3DS, Fire Emblem Awakening, came along, I was apathetic, although when I learned that Intelligent Systems was making optional a hallmark of the franchise, the permanent death in battle of characters, I decided to give it a third chance, and luckily, it was a chance for the better. Upon starting a new game, the player has a number of options affecting the difficulty, the ability to toggle on/off permadeath among them, and creates an avatar to serve as chief deuteragonist and tactician for the player’s party, with the need to pick both a talent and a flaw for the customizable character influencing stat growth.

Awakening occurs roughly two millennia after the events of Shadow Dragon and Gaiden (which would receive the remake Shadows of Valentia), with their respective continents receiving the new names of Ylisse and Valm. The player’s amnesiac avatar, default name Robin, dreams of killing protagonist Chrom, who leads a personal army known as the Shepherds. Following this is an episodic military campaign that culminates with Chrom’s crusade against the ancient dragon Grima, with great potential for variation, many playable characters able to marry and have children, and the fates of all survivors settled during the ending credits similar to the Suikoden series.

While the characters receive decent development throughout the game, even more so with support conversations eventually triggered when units attack enemies whilst adjacent to other party members a certain number of times, the narrative clearly derives elements and twists from the Star Wars franchise, among them being a resistance against an unjust government. There is a lot of good dialogue, although the translators often made little effort to make the speech sound realistic, with the oath “Gods!”, for instance, sounding asinine when “By the gods!” would have sounded better (and is used maybe once), mayhap even “Heavens!” The voice clips accompanying many cutscenes also rarely, if ever, match the actual dialogue, and overall, Awakening is at the low end of Nintendo’s translation quality.

Luckily, given the major tweaks to the series’ signature strategic gameplay, that particular aspect is significantly more bearable than in prior installments, with the setting consisting of an overworld connected by dots indicating locations, most of which have shops where players can purchase equipment, money primarily gained from small, medium, and large gold bullions commonly acquired from slaying certain enemies in combat. Those worried about not being able to grind their characters supplementally can rest assured that additional encounters appear regularly on the overworld in between story battles, and Reeking Boxes buyable from a few merchants can trigger additional engagement opportunities, enemy strength dependent upon where the boxes see use.

As in pretty much any other game of its subgenre, Awakening sees cutscenes preceding battles, mercifully skippable in case of instances where either Chrom or Robin dies in combat, resultant in an unceremonious Game Over and trip back to the title screen, any experience units acquired lost, largely a deterrent against the accessibility of titles of its type. Each character can carry five different items with finite uses including self-healing potions, melee or ranged weapons, offensive magic tomes with close and ranged capability, or staves with supportive effects like healing.

Characters have up to three proficiencies with various weapon types, increasing slowly up to the maximum A grade with a successful, provided an engaged enemy’s counterattack doesn’t kill the initiator of a one-on-one skirmish. Adding strategy to battles in the need to consider the “Weapon Triangle”, where sword bearers beat axe wielders, axe users have advantage over spear-bearing units, and spears beat swords. Other elements to consider include certain weapons like bows and tomes like wind being effective against aerial units and that magic in general can be advantageous versus heavily-armored foes, although spells in general don’t seem to have their own “triangle”.

The acquisition by a unit of a hundred experience points levels them, increasing their stats, and when they reach ten, they can change into an advanced class using Master Seals, sometimes purchased from shops or gained from slain adversaries. However, it’s advisable for a unit until they reach the maximum in their base class of twenty before promotion to ensure they can acquire the highest degree of stats in their upper vocation, which in most cases has a level cap of twenty, although there are some exceptions such as dancers, useful in giving units extra turns and able to level beyond that limit.

The mechanics work well given especially the optionality of permadeath, features like two suspend save slots in the middle of combat, the ability to bring up a “danger zone” indicating if enemies can attack the player’s characters during their turn session, and skippable actions that can really shave superfluous playtime, although many players will require a fair bit of grinding in order to make it through the primary storyline campaign, leveling weaker characters can be tedious, and tasks such as exchanging items between units like keys to open chests and doors (though thief classes can do so without them) can waste the player’s time. Regardless, the gameplay was definitely a major step forward.

However, newcomers to the Fire Emblem franchise won’t exactly find it the most user-friendly strategy RPG, since the interface for the units and their respective inventories takes a lot of getting used to, and seemingly-simple tasks such as exchanging items between characters feel needlessly tedious. However, given the game’s straightforward structure, finding out how to advance the central storyline is nonproblematic, and as mentioned, the skippable attack sequences in combat can shave hours from one’s total playtime. Another nitpick, though, is that players can’t back out of shopping by using the B button alone, with the dialogue to do so needing them to use the directional pad. Overall, Awakening could have definitely interfaced better with players.

On the plus side, the soundtrack is another high point of the first 3DS Fire Emblem alongside the game mechanics, given many spectacular tracks such as the series’ central theme serving as a common motif throughout the player’s experience, the various battle themes preceded by the preparation music, and the great instrumentation and vocals that sometimes become audible, but many players will ultimately tire of hearing the character death music for the millionth time. The sound effects during cutscenes and one-on-one confrontation sequences in combat sound believable, although the voice acting, despite maybe a few strong performances, is largely lackluster, given things such as the constant grunting and dissonance with the written dialogue. Still, the game generally sounds great.

The visuals had a lot of effort put into them as well, with superb character designs that commonly appear during cutscenes, not to mention the cel-shaded anime sequences occurring at pivotal plot moments. The one-on-one skirmishes between player and enemy units look good as well, with decent colors in spite of frequent pixilation and jaggies, although the three-dimensional character models have odd proportions and the odd decision to make them appear as though they have no feet. The game, however, makes superb use of its respective system’s glasses-free 3D, and while they’re not perfect, the graphics have plenty redeeming aspects.

Finally, the game can be a bit of a slog timewise if the player sits through every character and enemy executing their actions, but those who turn them off will mostly blaze through the game in a somewhere under twenty-four hours. The different difficulty settings, potential plot differences, and the ability to carry maybe an element or two from an initial playthrough into a secondary session making for above-average lasting appeal.

On the whole, while Fire Emblem Awakening I don’t exactly consider a masterpiece, since it does have a few issues regarding the general accessibility of the strategy RPG subgenre, it was a huge step forward for the franchise, given especially the optionality of the series’ orthodox tactical mechanics, along with potential variations in the central narrative as well as solid aural and visual presentation. Granted, it does have issues regarding its unwieldly interface not to mention the derivative disposition of the storyline, but those hoping to get their feet wet in the series will most certainly find it a good starting point.

This review is based on a single playthrough of a digital copy downloaded to the player’s Nintendo 3DS.

The Good
+Accommodating to players of different skill levels.
+Great music.
+Good graphics.
+Plenty lasting appeal.

The Bad
-Can be a bit grindy.
-Controls take a lot of getting used to.
-Story immensely derivative.
-Horrid writing.

