This  game is like Honey Boo Boo, a game I am kind of embarrassed to say I like or even play, but secretly I really like binging on every now and then. The 7th Sage is a guilty pleasure of mine.      The 7th Saga is a
unique game that came out in the early to mid 90's for the Super Nintendo. I do
not remember many people other than myself, my brother, and one of my friends
actually playing this game. Due to the online community, it appears that still
not a lot of other people have played it. This game never was as popular as its
contemporaries such as the Final Fantasy games or Chrono Trigger. However I
would consider this an amazing 16 bit gem, and I hope other people would
consider this game a 16 big gem as well. Hint hint.



     The 7th Saga is a turn based JRPG.
You move, enemy moves, rinse and repeat. Defeat enemies to gain experience and
gold. Buy weapons and armor, defeat bosses when then cross your path. This game
is part of an unofficial trilogy of games by Enix for the Super Nintendo, with
other two being 7th Saga 2: Mystic Arc, and Brainlord. However
Mystic Arc is considered the true sequel (but it’s really a prequel I think).
There is a Mystic Arc 2 for the PlayStation 1, but I do not have any information
on that game. All three of the games have similar graphics and even names of
characters. Mystic Arc has an identical fighting system. A review on that game
will come later. There are some speculations of how these games are connected,
but I will not go into those in this review.



Graphics: Honestly, the graphics are nothing special for what the Super
Nintendo could have offered. The best way I could describe this game
graphically is average, or bland. There is nothing special about the over
world, and the towns and dungeons do not distinguish themselves from each
other. There are a few outliers though. Some of the bosses look amazing, and I
think the final boss is stunning, as he takes up most of the screen and looks
terrifying. I think a remake of this game with better graphics would do this
game justice.



Addictiveness: I have a special hypothesis about this games addictiveness. If
someone is a big fan of the Dragon Warrior/ Dragon Quest games, then they would
be a fan of this game. In the Dragon Warrior/ Dragon Quest games, one must
level grind for most of the game. After the long hours of grinding, one will
finally see the fruits of their persistence in the ability to dominate
enemies that were prior so the grinding, dominate them. There is a very notable
difference between one's current level and the levels prior to the grinding.
Increasing one's strength or defense with by 10 points may mean the difference
between victory and defeat. I really enjoyed the old Dragon Warrior/Dragon
Quest games. This game shares a spiritual RPG lineage in my opinion. The answer
to MOST (I use the word MOST for reasons I will explain later) of this game's
difficulty can be solved with more grinding.



Story: The legendary King Lemele recruits 7 apprentices and trains them for
five years. After the training they are set to search the world in an attempt
to find and collect the 7 magical runes. By doing so, they will obtain wondrous
powers. You play as one of the 7 apprentices. Because of the ability to choose
between 7 unique characters, this adds a lot of replay value to this game.
Additionally, as you play the game, you will be able to choose another
apprentice to join your party. Each character has their own unique
characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses. Kamile is your basic overall
fighter, offensive magic user and defensive magic user. He can use a variety of
equipment, but overall he is a jack of all trades and a master of none. He is
always a good choice as a companion. Lux is a robot who is a power house in HP
and defence. He is also a good fighter and usually receives high stat boosts
with levels. Lux is a poor magician, although he can use thunder magic (but his
magic is so low that it is still useless) and his agility is low. Lejes is a
unique demon character who can be characterized a almost purely offensive. He
is fast, has above average attack and can use most swords and is a strong
offensive magic user. However this character is not the strongest fighter nor
strongest offensive magic user, and he is very weak in defense and you will
find that you will die quite often with this character unless you over level
quite a bit. Olvan is a power house dwarf who is the fighting specialist. He
can use the best weapons and can destroy most enemies with a single blow or a
defense/attack blow. Unfortunately he is the slowest character, and his
offensive magic is terrible. He has a few good defensive and healing spells
though. Valsu is your typical defensive magic user and can use every single
defensive and healing magic spell. He can be a good companion to the offensive
characters. Wilme is an alien of some kind, but in my opinion looks like
and attacks like an enemy called Flame in the game. He probably receives the
best stat boosts per level, with overall high stats except for MP and magic. He
is fast, tough, a powerful fighter, and just a cheap character. Playing as
Wilme you will accumulate a lot of gold. He can only use 1 weapon that you
obtain late in the game as an item drop from an enemy. Finally there is Esuna,
the bipolar elf-mage who is the stereotypical offensive magic user. She is
fast, uses the weakest mage-related weapons and armor and has amazing magic
spells.



