SaGa Frontier

SaGa Frontier
Developer: Square Product Development Division 2 Publishers: Square (JP), SCEA (US) Platform: PlayStation Released in JP: July 11, 1997 Released in US: March 25, 1998 This game has unused areas. This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused abilities. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a Data Crystal page

SaGa Frontier is the seventh game in Square's long-running SaGa series. It's an open-ended RPG with seven separate scenarios and, unfortunately, a sharp learning curve and some seriously uneven difficulty, which caused many to quit playing before really getting into it. It's also quite notoriously unfinished.

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Prototype Info

Unused Areas Rooms that should have appeared in existing areas, but didn't.

Blank RegionMap Slots The RegionMap warp device wasn't finished. It shows.

Unused Items and Skills There are a surprising number of unused or hidden items and skills buried in the game.

Unused Text Text hinting at story elements that were cut or different from the final.

Lost in Translation Regional differences, intended or otherwise.

Lost Eighth Chapter

Fuse should have been there, yeah.

Not only were items, skills, characters, locations, and music cut from the game due to crazy deadlines, but an entire chapter also got the axe. It would have starred Fuse and the rest of the IRPO officers (Doll, Silence, etc.), and would have given some much-needed coverage to an otherwise woefully-underused area and group. There are still a few traces of it remaining in the game, however...

Fuse's conversation with Cotton.

In the Japanese version, use GameShark code 301C9F9A 0007 and start a new game. This code will force the player to pick Fuse in the new game. He has no events or dialogue whatsoever; it's like playing as Lute without any story sequences. Interestingly, he still has his dialogue when saving Cotton in the Bio Lab, although he doesn't have any dialogue for the porn book.

Ninagawa? Who is that?

Notably, Fuse is unable to do the quest for Arcane magic, but is still able to go for Rune magic as normal. His otherwise-unused "janitor" sprite (as seen in the debug room) will indeed be used upon entering Despair.

Fuse is unable to recruit Mei-ling, Riki, Gen, and T260G in Scrap. Each character has their own unique dialogue when talking to these characters, and as Fuse doesn't have this dialogue, they can't even be spoken to, much less recruited.

Strangely, if you go to Yorkland and enter the billionaire's house, the game will think you're playing Riki, and you will begin the Yorkland ring quest. You can even return to Koorong and recruit Dr. Nusakan.

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Where am I?

When you visit Manhattan, naturally enough, Fuse is not present in the cafeteria.

What's Fuse doing there?

One of the few clues remaining in the English version, however, is located in Omble, as Fuse is present along with all the other fake "main character" shadows (Mei-ling and Gen are basically there to represent T260G and Riki, who can't enter this area). The only way this can be seen, though, is by playing the game via emulator, in which a glitch causes the actual sprites to appear after fighting a battle.

Deleted Quests

A Japanese SaGa Frontier community produced a patch to reconstruct several deleted events using event insertion manipulation, although it can only be used with the Japanese version. While they are not 100% accurate, at the very least it allows a unique opportunity to see how they're supposed to appear in the game. The translation can be found here.

Not dressed for the weather

Asellus was originally supposed to escape from Facinaturu via Kurenai (the sentient flame pit that otherwise serves no purpose), which would have evidently burned off their clothes (utilizing the nude sprites seen below) and sent them to Mosperiburg. Asellus and White Rose would then have had an audience with Virgil, who would provide them with clothes, then teleport them off somewhere else. The scene of the audience with Virgil still exists in the US version. To trigger it, in the beginning of Asellus' scenario, teleport to Mosperiburg by means of the RegionMap item (through hacking). The scene will be triggered, albeit with Japanese language and the camera off the screen.

She is a madman.

According to Essence of SaGa Frontier, a supplementary guide released only in Japan, Asellus was supposed to visit the Bio Research Lab in Shrike, where she would have a conversation with a woman named Nashiira (unnamed in the English version, at least) who conducts various experiments on both humans and mystics. Asellus would then learn that humans and mystics can both be equally evil.

Go wild, fetishists.

Asellus was also supposed to meet with Dr. Nusakan at Koorong, where she would ask him whether he could restore her humanity. She also expressed concern that she might turn into half-male due to Orlouge's blood.

I'm calling clones.

Another of her deleted quests involved her abduction and imprisonment in the Trinity Base, as seen in Emelia's chapter. This would have created some oddities in that it technically would have been possible to have Emelia on the team during this scenario...

