Playing a saga backwards.

Silva Saga tells a story over three games and across two consoles. I decided to play the last game first because reasons....

But it was pretty fun anyway! 

Welcome to the World of Minelvation! We're at the grand conclusion of it all, so of course, we're gonna play as the world renowned hero, Silva, right? No? We're a random dude with amnesia who was found shipwrecked but suddenly wants to seek out the grand hero? That's odd. So you're this dude, right, who wakes up and starts off on a journey to find Prince Kyral. He walks all over where Kyral was, meeting a lot of his friends. His girlfriend, in fact, is the first person to join him. There are also a few who are even more random than you! There are fifteen people who join your adventure for whatever reason. Some are told by another king, two girls use you as a bodyguard, a guard gets bored, etc. None of them feel important, which they're not; not even you do. They don't even get their own class or spell list. There are no character arcs or vital side quests. They're just here. Which is in line with the bosses. There's pretty much only one worth talking about, and he's a Dragon Quest BBG with a backstory. Ho hum. The plot is also lacking depth. But I still somehow liked it. I'm a sucker for sprite changes and weddings. (1-1-2) 4/10

The gameplay, though, is a lot of fun. Besides your ever changing cast of stupidly named people, you also have access to two other types of parties. You can buy your own brand of mercenaries to travel with you. Those four fight separately for you, so only call them when you want a break. I never used them at all. They were very expensive... I did make liberal use of the Idols, though! These statues function similarly to the mercs but only cast magic. Their HP, MP, and status are restored after every battle (unless they die), and they're free. It's a waste not to. You can also combine two of them to create something (probably) stronger. I have no idea the differences, and magic isn't hella diverse in Silva Saga, so I never noticed. Idols are effective, so I used them pretty regularly and held down the turbo button for their auto battle. Elsewhere, you can warp everywhere, including dungeons, which is gonna lead to bonus points in another review system. Either way, I had fun. There's zero difficulty if you're only using one or two parties, so this is probably what's called a 'junk food' game. 6/10

The music is solid. There are a few near bangers but only one I really want on a playlist. Castles feel regal, towns are peaceful walks, and dungeons are ominous. If the game were more well known, I might call it a measuring stick. I just liked it. 9/10

Artwork is a weird thing. As with my previous review, I think the world sprites are lacking. They're very NES premium. But enemy battle sprites are really flashy. Spell animations have their moments, too. What's weird, though, is how beautiful cities are. Buildings almost rival FFVI, and those shadows are really neat. If there were a few more tilesets, there might be a stronger rivalry. Dungeons look different, as well, but they're all still either caves or towers. I loved what they did with the overworld forests and how they actually hide you. 8/10

And Silva Saga has its moments of shine. The world calls out to each other, and there's plenty of NPCs. The rotating cast sees to that. You can inspect nearly everything in a house, and I should do a deeper dive into that. What happened to that mouse I kept finding? Because of the game's brisk pace and difficulty, it lasts the perfect amount of time. 7:10

Silva Saga II isn't super great, obviously. Maybe if I had played the other two games on the NES, which do have fan translations, these random characters might feel more impactful. There's something here. Or it's just a competently made game in a sea of garbage. Whatever. I just think it's neat and liked playing it. Never found out what a Silva was, though...

34/50