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If you think Final Fantasy represents true RPGs, don't apply

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First and foremost. If you believe Final Fantasy truly represents what an RPG is, then save yourself the frustation, the rest of us the complaints, and don't buy this game.

I won't go into a review, there's enough positive ones from people who actually "got" the game. It's partially Square Enix's fault though. They produce one the most infamous RPGs for casual players called Final Fantasy that anything else coming from them with as much depth as U-Saga gets immediately bashed because of its more complex nature.

This game does not live off of FMV; does not have flashy battle sequences; involve little tide-me-over mini games. What the game has is something a little more complex that people like me have been waiting for. All I'm asking is the following:

If you ONLY play Final Fantasy RPGs, then stay away from U-Saga. It is NOT for you.

Unadulterated Crap

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

What a waste of time and money. I bought this out of brand loyalty to Squaresoft, a mistake I will not be repeating. What threw me at first were the horrible graphics, I've played games on the SNES that were superior. While I'll admit the cinematic sequences were interesting and unique, the static nature of the navigation screen and the pathetic battle screen animations were without any redeeming qualities.

The fighting system could have been facinating if paired with a more engaging interface. Basing attack strength partly on the traditional stats and adding a wheel-of-fortune like combination of skill and luck on the player's part give the fight sequences as much realism as a computer game with bad graphics can have.

After two hours of playing, I'd had enough and returned it. If you consider innovation and retro graphics good qualities in a game, then buy Unlimited Saga. If you are like me and prefer a game with visual appeal in addition to a good story, vibrant characters and engaging gameplay (all of which Unlimited Saga also lacks) cross your fingers and hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

Keep an open mind on this one.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Gladly, I bought this game on clearance for about 6 bucks, so I don't feel that bad. The FFX-2 trailer was worth almost that anyway.

This game...oh, where to start. It's not a good or bad game, it's more of a decent game that was rushed off the drawing board. It had some great ideas but fell short of the good game it almost could've been. Because a lot of gamers who picked this up expected a Final-Fantasy style game I've tried to compare it to the closest one I could get it to, for justification of their choices.

First, if you are used to the flashy graphics of now, please save your money. The FMVs are the only real good artwork in the game, and those are few and far in between; the game uses art stills instead of the "normal" moving 3d character for storyline scenes. These scenes look horrid on a high-def TV, i'm sorry. Everything looks pixelated to me. The battle graphics...well, the background looks like an early ps2 game, but the sprite characters look like they predate the PS1. The movements look stiff and fake while attacking, and the 2d sprites look rediculous on the 3d background. Now, don't get me wrong, Final Fantasy Tactics had sprites, 2d stills, speech bubbles, and no real movement outside of battle too, but it had a good story and some graphics credibility to make it a classic.

During the story the screen almost feels constrained thanks to Square-Enix slapping a thick border around their painted backgrounds. The lack of exploring towns didn't bother me as much, as I thought of the menu-based shopping in, again, FFT. The world exploration, however, did. It felt more constraining than the "action" sequences, with a very limited and bland chunk of land being laid out for you to "explore". I'm sorry, FFT did a better job of the linear maps...the exploration part was what finally turned me off this game. It became one long chore.

The battle system is a poor aborted child of what could have been a great idea. Much like the roll of dice, a reel determines which of a few actions take place in battle. However, selecting all your movemetns before you know what the enemy is going to do gets rid of a lot of battle tactics, and early in the game you just end up punching and kicking your way through mundane battles anyway.

If I could change only one thing, I would change the map. They had a traditional map you could view, there was no reason to put in poorly rendered walking paths that you had to hop across. Just put in paths on the actual world map!

All in all, its a liveable game. That and the trailer make this worth the 6 bucks.

Good Enough.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I eagerly anticipated this game for more than two years. Needless to say, I had relatively high hopes and standards regarding it's SaGa-ness. I expected it to be hated by most, gorgeously pretty, and mildy frustrating. It succeeds completely in all three of those categories.

Well, I suppose I will group my review into different sections for ease of writing and reading.

Graphics: 4/5 stars.
Simply put, this game is absolutely breathtaking to look at. The main cinemas done in what seems to be a type of cel-shading called "sketch-motion" developed by Photoshop developer Adobe. With this graphical style, it is difficult to differentiate between illustration and 3D Model, and I find the effect to be wonderful. Attention is appropriately drawn to this aspect of the game in the opening cinema, in which a painting of the characters at "the Festival of Regina Leone" seemlessly takes on a 3D form and then flashes to images of the nobodies at the festival, all just simple blue humanoids.
Beside that, the in-game art is also quite nice. Instead of being a 3D character or a sprite who moves about a 3D world, you are instead just a Monopoly piece that moves through the "game world"--a game board. All of the scenes that you view are presented as beautiful paintings, and when you enter a town, all there are are menus and paintings.
However, the graphics falter a bit in the battle scenes. The characters, in these battles, now are sprites. The sprites are generally poorly animated and appear blocky, and it disappoints me that a game that focuses on battle so much has such unattractive models. Still, battle attacks are colorful and creative, so all is not lost.

