I didn’t really know what I was in when I went behind closed doors for a preview of Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven at PAX West. I’d never played a Saga game before, (I know, I know; shame on me), so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Moreover, the original Romancing Saga 2 was only released in Japan when it hit store shelves in 1993. A remastered version eventually released around the world in 2017, but this will be most folks’ first experience with Romancing Saga 2.
All that said, when I walked out of my demo, Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven was one of my most anticipated games this year, and ended up being one of my favorite games at PAX West. So pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink, and let me tell you about it.
We overuse the word “epic” when we talk about video games, but Romancing Saga 2 really lives up to it. A multi-generational story, Romancing Saga 2 plops you into the shoes of the Emperor of Avalon as they lead the charge against the Seven Heroes, legendary warriors who saved humankind long ago. Unfortunately, their fellow Ancients grew to fear the Seven Heroes and banished them to another dimension. They’re back now, corrupted by their time in the other dimension, and they’re not happy about the whole “being banished” thing. They’re out for blood.
It’s a cool setup made cooler by the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, Romancing Saga 2 is a multi-generational game. The Seven Heroes are extremely powerful, which means a single emperor won’t be able to take them all down alone. Eventually, the current emperor will have to cede power to the next generation. You’ll have a number of successors to choose from, each with their own class and combat styles. Whoever you pick will inherit the knowledge and abilities of the previous emperor. After several generations, you’ll build a royal lineage capable of defeating the Seven Heroes. It’ll just take a really, really long time.
Okay, so the setup’s pretty cool, but the actual game’s no slouch. My demo had me control Gerard, who ascended to Avalon’s throne after his father Leon, who began this crusade against the Seven Heroes, was killed. He’s unproven in battle, but has to step up to the plate when goblins attack the empire’s capital. This is where I got my first taste of Romancing Saga 2’s combat, and it didn’t disappoint.
On the surface, Revenge of the Seven is a pretty standard turn-based RPG, but there are some neat twists to set it apart. First, characters can equip multiple types of weapons. Secondly, those weapons level up depending on how much you use them. So if you equip a Mercenary with a greatsword and never use it, it’s not going to level up. Thirdly, you learn new abilities, called Glimmers, during battle. Using a skill repeatedly will cause a lightbulb to appear beside it. The brighter it gets, the more likely you’ll be to Glimmer and learn a new ability. And once you’ve learned it, it’s yours forever. It’s a neat system that incentivizes you to not only exploit enemy weaknesses but also make sure you’re using something that might give you a Glimmer while you do it.
After I dealt with the goblins, I had the option to pursue one of the Seven Heroes or follow them back to their hideout and deal with them once and for all. I chose the latter, which took me into a dungeon. If I could sneak up on enemies in the dungeon and take a swing at them with my sword, I could land a sneak attack, and deal extra damage before the battle started. But if I wasn’t careful, they could do the same thing to me. It added a nice bit of spice to exploring the dungeon, which was already pretty cool on its own.
These extra battles also meant I got a look at Romancing Saga 2’s formations, which allow you to change, well… your party’s formation. You might want to surround one of your weaker characters on all sides to defend them, for instance, or put one big bruiser up front to get all the attention while everyone else chills in the back. The formations you choose also grant buffs and debuffs to stats like speed and defense, so choosing wisely and being willing to change up your formations is key. As a tactics sicko, I live for this kind of stuff, and I fell in love with Romancing Saga 2’s battle system almost immediately.
Then there’s the stuff Revenge of the Seven is bringing to the table as a remake. It looks fantastic, has a newly arranged soundtrack by composer Kenji Ito, full English and Japanese voice acting, and some new difficulty modes if you’re not ready for what the original, now classified as Hard (Classic) is going to throw at you. I think Classic is doable (it’s how I played the demo), but it’s nice to have other options if you’d like to just enjoy the story or aren’t used to this kind of difficulty. And you can change it on the fly as long as you’re not in battle, another nice touch.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I sat down to play Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven, but I came away from my time with it incredibly excited for the full release. I said it at the top, and I’ll say it again: Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven was one of the best games I played at PAX West, and I played a lot of games at PAX West. Not bad for a remake of a game from 1993, right?
