SaGa Frontier
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SaGa Frontier is the seventh installment in Akitoshi Kawazu's SaGa series, and the first entry to not be developed for Nintendo-produced hardware. Marking a return to the blending of science fiction and fantasy seen in the original Gameboy trilogy over the pure high fantasy seen in the Romancing sub series for the Super Nintendo, SaGa Frontier details the lives of seven unlikely heroes as they explore the solar system known as The Regions in order to overcome their personal hardships and discover the wicked secrets of a long-dead civilization.
Blurb
Back of box
A RICH AND DEEPLY TEXTURE RPG OF EPIC PROPORTIONS
Enter a vast frontier where seven quests are taken one hero at a time. A wizard's dark destiny, a woman's revenge, even a robot's search for a soul. Seven amazing adventures weave into one - yours.
- 140 hours of gameplay
- 30 regions of time and space to explore
- Deep battle and magic system
- Features the Free Scenario System for highly open-ended gaming
- Only on Playstation
A separate and unique adventure awaits for each hero: how many can you survive?
Story
Contrary to the previous six games in the series, SaGa Frontier does not have an overarching narrative and villain tying the protagonists together. The underlying danger of the ancient civilizations' relics being used for evil is featured as the impetus of the story in several scenarios, but each hero has his or her own distinct tale, with other characters appearing as recruitable allies or helpful NPCs.
Cast
Main characters
- Asellus: a seventeen year old human girl who was forcibly given a transfusion of blood from the vampire-like Mystic race after a near-fatal accident, becoming the first Half-Mystic. Having recently awoken from the twelve year coma after her accident, the human world she once knew has moved on without her and she is forced to adapt to the cruel Mystic planet Facinaturu.
- Blue: a caustic, hateful magician hailing from the unnamed Magical Kingdom. Sent out into The Regions by the authorities of the magician academy to learn a variety of magical principals to kill his twin brother Rouge.
- Emelia: a former supermodel preparing for her wedding, Emelia's life is thrown into chaos when she discovers the body of her fiance in their home and is sentenced to a life-long sentence of imprisonment without due process. Escaping from the prison planet along two agents of Gradius Annie and Liz, Emelia is forced to join the underground espionage agency to discover the truth of her lover's murder.
- Lute: a layabout teenager from a backwater planet, Lute leaves home to discover what the solar system has to offer him on a journey of self-discovery. With only his namesake instrument on his back and not a care in the world, the lad is oblivious to the legacy of danger and intrigue his late father left him.
- Red: the son of a famous scientist targeted for assassination by the terrorist organization BlackX, Red is saved from certain death by the superhero Alkarl. Wanting revenge for his father's murder, Red is transformed into the superhero Alkaiser and swears to destroy the BlackX organization.
- Rikki: a member of the shapeshifting Lummox species, Rikki is a young boy tasked with finding a set of magical rings in the hopes that they will be able to revive his tribe's dying planet. All alone and woefully naive to the world around him, he is joined by the human woman Mei-Ling. Rikki can learn the moves of enemy monsters by copying their biorhythm after battle, transforming into new monsters through a complex system hidden from the player.
- T-260G: the damaged central core unit of a space battleship recently excavated and restored as a robot. Her memory is damaged but the sense of urgency for her mission was not lost, and she travels The Regions in the hopes to uncover the mystery of her purpose. T-260G plays like the robot race of SaGa 2, increasing in power as she dons new equipment.
Side characters
- Annie: a member of the Gradius vigilante group, automatically recruited in Emilia, Red, & Riki's scenarios. She takes dangerous missions because the pay is much higher, and anonymously supports her younger brother and sister.
- Captain Hamilton: a middle aged woman who is in charge of the Victoria, powerful vessel used by the region Nelson to combat the dangerous Trinity group. She is a the secondary protagonist in Lute's story, informing him of his late father's history and accompanying him in battle against Trinity's forces. She enjoys overeating, and favors the restaurant in Owmi because their organic ingredients allow her to eat more in a sitting.
- Cotton: a monster that has become an IRPO agent. He is found in the depths of the bio research lab on Shrike, being experimented upon by the insane scientists. Killing the lunatics will free him, and he will join any main character.
- Doctor Nusakan: a Mystic who runs a clinic in the slums of Koorong. He only practices medicine due to his eccentric fascination with diseases, and doesn't particularly care for the wellbeing of his "patients". He can be recruited in Asellus', Blue's, & Riki's scenarios.
- Doll: a female IRPO agent who will assist Red in his war against BlackX. Due to a programming oversight, she can use Mystic spells despite being a normal human.
- Fei-On: a dedicated martial artist who has been trapped inside the colossal space monster Tanzer after his ship was swallowed hole. He is Mei-Ling's on and off boyfriend, and will join Riki automatically during his scenario.
