Makai Toushi SaGa 1 Ranking: B
In the States, this was released as The Final Fantasy Legend, but I’m not calling it that because…it’s a SaGa game. SaGa is its own franchise, and I’ve played all 3 of the Game Boy installments, with this first one being one of my first video games (I got it around 1999, I want to say). The game is pretty difficult, especially for an RPG n00b, but that’s not really a problem. Difficulty isn’t really a problem as long as it’s fair and possible to overcome.
In this game, there’s a tower in the world that legends say lead to Paradise. You assemble a 4-character party (as in, you create 4 characters like in the first Final Fantasy) to climb this tower, fighting fiends along the way, and eventually face the arch-fiend, Ashura. Defeating Ashura nets you a segment where you need to climb the tower again and fight the fiends again, though this segment is pretty quick. Finally, you reach Paradise, which is nothing but a barren wasteland, and find that the Creator made all this up just to toy with humans. Your party gets pissed off and then you fight the Creator.
The game came out in 1989 and the graphics are really elementary. The story isn’t that bad, especially considering the time. If a person spends time and effort building up the party, the game can be a lot of fun. I, actually, beat the game with only one character rather than 4. The reason I gave it a B is the save system. It is possible, and I’ve experienced this twice, to save in a location that is impossible to get out of, which means you need to start an entirely new game to proceed. Paradise is one of those locations, meaning you need to start an entirely new game when you’ve already beaten 99% of it if you find you’re not strong enough to fight the last boss (who is, in fact, supposed to be a plot twist).
At any rate, I dredged up my solo character from forever ago and here she is along with official art:
In the States, this was released as The Final Fantasy Legend, but I’m not calling it that because…it’s a SaGa game. SaGa is its own franchise, and I’ve played all 3 of the Game Boy installments, with this first one being one of my first video games (I got it around 1999, I want to say). The game is pretty difficult, especially for an RPG n00b, but that’s not really a problem. Difficulty isn’t really a problem as long as it’s fair and possible to overcome.
In this game, there’s a tower in the world that legends say lead to Paradise. You assemble a 4-character party (as in, you create 4 characters like in the first Final Fantasy) to climb this tower, fighting fiends along the way, and eventually face the arch-fiend, Ashura. Defeating Ashura nets you a segment where you need to climb the tower again and fight the fiends again, though this segment is pretty quick. Finally, you reach Paradise, which is nothing but a barren wasteland, and find that the Creator made all this up just to toy with humans. Your party gets pissed off and then you fight the Creator.
The game came out in 1989 and the graphics are really elementary. The story isn’t that bad, especially considering the time. If a person spends time and effort building up the party, the game can be a lot of fun. I, actually, beat the game with only one character rather than 4. The reason I gave it a B is the save system. It is possible, and I’ve experienced this twice, to save in a location that is impossible to get out of, which means you need to start an entirely new game to proceed. Paradise is one of those locations, meaning you need to start an entirely new game when you’ve already beaten 99% of it if you find you’re not strong enough to fight the last boss (who is, in fact, supposed to be a plot twist).
At any rate, I dredged up my solo character from forever ago and here she is along with official art: