Saturday, May 08, 2010

The 7th Saga (part 1)

For my next game, I decided to pick something with a bit more depth. Something... More out of the RPG vein, something... What's that? Oh, we're doing it in alphabetical order and 7th Saga is next? Okay, nevermind with any of that.

7th Saga comes to us courtesy of developers Produce and publishers Enix. And when I say courtesy, I really mean rudely, because I like fun. And fun does not include errands, because errands are boring. And that's what's going on so far. But! I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with the story and premise -- What's that? Seven runes? That's it? Okay, so basically you just have to collect seven runes. Oh, I get it, 7th Saga, seven runes. Alright, so what's the main draw? Well, you pick one of seven different playable characters, all who do something slightly different than the other. Here's Wikipedia's take on them:
Characters in The 7th Saga run along a continuum from predominantly physical-oriented to predominantly magical-oriented. They are, in that order:
  • Wilme Pelin (Alien): An alien with a fiery, lava-like spiked body. Arrogant and aggressive, he seems to want the runes for power and to prove his superiority. He's strong and has the highest HP of the seven, but suffers from a fixed set of equipment, and a low Magic rating causes his Fire magic to be quite impotent.
  • Lux Tizer (Tetujin): A 5000-year old robot created by a long extinct civilization. Lux is polite, logical, and inquisitive. He searches for the runes in the hopes that their power may help him unlock the secrets of the Tetujin's origins. Lux is physically very powerful especially in defense, but has a poor selection of (Laser and Thunder) magic spells and equipment, although he is the only one that can use those spells. Along with Esuna, Lux can never be the "traitor" apprentice.
  • Olvan Jaess (Dwarf): An extremely old Dwarf warrior, with a pleasant personality. He joins the search for the runes in the hopes that they can restore his youth. Statistically, he is similar to Kamil, but with more HP and Defense, and less MP and speed, and a few differences in equipment/spell selection.
  • Kamil Dowonna (Human): A human knight. The most average, well-rounded character, Kamil has access to a large selection of equipment and can cast both offensive and defensive magic. He wears blue armor and the instruction booklet says that he is best paired with a stronger ally.
  • Lejes Rimul (Demon): A power-hungry demon. Sly, manipulative, and unapologetically evil, Lejes wants the power of the runes in order to rule the world. Lejes equips very strong weapons and eventually learns every single attack spell (except the Lux-exclusive Laser and Thunder spells), but his selection of armors is quite poor, and his attack spells hit with less force than Esuna. Lejes never learns any healing magic.
  • Valsu Saizer (Human): An elderly priest who has dedicated his life to the cause of good, Valsu wishes to use the runes to bring peace and prosperity to the world. He has excellent healing magic and one powerful Ice spell, but lacks skill in physical combat.
  • Esuna Busy (Elf): An elf magic user and the game's only female protagonist, Esuna seems to regard the search for the runes as some sort of fun adventure. She begins the game cocky and headstrong, but becomes more uncertain and less confident as the story progresses. She has extremely high Speed and Magic potency, and can use both kinds of magic, but her attack spells are exclusively Ice-elemental and she is physically very weak. Like Lux, Esuna never turns out to be the "traitor" apprentice.
I'm never one to pick characters based on how funny I think they look, else I'd probably go for the alien, as he has buck teeth and bunny ears. No, no, I play based on practicality no matter what, so I went with the f*cking robot. It made me sad as well that I couldn't fit Dingbang as the name, especially as this was the first game in which I could pick one. So, I present! DINGB, master robot and champion of Wintendo. He fells enemies in... five or six strikes, and rarely does anything but speak in capital letters. (As the rest of the Tetujin do.) I like to pretend that the reason people are so short and coy with me is because I'm a tall, thick robot constantly yelling "HEY, HOW'S IT GOING?!" in their general direction. But that isn't the best part yet. He starts out with high HP, and takes one damage for virtually the first fourth of the game. One damage! Har, har, har. Plus, with not needing to buy weapons or armor (which he can't use) I am practically not hurting for monies. Healing pots and power-ups for me, galore.

Alright, so, the king dude tells you you need to go get seven runes -- Oshit, there's seven characters too. Clever, clever. Anyway, you have to collect seven runes because they got scattered when some old guy killed a demon and decided to hide them. Cool, I can sort of dig. But first things first.
Alright! Next time's post will include much more, such as my first few forays, battles, these two blokes:

and copyright infringment! Stay tuned and remember, friends are like potatoes: if you eat them, they die.

3 comments:

nighthawk said...

Is it wrong that this game actually looks half-way appealing to me?

Unknown said...

Me too. I still have znes, I mean my old Super Nintendo collection. I never heard of this.

ephie said...

It's not at all. Despite my riffing I'm actually enjoying myself, as you say, half-way. :D

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