Romancing Saga 3 : SNES Review

Good morning all, rise and shine; it's time for another RPG Review from yours truely, Mark57Raider. This time I will be talking about Romancing Saga 3. A game that is not recognized because of the way the game is played; square thought sales would go down hill because the USA would not like it. On a side note it is also maturely themed from usually super nintendo rpg titles. Onto the story though. In Romancing Saga 3 there isn't a main protagonist for all of the game. You have the freedom to choose the sex of the main character, while also choosing their class rank and weapon. I have no idea how this relates to the gameplay, but the options are pretty clear. The story revolves around the solar eclipse wiping out human kind every 1,000 years or so. No creature can escape this fate and you must seal the gates before the devil king emerges. With killing the creatures of the abyss gate you must kill the devil king and save all the land. But as you play each character has their own backstory and willingness to fight. So the beginning is pretty open wide.
The graphics aren't really much the best. They are pleasable, but they could have done better. It does indeed have an anime-ish feel to it, but somehow again; the graphics make it look more mature. And there is even a bloody scene in the game. There are someone scribbled looking graphics in buildings and towns. But for me the visuals are okay. Nothing like chrono trigger, Tales of Phantasia or Super Mario RPG. Stuff looks rather drab. Although that may be the facts, the characters sprites are more interesting. Some enemy art is rather good, but like I said. Environments are bland and could have been better. Just drab looking. Fortunately though graphics don't always make a good game so it doesn't matter. At least to me.
Ah yes the playability. I've got to say this is one of the BEST features in the game. But many people I don't think like to play it just for that. Like I said you start off being one leader in the game. This game is really really non-linear. Maybe linear for just one part, but the freedom after that is immense. Basically you have to trigger quests called events in this game to unlock new quests to fight the Devil King.... or so I think. You can have a maximum of five characters in battle similar to that of Final Fantasy 4. Each character may even have a number towards the weapon in the menu screen; in which that entails how strong you are with particular weapon. While fighting in battle you do not exactly level up as a number, but you power up in stats. Accordingly the stats portray as : Hp Up (slightly increases your maximum hp), Weapon Up (increases strength of that weapon class), Magic Up (Slightly increases your maximum mp), Tech Up (Increases the maximum number of Tech Points that go towards using special skills in battle) and Elemental Up (which increases the power for that particular magic, WP and JP are Waza(Tech pts.) and Magi(Magic pts.) respectively. Some items you use you have to equip on Hand such as weapons, even items need to be equipped in order to use them in battle. The body part, or lower 4 slots are basically armor and defensive slots that can increase your defense.
Battles in Romancing Saga take place when you run into an enemy on a field map. In towns though you can press "x" to jump from house to town and back to the world map. But you cannot do that in hostile areas; due to monsters. Once you go into battle, you can use your regular weapon, techs, magic, and multitechs (granted that you have any) to win the fight. This game is more of a ruling game. Whoever is strongest. You have HP and LP. HP basically is a defense for your LP (Life Points) If your HP goes down to 0, the character's LP reduces by 1 and you are killed. When that happens you can revive your character, but be careful; your LP never rises over the set limit your character has which is usually 10 for most characters. If your life points reduce to 0 your character is gone for GOOD. No turning back whatsoever, so you have to be careful. Monsters will attack you in battle. But the style of gameplay is pretty much all wait time turn based with the battle starting as soon as you set all your characters in motion. Upon fighting monsters your character will have a lightbulb above his or her head. This means you have gained a new Tech or Waza Tech that you can use. Be sure when you completely learn it to save some slots in the camp menu screen so that you can always learn new stuff. Once you do master the Waza, anyone can learn to use it. Magic learning however is not learned in the same way. You have to buy magic from the magi lady in various pubs and then use what you have in battle to power your magic up. Also with there are 6 elementals this time in the game and only one character can use one type. The elementals are fire, water, wind, earth, sun and moon. Spell effects are also neat to look at if you like to also play with magic too.
One last note also is that you cannot explore new towns and hostile areas until you talk to people or finish certain other events. This game is also undoubtedly hard. I am very far, but have yet to finish. Although that may seem so, I continue to enjoy it and hope that my review may also be of use to you as well. Farewell and happy Romancing. 9/10 just because graphics are kinda crappy.