By Anthony Swinnich on March 29th, 2006

The narrative is well written, even laugh-out-loud funny at times, making the story the most compelling part of the game. It brings together themes of love, betrayal, and corruption like no other GBA game on the market. It’s a good thing the story is so compelling; otherwise there wouldn’t much reason to see Sigma Star Saga through to the end. The gameplay is comprised of the most boring aspects of Action/RPGs and the most tedious aspects of space shooters -- both parts were mashed together to make a mostly annoying journey few will want to experience.

The game is set up like many traditional Action-RPGs when it comes to overworld exploration, but several elements conspire to make it more frustrating than fun to run around on the game’s six planets. First of all, the action is zoomed in extremely close to the character. While this does show off the game’s expertly animated and painstakingly detailed character models, it makes it easy to lose your way at times. The problem stems from there not being enough done to distinguish new parts of the environment from areas you were just in. Also, the close perspective makes the overworld combat a larger chore than it needs to be, since enemies can attack you from off screen before you can see them.

Even if the camera was scaled back some, combat still wouldn’t be any fun since you only have one reliable, yet super-slow attack throughout the whole game. There is another attack, but it doesn’t work on all enemies making it pointless to even use. Adding some depth to overworld combat would have done this game a lot of favors since you’re fighting so often, but as it is it gets old fast. You receive a bevy of creative power-ups as the game goes on which open up previously closed off areas. Usually hidden in these areas are Gun Data, power-ups you’ll equip during the random battles that frequently and irritatingly interrupt the player before any real exploration can take place.

The frequency of the random battles is alarmingly high, usually sucking the player in every eight to ten strides. The battles are agonizingly repetitive -- keep in mind this is coming from a hardened fan of space shooters. As you’re thrust into battle, a number is on the screen, and each time you kill an enemy, it goes down. To leave the battle you have to get the counter down to zero. On each planet you can count on only five or six unique scenarios when it comes to the random battles, and maybe two or three scripted scenarios, which doesn’t make for a lot of variety in game design. It also doesn’t help that the random battles feel thrown together, with enemies haphazardly placed and stages carelessly designed. These problems feel even worse when mixed with other problematic issues found in the gameplay.

One problem is the fact that you aren’t assigned one ship consistently. The game has a stable of five or six ships it randomly picks from, each varying in speed, size and power. About two-thirds of the ships are sized properly, but once in a while you get one of the big ones. Getting a big ship usually results in an irresistible urge to throw your GBA against a wall because the ships are usually too big for the level, consequently causing you to crash. It begs the question of whether or not certain aspects of the game were ever playtested. Crashing lowers your life bar, so it isn’t immediately Game Over should you mess up once or twice, but enough crashes will bring the life bar to zero ending your game. When some levels are played with the bigger ships, it’s comparable to driving a Ford Explorer through a mouse hole -- excruciatingly painful and completely impossible.

Killing enemies during the space shooting segments produces experience points for level building, and like most RPG’s going up a level will raise your ships stats, namely your power and defense. Since battles happen so frequently, it isn’t uncommon for your ship to become overpowered after leaving an area. This may help the random battles pass by quickly, but it also saps away any challenge offered by this game. Another problem comes from one of the games biggest innovations -- the Gun Data itself. While it’s nice to have some offensive flexibility (seventy-six different types are available to mess around with), too many of the options are either completely worthless or far too powerful, which again ruins any sort of challenge available.

The lack of any kind of "Run" function to escape unwanted random battles really adds to the tedium, but it’s important to note that the game is equipped with one of the worst glitches possible, and is something to be aware of. During random battles on the "Forgotten Planet," which is around seventy percent into the game, killing a certain creature as your last kill won’t end the battle; rather it will endlessly repeat the level with no enemies what-so-ever, effectively ending your game. The only remedy is to reset, which can be frustrating if you haven’t saved in a while since your progress will be totally lost. Those interested in playing through this game should be aware of this strange and infuriating glitch.

Sigma Star Saga is a decent length if you can sit through the tedium, clocking in at somewhere between twelve to fifteen hours during the initial play through. Of course, the game does sport multiple endings, the best of which is only available when beating the game a second time. Being able to transfer your Gun Data from your first time through makes for a less frustrating time, and also allows you to try and complete your arsenal. But with an overpowered ship, a second trip only clocked in at around five hours.

Sigma Star Saga could have been so much more. The potential for something truly great was there, but unfortunately the developers concentrated in all the wrong places making for a mostly drab experience. The story and narrative might carry some through this game, but it’s difficult to say who when so many things conspire to make even a hardened fan of both genres want to quit playing.