A Postmortem on "7th Sagathon"
It's January now, and while we haven't left Ticondera behind just yet, December is behind us, and the group playthrough experiment that came to be known as 7th Sagathon has formally come to an end! To mark the occasion, here are some closing thoughts on the event and on The 7th Saga itself.
First and foremost, I'd like to share my gratitude with everyone who participated. Whether you blazed through the game, are still chipping away at it, bounced off midway, dipped a toe in the waters just to say you did, or simply observed from a distance; whether you joined in conversations in the Discord server, on Twitter, or in private; every size, shape, and avenue of participation on display these past six weeks was an invaluable contribution to a small but vibrant fan culture for one of my favorite old games. To be able to share this thing that I love with old and new friends and have it be lovingly received and discussed and celebrated and critiqued is everything I could have wanted. A rousing success! I can only speak for myself, of course, but this was, among other things, a sort of birthday party I threw for myself, indeed the first I've had in my adult life, and a wonderful one at that. Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by for making the day and whole month of my birth special.
Credits: Narf, Katterson, Rea, Narf
Those who persevered through any or all of The 7th Saga's most hostile parts deserve some special congratulations. When I listed the game's trials and tribulations in the introduction, I was mostly going by memory, but upon replay I saw my words were closer to the truth than I had realized. To those who overcame getting outsped by Spideks, incinerated by Sages, mutilated by Mutants, flattened by Flames, stonewalled by Monmo, extirpated by Serpants (sic), undone by Undeeds (also sic), and vaporized by every random enemy with a VACUUM spell - I say kudos. This game asked a lot of us, either grinding or persistence or understanding of its mechanics. I hope those investments paid off for you as much as they did for me.
Credit: @quinn_today
A special word of appreciation too for everyone who ignited joy and excitement with fanart, memes, a video let's play, and a wealth of 7th Saga-inspired music (see samples from Narf, Wipomatic, fotocopiadora). What a treat to play with so many talented and generous artists of diverse skills and styles! I hope this game's unique aesthetics, attitudes and experiences will continue to inspire those who played it.
In short, I'm endlessly pleased by everyone contributing their time, energy, personality, creativity, blood, sweat, and tears to this a once-in-a-lifetime gaming experience. I can never say it too much: thank you for making this celebration and experiment everything that it was.
Credits: marikedrawinge, SleepySheepy, fotocopiadora, @Lintilion
Partly 7th Sagathon was a birthday celebration, but as I described in the introductory post, I wanted to celebrate The 7th Saga itself, too. It's part of my personal strain of romanticism to see something holy or magical about lonely old spaces like The 7th Saga's world that once alight with the energy of the hands that built them and the eyes that witnessed them. What of my wish to bring fresh eyes to the still glowing embers?
Credit: K Cross
Well, that went a little differently than I anticipated. I think the light I wanted to reveal wasn't quite as warm or bright as the light we brought ourselves to the event and to each other. This isn't quite what I was looking for, but I want to be careful here to distinguish between unmet expectations and surprise, because I'm not unhappy that I got something different than I had set out for. Mauve in the Discord server described her own experience as "transformative" and that word's been sticking with me. For me, 7th Sagathon transformed a silent den with a smouldering fireplace into a winter's night party aglow with fresh candles and string lights and electric screens - the same walls reshaped by new light. The fireplace, untouched at the center of the room, is only one source. And certainly no source is better or more important than any other - but it's possible that, right now, I get a little more out of the candles and the other new lights. Maybe solemn experiences in dark rooms and warm coals aren't what I need right now, at least not from The 7th Saga. I find most social settings deeply alienating, but I felt at home in the Sagathon group, in our little winter get-together (even if I was perhaps a bit quiet). If the event has illuminated one thing for me, it's that I'd like to spend 2021 lighting candles together, not hunching over embers alone.
