Aside from Fuse, some smaller bits of content that were originally cut from the stories of a couple of characters has been restored. This helps flesh out the rest of the cast, and I suppose if there were any great purpose a new story in a remaster could accomplish, that is one of the better ones. He basically has his own route for each of the other seven characters, giving you an alternate take on their stories. His implementation here is quite different from other characters. His scenario was a somewhat important one, as it would see him bob in and out of the other characters’ stories, tying the tales together. Fuse was meant to be in the original game, but had to be cut along with one other character for time and disc space reasons.
The biggest thing is the inclusion of an eighth main character, complete with his own storyline. To begin, let’s address what this remaster brings to the table, because it is relatively substantial. Clearly, perspective affected people’s opinions of this game. It was even included in the PlayStation Classic mini-console in Japan. Over in Japan? It sold over a million copies, ended up being the 15th best-selling game on the original PlayStation, and was beloved. To quote one review from the time, a “depressing misfire". The black sheep of the SquareSoft PlayStation RPG catalog. Written off as not worth the time or money. The game got what would become the usual SaGa treatment from the West it was seen as an annoying, confusing mess. Bizarre, opaque mechanics from top to bottom.Īlmost everyone who had found their love for the genre through Final Fantasy 7 bounced off of SaGa Frontier hard. Difficulty spikes all over the place, and even some places where you can get stuck if you didn’t level properly beforehand. Some gorgeous art, but decidedly plainer than Final Fantasy 7. There are seven different protagonists (eight in Remastered, but we’ll get to that) each with their own story, and no guidance as to which one a player should choose to start with. As “second" JRPGs go, SaGa Frontier was… less than ideal. An exciting story, dazzling (for the time) 3D visuals, plenty of action-packed mini-games, generally forgiving difficulty, and easily understood mechanics. As “first" JRPGs go, Final Fantasy 7 was a great one. That game was something of a lightning rod for the genre in the West, pulling in people who had never touched a console RPG before. The biggest problem for poor old SaGa Frontier is that it was the first SquareSoft JRPG released after Final Fantasy 7 in the West. We missed out on the three Romancing SaGa games, and while the Game Boy games had their devotees they were also a bit closer to a familiar JRPG structure. Western players didn’t have that context, of course. It’s considerably harder to get into than almost all of its predecessors. SaGa Frontier was the seventh game in the series, and as such it was built with the idea that the players would have a basic understanding of the off-beat nature that characterized SaGa.
#SAGA FRONTIER REMASTERED COMPARISON SERIES#
It’s a very, very quirky series by nature, often confusing players with esoteric rules and non-standard systems. To start with, SaGa Frontier is a SaGa game, with all that implies. What happened last time? Well, it’s complicated. SaGa Frontier Remastered ($24.99) sees the very first game in the series that was localized under its original title make a return, hopefully to a warmer reception than last time.
#SAGA FRONTIER REMASTERED COMPARISON FULL#
And now things come full circle, after a fashion. Even the classic Game Boy games that kicked off the SaGa series (unbeknownst to those of us in the West at the time) got reissued on the Nintendo Switch. We’ve seen the latest SaGa, SaGa Scarlet Grace, get a release on new platforms and in new regions. We’ve received localizations of classic games I never thought we would see like Romancing SaGa 2 and Romancing SaGa 3. The 8-bit and 16-bit Final Fantasy games can only be re-released and/or remade so many times, I suppose.
I don’t know what has been in the water at Square Enix the last few years, but I’m happy for it.
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