The story begins after being given a crystal orb with will alert you to
surrounding enemies, nearby runes and treasure chests. You can then talk to the
other apprentices and learn a little about their personalities. Your first main
objective is to defeat the vengeful dead dog spirit of a ruined old
castle. Then you will obtain the Gate of Earth Key which will allow you to pass
a gate to your next 2 towns. In these towns you will be able to find another
apprentice to join you in your quest. The apprentices will either reject you,
challenge you to a fight, or join you. Here you will also discover the ancient
civilization of Melanam and obtain your first rune. After traveling through
some underground tunnels you will find yourself on the South side of the main
continent. You will help a village get some water and be rewarded with another
rune. Then you will run into the city of Patrof, which has been taken over by
one of the other apprentices. Defeat him or her to receive the third rune. Then
you make your way over to the town of Bone where you will take 1 (or 2 ) of
three paths, depending on your character or your companion. You will either go
to an underground lake, go to the Tower of Grime to be transported to another
tower, or help a child  and then be transported via boat to the north half
of the continent. In this part of the game, the world opens up and and the next
three runes can be obtained in any order. Here is also you will do a lot of
grinding. There are a few optional things you can do like a secret cave, or
help stop a war between two rivaling city-states. You will eventually take a
flying contraption across the sea to another country. While traveling towns here,
you will be curses and lose the ability to loose magic. You will then have to
defeat a boss without the use of magic. If you have 2 magic users, you will
have a very difficult time here. Then you will go after Gorsia, and after
defeating him you will gain the 7th run... only be transported back in time
5,000 years and find yourself waking up in a bed in a small town. You quickly
learn that Gorsia came back from the furture, beat Saro and is sitting high in
his castle. While this is happening, the current civilization of Melanam is
alive and well and working on a scientific/dark magical method to defeat
Gorsia. As you investigate Melenam, their machine goes haywire and you defeat
the machine which brings about the ultimate destruction of civilization and
resulting in stranding you and a group of Melanam survivors on a continent where
Garcia is located. You then find Saro, learn some back story, re-receive the
seven runes, travel to Gorsia’s castle and finally defeat him. There is only
one ending, regardless of which apprentice or companion you have chosen. There
is a slight twist at the end, but I will not spoil that part for you.  That is
what YouTube is for haha. Overall, the story is nothing too exciting and does not bring anything new to the table outside of a little time traveling paradox.


Music: This game’s music, like the graphics, are bland to
average at best. The music does change in the over world when you arrive on a
new plane or section of the game which is nice. The dungeon theme is actually pretty
good and a modern fan remake or heavy metal remake would sound awesome. I have
notice the town music being used by certain internet shows such as the Game Theorist,
Angry Video Game Nerd (I think), and The Game Overthinker. Needless to say, I
think people have made better use of the music outside of the game, then the
developers did inside of the game.

Difficulty: This game can be pretty unforgiving and even brutal
at times. You will learn to save the game even before speaking to any other
apprentice. When fighting the other apprentices, you will note that they are
vastly stronger than you at the same level.

I must divulge some information about the general difficulty
of the game and about the difficulty of the apprentices. From my research,
there are actually two versions of this game. The Japanese version and the American
version of the game. The Japanese version is actually easier, whilst the
American version is much more difficult. In the Japanese version, the
characters gain more stat points per level and it is easier to level up. For some
reason the game was made much harder in the American version. In the American
version, you gain the American stats, but the apprentices you fight or accept
as companions gain levels according to the Japanese version. You cannot out
level the other apprentices. They will always be around the same level as you
are.  This is the reason they will always
seem super powerful compared to you at the same level.

When you die in this game (and if you are new to this game,
YOU WILL DIE), you will find that this does not result in a game over. You just
start over in the last inn you save at with half your money. The game does have
a unique jewel system which helps alleviate money loses. There are jewels
called opal, rubies, emeralds, sapphires etc. that can be bought and sold at
the same price. The in-game explanation is that when you die, the monsters
steal your money, but they do not like jewels so they leave them alone.

Depth: Depth from this game can come from which apprentice
you decide to play, and which apprentice, if any, you decide to accept as a
traveling companion. The higher level you are , the stronger they will be when
you accept them as a companion.

Fellow apprentices and runes: This section is a combination
of depth and difficulty. If you have a rune, and fight another apprentice AND
lose, that apprentice will take ALL your runes. Depending on what section of
the game you are in, this can make hunting down that apprentice and defeating
him/her can be VERY difficult. Hence, as stated above, you will learn to save
the game before talking to any other apprentice, and then reset after you lose.

I'm a bit sad that you are embarrassed  that you like this excellent underdog of a game.

Great review though.

You are right , it is an underdog of a game. But it is still enjoyable to that niche crowd. There is a place for this game in some people's library. However, my initial comments were supposed to be more comical. I also like Honey boo boo hahahah. Not THAT is embarrassing!   

I agree with you there...you should be embarrassed you like Honey Boo-Boo.