The Bottom Line:
A good turning point for the franchise.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Mechanics: 8.0/10
Controls: 6.5/10
Story: 6.5/10
Localization: 2.5/10
Music/Sound: 8.0/10
Graphics: 8.0/10
Lasting Appeal: 9.5/10
Difficulty: Adjustable

Overall Score: 7.0/10

The Y Pokéromosone

Though the Game Freak-developed and Nintendo-published Pokémon franchise, known in Japan as Pocket Monsters, has existed since the Big N’s original monochrome Game Boy portable system, it wasn’t until series entries began appearing on the DS that I actually got into the games, and while I found the titles to have many positive aspects, I felt their actual gameplay were somewhat unrefined. Regardless, I continued to give future series entries a chance, though surprisingly, I completely missed out on the 3DS installments of the franchise, until I recently downloaded a ton of games to my system’s SD card due to the eShop closing in 2023, among them being Pokémon Y, coupled with sibling title X, which provides an experience largely on par with other entries.

When starting a new game, the player customizes their protagonist, who lives with a single mother and goes on a quest to become the greatest Pokémon champion in X and Y’s respective region of the world, whilst dealing with the sinister Team Flare. There is some decent backstory, although to say that the generation’s narrative is “formulaic” would be an understatement, along with the typical series goal of “catching ‘em all”. The translation is definitely more than legible, although it’s fairly bland, peppered with plentiful unnatural dialogue and some stylistic choices such as using “OK” instead “okay” when in just about any kind of writing the latter has more aesthetic pleasance.

Happily, the series’ signature gameplay largely compensates for whatever narrative shortcomings the X and Y generation has, mostly remaining unchanged from generations before it aside from the ability to grant temporary “mega evolutions” to specific ‘mons, not to mention the ability to toggle on/off experience sharing among monsters in the player’s active party of up to six of the franchise’s eponymous entities. The same positive and negative aspects return, in the former case the ability to exploit Pokémon strengths and weaknesses to triumph in battle, and in the latter instance that switching active monsters wastes the player’s turn. It’s a fun system overall, and a step above the gameplay of the DS entries of the series.

Another aspect with more or less the same positives and negatives is the X and Y entries’ control, with the returning ability to record progress anywhere, adjustable text speed, and eventual ability to use the Fly Hidden Move for rapid conveyance among visited cities. However, some of the same issues return such as the clunkiness of the game menus and confirmations when it comes to things such as overwriting the current abilities of a Pokémon’s move set with different skills, accounting in the end for above-average, but certainly not perfect, interaction with players.

The soundtrack remains a high point of the X and Y games, with plenty of upbeat, energetic tracks (particularly during combat) and pleasant themes for towns and anywhere in between. The sound effects are good as well, and the near-death alarm for Pokémon is less annoying in that it only dings a few times before stopping once a ‘mon reaches low health, although the digitized cries for different Pokémon still sound primitive at times.

The visuals look pleasant as well, with pretty colors, environments, unique designs for every Pokémon, good human character art, nice cel-shading, vivid illumination effects, savvy use of the 3DS’s three-dimensional capabilities especially in battle, and so forth, but there is some degree of pixilation in addition to jaggies and some slowdown most noticeable in combat.

Finally, playtime for the main storyline runs in the upper end of the twenty-four-to-forty-eight-hour range, with plentiful lasting appeal in the form of catching all Pokémon in addition to other postgame content, multiplayer battles via online capability, a starting choice of which element of ‘mon to use, and so forth, although absolute completion of the Pokédex would probably necessitate use of a guide.

Overall, Pokémon Y is another addition to the series that only takes it a few steps forward in terms of gameplay, which is nonetheless enjoyable, whilst having general great audiovisual presentation and plentiful lasting appeal. However, it bequeaths many flaws from its precursors such as the clunk interface, garden-variety narrative, average localization, and that achieving total completion necessitates the use of the internet, be it for referencing a guide or trading with other players. Regardless, long-term fans of the franchise will likely get the most out of it, and those new to the series might find it a little more accessible than its predecessors.

This review is based on a playthrough of a digital copy downloaded to the reviewer’s Nintendo 3DS and completed through the main storyline.

The Good:
+Good Pokémon gameplay.
+Excellent soundtrack.
+Nice visuals.
+Plenty lasting appeal.

The Bad:
-Menus and confirmations can be cumbersome.
-Typical Pokémon plot.
-Lackluster translation.
-Getting 100% completion can require a guide.

The Bottom Line:
Another run-of-the-mill, but still enjoyable, series entry.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Mechanics: 8.0/10
Controls: 7.0/10
Story: 3.0/10
Localization: 5.0/10
Music/Sound: 9.5/10
Graphics: 8.0/10
Lasting Appeal: 8.5/10
Difficulty: Varies
Playing Time: 24-48 Hours

Overall: 7.0/10

The Rainbough Connection

The original Dragon Quest for the NES, at the time in North America known as Dragon Warrior for legal reasons, was my very first Japanese RPG, and despite my fond memories of it, I didn’t play any of its sequels on the system until generations later, and the franchise would ultimately blossom in popularity outside the Land of the Rising Sun. The eleventh entry initially saw release on the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo 3DS, although North Americans only got the former version, which would, akin to many other Square-Enix RPGs, see an updated rerelease, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition, on the Nintendo Switch, with this particular incarnation’s extra content ultimately carried over to other platforms.

In the world of Erdrea, an army of monsters invades and destroys the kingdom of Dundrasil, with the protagonist whom the player names, an infant during the attack, spirited away in a basket down a river and raised in a village, the truth about his disposition as the Luminary eventually revealed, although many believe he is an evil entity. The Luminary embarks on a quest to clear his name and defeat the forces of darkness, meeting several companions on his way such as the thief Erik, a magically-de-aged sorceress and her standard-aged twin sister, the flamboyant Sylvando, and others. The characters are very much endearing, although there are many narrative tropes that are spoilerific, but the postgame definitely does have some good twists.

The translation very much does the eleventh entry justice, adopting the style of other contemporary Dragon Quest localizations, with the various peoples across the world, for one, having regional speech patterns characteristic of Earth’s own diverse inhabitants. For instance, the population of the village that adopts the Luminary have Cockney dialects, those of the Japanese-themed Hotto speak in haikus, and the academy to which he can give mini medals found throughout Erdrea has a French disposition. Furthermore, most characters from the world’s distant path have Renaissance-era speech similar to the Erdrick Dragon Quests. Pretty much the only major issue with the dialogue is the tendency of characters to shout the names of their abilities in battle, which sounds good in any language but English.

The Dragon Quest series has remained traditional in regards to the gameplay of its many entries, but there are key differences in Echoes compared to past titles. As Sentinels of the Starry Skies and the 3DS versions of the seventh and eighth entries had done, visible monsters on the overworld (or in XI’s case the various environments connecting towns and dungeons, similar to Final Fantasy X) and in dungeons replace random encounters, the Luminary able to approach them and slash them with his weapon to deal damage prior to the following battle. A cue adopted from EarthBound is that if the Luminary’s party’s levels are high enough, foes will run away upon noticing his approach.

