SaGa Frontier: Designing a Mechanic Around Narrative Restrictions

 

 

Video games, especially RPGs, often have a problem with finding the right balance between what the player can do during gameplay and what the character can do during the game's narrative. For example, no matter how people try to justify it, it is silly Cloud and his friends can be hit during battles with swords, bullets, explosions, poisons and anything else that would kill a normal person instantly, but a single strike from Sephiroth in a cutscene results in instant death for the character. And why do gangsters and terrorists challenge 10 year olds to honorable pokémon battles when their evil plans are threatened? They are grown adults who could easily overpower a child, but that wouldn't be what people want to see in a Pokémon game.

Gameplay and narrative often exist in completely separate bubbles, and you're expected to simply accept things like this don't make sense. Something like this isn't enough to break my immersion of course, and it is probably a lot easier for a game's writers to make the story if they don't have to take into account everything the player character can do during battle. Similarly, if a game's designers just want to make a fun game they shouldn't try to limit the player's actions just because the writers want something more grounded. 

You can take this too far of course, for example, if the story makes the main character killing a single person into a big deal, maybe the designers shouldn't have the player frequently fight against humans with lethal weapons. But generally I think it's fine, writers and designers should just focus on making their own parts of the game as good as they can.

But because gameplay and story so often do not have any kind of consistency, it feels very special when you do find a game where the story and gameplay complement each other. In this post I want to tell you about one such game: SaGa Frontier, and how its Alkaiser is one of the coolest examples I've seen of story and gameplay complementing each other.

 

What is SaGa?

SaGa is a series of RPGs by Square that started on the original Game Boy in 1989 (back then it was localised as The Final Fantasy Legend though, as Square USA had no faith in releasing a new IP). SaGa has never been as famous as Square's other long running franchises, but the games are successful enough that the series has had over a dozen games released in 35 years (with the latest game being SaGa Emerald Beyond in 2024)

SaGa ignores a lot of the conventions people associate with Japanese role playing games, such as there being no traditional level up system and having a non-linear structure, nor do they put much focus on characters or story. The series is always trying something new with each game, and very rarely does the next game follow up on any ideas established by its predecessor.

A recurring feature in SaGa is the choice between several protagonists, although the protagonist you choose usually won't have a big impact on how the game plays out. Each protagonist has their own playstyle and some unique scenes, but for a casual player the difference between characters is so small that there isn't really a reason to play more than one character's storyline. However, if you are someone who likes to replay games and experiment with different playstyles, this system of multiple protagonists ensures your playthroughs are always a little different, as each protagonist has completely different stats and skills.

SaGa Frontier, the seventh game in the series, is no different in this regard and gives you a choice between 7 different protagonists. But whereas in other SaGa games your chosen protagonist has very little impact, in SaGa Frontier each protagonist's campaign is wildly different from each other. Not only do they all have completely different stories from each other, all protagonists also have a unique gimmick in their gameplay that makes each playthrough significantly different compared to how the protagonists play in other SaGa games.

I could talk extensively about each of these characters, their stories and their gimmicks, but for this post's topic I only want to talk about the character Red and how his story manages to find a balance between gameplay and story in a way that's unlike anything else I've seen in an RPG

 

The superhero Alkaiser 

 

Red's campaign begins like any other superhero story would: Red and his father are attacked by the terrorist organisation BlackX, but just as Red is about to die, he is saved by the masked hero Alkarl. Alkarl then gives Red a portion of his power to save his life and Red becomes the superhero Alkaiser.

But Red is given one condition for his power: he is not allowed to reveal his secret identity to anyone under any circumstance. 

Naturally the player assumes this is just something the writers threw in as a reference to other superhero stories and it won't actually matter at all. And as you're starting out it seems like this is indeed the case, Red can freely transform into Alkaiser during combat to receive significant buffs.

But this changes when you recruit someone into your party. The reason you've been able to freely transform into Alkaiser in every fight was because Red was alone, no one was there to see Red's transformation. Now that you have other people in the party, Red has to fight in his regular civilian form in order to not expose his identity.

In other words; the rule given to Red about never being allowed to reveal his identity is not just a meaningless callback to superhero stories, it is the gimmick of his campaign. However I wouldn't be writing this post if that was all there was to Alkaiser's transformation, because it gets much deeper and much cooler than that.

When you realise you can't transform if you have other characters in your party, you might start thinking the Alkaiser transformation is intended for solo challenge runs. Having a unique buff that can only be used when alone certainly sounds like it's there to encourage solo runs of the game, why else would it be designed like that after all?

But SaGa Frontier is a rather difficult game, and even with a full party of 5 characters you will eventually run into a battle so hard your party is almost wiped out and only Red is standing. And that's when you see the Alkaiser transformation is available in your battle commands once again.

No one can find out Red's secret identity if no one in your party is conscious after all. 

This is Alkaiser's true purpose. It's not there for challenge runs, it's there to save you in your most desperate moments. However it gets deeper than this, there are more ways to prevent your party from knowing Red's identity than simply having everyone knocked out. Your party being asleep, paralysed or even blinded will have the same effect as unconsciousness. As long as your party is prevented from seeing Red transform into Alkaiser, the option will be available to you. If you know a boss or an enemy is capable of inflicting those ailments, it might be worthwhile to only give Red resistance to those so that you have easier access to Alkaiser as the rest of the party is hit by the ailments.

However those are still pretty niche scenarios and not something you can count on reliably. However there is one way you can have permanent access to Alkaiser besides playing solo: just have a party that only consists of entities who can't tell anyone even if they do see Red's transformation.

SaGa Frontier has many many different characters you can recruit, and among those characters are robots and monsters. Robots and monsters can't speak however, so if your party only consists of them, there will be no restrictions to using Alkaiser. Although nothing is stopping you from mixing and matching humans, monsters and robots. You could keep one or two humans in your party, and if something happens to them, that'll be your cue to activate Alkaiser.

Unfortunately Red isn't available for recruiting in any other character's campaigns, and as each campaign is rather short, you're quite limited in how much you're able to experiment with parties involving Alkaiser. It's my one big gripe with the system, as I'm sure it could be expanded further if the player was just allowed to use Red in more scenarios than just his own (though the HD Remaster from 2021 allows you to recruit Red in its brand new Fuse campaign) 

 

Ludonarrative harmony

 

Video games are a unique medium of storytelling because of their interactivity, yet very few video games actually try to build their interactive elements around the story. The reason for this is very simple of course, because as I said at the start: limiting the gameplay by what the story allows the characters to do will almost always result in a "worse" gameplay experience. Games are meant to be played, and if you're constantly limiting the fun for story reasons, players might not want to play your game.

Yet I have a lot of respect for any game that builds its gameplay around the story, even if it makes the gameplay "worse". Making the audience feel the restrictions the story places on you is something only video games can accomplish, it makes the audience relate to the characters in ways no other form of storytelling can do, and I believe that is what makes video games such a wonderful form of art.  

Alkaiser isn't a particularly egregious example of gameplay being "worse" in order to make the story more memorable, it is ultimately a small part of much bigger game and this post's purpose was just me wanting to gush about how cool and unique I think Alkaiser is.

