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The original Romancing SaGa 2 is the game I enjoyed playing the most this year, by far. It gave me a feeling I hadn't felt in a long time playing a video game, and I wondered if I would have a similar feeling with this remake, and I believed that I wouldn't, since the magic of discovery would no longer exist here. Well, I can admit that I got hooked in the same way, but not exactly for the same reasons. It's hard to say without being too redundant compared to my review of the original game, but here we go.

Square Enix has been focusing a lot on reviving its more "B-side" franchises for a general audience, and coming from the same team that made the remake of Trials of Mana in 2020, you could expect a game made with love for the fans and to attract a new audience. It's a difficult task with SaGa because it's not such a standard franchise, and it was actually easy to break the barrier: QOL, QOL EVERYWHERE, QOL FOR EVERYONE.

Come on guys, they just fixed OG's biggest flaw and it's now possible to change your party with enormous ease! The revitalized combat with weakness indicators, united attacks and more assertive formations is good, but nothing compares to seeing a lightbulb next to a skill tech and a glimmer happens right after, man, it's extremely satisfying and without having to be blind all the time, and with all the tracking of what you still need to learn, not to mention the famous "global level" fully visible. The game constantly seems to be saying: "We have a lot here, but don't be scared, you can explore everything in your own way." I believe that this whole obscurity of mechanics is what most drives away potential new fans of the series, but the remake has taken this to an extremely impeccable level.

What initially seemed strange to me were exactly the indicators for the quests. Okay, it's predictable that there would be this, but the game loses a lot of the sense of discovery that the OG has, since you can easily take the best routes for the quests without any problems. But I reached a point where I no longer felt like this was a problem. There's so much to do, the battles are so enjoyable with very well-made bosses, and the quests are individually so cool that I just kept thinking every day "hm, what can I do today?" I definitely felt like a drug addict.

The game does a good job of making it clear that our goal is to help the world and eliminate the threat of the old heroes, maintaining the same identity as the original, but with beautiful cutscenes, giving more identification with the characters and the situations. It's still not for everyone, those who are very attached to having an epic narrative with great continuity will be displeased, there's no way. Not to say that there's nothing additional about the story, I loved the heroes' past, it's good to understand how they got that way, who they fought against and also to get closer to them.They continue to have the biggest face in the game for me, the fight against each of them is incredible and the ending, despite liking the OG design more, is still challenging. The post-game bosses are dope af, much better than the remaster four generic dragons.

Romancing SaGa 2 ROTS has certainly shown its credentials and told everyone that SaGa can indeed be bigger than it is, that it's possible to introduce the series to new players and I believe that many of the next games will use this as an example. It's an stunning remake, it leaves practically nothing to be desired from the original, except for some "sensations", but wins on so many, but so many other points. It's a lesson in how it's possible to revitalize a 16-bit JRPG without needing that much of a budget.

In general, the first impression the game gives you is that it is very similar to any other. It takes place in the medieval world, there is a group of villains, the game is based on defeating them and that's it. But as the game progresses and presents you with its proposal, it goes in a completely opposite direction.

The game quickly shows you that the main character is the empire itself, you are not supposed to get attached to anyone because time passes, people pass. The focus of all the characters, absolutely all of them, is just to serve the empire and deal with the problems throughout the kingdom caused mainly by internal conflicts and the Seven Heroes. And so, you really are in the shoes of a king, you build things for the kingdom (university, magic center, etc.), you don't even need money for yourself, everything you earn goes to the coffer and if at any time you need it, just take it. This move away from a traditional JRPG focused on narrative and characters to being “just that” is a huge strength (well, anyone expecting anything else might be disappointed).

The game encourages you so much not to become attached to anyone, that the death of all the characters, including the emperor, is not a game over, it is just a passage to the next one. The game encourages you to do this, to live through those eras, passing the years, dealing with the useless death of a party that was assembled or with the glory of another. This in itself is quite fascinating and at least in my experience, unique.

