Races

There are various character races featured in the SaGa franchise. There are about four primary races in the series so far, and usually they share the same world. There may be other sub-races as well.

Humans
Humans are a race who populate the worlds of SaGa. They are like real world humans in appearance, being bipedal animals approximating the shape of gorillas and apes. Though they share said worlds with other beings and fantastic creatures, humans often make up the bulk of the populations and playable characters. In the early entries, the player can create their own avatar and humans are one of the races available as a choice.

Despite the physical differences involved, it is shown that humans can have physical relationships with Espers and Monsters without consequence.

As shown in SaGa 3: Jikuu no Hasha, humans who devour monster meat can be transformed into a monster themselves, and some humans have no issue with augmenting their bodies with cybernetics, turning themselves into cyborgs or even full robots into the process.

Espers
Espers are a human-like race of beings that exist within the worlds of SaGa. In the English The Final Fantasy Legend trilogy of games on Game Boy, they are named "Mutants," though on the back of the packaging for the first game, the term ESPers is used when describing the character creation system of the game.

Espers look visually similar to humans but are distinguished from them by their pointy ears and natural gift with magic and Spell Arts. In the early entries, Espers are one of the few races that can naturally learn and control magic, though this trait was given to other races over the course of the series, Espers and their similar ilk are often shown to be much closer to the supernatural than humans.

Despite physical differences shown, Espers can have physical relationships with the other races with no consequences, even monsters. In later installments, Espers can even transform themselves into other races by consuming the flesh of monsters or augmenting their body with cybernetics to turn into robots.

Monsters
Monsters are one of the many races of being that exist with the various worlds of SaGa. Unlike the humanoid races like Espers and Humans, the monsters take on various drastically different appearances, such as quadruped beasts, humanoid zombies, ghosts, fish, and a lot more. Monsters can either eat the meat of fallen monsters or absorb their power to turn into other monsters, and by doing so they change their appearance, strengths, and abilities.

While monsters are often an antagonistic race, they are not unintelligent feral creatures. There are several entries that show that monsters can fully master communication with other races, and easily integrate themselves into the societies of other species peacefully. In these entries, they are shown in the same towns and cities as the other races, and are able to be understood by the player's characters.

Some entries such as SaGa 3: Jikuu no Hasha show Humans and Espers being able to transform into monsters by eating monster meat. They may become beastmen first by eating meat, then eventually a full monster after eating more meat.

Monsters are a race the player can choose to be in a lot of games early in the franchise history, such as Makai Toushi SaGa, but playable monster characters became rare as the franchise became more narratively driven. There are still some prominent friendly monster characters who are playable in later installments such as Riki from SaGa Frontier.

Beastmen
Beastmen appear in SaGa 3: Jikuu no Hasha. They are a hybrid of humans/Espers and monsters.

Robots
Robots are one of the many races that inhabit the worlds of SaGa. Robots are an artificial race that lives side by side with the other organic races. Robots are powerful fighters who often use more modern weapons like guns or lasers to fight, but can get the job done with more ancient weapons as well. They can tack on other equipment to make them more durable too.

While the origin of most robots within the series vary from title to title, SaGa 3: Jikuu no Hasha proposes that some robots may have started life as organic beings as both the CPU for the Talon originated from a human brain, and humans and espers can augment themselves to the point of becoming completely mechanical.

Though prominent in the early entries, robots are not seen as often in most of the series compared to the other races. They are first seen in SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu.

Cyborgs
Cyborgs appear in SaGa 3: Jikuu no Hasha. They are a hybrid of humans/Espers and robots.