The best classic game music and more
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/0706/
Turn up your speakers, listen to that gameboy synth!
I'm pretty sure this teaser page for "as-yet-unknown game" will be SaGa 4. Or maybe Romancing SaGa 4. But given the music, I really really think SaGa 4.
After all, they're really promoting the hell out of the series. The SaGa box? The SaGa 2 DS remake (which also had an OST announced, check out on VGMdb or GMROnline!). I'd have to say this is a likely option.
And I will swoon over it.
Remember SE did the trademark tango with a title that translated to, basically, "4 Warriors of Light". So.....I got nothing.
oh my gosh. Four warriors of light...
they've used that one before. FFI. FFIII. Some other places.
Now I'm confused.
SaGa 4 is meh, as I loved SaGa and SaGa 2 when I was a child but they really couldn't stand the test of time. I was also a fan of Romancing Saga 1 and 2, but I really didn't like Minstrel Song.
In the end, regardless of whatever it will be called, I'd rather it be a successor of Saga Frontier 1 or 2.
Is there something I'm doing wrong with this site? I don't hear any music.
EDIT: ok i turn up my volume to MAXXXXX and now i can BARELY hear it. wtf? but it does sound like Game Boy. another SaGa game?
that's why I said turn up your speakers. I'm pretty sure it's intentionally super-low-volume. Took me awhile to realize that too.
I think I read somewhere, although I have no idea where the information came from, that as the countdown....er, counts down....more of the background will be filled in. It could be that they're also going to raise the volume of the music as time passes.
Some people have pointed out that Tomomi Kobayashi, the character designer for Romancing SaGa through Unlimited SaGa*, announced recently on her blog that she did some work for Square Enix. There's been some confusion over this issue, and naturally the best place to go when there's confusion over an issue is The Magic Box:
Square Enix opened a new website which has a countdown to reveal a new game, which is rumored to be Romancing SaGa 4, because the designer Tomomi Kobayashi mentioned he is working on a new game for the first time in 10 years, and he is responsible for the SaGa series.
This is very accurate information, except for the fact that Kobayashi is female, isn't a designer in the "responsible for the series" sense and that "first time in ten years" bit is utterly ridiculous, given she worked on Unlimited SaGa in 2002.
By running the blog through excite.co.jp's machine translator (powered by BizLingo, etc), I came to the much more sensible translation that she actually went into the office at 10 AM, and this is the first time she's worked with Square since they became Square Enix. The last major game she works on seems to have been Granado Espanada. Also, she shares her name with a 17-year old gravure idol.
Anyway, tidings.
*or, as Squarehaven wonderfully puts it, "Tomomi Kobayashi is a videogame illustrator. She was the main character for the Romancing SaGa and SaGa Frontier series."
This is very accurate information, except for the fact that Kobayashi is female, isn't a designer in the "responsible for the series" sense and that "first time in ten years" bit is utterly ridiculous, given she worked on Unlimited SaGa in 2002.
She literally says "for the first time in about ten years". But didn't she work on Minstrel Song as well?
Sounds pretty reasonable to me. A new game in the original trilogy, not the Romancing SaGa trilogy as some sites are speculating. Does the music sound like Kenji Ito to you?
By running the blog through excite.co.jp's machine translator (powered by BizLingo, etc), I came to the much more sensible translation that she actually went into the office at 10 AM, and this is the first time she's worked with Square since they became Square Enix. The last major game she works on seems to have been Granado Espanada. Also, she shares her name with a 17-year old gravure idol.
*or, as Squarehaven wonderfully puts it, "Tomomi Kobayashi is a videogame illustrator. She was the main character for the Romancing SaGa and SaGa Frontier series."
Huh, I THOUGHT that character art on Granado Espada looked quite SaGa-ish. Thanks for the confirmation. 
Sounds pretty reasonable to me. A new game in the original trilogy, not the Romancing SaGa trilogy as some sites are speculating. Does the music sound like Kenji Ito to you?
It does. It does. <3 Kenji Ito. It doesn't matter to me whether it's SaGa 4 or Romancing SaGa 4. It'll be good either way. But it's probably SaGa 4.
Also, as the time is counting down, the music has gotten a little louder, and the drawing has moved on a little more. What a cool countdown site! Nice find on this one.
Ramza
Dais wrote:This is very accurate information, except for the fact that Kobayashi is female, isn't a designer in the "responsible for the series" sense and that "first time in ten years" bit is utterly ridiculous, given she worked on Unlimited SaGa in 2002.
She literally says "for the first time in about ten years". But didn't she work on Minstrel Song as well?
and I thought I had a bad sense of time.
I think you may or may not misread what she posted. She visited the building of Square Enix the other day, and I think she thought it's the first time in the past 10 years. She certainly worked on Minstrel Song, but as her position was basically replaced by Yusuke Naora (=the worst SE character designer after Ryuma Ito), her responsibility was so limited that she only submit her artworks that just followed Naora's shitty ones and didn't even need to visit the company, presumably. I don't remember much regarding Unlimited Saga, but the same thing can apply, I think.
well as previously indicated I cannot read Japanese so anything I infer is based on machine translations and whether Japanese people being multiculturally aware
But you happily bash others sources based on limited English information nonetheless... I know finding good information on composers is hard enough, never mind designers that most writing in the West often don't seem to care about.
