Game Reviews

Sage Fusion 2

Star onStar onStar halfStar offStar off
|
iOS
| Sage Fusion 2
Get
Sage Fusion 2
|
iOS
| Sage Fusion 2

It might sound like a new brand of herbal shampoo, but Sage Fusion 2 isn't quite the organic experience for which you might be hoping.

It's a sci-fi adventure game with hefty JRPG elements and a few point-and-click flourishes, but its rough edges and half-baked gameplay undermine its undoubted charm.

Despite its epic pretensions, there's a tangible homespun feel to Sage Fusion 2. Rather inevitably, this makes for a rather odd mixture.

Repent at leisure

The game's tale of religious oppression, governmental corruption, and the trauma of losing loved ones rubs awkwardly against the gauche humour, basic animation, and error-strewn English translation.

It starts with a ridiculously exposition-heavy intro that enables newbies to the series to catch up on the events of the first Sage Fusion. It's hardly elegant, but it does at least ensure that you know what's happening in the game's futuristic universe.

You play the part of the bodyguard to a cocky merchant, whose spaceship (the titular craft) has just crashed into a sprawling city-planet that's simmering with religious and political tension.

In this world, artificial intelligence is seen as profane, and heathens are either brutally dispatched on the spot or shunted off for a dose of confession and repentance (read: torture).

Two tone

It sounds like a sullen and weighty affair worthy of Square-Enix's most excessive Final Fantasy melodramas, but this heavy setting contrasts sharply with the light-hearted banter of our two protagonists as they attempt to get to the bottom of the core mystery.

Navigating through Sage Fusion 2's world is a case of touching where you want your characters to go and what you want them to interact with. It's very much a case of take objects A and B to point C in order to advance the plot. And such progress is often clunkily handled.

There's a sudden shift in tone and setting part of the way into the game that's surprisingly moving from a narrative perspective. Unfortunately, its interactive elements are undercooked here, leading to a lot of confusion and random screen prodding.

Battles are turn based, pre-scripted, and way too long for their own good, yet there's a nice timing element that allows you to inflict more damage or sustain less damage provided you hit individual shield icons at the appropriate moment.

Gotta lotta heart

The artwork in Sage Fusion 2 is quite pleasant, though scenes do seem to resemble interactive comics thanks to the limited animation on display.

Take the aforementioned consistently inconsistent translation into account, and you have one seriously patchy RPG adventure.

If you're after a JRPG with a slightly different flavour and you don't mind trawling through reams of broken exposition, dull battles, and uninspired puzzles, you'll find that Sage Fusion 2 has considerable heart.

Sage Fusion 2

Sage Fusion 2 is an unusual mish-mash of half-baked RPG and adventure elements. Its creator's lofty narrative ambitions are somewhat tempered by clunky mechanics and a poor English translation
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.