(Please pardon the clumsy metaphors. These are weird feelings, romantic and a little embarrassing, and I'm still searching for the right language to describe them with.)
Credits: marikedrawinge, lotus, Narf (@repunstruction), anonymous
As for the game itself... I still love it! Little has changed in that regard. Co-players' discoveries and perspectives helped me appreciate the game in ways I wouldn't have on my own, and I have many new and clearer thoughts on the battle system, which I'm working on summarizing in a separate post. Aside from a couple of clumsy difficulty spikes (in particular at the start of the "northern continent", and at the very last continent) I still love the core experience of traversing a dangerous world, stalked by horrors terrible to behold and more powerful than myself, just barely surviving my encounters with them. I like the way Ticondera make me feel small and fragile, and how this fragility pushes me to make use of all the tools available to survive, resulting in slow, methodical battles that make me feel like I'm carefully, cleverly squeaking by against unfavorable odds. Through sharing interpretations I've come away with new appreciation for the seven apprentices (and Pison) as characters, though I wish we got a little more from them. Seeing the blue sky over the horizon in each overworld battle still whisks me away, though I could have done with seeing it a little less. I don't think the game is quite revolutionary the way I did 10 years ago, although that change didn't happen in the past month. But I do think it's a game with a unique vision built on strong RPG fundamentals, with loads of personality to boot, and I continue to believe there's plenty to learn from it.
Credit: Rea
All told, I think 8 people played the game to the end - half of them early in December, but just last week 3 more people finished. A handful of players still are scattered throughout the game, pressing forward. I know 10 or 15 to have at least started the game, whether they still intend to finish or not. In total, that makes 20 or 30 people who now have first-hand experience with the 7th saga and can speak in some capacity to what's interesting about it. That's huge, considering I expected maybe 3 or 5 people total would commit to playing at all!
Among those who played, Lejes was perhaps the most selected character overall, but is better represented among those who bounced early than those who played to the end, for whom Lux, Esuna and Valsu were a little more common. Wilme and Kamil appeared here and there, while only two players took Olvan along. In retrospect it's unsurprising that the people around me should be drawn more to the demon, the robot, the alien and the girl than to the three humanoid men. My own party was Esuna and Wilme, and I recommend this pairing to anyone looking for a low-stress/low-grind selection for their first playthrough. I prefer Esuna to Valsu for her access to VACUUM magic, and Wilme to Lux because with his high Speed he doesn't struggle as much to hit things. And he gets VACUUM1. Maining someone who can cast REVIVE1 will save you thousands of G over the latter half of the game.
Credits: Narf, @Lintilion, lotus
To anyone still thinking about playing The 7th Saga, I encourage you to give it a try! Our Discord will remain open for new and continuing players. If you like the group playthrough concept but The 7th Saga doesn't sound like your cup of tea, there's been a lot of chatter lately about another sort of group exploration of an old game, so keep an eye on the Discord or watch my Twitter and more will be revealed.
To everyone who did play The 7th Saga, or who is still playing it, thanks again for visiting Ticondera! That vast, desolate world feels less lonely seeing the paths you traced across it, and so too does my own world.
And to everyone reading this, thank you for being here for the conclusion! Even if this was your first exposure to 7th Sagathon or The 7th Saga itself, you too have played a part. To leave you with one last thought: The 7th Saga is full of light and life and beauty and has many still-relevant lessons to teach about the times and traditions in which it participated. At the same time, it isn't unique for this - in many ways, this is par for the course for the 7-or-less/10 RPGs of yesteryear. For something to be a product of its times means that it's a response to the prevailing values of the day, and this is encoded in the creative vision and decisions of The 7th Saga and countless other games left in the past. Every artifact is rich with meaning for those who look for it. Whether or not you find anything in The 7th Saga in particular, I hope you'll keep your mind, if not your heart, open to the losers of games history.
Credit: Insert packaged with SNES cartridge. Scanned by Keenan Cross. Full version here.