Sound: 5/5.

The section in which Unlimited Saga shines the most is its music, which surprises me, because the composer, Masashi Hamauzu, was responsible for the music in SaGa Frontier 2, a musical tragedy of sorts. The game is almost always fully-orchestrated, and the sound of 40+ string instruments all playing in unison as the 7 Wonders flash by is really a great treat.
Besides being beautiful, the arrangements of music for missions are very different and refreshing. For example: Whil trampling through a desert full of dust and canyons, you would expect to hear dry, pseudo-Middle Eastern music, right? Right. However, in this game, the desert with canyons is accompanied by a few simple piano notes and the cello.
Unfortunately, the game has some voice-acting, thanks to ADVision, who was in charge of the dub. The voices range from annoying to really annoying, and I am only thankful that voices are kept to a minimum.

Control: 3/5.

What is there to say? You navigate menu after menu.

Gameplay: 2/5.

Ouch. This game frustrates like nothing else. But I'm afraid it is too difficult to describe without an actual part of the game. So, I will describe the game's flow as it actually happened. I started the game (I picked the sexy and tough-looking Laura) and met some kid. Laura agrees to escort him to a nearby town, and as I travel from town-to-town, I walk through "maps" that are more like "nondescript monopoly boards." I saw a treasure chest and attempted to open it. There is a trap! Spikes! Hit Points (HP) minus XX! Gas trap! HP minus XX and poison! A treasure chest monster appears! ~battle.~ I am given 5 turns, and I can spend them any way I want to. However, I must make sure to spread out attacks, because to attack costs HP, and HP is the buffer for Life Points (LP), your life force. Running out of HP doesn't kill you, but it makes it ridiculously easy to lose LP. Anyhow, I spread my attacks and begin the battle. 5 circles are presented, each with a character's face inside it. I can choose who I want to attack in what order, so I pick Laura. Suddenly, a reel suddenly starts spinning. Basically, you must stop the reel in different parts to change your attack from weak to strong to evilly strong. After I have selected a part of the reel to stop at, I have the option of choosing X or O. X stops the attack and I do whatever type I picked. O pauses the attack and either A) you choose another person to attack and form a combo attack, or the enemy interrupts and does combo battle with you. This is frustrating, because combo attacks are the main way to defeat enemies in this game, and enemies almost always interrupt the best combos. Hmph.
You defeated the treasure chest monster! Boom! The treasure chest exploded! HP minus XX, LP minus 1! Congratulations, stupid! You're playing Unlimited SaGa.

Story: 3/5.

Nothing too remarkable. You are one of 7 characters who searches for the 7 wonders, with 7 artifacts, that, when discovered, will unleash god and a time of peace will begin.

That is about it. The story is nice, and I think it will be enjoyable if you are a fan of the SaGa's before SF2. Otherwise, you should DEFINITELY rent first, becase this is a risk.

This game IS NOT Final Fantasy...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: August 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

...and that's exactly why I love Unlimited Saga (and the other SaGa games for that matter). These days, everyone is so caught up that every RPG needs to be like FF with 3D graphics and hours of FMV that it makes me sick. Anyone who has never played an RPG before Final Fantasy 7 does not know what they are talking about. I thought the whole point in playing an RPG is to play a role in a epic story, and not to just watch flashy cinema movies or cut scenes. To me, Squaresoft ruined the Final Fantasy series. But thankfully, their SaGa series is still awesome! The thing that is so great about this game is the fact that it is completely different than other RPG's. This game is mainly about the gameplay, and not the cinematic approach. Travelling in towns is just selecting options, and moving around dungeons is like a board game. Battles are done using a reel system where victory is achieved by stopping the reel on the right spot rather than by what level you are on and just letting the computer decide how good your "luck" is. There are seven different stories, and that is another thing I love about Unlimited Saga. It adds replay value, and a better look at each protagonist as individuals.

Final words: The battles are really fun, the artwork is beautiful, and the open ended stories are exciting. Forget what you know about RPG's, and give Unlimited Saga a try.

[Mad]

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: August 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Omg They should put out in the back of game in big bold letters "Cannot Move your character." In the entire game you don't get to move your character around and the only time you see him or her is when you get into battles or conversations inside towns and when you do get to see them in coversations they look like a painting with them appearing off and on the screen like all they did was erase and repaste. I think Square was on a really low budget when they did this game. If not then they are playing a very bad joke. I wasted money. Other than that the game was great! Music was good, and I didn't play it longer than my interest in a 2d picture-paste game could hold.
Buy not this game if you care about buying good stuff.

