Originally released as Elnard, The 7th Saga is a Produce-developed JRPG that - premise aside (the hero can either compete with or join other warriors to collect MacGuffins, an idea taken from Wizardry VII), is mainly a decent collection of dejavu (elemental themes, straightforward frontview combat, grindy linear world/dungeon progress) whose variations are too minimal to notice. A more practical exception to the rule - however, involves their encounters, a real-time system that uses blips on a radar-like minimap to initiate battle, halfway between on-map mobs and step-based RNG.

Might need a patch to make this playable. Game is too hard and frustrating if you play the american version.

Also if for some reason you want and NEED to play the american version, don't pick the demon like I did

Not much else to say about this game. It's a very simple.

I play the original version. It’s too hard.

I play the Japanese version. It’s too easy.

Good game.

Como amante de jogos de RPG e tambem de jogos antigos fui tentar jogar essa BOMBA. o jogo ate que começa bem, mas fica extremamente cansativo pelo exagero de batalhas aleatorias (totalmente justificado na época pra dar mais tempo de jogo) mas hoje em dia fica insuportavel. Fora que aconteeceu comigo de na parte onde tem que se derrotar um dos herois com outro heroi simpleste eu não conseguia passar. Eu estava com o personagem tank, contra o personagem assassino, e mesmo eu pegando level MAX com os 2 personagens se tornou completamente impossivel passar, tentei de todas as maneiras. Só conseguindo passar com cheatCode para pelo menos ver o final do game que é totalmente dispensável.

This was a pretty neat RPG. You select one of 7 different characters to start. You can later recruit one of the other six to join you. There is a mini map that shows enemies as dots and cities as circles. If you run into a dot, you start a random battle, so it's not 100% random. It felt a bit grindy, because the power curve didn't just naturally go with the story. You collect seven runes in order to save the world (or something), but then get tricked, go 5000 years in the past and defeat the evil.

This game on it's original difficulty (which was perfectly balanced), is actually quite ambitious for it's time. 7 playable characters that are in a race for 7 gems, and you can eventually team up with any rival. it has an extremely early variant of seeing enemies/treasures on the minimap, and a ingenious gps-like system to help you see where you need to go. Smart use of mode 7. It's a (relatively) early SNES turn based open world RPG that actually plays well (inspired by the first Romancing Saga).

While it's still holds up fine, i can't escape the feeling that it is a bit simple mechanically in comparison with a lot of other SNES rpg's. I'm sure if the American version wasn't so notoriously hard this game would have been a forgotten footnote in the SNES library.
More of a experimental curiosity than a great game, but fun to try nonetheless.

With seven character types, each with a neat little angle to them that informs who they are and what they do throughout the adventure:

A dwarf, who seeks the ultimate power of the runes to become young again

An elf mage, who as the only woman in the party has a lot to prove and prefers to be alone

A priest, who vows to rid the world of evil, perhaps a little too zealously for his own good

An alien, who just wants to be accepted in a world completely different from his own

A demon, who seeks the runes to overthrow the benevolent king and will even stab a party member in the back to do so

A robot, who wants to learn the secrets of its once-great but fallen race

and a knight... who is human... and... uhhh... a guy...

With six character types, each with a neat little angle to them that informs who they are and what they do throughout the adventure, and also a male human knight.


Cool kids play this with a patch that makes it more similar to its Japanese release, and therefore playable. I am one of these cool kids myself. What would my rating be without that patch? Well, that's the spooky part... it would be no rating! I wouldn't have even played it...