"So what?" you may be thinking. "I'm tired of this new journalism crap, I just want to know if the game is good or not. I don't care what you and your friends play."

Well, you've got a point there. But so does the introduction about my friends. You see, of the seven people who were in the room when I first popped in Romancing SaGa, after fifteen minutes, not one person in the room, myself included, desired to see any more of the game. Fifteen minutes may not sound like a long time, but in Romancing SaGa, it's enough to become familiar with most of its deficiencies. Now, that's not to say Romancing SaGa is a complete abomination, redeeming portions do exist, but they're just not redeeming enough for most RPG fans to enjoy. The game will, at best, only be enjoyed a very small, very limited minority of the RPG fanbase.

At least Romancing SaGa starts off nicely. Per the Square Enix standard, the introductory CG is slick, employing a sketch technique to outline background objects before filling them in, the resulting effect looking rather neat. And though I can't understand what exactly the accompanying song is trying to convey, I can grasp that it is pretty and enjoyable to hear. And once you dive in past the title screen, it's relieving to know the music remains nice and the CG stays slick throughout most of the game.

The only other really nice thing I can say involves the environments you explore, as they can occasionally be very pretty. Sure, there's the dark, gloomy cave, but then there's that waterfall in the background. A few towns may looks straight out of the dustbowl, but they do this with a psuedo-watercolor style that just exudes cool .

Sadly, the one constant between all of these locales is your character, the design of which is not as objectively pleasing. Presumably a homage to the original 2D version that only appeared back on the Super Famicom, the characters here also have heads that are far too large for their bodies. While this worked well in a 2D environment, especially since larger heads helped you keep track of your character's location, it doesn't translate quite as well to 3D. Some won't mind, but others may find the largely disproportional heads and appendages disturbing, even a bit creepy.

But what about the gameplay? After all, the graphics don't matter as long as the gameplay is good, right? Well, that's kinda broken too. Here's how Romancing SaGa works out: You choose one of eight characters, each with their own unique storyline and such. Then the game tosses you into their shoes, sometimes with a good idea of what to do next, sometimes not.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have no problems running around aimlessly when I have no idea of what I'm supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, Romancing SaGa manages to ruin this as well, thanks to some balancing issues. Early in the game, you'll be dying frequently as enemies seem to come in two varieties: regular and impossible, with no way to tell which brand you're about to face. It gets a bit better as your power up, but by then you're recruiting new characters into your party who end up ridiculously underpowered, so you’re just fighting battle after battle leveling up for hours on end. Again, some will enjoy this, but most won't.

Thankfully, a Quick Save function allows saving at any time outside of battle, which comes highly recommended, but saving after every battle gets rather tedious. And that'll end up a pretty common thing unless you have mass amounts of time to waste - I probably lost two or three hours of gameplay before I sucked it up and started saving after every battle.

The battles themselves aren't that bad, but there's a lot to keep track of - DP, HP, BP, and LP. DP, or durability points, tell you how many times a weapon or item can be used, and can only be regained by repairing a weapon or buying more items. BP is used for special moves, while LP determines how many times your character can lose all of their HP or get hit while unconscious before they're permanently dead. Luckily, HP is refilled after each battle, so you only have to worry about getting through that. LP, which is also consumed when running from a battle, can only be restored by sleeping at an Inn, so it's best to avoid using it as much as you can.

Outside of this, battling doesn't stray much from the standard turn-based dynamic. Characters can have multiple weapons equipped at the same time, and a combo system helps to keep things interesting, but it's still possible to mindlessly mash X through the battles after the first few quests.

Those quests, by the way, can be a major source of frustration. There's no way to tell what skills you'll need on a certain expedition, so you may end up going through most of a dungeon to discover you need to buy a skill, but once back in town, you may need to embark on another quest just to afford it. There's also no real way to know where to find these quests, outside of talking to everybody you come across.

"I can manage that as long as the story's good," right? Well, it's really not. The story never comes to a point where it becomes the driving force that justifies the monotonous battling. And the voice acting is just plain terrible, complete with the annoying random quips at the end of battles that sound more forced than natural.

Despite all this, there are some that will absolutely adore Romancing SaGa. Eight characters, each with separate quests, provide a lot of replay value, and that's before the more hardcore fans start experimenting with the various character classes. Most traditional RPG fans will find themselves bored and frustrated with SaGa's extremely open-ended and unforgiving game design, but those select few who find themselves excited by these prospects will proclaim this one of the most satisfying experiences in recent memory.