An obvious-in-retrospect but still very cool detail that must have been introduced for the remaster because NG+ didn't exist in the original iirc: When you recruit
Rouge in NG+,
he has all of Blue's stats and spells from your previous playthrough.
Back to the game being a mess:
OK OK OK these are all very good and interesting arguments, and I'm at least partially convinced by a lot of them. That said, Blue's story still has
even less incidental dialog and storytelling than any other given story so far (3/7) (not counting Lute for the time being), and with such a...bold ending, taking everyone's very good analysis into account, I still think they could have done a
little more to convey that. Like... instead of freeze-frame in the middle of a technique, have the camera slowly zoom out and/or fade to black as that last turn plays out. That would have given the player time to process "something is happening" and it's also very classic/recgonizable visual language. Now I'm nitpicking, I guess, but I do wish it had given just a little more to go on so the reaction could be "What? Hmm..." instead of "Wait, what the fuck?"
But the more I hear in-depth analysis of initially-inscrutable game and storytelling design decisions, the more I appreciate them.
Uh-oh...
That kind of brings me to my own "final thought" on SaGa Frontier: I feel like this game was a little too understood by its authors, and there were a lot of design decisions that can absolutely make sense, but only if you really understand the whole of the game. Like, every scenario, every sidequest, and the importance of knowing the difference between the two before you burn out on experiencing everything. And narratively, the fact that, say, Blue is very much just a jerk, and isn't like another PSX Final Fantasy-esque "he'll be less gruff eventually" protagonist is super important to his ultimate fate, but you really can't understand the full scope of that until you realize Rogue was "the good twin" all along from other scenarios. And the whole of the game (particularly in the original incarnation, thanks memory cards) is not the easiest thing to grasp under the best of circumstances. I can see how a lot of these decisions make sense in the fullness of understanding all of SaGa Frontier, but in the individual moments of it, it is all over the place, and likely to "offend" a player with its very distinct choices.
Anyway, I do believe a lot of thought and care went into SaGa Frontier's original creation and the remaster. I very fondly remember the game then and now. I also think it is kind of a mess.
This resonates with me a lot. I actually don't go so far as to agree with the dungeons thing you mention, but even that is proven by this paragraph's argument, because I "know" the game well enough to accept that. And part of that is through a frustrating experience or two of getting to the end of a dungeon and finding out I'm in the wrong place (both of the ruins in Shingrow are just called "Ruins," fucking
come on guys), and part of that is through absorbing others' discussions and participating in my own.
So now I look at all the extra spaces and areas and it doesn't bother me because instead of wondering why I can't go there, I look forward to finding the scenario that actually takes me there; that, I think is a really strong part of Frontier's anthology design. Case in point, after two runs wondering what was going on at Shingrow palace, I finally got to explore it in Emilia's scenario. (Meanwhile, I'm already tired of the Bio Research Lab from grinding human stats and monster/mystic absorbs, and I have yet to be actually pointed there by any scenario).
So by playing and getting to know the game, all those weird design decisions start to take on context and become "just part of the game" for better or worse.
Oh no...
Guys...
I think...