The 7th Saga
“The 7th Saga”, released by Enix for the SNES is one of my all time favorite games! Every time I run into someone else who’s played it, they get this wistful look in their eye, fondness tinged with madness at the game’s occasional (read: near-constant) difficulty and level grinding. Unless, of course, they loathe it for the exact same reasons. This can be one of those ‘Love it or Hate it’ kind of games.
At it’s base, it is a fairly traditional turn-based RPG where you start your journey as one of the 7 apprentices of King Lemele, sent out into the world to recover the 7 Runes of Power. Whosoever completes this quest shall succeed Lemele and become King (or Queen). This all sounds pretty stock, but there is some pretty heavy-duty twisting towards the end. Each character travels along the same basic path (with one or two exceptions), but will interact with the other apprentices throughout the game. Some compete with you to gather the Runes first, some want to team up with you (with a bit of care, you can form a party with any 2 of the apprentices, despite what the manual says!), and some just be general punks and try to fight you and take your Runes. Their attitudes change throughout the game and you should always save before talking to any of the other apprentices. When you have to fight other apprentices, these can be some of the most challenging fights in the game, especially later on, because while they level up with you, they also gain stats faster than you! At very high levels, some apprentices can be nearly (or literally) unbeatable, but you shouldn’t have to deal with them anymore that late in the game.
The 7 apprentices you can start as, team up with, or confront all have different strengths and weaknesses:
Kamil: A Human warrior that tries to be a jack of all trades. A competent fighter with average stats that can equip most gear and use some healing and fire magics fairly well.
Olvan: A Dwarven warrior similar to Kamil, but is a little slower, a little better in combat, and a little less competent with magic.
Valsu: A Human Cleric, he is very fast and has access to all of the best healing and support magics. He can deal a little bit of physical damage, and his only attack spell is a basic Ice spell, but it somehow works fairly well for him.
Lejes: A Demon War Mage, he has all of the strongest Fire and Ice attack magics and can also deal respectable physical damage, as well as weakening opponents. His stats are fairly similar to Kamil’s, but he has pretty light defenses, making him something of a glass cannon.
Esuna: An Elven Wizardess, she is the only female of the bunch. She is very fast and has a good spread of magic. Her healing is second only to Valsu, and while having fewer attacks spells than Lejes (focusing only on Ice), she is generally better with them because of her better magic stats.
Wilme: An Alien Fighter, he doesn’t use (hardly) any equipment, but is incredibly strong and fast, making him a powerhouse with his physical attacks. He has very weak magic however.
Lux: A Robot Warrior (a “Tetujin”), he is similar to Wilme, but is slower, can use some equipment way later on, and has better magic including unique Laser and Thunder spells no one else can use.
Through most of the game, you can go it alone, and you’ll level faster for it, but it can be rough going at times. Eventually, at a certain point, you’ll REALLY want to team up, but I’d rather not spoil the surprise! Just be sure to keep a backup save before anything that looks like it might be the end of the game!
Magic is a little unbalanced in this game in 3 ways: 1.) Higher level spells don’t do a great deal more damage than lower level versions (Ice 2 is only marginally better than Ice, for example), 2.) the Magic stat gets capped at 255 eventually (but only at VERY high levels), so magic stops getting more powerful while physical power keeps going up, and 3.) most monsters do not have different elemental strengths or weaknesses, so usually Ice = Fire = Lightning, unless an enemy is just resistant to magic period. All that said though, magic is great because you can attack multiple foes at once, and it is still quite powerful, even when capped. Healing magic is a real life-saver, especially after you can’t “freeload” anymore (nod nod, wink wink, say no more) and the buff/debuff spells are great! Nothing says howdy like: Lux: ‘DEFEND’, Valsu: ‘SPELL->POWER’, Lux: ‘PWN’! (Note: A technique that you’ll use often is to use ‘DEFEND’ with a character, then ‘ATTACK’ on their following turn. This will increase your damage while protecting you half of the time. Particularly useful against enemies with strong defenses.)
Battles consist of your 1-2 characters facing off against 1-3 enemies at a time. What’s unique about the battle system is that when you enter battle, you spin down to a 3rd person, Mode 7 battlefield, something I’m not sure any other SNES RPG ever did! For the time, it was rather cool and unusual! The battles can get pretty hard at times though. At first, things seem to go alright, but if you go to new places a little too early, enemies can really pummel you, so you need to be careful when exploring newer regions. You also need to save up money for the best gear you can buy in an area (unless you’re playing as Wilme or Lux), so there’s a little bit of grinding as you go along throughout the entire game. In the Japanese version, characters gained stats faster (hence why rival apprentices get stronger than you, they missed that part during porting!), making things go a little smoother. There are ROM hacks out there to restore this, but to a lot of people who’ve played (and liked) the US version, including me, the difficulty is part of the charm. I’ve never played it, but I hear the Japanese version is almost TOO easy.