I think a lesser game would've ignored Alkarl's warning at the beginning of the game and allowed you to use Alkaiser as much as you want. Yet if Alkaiser could be freely activated whenever you want, it would be no different from any other buff you have access to in RPGs, just with a superhero coat of paint. But by giving Alkaiser such a restriction it becomes an organic part of the story, it becomes more than a simple buff and it becomes much more memorable than it would otherwise be. It's because of its narrative restrictions that I think it is one of the coolest mechanics I've ever seen in an RPG.

I have plans to write about this topic again on a much larger scale some day in the future, but for now I'll leave it at this.

Permanent Failstate: The Appeal of Time Limits, Permanent Death and Resource Management

 

I like being challenged in video games. But the older I get, the more tired I get of the typical "git gud" challenge presented by so many video games. Of course I enjoy a good arcade-like challenge every once in a while, but I no longer have the patience to constantly play games where every stage and boss requires you to spend a significant amount of time learning layouts and attack patterns in order to progress. 

Instead the kind of challenge I've grown to love in my games is resource management. Games where the challenge is not for the player to grow skilled enough to beat any boss without taking damage, but rather for the player to deal with any situation using a limited set of resources they're given. These are games that might not immediately strike as challenging when you're starting out, but as you play further you start to realise the limitations the game has placed upon. Limitations that, if exceeded, might force you into a permanent failstate that forces you to restart the entire game. 

At first glance it seems like it's simply bad game design. Who would actually want to play a game (especially a long RPG) where you genuinely can't progress in the game anymore and have to restart the whole thing if you've played poorly enough? It sounds extremely stressful, and the average player will likely resort to constantly using a guide in order to make sure they won't end up in a permanent failstate. 

However, I think it's actually a wonderful design choice. It is indeed extremely stressful, but I think that stress is the whole appeal of these kind of games. The constant anxiety of  trying to optimise your playthrough in order to not play the game wrong gives weight to every choice you make in the game. Knowing its possible to fail your entire playthrough will make you play much more carefully, but every risky action you take feels so much more rewarding.

And as an example of what I'm talking about I have decided to write about the following games and how they incorporate permanent failstates as their core design philosophy:

Persona (3-5)
Atelier
Fire Emblem
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

All of these are games where it is very much possible to end up in a situation where you have no choice but to reset your whole playthrough, and all of these games are often criticised for this design. People say their design is hostile to the player and their punishment for mistakes is too harsh. But all of these games are also close to my heart specifically because they have this constant fear of playing wrong, and I will now tell you why this anxiety inducing player hostility is wonderful.

 

Living a whole year one day at a time

 

Persona 3, PlayStation 2, 2006

In Persona 3, 4 and 5 you live out one year in the life of a high schooler, and to reflect this, the games have a hard time limit of about one year. This year is presented in gameplay by having a calendar present in the game's HUD. Most days do not have anything story related happening, so you're allowed to spend your days however you want, doing things any normal high schooler would (such as hanging out with friends, working at a part time job or fighting monsters in a dungeon). Any major actions you take will consume one day from the year you are given though, and each day begins and ends with a scripted sequence to make you feel the passage of time with each day.

A year is a lot of time though, and if you spend your time wisely it is very much possible to max out all your social stats and clear every single optional task the game has to offer in just that one year. Even if you aren't interested in a completionist playthrough, you are given so much time that a casual player can finish the main story without fear of time running out.

But on the flip side, if you play the game carelessly you might end up in an unwinnable situation. Perhaps you spent all your time hanging out with friends and once a mandatory fight happens you aren't strong enough to deal with the enemy. Or maybe you spent all your time just grinding and grinding battles, neglecting all your social obligations and missing out on all the story you get from hanging out with your friends.

The key to Persona's gameplay loop is balance. You need to fight monsters to make yourself physically stronger but you also need to befriend all the people you can and raise their friendship level as high possible. And because there is a limited number of days in the game, every single day presents you with a choice: what would be the most optimal way to spend this day?

It is honestly very hard to end up in a truly unwinnable situation in Persona, especially in 5. The games aren't designed to be constantly replayed, and the games expect you to be able to clear its main story in one playthrough. In fact, Persona is so lenient with its time limit that many often say the time limit might as well not exist.

But I believe the time limit is an essential part of the games' design. Because even if the time limit is very lenient and failure is unlikely, even the faintest possibility of a permanent failstate forces the player to carefully consider every action they take. Add on top of that the fact that certain activities are only available on specific days, and you have a gameplay loop that gives the player anxiety about every choice they make. If there was no time limit and the player would be allowed to do anything at their own pace, the result would be game that's a lot more relaxing, a game that would be much more appealing to a casual mainstream audience and a game that I would find very boring. 

 

When the time limit is removed

 

Atelier Totori, PlayStation 3, 2010

People who have never played Atelier often assume it's a comfy casual series because it's about a cute girl doing casual things like running an alchemy shop, instead of more ordinary activities like traveling across the world and killing gods. But much like Persona, this seemingly casual series of cute girl RPGs is centered entirely around a hard time limit, and this time limit is much harsher than the one in Persona.

Atelier games usually present you with a single goal like becoming a top level alchemist in the time the game gives you. It might sound simple, but to reach your goal you must do a lot of alchemy, and to do a lot of alchemy you must explore the world and fight enemies to find the materials you need for said alchemy. You synthesise materials that make you stronger, so you can fight stronger enemies that drop stronger materials that you can eventually use for your ultimate synthesis. And I find this gameplay loop very fun and satisfying, but there is one more key element to it: the constantly looming time limit.

Every single action you take will consume your time limit. In Persona only actions that end your day will consume the time limit, but in Atelier there are no safe actions. Everything you do will consume time. Each monster you fight, each item you craft, moving between areas, even gathering materials from the ground will all consume a day from your calendar.

And unlike Persona where every day starts and ends with a scripted sequence to ease you on the passing time, Atelier's time flows at a much more free pace. No action in Persona ever takes more than one day, but in Atelier a single action can take several days. You might spend days synthesising one item and moving long distances on the map might take several weeks at once. 

Naturally the time limit in Atelier is also higher than Persona to compensate how quickly time flows (Atelier games often have a limit of 3-5 years), but it is much more stressful with the timer than Persona ever is. Time passes so quickly from even simple actions that you can waste your precious time really easily. But this also forces you to put great consideration into every action you take. The best materials and strongest enemies are located very far away from your atelier, and traveling such long distances will take many of your precious days. So you can't constantly travel back and forth every time you need a specific material. Every long distance trip you take must be planned carefully, and once you've arrived you must accomplish as much as you can before returning to your atelier. Your inventory size is also limited so you can't pick every material you see, you need to carefully consider what items are worth taking with you. 

That said, while Atelier's time limit is stricter than Persona's, even in Atelier you likely won't run into a permanent failstate unless you play very carelessly. If you put careful consideration into your actions, you'll do just fine. The games aren't impossibly difficult, but the time limit is there to ensure you're always moving forward instead of spending time grinding and crafting before every strong enemy. Because of the time limit you have to challenge every boss with the resources you have access to at the moment and can't afford to take the time to grind.

Unsurprisingly most people hate this. If you look up any conversation about Atelier you will see loads of people repeat the same sentiment: I really want to like these games but the time limit makes these games too stressful.

Fortunately for these people, Gust and Koei Tecmo listened to these criticisms, and none of the recent games have had a time limit. The casuals rejoiced and now Atelier is more popular than ever before. You can do whatever you want without consequences, you will never feel stressed at any choice you make, if a boss is too hard, you can take your time grinding your stats without worrying you're playing the game wrong. And most importantly: you will feel comfy playing as a cute girl. 

And yet despite how popular and acclaimed Atelier is now, I find it all so very boring. Atelier used to be one of my all time favorite video games series, but now I no longer even feel any desire to buy the latest games in the series. The games being designed entirely around managing the time limit was what made the games so fun for me, and I think Atelier moving to a more casual direction is what made me realise how much I love this kind of stress and anxiety inducing game design. 

The removal of the time limit isn't the only significant change Atelier has had in recent years, but because everything in Atelier used to be designed around the time limit, its removal is the easiest to point out. With no time limit there is no longer any weight in the player's actions. With no time limit the player can take their time grinding and crafting as much as they want. With no time limit the games's challenge stops being about effective resource management, and instead it is simply about making your numbers go up.

It's not my place to dictate how others play their games. A lot of people are having fun with the modern Atelier games so maybe I'm just a toxic elitist for thinking it's boring. But I wish the games would at least include the time limit as an optional hard mode instead of removing it entirely, especially since it is something the Atelier Marie remake did a few years ago. But it's a remake of a game that already had a time limit, and they never brought back the time limited hard mode after it, so I don't think it's any indication of the series' future direction.

 

Making the casualisation optional

 

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, Super Famicom, 1999

For a long time Fire Emblem was a series everyone was aware of but very few people actually played, and the reason for this was simple: in Fire Emblem any unit that loses a fight will not simply be knocked out and then revived when the battle is over like in other RPGs. In Fire Emblem if a unit loses in battle, they will die. They are gone forever and they won't return unless you reload your save file.

Just like with Persona and Atelier, it is possible to end in an unwinnable scenario. Except whereas Persona's and Atelier's time limits only exist to put pressure on you instead of actually being a real threat, in Fire Emblem the fear of ruining your save file is very real. If you don't play strategically enough and lose too many characters, it is very likely you simply can not beat the game as you are lacking characters. 

I think this is great design though. In so many other strategy RPGs you can take risks without consequence, if your strategy requires sacrificing a character, you can simply sacrifice them and they'll be back in your party in the next fight. But this is not possible in Fire Emblem. In Fire Emblem the challenge does not come from defeating all the enemies, the challenge lies in finding a way to defeat all the enemies without losing any of your characters. 

But just like with Atelier, Nintendo and Intelligent Systems listened to the people who said they hate the idea of permanent death. They saw how many people said they would love to play Fire Emblem if only the permanent death was removed, and so, starting with Fire Emblem Awakening the series moved to a more casual direction where permanent death was no longer mandatory. And much like Atelier, Fire Emblem became more popular than it had ever been after this barrier was removed and casuals could finally play the games without worry.

Unlike Atelier however, playing Fire Emblem without the permanent death was entirely optional. For those who still wanted the classic challenge of permanent death, that option was still available. Fire Emblem had found a middle ground that pleased both casuals and hardcore players.

Except not really.

The permanent death may be the most obvious part of Fire Emblem's challenge, but there is one other aspect that makes Fire Emblem so challenging: you can not grind at all. There is only a limited amount of enemies you can fight in a stage, and since you can't replay stages there is technically only a limited amount of experience you can obtain in the game. 

And so every battle presents a choice: will you take certain victory and fight with your strong characters who don't benefit much from the exp those enemies give, or will you take a risk using your weaker units to fight, and ensure they receive experience from these enemies and be stronger for future fights?

I believe this is Fire Emblem's real challenge. Of course the permanent death also makes the games difficult, but the permanent death is something you will actively try to avoid, and it is easy to simply restart a stage if you lose a character. The limited availability of exp on the other hand is not something you can actively look out for, it is out of your control. Much like the time limits of Persona and Atelier, this will haunt you across your entire playthrough and make you question every action you take. 

Even if you successfully keep all your units alive, if you've only been relying on a handful of your strongest characters it is entirely possible you don't have enough strong characters by the end of the game. And because exp is so scarce, it makes the permanent death hurt so much more. You're not just losing that unit, but you're also losing everything you invested into them. 

But when Fire Emblem moved to a more casual direction, they also added the ability to grind optional battles as much as you want. But whereas removing permanent death is a toggle that can be ignored, once grinding was introduced to the series it was something the games were designed around. Sure you don't have to grind in the optional battles if you don't want to, but then you aren't playing the game like you're expected. If grinding is an option then clearly the game expects you to simply grind before hard battles instead of utilising every tool at your disposal to overcome overwhelming odds.

Even if permanent death is still an option, I think it loses a lot of weight because you are now able to grind. Why wouldn't you only use your strong characters for hard story fights when you can level up your weaker characters in an optional fight with significantly lower risks but all the same rewards?

Though to be fair to Awakening, while it may have made the series more casual friendly in general, grindable optional fights weren't introduced there as they were already featured in Sacred Stones and TearRing Saga before it.

EDIT: After publishing this post I have been informed Fire Emblem Engage removes the ability to grind on higher difficulties. I have not played Engage so I did not know it does that, but the point that not being able to grind is a huge part of Fire Emblem's appeal to me still holds true so I will keep the rest of the post unchanged.

 

 

 

When the casual game goes hardcore

 

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, PlayStation 2, 2002

Breath of Fire is a series of 5 RPGs released between 1993 and 2002 (technically there was a 6th game released for mobile in 2016 but people like to pretend it doesn't exist). I have not played the 4th game yet so I can't speak about it, but the first three are fairly basic RPGs of their era, but with a small twist in the gameplay being the protagonist's ability to transform into a dragon (hence the series' name). But despite calling them basic, they are well made games and the series still has a large following among JRPG fans.

However the fifth game in the series, Dragon Quarter, is anything but basic and continues to be divisive among fans to this day. Dragon Quarter abandons everything the series is known for, replacing its RPG traditions for a dungeon crawler that feels closer to Resident Evil than any JRPG.

Gone is the colorful world seen in the previous games, instead the game takes place entirely within a single underground dungeon. And much like Resident Evil, your resources within this dungeon are very limited. You can not go back to a nearby town to simply buy any items you need once you've run out, every item you obtain is valuable because of its scarcity. Even saving your game is done via an item that is in limited supply.

That alone would already make Dragon Quarter too stressful for most people, but Dragon Quarter goes a step further in making sure the player is as anxious as possible: the infamous D-Counter.

