Rebooted: The 7th Saga

[sirdilznik]

I've decided to go back and play some old RPGs I haven't played in a looooooooong time, and not necessarily super popular/well known titles. I'm going to give you all a glimpse into my playing experiences as I play these games again. So without further ado here goes:

The 7th Saga



It's probably been 15 years or so since I played The 7th Saga. It was a SNES game. I'll be playing it using emulation (bsnes) since I no longer have a functional SNES, though I still have the cartridge. Here's what I remember about the game:

The 7th Saga was a jRPG . It was fairly innovative for it's time since you had a choice of playing one of 7 different protagonists. You, and the other 6 characters, were quested by King Lemele to gather 7 runes scattered about the land. What made this game cool was that the other 6 characters were actively searching for the other runes while you were. You would occasionally encounter them and they would have different reactions toward you depending on which character you were playing and the events that had happened in the game. You could ask one of them to join you, they might attack you (particularly if you had any of the runes they were also seeking), or you could attack them. Sometimes one of the other characters would get to a rune before you and you'd have to hunt them down to get the rune from them, assuming you could defeat them.

I remember the game required an awful lot of grinding which is something I didn't mind that much back then, but have since grown to dislike. Also I remember the game is infamous for it's ridiculous, some may say downright unfair, difficulty level. There will be a whole lot of saving, a whole lot of dying, and a whole lot of replaying certain areas and fights. On the plus side the insane difficulty level made for a really satisfying victory when I did finally beat the game.

Will I be able to deal with the grinding before I lose all interest? Will I be able to beat the game despite it's ridiculous difficulty level? Only one way to find out.

I remember that when I played the game years and years ago I used Olvan the Dwarf as my main character (because I generally favor fighters and I like axes and Dwarves). I don't remember who my companion was. This time around I'm going to do a 180 from what I usually play and start off with Esuna the Elf. Esuna is physically weak but she's one of the most powerful, if not THE most powerful, magic users. I named her "Katty".



You start out the game in the king's castle where all the characters are gathered and the king quests all of you with the mission to find the 7 runes. You can converse with the king and each of the 6 other characters. They each tell you a little bit about themselves and the reason they are questing for the runes.



Anyway I'm going to go out and get myself reaquainted with my surroundings and play for a bit. I'll be back with another post and my progress in a bit. Feel free to comment or ask questions if you wish.

[sirdilznik]

Like any intrepid adventurer would, before embarking I decided to loot the bejesus out of King Lemele's castle.



Hey don't look at me like that! This guy is sending me out on a dangerous quest and he didn't even bother to give me a healing potion or anything, it's only prudent to gather all the supplies I can get my hands on. It's a dangerous world out there.

When embarking on any quest it's also important to keep yourself hydrated.



Well now that I've gathered some supplies and drank some refreshing water, it's time to go forth into the wild. Not long after leaving the castle I ran into some unsavory looking sorts, a wyvern and a hermit, and got into my first scuffle. Being that I'm not a muscle-bound elf, hitting them with my cheesy staff wasn't going to accomplish much so I decided to give them a taste of my ice magic.



They didn't much like getting pounded by rather large chunks of ice from above and quickly perished. Much to my surprise and pleasure the corpses of the baddies revealed some gold pieces. I didn't even know wyverns had pockets to store money in, but hey I'm not complaining.

I wandered about the wilderness near the castle for a bit. I was uneasy about straying too far from safety at this point being that I'm rather frail. I encountered several more hermits and a few wyverns and dispatched with them. Whooping up on the local monster population did bloody me up a bit and quickly exhausted my meager magical reserves, also it's tiring work, so I went back to the castle. Now I've been living in this castle for the last few years, studying and training under King Lemele, but I like to support the local economy so I decided to spend the night at the inn. Luckily their rates were quite reasonable.



The next day I went back into the wild and got reacquainted with the local monster population. Playing as Katty I'm fairly physically weak but strong of will and also fairly quick and agile, yes even while wearing that dress , which allows me to dodge the attacks of my enemies sometimes. I quickly found that fighting against baddies was good exercise for both body and mind and it wasn't too long before I found my muscles bulging a bit, my reflexes quickening, and my magical abilities expanding.