One minor issue that mercifully doesn’t break the game is that even if the Luminary strikes the monster to deal preemptive damage, the enemy party may still get the first strike against the player’s characters, but luckily ample opportunities abound where the encountered adversaries don’t notice the human heroes or are “too stunned to move” as the eleventh entry, akin to its predecessors, relates. Typically, Dragon Quest games adopted a turn-based structure where the player selects commands for their party and allows them and the enemy to exchange blows in a round, with issues such as the random nature at times of turn order and the potential for foes to kill allies before inputted healing occurs.

However, Echoes of an Elusive Age adopts a turn-based structure similar to the mentioned tenth Final Fantasy (not to mention a few other JRPG franchises such as the Atelier games), where the player’s characters receive independent input from the player of their respective commands (though they can alternatively allow the in-game AI to dictate one, a few, or all characters’ orders), and when players choose one of the many available options for battle, including attacking with an equipped weapon, defending to reduce damage until their next turn, using an MP-consuming spell or ability, consuming an item from their inventory, they immediately execute their action, with the character needing to wait until other allies and foes have taken their turns before their next session.

Unfortunately, one major quality-of-life feature present in the turn-based JRPGs from which Echoes derives its battle structure is a gauge indicating character and enemy turn order. Regardless, there are many other aspects that help the eleventh installment break the mold such as adjustable battle speed that can make even the most daunting encounters go by more quickly, and while the player can move around allies during their turns, this is superficial (except for when players wish to escape skirmishes by moving a character to the edge of the battleground, which I never did), and largely for the purpose of getting screenshots.

Victory nets all surviving characters within and without the active party of up to four characters experience for occasional leveling, money for purchasing new equipment and consumables, and the occasional item. Defeat of the Luminary’s party, on the other hand, gives players a few options such as reviving at the last save point or in the last town saved, with these options requiring half the money the player is carrying at the time, and fully restoring all characters. As in prior entries, however, the player can largely nullify this death penalty by banking their money in thousand-gold increments at banks typically accompanying inns.

Whenever a character levels, most of the time they receive skill points the player can invest into hexagon-tiled grids to unlock active and passive skills of different specialties, such as proficiency with specific weapons and/or special abilities for said armaments. Unlocking one tile unlocks those adjacent except those that questions marks indicate, which necessitate that all tiles contacting it be unlocked. There are occasional secrets such as bonus points for unlocking certain tiles, and there are consumables that increase a character’s skill points by one. At churches, the player can completely undo skill point investment in part of a character’s grid and redistribute them, useful if they want to do things like wield different types of weapons.

Another key part of the game mechanics is the Fun-Sized Forge that the player receives early on, where they can use ingredients in conjunction with recipes found throughout the world to create new weapons, armor, and accessories. Doing so involves a minigame where each area of the piece in production symbolizes an area the Luminary can strike with his hammer, each having a gauge that increases when struck. The hero has a number of focus points that increase with his experience levels, with “Flourishes” costing more alongside regular strikes that do things like strike multiple tiles. The goal is to get each gauge in an area towards their respective ends, with items in the end coming out in poor, standard, or superior quality depending upon how far the gauges are.

Successfully forging an item of standard or superior quality earns the player not only the produced weapon, armor, or accessory, but also Perfection Pearls that the Luminary can use to enhance the quality of currently-owned armaments. While one would perhaps think that making the most of the system would necessitate using a guide, especially when it comes to finding rarer ingredients necessary to forge the best equipment possible, I never needed to, since one major convenience the eleventh entry has is that when you discover a new material, the in-game compendium shows other sources of said material, with some I initially acquired through gambling at one of the two casinos.

Another notable facet of the game mechanics is the mount system, where, after the player exterminates a monster visibly sparkling on the battlefield as well as in battle, the means of transportation whatever “intelligent” being was riding becomes available for the Luminary and his party to ride. These methods of conveyance can allow players to ascend walls via vertical footprints (in the case of skeleton beetles), fly to a higher elevation, and even displace monsters that are weaker than the player’s party, although contact with monsters more powerful than they are triggers standard encounters.

Ultimately, while some would argue that Dragon Quest XI’s gameplay is “generic”, that couldn’t be further from the truth, given its influence by more contemporary (if that term would still apply) Japanese RPGs such as Final Fantasy X, with the refinements to the Yuji Horii franchise’s core game mechanics making a world of difference. The absence of a turn order meter is perhaps the most significant issue with the battle system, especially when changing the active party, and while changing an active ally’s companions during their turn doesn’t waste said member’s turn, replacing them with another character progresses to the next character or enemy’s turn. Regardless, the evolution of the Dragon Quest gameplay in the eleventh entry is definitely for the better.

Control also contains more refinement than in prior series entries. The menus are easily navigable, item and spell effects are present in-game, the player can see how equipment they wish to buy increases or decreases their respective stats, in-game maps for towns, dungeons, and the areas in between exist, and the narrative objective is visible whilst viewing the map of the area where the Luminary and his party are. Interaction contains polish to the point where I finished the game, even the postgame content, without even referencing a guide. There are some issues such as the dialogues and confirmations when shopping, not to mention a bit of loading, but otherwise, Echoes interfaces well with players.

The late Koichi Sugiyama, as usual, did a fantastic job with the soundtrack, given many solid original tracks such as the theme of the overworld areas in between towns and dungeons, not to mention the beautiful town theme and its nighttime equivalent, with many other tracks having twilight variations as well; the standard and boss battle themes also contain excellent bombastic orchestration. There are many tracks filched from prior franchise entries, such as the Medal Academy music that uses the fifth entry’s castle music, and the theme of Hotto using the third game’s oriental track, but otherwise, Sugiyama was a class act that will definitely be difficult to rival for future series entries. The English voicework also helps the game more than hurts, although some such as Veronica’s can be shrill at times.

The eleventh entry utilizes a visual style combining realistic and anime elements, with the characters and monsters, as with prior installments, having designs from Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, who as always did a good job, even if there are a great many reskins among the various adversaries the Luminary and his companions battle. The colors and environments look nice, as do the ability effects in combat and the general animation of everything, although there is a heavy degree of popup with regards to the environmental elements, not to mention jaggies and pixilation that are most noticeable close-up. Regardless, the game is definitely beautiful.

Finally, Echoes can be a fairly lengthy game, especially if the player partakes in the countless sidequests, completion of all compendia, the sizeable postgame content, and the acquisition of all Accolades for accomplishing certain things such as slaying a certain number of monsters, gaining a certain amount of money, and so forth. Restrictions known as Draconian Quests also add difficulty to new playthroughs to enhance lasting appeal, although finding all Accolades may require use of a guide since there’s no in-game indication of how to uncover them.

