Romancing SaGa 2

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

The SaGa series is one of Square Enix’s longest-running series of JRPGs, although it doesn’t get the same level of recognition as the likes of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. This is likely in part because the series has only sporadically been localized to Western territories – while the earliest games in the series were released in the West on the original Game Boy as the Final Fantasy Legend series, entire console generations would pass with SaGa games staying exclusive to Japan. Romancing SaGa 2, originally released on the Super Famicom in 1992, is one of those games, not getting a release in the West until a remaster of the original game first made for mobile devices and PlayStation Vita in 2016 and ported to the Nintendo Switch a year later in 2017.

Despite being a remaster, this game still looks reminiscent of the 16-bit roots the game originally hails from, but with much more detail and polish than the Super Nintendo would have ever been capable of, most noticeably in the game’s backgrounds, which look very nice now.

While some elements of the visuals have gotten a makeover, the soundtrack here is still decidedly old-school, and it’s fine but not especially noteworthy. However, the real shock here is the localization. You would think, with the game only recently having gotten a Westernized localization, that it would be pretty top-notch. You would think wrong, as the localization here is absolutely atrocious, with awkward, stilted dialogue even compared to some of the early RPGs of the 16-bit era that did get their localization in the ’90’s. And while this game tells a fairly unique story of a multi-generational royal bloodline building up their empire and fighting a group of legendary heroes turned evil, the story and characters aren’t very compelling with such simple and poorly-written text.

Sadly, that’s not the only thing here that has aged poorly. The gameplay here, while making use of some really unique mechanics that are even today still pretty original, is nevertheless both simple yet confusing, in part due to a lack of explanation how they work, but also a lack of information conveyed in the game’s menus. Players are left to figure out on their own, for example, that their characters heal after every battle, but can only be brought to 0 hit points a limited number of times before getting a permadeath. There’s no need for an item to revive a player after hitting 0 hit points either – simply healing them will bring them back to being battle-ready.

There are other clever systems at work here too, such as a skill system where your characters become more adept at using weapons and spells the more they’re used, a formation system that places an emphasis on protecting your weakest party members, and kingdom management elements that give players the ability to influence the growth of their empire as the game progresses and events shift from one generation to another. However, due to the game doing a poor job of conveying how these work to the player, both in the poor localization and the terrible menus, it’s hard to engage with any of these creative features.

And when all’s said and done, at its core the combat of this game, which is arguably its biggest focus, is really simple as far as RPGs go, and players more used to modern games in the genre will likely find it to be somewhat dull and monotonous, with slow pacing. Simply put, this game is just not very fun to play.

One final complaint – for a game that’s over 25 years old and feels like it, it’s absolutely bonkers that this game is selling for $25 on the Nintendo Switch, especially when Square Enix’s much more recent and much better Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX all sell for less (and even those games are somewhat overpriced). Even the older Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest II, and Dragon Quest III are more enjoyable than this game – and all three combined can be purchased for less than the cost of Romancing SaGa 2. To say that this game feels like a royal rip-off is an understatement.

Older players curious to see what they missed out on in the Super Nintendo era may at least find Romancing SaGa 2 to be an intriguing curiosity, and to give credit where it is due the game does try some fairly unique and interesting things even by today’s standards. However, while it may make for an interesting museum piece, this is a terrible game by today’s standards, with slow pacing, monotonous battles, menus that do a poor job conveying information to the player, and an abysmal localization, all wrapped in a package that’s being sold at a ludicrous price. There are countless other better JRPGs on the Nintendo Switch that cost less than this game does. Do not buy this one.

tl;dr – Romancing SaGa 2 is a JRPG originally released only on Super Famicom in Japan, and this game brushes up the visuals while leaving the original game otherwise largely intact. Unfortunately, this is a game plagued with problems, including a terrible localization, bad menus, and slow and repetitive combat, all with an absolutely absurd $25 price tag. Do not buy this game.

Grade: D

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