As you travel through the world in your quest for the Runes, you run into various towns and kingdoms that have different issues you can help them out with, most of them actually directly related to finding the Runes. You even run into a lost civilization that becomes more than it appears. You overthrow usurpers and monsters (and the occasional rival apprentice) to gather the Runes and generally help folks out. At one point, depending on which apprentice you choose in the beginning, some of the paths diverge when you need to visit a new continent. Most apprentices follow one path, but a couple end up going somewhere completely different, and yet a third character can choose a unique path that only he can access. They all eventually re-converge, but where you go can have pretty special challenges. Many of the bosses along the way can be real treats, too! And by treats, I mean “WTF?!”
All in all, a very unique and challenging game for people who wish Dragon Warrior was much more complex, difficult, and better looking! Sign me up! If you like your first playthrough, this game has quite good re-playability since the characters are so different, many different teams will provide a new set of challenges and strategies.
MUDs
In 1994 a friend of mine introduced me to a game that blew my mind. It was called Realms of Imaginations. It was a MUD, also known as a Multi-User Dimension. It was a text based role playing game that was enjoyed by people all over the world. You could actually interact with people across the world. What I didn’t know was this wasn’t the only one out there. There were 100s of these such games. There were science fiction ones, fantasy ones, some were even based on books.
MUDs are usually lumped into 2 kinds. Roleplaying and hack & slash. Hack and slash are my favorites. On roleplaying MUDs, it’s not easy to just sit down and socialize with the real people playing on the other end. I guess that’s why I prefer hack & slash ones. I can get to know my friends that also playing instead of get to know their character.
In 1997 Realms of Imaginations went offline and I had nowhere to play. It eventually went back online as Alternate Illusions, but by then I found a new one I was hooked on. The new game went by the name of Age Of War. The game was in the beta stage then. It was still being worked on.
I have played the game for the better part of a decade. I have been playing since 1997, but there were times I wasn’t active for a few years here and there. 6 years ago in 2004, I became a staff member on the game. I was tasked by the people that were in charge of the game at the time to revamp the website.
Below is the log in screen for Age Of War
_ ___ ____ -------
/ \ | __| | ___| \/\/\//
| | || | __ -----
| _ | || __ | __| | /| Based on
|| || ||_|| | ___ | / | CircleMUD 3.0
|| || |___| |____| |/ | by Jeremy Elson
_ ___ | /|
| | | __| | / | CircleMUD based
| | | _| |/ | DikuMUD (GAMMA 0.0)
|_| | | | /| By Hans Henrik
__ __ _ ___ | / | Staerfeldt, Katja
\ \ / / / \ | \ |/ | Nyboe, Tom Madsen,
| | | | | | | | | /| Michael Seifert,
| - | | _ | | / | / | and Sebastian
\ / || || ||\\ |/ | Hammer
- \/-\/ || || || \\ | /|
// | / | Implementors are:
|/\/\/||ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ> ----- VonHenlen
\\ /\/\/\\
- -------
Mud Email: ageofwarmud@hotmail.com
By what name do you wish to be known?
As you can see, the screenshot above has no real graphics. The game itself is all text. It has no pictures save for a few examples of ASCII pictures. It has no sound. Pretty much playing the game is like reading a book. You need to use your imagination. I guess that’s what drew me and 1000s of other people in since 1980 when the first MUD had it’s debut. It’s kind of like a constantly evolving book.
You connect to the game using the Telnet protocol or by using a specialized Mud Client. The game is played by issuing commands. Commands like:
- Kill Guard
- This command initiates combat between you and the guard
- Look
- This command lets you look at your surroundings
- Rest
- This makes your character sit down and rest
- Say Hi!
- This would make your character say ‘Hi!’ to anyone in the room.
Let me show you an example of a room: (NOTE: Moignus is one of my characters names.)