The D-Counter is a gauge in the player's HUD that starts from 0% and slowly rises towards 100%. Different actions you take will raise it by different amounts, but even simply walking around will raise it by 0,01% every ~20 steps and each turn you spend in battle also raises it by 0,01%. 

But it gets worse; like in other Breath of Fire games your protagonist can transform into a dragon and receives significant stat boosts in that form, but this time the dragon form penalises you by raising the D-Counter by significant amounts. Each turn you spend as a dragon raises the counter by 2% and each attack you make raises it by at least 1% (stronger attacks raise it even more).

There is no way to lower the counter, and if it ever reaches 100%, you die instantly. That means if you've saved your game when your counter is too high, you might have to restart the entire game.

Dragon Quarter is significantly shorter than any Persona, Atelier or Fire Emblem though, and the game kind of expects you to fail on your first playthrough. There's also a lot of secrets (including brand new story scenes) you can only see on subsequent playthroughs. So not only are further playthroughs expected, they are encouraged. 

You might have guessed this already, but I love this. Dragon Quarter is an incredibly stressful game and it is extremely easy to end up in a permanent failstate. 

Your limited resources and the slowly rising D-Counter make the game hard, but like Persona's time limit those are there to encourage careful play, it's unlikely you run into a permanent failstate simply from running out of items or walking in circles so much your D-Counter goes to 100%.

Dragon Quarter is actually about resisting temptation. Once you obtain the dragon transformation, you can use it to kill any enemy and boss without trouble. It is absurdly strong and even during the endgame nothing can stop your dragon form. But every time you turn into a dragon, you get so much closer to the permanent failstate.

And so Dragon Quarter's challenge lies in finding ways to defeat enemies in your human form using your limited resources. But any time you face a challenge that seems too hard, you ask yourself "can I defeat this on my own or should I give in to the temptation?"

This dynamic is what makes Dragon Quarter such a brilliant game. 

The point of all this

When it comes to Dragon Quarter I am sympathetic to the people who hate it. It is a sequel that abandons its previous target audience to instead appeal to insane people like me. Indeed, this game has no reason to be called Breath of Fire, and fans of the previous four games have a right to be disappointed at its more hardcore direction.

But the reason I wanted to talk about Dragon Quarter is because I think I also have a right to be disappointed when a game loses its challenge in order to appeal to a wider audience. Yes, everyone who complains about Dragon Quarter being too stressful is in their right to do so, but similarly I want to complain when a game loses its hardcore edge for the sake of a wider audience.

Atelier is a series where the risks (and the anxiety of their consequences) were a large part of their appeal to me, and when those risks are removed, the games have lost their appeal. Same with Fire Emblem, when the anxiety of not being able to grind is removed, the games start feeling a lot less strategic to me.

It is ironic then that Persona, the most popular and mainstream game I talked about, hasn't lost its time limit. Though Persona keeps introducing new ways to make the games easier, they have stuck to their guns regarding the time limit, no matter how much players complain about the anxiety they feel because of it. I think that's admirable.

I do not want to come across like I am telling people they can't enjoy modern Atelier or modern Fire Emblem, I am not telling people that the way I enjoy these games is the only right way. Most people do not enjoy time limits, permanent deaths and resource management. That's fine, you can enjoy games however you want and I am not trying to take options away from you.

What I actually wanted to say with this essay is that these stressful games have an audience. It may be a niche audience, but people like me do exist and we enjoy this kind of challenge. Most people will think permanent failstates are the result of poor game design, but these games are intentionally designed this way. I am tired of people who act like Atelier was fixed by removing the time limit, I am tired of seeing people call old fans toxic elitists for wanting these games to bring back the challenge from the older games and I am tired of feeling comfortable in RPGs that used to make me stressed.

 

 

 

Why I love Berwick Saga

Shouzou Kaga 

 

To talk about Berwick Saga I must first talk about its creator Shouzou Kaga and his previous two works: Fire Emblem and TearRing Saga. Though Kaga is called the father of Fire Emblem, he only worked on the first 5 games. During the development of Fire Emblem 5 he grew dissatisfied with Nintendo and founded his own game studio Tirnanog to develop games for PlayStation instead, and to create a successor to Fire Emblem called TearRing Saga.

There was a lot of controversy surrounding TearRing Saga's development, and Tirnanog was even sued by Nintendo for stealing Fire Emblem's gameplay (this was in the early 2000s so the concept of spiritual successors for video games hadn't been established yet) but despite its development troubles and pressure from Nintendo (and fans who felt Kaga had betrayed Fire Emblem), TearRing Saga released in 2001 to modest success both critically and commercially.

I played TearRing Saga earlier this year and found it quite enjoyable. I believe it is a worthy successor to the first 5 Fire Emblem games and it is a game every Fire Emblem fan should play, but I also thought the game had a severe lack of identity as most of its gameplay was lifted directly from Fire Emblem. It's no wonder Nintendo tried to sue Tirnanog for it, as there are very few original ideas in TearRing Saga, and it instead feels like a best of compilation for everything Kaga tried with the first five FE games.

But Kaga and Tirnanog must have also seen TearRing Saga's lack of identity, because in 2005 Tirnanog released TearRing Saga's indirect sequel for PlayStation 2, and it is what I consider the greatest strategy RPG I've ever played: Berwick Saga.

 

The evolution of Fire Emblem

 

Though the game is commonly (and understandably) called just Berwick Saga, it's full title is actually TearRing Saga Series: Berwick Saga: Lazberia Chronicle Chapter 174. And though Berwick Saga still bears the TearRing Saga name, unlike its predecessor that simply borrowed from Fire Emblem without offering much new, Berwick Saga scraps almost everything its predecessor had borrowed, and innovated the strategy RPG genre in ways not even Fire Emblem itself has ever been able to accomplish.

And the moment you begin Berwick Saga you immediately start to see these innovations. First and foremost, the tried and true square grid that has been a staple of SRPGs since their inception has been replaced with a hexagonal grid instead. At first this seemed like a superficial change that only serves to make it look less blatantly like Fire Emblem, but the more you play Berwick Saga, the more you start to understand how this switch to hexagons fundamentally alters how you engage with the game's maps. All units now have six different directions they can move to and every panel has six different directions you can enter from, so strategies like barricading an enemy or creating road blocks (very common strategies in Fire Emblem) become nigh impossible to pull off outside of very specific circumstances.

Another big change has been made to how turn order works. Rather than the player moving all their units in a player phase, followed by the enemy doing the same in the enemy phase, the player and the enemy now move their units one at a time. So you move one unit, then the enemy moves one of theirs and you get to move another one of yours. Once you and the enemy have moved all your units once, the turn ends. Each unit can only take one action per turn, so once a turn ends everyone can move once again. 

This change completely alters the flow of gameplay. In FE, the player turn is a safe time, you don't really need to consider the order in which you move your units because the enemy won't move again until all your units have moved. But Berwick's system means each action you take has to be carefully considered. In FE if two characters are in enemy range you can move both of them out of the enemy's range on player turn without worry. But in Berwick you have to really consider the risks of such action because as soon as you move one unit out of enemy range, the enemy might attack the character you didn't move. But it also means you can react to the enemy's actions as soon as they happen instead of watching every single enemy move at once during enemy phase as they destroy you.

