Earlier in the year, SE announced that they are finally remaking Final Fantasy Legend II (aka Final Fantasy SaGa II) to celebrate it's 20th anniversary.  Let me tell you, knowing the game is almost that old makes me feel ancient.  But it's long overdue, as it really was one of the finest games to ever appear on the original Gameboy.  In fact, I'd still recommend it to people today.  They just opened the site for the Japanese version so I figured it's time to start up a thread.

The story:

Assuming you don't know the story of FFL II here it is.  First a little background.  In the world there are pieces of  crystal called Magi.  There are 99 pieces of Magi spread all across the world and the pieces each have different attributes.  Some will increase your stats, others will give you a bonus ability like teleportation.  When all 99 pieces are put together they form the Goddess Statue.  Or at least that's the rumor.  No one has ever gotten all the pieces together.

Magi also has another property though that goes beyond increasing stats and granting small powers.  If used in a certain way it can transform a mortal into a god - or at least something pretty darn close.  Using it like this generally falls under the "abuse of power" guidelines that someone long ago declared in regards to Magi.

So that brings us to today.  You're a kid in a small village and your dad is a adventurer who randomly leaves his family to go on a search for treaure and adventures.  One night before taking off he gives you a strange crystal and babbles something that you don't quite understand.  The next day all hell breaks loose in your village and your own adventure begins.

Through it you'll travel to different lands, meet gods and goddesses (some will be helpful - some notsomuch), gather pieces of Magi, and learn exactly what the hell your father really does.

The gameplay:

Fighting is done in a turn based combat system.  Pretty standard RPG fare.  The more unusual aspect is really more in the leveling up dept.  This is a SaGa game so if you're familiar with SaGa Frontier you'll understand how this game works.  Individual stats may increase at the end of a battle depending on what actions your characters take.  

Typically you'll be fighting battles with your 4 person team, but at times you'll be joined by a 5th wheel.  Sometimes your new NPC will be signficantly stronger than you - like Mr. S the schoolteacher who joins you at the start of the game.  Othertimes you'll be entrusted to protect someone much weaker like Lynn, a young girl who can punch for about 5 damage points at best.  

Your Team:

The team is completely made up to whatever you want it to be.  You can choose from 4 character classes:  Human, Mutant, Robot, and Monster.   The classes are just like they were (again I'll refer you to SaGa Frontier the last decent installment of the game if you need a reference), but here's a quick refresher if you need it:

Humans - Standard balanced character that develops all skills/attributes at a normal pace.

Mutants - Slower than humans at developing attributes, with the exception of mana/magic which they excel at.  They will also learn magical abilities on their own (as opposed to human who require spell books to cast spells).  They'll also learn extremely powerful spells that humans may not be able access.

Robots - Increase their stats by equipping weapons and armor.  The better their equipment, the more powerful they will be.  Sort of a double edged sword because they're only as strong as the available equipment.  At times they'll be the strongest and other times they'll be the weakest.

Monsters - Monsters gain skills by eating the meat of other monsters.  AFter a battle if they eat any meat they will transform.  sometimes they will be stronger than they were, other times weaker.  General rule is only eat the meat of stronger monsters, but that doesn't always work.  They're an unpredictable class, but can be extremely useful.

Media:

First scene of the game - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtQ85tedIEc

Meeting Odin

Official website - http://www.square-enix.co.jp/saga2/

gamingeek said:

So there was a FF Legend 1?

Yes indeed.  It was the first RPG on the Gameboy and a pretty basic game.  Standard turn based combat.  You built a team of 4 (humans, mutants, and monsters) and essentially climbed a giant tower to reach the top where supposedly was where heaven is.   For a very early Gameboy game it wasn't bad at all.  But FFL2 was much better (and frankly FFL3 just sucked).  

Canibalistic monsters? Cool.

I'm getting a bit of a Crystal Chronicles vibe on this one for some reason, but it sounds pretty good.

robio said:

Foolz said:

Canibalistic monsters? Cool.

I'm getting a bit of a Crystal Chronicles vibe on this one for some reason, but it sounds pretty good.

Go ahead and throw that vibe away.  This game has nothing at all to do with Crystal Chronicles.  It's nothing like that.  Much much better.

 It sounded it would be good, thus the "but it sounds pretty good."