- Fuse: the hot-headed IRPO agent known for taking dangerous cases. His name is short for "crazy fuse", and he is directly responsible for the chaos befalling Emelia in her scenario. He was promoted to a main character in the HD remaster, with seven short scenarios where he participates directly in the lives of the main cast.
- Gen: the lone survivor of the country of Wataku, which was destroyed by the Trinity organization some years before the game's events. He has become an alcoholic, but his skill with swords is unparalleled by anyone. He joins T-260G during her scenario as the secondary protagonist, and insists on accompanying her if the player recruits the mech during Riki's story.
- Ildon: a Mystic who serves under Orlouge and is tasked with instructing Asellus in fencing, magic, and Mystic decorum upon her awakening. He will automatically join her during her scenario.
- Kylin: an equine monster that has mastered space manipulation magic. He takes pity on the abused and neglected children of the various regions, and created a candy land-esque paradise for them in his own dimension. The player must have completed the rune or arcane magic sidequests and then speak to Princess Rei on Devin to reach him.
- Mei-Ling: a talented sorceress with a strong interest in the fabled rings of legend. She is the secondary protagonist of Riki's plot, and asserts herself as the boy's older sister figure after seeing how his naive, trusting nature will get him in trouble.
- Liza: a member of Gradius who automatically joins Emelia in her scenario, as well as any group that already has Annie. She harbored an unrequited crush on Roufas for some time before moving on, and stuck with the group due to believing in its cause. She specializes in grapple martial arts despite her lithe frame.
- Mesarthim: a Low Mystic in the form of a charcoal gray mermaid. She was injured in an accident and nursed back to health by a rich man, but she still feels very uncomfortable around humans. She can be recruited in any scenario so long as another Mystic is in the active party, except for Silence whom she mistakes as being angry with her due to not speaking. She is particularly devoted to Asellus as the Half-Mystic is oblivious to the prejudice Low Mystics endure and treats her kindly.
- Princess Rei: the very first woman Orlouge ever abducted, who committed suicide to escape him. She later reincarnated with her memories in tact, and now resides on Devin. She can be spoken to in any scenario to give the player information on time and space manipulation magic, but can only be recruited in Asellus' story after searching her coffin in Facinaturu.
- Princess White Rose: one of Orlouge's collected beauties who was revived from her long slumber to tutor Asellus in the proper decorum of her kind. She is the secondary protagonist of Asellus' story.
- Roufas: the forty year old leader of the Gradius organization, he recruits Emelia into the group and issues orders before joining the party later in the scenario.
- Rouge: the twin brother of Blue and his direct opposite. Where Blue is cold hearted and snide, Rouge is considerate and easy going. He can be recruited in every human scenario, except for Blue's, by visiting Luminous.
- Sei: the former Emperor of Shrike from several hundred years ago. He will rise from his grave to challenge any who collects the sword, shield, and mirror in his tomb. He is encountered as a part of Riki's story as he was buried with one of the rings, and joins Lummox without a battle as he recognizes Riki's purehearted desire to save his planet. As skeleton, he is classified as belonging to the monster race and thus uses that system.
- Silence: a Low Mystic who has joined the IRPO as an agent. Like all Low Mystics he has an animal trait, which are large monarch butterfly wings he keeps hidden at all times. Though mute, he is very expressive through humorous body language. He can be recruited in any human scenario by visiting Luminous and finding his missing shadow in Omble, the dungeon of darkness.
- Slime: a monster that automatically joins the part after escaping Tanzer while on the rune quest. Cannot be recruited in Riki's scenario.
- Time Lord: a Mystic who has discovered the amazing power of time manipulation magic. The player must first complete the rune or arcane sidequests, learn about his existence by speaking to Princess Rei on Devin, speak with the Mystic Virgil on Mosperiberg, and finally purchase the SandVessel in Facinaturu before speaking with Princess Rei once again to reach him.
- Turnip: a vegetable monster that was sealed away in High Mystic Orlouge's dark labyrinth after offending him. He automatically joins in Asellus' scenario.
- Zozma: a renegade Mystic who cannot stand the stagnation Facinaturu has fallen under during Orlouge's centuries of rule, and plans to use Asellus to dispose of him. He is the only character who can use the Evil class of magic. Zozma will automatically join Asellus during her scenario, and Emelia can find him disguised as a guard in the Trinity base mission.
Gameplay
Taking the SaGa series' Free Scenario System to the next level, Frontier is a very open-ended title that gives the player almost complete control of where they can travel to within the game at any moment. Characters are fully customizable as is the series tradition, with statistical growth being dependent on the actions taken in battle. The race system seen in the Gameboy trilogy returns, with monsters and robots behaving as they did in past titles and the new Mystic race needing to absorb the life essence of enemies to improve their stats.
Combat remains turn-based, but exhibits a facsimile of 3D by featuring several techniques and spells with ranges based on straight lines and cone-shaped spreads. The amount of available weapon skills has been reduced from Romancing SaGa 3, being only swords, katanas, guns, and three types of martial arts, but the variety of magic has expanded to include more original concepts such as tarot cards, Nordic runes, as well as the manipulation of time and space.
Credits
Squaresoft
- Producer / Director: Akitoshi Kawazu
- Supervising Programmer: Takaaki Tonooka
- Game System Developer: Kyoji Koizumi
- Character Design: Tomomi Kobayashi, Masaki Ōtani
- Art Directors: Kōji Tsuda, Yasuhiko Kamata, Shinichi Kameoka, Hiroshi Takai
- Monster Design: Tomohiro Hasegawa, Shinichiro Okaniwa
- Associate Director: Koichi Ishii
- Game Data Developer: Akihiko Matsui
- Music: Kenji Ito
- Sound Effects: Teruaki Sugawara
- Director Of Product Localization: Michael Baskett
- Localization Specialist: Brian Bell
- Assistant Translators: Naomi Cooper, Daisuke Kato
- Q.A. Manager: Jon Williams
- Customer Service Manager: Rick Thompson
- Customer Service Supervisor: Fernando Bustamante
- Executive V.P. / Strategic Planning: Yoshihiro Maruyama
- Vice President Of Marketing: Jun Iwasaki
- Assistant Marketing Associates: Kenji Mimura, Kyoko Yamashita, Kiomi Murazeki
- Lead Testers: Vangthonhoua Moua, Yoshinobu Matsuo
- Testers: Clayton S. Chan, Andy Hsu, Sean Camanyag, Takahiro Soh, Kyoko Makino, Stanford Ng, Sissie Chang
Sony Computer Entertainment America
- Associate Producer: Seth Luisi
- Assistant Producer: Jeffrey Ng
- Senior Producer: Perry Rodgers
- Lead Tester: Christian Davis
- Assistant Lead Testers: Conner Morlang, Kevin Seiter
- Testers: Mike Benton, Bruce Cochrane, James W. Harper, Chad Lowe, Peter Mayberry, Eric Molina, Neil Musser, Joseph Aragones, Randy Blake, Alfred Dutton, Lee Frohman, Chris Johnson, Christopher Keith, Ivan Kougaenko, Loren Miller, Jason Torres
- Senior Marketing Manager: David Bamberger
- Vice President Of Marketing: Andrew House
- Senior Director Of Marketing: Peter Dille
- Senior Public Relations Manager: Molly Smith
- Senior Creative Service Manager: Howard Liebeskind
- Packaging / Manual: Beeline Group
- Special Thanks: Kaz Hirai, Etsuko Kobata, Mark Pentek
Trivia
- Saga Frontier experienced a very brief development cycle, leading to several instances of cut content. In particular, several key events meant to broaden Asellus' viewpoints on humans and mystics were removed along with a second method of escaping Facinaturu. Worse yet, the planned eighth character of Inter-region police officer Fuse was cut entirely. These events and scenarios would be restored with the game's 2021 remaster.
- Akitoshi Kawazu states in an interview called The 100 Mysteries of SaGa Frontier that T-260G has a female personality, for no reason beyond it being fashionable for a spaceship's computer to be given a female personality at the time of development. The T in her name was also meant to stand for Tatyana, a reference to the Romancing Saga 3 character, but was not implemented.
Gallery
Main characters
Asellus
Blue
Emilia
Lute
Red
Red as Alkaiser
Riki
T-260G
Scenario art
Asellus, Mestharim, and Orlouge
Emilia, Annie, and Liza
Red, Lute, Rabbit, and T-260G fighting Cindy Campbell
Red and Alkaiser
Riki offering the rings to the heavens
Rouge battling Blue
Side characters
Alkarl
Captain Hamilton
Captain Hawk
Cotton
Doll
Dr. Nasukan
Fei On
Fuse, along with Cotton
Gen
King Sei
Leonard
Liza
Mei Ling
Mesarthim
Princess Rei
Princess White Rose
Rabbit
Ren
Rosemary & Thyme
Roufas
Rouge
Silence
Time Lord
Virgil
Zozma
Villains
Berva
Cindy Campbell
Dr. Klein
Joker
Metal Black
Mondo
Orlouge
Princess Lion
Shuzer
External links
The Essence of SaGa the defacto resource for the game, featuring translated guides, interviews, rarely seen artwork, and developer commentary among other features.
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