Romancing SaGa

"An incredible remake of a classic game."

Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song is the latest addition to the SaGa series, a series that is generally only loved or hated by gamers. When I first played Romancing SaGa on the Super Famicon, I knew the game had so much potential and I'm very happy that it was remade into this masterpiece from Square-Enix. RS:MS features long lasting incredible gameplay with breath taking graphics and music.

Story: 6.5/10
RS:MS's main story revolves around the legend of an epic battle fought between the three dark gods and Elore. Eventually, two of the three dark gods are subdued and the last one, Saruin, is sealed away with the power of the 10 Fatestones and the hero Mirsa's life. From that day onward, the legend was handed down from generation to generation and the Fatestones became sought after as treasure for fame seekers and kings alike.

At the beginning of the game, you are given a choice of one out of eight main characters to make your own, you are shown their stats and class choices and then thrusted into the world where the character is residing. Each character has their own intro that gives you information about them but at a certain point you are "dumped" into an open ended world to explore to your heart's content. On one hand, this can be quite fun because you go around the world taking on various quests and completing them for rewards, but at the same time, these quests have story behind them but they don't really flow together at all until the very end of the game when certain things are revealed.

All in all, the story isn't all that bad and the Minstrel provides very interesting tales about cities and people that gives the player a sense of the history around the world. The library in Melvir also explains a lot of things that work in the world and is very informative.

Graphics: 9/10
There are two sides to this category, simply put, the environments in this game are absolutely beautiful. The snowy lands of Valhalland, the deserts of the Dry Lands, the Crystal City of Rosalia, anywhere you go in this game, the towns, the dungeons, the open fields, everything looks amazing. While the environments are incredibly detailed and beautiful, the character appearances are pretty goofy and weird looking. It may appeal to your taste, but it sure didn't for me, a lot of the main characters were changed for the worse in this remake IMO and I didn't like it. It's a small price to pay, however, and they grow on you after a while, but I think it could have been done better. The monsters are pretty nicely done, monsters don't seem to look completely similar the way they did in past SaGa games and they are all fully animated. Battles are lively and vivid, techniques and magic spells themselves are just ok but the combinations and vortexes are very nice looking.

Gameplay: 9/10
The basic jist of RS:MS is to talk to various people to initiate quests and open new areas and then head to the necessary destination to complete the quest while fighting monsters in order to get the reward from the customer. There are a lot of quests in RS:MS and completing a lot of them takes quite a bit of time. In regards to character recruitment, you are able to have 5 characters at any given time, recruitable characters can be "mercenaries," "non-main special characters" and "main characters. Take care not to dismiss characters you may want to keep because there is a chance the character will never show up again. Characters in RS:MS improve stats individually through combat, using a particular type of attack improves the corresponding stat, to a degree. At the same time, however, characters will improve in all categories along with their primary stat.

Characters in RS:MS have a variety of weapons and magic to specialize in. Through a nifty class/skill system, a player can trade jewels to a skill master to upgrade their ability in various weapons and magic, whether it be in a set or individually. Classes allow players to have different added effects depending on the class, a Swordsman deals more direct attack damage while a Rosalian Mage can combine magic spells together to form new spells. Sparking is also in RS:MS, now called "Glimmers" techniques are gained through the constant use of a weapon while magic is purchased at shops located throughout the world. All techniques and magic now share their consumption from a point total called Battle Points (BP). In addition to this, weapon techniques may consume a certain amount of Durability Points (DP) or Life Points (LP) depending on skill level and weight.

A concept from Unlimited SaGa was redone and attempted in RS:MS, the map skills from US that were reel based were renamed as proficiencies and used in the various fields and dungeons of RS:MS. Depending on skill levels, characters can jump over gaps, find hidden treasure chests, climb walls and even ambush monsters more effectively. While the system sounds good in theory, there are very few instances where these skills are ever really forced upon you (Jump often, Climb a few times) and you can pretty much go through the game without really touching most of them.

Music/Sound Effects: 9.5/10
The music in RS:MS is nothing short of spectacular, every single theme I've heard in this game, I have enjoyed. The battle theme is very upbeat and lively and fits into a SaGa game very well. While the majority of the music themes are remixes, they are very nice to listen to. There is slight repetition but for the most part it's not prevalent and not too bad at all. Sound effects are your average run of the mill sound effects. Sword slashes sound like slashes, monsters can make noises and players can also express emotion. Voice acting is basically expressed by every single moving main character and NPC. While the VAs are forced upon you in story conversations, it's not bad at all and I found it enjoyable.

Challenge: 7/10
RS:MS isn't a very challenging game unless you're trying to complete all of the quests in the game or something, which requires extensive concentration and planning. Monster fights are average, generally not very hard but they do increase in strength as you fight and level up which can make things more difficult if your equipment isn't up to date. Some of the boss fights in the game are incredibly brutal but they are few and far between, most are just mini boss type fights that don't take a whole lot to beat. While RS:MS isn't that hard, it's still not easy and a newcomer can get easily overwhelmed.

Replayability: 10/10
This game probably has the highest replayability of any SaGa game to date. Not only do you have 8 main characters to beat but some quests don't even become playable until a second or even third playthrough of the game. Each quest can take up to 30 hours of gameplay so someone who wants to play all 8 quests will end up spending a lot of time with the game.

Final Words
RS:MS is a very nice game for newcomers to the SaGa series and veterans as well. It feels complete and it has in-game tutorials to help the player understand the various functions and terminology used throughout the scenarios. Rent first, buy later if unsure, but I think it's safe to say that SaGa fans will definitely enjoy this game, it's amazing.

Overall score: 8.5/10, rounded up to 9/10 for GameFAQs (not an average score).

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/19/05