Another good side-effect of fighting monsters is that I found my pockets filling up with gold. With my new found fortune I decided to go shopping for better weaponry, this cheesy staff is just not cutting it. I went back into the castle and sought out the local weaponsmith. After browsing his inventory I settled on this... umm... aaaaaah... kinda looks like a nightstick. Whatever it is, it's much more wieldy than my cheesy staff so I decided to go ahead and upgrade.



A nice feature of shopping in The 7th Saga is that the merchant will offer to buy your old equipment when you upgrade to a new piece of weaponry or armor and will deduct the value of your old equipment from the price of your new upgraded item. It's a pretty convenient feature that makes shopping that much faster and more pleasurable.

Now that I had gained some experience and equipped myself with a better weapon, I became more brave and decided to explore a bit further. With my stronger muscles and new nightstick-like thingy I found I could put a decent hurting on monsters physically and didn't have to rely solely on my magic. This allowed me to stay in the wilderness longer before needing to rest and replenish my reserves.

Wandering south I eventually ran into a quaint little town named Rablesk.



It's always a good idea to converse with the locals when entering a new town, you never know what kind of useful tidbits of information you may come upon. I learned from the locals that trade had been ground to a halt since the Gate of Earth, an underground passage through the mountains, had been shut, and the key to open it lie in a nearby castle that was now overrun by monsters. I wasn't about to let the local economy stagnate so I decided I'd have to help the locals out and open the gate for them. I also learned another useful, though somewhat disturbing piece of information. It seems some bounty hunter named Pison was on my trail. I'm not sure what I had done to deserve a bounty on my head but I guess I was going to have to watch my back.

[Dragonlady]

Very interesting read and love the pics. It's almost got me curious enough to see if there is a Mac version or if I have to put it on the PC side.

They didn't much like getting pounded by rather large chunks of ice from above and quickly perished. Much to my surprise and pleasure the corpses of the baddies revealed some gold pieces. I didn't even know wyverns had pockets to store money in, but hey I'm not complaining.

I always thought wyverns had scales somewhat like a dragon. They roll around in the stuff dropped by their dinner and a few gold pieces or what have you got stuck in the scales. You kill them and instant loot for you!



edit: never mind, apparently its for a system I don't have. Shrugs. oh well. sounded like fun.

[sirdilznik]

I always thought wyverns had scales somewhat like a dragon. They roll around in the stuff dropped by their dinner and a few gold pieces or what have you got stuck in the scales. You kill them and instant loot for you!

That's a really good point. Thank you for that explanation, next time I slay a wyvern I'm going to make sure to search through all the scales.

Back to the game. It was time for me to go and check out this castle so I could retrieve the Key of Earth and get trade going again. The castle was a short journey from Rablesk and the critters along the way posed no threat to me. I didn't even bother with magic at this point since my nightstick-like weapon was whooping the baddies up just fine. On the down side all the blood splatter and dirt being kicked up was making my dress a bit dingy.

Soon I arrived at the castle. The place was in a serious state of disrepair and it looked rather dark and foreboding. Inside, as expected, I found a host of denizens that were less than inviting.



Despite looking rather creepy they really weren't much tougher than than the baddies I had met outside on the way to the castle. Dispatching them was a piece of cake and I was able to explore the castle at my leisure. I made my way up a couple of staircases and eventually found the throne room where I was met by some kind of cursed monster called Romus. Being a friendly elf I tried to strike up a conversation.



Apparently Romus wasn't the talkative type. In fact he was in a mood for fighting.



I gotta admit Romus was pretty mean looking (how come everybody I fight is so much bigger than me?) but I had little trouble with him. I decided not to hold back and broke out my most powerful spell at that point, Ice 2.



It put a serious hurting on Romus taking down almost half his hit points. He countered with some kind of lightning attack that hurt me pretty badly. I sucked down a healing potion which insta-healed my charred body then Romus broke out the lightning again. This time I jumped out of the way and took no damage then I immediately countered with more Ice 2 ass whoopin' goodness. He didn't like that at all and tried some kind of life draining spell on me. I resisted then finished him off with another Ice spell.

Sifting through Romus' frozen corpse was rather unpleasant but eventually I found the Key of Earth. I'd tell you where he had it hidden but there may be children present. Needless to say I washed my hands as soon as I could afterwards.

