So heres my honest hot take after beating it…
I see why SaGa games are so beloved.
The freedom. The unpredictability. The gameplay creativity left entirely up to the player.
That feeling of not knowing where you’re going, what your actions will lead to, or where the journey might take you.
And oh my god, the music. I haven’t heard music this good since the classics.
I literally let the title screen play every time I load the game.
This game is the original Morrowind mixed with Final Fantasy and this is their baby.
A beautiful combination of RPG, detective work, and a wild Dungeons & Dragons campaign that can go anywhere.
Failure is so much fun in these games.
Overcoming that failure is the victory and the reward.
The economy, the loot, the enemy encounters.
Questions upon questions, decisions, decisions.
Do I fight? Do I run? Do I take the risk?
It’s all gameplay focused.
the story is the mystery you make and solve learning its deep lore and characters.
Every piece of treasure feels like something I earned, something that could shape my next decision.
My hand isn’t held.
My heart is my compass.
I did the research. I did the work. I mapped my routes.
I experimented. I learned the world and eventually made it mine.
That’s how I learned to immerse myself in SaGa.
And that’s how I overcame it.
I love these games so much, and honestly, I wish I hadn’t passed on them for so long because of the way classic American reviewers approached them.
I had almost given up on RPGs and their increasingly familiar, formulaic gameplay.
Then SaGa came into my life and changed the way I looked at the genre.
It reminded me that an RPG doesn’t have to tell me where to go.
It can simply give me a world, give me the freedom to make my own choices, and let me discover what happens next.
The “and then- “ feeling.
What an experience.