Of course it's not Final Fantasy....DUH

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 12
Date: July 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I find this hilarious...comment's like "Cloud's not even in it", and "it's not even a Final Fantasy"...get a clue, people. IS the title "Unlimited Fantasy"? how bout "Final fantasy Saga"? I think not...Squaresoft makes more games than final fantasy people...and furthermore...comments like "there's no 3d graphics" are likewise stupid...even squaresoft uses 2d graphics in a good percentage of their games...Legend of mana was mostly 2d/cel shaded, and the game STILL rocked...and, must i remind you, all the Final Fantasy games BEFORE 7 were 2d, and they are still VERY sought after, and more importantly, very GOOD games...graphics do NOT make a game good...and considering this is the 3rd in the series of SAGA games...if u haven't played the previous 2, or know what they're like...you should ahve tried them before you bought this one...Unlimited makes great use of the "Saga" gameplay that was present in the last 2 games. Just for those of you who don't know...squaresoft didnt' get rick by making "graphics" games...RPGs are about storyline, and playability...get a clue

One of the worst games I've played...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Bought this game very cheap, as it is from a publisher I normally love and trust.
Hailed as being an "extreme" RPG, I thought a little challenge could be fun (just got done played a series of fun, but easy games.) Plus, it was cheap.
This RPG game is only "extreme" in how bad it is... The difficulty in this game comes from a completely random, roulette wheel battle style, and the fact that every challenge in the game require level 30+ skills to overcome, when you're at level 2. Seriously, you will encounter a barrel, a door, or a treasure chest and not be able to do anything, right at the beginning of the game. You later find out it takes a level 30 skill to break or open anything.
So, you walk around what is basically a board game playing field, moving a stationary character drawing one space at a time, while random pictures flash in the background. Occasionally you get in a random battle, which is where the roulette attack wheel comes in. All your skills are put on a fast spinning wheel, and what you land on is what you do.
Or, you encounter a trap. If this happens, you use the same wheel to try and avoid it, which it early levels, is something like a 1/19 odds.
The battles present another huge problem. You have your standard HP, and you have LP. LP is your life points, and if a character is attacked while in KO (after HP reaches 0, typically) you lose an LP, and when LP is gone, you're dead for real. You get shocking little LP... like 2 or 3 at most... which wouldn't be too much of a problem except tiny monsters in random battles do LP damage while you still have full HP! So, at full HP, a 2 hit kill monster can hit you for an unavoidable 2 LP... possibly killing a character. This makes HP completely useless...
I never found an item that could cure LP, either.
There are multiple characters you can play, with different storylines. A good feature, but the stories (played out through a very few still picture/word sequences) were bland and confused, and none of them sparked my interest enough to possibly warrent played through such an unfun wreck of a game.

Not even worth the incredibly cheap price and shipping. Stay away.
If you want an "extreme" or challenging RPG with great story, great gameplay try the Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne or Digital Devil Saga series.

Well, it's not for everyone...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

...and in fact, I don't think it is for anyone. For those of you who have played games from the Saga series (Saga Frontier, Saga Frontier 2, etc.), and DIDN'T enjoy the experience, well, you should stay far away from this! However, even those of you who did like those games will probably want to steer clear of this as well.

I understand those of you who want to like this game since you sunk fifty bucks into it. I don't blame you; I was right with you. However, I feel rather duped. You see, I purchased this game at a certain electronics store which shall remain nameless. I received about a hundred emails from Square/Enix hyping this game, and indeed, the art of the game box did not suggest static gameplay and water colors. Furthermore, the store would not allow me to look at the instruction book (which is a better indicator of what the game will be like). In the end, a game which was hyped like FF and made to look like FF turns out to play like a very difficult version of Monopoly. In all honesty, this game [stinks]. And the music? Well, if I wanted beautiful classical music, I could purchase Mozart at about a fifth of the price. Shame on you, Square!

But don't blame this on Enix. Yeah, Grandia X wasn't so good, but Grandia was OK, and Dragon Warrior is still spectacular.

Whats with the hating?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: June 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Why does everyone keeps hating this game, just because u don't walk around free? the game is good, graphic are excellent, not to mention the music, damn, that music, almost make me cry :').

anyway, let's get to the point, i believe people are playing unlimited saga because people wanna hate the game, at first i was confused, but then, i learned everything and OMG is damn of a good game, and the "reel" system, don't worry about it, it eventually gets fun. what I am saying here is that don't believe those people that are mocking a great game.

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