It was getting kind of late so I decided to go back to Rablesk and spend a night at the inn before embarking for the Gate of Earth in the morning (not to mention save my game ). After a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast I set out for the underground passage. Finding it was quite easy due to my handy dandy crystal ball.



Inside the passage I was a bit surprised at how much tougher the baddies were in here as opposed to anything I had faced on the surface or in the castle, save maybe Romus himself.



Creepy looking fella ain't he? Guy packs a pretty good wallop too. The nightstick thingy wasn't doing much more than tickling him so I had to break out some Ice magic on his behind. Two Ice 1s was just what the doctor ordered.

Not far into the passage I came across the Gate of Earth.



The key fit the lock perfectly and the gate opened right up, shaking the whole cavern in the process. A little bit overly dramatic but whatever. Maybe if I return to Rabelsk I'll talk to someone about greasing up the mechanism so it will work a lot smoother.

Deeper in the passage I found some treasure chests. I never understood why someone would leave a chest full of goodies in some of the most remote places. Maybe treasure chests are god's way of rewarding adventurers for risking their necks all the time? Of course once in a while instead of treasure you get...



These d-bags are called Tricks and they masquerade as treasure chests. Even 15 years couldn't make me forget how much I dislike fighting them and how tough they can be. No messing around I went straight for Ice 2. Lucky for me the Trick kept on trying some fancy spells. Those fancy spells can be pretty nasty when they work, but they're not that reliable and I'm pretty resistant to them. Several Ice 2s and Mr. Tricky was frozen solid. He did drop a sweet looking gem for my troubles too.

I kept going through the passage until I ran into a real shady looking fellow. He didn't look the least bit friendly but had enough manners to introduce himself.



So this was Pison eh? Well now I know that one of the other 7 questing for the runes hired him to take me out. He wouldn't say who but my money is on Lejes the demon, he always gave me that cold glare. After we exchanged pleasantries it was time to get down to business.



Unfortunately for me Pison is a really tough dude and he's all Indiana Jones with that whip. A physical attack only made him laugh and even Ice 2 barely hurt him. On the flip side he hurt me, hurt me bad, I mean really really bad. I was quaffing potions like a maniac just to keep myself alive. Anyway it didn't take that long and I went down in a crumbled heap. Pison had defeated me. My first time dying in the game, first of many I'm sure.

Now when you die in this game you restart in the last town you had visited and lose half your gold. I wasn't about to part with half my hard earned gold and had been smart enough to save just before going to the Gate of Earth. So restoring my last save game would do the trick, but that's best saved for another post.

[llew silverhand]

your post makes me contemplate a game I've not heard of before...by chance do you know if this is available on WiiWare? I'm hoping to unload my NES and SNES soon if I can.

[sirdilznik]

your post makes me contemplate a game I've not heard of before...by chance do you know if this is available on WiiWare? I'm hoping to unload my NES and SNES soon if I can.

I really have no idea of what games are or aren't on Wii Ware but I can't say I've ever heard of The 7th Saga being ported to any other system. To the best of my knowledge it was released for SNES and that's it.

OK so I reloaded my save game and decided to do a bit of grinding before heading back to the Gate of Earth. After gaining a level or so I went back to Rablesk, stocked up on potions, spent a night at the inn, then set out for the gate again.

The trip to the gate was a familiar one and I had little trouble making my way through the passage until I encountered a familiar foe. There was Pison staring at me, but this time I was a bit more seasoned. The extra few hit points from going up a level really helped out as I was now able to take two hits from Pison's whip before needing healing, either from a spell or a potion. I needed to quaff a few potions during the fight but this time I was able to defeat Pison. I breathed a sigh of relief and continued down the passage. After taking care of a few zombies I found the exit and emerged onto the surface.



On the surface I found a new baddie prowling the wild along with some familiar foes.



The tall skinny fellas are called Androids (short for Android 2.2 Froyo ) and in terms of toughness they're fairly comparable to the creepy looking zombies inside the Gate of Earth passage. I was fairly bloodied from my scuffle with Pison and the other creeps in the passage so I made a beeline for the nearest town I could find. It was a perilous journey down the coast and I was quite tired by the time I finally saw civilization but I had made it, I had arrived at Bonro.



