The SaGa series is like the red-headed step child in a family of over-achieving blondes: different, awkward, and often overlooked. That's not surprising when its sibling franchises include Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts. Yet game producer Akitoshi Kawazu refuses to disown SaGa, continually thinking up new ways to convince people to like the series, or at least pay attention to it. This latest attempt takes the form of a total make-over with Romancing Saga, a re-release of the 1992 SNES title of the same name.
The story takes place in a vast world called Mardias. A thousand years ago three evil gods wreaked havoc on the world, until they were defeated and their leader imprisoned. Now that same evil is threatening to return, and it will be up to you to stop it. Like other SaGa games, Romancing SaGa chucks conventional linear gameplay by getting rid of the lone hero and instead offering eight different characters to choose from, each with their own stories that start in different places and offer different outcomes. As you progress through the game you're given the option of performing various tasks while traveling the world freely with up to five companions, any of which can be replaced along the way (including any of the seven other heroes you might run into along the way.)
The game has a lot of variables, and depending on where you go and what you do your actions will affect the overall arch of the story. This unconventional and old-school style of role-playing is certainly appealing in many ways: you're a free soul, taking things on as they come, choosing who you want to travel with, and discovering your hero's fate at a leisurely pace. Unfortunately this lack of direction also requires the utmost patience since in order to advance the storyline (such as it is) you must explore a lot of places and interact with a myriad of characters (not all of which are interesting.) If you can't accept these terms then Romancing Saga is not for you. But if you can stomach the idea of running around a massive landscape with only a compass and a vague idea of where to go and why, this game is for you.
To be fair the SaGa franchise has never been about intricate storylines or character development anyway. It's all about gameplay, particularly its multifaceted battle system and heavy emphasis on exploration. Those that are familiar with the series will be comfortable with this formula, but those who have never played it will be utterly bewildered by the amount of choices they're given at any given time. These choices appear mostly in battle because that's where most of the action takes place. Battle is triggered in dungeons and in open fields where you'll run into various monsters. These monsters are visible at a distance and can sometimes be avoided, though not without difficulty. You can try sneaking up on them and triggering a first strike command, but the enemy will try to do the same thing and will probably be more successful at it, since the camera angle cannot be manually adjusted and any approaching monsters will go unseen until they're right on top of you. In any case, regardless of who tags who first, the moment you come into contact with an enemy the fun ends and the battle begins.
Combat starts off in traditional turn-based style, meaning you choose attack commands for each member of your team and then wait for the enemy to strike back. There are a lot of choices to make during combat: what weapon to use (you can carry multiple weapons at once and switch between them at any time), what spell to cast, what ability to unleash, and even what order to attack in. These choices are important, since almost every action has a set amount of Battle Points attached to it. If these run out certain abilities and spells are closed to you for the duration of battle. Essentially it's the game's way of curbing your enthusiasm. You can't just take out bad guys with hard-hitting spells and attacks; you have to think about the consequences of your actions. Also important to keep in mind are Life Points, which are consumed after a party member has fallen. Unlike regular Hit Points, which regenerate after you win a battle, if a character's LP drops to zero they cannot be revived and will literally disappear from your party (or in the case of the main character, the game will simply end.) This can be extremely annoying, because the only way to revive LP is to race to the nearest inn, which is usually quite a ways away. The Quicksave Mode is meant to neutralize this problem by allowing you to save anytime you think you'll run into trouble, but unlike a regular save you can't store your data multiple times and you can't recover any points lost.
Don't think you're entirely free to do whatever you want in battle either, because every option is hedged in with quite a few rules. For example, a character that uses fire-based spells cannot use ice-based ones. And you can't use the same weapon in battle repeatedly, since weapons have a set number of Durability Points, which if completely used up will render the weapon useless. And unless you activate certain commands before battle, you won't be able to use them. Even weight affects gameplay: the heavier their equipment, the slower a character will react in a fight.
Keeping tabs on all this is nothing short of a Herculean task, made all the more confusing by the faulty interface. You'll have to toggle between an endless array of menus just to activate certain commands or to check on character stats. Still, if you're willing to make an effort to learn the full combat system, the payoff can be massive. Your characters will discover a variety of new battle techniques and learn to combine their powers to clear the field of enemies quickly.
Once you've won a battle you're free to explore the surrounding area or head to town to heal up. Towns contain several shops that the player can patronize. Blacksmith shops are for tempering and repairing weapons, apothecary shops are for repairing your first-aid kit as well as creating powerful potions that can be used in battle, magic shops sell various incantations, and of course weapons and armor shops sell the latest wares for combat. This sounds like a decent amount of businesses to choose from, but it wouldn't be a SaGa game without throwing in a few more options. Instead of one standard weapons and armor shop there are three different guilds (known as consortiums) you can choose to patronize. Prices and the items available to you will depend on which guild you favor most. There's really no advantage to this; it's better to just pick a guild and stick with it, otherwise you'll be paying exuberant prices no matter where you go. Of course, it doesn't matter what weapon you buy or where you buy it from if you can't use it. This is where Mentors come in.
Unlike characters in other RPGs, party members in Romancing SaGa must pay for Mentors to teach them everything from how to wield a two-handed sword to learning how to open a treasure chest or dismantle a trap (these latter skills are known as Proficiencies.) Many skill are attached to a particular job class, so it's important to make sure that your party is made up of a diverse group of people (though you can pay to change job classes at any time). Each party member can improve their job ranking by either paying to level up or by winning battles and thereby increasing their Attributes (status points). Of course sometimes it's just easier to ditch low-level party members instead of trying to bring them up to speed. This is done not through Mentors by the wandering bard who appears in every town at every inn. If you ask him to, the bard will talk an unwanted party member into leaving so you can search for someone better. The downside of course is that you have to buy all new weapons and items for new party members, and their stats are sometimes lower than the rest of your group when you pick them up.
After you're finished shopping and receiving an education you're given the option of continuing the main storyline or completing a plethora of sidequests, triggered by talking to various townspeople (remember that deciding whether or not to participate in these quests will effect the outcome of the game). These quests are meant to encourage you to explore every nook and cranny in Mardias, which would be fine except for the fact that Mardias is a surprisingly bland and uninspired world, with many dull and physically unappealing locations that aren't worth exploring. In fact, the overall visuals for the game are disappointing; with bizarre looking sprites and clunky battle animation (even the cutscenes are kind of dull). Luckily the sound quality is a lot better. The opening song "Menutte" is sure to have you humming along, and composer Kenji Ito's hodgepodge of medieval tunes, Western melodies and rocking post-modern dance music is a refreshing change from the one-genre wonders that are other RPG soundtracks. English VAs also get a special thanks for trying to spice up otherwise dry dialogue with interesting accents and hilarious delivery.
