A very run-of-the-mill role-playing game
Game-play/Play-mechanics: 7th Saga does have one very unique feature that immediately stands out; when beginning the quest you will choose one character from a choice of several, the remaining characters that you did not select will then be important characters for the course of the game, and will essentially be on the same quest as you are, that being collecting the gems of power. These characters can either join up with you and journey with you for a while, as well as fight by your side, or they could also try to take any gems from you by force; (One character even tried to take over a town for himself) if they defeat you the gems will be theirs. These gems give various status advantages in battle when used and provide quite an advantage. Besides that though 7th Saga is a very pedestrian adventure, the battle system is barebones and uninteresting, and you will be fighting a lot, and just the story and chatter completely fail to captivate like a good role-player should. The locales are also nothing noteworthy and the dungeon designs are pretty boring. The game is also of above-average difficulty and some repetitive grinding is required. 7th Saga is simply a game where nothing particularly exciting ever happens, this is not new for RPG’s that were made by Enix back then, their games would often lack a spark to stimulate the gamer, even though the fundamentals were usually sound.
Visuals/Artwork: 7th Saga’s graphics are not technically bad, they are just very bland to look at, and the artistic value is not especially high. Besides a little screen rotation used for the battle-scene transition, the game fails to take advantage of any of the mode seven special-effects that would often make SNES games stand out and impress. I guess you could say that the visual presentation is passable but uninspired.
Music/Sound: Music is also unremarkable, and the few arrangements get spread too thin over the lengthy quest. The production quality is acceptable but for the most part the melodies are pretty boring, with the primary overworld theme being one of the only pieces that I find interesting. In present times, I wouldn’t even give a game like 7th Saga a second look; back then with the lack of role-playing games it stood out more, but there are plenty of RPG’s from the 16-bit era that are far superior.