Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven Impression
Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is full of depth in its customization, inheriting the essence of the original while appearing to be a game designed for current platforms.
Romancing SaGa 2 has a fascinating legacy. While never reaching critical acclaim or massive popularity, many of the ideas from its non-linear, open world gameplay could be said to be ahead of their time. With full 3D remake Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven on the horizon, it has a chance to see if it can strike gold amongst a different generation of RPGamers. Ahead of the game’s release next month, RPGamer was given the chance to play a two-hour demo of the remake, which teases the premise, exploration, and battle system of the game, leaving several features as surprises to be revealed in the full title.
The demo of Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven starts with the narration of a story about a king and the disastrous events that took place in his kingdom. Players control King Leon, his son Gerard, and three royal knights as they train Gerard in the art of combat. However, this training is interrupted, and they need to face a powerful enemy that brings ruin to their town. This turn of events is dramatic and touching, and how this magical world is portrayed promises a world worth exploring and a story with emotive moments. The final part of the demo explains the inheritance system of the game and how character growth is passed from generation to generation as players will control a lineage of emperors in the full game.
The castle and two other dungeons are available in these first hours of gameplay, showing the structure of the game and how the story is divided. Dungeons feature treasures that are easy to miss if players are not careful, yet a user-friendly map is provided to assist players who want to explore every corner in search of all items. There is a world map that allows players to instantly travel from one place of interest to another, making it easy to know where to go. There are save points in strategic areas of dungeons and recovery spots that allow players to fully heal before facing bosses, which are nicely balanced to be challenging yet fair.
The turn-based combat is what is shown most in the demo, with players facing varied enemies. Each character has skills depending on the weapons and elemental spells that they have equipped. Enemies are weak to different types of weapons or elemental spells, with the UI showing this information once the weakness has been spotted. There are powerful strikes called overdrive abilities, with their gauge filling as players exploit enemies’ weaknesses. This gauge is shared by the whole party and each character has a different overdrive skill, making who unleashes their skill an interesting strategic choice. It is rewarding to learn to choose skills wisely to fill the overdrive gauge and then unleash a skill to deal massive damage.
The skills used during each battle also have a consequence on character growth since the elemental spells and weapons used in battle gain technique points at the end of each combat. As there are several weapon types, players can choose how they want their party to develop, be it focusing on a specific weapon or varying how they take down enemies to have balanced growth. Health Points (HP) and Battle Points (BP) also level up after gaining enough experience. Health is replenished at the end of each battle. Battle Points are only replenished with special items, making it crucial to learn when to use abilities that consume BP.
The glimmer system is used to learn new abilities for each character. Party members learn new abilities by using certain attacks during combat. An icon next to the ability indicates that a new one may be learned from using it. Formations also play an important role in combat, with fighters on the vanguard being most likely to be targeted by foes. Several pieces of equipment can increase defense at the cost of speed or other attributes, encouraging players to have some of these tanks on the front line. However, the formation can be broken if players are surprised by enemies.
Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is visually striking, with eye-catching characters who were gracefully redesigned in this reimagined version. Enemies designs are cool and the dungeons are interesting and have appealing backgrounds. The game includes voice acting that adds welcome impact to the dialogue while the music fits every bit shown so far. The battle music is motivating while the background music is delightful, reinforcing the medieval setting the whole time.
Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is full of depth in its customization, inheriting the essence of the original while appearing to be a game designed for current platforms. With only a few hours into the game, it is evident that the presentation is beautiful and that there is a promising variety of combat options and character growth. Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven will be released for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch on October 24, 2024.
Disclosure: This article is based on a build of the game provided by the publisher.
I am still not very fond of the glimmer system. However, this impression convinced me the full release of this game will be probably a big hit!