Other deleted scenes found in the text dump:

• Asellus was supposed to meet with Furdo, who would have taught her that there are also lesser mystics that possess unique power that Mystic Lords don't have (in Furdo's case, the ability to petrify things). The scene was supposed to appear after White Rose ends up trapped in Dark Labyrinth. There exists a very slight trace of this in the final, even in the English version, as if you elect to fight Furdo before Asellus learns all three mystic skills, it's possible for her to pick one up here. This does not happen with any other optional bosses.

Debug Room

An all-star cast!

There exists a debug room, but it's nowhere near as full-featured as the one in, say, Final Fantasy VII. Nevertheless, it has a few interesting functions. To enter it, input GameShark code 8001300C 02E1 and load a saved game. If successful, you should be in a large, empty blue room with some purple Japanese characters reading さんぷる (Sample) "spraypainted" on the floor, in hiragana, which is weird, since English words like this are usually written in katakana. Disable the code, and walk to the right until you reach a screen with all the game's playable characters.

In this room, you can add or remove characters to your team at your leisure, allowing you to effectively create mix-and-match "dream teams" not normally available. Simply talk to the chosen character, and choose the top option to add it to the party, or the bottom one to remove it. Monsters and unused characters are represented by slimes; the one in the middle is "Woman", and the top row, from left to right, are as follows: CommonMec, Thunder, Cotton, Sei, Kylin, Slime, Suzaku, and RedTurnip. When you're finished, exit to the right to access more of the debug room.

The second area consists of all the main characters (including Fuse; another remnant of his lost chapter), and speaking with any of them will change your "map" sprite (the character you walk around as) to that character. In the case of Red and Riki, two sprites are displayed, and the upper ones will change you into Alkaiser and Riki's humanoid form, respectively.

Beyond this screen are numerous more "debug rooms", but there's nothing else to do, as the entire remainder of the debug room is simply a sprite test, although there's some interesting stuff here if you care to explore.

The only way out of the debug room is via the RegionMap, so you may wish to either visit the debug room as Blue or hack in a RegionMap via GameShark.

Unused Characters

There are two unused characters present in the game which can be added to the team either via the debug room or a GameShark code.

CommonMec

Though T260G is able to change his body to any of the game's available mec-types in his own chapter, one form stands out for being unused by anyone else in the game: the Type 7 body. And that's exactly what CommonMec happens to be. It's possible that CommonMec is the mec from Scrap who runs the inn, since it does appear to be the only actual Type 7 mec in the game, but if you were ever supposed to be able to recruit it, well, the method for doing so was scrapped. Pun intended. Nevertheless, CommonMec works perfectly both in battle and out.

Woman

The second of the two unused characters. Unlike CommonMec, however, "Woman" was clearly never even finished. If her generic name didn't tip you off, the fact that her menu sprite is just a spinning T260G and that she looks like Rabbit in battle should. Despite her robotic appearance, she's categorized as human and functions as any other one would. She actually works, if you can get past her decidedly-unfinished nature.

Other Unused Sprites

In addition to the characters listed above, there are also a handful of unused sprites which can also be seen in the debug room.

The first is one of the few pieces of evidence left pointing to Fuse's dropped chapter: a Despair worker uniform, the same type worn by Red, Blue, and Lute if they visit Despair in search of the Freedom Rune.

The second sprite is a Type 7 mec with a silver palette not used anywhere in the game. It's possible this sprite was intended for CommonMec, but wasn't implemented.

The third sprite is of a mysterious woman who appears several times in the debug room. She looks rather like some sort of superhero, so it's possible she'd have had some connection to Red's chapter. Given her important-looking appearance, she may also have been who the unused "Woman" was supposed to be.

The last two sprites are... just as they appear: Asellus and White Rose, naked. Early versions of the game would have had them escape Facinaturu via Kurenai, the sentient flame pit just outside the town, which is indeed where these would have been used. It's worth noting that this sprite proves that the poofy white thing normally on White Rose's head is a hat, not her hair.

Unused Character Art

Periodically throughout SaGa Frontier, usually after accomplishing something significant, character artwork is displayed. However, quite a lot of it is never, at any point, actually shown. Note that several names listed are incorrect, going by the English translation. (Mondo is listed as "Mond", Virgil is listed as "Vadjoueal", and Mei-ling is listed as "Meiren"; Rei is also never referred to as "Rei Hime" in-game.)

