While SaGa 2 (necessarily) loses some of what makes the original such a wildly electric piece of gaming--the punk meta plays on a nascent genre's conventions, the puzzle-like joy of having to relearn how an RPG works at the most basic level, the absurdist story beats that no publisher in their right mind would ever allow--it gains an equal amount in return.
For starters, if someone were to look at the game at literally its most surface level, they'd be forgiven for thinking this sequel was a genuine generational leap and not a sequel that released within a year on the same hardware. Suddenly sprites are expressive and varied, detail and shadow give environment dimensionality, and the battle UI is reworked into something wonderfully clear and elegant.
Mechanically it does much the same, expanding on the first's to create something fuller, more rounded. This move towards polish may or may not be to your taste (in many ways I like the sharp and jagged nature of the first more) but it is hard to argue much with the results. With an extra class type, the robot, the player sees a real jump in expression and experimentation. Where once the puzzle was understanding systems, now it is solving how to beat and rebeat the game with its dozen or so possible team compositions.
And while I will always prefer the world and the moments of Saga 1, that is not to imply this isn't also incredibly strong on that front, too. Kawazu is very quietly one of RPGs greatest writers, after all; there are few in the entire medium as capable at concise, evocative storytelling. He can pack an entire world into a sentence, give birth to daydreams on daydreams with little more than a single NPC and a single line. The world populated by giants who made themselves small and live in secret among "normal" sized folk in particular had me hooting and hollering at its absolute imagination.
The real magic is that it isn't just imagination--it's a pretty thematically complex, satisfying work as well. SaGa 2 is a game deeply concerned with authority and power. Whispers of the supreme come up again and again and every time are proven to be lies, fictions. The player character's dad, idolized since childhood, is an absentee reckless fool who, though supposedly on the right side, is wrapped up with everyone else in a meaningless play for power and control that is little more than a fairy tale. What SaGa 2 asks is: does that matter? Does it matter that these were invented, were imagined? Does it matter that it is all quite literally (as revealed) a game; nothing but programming? We believe in them. And when enough believe, they become real.
So yeah, the the original is held closer and dearer to my heart because I am a broken freak of a human. But the sequel is a massive success in its own right, a bold declaration that the first was not an accident or an anomaly, but the beginning of one of the greatest video game series we've ever been blessed with.
more thoughts here: https://www.tsundokudiving.com/p/talking-games-saga-2the-final-fantasy
For starters, if someone were to look at the game at literally its most surface level, they'd be forgiven for thinking this sequel was a genuine generational leap and not a sequel that released within a year on the same hardware. Suddenly sprites are expressive and varied, detail and shadow give environment dimensionality, and the battle UI is reworked into something wonderfully clear and elegant.
Mechanically it does much the same, expanding on the first's to create something fuller, more rounded. This move towards polish may or may not be to your taste (in many ways I like the sharp and jagged nature of the first more) but it is hard to argue much with the results. With an extra class type, the robot, the player sees a real jump in expression and experimentation. Where once the puzzle was understanding systems, now it is solving how to beat and rebeat the game with its dozen or so possible team compositions.
And while I will always prefer the world and the moments of Saga 1, that is not to imply this isn't also incredibly strong on that front, too. Kawazu is very quietly one of RPGs greatest writers, after all; there are few in the entire medium as capable at concise, evocative storytelling. He can pack an entire world into a sentence, give birth to daydreams on daydreams with little more than a single NPC and a single line. The world populated by giants who made themselves small and live in secret among "normal" sized folk in particular had me hooting and hollering at its absolute imagination.
The real magic is that it isn't just imagination--it's a pretty thematically complex, satisfying work as well. SaGa 2 is a game deeply concerned with authority and power. Whispers of the supreme come up again and again and every time are proven to be lies, fictions. The player character's dad, idolized since childhood, is an absentee reckless fool who, though supposedly on the right side, is wrapped up with everyone else in a meaningless play for power and control that is little more than a fairy tale. What SaGa 2 asks is: does that matter? Does it matter that these were invented, were imagined? Does it matter that it is all quite literally (as revealed) a game; nothing but programming? We believe in them. And when enough believe, they become real.
So yeah, the the original is held closer and dearer to my heart because I am a broken freak of a human. But the sequel is a massive success in its own right, a bold declaration that the first was not an accident or an anomaly, but the beginning of one of the greatest video game series we've ever been blessed with.
more thoughts here: https://www.tsundokudiving.com/p/talking-games-saga-2the-final-fantasy