But by far my favorite change introduced in Berwick Saga is how the player's army functions. The player only has access to a handful of loyal knights in their army, way less than the recommended amount of units the player should deploy in a stage. Instead, to compensate for the lack of knights, the player has to hire mercenaries into their army. Mechanically the mercenaries work like any other unit. They are named characters who fight like any other unit would, they level up and you can improve their equipment like all your units. But they will not work for free. You need to pay them money in order to deploy them into battle, and money is a very valuable resource in Berwick Saga so you can't just hire every mercenary whenever you want to. 

But while that may sound like the game is discouraging you from using mercenaries, they are very much worth investing into as many are much stronger than your initial set of knights. Each mercenary also has their own questline you can complete to then recruit them as a permanent member of your army, though these questlines often can not be completed until late in the game. The desire to see as many of these questlines as possible is also a great encouragement to rotate your deployed units more often.

Those are the three biggest changes but there's so many other smaller ones that have a big effect on your strategies, such as:

 -Mounted units and their horses now have separate HP bars. It is actually possible for the enemy to kill your horses, which not only significantly weakens your mounted units but also forces you to buy a new horse after the stage is over.
 -Bows (including crossbows and ballistas) now require you to equip arrows in addition to the actual bow, which gives them much more utility than they ever had in Fire Emblem as there are many different kind of arrows you can use to deal different kinds of damage.
 -Certain characters can equip shields, which gives them a chance to increase their defense during combat. But much like weapons, shields will break if a character blocks too much. 
 -Spears deal extra damage based on how many hexes the character wielding it has moved on that turn before attacking, meaning spear units are at their worst when fighting at close quarters, and at their best when the enemy is at a decent distance away where the spearman gets to rush towards them before attacking (and this makes spears an excellent weapon for mounted units)
 -It is possible to capture enemy soldiers. Capturing them not only allows you to steal their entire inventory (granting you many valuable items for free) but captured imperial soldiers can also be ransomed with the empire to earn some extra money (however it is also possible for the enemy to capture your soldiers, in which case you must pay the empire a ransom to release the soldier)

And while not a mechanical change per se, it is worth noting how important money as a resource is in  Berwick Saga. I always respect an RPG where money has actual value, and in Berwick Saga money is one of your most valuable resources. Whether its hiring mercenaries, rescuing imprisoned soldiers or buying items, equipment and horses, running an army is not cheap and your opportunities to earn money are quite limited so you must put great care into deciding how you spend your money.

There are many, many more mechanical changes to the gameplay and I could fill this whole post with just listing all the things Berwick Saga does differently (and arguably better) from Fire Emblem and TearRing Saga, but I hope I already got the point across. Whereas TearRing Saga was a simple successor to Fire Emblem, Berwick Saga is its evolution. In fact, Berwick Saga is so different from Fire Emblem that I feel by drawing comparisons between them I am doing a disservice to Berwick Saga, as it stands proud on its own without needing to draw any parallels to Fire Emblem.

 

Lazberia Chronicle Chapter 174

 

As I mentioned earlier, the game's full title is TearRing Saga Series: Berwick Saga: Lazberia Chronicle Chapter 174. The name is quite a mouthful but it makes sense as TearRing Saga Series is there to show it's a successor to TearRing Saga while Berwick Saga is the actual name of the game, but what about the last one. What is Lazberia Chronicle and why does it have 174 chapters? The game never explains this, nor is the number 174 ever referenced in the story but I have my own theory on what that name means. However before I can explain my theory, I must talk about the story in general.

Berwick Saga takes place on the Lazberian continent, which is dominated by two countries: the empire of Raze and the kingdom of Veria. Veria and Raze have been on hostile relations with each other for centuries, and several years prior to the start of the game, the two countries have engaged in a full scale war where Raze is finally about to wipe out and conquer Veria for good. And as Veria's king dies and the capital falls, the game's protagonist Reese joins the war and the game's story begins.

On the surface Berwick Saga's story is nothing special. A very basic good guy kingdom vs bad guy empire story where our brave hero joins the fight, turning the tables and vanquishing Raze's invaders.

Except that's not at all what happens in Berwick Saga. While the generic set up is there and never goes away, where Berwick Saga subverts your expectations is that Reese is not some heroic commander who leads the fallen kingdom to victory. Reese is not arguably even the main character of this story as Reese is more or less the new king's errand boy. He stays far away from the front lines, and is instead tasked with missions such as espionage, evacuating civilians, escorting troops and rescuing prisoners.

While Reese's efforts are no doubt important to the war and Veria's survival, he is not the one who turns the tables and wins the war. Rather than a grand tale of war like in Fire Emblem, Berwick Saga tells a very personal story of Reese's struggles as he tries to help as many people as he can to survive brutal war. And the player too only ever gets to see the war through Reese's perspective. While there is a narrator explaining the course of the war between every chapter, the player never sees any of these big battles happening on screen because they are not relevant to Reese's personal story. 

And I believe this might make Berwick Saga's story divisive among people. Surely in a strategy RPG players would rather play as the commander leading their troops on the front lines and fight epic battles, but this bold direction is what makes Berwick Saga's story so special. It is a story all about how even small actions can have a big impact and turn the tides of a great war, and I think that's much more beautiful than yet another story of a brave commander leading their troops in the war's front lines. 

And though I have only talked about Reese, he is not the only character in the game whose story is told. All the cutscenes that could've been spent showing the war are instead spent developing Reese, his knights, his mercenaries and all the various innocent townspeople who are hurt by the war. Each and every one of them is a character with a story, and that is what makes Berwick Saga so special. There are no throwaway characters, even if a character has no direct impact on the plot (which is most characters) they still have a story to tell.

This is also further highlighted by the game's side missions that focus entirely on the game's side characters, so much so that you can not even deploy Reese in any optional stages. Those missions are entirely about developing the rest of the party, and the game does not let Reese steal the spotlight from anyone else (it also helps keeps your party's levels more balanced as you can't simply have Reese take all the exp). 

So with all that in mind, what does Lazberia Chronicle Chapter 174 mean? I believe it shows that even though Reese is the protagonist of this game and the character whose perspective the player follows, there are so many more important people in the war (and in Lazberia's history) that his story is only the 174th in this long war between Raze and Veria. And I think that's awesome.

 

The greatest strategy RPG I've played

 

I've already praised Berwick Saga a lot, yet there is still so much more I could praise about this game. For one thing, Berwick Saga is difficult. While it never reaches the levels of cock and ball torture present in Fire Emblem 5, it is very very difficult nonetheless, and will push your strategic skills to their limits on several occasion. 

But despite how difficult Berwick Saga is, it never feels unfair or overwhelming. A big reason for this is that, like in Fire Emblem 5, every mechanic the enemies do is also available to the player. Every overpowered skill, class and weapon the enemy torments you with can also be used by the player to torment the enemies with. Even fog of war, a mechanic in strategy games that famously only works in the enemy's advantage due to unfairly balanced AI has been balanced in a way that the player can exploit it just as much as the enemy does.