Plaza Center Here at the center of the heart of Torath-Lok is a paved plaza, built to be the width and breadth of three normal roadways. Smooth flat stones, laid well side by side, are underfoot. A large covered stone well sits in the center of the plaza, the city's main source of drinking water. The impressive residence of Baron Fynglas lies northeast. A short path at the southern edge of the plaza connects to a large courtyard. Magister Street heads off north between the gated gardens of the residence and a guardhouse at the bridge. A chapel sits just south of the bridge entrance to the southwest, and the city's main bank is southeast. Fynglas Way winds through town east and west, connecting Torath-Lok's three sections. Beside the well a large wooden roadsign catches your attention. It seems to have been erected recently. [ Exits: n e s w u ] A wide circular well made of stone, filled with fresh water, is the focal point of the Plaza. A small stone tablet is sitting here. ..It has a soft glowing aura! Moignus is standing here.
Combat can be intense with the battle going in realtime. You can quaff potions, kick, bash, cast spells, etc. during battle. Some character classes get more than 1 attack per round of battle. Let me show you a typical battle:
You ERADICATE an honor guard of Torath-Lok with your deadly pierce!! 894H 255M 466V 3366854X Mob: small wounds > What a stroke of luck, an honor guard of Torath-Lok seems to have missed you with her thrash! You ERADICATE an honor guard of Torath-Lok with your deadly pierce!! You ERADICATE an honor guard of Torath-Lok with your deadly pierce!! You ERADICATE an honor guard of Torath-Lok with your deadly pierce!! 894H 255M 466V 3366854X Mob: big nasty wounds > An honor guard of Torath-Lok MASSACRES you with her deadly thrash!! You ERADICATE an honor guard of Torath-Lok with your deadly pierce!! You ERADICATE an honor guard of Torath-Lok with your deadly pierce!! An honor guard of Torath-Lok is incapacitated and will slowly die, if not aided. You successfully pierce an honor guard of Torath-Lok and her dead body falls to the ground in a lifeless heap. An honor guard of Torath-Lok is dead! R.I.P. You receive your share of experience -- 3025 points. Your blood freezes as you hear an honor guard of Torath-Lok's death cry. You get a big pile of gold coins from the corpse of an honor guard of Torath-Lok. There were 3750 coins. You split 3750 coins among 3 members -- 1250 coins each.
This all may look like it would take a bit of getting used to. You know what? It does. But, once people are used to it, most people don’t see words flying by, they see pictures. You know how you see the world unfolding in front of you when you are reading a book? Mudding is like that. In the real world, when you are in a room you are familiar with, you don’t need to look at it in detail, you just know how it looks. Again, mudding is like that. The worlds don’t change, but people and circumstances do.
To loosely paraphrase a line from The Big Bang Theory, text games like MUDs use the worlds more powerful graphics card, your imagination. MUDs are not for everyone, but everyone can play them. Why not try one? You can find more information at the Mud Connector.
Crystalis
Crystalis is an RPG from SNK for the Nintendo entertainment system. While Crystalis was never as big as Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy or The Legend of Zelda, this game seems to draw inspiration from them all to become it’s own style of RPG. Crystalis at first glance seems like the standard walk about and kill things adventure game, yet the mechanics are much deeper than that. While levels are important in this game it is capped at 16, so this game doesn’t simply focus on levels alone it focuses more on the story behind the game and setting you within the character. Armor really does little to nothing as compared to other RPGs, they do offer special protection and you can hold up to 4 shields and armor at any given time but switching between them is a bit clunky so I personally prefer to just pick one and stick with it.
Now, weapons are the bulk of the story and you can not simply purchase weapons, you must obtain them along the story. Each weapon is one of four elements; Wind, Fire, Water or Thunder. Each sword has a special strike (executed by holding the attack button) which can be further powered up with a ball or bracelet of the same element equipped along with the sword, although shortly after obtaining the elemental ball you will obtain the bracelet of that element which allows you to power up your sword’s attack even further, the top attack requires a bit of MP. Spells are quite useful but in Crystalis’ own unique way, you obtain spells such as; Refresh to keep yourself healed, Recover to undo poison and other ailments, Teleport to skip from town to town in an instant and Change which will change your appearance to keep you from being recognized, among others but you can only use one spell at a time.
The lands are filled with creatures to kill and while they aren’t exactly difficult sometimes they do somehow slip past your sword and deal damage. Once you have killed a foe they will disappear and leave bouncing money much like River City Ransom, also giving you some experience. The maps can at times look similar with different color schemes but that doesn’t distract much from the game. Within the lands there are plenty of cities and within each city much like other RPGs are shops but again in it’s own unique fashion. Shops only carry up to 4 items, these items are useful but sometimes quite costly. Since for some reason they didn’t implement a sell feature into each shop, there is a pawn store where you can simply sell off your unwanted wares and obtain a little cash for items you do need.
