Romancing SaGa

"An unique and immersive experience but can be frustrating at times."

Introduction
Romancing SaGa by Square-Enix is certainly one of the more ambitious and challenging RPGs I've played in recent memory. Whereas the multitude of RPGs available tend to follow a strict storyline and pre-determined path, Romancing SaGa allows the player virtually free reign of the world by allowing the player to explore the world as he or she sees fit and can do so under the perspective of one of eight characters. With a large amount of areas, a variety of quests and many allies to recruit, Romancing SaGa is a wonderfully epic experience but is marred at times with a main plot that goes missing for large intervals at a time, monsters which vary in difficulty to unreasonable degrees and an acceptable but flawed levelling system.

Plot - 7/10
The plot in Romancing SaGa resolves around three evil gods of Death, Sherah and Saruin. Without revealing too much, the protagonist's role is to prevent the rise of Saruin who is attempting to take control of the world with his minions and to hail a new era of evil. Sound familiar? While this central storyline is hardly original, the decent aspect of it is that the perception of the plot and how it flows differs depending on which of the eight characters you select at the start of your adventure. In addition, the character you have chosen also have interesting backgrounds of their own which adds incentive in learning to know about each of the characters as well as keeping the central plot from becoming too stale. Finally, the history and background of the various cities and villages you visit is very well constructed. A minstrel character will tell intriguing tales of heroes and conflicts from the particular area as well touching on the main storyline involving Saruin which adds a certain degree of interesting storytelling to the plot.

While the the plot is fairly enjoyable, there are two central problems with its progression. The first of these is that the central plot tends to disappear and hardly be a cohesive part of the game for large chunks at a time. With the multitude of quests and areas to visit that are not central to the plot, one can feel that the player simply does not feel part of an epic tale but more of a tourist, moving from one location to the other until the player manages to come across the event relevant to progress the story. While the additional quests have interesting aspects and a number do have some relevance to the main storyline, it would of been nice to see more which deal with the impending struggle of Saruin as well as shed further light on the main storyline. The other problem is that while each of the eight characters have interesting backgrounds, they are not fleshed out as much as they could be. It would of been nice to see more struggles and hardship in their respective tales.

Graphics - 7.5/10
While the graphics are not the most beautiful you'll ever see, for the most part they are generally pleasing to look at and well detailed. They are perhaps best described as a more updated and polished version of Final Fantasy IX, with the same "deformed" type of character models but at the same time, containing some factor of realism. The cities are fairly well made with genuinely differing details and models. Dungeons, caves and mountains tend to be slightly too similar though, with the same textures and backgrounds tending to make an appearance after you've been through a couple. The monsters are especially well done however, with great detail gone into their appearances as well efforts to make them look threatening and detailed. Romancing SaGa can't help continuing the ugly trend of re-using certain enemy models but doesn't rely on this nearly as much as other RPGs.

The graphics show their ugly side in the cut-scene sequences which are generally of poor quality. They consist of two types: either a bordered cut-scene with a water-brushed feel to it or the more standard cut-scene which use the same models in the gameplay. Either way, neither looks particularly convincing and when you compare them to other RPGs they really look dated and unconvincing. Thankfully, the game isn't heavy on these FMV sequences so they are relatively few and far between.

Sound - 9.5/10
The sound in Romancing SaGa is brilliant, one of the game's truly admirable qualities. The music is a wonderful combination of peaceful, relaxing melodies when in towns and cities and intense battle and boss themes which really gives the game an immersive experience. There is a good balance between the music, with a variety of songs suiting the respective area which they represent. The music rarely gets repetitive but even when it does, it is so well composed you won't mind at all.

The voice acting is also excellent. The eight protagonists each sound convincing and suit their character very well. Special mention must go to the voice actor responsible for Captain Hawke's voice who does an excellent impression of the pirate with a heart of gold. The villains, villagers and other characters are very well represented as well and are enjoyable to listen to.

Sound effects are also relatively well done. There is a good mix of slashes, swipes, stabs, grunts and groans in combat all of which suit the battles perfectly. It would of been nice to see more variety between the various weapons as some weapon effects sound recycled but this is a minor quibble.

Control - 8.5/10
Control in Romancing Saga is very well done with precise and easy movement both when exploring the world and in combat. Moving around towns is rarely a problem and menus and the world map are simple to access. In combat the control also performs well, with easy to access combat options which you'll pickup in no time. The only complaint is the lack of a controllable camera which can get on your nerves at times. While the camera does an excellent job most of the time, there are instances (especially in caves, castles and other cramped areas) where the camera insists on rotating and actually facing the front of your character. The result is that you usually run into a mob of monsters you couldn't see until it was too late. Thankfully, these situations do not happen too often but when they do it can be highly annoying.