Another feature that gives Berwick Saga depth and challenge is that you can pick up side quests from citizens before each main story mission. These side quests are never simple "kill X amount of enemies" and instead require you to complete unique objectives, often while using specific characters. Not only do these quests require you to do things that might significantly divert from what the main story requires of you, the character requirement of these ensures you will keep switching up your character roster instead of relying on just the same characters every time.

In addition to the side quests, each main story stage also has up to three hidden objectives you can complete to receive tactics points. These tactics points largely serve no gameplay purpose nor do they have any story attached to them like quests do, but they are fun extra challenges that further push your strategic skills (and your tactical points are counted at the end of the game for a final score).

And on top of those, Berwick Saga also contains wanted criminals and rare items you can collect. Wanted criminals are named enemies who spawn in certain stages and can be quite a challenge to take down, but you receive money as a reward for defeating them (and even more money if you capture them alive). Rare items on the other hand are various pieces of equipment requested by a rich collector living in the city, and if you see an enemy is carrying one of the rare items he requests, you should try to take them down.

These parts of the game are entirely optional (though I do not recommend skipping side quests as the rewards are very much worth it) but when trying to balance the main mission's completion alongside the side quests and tactics points, while hunting for the wanted criminals and collector's items is when Berwick Saga truly shines its brightest. It is really difficult, but it is also extremely satisfying to clear all these objectives.

But while Berwick Saga is a really difficult game, there is one huge help the game gives you. Whenever 5 turns have passed in a stage, the game allows you to save your progress. Having those checkpoints in the middle of a stage makes it much easier to experiment with strategies as you don't need reset from the very beginning of a stage if your experiment fails. Though in order to prevent the player from abusing the save points, many main story stages have a time limit (either a hard time limit of clearing the stage in X turns or a softer one where more enemies start spawning after a certain number of turns has passed) to prevent the player from simply waiting 5 turns after every major action so they can save and mitigate all risks. And quite frankly Berwick Saga is so difficult that sometimes merely surviving 5 turns to reach the next save point is an ordeal.

I can say with confidence, that aside from Fire Emblem 5 (which challenged me a little too much), I have never been challenged by a strategy RPG as much as I was challenged by Berwick Saga. Yet no matter how much Berwick Saga challenged me, no matter how much it might have made curse at times and even after playing it for over 100 hours, I never stopped having fun with it. Berwick Saga always gives you the necessary tools for dealing with any situation it throws at you, it is just up to you to figure out how to utilise those tools to survive each of those situations.

 

The obligatory criticisms

 

No matter how much I praise Berwick Saga, it is obviously not perfect and I have a fair amount of things to criticise about it. For one thing, Berwick Saga is filled with secrets that are quite frankly impossibly to figure out without a guide. Thankfully Serenes Forest includes very in-depth resource guides for the game, and without a manual I feel it is almost mandatory to read about some of the game's obtuse mechanics from there to understand how Berwick Saga works.

Another frustrating part is how low your accuracy is, especially early in the game. In Berwick Saga your accuracy is determined in part by your character's weapon level, a stat which naturally grows on its own as you use specific weapons. However early in the game you will be missing many of your attacks as everyone's weapon levels are so low, and I think it makes the beginning much more frustrating than it needs to be. Though the game does take this into account as enemies often have low accuracy as well, and your weapon levels can grow even if your attack doesn't hit.

I also wish the game would automatically equip a new shield from your inventory when your current one breaks. There were several moments when my shield broke and I simply forgot to equip a new one because it's something you need to perform manually from each character's own inventory, and unlike with weapons, the game does not prompt you to equip a shield whenever you are about to fight an enemy.

And as much as I appreciate the ability to save every 5 turns, I think there are moments when that saving becomes a bit too easy to abuse. If, for example, you are on turn 5 and miss your first unit's attack, you can simply reset until the unit eventually hits. Theoretically if you're patient enough you can keep resetting until you get the perfect RNG for the whole turn. 

And speaking of resetting for perfect RNG, the RNG isn't an issue only during combat. One feature of Berwick Saga I haven't mentioned is the restaurant in town where you can feed your units to receive various buffs at the start of each chapter. It's a great feature that helps with a lot of the tougher missions but you can not choose which of your units visit the restaurant nor what foods are available in its menu in every chapter. So if the available menu (or the characters eating there) isn't to your liking, you have to reset the chapter and pray for a better menu.

 

The conclusion

 

This blog post has already become longer than I intended, and after all my praise I don't really have much more to add to this. It's a shame Berwick Saga never received a follow up, and all of its mechanics were only used in this one game. In a just world TearRing Saga as a series would have the same popularity and acclaim that Fire Emblem does, but perhaps it is for the best that the TearRing Saga series ended after it had reached its peak, as living up to the expectations set by Berwick Saga would've been no easy task.

Though while the TearRing Saga series ended with Berwick Saga, Shouzou Kaga later made another spiritual follow up to Fire Emblem called Vestaria Saga. I've yet to play it and I don't expect it to be anywhere near Berwick Saga's quality as it is a small indie game made with a fraction of Berwick Saga's budget, but I am looking forward to playing it one day and seeing what Kaga has cooked for us after he finished Berwick Saga.

My favorite games 2024

I don't play many games at launch nowadays, I prefer to play them after all the hype has died down and I can play it at my own pace. As such I did not play many games released in 2024 and this is simply a list of the best games I played in 2024.

Up until now whenever I've written a favorite list at the end of the year I've done it on twitter, but this year I decided to change things up a bit and write it here instead. It's partially because twitter is an awful platform if you want to write anything longer, and a blog post like this allows much more freedom, but the real reason is just because this blog is really empty and I want more activity here,

So without further ado, let's get this list started. Welcome to my top 5 favorite games of 2024

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#5 Evenicle (PC, 2015)

Evenicle is a hard game to talk about because at first glance Evenicle sounds like the most generic porn game ever. But while Evenicle is legitimately a porn game, I assure you it is far from generic. In the world of Evenicle there are two rules all humans must follow: you are not allowed to kill other humans and you are not allowed to have sex with more than one person. Breaking either of these rules will make you lose the Goddess' protection, as well as basically all human rights and be banished from society. There is one workaround however, becoming a knight will allow you to have a second sexual partner, and the more heroic deeds you accomplish the more partners you are allowed to have.

And so the protagonist Aster sets out on a journey across the world to become a great hero and have a harem of wives.

But if thats all Evenicle was it wouldn't be on this list. Yet despite that, I must talk about the sex in Evenicle because it does something I've never seen any other harem story do: all of Aster's wives are treated equally as a family. There is no "will they, won't they" with any of the girls, when Aster fancies someone he marries them on the spot (with consent of course, Aster is a gentleman after all). And more importantly, none of the wives are treated as just a member of his harem, everyone is a part of Aster's family, and instead of the girls fighting each other for Aster's affection, all of Aster's wives also treat each other as family. This gives the whole party an incredible dynamic with each other, because they aren't simply friends or companions, the entire party is one big family and that makes following their adventures across the world incredibly endearing.

