SaGa Frontier 2: A Convoluted, Beautiful RPG

SaGa Frontier 2 perhaps most accurately recaptures my feelings when I first started playing JRPGs, some 13 years ago. Prior to Final Fantasy VII (my first foray into JRPGs), I had been mostly exposed to 2D action titles on the Sega Genesis. FFVII, in contrast, felt decidedly complex: rather than feeling immediately in control of a largely static pool of abilities, I was given control of several different, dynamic characters, and was relatively free to equip them as I wished.

The sheer amount of comparative choice in being able to customize a party of characters, as well as the growing cast, equipment and spells to customize my experiences with all amounted to a learning curve steep enough to entice me into playing more JRPGs. It is this doe-eyed optimism which I again feel playing SaGa Frontier 2.

JRPGs as people and places you want to be

SaGa Frontier 2 is unusual in its approach to gameplay design and storytelling: much of the game itself is composed of discrete chapters, which can be chosen by the player from a list of several ongoing arcs. Each of these arcs represents a period in time during the life of one of two playable protagonists. A central tenant of the game’s design is thus freedom, which appeals greatly to someone like myself who seeks out RPGs in order to become lost in a lively world populated by places and people I wish to learn more about.

It is in this way that SaGa Frontier 2 manages to re-invoke what I first felt when playing FFVII 13 years ago. This is to say that my curiosity has been piqued by the scope of the game’s content, and I am interested to see how the game will unfold itself to me.

JRPGs as interactive novels overlaid with convoluted gameplay mechanics

SaGa Frontier 2 is also by and large one of the more complicated RPGs I’ve played in a long time. The player must keep track of both protagonists’ parties, which are constantly changing due to the shifting time periods that the game’s story covers. Additionally, current objectives are vaguely defined at best; characters don’t level through experience, but rather through player-assigned roles; moves are learned seemingly arbitrarily when using appropriate weapon types; health during combat appears to only refill when using a metric known as life points, but when dropped to 0, makes that character unusable until they rest at an inn; etc.

The game itself feels entirely too complicated for its own good. This sentiment is very likely how I felt when I first started playing FFVII. I recall feeling overwhelmed by the game’s mechanics, and stupefied by how ineffective I was at translating my efforts at levelling and building characters into a capable party. The only working analog I can think of is reading a book which you feel is slightly too complex for you (either with respects to wording, syntax, or content).

The result is a surprising disconnect between the player and the world s/he wishes to explore.

Final Thoughts

I will continue to persist with SaGa Frontier 2, if only because of how lovely it has been to re-visit memories linked to a time when I was terrible at (J) RPGs. Taking this idea a step further, I am curious to hear what others think about convoluted RPGs: do you go out of your way to find them in order to hone your abilities as a gamer; or you do you shy away from them, because their often daunting learning curves are off-putting and, perhaps, contrary to why you play games to begin with?