Gameplay - 8/10
The gameplay in Romancing Saga is for the most part, very enjoyable and intriguing. Exploring the various towns, cities and castles is very well done with many different personalities, situations and other challenges in each area which give them each an individual feel. People in these ares are interesting to talk to and the sheer number of shops, bars and houses to explore and interact with is impressive. The one complaint I have about this area is that some areas (castles most notably) refuse you access but yet, never play an integral part of the game. This was perhaps Square-Enix's intention in not having ALL the world to be yours for the taking, but when many of these areas hardly play an important role in the game you have to question this.

Dungeons and other areas where fighting is the norm are also well done. Many have multiple paths, chambers and even secret areas to explore which will keep you occupied and drive you to discover all parts of dungeons completely. Many also have a variety of puzzles and tricks to overcome which ensures that going through these areas will require some brainpower and not merely how powerful your weapon, armor and characters are.

The levelling system in Romancing SaGa is similar to that in other SaGa games and Final Fantasy II. Instead of gaining set levels, your individual stats such as Strength, HP etc increase. While there are no major complaints with this system, it can be a pain when a certain stat refuses to rise after battles which can make your characters unfairly handicapped. While the game does a fairly good job at making your characters relatively well balanced, this can still occur at times and it is very annoying. The other problem that is found with this levelling system is that it can be difficult to gauge how powerful your characters are in relation to monsters. While the traditional levelling system gives you a decent idea as to where your characters stand, this system makes it rather more difficult.

Having the option to choose from a variety of different classes and abilities is another great aspect of the game. At various trainers in each of the cities, you can pay (via jewels) to become a number of different classes as well as become more proficient in specialized fields such as weapons, fields of magic and a variety of other abilities. This means that there are endless amounts of combinations you can try in your parties which keeps fighting fresh and makes you explore new abilities and weapons as opposed to continually relying on the same tired tactics in other RPGs.

Fighting itself is very enjoyable. Using a maximum of five characters, you tackle a variety of monsters with options of a variety of attack moves. While many RPGs simply rely on options such as "Fight, Magic, etc", Romancing SaGa goes deeper and give you a variety of physical and magical attacks. The more you use a certain type of weapon, you can learn new attack moves which adds a new perspective on combat. In addition, combat includes "Surges and "Reversals" which are basically combos combining certain attacks. This ensures the ambition to find new and more powerful combos and to make your characters fight as a cohesive unit instead of individuals.

The various monsters in Romancing SaGa will really give you a run for your money and are ultimately one of the visible flaws of the game. Monsters are for the most part, challenging and use a variety of moves in order to defeat your valiant heroes. As all monsters are visible on the field, it is possible to run into two or three. When this happen they will link up before you engage in combat. This means you must fight the two or three battles in a row (depending on the amount of monsters) with no option to retreat. While this might sound overwhelming, the game encourages you to play smart and to deal with monsters intelligently instead of just charging in. The flaw however, is that monsters can ridiculously vary in difficulty from cakewalks to virtually impossible. Monsters vary in battles despite having the same character models in the field and some fights are simply unfair as the game throws powerful monsters at you which can be far beyond your capabilities at your point in the game. It is not uncommon to run into an enemy which will kill you in two turns, and then after you reload, fight the same model in the field to encounter an entirely different monster which is easily dealt with. To put it simply, the difficulty is VERY inconsistent and this is just frustrating. There are also times where enemies will resort to overly cheap tactics such as using multi-hitting attacks multiple times a turn. Quite a few times I had a character at maximum health battling one comparably strong enemy only to be killed by being attacked FOUR times without any opportunity to heal him. Highly unfair. I certainly welcome a good challenge but it would of been much preferred to see it implemented by genuinely intelligent monsters as opposed to resorting to cheap tactics and unreasonably superior enemies.

Replay Value - 9/10
With eight playable characters, a huge list of quests and an obligatory New Game + mode, Romancing SaGa is certainly an RPG that will last a long time. When you've completed the game with one character you can simply choose from the seven others and retake the adventure from a new point of view. The variety of different classes you can play, the amount of NPCs you can recruit and the numerous weapons you can utilize also adds to the replay value. With the large amount of tasks to do and areas to explore, some of which are not possible to complete in a single play-through, Romancing SaGa will not be an RPG that you will complete quickly.

Overall - 8/10
Romancing Saga is one of the more ambitious and different RPG to be released in recent times. It's sheer depth combined with its great challenge and free-flowing gameplay makes it one for RPG fans to seriously consider despite it's frustrating moments. If you're an RPG novice you'll probably be overwhelmed by it's sheer depth but for the RPG veterans, it is an unique and immersive experience.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/05