An Attack Upon SaGa Frontier

by Martin Haller 

When I read Brendan McGrath's "Defense of Saga Frontier," I realized that it was one of the greatest, most subtley sarcastic pieces I have read in a long time. Then I realized that it was no such thing, that Brendan was simply misled and confused, calling what is perhaps the greatest debacle in RPG history a game worthy of comparison to Secret of Mana. I will adress his points as he brings them up.

"Graphics: How anyone can complain about SaGa Frontier's graphics is beyond me." I was shocked. Really shocked. That he couldn't even see how people could complain about graphics as mediocre as these seemed really quite strange. So as to edify Mr. McGrath, let me catalog the faults in Saga's graphics.

1) The spirtes. These sprites are actually worse that any SNES RPGs I played. If one looks from Red's ridiculous head and appearance, to the low number of frames of animation, to the utter lack of animated actions, it is simply staggering. Compared to Suikoden, which used numerous animations (Neclord playing the piano, the swords drawn in the end, etc.), Saga's sprites are laughable. Compared to Final Fantasy 3, they are better sized, but still lack the character and quality of the earlier SNES game. Compared to Chrono Trigger, which contains the same actions (running, walking, numerous characters) they seem uninspired. He points out that "Final Fantasy Tactics has handrawn characters, and nobody minded that." That's because FFT had GOOD hand drawn art. The flaw of logic that is evidenced here is seen again when he describes the background.

2) "[The backgrounds] are prerendered, just like Final Fantasy VII, and nobody will deny that FFVII's graphics are out of this world." That is because each graphic in FF7 had character to it, and when put together, created a dark and gritty future that immersed the player. Saga's backgrounds, however, all of which are from the same angle of view, are so scattered that they provide no cohesive backdrop for the characters. They tend to be cute, rather than serious.

3) The battle graphics. The background graphics, of which Brendan boasts, are so low resolution that you can see large, individual pixels. The "camera movement" is non-existant for most of the time, and poorly executed when it occurs. 2D art does not do well with a "moving camera." The enemies look like they are drawn with crayons, many times, and tend to be largely unanimated. They come facing two directions, which means they are rarely facing the party. The spells, while on par with, say, Crono Trigger, are nothing close to those of Final Fantasy 7 or Final Fantasy Tactics.

I won't debate with Brendan on the quality of the game play. Some like it, some do not. I will say that battle after battle, from which one cannot flee, is a bit frustrating, but not overly so. I found combat extremely bad, but again, that is personal opinion. The game play is different, at the very least.

What is strange is that he next states, "Every RPG needs a fantastic story" and then says "Saga Frontier does not focus on a strong ... storyline." If Saga lacks this crucial aspect, which Brendan himself calls crucial, doesn't that make his next point, "However, ... SaGa Frontier gives the player a wonderful and exotic world to explore" irrelevant? The exotic world does not replace the story. And if "every RPG needs a fantastic story," the case on SF is closed.

We are next treated to a logical error called "the either-or fallacy." If you complained that "... Final Fantasy VII was too linear ... SaGa Frontier is for you." If the desert is too hot, why don't we all fly to Antarctica? He then asserts that seven weak, largely unrelated plots should be counted as one large, integrated story. Were it a single cohesive story, told from seven angles, then I would agree. Each of the individual plots, however, varies greatly in quality. Red's story is like a cheap Marvel comic, and T260G's plot doesn't really start until the last fifth of his quest.

"Another thing an RPG needs is interesting and lovable characters." Indeed. Just as it needs a good plot. Brendan then lists four RPGs with better character development, including (laughably) Secret of Mana, a game renowned for its lack of character development! What games is SaGa Frontier beating? Beyond the Beyond? He then goes on to summarize each character's plot with a sentence, yet next refers to them as "dynamic and richly detailed characters." If they are defined by a single sentence, I consider them neither dynamic nor detailed. Additionally, Brendan even admits that T260G is a clone of Robo (though far worse in development).

"So, even if you don't like it, don't say that you don't like SaGa Frontier." That just about sums up Brendan's logic. Though he asserts a hatred of SaGa Frontier only comes from a hatred of non-linear games, he genuinely fails to prove this. Just as one can say, "If you hate Virtua Fighter, what you really hate is 3D fighting games!" It is simply invalid. SaGa lacks a plot, lacks decent graphics, and decent character development. If that is what defines a non-linear RPG, then I guess Saga Frontier is a great non-linear game.