Makaitoushi SaGa (Wonderswan Color) - Import Review

Review Breakdown
Battle System	5
Interface	5
Music & Sound	10
Originality	10
Story & Plot	10
Localization	NA
Replay Value	10
Visuals	10
Difficulty	Easy to Moderate
Completion Time	Almost 10 Hours
Overall
At the bottom of the Makaitoushi, the Demon World Tower.

   I'm pretty certain we all know what the Final Fantasy Legend games are, right? Yes, released originally for the Game Boy with that masquerade title, Nintendo of America thinking that we Americans were all retarded. In actuality, these games were part of the first trilogy of Squaresoft's SaGa series, whereas the games are simply called "SaGa" preceded or succeeded by a subtitle, in this game's case, "Makaitoushi," meaning "Demon World Tower," the chief location of the game. I'm reviewing, of course, the remake of the game, released unfortunately for the Wonderswan Color from Bandai, a portable system that never made it to America. I managed to get my hands on one, courtesy of my local importer, and got myself a few games. Makaitoushi Saga, as you shall see, is worth importing a Wonderswan, hence the title of my optimistic review of this delightful title.

   The battle system of this game, to begin, isn't anything special, but it's acceptable. Its turn based, whereas you input the commands of all your characters and let them attack their foes. If you want to heal, pray to God that your healing gets in first. What makes this turn-based battle system so significant is that your weapons degrade every time you use them, a la the Diablo games, but here, there's no way of repairing them, making you sometimes have to sell the hide off your back just to get a new weapon for each of your character. I'll admit here and now that when I played my very first SaGa game, "SaGa Frontier" on the Sony PlayStation, I got a bit disillusioned from the series, but this game, thankfully, lured me back into the distinctive series, and voila, you have this review.

   The music and sound are gloriously reproduced in the game, and they are ear candy, plain and simple as that. The graphics, too, are quite a step up from this game's predecessor, as they all of course are in glorious color, and the battles have backgrounds, for once, rather than a blank yellow backdrop, which you can get if you want by playing the game's original version, available by selecting the "Original" option. (It says that in Katakana on the title screen). Yes, you can play either version, if you wish, but I see no reason whatsoever for playing Final Fantasy Legend in Japanese, which you can most certainly do by getting a Gameboy, putting in your cartridge, and playing the original.

Ah, yes, a colorful battle.

   The game's difficulty varies, depending on how you develop your characters, ranging from humans to espers (mutants to us) to monsters, which can simply transform by eating other enemy carcasses you sometimes get from winning battles. You can level up humans by buying strength and agility and HP building items, and you can level up espers by simply having them fight. Because you get to choose the race of your protagonist as well as various allies of various races, this game has, unlike many other RPGs, replay value. Enough said. Oh, yeah, and it takes under ten hours to beat this game, according to the game clock, so yeah, it's definitely worth replaying with this short time.

   The interface of this game is okay, and menus are easy to navigate. Unfortunately, you can't tell the strength of weapons and armor before you buy them, making you pray to God before you buy them that they're better than your current equipment. This is unless you save beforehand, which you can do everywhere. It's a distinct characteristic of all the SaGa games. Of course, this game has no localization, though I could enter my characters' names (Jeremy, Lufia, Michael, and Rizzo, as you can see in the battle shot) courtesy of my good friend Katakana.

   Yes, this game is quite original, and yes, it does a plot, which guarantees both top marks. I personally could care less about plot and originality of RPGs, since too much of both can really divert attention away from the solid gameplay experience you can sometimes get from games like this, which I most certainly did, thank you very much.

   In conclusion, import yourself a Wonderswan Color today just to get your paws on this excellent remake, and yes, don't forget another one for me too, and though the portable system is pretty much dead, you won't regret your investment! If you're willing to experience a remade classic, then I highly recommend this game. However, if it's plots you're in to…avoid this game like the plague. If you want a game with only plot and no gameplay, by all means, get Xenosaga.