Overall, Dragon Quest XI paradoxically takes a few small and major steps forward for the franchise, continuing to maintain many series traditions such as its turn-based gameplay, although that in particular features many significant differences over prior entries to give it new life. The eleventh entry is also quite user-friendly, the story is endearing, Koichi Sugiyama’s final composition and the voice acting are mostly solid, and the game graphically shines. There are a few issues with regards to the occasional lack of quality-of-life features such as a turn order meter in combat, not to mention the recycling of music from older Dragon Quests, although Echoes of an Elusive Age is undoubtedly one of the franchise’s crown jewels.

This review is based on a playthrough to the postgame ending of a physical copy borrowed by the reviewer.

The Good:
+Great combat and control.
+Endearing narrative and characters with superb translation.
+Superb audiovisual presentation.
+Plenty lasting appeal.

The Bad:
-Battles lack some key quality-of-life features.
-Story has derivative elements.
-A lot of recycled music from past games.
-Some visual imperfections.

The Bottom Line:
One of the best, if not the best, entries of the Dragon Quest series.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Game Mechanics: 9.0/10
Controls: 9.5/10
Story: 8.5/10
Localization: 9.5/10
Music/Sound: 9.0/10
Graphics: 9.0/10
Lasting Appeal: 9.5/10
Difficulty: Varies
Playing Time: 96+ Hours

Overall: 9.5/10

After Earth, But Good

Depending upon how players define the term, open-world videogames can possibly date back to the 1970s, given the existence of titles with limited boundaries, nonlinear gameplay, and no concrete goals, although developers wouldn’t elaborate on the concept until games became more complex in the ‘80s, with early RPGs such as the first Ultima trilogy being possible examples. The turn of the millennium would see the idea expand even more, with non-RPG cases such as the commercially-successful Grand Theft Auto III. Games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild many critics deemed “revolutionary” for open-world games, and other companies would attempt to rival it, among them being Biomutant.

The game begins in a post-eco-disaster world inhabited by anthro mutant characters, the player customizing a protagonist when starting a new game. Regardless of whatever form they take, they have excellent backstory largely revealed in the initial hours of the game, and the Green Aesop narrative never feels ham-fisted. The storytelling style is also interesting, with the characters speaking in squeaks and grunts, the player’s Automaton translating the gibberish dialogue, although given the wait times between the babbling and the translations, the plot slightly feels forced down the player’s throat. There are also some grammatical errors in the dialogue, but generally, the plot helps the game far more than hurts.

Luckily, solid gameplay backs the narrative, with the player’s character able to battle enemies with melee, ranged weapons, or a combination of both. Players receive different kinds of skill points when leveling that can unlock “magical” abilities or physical skills that necessitate a combination of different button presses. New weapons the player can craft from various base materials, with equipment upgradeable as well, and there are plenty of goodies obtainable from the sidequests, which generally have good direction and are trackable in-game. Different difficulty settings accommodate players of different skill levels, and aside from a few annoying enemies, including one of the four “World Eaters” they must defeat to advance the plot, and long loading times if the player’s character dies, the gameplay is far from tortuous.

Control, however, is the weakest aspect of Biomutant. While akin to most Western RPGs the game is fairly liberal about when and where the player can record their progress (aside from during missions involving the seizure of rival tribes’ outposts), and the direction on how to advance sidequests and the main plot is largely clear (except for maybe one or two instances), the aforementioned long loading times abound, along with the lack of a minimap and occasional irritating level design. Regardless, this area could have definitely been far worse, and has plenty redeeming aspects.

Western RPGs in my experience tend not to have memorable soundtracks like their Japanese counterparts, and Biomutant is no exception, largely reliant upon ambience, although there is occasional music that sounds decent, the sound effects are good, the gibberish is mildly-adorable, and the constant narration from the Automaton is perhaps the aural high point.

The visuals two have many things going for them such as the customizable appearance for the player’s character, the vibrant colors, the good environments, diversity in character models, and the main character’s appearance changing with different equipment. However, there is a great deal of environment popup, dithering, and blurry/pixilated texturing when viewed up close, although the game is definitely far from an eyesore.

Finally, a straightforward playthrough can take anywhere from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, although there are plenty things to extend playtime such as the myriad of sidequests, a New Game+, and PlayStation Trophies, but the annoyance of one particular boss fight may mildly deter supplemental temporal investment.

Overall, Biomutant is definitely a more-than-serviceable open-world RPG with solid gameplay, the always-welcome ability to record one’s progress most anywhere, a decent environmental-themed narrative, good voice acting coherent and gibberish, nice graphical presentation. It does, however, have issues with regards to its long loading times, unmemorable music, and visual hiccups, although the game is another instance where I vastly disagree with mainstream videogame critics, and I actually preferred playing it to the ballyhooed Breath of the Wild, and in my humble opinion, Biomutant is sure to scratch both those open-world game and anthropomorph-centric RPG itches.

This review is based on a playthrough of a physical copy purchased by the reviewer to the standard ending.

The Good:
+Great open-world gameplay.
+Save (mostly) anywhere feature.
+Good audiovisual presentation.
+Plenty lasting appeal.

The Bad:
-Long loading times.
-Story a bit derivative.
-Soundtrack unmemorable.
-Some visual imperfections.

The Bottom Line:
A great open-world Western RPG.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: PlayStation 4
Game Mechanics: 9.0/10
Controls: 7.0/10
Story: 8.5/10
Music/Sound: 8.0/10
Graphics: 7.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 9.5/10
Difficulty: Adjustable
Playing Time: 24-48 Hours

Overall: 8.5/10

A Champion Among SaGa

Ever since its monochrome beginnings on Nintendo’s Game Boy system, Square-Enix, at the time Squaresoft’s, SaGa series has been the odd duck among the company’s franchises, given its nonstandard traditions, with its later entries exemplifying its unorthodox disposition. However, the third installment of the franchise, given the misnomer Final Fantasy Legend III during its initial release, was far more traditional in terms of its mechanics, given SaGa creator Akitoshi Kawazu’s decision to devote effort to the first Romancing SaGa on the Super Famicom, although the Japan-only Nintendo DS remake, SaGa 3: Jikuu no Hasha - Shadow or Light (the subtitle meaning “Champions of Time and Space”), brought the gameplay more in line with the rest of the oddball series.

Shadow or Light features an encounter system similar to the DS SaGa 2 remake, where enemies wander fields and dungeons, and always charge the player regardless of strength. Contacting one aware model indicating an enemy party when another or more are close causes them to “chain”, although unlike in the second SaGa’s remake, the player doesn’t face all adversaries at once, with combat having a far-lesser scale. Rather, the encountered antagonists “queue up”, with an indicator in the lower-right of the DS’s screen indicating the foes of various volumes sitting in line to face the player’s four main characters and one guest ally, and enter battle whenever sufficient space opens up.

