Unlimited: SaGa

A series known for innovation has now gone so far into left field that it's climbed over the fence and taken up residence in the upper bleachers.

Some people complain that RPGs are too easy these days. They claim that developers have tried to make RPGs popular by removing all vestiges of challenge from them. Unlimited: SaGa, to put it very politely, does not suffer from this issue. With this game, in fact, not only do you need a strategy guide to beat bosses, but you also need one to move your character?at all.

12-Sided Dice
SaGa is a series well known for its originality, and Unlimited: SaGa certainly?erm?continues the tradition. The story's divided between seven characters, and you can go through their tales in any order you'd like. Instead of walking around towns and dungeons, you select options from menus and move a piece around a map that looks like a twisted version of Risk. As mentioned, even basic navigation is difficult in this game?it will take you an hour or two before you have any idea how to get anywhere.

The most gonzo updates, however, were saved for the battle system. In each turn, you select five moves and then unleash them by stopping onscreen reels using a hold function to launch SaGa Frontier?style combos. This would be simple enough, except that the reels spin at approximately Mach 3.4. Remember Squall's Limit Break in Final Fantasy VIII? It's about 10 times that fast. As a result, every battle feels like a trip to Vegas, and even the easiest of fights are mentally exhausting.

Saving Throws
In Unlimited: SaGa, the world is quite simply out to get you. Weapons break often and require regular fixing. You cannot leave a dungeon unless you die or complete it. You generally cannot refill your life inside a dungeon. To open a simple treasure chest, you must defuse the trap on it (by stopping a reel in the right place) and break the lock (another reel). If you get it wrong, you take damage, get attacked, become poisoned, and so forth. The list of cruelties goes on and on, and the result is that this SaGa is more work than play.

If you like RPGs that resemble AD&D; campaigns and have inhuman difficulty levels, then please buy Unlimited: SaGa. For normal gamers, the outlandish challenge sucks out all the fun almost immediately. Save your money for the soundtrack instead?it's among the prettiest Square's produced on the PS2.

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