Almost immediately after entering the port town I ran into one of my fellow adventurers, Olvan.



Olvan told me that he had been looking for me and asked if I wanted to join him. I contemplated a bit. On one hand Olvan would complement me well as a companion since he's tough and a good warrior while I'm frail but a powerful mage. On the other hand there's always been racial tension between elves and dwarves, Gimli and Legolas aside, and I felt it best not to test those waters. Also I had played with Olvan 15 years ago and just wanted someone else in my part this time. I gracefully declined.

Next I ran across Wilme and a bit to my surprise he was also quite nice to me and asked me to join him. Wilme is an alien. On the down side weapons and armor are quite scarce for him and also while he can cast fire magic, he has really limited mana and his spells are not very potent. On the plus side Wilme is extremely strong and tough and makes up for his lack of equipment with some of the best physical stats in the game. I figured he'd complement me quite well and I accepted. Wilme joined my party.



Next I ran across Lux. It seemed that Bonro had become a gathering place for the adventurers questing for the runes. Being a port town I guess that made some sense. Lux, although physically much different looking, resembled Wilme quite a bit in terms of strengths and weaknesses. He would have been my next choice for a companion but since I already had Wilme with me and you can only have one companion, I had to turn "him" down when he requested we join up.



Unfortunately it seemed travel by boat was out of the question. The vessels from Pandam had stopped coming and no one knew why. I guess I was going to have to find a different way if I were to travel there. After resting up a bit I decided to head back out into the wild and head west. Having a travelling companion made for a much less dull trip and oddly enough Wilme and I had some pretty entertaining conversations. Also it really helps in combat having a tough hardened warrior beside you. Oh and did I mention that his body bursts into flames when he punches things?



Oh and what the &#@! is that thing I'm fighting!? It's called a Manrot whatever it is. Together with Wilme we had no trouble whooping up on the Manrot and any other beastie that stood in our way. Soon we arrived in Zellis and apparently the town was flooded with treasure hunters.



Fortune, eh? Why yes I wouldn't mind finding fortune.

[Mod.]

Seeing you make progress in this made me want to play this game. I got it sometime today, and finally stopped after Red Pison easily killed both my characters with 1 hit each. First defeat . And I thought the alien guy hit hard before I beat him...

[sirdilznik]

Seeing you make progress in this made me want to play this game. I got it sometime today, and finally stopped after Red Pison easily killed both my characters with 1 hit each. First defeat . And I thought the alien guy hit hard before I beat him...

Yeah I just ran into Red Pison in my last session. Don't know if I'll have time to do the write up for it tonight, probably tomorrow. I'm pretty much enjoying the game so far and have only died once but I vaguely remember that it gets WAY harder later on. Anyway, out of curiosity what character are you playing with and who's your companion?

[Mod.]

Playing as the robot guy (what was his name again?), with Esuna with magical backup. I was impressed how hard her Ice 1 hit (over 100), costing only 3 of her ~70 mana (and she can always steal more from monsters), while my lasers don't seem nearly as good (and he only has 30 mana). I am level 15 I think. Fun game, even though after playing so long that day, only played a little today and didn't save it after failing to defeat the other magic caster (2nd defeat ).

[sirdilznik]

Playing as the robot guy (what was his name again?), with Esuna with magical backup. I was impressed how hard her Ice 1 hit (over 100), costing only 3 of her ~70 mana (and she can always steal more from monsters), while my lasers don't seem nearly as good (and he only has 30 mana). I am level 15 I think. Fun game, even though after playing so long that day, only played a little today and didn't save it after failing to defeat the other magic caster (2nd defeat ).

That's a pretty good group. Lux the robot I would think is a lot like Wilme in that casting spells with him is mostly a waste of time. He's there mostly to punch stuff... or whatever his physical attack is.

So I went ahead and decided to get to know the town of Zellis. Here I met some more of the other adventurers questing for the runes. Inside the armory I ran into Valsu the healer.



Surprisingly enough he was the first one of the others that wanted no part of travelling with me. Frankly I had no designs on teaming with him either since he wouldn't complement me particularly well so I guess it didn't matter. Valsu is the best healer in the game but he's not much of a warrior.

