Unlimited Saga

PS2

SquEnix (SquareEnix) - 2003

Of all the rpgs I have played, of which include the greats such as Final Fantasy VI, Vagrant Story, Suikoden II, and Crono Trigger, I have also fallen for some pretty crappy games. Like Valkerie Profile or Grandia Xtreme. But no game has ever dissapointed me as much as Unlimited Saga has.

First off, I saw screen shots of Unlimited Saga long ago, beautiful screen shots of this animation technique which was supposed to blow away both sprites and 3-D. I looked at the art, of Laura in particular, and was amazed. If they could make the sprites of her look as great as the art, which is what they promised, I would certainly buy the game, no matter how terrible it was plot or gameplay wise. And I stood by my promise, and they held me to my word.

Yes, the gameplay is awful. Remember Saga Frontier? Remember why everyone disliked it? Because of the non-linear plot and just plain confusing gameplay? Well everything they disliked is back in full in Unlimited Saga. And I thought Akitoshi Kawazu would learn eventually. When you begin the game you choose one of seven characters. Cool premise, that means seven times through the game. But that was probably a bad idea, because although I really want to play the game with all the characters, I don't want to PLAY THE GAME. Not even once.

Then you choose a character. Choose Laura, she's supposedly the "Main" Character. What happens? No beautiful introduction with this great art style they talk about. Just a flat drawing as Laura talks in word ballons. Then some kid smacks her ass, literally, and she, computer controlled, fights a battle, then they converse, two drawings on the screen and word ballons overlapping. Meanwhile you are sitting there going: "What the ...(insert word of your choice here.)!!" Because you have no idea what is going on, nor where the cool art style is. So then you get put into a dungeon. A dungeon is a map where you choose which way to walk, up down left, right and sometimes other ways, and the character chess-like piece hops. Then you can search for items in that area, and watch out for enemies. Because you really don't want to fight enemies. For you don't get experience from them. The only possible reason you would want to fight is to learn new attacks, but you also have to watch out for your weapons breaking and such. So keep the fighting to a minimal.
Oh, and another thing? Once you enter a dungeon, you can't leave. And you never, ever, EVER get to walk your character around normally. Not even in towns. You just choose the store you want to go into. Plus, in towns, there are no item stores per say. You can buy animal pellets and such to make items, but I still haven't figured that part out yet. To go on an adventure you go to the inn, talk to people, pray that someone wants to join the party, and then go to another dungeon. I played about 6 towns worth, and 8 dungeons, hoping that I would witness one of these great art style thingies, but the one I saw was about 15 seconds long. And very dissapointing. VERY. So I quit.

Ok, perhaps some people might think that kind of game is fun. Perhaps I was being a bit too judgemental of it. But when I pick up a game and everything is totally alien to me, I get a little scared. I want something that I can relate to, if in any way. But I couldn't find it in Unlimited Saga. Anywhere. Perhaps if I just tried harder, I could possibly convince myself to like this game, but I just don't want to put the time into the game when it quite possibly could be the worst game ever, for me. You could give it a try if you'd like, but if you like anything standard in your game, I don't recommend it.

What liked: The character art. The introduction when you leave the game running at the title screen.

What disliked: The game after the title screen.

What to expect: Nothing remotely similar to the "norm" rpg.

What not to expect: Final Fantasy.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: Everything, I would have to say.

Ratings on:

Control: up, down, left, right. Nothing really needed.

Graphics: 10 - For the cool art intro. 4 - For actual game art. It is really choppy and not very pretty at all.

Sound: 5 - Ok, nothing to write home about.

Style: 2 - It has lots of new stuff, but nothing great.

1st hour: 8 - Ok. What is going on?

5th hour: 2 - I will play for one more hour. If I don't get a cool art scene, I quit.

1st week: Guess what? I didn't get a cool art scene.

5th week: I quit.

#1 reason why I hate this game: They advertise this game as the "Hardcore" game for "Hardcore" gamers. Last time I checked, I was a hardcore gamer. But this game isn't "hardcore," it is "hard." and by "hard" I mean "Crap."

by Hawke