And we're off!

When we first start the game, some text very slowly scrolls up the screen, which I (somewhat liberally) translated in the intro to this diary.

Basically, we learn that there are these things called Relics which were left by the gods that created the worlds, and they're super powerful and everyone fights over them. It's not the most original or exciting setting for a role-playing game, but this is a game from the 80's and they also have to fit the story onto the tiny GameBoy cartrige, so it's not really the place to look for an epic work of fiction anyway.

Although it doesn't last long, there's a really nice opening theme music here. Very soothing and wonderous. I still need to get around to arranging a recorder choir version lol.

After the little intro text, we're taken to a screen where we can choose what kind of character we'd like to play as. Unlike the first game, we're not just a bunch of random mercenaries, and our lead character actually has a small part in the story of the game, complete with their own little introductory backstory as to why they're going on the adventure we're about to set off on.

There are four classes of characters available in the game with their own strengths, weaknesses, and gameplay style. Unlike most RPGs of the time, the classes in SaGa different not only in things like base stats or aptitudes, but in the very game mechanics that they used to grow.

Our first two choices are the Human Male and Human Female. Do not ask me why the woman is dressed like that in the artwork. Well, I mean, we all know why, anyway.

Human characters largely grow based on the player's choices and style. Their stats will raise at the end of battle occasionally based on the actions they take in battle. Humans can also consume special potions that allow them to grow their stats more intentionally. They don't learn any kind of special abilities, but rather can use a wide variety of equipment. They're the most orthodox type of character to play with.

Our other uncomfortably-dressed friends who make up options three and four are the Esper Boy and Esper Girl. Espers are a humanoid race, though they are quite different from Humans. Espers have innate magical powers which causes their stats to rise unpredictably, and they also cycle through being able to use various magic arts. Their powers seem to come and go at random, so unlike humans which develop based on the style of play the player uses, Espers require the player to adapt their style of play based on the random growth of the Esper.

Our fifth option, the other class that doesn't have variations, is the adorable little Mech. Mechs are a new addition to the SaGa GameBoy trilogy. Unlike Humans and Espers, Mechs' stats do not grow traditionally at the end of battle. While they can carry the same equipment that their Human and Esper friends can, they modify the equipment to become parts of their own bodies. The equipment in turn changes their stats directly and becomes repaired when the Mech is repaired.

Our last class of player character is the Monster. There are many, many types of monsters in the game, and from the beginning we're given three choices: a Slime, a Mini-Dragon, and a Demon. Monsters cannot equip items like the other heroes, but they have a variety of unique abilities. Monsters can eat the meat of other monsters after defeating them in battle, causing them to change form into a completely new monster! Each form has its own set of stats and abilities available to it, so monsters will change forms many times throughout the course of the game.

Instead of trying to choose the best party to play with, or even to use all the character types, I decided to ask on Facebook for people to submit a name and a class, and I used the first four responses to build my party.

While it wasn't the first response, I decided to give the role of the main heroine to the Esper Girl named X.

After choosing a character class for our main character and naming them, our story begins.

The story opens with X in her bed talking with her dad, who has come and woken her up in the middle of the night. From the way they talk, it sounds like Dad going off on adventures is kind of a common thing. Dad gives X a strange item she doesn't recognize and tells her not to allow anyone else to ever have it, then asks her to take good care of Mom. She asks him to come back soon, and he hesitates before saying he will.

Then he jumps out the window. X wonders to herself why he always leaves by jumping out the window. I really wonder this, too. I wonder if they just like... wanted to show him leaving but the text box covered up the door so they had him jump out the window so you could see it or something lol.

Anyway, before moving on, I have to show you DAD ARTWORK.

LOOK AT THIS ABSOLUTE GORGEOUS STACHEDAD.

Of course, it is our luck that we have the definitive hottest dad in the worlds, and he leaves within the first seven seconds of the game.

After that, we cut to many years later, and Dad still has not returned. X is bringing up the difficult subject at the breakfast table that she wants to leave to go try to find Dad. Mom is understanding, though, and says she always knew this day would come, since X loves adventures just like her father. X is worried about leaving Mom alone, but she assures her that she'll be fine. She tells her she should talk to her teacher about the idea of the journey to find Dad.

I should also mention that this entire intro (and if I remember correctly, a lot of text in the game) auto-scrolls and as soon as a line is finished on the screen it jumps to the next line so it's almost impossible to screencap full lines. So if you're reading the screenshots and wonder why the text just cuts off in the middle of sentences, that's why. It's particularly annoying for the case of these Diaries, because I need to use the screenshots to remember what was said. But I just have like... fragments of things that were said with all the endings cut off.

We head to school and talk to Teacher (yeah, he's just named Teacher, kinda like Mom and Dad lol). He seems to be unsurprised that we're going off on a journey, and says he has some things to talk to us about.