Next I ran into Lejes the demon at the inn. I figured Lejes would be at odds with me but much to my surprise he wanted to team up.



I gotta admit it was kinda tempting. Lejes has the best selection of offensive spells of anyone and he's second only to Katty (Esuna) in spell potency. Together we'd have quite the firepower at our disposal. Unfortunately we'd also make a frail duo that would be SOL when we'd run into someone or something resistant to magic. I politely declined then decided to rest for the night.

The next day I went to the local taven to find information. Inside the tavern I ran into Kamil the fighter.



He asked me to join him (Damn I'm popular! Must be my good looks). Kamil is the most balanced character in the game. He's a pretty good fighter and had decent selection of spells both offensive and defensive, and modest spell power. He makes a good companion for just about anyone but I decided to stick with Wilme and declined his invitation.

After conversing with Kamil I mingled with the locals. Seems that there was an ancient civilization called Melenam near here and the people believe there is great treasure for the one that can find their ruins. Also the Wind Rune was somewhere near here, which is what I'm looking for.

Elsewhere in town I found a scientist names Brantu who was an expert on Melenam.



He claimed to know where Melenam was and that he could open the way but he wasn't tough enough to make the journey alone. I wanted to see what this Melenam was all about so I agreed to escort him.

After gathering some supplies Wilme, Brantu, and I all set forth from Zellis. Brantu led us west while we protected him from the beasties. Eventually we ran into a cave and went inside. I guess the townsfolk were right because this place was chock-full of treasure. Unfortunately it was also chock-full of monsters. I swear I couldn't take 5 steps without running into another beastie. Fortunately I brought plenty of herbs and potions so I was prepared. I was quite adamant that we search the place thoroughly and it paid off.



Aha! The Wind Rune is a very handy item as it allows you to instantly travel to any town you had already visited as long as you're not inside a dungeon. It's definitely going to save me a bunch of blisters on my feet. I was quite giddy but there was still another reason we were in this cavern. After some more searching we happened upon a gate with a strange mechanism. I had no idea how to open the gate but fortunately Brantu sprang into action. He seemed to know exactly what to do and in a matter of moments the gate opened. Beyond the gate lay the remains of Melenam.



So this was Melenam. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. There were several robots like Lux in here and they all seemed in a bit of disrepair. They all were talking about some mission to protect. Protect what? Protect this place?

Brantu thanked us, wished us luck, and started exploring on his own. Wilme and I proceeded through the halls of the underground city. Save for the occasional robot, the place was deserted. There were plenty of treasures to be found though. Eventually we found another underground passage out of Melenam. We decided to explore the passage and see where it would lead.

Along the way we ran into a familiar foe.



Ugh it was Pison again. This time he was Red-Pison. I had gotten a companion and had gotten much stronger since our last meeting, but Pison had gotten much stronger too. It was a tough fight and I went down from the wrath of his vicious whip. Fortunately Wilme was much tougher than me and finished Pison off with his flaming fists. Wilme brought me back to consciousness with a Magic Water. I thanked Wilme for his assistance then we continued further down the passage.

Finally we saw sunlight. Wilme and I emerged from the passage on an island. We had traversed underneath the sea. Tired and battered we desperately sought civilization. The creatures roaming the land here were less than inviting but after a couple hours of travel we managed to make it to the nearest town, Eygus.



Aah an inn. Time to rest our tired bones.

[Heavy Metal Monk]

This is really fun to read. I have my SNES hooked up so maybe I should give this game another go. My dad got it off Ebay for me when I was younger during the period he went through where he'd just buy old games for me off ebay, hahaha

I remember finding it fairly difficult... Mind you I chose the blue armored fighter (Kamil?) and didn't have much magic at my disposal. On my second try I chose Lux.

edit: Well durr, his name was Kamil. A few of the screenshots hadn't loaded before I posted this lol

[sirdilznik]

Yeah the game is quite difficult, be prepared to grind a lot, and it's very long. I've logged 70 game hours and I don't think I'm even half way through. I had to take a break from the game for a while and hope to come back to it later.

I'll have to make my write ups less detailed and with less pictures though since there's just so much. Heck I have more that I played already that I haven't written up yet, a good whole page's worth if not more if I continue at the same pace as before.