First I'm starting with-
Makai Toushi Sa·Ga (Or... The Final Fantasy Legend) -
So the game I physically have is technically the first SaGa game, though I'm using my Retron5 to patch its English localisation The Final Fantasy Legend onto it as a translation.
Just started it last night- you create your character and you're dumped into an odd fantasy world with sci-fi (and just plain quirky) elements. There's a giant tower which supposedly leads to paradise, but none who have challenged it have returned. You're gunna challenge it.
You start out in a mini-town around the tower. Here, you'll find a guild where you can recruit the other three members of your party right away. There are three main character archetypes to choose from- Humans and Mutants (male and female- guys seem to get a slight boost to strength, while girls get a slight boost to agility) and Monsters. Interestingly, all three character types grow stronger through different mechanics!
Humans seem really solid- lots of item slots, and generally physical-focused. Humans only gain stats through items- either from drinking stat potions, or wearing equipment- there's no EXP after battle, just dropped gold.
Mutants are essentially the game's mages- they're more magic-focused than physical. Mutants get stronger from completing battles- they're the closest thing to traditional RPG levelling, and they also gain skills through completing battles. But the catch is, they can also *LOSE* skills after battle- and both are random. I don't actually have any skills for my Mutant yet aside from 'ESP', which doesn't seem to be an attack- pretty sure it just raises your evasion for a turn or something.
Finally, there are Monsters, who are by far the funkiest character type yet. You actually get a choice of multiple different Monsters when creating your player character or party- they all have different appearances, stats and abilities and elemental strengths/weaknesses- though they can't use or equip weapons or items at all. How Monsters work is, every so often, when you finish a battle, you'll be presented with the enemy's meat- only a Monster party member can use this, and it actually makes your Monster transform into a totally different Monster based on certain progression lines. I'm going in blind with this one and not looking it up- it's just fun to eat the meat and see what happens, and generally, just eating boss meat is supposed to be a steady bet to make them really strong for a while, though apparently they're the least useful character type long-term- but their fun value is high, so I definitely had to take one with me on my adventure!
Just like every other standard RPG mechanic in this game, equipment works weird too- weapons have a number next to them which shows its remaining uses. You need to keep enough weapons in backup, Fire Emblem style, in case you run out- this includes punches and kicks too, weirdly. Spells are equipped and work the same too- though I think they actually get stronger/more accurate the less uses they have remaining?
So I've just started my adventure! The tower to paradise is locked, and apparently I need to re-equip the statue of the legendary hero with it's shield, sword and armour to unlock it. These are treasures held by King Armor, King Sword and King Shield respectively. Convenient! So now it's time to solve a bandit problem to help a King's lady friend he has a crush on! Who happens to be a weird little cyclops-alien person who are one of the major races. What's cool about these games is that humans, mutants, big-eyed alien looking things, skeletons, zombies, big bull demons, they're all just kind of... people. Any of them can just be a standard town NPC, it's just a quirky world like that! I like that.
Here's my party!
I gave my character my own name, but I decided to go with musician names for everyone else! (I watch a lot of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, ok?
) 
I really love everything this game does, and even more so since it laid the groundwork for Link's Awakening, which is a very special game to me! 