He reiterates that the gods created the worlds long ago, and scattered across the worlds these powerful items called Relics. He then reveals to X that the strange item that Dad gave her long ago when she was a child is in fact one of those Relics, of which there are a total of seventy-seven in all. It's said that if one collects all 77 of the Relics, each of which has its own special power, they will form into the image of a goddess.

X wonders why her father would have something like that in his possession, and Teacher responds that he didn't want that power to fall into the hands of evil. X says the Dad must be a hero of justice, and Teacher replies that he's "something like that, I guess." Teacher then goes on to tell us that the Relic given to X by Dad is the Spirit Mirror, and it has the power to tell you how many Relics are remaining in the world where we currently exist.

Just then, a bunch of X's classmates barge into the room begging to go along on the adventure. Teacher says that it will be important to have allies to travel with on our journey, and suggests choosing three of our friends to come along.

And with that, we get to go to the character selection screen again and choose three more members for the party.

And so we begin the game with the characters decided by my four friends who first commented on my Facebook post.

We have our heroine X, an Esper Girl. IceLaic, the Mech. Farel, the Mini-Dragon. And last, but not least, Sardonica the Slime.

I didn't really know how much response I would get, so I was actually prepared to make a character named after myself, and it was going to be a Slime. And then the fourth person who commented ended up wanting a Slime, so it ended up being the same party either way :) But I'm happier naming them after four friends instead of one after me.

Our party has no humans in it. Since they're kind of the orthodox vanilla class, it's not too much of a shame to not have one. Since you have to buy Humans lots of potions and equipment, they can also be a very expensive class to have around. Esper Girl is probably my favorite overall class in the game, though mostly because it was my favorite class in the first game. Monsters can be a burden on the party as at some points of the game they will be much weaker than the other characters (and the enemies we're facing). Without using a guide, the forms they change into are unpredictable, and it's common to end up weaknening your monsters when trying to strengthen them. It's also best to eat meats from rare and strong monsters, like bosses, which means if a boss does drop a meat, we'll have to give it to only one monster, leaving the other struggling behind with a much weaker form.

Monsters have the most downsides as far as their strength in the party goes, but their various forms and requirement to come up with unique strategies to suit those forms also makes them the most interesting and exciting additions to the team. I certainly don't mind a good challenge, so for me, having characters that are technically more difficult to use is not a problem at all, but rather a boost!

And then we have our cute lil Mech, which is fun because it's the new class, and I'm a bit partial to robot characters in general. I love the idea of items being transmuted into their own robotic body parts, and it makes them the most directly customizable class in the game. They also have great potential to be strong quickly and readily, unlike the Espers whose strength raises erratically.

Overall, I think we got a party that is balanced toward being a good challenge and a lot of fun. I don't think I could have even picked a better party than this, really.

After leaving school with our friends, we walk around town to talk to everyone before we leave. Our first stop is Farel's house. Farel's mom is a Medusa-like creature and asks us to look after Feral. I think that the mom here will be the Medusa even if you choose a non-monster class. Actually, I think everyone except the main heroine has monster parents. Farel's mom just asks us to look after Farel.

The next house we visit is Sardonica's house. Her mom is a butterfly monster, so cool! Or maybe a moth, which would be even cooler. Though it looks more like a butterfly. Anyway, She asks Sardonica to make sure she comes home by dinner time.

Isn't it... bad that we're just going to leave on a possibly deadly adventure that will last an indefinite amount of time with her believing her child is coming back home in a few hours...???

IceLaic's grumpy werewolf dad seems to have difficulty with goodbyes and kind of tosses a Potion at us and shoos us away. You can tell he's upset at his daughter (Do you call robots as "daughters" ? Did he build her...?) leaving but realizes its inevitable.

But, uh, hey, we got a free item!

There's a few friends around town who say the expected, "Oh, so you're leaving!" kind of stuff, and returning home, X's mom asks us to take care of everyone and she'll heal the party for free. It's the hipster version of Pokemon Mom.

On our way out of town, Teacher yells for us to wait. He catches up with us and says that he's decided he's going to come along after all. And so now Teacher has joined the party! Other than our four created characters, we'll get these special guest characters like Teacher throughout the story, too.

And with that, our journey to find a hot mustache dad has begun! What better reason to go on an adventure across the worlds, right? Oh, and, uh something about Relics, I guess.

The music here is really exciting -- I think it's the perfect theme to set the stage for a new adventure beginning. Seriously, go listen to it. It really sets the stage with the world appearing in front of us... fills you with wonder and excitement... I really love it! This has a pretty amazing soundtrack for a GameBoy game, honestly. It may even be my favorite GameBoy soundtrack? Anyway, SO SO EXCITE!!

Stay tuned to see how the beginning of our journey plays out :)

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