Unlimited Saga - Reception

Reception

Unlimited Saga entered the Japanese sales charts at number 3 behind Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, selling 196,471 copies. By the end of 2003, Unlimited Saga had sold over 438,000 copies in Japan alone. By the end of Square Enix's fiscal year in May 2003, the game had sold 560,000 copies worldwide. For selling over half a million copies, Sony Computer Entertainment awarded the game a Gold Award during the 9th Annual PlayStation Awards on June 29, 2003. Unlimited Saga was scored a 31 out of 40 by Famitsu magazine, earning the publication's Silver Award. Prior to its release, Unlimited Saga was recognized by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association in its Game Awards Future category at the organization's annual event.

Unlimited Saga was not well-received outside of Japan, receiving mostly low to average scores from critics. Electronic Gaming Monthly simply declared: "This game sucks. Unlimited Saga exemplifies everything that's wrong with RPGs today and throws it all together in one deluxe package for all to avoid like the plague." Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine largely agreed, stating that the game "ruined the SaGa franchise" with its "excruciating difficulty, obtuse mechanics, a stifling lack of freedom, and a brutal mission structure that punishes you as often as it rewards you." GameSpot called it "simply unpleasant to play", calling the gameplay "irksome" and remarking that "he reel system is interesting in theory, but in practice it's just an annoyance". The website would additionally pan the game's "incredibly nonsensical" story and voice acting that ranges from "decent to really bad." IGN applauded the game's music and presentation, calling the game's audio "Unlimited Saga's most valuable asset", but found the rest of the game lacking, stating the "production values, character designs, and personable lead protagonists are a plus, but the clunky interface and lack of acceptable functionality hurt it - and hurt it bad." GamePro found the game generally lacking in quality, but declared its biggest hindrance to be its steep learning curve and non-linear story, finding that "ven basic navigation is difficult in this game—it will take you an hour or two before you have any idea how to get anywhere." RPGamer called Unlimited Saga the "biggest letdown" of 2003 in their annual RPGamer Awards. The game maintains a 52% average score from aggregate review website Game Rankings. GamesRadar called it the 25th Worst Game Of All Time.