Throughout the game your main goal is to obtain the 4 swords and defeat Emperor Draygon and his Draygonia Empire to stop him from destroying the world. Each sword is more powerful than the last but sometimes you need to switch swords often to kill certain foes or bosses weak against the corresponding element. After you have found all 4 swords they all merge into CRYSTALIS both the name of the game and the most powerful weapon within the game. Much like other RPGs you now take your freshly minted weapon of Boss doom and go kill the boss! Crystalis has some flaws which can be annoying at times, mainly the talk system is upon touch meaning if you walk into someone their dialog pops up. Accidentally walk into someone who won’t get out of your way and you can imagine the mess that causes! Again the levels are capped at 16, it would be nice to have given us 99 but the leveling is hard enough for those 16! With each level you obtain the necessary amount of experience but once you reach the new level you lose all that experience and must obtain even more requiring countless hours of grinding.
Nintendo obtained the rights to Crystalis and made some changes to both the story and gameplay and released it for the Gameboy Color in 2000. Although I haven’t played the Gameboy Color version I have heard the changes are pretty useful but the graphics are quite lacking. Crystalis is a standout RPG with plenty of elements that are still unique to this game, albeit a bit strayed from the path of traditional RPG this game still has enough strength and heart to make it one of my all time favorite RPGs.
Lufia & the Fortress of Doom
Lufia is a traditional menu-based RPG with some puzzle elements. While most games start at the beginning of the series, the Fortress of Doom starts 100 years after the second game in the series. It’s kind of confusing, the second game in the series is a prequel to this one.
It starts with a group of warriors led by a dude with the stupid name of Maxim. The other members of your party are Selan, Artea (both decent names) and Guy (did they run out of ideas?). Pretty much the game starts right before the end boss battles from the second game. After defeating the Sinistrals (another stupid name) the real game begins (well, 99 years later).
The story is about the Sinistrals rising and the player has to stop them. Simple enough.
Yes, but not only yours.
I may not think much about the character names, but this game was one of my favorite SNES RPGs. I liked it because it was one of the first RPGs I played that had a story that drew me in. Another thing I liked were the puzzles. Most RPGs, you just go from point A to point B and kill things. The dungeons in Lufia are full of puzzles like those in the Zelda series. Some rooms may not let you pass until you answer a riddle or find the hidden door. Other rooms you may need to arrange things in a particular order for the door to the next room to unlock.
I know I said this is a traditional menu-based RPG, but that’s not very accurate. In battle, they have a cross with the battle commands. Center is attack, up is magic, left is items, etc.
Some Screenshots
Old vs New – Dragon Quest 4
Fans of the Dragon Quest series (also known as Dragon Warrior in the United States) might have noticed that the fourth installment has been reissued for the Nintendo DS. Now, before I begin telling you the differences between the two games, I want to tell you what both games have. The story is generic. It’s a story about a rising evil that the chosen one has to defeat. Other games you start the game as the chosen one then you gain friends to help you on your way. This game breaks that mold. The game is broken down in to chapters. Each chapter features a new set of characters that start to learn about this rising evil and decide to seek out the chosen one to help him/her. Only in the last chapter do you get to play as the character you named at the beginning of the game. Each chapter is like a smaller game in itself. The first chapter features a knight that has to find missing children. The second one features a princess that wants to prove to everyone that she is strong. I’ll stop there, I don’t want to give the whole story away.
One of the most obvious changes is the addition of a prologue at the beginning of the DS version. The NES version just starts on Chapter 1. The prologue actually introduces you to your character at the beginning of the game instead of somewhere in the middle.
Another change is the renaming of the characters.
- Ragnar gets a last name and becomes Ragnar McRyan
- Princess Alena gets renamed to Tsarevna Alena
- Brey becomes Borya
- Cristo becomes Kiryl
- Taloon gets a first name and becomes Torneko Taloon
- Mara and Nara become Maya and Meena
It seems that different areas of the game have different accents. It’s another of the obvious changes. It’s also the most annoying change because it can sometimes take you out of the game by causing you to think to figure out what they are saying. Most of the times this isn’t the case, but there are some NPCs that seem to have thicker accents than the others.
Overall, I think the game is worth a play if you enjoy RPG games. This one is one of the first console RPGs that try something new. If at the very least. Play it for the knight with pink armor.
Some Screenshots