I think Evenicle is already worth experiencing just for having one of my favorite casts in any JRPG, but it also hides an incredible story behind its generic premise. While the vast majority of Evenicle's story is simply about Aster marrying more girls by doing heroic deeds and beating one dimensionally evil villains, it all slowly builds up towards an incredible climax that works only because Evenicle is a porn game with a world built around strange rules.

My one big caveat with Evenicle is that while its gameplay is not bad per se, it is also not very exciting either. It has a bog standard turn based battle system that doesn't do anything interesting or unique, and every enemy is just easy enough to not pose a challenge, but still hard enough you can't steamroll all encounters without effort, creating a difficulty balance that's just kind of a pain in the ass.

The other big thing holding me back from reccommending Evenicle is that while Aster is a gentleman who respects all his wives, the same can not be said for other characters who do not respect the rules set by the Goddess. Evenicle has a lot of lovely and wholesome sex, but also a lot of disgusting and depraved sex. It's all an important part of Evenicle's story and worldbuilding though, and while some of the scenes in it were really hard to stomach, I wouldn't want Evenicle without them, because every bit of darkness in its world makes the light shine all the more brilliantly.

#4 Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven (2024, Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC)

Revenge of the Seven is a full 3D remake of the 1993 SNES RPG Romancing SaGa 2. The original Romancing SaGa 2 is one of my favvorite games of all time, but it's a game that's far too ambitious for the SNES hardware, and I've always wondered what a modern reimagining of RS2 would look like without the limitations of the SNES hardware. So when Revenge of the Seven was announced earlier this year I was beyond excited to see my dream become a reality.

To my disappointment Revenge of the Seven is not the bold reimagining of Romancing SaGa 2 I was hoping for. My wish was for something similar to Romancing SaGa 1's remake, which changed and added things so much that it is practically a brand new game. Contrast that with Revenge of the Seven, which is simply Romancing SaGa 2 but in 3D.

But despite my disappointment with that aspect, the original Romancing SaGa 2 was an amazing game and this faithful remake is also amazing because of that.

In Romancing SaGa 2 you are the emperor of a country that is under attack by the seven heroes who once saved the world, and have now returned to the human world as monsters to have their vengeance on the ungrateful humans who betrayed them.

How this is reflected in gameplay is what makes Romancing SaGa 2 so cool: there is no set path you need to take across the world, RS2 is a very non-linear game where you can go wherever you want in the world and fight the seven heroes in whatever order you want. However in addition to fighting the seven heroes there is another goal for you: uniting the entire world under your empire, and this is the part where RS2 gets really ambitious and ahead of its time.

Uniting the whole world is too much for one person in a single lifetime, and so sometimes when you annex parts of the world, the game experiences a time skip, after which your emperor has died and you need to choose an heir to carry on the previous emperor's duty. This system is not only super cool as a concept, but it also creates a satisfying gameplay loop where your protagonist is constantly changing, and instead of sticking with just one playstyle (though you can do that if you're boring) you're encouraged to constantly experiment with new builds and classes whenever you need to change your emperor.

There is not much story in Romancing SaGa 2 (most of the story is right at the start of the game and in the heroes' backstories), it's an RPG you play purely for the gameplay, but from a gameplay perspective, as well as its unique premise, this is one of the best RPGs I've ever played (for the optimal experience I highly recommend the classic difficulty mode, even if it seems intimidating).

But it is still a remake of a SNES game, and everything I just said also applies to the original version. Because despite some tweaks to the gameplay to make it more casual and making everything 3D, structurally Revenge of the Seven is more or less the same game as it was on the SNES.

#3 The Legend of Heroes: Kai no Kiseki -Farewell O' Zemuria- (2024, PS4 and PS5)

If you follow me on any social media I'm sure including the latest Trails game on the list comes as no surprise, and I don't think I need to introduce this game or series to you. Trails is my biggest obsession in gaming and I never shut up about it. And while I have some issues with Kai (mainly related to its pacing), it is an incredible game and a reminder on why I love Trails after the previous game (Trails through Daybreak 2) disappointed me.

I'm not sure what I should even say about Kai, it's the 13th entry in a long running series, and if you've never played a Trails game before, Kai is not what you should be looking into, and if you have played Trails games before. you probably don't want to hear me raving about how good Kai is because the game hasn't even been announced for localisation yet.

But trust me when I say Kai is a really damn good game, and you are in for a really good time when it eventually gets released in English. But I also think if Kai was a bit shorter and its pacing wasn't so slow, would've been #2 on my list.

I really can't wait to see what Falcom is cooking for the next game in the series, after Kai I am extremely hyped for the series' future.

#2 Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (1995, Super Nintendo Entertainment System)

The first Lufia is without any exaggeration one of the the worst games I've ever played. It's a game so bad that I eventually turned on cheats to disable random encounters and make my party level 99, because I just wanted it to end as soon as possible. But despite how much I hated Lufia 1, I kept playing it because everyone was saying the same thing: Lufia 2 is so good it makes suffering through Lufia 1 worth it. I was naturally very doubtful of this, how much of an improvement could Lufia 2 really be when the first game has barely anything in its gameplay that I like.

Well you can probably guess this already from Lufia 2's placement on the list, but it is quite possibly the biggest glow up I've ever seen in a video game sequel. You don't actually need to play Lufia 1 to enjoy the second game like I did, as Lufia 2 is a prequel, but their stories are closely related and I think you do get more out of Lufia 2's story if you play the first game before it (that's the only positive thing I'll say about Lufia 1).

But even on its own merits Lufia 2 is an incredible game. The original Lufia was game that copied Dragon Quest very liberally in its gameplay and didn't have any unique or interesting ideas of its own, but what made it so bad was that on top of being a cheap copy of Dragon Quest, the game was also really grindy and the pace of its battles was dreadfully slow. Add on top of that a really high encounter rate and you have recipe for a game that's not enjoyable in the slightest. Lufia 2 still has all the standard turn based mechanics you're used to seeing in JRPGs (though it's not copying Dragon Quest specifically anymore), but the combat moves quickly and its balanced to give just the right amount of challenge. The game also has no random encounters and it's easy to avoid fighting enemies if you're not in the mood for it, ensuring the fights never grow stale like in many other turn based JRPGs.

But in addition to having fun combat, Lufia 2 does what very few other JRPGs do: the level design is good. Lufia 2 puts so much focus on its dungeons I think it's actually a dungeon crawler rather than a standard JRPG. It is simply masquerading as a standard JRPG with its visuals and having an overworld and towns between every dungeon, but make no mistake, this is without a doubt a dungeon crawler, and a really good one at that.