But you happily bash others sources based on limited English information nonetheless... I know finding good information on composers is hard enough, never mind designers that most writing in the West often don't seem to care about.
1. They got her gender wrong.
2. It's The Magic Box.
Well I guess we'll find out in about eight days, if I understand the counter correctly.
David
1. They got her gender wrong.
And? The Japanese language doesn't always make gender as obvious as some other languages. Even people who are familiar with Japanese, such as myself, can easily mistake a person's gender when reading written Japanese. If the person writing the article wasn't very familiar with the illustrator, then confusing her gender would be a rather simple mistake. Not to mention that it could have just been a typo that didn't get corrected. Believe it or not, that does happen.
I really don't see why this is such a big deal. :-/
July 6th can't get here fast enough! And thanks for pointed out that SaGa2 DS is getting a soundtrack. Seems that submission slipped past me on vgmdb.
I've been checking the countdown site every so often every time this thread pops up... big f-ing dragon is now on the page... kinda surprised me since everything before on it was so low key...
http://www.siliconera.com/2009/07/01/fo … -revealed/
the 2012 apocalypse cannot come soon enough. I am completely serious when I say I am ready now.
Ha! Always entertaining to watch Square-Enix whore out their Final Fantasy franchise.
Nice, so take parts of the FF3 remake engine and parts of the upcoming Dragon Quest IX engine, slap some paint on the sucker (FF name) and try to sell it. What a letdown. 
I've said it elsewhere and I'll say it here too. This is some sucky-ass news.
It may be the case that the best thing about this game will have been the countdown site. 
So wait... we're all complaining about Square actually making a normal, turn-based RPG for the DS that isn't just a rehash of an old game stuck into a 3D engine? And we're doing it because they slapped their biggest franchise name on it instead of their second biggest franchise name? And that's it? We're not looking at the game itself - just the title? I just want to be sure, because I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around it.
We're not looking at the game itself - just the title?
Well, I'm not looking at the game itself, because the screenshots I've seen so far look pretty damn terrible.
also, what was the last original turn-based from Square (or published by Square) that you enjoyed? Just curious.
The issue, I think is that everyone in the thread felt that a new SaGa was a foregone conclusion, and it turned out not to be. I imagine they'd have been almost as disappointed if it had been say, Grandia 4, but that it's at least in name Another Damned Final Fantasy Offshoot has made the letdown a bit more bitter.
The project doesn't offend me nearly as much, but the FF3DS engine has only gotten worse with time and I hope S-E puts in effort to speed it up, at least.
The only S-E project that really has my dander up is the Front Mission third-person shooter coming to 360, but that's a topic for another thread altogether.
also, what was the last original turn-based from Square (or published by Square) that you enjoyed? Just curious.
That would be The Last Remnant.
Great game that, if you can get past the framerate and loading issues.
That would be The Last Remnant.
Great game that, if you can get past the framerate and loading issues.
They recently released it for the PC through the Steam downloading service, and I wonder if they might have fixed any of the slow framerate/loading issues on the PC ver?
The issue, I think is that everyone in the thread felt that a new SaGa was a foregone conclusion, and it turned out not to be. I imagine they'd have been almost as disappointed if it had been say, Grandia 4, but that it's at least in name Another Damned Final Fantasy Offshoot has made the letdown a bit more bitter.
I'd be much happier about Grandia 4 than this game. This just looks ... absolutely lame.
Amazingu wrote:That would be The Last Remnant.
Great game that, if you can get past the framerate and loading issues.They recently released it for the PC through the Steam downloading service, and I wonder if they might have fixed any of the slow framerate/loading issues on the PC ver?
Apparently so. Now an accomplished game in that regard too after good story, graphics, story, battle system, etc. before. Still, it punishes you for playing it too much with the monsters insanely levelling up.
Did somebody really want SaGa 4? I mean SaGa series is Square Enix's worst, there's not a single good game there.
Yea, SaGa is really really not a good thing as far as the games themselves are concerned.
The Gameboy SaGas have their moments... but yeah, the rest of them don't exactly pass the quality test.
(Some would argue for Romancing SaGa 3 but I don't see the appeal.)
By SaGa, what games you specifically mean?
I'd give you Unlimited Saga and Minstrel Song (and I even think their respective highly acclaimed soundtracks suck), but SaGa games were very good, at least in those days, and deserve being called classics rather than worst. Romancing Sagas were a bit too rough but except for 3, I enjoyed them. Saga Frontier 1 was even rougher but I personally liked it lots (the soundtrack, characters and battle system <3), and Saga Frontier 2 was really flawed yet had one of the best gaming graphics of all time and best Hamauzu soundtrack ever. The setting and story were curious, too.