Like most Japanese turn-based RPGs released in the original game’s time, SaGa 3 features a traditional setup where the player inputs commands for their party, with their characters and the enemy exchanging commands dependent upon agility. However, in a rarity for an RPG of its kind, the top screen shows who, either among the player’s party or the enemy, will execute their command when, which is incredibly handy, especially when considering things such as healing characters low on health. Commands include doing nothing, attempting to escape, or, which will be the player’s preference most of the time, using one of equipped items or skills, which consume a certain number of action points, restorable at special facilities, health at inns.

Each weapon and spellbook has up to four abilities, one initially available, with the others randomly “sparked” in the middle of battle when using those then accessible, with a character’s base stats occasionally increasing during combat after they execute their commands, as well. During the execution of commands, the player’s characters and the enemy may execute combination attacks with bonus damage, the last participant in a combo occasionally performing a “transcendence” ability native to the weapon whose skill they use in the attack chain. Weapon skills can affect individual enemies, groups of the same enemy type, or in the rare case all adversaries at the forefront of the antagonistic queue

Battles end either when the enemy kills all of the player’s characters, in which case the player can restart or accept a Game Over, or the player wings, after which they acquire money (not a problem so long as players fight frequently), and the opponents may leave behind meat or mechanical parts an ally (except for the current guest member) can consume, which can change their current race (or recover all their health if they don’t). Races include humans, beastmen, espers, cyborgs, mechas, or different types of monsters, each which their own strengths, weaknesses, and affinity for certain types of weapons (and in the case of espers magic), players able to see how racial metamorphosis affect stats before consumption (unless changing to an undiscovered monster form that a red question mark indicates).

Gameplay in the SaGa 3 remake definitely has enough positive moments to make it more than passable, although most bosses, particularly the various phases of the final battle, can have a lot of health, and standard encounters can feel a bit drawn-out (even with attack animations disabled), although what really saves the game mechanics is the easy mode where the use of weapon and magical abilities is completely free, and as long as the player has unlocked healing and revival magic that affects all characters, they won’t have any problem with making it through most of the game. Standard SaGa difficulty is available for those who prefer the franchise’s traditional experience, although the remake is easily the most accessible entry I’ve ever played.

As is the case with other series installments, the SaGa 3 remake allows players to record their progress mostly anywhere outside of battle (and gives a warning in the rare case when they encounter a point of no return, mercifully rare and not the case with the final dungeon), and there are in-game maps that eventually indicate unopened treasure chests. One step down from the DS remake of its numerical predecessor, however, is that the game only indicates excavation points when players first enter a new map of a dungeon or field, eventually disappearing and never reappearing on the maps, although indicative icons are visible when the player reaches said points during navigation on the top screen.

The remake also has an overworld system where dotted lines connect the various towns, fields, and dungeons, with the player able to enter them and explore. A time-traveling airship also quickly becomes available that has various facilities such as different types of shops, many towns having these facilities as well. The dungeon maps on the bottom screen also conveniently indicates the entrance to the current map whence they entered the area, and items that allow instant exit are available. One irritating design choice however is that SaGa 3 limits the different item types the player can carry in the inventory separate to those each character has, though they can put excess items into storage. Regardless, the rerelease generally interfaces decently with players.

As has largely been the case with most new installments of specific Japanese roleplaying game series, the remake of SaGa 3, much like those of its numerical predecessors, occurs in a completely-separate world from other entries, in its case a world where a giant water jug hovers in the air perpetually pouring its fluid into the oceans to raise sea level gradually, with monsters also emerging from said jar. There are past, present, and future periods that the player traverses to solve the world’s various crises, with a few substories as well, some humor, and generally-decent storytelling, although while the primary plotline has good direction, sidequests largely don’t. The original version of the third game also predated Chrono Trigger with a time-travel element to its narrative, so one certainly cannot accuse the remake of plagiarism in that regard.

The soundtrack is enjoyable with a nice variety of tracks, including the return of the central theme of the original SaGa trilogy that plays on the title screen, in the remake’s case a remixed version different from that of its numerical predecessors. There are different battle themes for standard encounters with one enemy party, skirmishes where adversaries queue up to fill in the space that their defeated brethren formerly occupied, different boss types, and of course the endgame conflicts, all solid in spite of often looping. One of the town tracks also contains comical instrumentation in the form of dog woofing and cat meows, and the sound effects don’t detract either. Generally, a nice-sounding game.

The visuals largely remain unchanged from those of the preceding SaGa remake, with character and enemy models having a cel-shaded style, although while the player’s party members aren’t mere reskins of one another and show distinctions when they’re of different races, reskins occur endlessly with the various antagonists they face in battle. The colors are nice, and the environments can be pretty, although jaggies and pixilation are frequent, and in the end, while the graphics have many things going for them, they could have used more polish.

Finally, playtime ranges from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, with plentiful lasting appeal in the form of a New Game+, different difficulties, and plentiful sidequests with percentage indicators for total completion, although one may need to reference the internet to achieve one-hundred percent.

On the whole, one could consider the Nintendo DS remake of SaGa 3 to be a fluke in the franchise, given that while it does retain many of the franchise’s unorthodox mechanics, particularly in regards to combat, the easy mode makes it accessible even to those who don’t enjoy games of its kind, and it does have other things going for it such as the decent control, good time-travel plot, and enjoyable soundtrack. Granted, being the best doesn’t wholly equal perfection as it has issues such as a slight degree of sluggishness in battle, the odd inventory limit without combat when doing so solely within would have sufficed, the weak sidequest direction, and the spotty graphics. Regardless, Western gamers definitely missed out on this game, although a fan translation exists for Anglophone players to experience the inarguable crown jewel of the SaGa series.

The Good:
+Refined, accessible mechanics.
+Good control.
+Nice time-travel plot.
+Enjoyable soundtrack.

The Bad:
-Many battles can feel drawn-out even with animations turned off.
-Limited inventory.
-Some poor sidequest direction.
-Graphics often lack polish.

The Bottom Line:
The strongest entry of a series whose quality has largely been lackluster.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: Nintendo DS
Game Mechanics: 8.5/10
Controls: 8.0/10
Story: 9.0/10
Music/Sound: 9.0/10
Graphics: 7.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 9.0/10
Difficulty: Adjustable
Playing Time: 24-48 Hours

Overall: 8.5/10

Definitely great music in the game's time. I like how composer Kenji Ito remixed the tracks in remake Minstrel Song instead of just rehashing them.

I would describe this game's soundtrack, especially with regards to the "vocal" tracks as rock-operatic, and it really entranced me when I played the game itself years back.

A Mad Multiverse

Disney and Square-Enix’s Kingdom Hearts series began as a result of a meeting in an elevator between executives from both companies (when the latter corporation was still Squaresoft), and would receive widespread acclaim from critics and audiences with its crossover formula. However, similar to Capcom’s Street Fighter franchise, Kingdom Hearts really experienced stagnation between main numbered entries, and the second game, Chain of Memories on the Gameboy Advance, wasn’t a side-story, but rather an actual continuation of the first game’s plot, among a few other entries. The franchise really had it bad between the second and third main entries, given endless remasters, a prequel, and other side games, with Kingdom Hearts III finally releasing in 2019.

