We had a chance to check out Romancing SaGa 2: The Seven Strikes Back ahead of its worldwide release, and we’re here to tell you all about it.
I had little knowledge about the SaGa series until I came across this game, but when I heard that this game was a remake of a title released in the 90s, I was very intrigued. The original Romancing SaGa 2 was released in 1993 for the Super Famicom (SNES in Japan). 31 years later, the game was remade in 3D as Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven.
For this review, I played the game on the Nintendo Switch.
story
The game’s story centers around the Kingdom of Avalon over the centuries, with a series of rulers defending the kingdom from seven legendary heroes who have turned into villains. This tells us what is perhaps the most interesting element of this game. It’s about players taking on the role of not just one ruler, but many rulers over the years. And as the years pass and the ruler changes, all the skills learned by the ruler are passed on to his successor.
This is a very engaging gameplay mechanic. Especially since it is the player who chooses each successor. That means everyone is almost certain to play this game differently and weave a different story for the kingdom.
The goal is to ultimately defeat the legendary Seven Warriors across generations. This can be done in almost any order of the player’s choosing, and the further into the game you progress, the greater the narrative freedom.
gameplay
At first glance, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is a standard RPG game. No matter which ruler of Avalon you’re playing as, the gameplay is pretty much the same. There’s all the standard RPG stuff: different quests you can undertake, parts of your kingdom you can upgrade, NPCs you can talk to.
It may sound boring, but it really isn’t. There’s always something to do or new upgrades in this game. And the best part is that once the introductory story quest is over, players are free to perform these actions in any order they wish. As far as I know, there is no set order in which the quests need to be done, but some side quests can prove useful for larger quests.
Turn-based combat and exploration
Most of the player’s game time is spent fighting and going through various dungeons to reach specific quest objectives, usually defeating boss enemies. The game allows the player to change the “squires” that follow whoever is the emperor, and allows the player to employ different strategies based on which NPCs and the different weapons they use.
Combat is turn-based, with players having unlimited choice of which attack (or defense) to use on that character’s turn. You can use BP points (similar to mana points) for more powerful attacks, but these attacks need to be used strategically, as BP does not regenerate unless in very specific locations within the dungeon. Please be careful.
It is also strongly recommended to diversify the means of attacking the emperor and his subjects. The game rewards players by improving their weapon skills as much as possible. Also, considering that different monsters have different weaknesses, it is in the player’s best interest to have as wide a range of attacks at their disposal as possible, both physical and magical. Possible.
I also highly recommend exploring as much as you can. The various maps are filled with treasure chests filled with crafting materials and gold that you can use to upgrade your kingdom. Crafting materials aren’t really useful until late in the game, but believe me when I say you should start collecting these as soon as possible. It becomes very necessary as the game progresses.
confusing map
Unfortunately, it’s not all good news. Many quests are fairly simple and it’s obvious where you need to go to complete them, but some are not so obvious. For example, there is an early quest that requires you to travel to the city’s sewers to find and destroy certain monsters. Sounds simple, but the layout was very confusing and it took me nearly 10 minutes to realize I was moving in circles without getting any closer to my destination. It took me another 20 minutes before I finally gave up and abandoned the quest altogether, as I had no idea where I was going and got tired of encountering the same monsters over and over again.
Thankfully not all dungeons have that problem, but it is a problem. Although the game world is detailed, some dungeon areas look the same, so if you’re not paying attention to the map, you can slip back in without realizing it.
A game worth playing
Overall, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is a great game to play and more than a worthy remake of the original 1993 game. Although some game areas have layout issues, the overall game is well-crafted and players can easily enjoy hours of gameplay at a time.
