UNLIMITED: SaGA was the first videogame score by composer Masashi Hamauzu to rely entirely on streaming music, without substituting for synth. Contributing to the live instrumental score was Hamauzu's colleague from his university days, Shiro Hamaguchi. The new process somewhat raised the stakes, because with live instruments corrections could not be made after the recording. "Once you've recorded at the studio, you can hear all the parts clearly," Hamauzu wrote on the project. "You can't make any corrections, so you can't tolerate mistakes in recording." For the project, Yamazaki was involved in recording instrumental parts separately and organizing the digitized information. "When working with MIDI, in trying to provide a sense of realism it's essential to keep every instrument's characteristics in mind. No matter how good the instrumental sample you have, if you write in an unidiomatic effect you'll betray the mechanical nature of the music. On the other hand, we did live recording of small ensemble pieces, because isolated solo instruments are actually very hard to simulate! After all, if you want human expression, the best way to go is to get humans to perform." One such example of the live chamber music recorded for the game is the Latin style fight song, "Battle Theme IV," which brings together the seemingly incongruous combination of tempestuous salsa rhythms with a romantic French melody on the accordion.

- Jeriaska (September 27, 2006)