COLLECTION of SaGa FINAL FANTASY LEGEND Reviews

OK, I'll be honest; this review is heavily biased by my own nostalgia, since Final Fantasy Legend (aka SaGa) was the first video game I ever owned, along with Mario Land and Tetris on the good ol' gameboy. I was barely old enough to even read and understand what was going on in the game, but just the idea of going on an adventure had me exploring for hours, traveling to every nook and cranny of the overworld, buying all the items, talking to everyone, etc. By the time I actually figured out how to fight Gen-Bu, I was sure I was at the end of the game, only to realize that this was just the first level! In retrospect, the first game does have it's issues, most obvious being how incredibly grindy it is. However, the sequel still holds up, and is even better than most full-fledged RPGs on the NES. FF Legend 3 was made by a different team and is much more streamlined, which could either be a good thing or not depending on how you feel about the first 2 games. If you didn't play these games back when they were new, you may not be as enthusiastic about getting three old game boy games at this price, but I'm just happy they are available on steam. The emulation isn't quite perfect, however; there is some screen tearing that can be mostly mitigated by enabling v-sync and playing with the screen options a bit. Lastly, a note about the "censorship." From what I understand, this mostly has to do with naughty words in the Japanese version of the game; the English censorship is mostly changing the names of certain items and enemies to avoid lawsuits from said companies, and other things (like switching opium for bananas) were always there. A lot of gamergate types seem to be mad at this for no reason, especially considering the version they grew up with was likely censored to begin with, and honestly the plots to these games are so lightweight that it hardly matters. If you do buy these games, you are likely doing so because of nostalgia and convenience, in which case you are getting what you paid for. For everyone else, you may enjoy sinking a few hours into the second game if you like old archaic JRPGs.

Sure id recommend it if youre trying to beat every Final Fantasy game. Did I have fun? It was alright. I beat Final Fantasy II previous to this and enjoyed it alot more. Onto the second game. Reminds me of the Phantasy Star Online games for gameboy which I beat two decades ago or so. That turned into something great on Gamecube. I am rambling. My god I am getting old :(

[h1][b]Collection of SaGa: Final Fantasy Legend[/b][/h1] [b]Developer[/b]: Square Enix, Racjin [b]Publisher[/b]: Square Enix https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3412084246 [b]Introduction[/b] ========== When I was a kid with my original Game Boy, one of the few games I managed to get ahold of was Final Fantasy Legend II. At that age, I was just BARELY getting into and learning how RPGs worked, but this title threw me for a loop with the systems in place. Experience Points? Nope! Those don't exist here! Your stats went up seemingly randomly after each battle, which more or less encouraged grinding. But as a kid, that wasn't fun. I don't know how, but I managed to get to and defeat the final boss. Maybe it was stubbornness, maybe it was luck in each and every battle, but I did it. That game taught me that some RPGs could be different, but still enjoyable. At least...back then. Nowadays, this set of games in particular are not all that fun to play, except for MAYBE Legend III. [b]Gameplay[/b] ========== As I touched on above, gone is the EXP system, and in it's place it a somewhat random leveling system. The more you used certain things, the better you got at using them. Take a lot of damage? Defense and HP goes up. At least for some characters - some level up differently, like via items or eating monster meat). Generally you start with a set of characters and keep them the entire game, and their growth is entirely dependent on you and your choices. But like I said, grinding is very encouraged, and I think that's how I managed to get through Legend II as a kid under 10 back in the 90's. I went on to play and master other RPGs, but this set of games were always a little special to me due to what they taught me and exposed me to --- different approaches to game mechanics in my favorite genre. [b]Graphics[/b] ========== If you've ever played old retro 8-bit titles, you know what to expect. Very little animation, limited color, and lots of sprite-based designs. Wasn't bad for the time, but by today's standards it's aged very poorly. You can setup a frame around your screen and choose the size, aspect ration, and more, but aside from that there aren't too many things to write home about. [b]Sound and Music[/b] ========== As someone who grew up in the era these games came from, I'm used to the blips and beeps commonly used then, but for gamers today who did not grow up in that era...I don't know. It will depend on your individual preferences. It might be annoying or grating to some. The music isn't bad for what they had to work with, and the sound effects are OK. Nothing really stands out though, but that's okay. I hope you end up liking the battle themes, as you'll be hearing them a LOT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8MJGYCysdY The boss theme of Legend II is my favorite, as it gives that building dread feel of impending defeat as you struggle against a boss. It's a short loop, but memorable...at least to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNi2G0oXTiE [b]Performance[/b] ========== I didn't have any issues running this game, and I don't expect anyone to run into any either. I suspect the entire package is just an emulator with the games packed in, and you could run a Game Boy emulator on hardware from the late 90's very easily. I didn't experience any crashes, screen-tearing, framedrops, or have any issues setting up and using my PC controller (Logitech F310, yes the submarine controller!). [b]Final Thoughts[/b] ========== I only played this long enough to 100% it and nab all the achievements, as I had this long-term goal of 100%ing all the Final Fantasy games available on Steam back in 2024. I included this one in the bunch even though it's technically a SaGa title, which is a completely different franchise. It was fun to relive some older memories from my childhood with Legend II, and experience the other two titles I didn't get a chance to play back then. Legend III is by far the best of the bunch, and if you pick this up I highly recommend you focus your time on that one. The other two are very rough and not particularly fun in comparison. [b]Final Verdict:[/b] ========== [h1]Only recommended for fans, or on a DEEP sale.[/h1]