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  Alkarl

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  Doll

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  Dr. Klein

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  Fuse

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  Captain Hamilton

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  Mei-ling

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  Mondo

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  Orlouge

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  Rei

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  Ren

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  Rouge

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  Virgil

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  Zozma

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  Blue and Rouge

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  Chibi/SD renderings of Red, Riki, Blue, T260G, Asellus, and Emelia.

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  Asellus and a few other mystics.

Unused Ship Graphics

When traveling from region to region, brief animations of various ships in flight are displayed. There are a few such animations that never appear anywhere in-game, however.

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  Front view of the "Bug" ship.

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  Alternate angle of the "Bug" ship.

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  "Tanzer" ship, from behind.

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  "Tanzer" ship, underside.

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  Side view of the sleek green ship.

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  Small grey battleship.

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  Red plane with propellors, back view.

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  Red plane with propellors, front view.

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  Cygnus, underside from front.

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  Cygnus, underside from back.

Unused Music

There are a handful of songs in the game that are present in the OST and can also be heard in the programmers' room music test, but are not used in the game itself.

Asellus' Theme

Given how surprisingly sinister and out-of-character this song sounds, it was probably intended for the ending in which Asellus becomes a "Full Mystic".

Destiny -A Law-

Judging by the name and the overall tone of the song, this was probably supposed to play after the duel with Rouge in Blue's chapter, during the credits roll and the monologue afterwards. There is actually no music at all played during this sequence, which is particularly odd.

Standard Yorkland Song

An upbeat, cheerful tune. Given its name and the OST's ordering, it was probably intended to be Yorkland's theme. Lute's ending song, "Dear My Country", is used as the town theme instead. Although given the celebratory nature of "Standard Yorkland Song", this may or may not have been the original intent... It borrows portions of its melody from Romancing SaGa 3's Island at the End of the Earth.

Robot 2

An upbeat "techno" song reminiscent of T260G's last battle theme. Technically present in the game, although only heard in the music room of 2nd Div. This song is not present on the OST, either.

Riki

This track is included on the OST as hidden bonus track before track 1 on disc 3 (start track 1 and then press "rewind" to hear it). Talking to Kenji Ito in the music room of 2nd Div. will have him play this otherwise-unused song.

Assorted Oddities

There are many strange things in SaGa Frontier, such as doors that don't open and some stuff that looks important but isn't. And, inversely, some things that don't look important but actually are.

Strange Picture

This unsettling image isn't technically unused: it flashes briefly on the screen shortly after Asellus wakes up at the start of her chapter. So briefly, in fact, that while most players will notice it, about the only reaction it gets is "What the hell was that?" when in fact it's actually quite interesting. Asellus' story is that she was run over and killed by a carriage, and revived by a transfusion of mystic blood. This image is, in fact, the last memory Asellus had before her death and rebirth. In Remastered this image remains on screen slightly longer.

Unfinished Odds and Ends

Deep within the Koorong sewers is a single manhole that won't open. There's a message about the lid being stuck, but there's simply no way to open it. It was supposed to lead to Shuzer's base in Red's scenario, but in the end the developers chose a different point of access and forgot to remove the unused ladder.

A clear outline of a trap door can be seen just outside the basement entrance in Owmi's Lord Manor, but at no point in any of the seven chapters does it actually open. There is an instance (in Riki's chapter) where you're dumped down a trap door in this very house, but it's underneath the symbol on the floor of the main hall.

Princess Rei, the shrine maiden in Devin, will give you information about Time and Space magic if asked. However, you can also ask her to "draw a sacred lot", to which she responds that she's "sold out". This never changes at any point in any chapter, so the significance of this is unknown. "Sacred lots" could potentially refer to omikuji, the act of drawing fortunes (lots) at a Shinto shrine.

Just to the right of the final chamber in the Luminous Labyrinth is a small room with what appears to be an altar and a mirror that, unlike the rest in the labyrinth, cannot be moved. You can redirect the beam of light towards this room, and through some manipulation of the mirrors and orb it's entirely possible to get all six of the beam's colors to end here. Originally, getting the beams to this room would have unlocked treasure drops, but in the final game this mechanic was consolidated in the main room.

One of the rooms in Berva's underground base is heavily shrouded in mystery.

First off, the treasure chest here can't be opened because the developers forgot to code a treasure for it.

Second, there's a strange-looking object here that is very clearly meant to stand out, but absolutely nothing happens if you examine it. No effect, no message, nothing.

Finally, there are a pair of YellowFighters behind the wall in the middle of the room that you can't see, but you can still fight. Odds are, they would have jumped out at you after taking the chest or messing with whatever that object is, but as neither work, these enemies never show themselves.