The third numerical entry serves as a conclusion to its respective plot arc of the series, with Mickey Mouse’s mentor, Yen Sid, preparing Keyblade wielders, among them being returning protagonist Sora, for a final conflict with the main antagonist, Master Xehanort, with Sora alongside “half-pints” Donald Duck and Goofy traveling across several Disney-themed worlds so he can regain his “power of waking”, the ability to restore lost hearts. While I personally didn’t have much trouble following the franchise’s overall narrative, those who haven’t played chronologically-prior entries will definitely be lost, and as with before, the humor that makes Disney’s films bearable for older audiences is virtually nonexistent, aside maybe for Hades from Hercules.

While the translation is certainly legible and free of spelling and grammar errors, the overall writing of the game feels incredibly infantile and has endless clichéd dialogue about hearts and darkness, with the localization team obviously not bothering to use a thesaurus to make the text less redundant. As with most Japanese RPGs in general, moreover, combat receives most of the worst dialogue, with occasional calling of commands and Sora shouting lines such as “Light!” and “Together!” There are also lines such as “No Organization!” when something like “Confound the Organization!” would have sounded better, and others such as “More, more!” Generally, the localization has plenty areas where the translators really didn’t seem to care about making the dialogue sound believable.

The general game mechanics somewhat compensate for the third entry’s narrative shortcomings, with the series’ signature Keyblade combat returning, Sora able to hack endlessly at Heartless and other adversaries with whatever key-shaped weapons he receives. As in prior games, the player can navigate the combat menu visible on the lower-left side of the screen, a new addition being the option where, if players open the magic or item sections, the action can significantly slow as they select a spell or consumable. However, players as in the second numerical entry can set shortcuts for magic and items, with the potential for three different shortcut sets.

When Sora attacks enough, the player can execute abilities based on his current Keyblade, use a special ability with Donald and/or Goofy (and world-specific characters now fight alongside instead of replace either “half-pint”), or perform an attack based on a Disney park attraction, such as a carousel ride requiring timed button presses with an expanding ring or spinning around in teacups to assault the enemy. While the battle system definitely has plenty fun moments, there are some issues with the camera as in prior games, and the player constantly has to retarget enemies after defeating one, with a system akin to the Tales games where the action pauses while changing targets definitely preferrable.

Outside battle, the player can visit moogles typically appearing near save points to purchase and/or synthesize items from materials occasionally gained from enemies, although odds are players will spend more time hunting materials than actually using the items or equipment resulting from synthesis. Kingdom Hearts III also seems to adore minigames, with one of the chief ones, requiring edible ingredients, being cooking with the help of “Little Chef” a.k.a. Remy from Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille, although it proved frustrating even in small doses. Mercifully, mastering the art of cooking is scarcely necessary to make it through the main quest, at least on Beginner difficulty.

Returning from prior numbered entries are abilities each character can equip with capacity points that dictate things such as how long combination attacks can execute, how powerful specific magical elements can be, and so forth; luckily, the third numerical entry is fairly generous in this regard. However, one issue that returns from the inaugural installment of the franchise is that combat doesn’t always mesh well with level design, with the potential for long falls and retracing of steps, although Sora can run up many walls. The endgame also feels fairly drawn out, although the often-lengthy cutscenes are mercifully skippable, minimizing wasted playtime should Sora die.

The convoluted level design is one of the main issues with gameplay outside battle, with occasional frustrating map layouts like in the Frozen world, although the game menus are easily navigable in spite of constant flashing exclamation points indicating changes in the many submenus. Another major issue with control, however, is that voiced cutscene dialogue is unskippable, definitely an unfriendly gesture towards hearing-impaired gamers, and which singlehandedly adds several hours of superfluous playtime to the game. Furthermore, while the game does sport autosaving, hard save opportunities, especially given the length of many cutscenes, can be over half an hour apart. Generally, the developers could have certainly made an effort to make the game more user-friendly.

Perhaps the high point of Kingdom Hearts III is its aural presentation, with just about all its music being solid, within and without cutscenes, and even some musical numbers from the films such Frozen’s “Let It Go” audible in their respective worlds. The voice acting is good, although the cartoony voices of characters such as Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and especially Donald Duck, can really be grating in a game largely devoid of comedy.

The visuals are definitely a step above those in remasters of the previous Kingdom Hearts games, with a semi-realistic style and even more lifelike disposition in the Pirates of the Caribbean world, although the dissonance in the framerate between gameplay and the cutscenes is especially noticeable, with occasional choppiness in animation and environment popup as well.

Finally, despite the padding, the third entry is a little shorter than average for a Japanese RPG, with my final playtime a little over twenty-four hours, and there’s a surprisingly-decent amount of lasting appeal in the form of Trophies and different difficulties, although the occasional frustrations within and without combat would definitely be deterrents to further temporal investment in the game.

All in all, Kingdom Hearts III is for the most part another run-of-the-mill entry of a series whose quality has largely been consistent, in other words, average in spite of some occasional high points. The Keyblade combat can be enjoyable, but doesn’t always mesh well with the level design; and the narrative can, especially for older gamers, be excruciating, with the unskippable, mostly-badly-written cutscene dialogue consequentially forcing it down the player’s throat. There are some agreeable high points, however, such as the solid audiovisual presentation, although the cartoony voices of certain characters definitely create a tonal dissonance within the game. The third installment isn’t exactly a masterpiece, although it could have certainly been worse, and only those who had an excellent time with prior entries will appreciate it.

This review is based on a single playthrough of a physical copy purchased by the reviewer on Beginner difficulty, without experience in the post-game content.

The Good:
+Keyblade combat can be fun.
+Solid audiovisual presentation.
+Decent lasting appeal.

The Bad:
-Battle system doesn’t always mesh well with level design.
-Excruciating narrative and writing forced down the player’s throat.
-Donald Duck really annoying in noncomedic setting.

The Bottom Line:
Another run-of-the-mill Kingdom Hearts game.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: PlayStation 4
Game Mechanics: 6.5/10
Controls: 3.5/10
Story: 2.5/10
Localization: 2.5/10
Music/Sound: 8.5/10
Graphics: 7.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 7.0/10
Difficulty: Adjustable
Playing Time: 24+ Hours

Overall: 5.5/10

Three Luminaries Is Company

While Enix’s Dragon Quest, at the time of the original eight-bit entity’s localization known as Dragon Warrior, was my very first Japanese RPG, I oddly didn’t get around to playing any of its translated sequels until a few console generations later, but to me, they definitely emphasized the series’ tradition of security and steady evolution instead of doing things drastically different with each installment like the rival Final Fantasy franchise. Constant remakes would also be one of Dragon Quest’s chief traditions, with the first two entries commonly collected into one package, although their latest rerelease on the Nintendo Switch would be separate but still inexpensive. Does the franchise’s first sequel, Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line, hold up today?

