SaGa 3

The Pureland water entity appeared and flooded the world's present, past, and future. The water brought monsters which hunted people day and night. Cities fell one by one, covered by the sea... However, a few individuals prepare for a journey that may determine the fate of the world...

SaGa 3: Jikuu no Hasha (Champion of Space-Time) was the third SaGa game made. It was renamed Final Fantasy Legend III for its North American release to boost sales.

An enhanced remake for the Nintendo DS was released in 2011 titled SaGa 3 Jikuu no Hasha: Shadow or Light. As with the remake of SaGa 2, the chances of an official English release are slim to none due to the poor sales of recent games in the series.

Tropes used in SaGa 3 include:

• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts - The Talon crewmembers act as shops, and charge you for their items despite being along on your mission to save the world.
• Blind Idiot Translation: As was common for obscure Game boy pocket games. Naming a Chtulloid abomination "Sea Monkey" is only one example.
  • "I TRUST YOU."
  • Likely due to space constraints, the word "The" is omitted frequently. So as a result, it wounds like they're talking about objects and locations as if they're actually people. They especially do this with the Talon.
    • That last one actually makes sense towards the end of the game, when the male lead finds out his dad's brain was installed inside it.
• Brainwashed and Crazy - Lara is in this state when you first meet her in Dogra's cave. Like many examples, she comes around after a sound thrashing.
• Cool Ship - The Talon
• Cloning Blues - If the body is destroyed, a piece of DNA will restore them.
  • In the Japanese version they can be brought back from a fragment of one of their cells.
• Crutch Character - the Fifth party member, although Myron pretty much fits this trope the best since he could actually solo the mini boss.
• Death Is Cheap - See Cloning Blues above.
• Degraded Boss: The Sea Hags.
• Dub Name Change: Almost every named character in the game had a different name in the original Japanese version. Three of the four mains, for example, originally had gratuitous French names.
• Eleventh-Hour Superpower: Borgin, although he's pretty much a support character in the final battle.
• Eldritch Location - The Pureland/Another Dimension appeared in all times simultaneously, and time does not exist inside. (Which is why the Talon's time traveling capabilities have no effect once it warps inside. There is still cause and effect, though, and inns work the same as always.)
• Floating Continent: Which blows up, as usual.
• Fridge Brilliance - The villains frequently mistake the main character for his father Jupiah, who they presumably killed. The reason it never occurs to them that it's the son they're dealing with is because they dealt with Jupiah before he had children.
  • They also use the "lack of the word 'the' when describing an object" on the Talon a lot. The Talon2 is actually controlled by Jupiah's brain - so in a way it is a person
• Future Badass - Dion.
• Game Breaking Bug / Good Bad Bug: This is perhaps the least glitchy out of the first three SaGa games; if not for the fact that it doesn't use a lot of complex mechanics such as the first two Stat Grinding systems.
• Guest Star Party Member: Myron, Lara, Dion, Faye, and Borgin - although Borgin actually stays in your party throughout the end of the game, surprisingly!
• Heroic Sacrifice - Dion (Twice!)
• La Résistance - In the Future, humans have begun a resistance movement against the Masters of Pureland.
• Oddball in the Series - It's the only game in the series to utilize a conventional levelling system, and it does away with many of the unusual game mechanics that made the first two games unique (such as breakable weapons and the ability to carry more of them at the cost of being able to carry less other equipment). It also features a number of rather... weird things that never appeared in any of the other games - even by the standards of Saga's typical medieval/techno settings - the least of which was a sentient time-traveling battleship.
  • An oddball no longer; the Nintendo DS remake uses the same gameplay systems as the SaGa 2 remake.
  • It's also one of the oddballs in the game boy trilogy for the fact that it's actually the least glitchy of the three. The first one has items that are worthless or overpowered because of glitches and oversights (including the famous One Hit KO the final boss with the saw trick), the second game still had its share of glitches, whereas the third game doesn't really have any that let you solo the game with one character or sequence-break and finish the game very fast.
• Point of No Return - Once you warp to Pureland, all of the Talon's units malfunction, preventing you from returning to the "real" world.
• Reset Button - You can retry any battle that you lose.
• Shout-Out - There are quite a few references to H.P. Lovecraft, most notably in the design of The Masters. The Virus turning the people of Muu into Waterhags is a reference to Lovecraft's "The Deep Ones". The original Japanese version also had a good number of Japanese pop-culture references, most of which were understandably changed for the NA release.
  • You can also meet a trio of adventurers, mother, father, and son, looking for the Lost Ark in the game - Sound familiar?
    • It certainly should. In the epilogue of SaGa 2, the hero and his family leave to search for said Lost Ark.
• Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness: In the future, you can buy Laser Blade swords and submachine guns. These are quickly outclassed by X-Space equipment.
• Stable Time Loop - The Elder warns you that he met people looking for the Talon Units. Not long after, your party encounters the Elder in the past and...asks him about the Units.
  • Although one would think the present Elder would recognize that the people he is sending to the past are the ones he met prior to these events. However, it's possible the Elder does recognize them, and simply does not tell them for fear of altering their actions in the past.
• Sword of Plot Advancement - Only the mystic swords can physically damage the final boss.
  • Although it's actually possible to use the Ninja sword or a nuclear bomb to damage the final boss; the nuclear bomb is a one-use item and the ninja sword inflicts maybe one or two hundred damage tops - The mystic swords could do over a thousand.
• What the Hell, Player?: The game makes fun of you for touching a lit fireplace ("Ouch!"), or attempting to jump while standing under a low doorway.

The remake provides examples of:

• Adaptation Expansion: Sidequests with multiple endings for one thing.
• Balance Between Good and Evil: Explicitly between Sol and Xagor/Ragna. Which is why Wanderer needs them both killed at the exact same time.
• Bare Your Midriff: Any character who takes on the "Esper" character class.
• Breakable Weapons: As per the SaGa standard, although you can have them all recharged for a price.
  • Weapons also have multiple attacks. You can use the basic attack which will take one use off the durability counter, or more powerful attacks which will take off 2, 3, or 4 uses.
• Bonus Boss: Wanderer True Final Boss, Rage Against the Mentor, What the Hell, Hero?
• Evolving Attack: The multiple attacks mentioned above, gotten randomly by increasing your proficiency with a given weapon type.
• Grim Up North: The final dungeon sits on an icy northern continent in the Other Dimension.
• Literal Split Personality: This turns out to be the relationship between Sol and Xagor/Ragna. When they're together, they can even create worlds.
• Preexisting Encounters: Instead of Random Encounters.
• Stat Grinding: Completely replaces the Character Level system used in the original GB version, again making this game more like a true SaGa series game. In addition to that, there are also proficiency levels for weapon types and magic.
• Stripperiffic: Milfie (Gloria)'s revised costume design. One suspects the "care for" tag is the biggest piece of material on the outfit.
• The True Ending Changes Everything: The revelation that Wanderer was playing both sides fills in a lot of the gaps in the original story. (He's Borgin, by the way.)
• Theme Music Power-Up: The Stethroth/Talon's theme music kicks in whenever you warp to another time period.
• Took a Level in Badass: Borgin is considered much more powerful in this version than in the original.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: To Wanderer's dismay, both sides move much more quickly than he expects, so he has to continually give the opposite sides more aid to counter his last boost. Yet, the heroes don't even have reason to be suspicious of him until they've already completed his plan for him.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair