Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven First Look
Oh I just can't wait to be king..
The Romancing SaGa 2 remake demo came out today (9/18/2024) and as a fan of the series I decided to check it out. The intro informs you that it’s the prologue portion of the story - however as is tradition with Square Enix RPGs these days, your saved data will transfer over. I wanted to take few moments out of this to express my everlasting gratitude to Square Enix for making this a thing - so much so I’ve seen other publishers follow suit. I think I’m about 10 times more likely to check a demo out that I wouldn’t have before based on this alone. With that being said, lets get to the game at hand.
To start off with, let me say I’ve been a fan of SaGa games for quite some time. In fact, I’ve played almost every entry that’s been released minus the newest Emerald game. I’ve also played the original Romancing SaGa 2 so I’m going into this game with that one in the back of my mind to see if they do a good job with translating the originally 2D Super Famicom game into 3D and much to my surprise, like Trials of Mana before it, they do quite a fantastic job. I feel like the dungeons have a bit more life in them - as one thing that I feel happens when you translate 2D to 3D is there are usually corners cut here and there to make up for the fact that 3D assets take way more processing power/space than a 2D sprite, but honestly I felt like the locales fit the game pretty well.
One thing about the SaGa series is that they don’t use a traditional RPG growth system - they use a looser way of powering characters and that’s true here too. While you earn experience towards your weapon classes that are used in battle - your HP may or may not increase after battle as well. While this system was tough to navigate in the 2D original - I feel like it never really weighed the experience down in this iteration as I feel like the developers went out of their way to make this game way more accessible versus the original. In fact, I liked how they modernized a lot of the games mechanics - while diehards may not like the way they tweaked things here, I welcome the change and the fact that it may get more people interested in SaGa games as a whole.
So what are you even doing in Romancing SaGa 2? Basically you are a Prince whose kingdom is under threat of a monster of unimaginable power and it’s up to you (and your heirs) to defeat them. The game opens up with this monster killing your brother and father (the current King) and so this pulls out the Inheritance system where anytime the main character dies the next character in line inherits some skills and abilities of their predecessor. It’s a pretty neat system overall and I like the presentation here moreso. Unfortunately in the demo, you get to choose the next in line but you don’t get to see what skills or abilities transfer over as the demo ends right after you choose a new heir. Next time on Dragon Ball Z indeed. Thankfully, like previously mentioned, your save data will transfer over to the retail copy so you don’t have to go through the prologue again.
The prologue takes you through the first hour and sets the tone and location of the rest of the game. You start by playing as Leon (the King) and his son Gerard as he tries to train him in the ways of being a King. You go through a tutorial dungeon of sorts before being introduced to other characters and systems. I think this does a great job of introducing the different mechanics of the game with appropriate explanations without throwing the kitchen sink at the player. You learn about Glimmers, and the effects different equipment can have on your characters.
This is another aspect of the game I enjoyed is the different menu screens available to you. They all have a lot of charm in my opinion and give the information clearly on what does what. When you go into the menu screen itself you are greeted with the current Emperor/King and then your other party members.
You can see at a glance your current kingdom’s worth and more. Another aspect that’s interesting is the Overdrive system. As you attack with your party, this gauge fills up and allows you to do united attacks that are incredibly powerful. These use the characters abilities and each character has a different pair of abilities they can use with another party member.
Another nice aspect is the fact that you can fast travel anywhere on the map at any time. I like that fact and it tells you what missions are going on there. This comes in handy when you aren’t sure where to go.
Overall, I’d say this is a worthy remake for Romancing SaGa 2 and I seriously can’t wait to play this game as it appears to keep the soul of RS2 intact while modernizing it in a pleasing way not unlike the Trials of Mana remake we got some time ago (in fact I think it was developed by the same team but I couldn’t find confirmation of this). If you’re interested in trying this game out yourself, you can find the demo download on Nintendo Switch eShop or the PlayStation Store!