The second series entry occurs a century after the first, the descendant of the legendary hero Erdrick and his love Princess Gwaelin of Tantegel traveling beyond their continent, their successors founding several kingdoms, among them being Moonbrooke, whose king is talking in the palace gardens with his daughter, one of the subtitular deuteragonists, when the forces of the evil wizard Hargon destroy the castle, a lone survivor traveling to Midenhall to inform its monarch of his homeland’s destruction, with the kingdom’s prince and namesake protagonist setting out in search of his cousins, the other being the remaining titular playable character, the Prince of Cannock, to put a stop to Hargon’s ambitions.

While one could argue Dragon Quest II is light on story, which it often admittedly is, it does still have one, but unlike in contemporary roleplaying games, the developers didn’t exactly force it down the player’s throat, and it serves as a reasonably-serviceable continuation of the saga of the legendary hero Erdrick and his descendants that forms the first three entries of the fabled franchise. Akin to the initial eight-bit incarnation, furthermore, the dialogue adopts a Shakespearean flair that serves the game well, with plentiful puns in regards to the enemy names, although there are occasional odd stylistic choices such as preceding most character names with adjectives, for instance, “foul Hargon.”

Players commence the second Dragon Quest with solely the Prince of Midenhall whom they name, and who is a pure physical fighter lacking any magical capability. Mercifully, however, early-game hell is minimal, with levels rising at a decent pace, and the acquisition of the Prince of Cannock, who is equally capable with offense and magic, somewhat making encounters more bearable for those with limited experience of the series. The third and final playable character, the Princess of Moonbrooke, is a poor physical fighter but an excellent magician, and throughout the game, the player’s party randomly encounters enemies that attempt to hinder their progress.

Dragon Quest II follows the traditional turn-based structure where the player inputs commands for each playable character, the Prince of Midenhall only able to attack with his equipped weapon, defend, use an item, or attempt escape (which of course won’t work all the time), although his cousins can cast MP-consuming magic spells. After the input of orders, the heroes and the enemy exchange actions, with the order of combat sometimes fluctuating yet typically depending upon units’ agility stats, following which, if neither side emerges victorious, another opportunity to give orders, the process repeating until all units on one side or the other are dead.

Should the player’s party vanquish their adversaries, each character still alive acquires experience for occasional leveling that yields increased stats and maybe a new magical spell in the case of the protagonist’s cousins, and as always, money to purchase new equipment and items from shops in towns. However, should the enemies win, the game teleports the player to the last town where they saved their game, with the Prince of Midenhall needing to pay a priest to resurrect his relatives alongside the penalty of half the gold held at the time. Mercifully, there exist within many towns banks where the player can safely deposit their money in thousand-gold increments, not to mention excess items that may lose their importance later on in the game.

Luminaries, furthermore, was one of the earliest Japanese RPGs to feature a minigame, in the sequel’s case tombola that requires special tickets sporadically acquired to play slots where the player must stop the reels and match icons for rewards such as special items that could actually be useful, especially in the case of prayer rings that grant magic-casting characters recovery of MP before ultimately breaking. Matching two reels provides the player another chance to play, with three different matches of icons stopping the game until they find more tickets to participate.

Other notable features include seeds that provide permanent increases in character stats, with their targets largely being obvious, such as those increasing strength on either prince, using MP-boosting ones on the Prince of Cannock or Princess of Moonbrooke, and so forth. The game mechanics generally work well in spite of their relative simplicity, with the pace of battles generally being quick aside from spells affecting multiple units doing so one at a time that somewhat bog things down, as does the frequent randomization of turn order. Offensive magic also frequently does no damage to certain foes, and quality-of-life features such as how much health enemies have left are absent, but otherwise, the sequel’s gameplay successfully abides by the mantra “Keep it simple, stupid.”

On the matter of quality-of-life aspects, Dragon Quest II does have a few things going for it such as the simplicity of the game menus, adjustable text speed, an in-game map of the overworld that displays the locations of both towns and dungeons, teleportation magic both to exit dungeons and travel among visited towns, a suspend save feature, being able to see how equipment increases or decreases stats before purchase, item and spell descriptions, and the like. However, there are issues such as the endless dialogue when shopping and performing hard saves of the game, not to mention NPCs occasionally getting in the way of the player’s party, a lack of in-game town and dungeon maps, and towns not always having all facilities such as banks, and in the end, interaction is middling.

As usual, however, composer Koichi Sugiyama did a superb job with the soundtrack, with plenty of solid tracks such as the Erdrick trilogy overture, the castle and town themes, both overworld tracks, the dungeon theme, and especially the sailing music “Beyond the Saves” that brings to mind Johann Strauss II’s “The Blue Danube,” the ending melody “My Road, My Journey” rounding out the musical presentation. Granted, there isn’t a change in battle music until the absolute final boss, and the franchise’s trademark digitized sound effects won’t resound well with everyone, but the sound as a whole is one of the sequel’s high points.

While certainly not the strongest of the series or Japanese RPGs as a whole, the visuals definitely have plenty going for them, such as the vibrant colors that serve environments and the character sprites well, although the former contain plentiful pixilation. In spite of inanimate enemies, however, the graphics are probably strongest in battle, with their respective environments and Akira Toriyama’s monster designs, despite many reskins, being surprisingly sharp without visible pixels. In the end, the second Dragon Quest is far from an eyesore.

Finally, the sequel is somewhat longer than its predecessor largely due to a larger world to explore, somewhere under twenty-four hours, although there isn’t much lasting appeal due to the absence of things such as sidequests and achievements.

On the whole, Dragon Quest II is very much a competent continuation of its predecessor, an evolution of the first game’s mechanics that never becomes overly-complicated, although admittedly, the relative simplicity of its mechanics will definitely off-put players who prefer convolution in their RPGs, and the second entry retains some of the dated user-unfriendliness of the franchise. Even so, however, it definitely has many positives such as the excellent translation, superb soundtrack, and visual presentation that at times shines. Those who prefer tradition and security in regards to roleplaying games will definitely appreciate the latest version of the series’ first sequel, but gamers who feel otherwise probably won’t.

This review is based on a playthrough to the ending of a copy digitally downloaded to the reviewer’s Nintendo Switch.

The Good:
+Simple but solid gameplay.
+Good continuation of the Erdrick saga.
+Superb localization.
+Excellent soundtrack.
+Akira Toriyama’s monster designs shine as always.

The Bad:
-Some randomization in combat.
-A little user-unfriendly.
-Story isn’t exactly deep.
-Visuals could have used more polish at points.
-Little lasting appeal.

