Ah yes, the year is 1993. I was going on all of four-years-old, the Packers were relevant again and the Badgers were.. somehow going to a Rose Bowl. Yes all that was going on as The 7th Saga was released for the Super Nintendo. Much like the Packers road back to relevance and the Badgers surprising literally everyone to the Rose Bowl, this game is... well difficult isn't a good enough word. To say this game is difficult is putting it very, very loosely. How does it rank though? Well let's unveil that as we go through everything below.
Positives:
1. Non-Linear Plot: Typically this is a negative because the developers don't know what they are doing with the plot. However, there are some games that bust this method. For instance, Super Metroid, Super Mario RPG, and Chrono Trigger (to some extent) all do well with this. The 7th Saga also does well with a non-linear plot. The game is about exploration and finding seven runes, but you don't really know until very late into the game why you need the runes and what the purpose of them are.
2. Different characters: You have the choice of seven characters as well, with all different skill sets, weaponry and armor and magic ability. You can only team up with one character later on in the game and you have the ability to switch party members through different sequences of the game. It's pretty neat how you can use these characters to your own ability to get the most you can out of your own starting character.
3. Music: Yep, this game rocked at music. Noted is that Squaresoft didn't make this game. That would belong to Enix. Yes, the same company that early in the 2000's merged with Squaresoft produced games as well as a separate entity. They did very well with the recording of music and deserve a lot of praise.
4. Graphics: Enix also gets credit for the graphics which pushed the SNES a lot but they did very well with the graphics and the different abilities of them in the world, dungeons and in battle. This does well overall for a game that is this challenging.
Negatives:
1. Difficulty: I hate getting on the difficulty too much but holy cow is this game a grindfest. You will want to spend multiple times in the day going on a break from this game. Note: You will die, and die, and yes die again in this game. It is what it is, as the game is really, really difficult. If you find yourself grinding like crazy and getting fed up with this, that's the norm for this game. You just have to have the perseverance to overcome it.
2. That ending. Really?: Yep, that's correct. The ending.. le ouch. It's not that the ending boss is difficult, once you know what you are doing, it's literally the ending itself. It gives you a feeling of you did everything.. for that?
3. What was Enix's purpose for this game?: This one I found myself asking a lot. What was the actual purpose for this game? Was it to provide the public with a cult following, which it did? Was it to provide gamers with a challenge, which it also did? Was it to provide the necessary tools to completely tick off gamers who died more than four times, which obviously it did? I can see why the following to this day. The difficulty as well, as well as the challenge but I wonder what the opening cause of the game and why the purpose for the game existed.
Rating and ranking: IN conclusion, I feel that The 7th Saga is a quite well made game, but has a lot of flaws. Notably the difficulty is a flaw, but also, the random battles are a flaw as well in terms of amount generated. This game is an absolute grindfest and if you want a difficult battle to play, this is your game. It takes a LONG time to complete this game. But if you have enough patience, you will win and and will do well. My rating is 7.5 out of 10 for this game. My ranking all-time is conflicting. There were times I thought this could be a top 100 game. There are times I would only put it in the Top 200. Overall, I would rank it like 105th. I'll drop in a good YouTube sensation, SNESDrunk, who did a couple of videos on this game, and how it deserves a second chance. I think that's why I put it so near the top 100. You will need to grind this game out but it is a good overall game. But if you give up right away, I would give the game a second chance, grind some levels, and you'll be more successful.
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