SaGa in Transit
Last year I brought you the reader the tale of buying Makai Toushi Sa・Ga for the Game Boy. This year I did not play that copy, but on my Anbernic SP with quick save and resume. I did play it as intended.
I only played it in transit. I played it on the train and bus. I briefly played it on a shinkansen before Neo Rude started asking too many questions leading towards, “Why don’t I get to play it?” I put away and went back to looking out the window.
Don’t worry Neo Rude is being introduced to video games. We also think as parents it is very important they know how to be bored.
In only playing SaGa in transit, in limina,l it captured the dream. SaGa was an RPG like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest or Momotarou Densetsu, but on the new Game Boy. The game itself has very snappy save anywhere that could hurt you if you aren’t paying attention. Or instead are noticing it is your stop and you need to get off the train now.
The Anbernic SP though, I can slap that thing shut, with a very satisfying sound, and run off the train knowing it has made a save and turned itself into sleep mode. I have to give hardware of year to my Anbernic.
Each time I turned on the game it was remembering a dream. It could have been minutes or days or weeks since I last played. I was refusing to use a guide. I was also playing in Japanese.
I need to find the underwater palace to reunite the twin sisters? I have to lead the motorcycle gang rebellion against the sky king? I should just wonder around and collect money to buy health upgrades?
The only thing you can count on in SaGa is your humans, who are your weakest party members, usually. Your monster(s) you feed meat from other monsters hoping they turn into a good-great monster. Usually they don’t. Or your finger slips after one random battle and now your good great monster is a different monster who can only lower the speed of enemies (which is pointless when everyone gets one turn if they don’t die) or physical attack for nothing. The two times this happened I powered through it because I believe this kind of failure makes SaGa.
Giving up and reading FAQs is equally unhelpful. The 3rd character type, ESPers, are not influenced by you but gain and lose stats completely randomly. They also gain and lose magic at random. The guides all suggest getting your ESPers to learn heal. I never had that bonus the whole game. My ESPer would also frequently be able to learn a skill that lowers enemies speed, or boosts their own defense by 4. I’d cling desperately whenever they decided to have an offensive attack all spell I could cast a mere 10 times. Despite this they were my strongest party member. Except when they had a headache and could not act at all for turns on end.
Play sessions would alternate between grinding for money to buy stat upgrades for the Humans, and enough money to keep buying new weapons. I could enter a dungeon filled with empty rooms and only find a boss at the end, that I promptly beat. Opening a single treasure chest and go “I guess I just leave?”
SaGa makes sense in the moment, but your actions and the world feel incomplete. There must have been more to each event. Eventually you’re dodging a flame Phoenix while navigating the post-apocalyptic ruins of Tokyo trying to find the lost city of Akihabara.
Imagine my surprise when I found out the Glass Sword does not kill the final boss in one hit.
NEXT: Level Design
Hinge Problems 
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