One of the points that I loved most about the game are the quests, wow, some of them are an immense adventure, where all the decision-making results in something totally different and that can help or hinder the way the quest will progress. For an old JRPG this seems so lived-in, that feeling that every decision matters and if you fail, you've lost the quest, the life that goes on (of course, you can load and try again if you really care).

But well, with a big objective of resolving conflicts and annexing regions, the game is totally non-linear, there are places that are already free to go very early and you can deal with that region “smoothly”: the monsters evolve as you battle, so the level will always be similar to yours if there are no exaggerations. However, the bosses are mostly fixed, so it's a matter of understanding whether you arrived early or not.

The game's progression system is not based on a single character level, but rather on evolving weapon/spell attributes, and HP, which also ends up increasing through battles and that's it. Even for a first contact, it's very intuitive how it works. The battles in general are quick, HP recovering with each battle encourages you to not worry too much about item management, but the monsters evolve relatively quickly. I've always seen people commenting “the game doesn't want you to grind” and I actually didn't think it was that true, the game gives you a choice on how to proceed with it. If you grind too much and the monsters are strong, great, there will be easier and more difficult monsters anyway, just put together a strategy, try to have more powerful skills and start dealing better with successes and mistakes (which the game tries to make clear It's okay to make mistakes, you can die and try again with others).

Everything I've said so far is not that clear in practice, despite several intuitive things, the operation of many things is completely blind, such as learning skills and new spells. There is a “global level” in the game that is invisible and the game doesn’t give you this information (I understand) but just knowing this global level would illuminate a lot of things in the game. Well, I read Square's own manual about the game and that gave a little help to move forward and in the end, discovering how everything works, getting used to the system, is extremely rewarding.

But finally, the villains are extremely charismatic. This is a side that the game's not focusing so much on narrative gets in the way of a little, because you want to know a lot more, understand a lot more about them. I know the remaster adds some context, but it still doesn't sound like much. The fights against them, besides being an excellent battle theme, are very challenging and the fact that they have different forms depending on the moment makes everything cooler. This all culminates in a final boss that is extremely difficult and damn, the most satisfying I've beaten in a long time.

Oh and before I forget, absurd soundtrack, I'm simply addicted now to listening to everything by Kenji Ito.

I know people don't recommend starting with Romancing SaGa 2, but there was something about this game that always caught my attention, my open mind also helps a lot to understand all the qualities that the game offers besides just thinking that there is a perfect formula to create JRPG , does not exist. It's an incredible and unique game, it became one of my favorites because the experience was absurd.

jogaço

Joguei 8 Ys antes deste e nenhum deles me conectou tanto a ponto de eu pensar que é um dos meus jogos favoritos da vida. Bom, uma hora isso tinha que mudar.

É uma evolução em vários aspectos: Gameplay e exploração muito mais refinada que seu antecessor; a interação entre os náufragos, o senso de sobrevivência, de vínculo para sair daquela situação é algo que me cativou muito. Adorava ver os diálogos com TODOS os náufragos sempre que possível, criei um certo carinho com a maioria deles e ver a evolução de cada é reconfortante.

Mas o ponto chave é totalmente a Dana, ela é uma personagem tão bem escrita, tão bem valorizada na obra, que é impossível tu não criar um vínculo com ela. Gosto muito das sessões do passado dela e como entrelaçaram isso com o presente.

Um jogo incrível, acerto absurdo da Falcom.

O jogo por si só não é as mil maravilhas, mas eu tenho um carinho sempre que penso na situação da Tri-Ace e mesmo com os trocentos problemas de produção que eles enfrentam, entregam algo no minimo competente.

Saibam que sim, o jogo tem seus problemas, mas saibam também dá pra se divertir jogando, ainda mais porque tem uma batalha muito legal.

Jogo muito bom, falo isso como alguém que nunca jogou nenhum Star Ocean

legal

Brabo demais

Nunca tinha jogado Crash, pelo que me disseram era bem fiel e até curti, mt bom.