Record of Lodoss War is best known to long time anime fans as a Japanese high fantasy series that is often mistaken as fodder to capitalize on Japan’s obsession with dragons and elves that was partially stemmed from the intense popularity of the DragonQuest franchise.  What many people, even some older anime fans that got their start on Robotech in the 80’s, probably aren’t aware of is that Lodoss War didn’t originate as an anime or manga series, or even novels.  Believe it or not, the series originated as a transcript of actual Dungeons & Dragons sessions that were published in a popular computer magazine.  The printed log of some group of computer programmers’ and novelists’ D&D campaign grew to become its own traditional RPG series, and would venture out into other mediums.  To put it short, Lodoss War’s origins were that of the truest form of RPG; the kind that requires some dice and paper.

Most of you that aren’t familiar with Japanese RPG’s probably don’t know the befuddlement that is the SaGa series (yes, they thought it would be keen, far out, and groovy to capitalize each consonant).  Unlike your Final Fantasies, SaGa never really made its’ mark with so much as a cult following the way other titles of the genre such as Suikoden and Star Ocean did with Western audiences.  And if you ask any of us longtime grizzled RPG gamers that embraced their free copy of Dragon Warrior on NES that came with their subscription to Nintendo Power, most of us are going to tell you different reasons; the series was unrewarding, confusing, unpleasantly unbalanced, or simply boring. 

All of these are true, to a certain degree.  The first three SaGa games debuted on the Game Boy, which Square’s US branch renamed as the “Final Fantasy Legend” series to market the games a bit easier (the first “Legend” game was released shortly after the first FF game was localized in North America by Nintendo, so it was not the household name it is now), are heralded as some of the most insanely difficult games on the system.  These games were a slightly different breed, not using a true experience system that almost every console RPG at the time used, but what seemed to be individual stat boosts that occurred post-combat based on some unbalanced algorithm based on character participation and sheer insanity.  While Japan would see three more games in the SaGa series on the 16-bit Super Famicom (Super NES) that all received much higher critical acclaim by gamers everywhere, the series would not rear its head in America until after FF VII hit it big, when SaGa Frontier was released on the PlayStation.  Reviews were abysmal, and rightfully so; it was, like the games we played on GameBoy, an unbalanced mess fogged by sprites clashing with horrible CGI renders, and an attempt at non-linearity that left everyone who just got back from three CD-Roms of Cloud Strife’s journey just totally in the dark as to why they should even bother.  Its sequel, SaGa Frontier 2, met with a bit more nicer words from critics, but commercially had not found its place outside Japan. 

Sadly, SaGa would forever be considered damaged goods when the insane crossbreed of board game, water color slideshow, slot machines and psychedelic turn-based combat called Unlimited SaGa was released on PlayStation 2.  Unlimited was such a dismal failure that when Square-Enix tried to redeem itself by remaking one of the titles from the series’ prime during the 16-bit era (back when the American SquareSoft had too much on their plate to consider localizing the unorthodox series), many were still recovering from the burns to really give Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song a fair chance.  Having played Unlimited, I sympathize when even the most hardcore grinder takeS this frame of mind, as playing it more than an hour has made me physically ill (a feat no game has accomplished since… coincidentally, Square-Enix and Disney’s very own Kingdom Hearts.)  But because I knew that the Romancing set was some of Square’s best work after playing RS 2 and 3, I was willing to forget about Unlimited long enough to give a fair analysis to this enhanced revision of the first SaGa game that English speaking audiences were unfortunate to miss out on.

There was a time when Activision was known for creating innovating and original titles.  I know, isn’t that a riot to think about when you see them today, squeezing the blood out of their Guitar Hero milk cow and litigating lawsuits over games they decided not to publish!?  Isn’t just god damned hilarious to see a revolutionary pioneer in game development turn into the very beast they were fighting before the great video game crash of the 1980’s?!  I’m laughing the more I see Bobby Kotick get his panties in a bunch and throwing temper tantrums at the moneyhungry crazies at Sony, knowing that this was the company that created Pitfall!

Or at least the shell of a corpse that was the original third party video game publisher that created some of the first video games I ever touched.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad video games have evolved over the years.  Nostalgia is overrated.  But at the same time, there were a few damn good games that are worth playing at least once in your life.  The Activision Anthology for PS2 shows us both sides of the coin.  This collection of 46, plus two unreleased, Atari 2600 titles will let you relive the 80’s, and at some point, be thankful you don’t have to anymore.

When you’re diving into any used games bin, you know deep down that you’re probably not going to find some gem that you spend more time playing than you would a recent release that garnered high scores from all the major video game critics, or some classic title from a console era or two ago that’s earned a devoted (and often obsessive and deranged) following.  But there are exceptions to the rule.  After all, that's a reason I made this site.