What makes Lufia 2's dungeons so good is that they are full of puzzles, and these aren't ordinary puzzles where you push a couple blocks to open a door (well some of them are, but those are a minority), they are proper brain teasers that will make you think really hard about the solutions. And all of them are built around Lufia 2's mechanics, it doesn't feel like you're stopping to play Lufia 2 to solve some puzzles, instead the puzzles are an extension of Lufia 2's mechanics. You get various tools you use for puzzle solving and it almost feels like a turn based Zelda game (except unlike in Zelda, you use all your tools throughout the game and not just the latest one you obtained in the current dungeon)

In addition to all this Lufia 2 also has an optional dungeon that turns the game into a roguelike game where you start the dungeon at level 1 with no equipment. The dungeon is randomly generated and you need to search chests for new equipment and actively fight enemies to level up, because the enemies keep getting harder and harder as you progress in the dungeon, and you need to keep your party strong to endure the whole dungeon. I must admit I never actually finished this dungeon so I don't know if its final rewards are worth the effort, but as an optional dungeon I think it's a really fun addition to the game, and especially in 1995 when roguelikes weren't so common (especially on consoles) I'm sure it gave Lufia 2 a lot of replay value.

But the final cherry on top of this cake is its story. Lufia 2 isn't very heavy on story, I was actually shocked at how little focus it puts on it until the end. Instead, much like Evenicle, Lufia 2 is a game that puts all of its writing effort into making its party as likeable as possible. Your whole party is very well fleshed out, and the whole world is reactive to your party's actions. It's not the kind of game where your party stays in obscurity until the very end of the game when they defeat the demon king and get declared as heroes who saved the world. It's a game where your party achieves fame and heroics rather early on, and your journey still continues for a few more years after the party has become heroes to the whole world. 

And while the story connecting Lufia 2 with its predecessor gets very little focus in favor of a more character centric narrative, it does have some really emotional moments in its story. And these emotional moments are further amplified if you have played Lufia 1 before it.

Honorable mentions

There are two games I played this year that I'd like to shout out before I talk about my #1. The first is Phantom Brave (2004, PS2). Phantom Brave is a game I would very much like to add to my top 5 list, but I haven't actually finished it. The reason I haven't finished it is because I find it exhaustingly difficult. But aside from the difficulty I love everything about Phantom Brave. Its gameplay has a unique twist to standard SRPG formula that makes it very fun (albeit it is excessively grindy), the music is some of Tenpei Sato's best works, the art is gorgeous and the story is really good (and way darker than I expected from a NIS game made in Disgaea's style). But I still need to see how that story ends before I can say my final judgement on the game, but before I see that end, Phantom Brave gets a preliminary recommendation from me.

The other game I want to shout out is Heaven Burns Red (2024, mobile and PC). I have a hard time getting into live service games, and the only ones that have managed to hold my attention for longer than a month are Granblue Fantasy and Blue Archive. But now Heaven Burns Red is about to be the third game to keep me playing actively for over a month (as I am writing this I have 37 days logged into the game). What I love about HBR is that it never feels intrusive with its live service stuff, once you start the main story you can keep playing without any interruptions as if it's just a regular visual novel (you can even quit in the middle of a story chapter and when you boot the game again it starts from where you left of instead of bringing you to the main menu through several loading screens before you can continue). In fact, while HBR is a very competent RPG even without its story (the battle system is really fun on higher difficulties) all of that can be easily ignored if you just want to experience an incredible visual novel. Aside from having some limitations in its gameplay, it really does not feel like a mobile game at all, and when played on a PC it's easy to forget it even is an RPG designed for mobile phones because it is so easy to ignore all of that as you read through the visual novel portions. And even as a visual novel HBR is so full of personality and charm. I'm still only leaving it as a honorable mention because just like Phantom Brave, I haven't actually finished it yet (not like you can finish a live service game anyway, but I haven't read all the story that is in the game so far) but I am enjoying it just as much as I do Granblue and Blue Archive.

#1 Octopath Traveler II (2023, Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC)

Octopath 2 was one of the first games I played this year, having played it all the way back in January. But even in January I had a feeling nothing else I play this year will top Octopath 2, because this is one of the very best games I have ever played.

Octopath 1 was a flawed game, but despite those flaws I found it very compelling. The game was often frustrating, but I frequently found myself forgiving those frustrations as I fell in love with it. 

But when Octopath 2 was announced I actually wasn't excited, part of the reason I loved Octopath was beccause there was nothing else like it, and though it certainly could be improved, I felt getting more games in the style would be boring and take away what made Octopath so special. I'd much rather see the team do more new IPs that share some of the same DNA but are wholly unique in their design, like Triangle Strategy. The first game had quite a middling reception, but once Octopath 2 came out everyone started praising it to high heavens, even the people who disliked the first game were singing their praise to the sequel. Despite all the praise I tried to keep my expectations in check and was prepared to think "yeah, this is cool but I prefer the first game".

I was dead wrong.

Octopath 2 is a masterpiece, it continues the first game's gameplay style and structure while ironing out all of the first game's flaws. The basic idea of the game is the same as before, you have 8 different protagonists with 8 different stories, you can pick whoever of the 8 you want as your primary protagonist and then you travel across the world to recruit the other 7 characters and complete their stories in whatever order you want. But Octopath 2 brings some big changes into this formula.

The original Octopath was an extremely formulaic game. Every character had 4 chapters, you completed the chapters in a set order (though you can do each character in whatever order you want) and each chapter follows a very rigid formula where your character arrives in a town, something bad happanes, you go to a dungeon to investigate the bad thing, you fight a boss and then the chapter is over. It's a very repetitive game and this formulaic structure is maybe my biggest issue with the game.

Octopath 2 still has some of that structure present, but it does the best it can to mitigate the repetition, Now some characters allow you to clear their chapters in a non-linear order, some chapters do not feature any battling at all, and there are new dual chapters where two main characters share a story together. 

On top of this the 8 stories of Octopath 2 are much more interconnected than the first game's. I think the individual stories are actually better in the first game, but in 2 they form a much more clear bigger picture, and even after clearing just one of the 8 stories you can start making up your theories on how all of this is connected, and seeing the bigger picture slowly form as you complete the 8 stories and gather other clues hidden throughout the world is a wonderful feeling.

And speaking of things hidden throughout the world, there are a lot of them. I went out of my way to complete as many side quests as possible and explore every corner of the world, because I had so much fun with this game. I wanted to see everything this game has to offer.

The base gameplay isn't actually that different from the first game, but I found it a lot easier and less grindy this time around (your reserve party members still don't get exp, but I found the difference in exp less of an issue here than in the first game), maybe a bit too easy in some parts as the game didn't really offer that much challenge outside of the optional bosses, but I still had a ton of fun with the battle system. There are some new additions though. There are new advanced classes that significantly alter how each character plays, and each character now has their unique skills that can't be passed on to others even via class change. Another change worth talking about is that the game now has a day and night cycle that sometimes brings significant changes to what you can find in each area and town.

There's a lot more I could talk about Octopath 2, but I'm afraid a lot of it would end up just being "this was good in the first game, but they made it even better in the sequel". I am trying to keep these entries short but I could write a whole blog post about why Octopath 2 is such a special game to me (maybe I will do that if people would like to read it), but it is a game I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who enjoys turn based RPGs. My final playtime for the game ended up being over 100 hours, but even after all that time I never got tired of it.

Because as I already said in the first paragraph: Octopath 2 is one of the very best games I've ever played.