The Bottom Line:
The best version of the game.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Game Mechanics: 7.5/10
Controls: 5.0/10
Story: 7.5/10
Localization: 9.5/10
Music/Sound: 9.5/10
Graphics: 7.0/10
Lasting Appeal: 3.0/10
Difficulty: Moderate
Playing Time: Less than 24 Hours

Overall: 7.0/10

The Legend of a Relic

Ever since its first three games released on the original Gameboy, given the Final Fantasy misnomer in North America due to that particular series’ greater (but then still niche) popularity in the region, the SaGa series has always been the Final Fantasy franchise’s eccentric cousin, given the offbeat nature of most entries’ gameplay mechanics coupled with above-average difficulty. American gamers would completely miss out on the Romancing trilogy originally for the Super Famicom until generations later, although to date they would out on the remakes of the original SaGa games, that of the very first title for the doomed WonderSwan Color handheld, and the second, SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu – Goddess of Destiny (the Japanese subtitle meaning “Legend of the Relics”) for the Nintendo DS.

Upon starting a new game, the player can customize a protagonist of different types: human, esper, mecha, or monster, and subsequently select three allies from a combination of the aforementioned races. Afterward, the hero or heroine goes on a search for their missing father, having entrusted them with one of many relics, with the gradual collection of these MacGuffins occurring throughout various worlds connected by the Sky Pillar. The story has some good ideas, as well as some positives such as the protagonist and his allies actually interacting, although the idea of interconnected worlds the first SaGa game had done, and there are tropes such as an absentee parent and an underground rebellion in one world, and the plot’s direction isn’t always clear.

As in other SaGa games in the past, there are plenty of good ideas involving the series’ signature offbeat gameplay, with enemies, unlike in the original SaGa 2, visible on whatever overworlds the player traverses and in dungeons. However, unlike games such as EarthBound, the enemy models indicating encounters always charge the player’s visible character, although in some cases, they have fixed patterns of movement and eventually give up chasing the player after a few seconds. It is also possible, should the encounter sprites be close, to “link” these encounters, accounting for more enemies the player must battle.

When combat begins, the player faces a number of enemy parties, their amounts being greater depending upon how many encounter sprites “linked,” and depending upon the direction the player’s character faced before the encounter, either the enemy may gain the initiative or the player will. Regardless, enemies almost always outnumber the player’s characters, although there are a number of ways by which to deal with them. Outside battle, players can equip humans, espers, and mechas with items, with the first and last character types outfittable with various items, although the esper race by default has half its inventory occupied by skills, resistances, and weaknesses, and the monster type having an unchangeable inventory depending upon its current form.

Characters that can alter their inventories have a number of options from which they can choose, with players able to occupy slots with defense-increasing equipment and/or weapons and shields that have a fixed number of uses before disappearing, with the latter’s attack power depending upon how high a character’s strength, or in some cases agility, is. Humans and espers, maybe mechas as well, can also equip spell books or staffs that can affect one or all characters, or one group or all enemies. Espers too can receive “natural” abilities that have fixed usages before the player needs to rest at an inn to recover them, as do monsters in many cases.

The remake, akin to the original, follows the traditional turn-based structure where the player inputs commands for their four-character party (with doing nothing and attempting to escape from battle being options as well), and they and the enemy execute commands largely depending upon agility, although there exists the typical gameplay cliché of enemies sometimes being able to beat the player’s characters to healing, which is definitely pivotal in the sometimes-cheap final boss battle with multiple phases. The player has the option to disable attack animations for their characters and the enemy, although in the case of battles that contain dozens of enemies, they can still take a long time.

The defeat of all the player’s characters, during the first part of the game, gives them the chance to restart the lost battle, which can be advantageous if the initial encounter began with the enemy having the initiative, although the option disappears after a certain plot point. Victory, on the other hand, may result in random stat increases for humans and espers depending upon their combat actions (and very, very rarely, a natural increase to their defense stats), one of the defeated adversaries dropping meat for a monster ally to consume, resulting in a new form (and luckily, if a monster has become a specific enemy at one point, the player can view their stats and skills after consumption), and finally, money.

A new system introduced in the DS SaGa 2 is that of Muses the player can rescue and send to a celestial area, players able to provide them gifts that earn them special points they can use at the Castle of Fates to purchase combination link points of different types that allow characters in combat to chain commands, resulting in increased damage to enemies. The Muses themselves, after providing players a thousand of these points (with the “correct” gifts to Muses netting them five hundred each), may randomly help the player’s party in battle with things such as increased resistance to magic, an additional attack against the enemies, or full restoration of all characters.

The heavy degree of luck and randomization is one of the primary flaws in the mechanics, and as implied, the final boss battle is one of the main exhibitions of the issue, with plentiful difficulty in my experience despite maxing several character stats. Furthermore, players can’t visit the Castle of Fates at will to purchase more linkage uses until the final part of the game. A guide is also necessary to find all the Muses and their respective gifts to get them to assist randomly in combat. Generally, much akin to other entries of the SaGa franchise, there are plenty good ideas, but they don’t always work in practice.

Control, however, actually fares moderately better, with one of the main pluses being the ability to record one’s progress anywhere outside battle, and mercifully, the game gives indication of points of no return, in which case players can save in an alternate slot. The menus are also generally easy, with an in-game measure of playtime as well, although when the player acquires map abilities such as being able to excavate hidden treasure or teleport to a past area, they have to go into the menu to change the current field skill. Moreover, the game only indicates objective points when the player is within range on the lower screen, and generally, interaction has its strong points but could have been better.

The remake is strongest with regards to its soundtrack by Kenji Ito and Nobuo Uematsu, with plenty of catchy pieces such as the overworld piece and battle themes, although the quality is somewhat weak at times, and the music in the current area outside combat restarts from the beginning. The visuals have plenty going for them as well, such as the cel-shaded style, although there’s plenty pixilation and many reskinned enemies.

Finally, total playtime ranges from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, with theoretical replayability in the form of a New Game+, although most players likely won’t want to devote additional time to the remake.

On the whole, SaGa 2 for the Nintendo DS is another run-of-the-mill entry of a series that has its share of mostly average-to-bad entries that are largely inaccessible to mainstream gamers. For one, the game mechanics, while the ideas are good, very much falter in execution, the narrative is middling, and the visuals are average. There are some aspects, however, that are genuinely good such as the soundtrack and the always-welcome save-anywhere feature that somewhat balance the remake’s quality. Regardless, it often exemplifies what’s wrong with the Square-Enix series, and while an English fan translation is available for Anglophone players, they definitely shouldn’t prioritize playing it.

This review is based on a single playthrough to the standard ending with a human main character, a female esper, a mecha, and a monster.

The Good:
+Good ideas behind gameplay mechanics.
+You can save your game most anywhere.
+Great soundtrack.
+Has some semblance of lasting appeal.

The Bad:
-Lots of luck and randomization involved.
-Average story.
-Middling visuals.
-Not fun enough to go through again.

The Bottom Line:
Another average entry of the Square-Enix series.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: Nintendo DS
Game Mechanics: 5.0/10
Controls: 7.0/10
Story: 5.0/10
Music/Sound: 8.5/10
Graphics: 5.0/10
Lasting Appeal: 2.5/10
Difficulty: Hard
Playing Time: 24-48 Hours

Overall: 5.5/10