Romancing SaGa

"Very fun, yet highly underrated game..."

I have been a big fan of the Romancing SaGa series ever since playing a translated version of Romancing SaGa 3 for the Super Famicom. Naturally, I played the other two soon after, and although they weren't fully translated (or translated at all, in RS2's case), I quickly fell in love with them. This holds true with the remake of the first Romancing SaGa for playstation 2, Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song.

STORY - 6/10
There's really not much that Romancing SaGa offers in terms of storyline. You choose from one of eight characters (four male, four female) and they each have their own personality and storyline. The characters don't have much interaction with each other, though, and that is somewhat disappointing. Fans of RPGs like Final Fantasy will most likely be turned off by the openness of Romancing SaGa, and the ability to go pretty much anywhere anytime you want, instead of doing specific missions in chronological order. I found it a fresh change, though, and I enjoyed going through different missions that I found on my way while doing other things such as buying weapons or recruiting characters.

GRAPHICS - 9/10
The graphics are very colorful and pretty, and all of the main characters (and supporting) are creatively designed. The environments are absolutely stunning, and there's such a variety of different lands you can go to. Dungeons and castles might seem a little dull, however, with not much in terms of decoration. And the NPCs can get a little repetitive, especially when you have two women talking to each other who are exactly identical. The bosses are extremely well-designed, and they're one of the things I love most about the Romancing series. They're all monstrous and dangerous-looking without looking cliche. The super-deformed look is cute, but I can see how some may be put off by it. In short, the graphics are absolutely stunning.

SOUND - 8/10
The music is superb, to put it simply. Each of the battles are fierce, especially the boss battles with the Evil Gods (who each have their own music track). A lot of the towns have different music, too, which helps it seem less repetitive and keeps things interesting. The voices, however, are hit or miss. Most of the main characters range from great to not that bad, but the NPCs such as townfolk have some of the most annoying voices and worst acting possible. One thing that is cute is how pretty much everyone in the game has a voice. All the supporting characters you can recruit have little witty things to say, and that's nice. The most annoying voice has to be the lizard elder, who seems like a bad Gollum impersonation from Lord of the Rings. Also, the monsters have little sound effects such as roars and growls during battle, which is fun to hear.

GAMEPLAY - 9/10
Like I said before, Romancing SaGa is completely non-linear so gameplay is customizable in any way the gamer pleases. That adds a lot of possibilities to gameplay, you can make any character a mage and focus on magics, or you can make even the weakest-looking character into a powerful knight. You can change a class of a character at any moment in the game by visiting a Mentor. The battles are fast-paced yet turn-based, which old-school RPG fans will be pleased to hear. You also don't level up like traditional RPGs. Instead, your skill levels raise during a battle. It's different, but in a good way.

REPLAY VALUE - 10/10
With eight different characters, the possibilities are endless, and it'll keep you playing for days. Just one character can take at least 40 hours to finish. Plus, there are a lot of supporting characters you can recruit into your party. The game will keep you busy for quite a while, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone. I consider myself a pretty big Final Fantasy fan, and this is definitely just as enjoyable as any Final Fantasy I've played.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/05