Romancing SaGa 2


Romancing SaGa 2 is a role-playing video game developed by Square and released for the Super Famicom in Japan on December 10, 1993. It is the fifth title in the SaGa series.
In March 2010 the Super Famicom version was released on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan. In January 2014 the game was released on the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan. It was released on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in Japan in August 2017.

Gameplay

In Romancing SaGa 2, the player plays as the Emperor or Empress of Avalon, a castle located in the northwest corner of the game's world map. The Treasurer, in the throne room, tells the player the fund reserve in his or her castle treasury. Development of new equipment and spells, and establishment of services in Avalon will consume funds. The Treasurer also fills the Emperor with walking about funds if the player needs it. Also in the throne room is the Accountant. He tells the player how much money he or she collects per battle. When the player controls more land on the map, the amount increases. In the southeast corner of the throne room is the Chancellor. He tells the player what problems need to be solved in the world and where to solve them. Solving the problems he points out aids the player to advance to the next generation. The Fighters are the default characters that join the player early in the game. They are not the best characters, but as the player advances through the game, he or she will get other characters who specialize in areas that the Fighters are weak in. The Formation Soldiers demonstrate any battle formations the player happens to know and will collaborate with the player to make new formations. If the heir the player chooses knows a formation, it is recommended that the player consult the Formation Soldiers.
Throughout the game the player will be able to expand the capital. They will not appear until the player cleared a generation though after accepting the offers to start the public works.

Plot

Story

The Emperor or Empress of Avalon begins the game as King Leon and later plays as his various heirs down through the game years. Leon hands his kingdom over to his son, Gerard. At the end of Gerard's reign, the player is able to choose his or her own successor and pass on Gerard's abilities to them. At the end of each generation, he or she will be given a choice of four heirs. Their identity is based on a combination of chance and anyone whom the player has assisted or allied within in a past generation.

Characters

Major characters:
The main villains of the game are the Seven Heroes who saved the world from a great and terrible evil, then vanished without a trace for centuries, before returning all turned into demons. The Avalon royal family fights them through successive generations, defeating them one-by-one:
The Seven Heroes will become more powerful as the player level up. However, even if the player moves quickly through the game, the last hero fought will always be in his/her most powerful stage ; this is only if the player enters the final dungeon with one of the Heroes remaining. If the player did not kill Kzinssie Reborn at the start of the final scenario, he will always have to fought in the final dungeon instead of any of the remaining Heroes. In the final battle, the Seven Heroes merge into an extremely powerful monster that uses all of their abilities.
The names of most of the characters in the game are inspired by real-world and mythic names. The names of the Seven Heroes, in particular, are quasi anagrams of the seven major train stations on the Tokyo Yamanote Line. They are respectively: Shinjuku for Kzinssie, Shinagawa for Wagnas, Gotanda for Dantarg, Okubo for Bokhohn, Ebisu for Subier, Ueno for Noel, and Ikebukuro for Rocbouquet.

Development

Original

The team of the game comprised around 20 people and development lasted one year. English translator Ted Woolsey noted at the time that while a release of the game overseas would have been nice, focus was needed for upcoming games such as Final Fantasy VII and Secret of Mana 2, so the game remained a Japanese exclusive.

Remasters

The game was ported to a Japanese cellphone named i-mode in 2010, and featured improved graphics, audio, new character classes including a ninja class that is popular in Japan, and a new dungeon exploring a subplot revolving around the games untold story of the "Seven Heroes".
Because Romancing SaGa 2 was very popular in Japan, and a remaster of the original SaGa game was already released as Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song, the title was seen by Square Enix as the natural next SaGa title to re-release with a full remake. After the release was done in Japan, many western fans asked Square Enix over Twitter to release it the game, which had never been released outside of Japan, and this led to a port of the game being agreed to. All the original Super Nintendo code is still present in the remake. New features included new character classes, new dungeons, and a “New Game Plus” mode. Other new gameplay features included auto save, Xbox Play Anywhere support, cross save between PlayStation Vita and the PlayStation 4, as well as an option to turn off the remastering content and play it just like it was originally made. Because of the high cost of changing the graphics to 3D and fan love of the original art style, a more dramatic redesign was decided against. However, as higher resolution screens are more common now than the original release, game backgrounds were redrawn to fit 2k screens. Producer Masanori Ichikawa noted that releasing the game across so many platforms was a new challenge to Square Enix, as Xbox and Steam are not as popular in Japan but are popular worldwide.

Release

A full remaster for iOS, Android and the PlayStation Vita was released on March 24, 2016 in Japan. It features remastered graphics, optimized controls and the added content and features from the mobile phone release in 2011. The iOS and Android versions were released in English on May 26, 2016, while the English PlayStation Vita version was still being worked on. In December 2016, series creator Akitoshi Kawazu said that there were issues with the English PlayStation Vita version, requiring a few more months before it would be ready for release; it was later announced for a December 15, 2017 release, alongside releases for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows.

Reception

Romancing SaGa 2 has sold nearly 1.5 million copies worldwide as of March 2003. Famitsu gave it a score of 26 out of 40.
Game Revolution reviewed this title for the Nintendo Switch, saying that the game at first appears like a very average game from the time it originally came out, but praised the system of choices that changes and guides the gameplay, as well as the unique aspect of ruling an empire and eventually being about to issue commands to followers. Nintendo World Report said the game lacked interesting stories or characters, but called the gameplay system rewarding with many weapons to choose from and skill points to use.
Reviewing the PlayStation 4 version, Push Square disdained the menu system taken from the previous mobile remake, and noted balance issues that made the traditional process of leveling up characters potentially hurt the player as the bosses grow stronger as you do.
Reviewing the iOS version of the game, Touch Arcade loved how radically different it was from what kinds of games Square Enix had released in the Apple App Store until then. Despite enjoying the game, they noted the games unexplained gameplay systems and called the games balance system “atrocious”. They also mentioned the poor translation into English and the lack of Mifi game controller support.
Several of the game music tracks were featured in as downloadable content.

Legacy

Romancing Saga 2 expanded the non-linear gameplay of its predecessor. While in the original Romancing Saga, scenarios were changed according to dialogue choices during conversations, Romancing Saga 2 further expanded on this by having unique storylines for each character that can change depending on the player's actions, including who is chosen, what is said in conversation, what events have occurred, and who is present in the party.
PCGamesN credits Romancing SaGa 2 for having laid the foundations for modern Japanese role-playing video games. The game's progressive, non-linear, open world design and subversive themes influenced modern Japanese role-playing video games such as Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XV, ' and '.