I´m sure you all are aware of what are WRPGS as well as JRPGS, im sure you all know what are its differences if not just think Final Fantasy vs. Mass effect and you get a pretty good idea.
But there have been times when a Japanese developer creates a western RPG (or vice-versa)
Anyway today's game is the 7th saga for the Snes.
Developed by Enix (that's right you heard me Enix) in 1993 the 7th saga is what I like to call "the Japanese Baldur´s gate" it features a more western artwork, it focuses more on the gameplay and (I'm going to use the term loosely) "freedom" then it does on storyline.
That's what you always say
The story of the game is quite generic and poorly written, your character has been training for years at your king's request to collect powerful runes that will make you the master of the world, if you think this is bad you will soon discover just how bad the rest of the plot is, with poor dialog, and they give you no real reason as to why you are chase the entire world after these runes.
Go collect runes and save the world makes sense... right?
Right in the beginning of the game you will notice the first departure from the typical JRPG genre, you get to choose between 7 different characters, while at first this may seem like a throwback to the first Final Fantasy on the NES you will soon discover that each character you choose has a different (and once again I'm using the term loosely) "personality" and motive in the game
OMG i have choices
Once you step out of the first town you will realize that in this game you will travel alone, there are no parties in the traditional sense (I'll get in to this later) meaning you are left to fend for yourself, as if that weren't enough the difficulty in this game can range from hard to murderous so expect to do a lot of grinding, the encounter rate however is another JRPG/WRPG hybrid, instead of random encounters you have a crystal that serves as "radar" to know wheter or not they are close to you, this way you can avoid needleess battles
Remember the other 6 characters you didn't choose? Well they are your rivals, and this is where the real WRPG elements kick in, some of them will help you at first joining you for a very short while (you cant have more then one rival in your "party") however you can expect them to stab in you the back the first chance they get, if you have acquired a rune then they will attack, and if you happen to loose they will steal from you forcing you to choose "should I go to previous towns and search for him?" "Should I press on?" not only that but even your rivals will treat you differently depending on who you choose or will simply not be there to help you when you need it. These runes however are not just for show; each of them does a special ability (e.g. teleport to previous towns) so if you do manage to get one of them stolen you can expect the game to get even harder then it already is.
![](http://www.gamewad.com/gw_images/overlooked/7saga-1.gif)
beautiful in combat
Graphically the game is a mixed a bad, the mode 7 graphics used while traveling trough the world and in combat are jaw-dropping however the town sprites seem dull and uninspired (even more the other JRPGS), the music ranges from good to bad depending on each town and dungeon, not much to say here.
![](http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/1754/7thsagathe1ug3.jpg)
ugly and uninspired in towns
I assume that Enix at the time wanted to reach out to a more western audience, although at the time WRPG fans were more concentrated on the likes of Star control 2 or Darklands, so it was mostly a question of choosing the wrong platform, but then again, this game pales in comparison so its really a catch-22 kinda thing. The few people I know who have actually played this game all hated it, which is no surprise as they all are JRPG fanatics and don't really care for your traditional WPRG, personally I really enjoyed the game though the difficulty kept me from finishing it.
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