Following on the heels of SaGa Frontier Remastered, Sq. Enix now brings us Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Tune- Remastered, making good on their promise to proceed pulling PS1 and PS2 SaGa titles into the present period. Having this PlayStation 2 JRPG out there on PC, Change, PlayStation 4 & 5, and cell platforms is sort of the boon. However what, precisely, is Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Tune-? Its origins are a bit murky, so earlier than we get into the sport itself, Let’s discuss historical past.
The Saga of Romancing SaGa
The 12 months: 1992. After a profitable trilogy of Recreation Boy titles, the SaGa collection was prepared to come back to a house console. Akitoshi Kawazu, then a younger developer with Squaresoft who had labored on battle design for the earliest Remaining Fantasy titles, appeared prepared to maneuver away from the brand new flagship to create his personal line of RPGs. And so he did with Romancing SaGa. Revealed in Japan solely, this Tremendous Famicom title arrived on the heels of Remaining Fantasy IV and stayed on the prime of Famitsu’s gross sales charts for February 1992. The stark distinction between FFIV and RS was that the previous was extraordinarily linear, and the latter was about as freeform as an RPG might get on the restricted Tremendous Famicom {hardware}. This experimental system had its flaws, a few of which had been addressed within the different entries of the Romancing SaGa trilogy. Nevertheless, there could be a possibility to handle the sport’s flaws additional down the highway…
The 12 months: 2005. The SaGa collection is now as much as 9 entries, however the newest (UNLIMITED SaGa) leaves a bitter style within the mouth of many followers. For entry ten, Kawazu and crew determined to revisit the entry within the collection that made non-linearity a staple. The soar from Romancing SaGa to Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Tune- required rebuilding the sport from scratch in a 3D atmosphere, including new characters, areas, and situations, and placing collectively one of many greatest and most expansive remake soundtracks anybody had seen on the time. In an act that made sense on the time, however going ahead has solely added to the complicated disambiguation of this sport, the North American launch dropped the Minstrel Tune subtitle. In spite of everything, stated subtitle delineated the sport as a remake in Japan. However the English-speaking viewers by no means had entry to the unique, so the PS2 remake was launched as simply Romancing SaGa, with out the Minstrel Tune. The sport would promote 500,000 copies, with solely 10% of these gross sales coming from the North American market. Whereas many critics panned the sport for being too obtuse, one reviewer praised it as top-of-the-line JRPGs launched that 12 months.
The 12 months: 2022. A full 17 years after the PS2 Minstrel Tune launch (and 30 years after the Tremendous Famicom unique), the aforementioned reviewer (me) is revisiting one among his favourite titles from that period, due to the brand new remaster. Sq. Enix selected to maintain the subtitle in North America this time, so right here we’re, prepared to speak about Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Tune- Remaster.
Monotony be damned
What makes this remaster worthwhile? Usability. Not solely is that this the best constructive change for gamers, however additionally it is the realm the place Sq. Enix allotted most of their assets on this remaster. Contemplate sport saves. In comparison with the SFC or PS2 variations, saving the sport is a paradise, a cornucopia of choices. There’s a operating autosave which you can carry on or off, and you’ll manually load from it independently of different saves. Subsequent, there’s a devoted quicksave slot that, once more, operates individually from the autosave. With the numerous break up choices and the way shortly a battle can go badly on this sport, these two current in tandem are very good. And at last, there are your customary saves, which you are able to do at any time exterior of dialogue and fight. The one kind of save system not carried out is save-states, which might have allowed you to govern your means by troublesome battles.
Subsequent, there are the regional variations. Do you know that the in-game occasion system had a distinct price in Japan and the US? I didn’t! Like many different SaGa titles after it, the world modifications round you primarily based on the variety of battles you’ve fought. Enemies change into more durable, early-game quests change into unavailable, later quests change into out there (typically pending prerequisite flags hit earlier within the sport), and all of that is now clearly displayed in the primary menu. When beginning a brand new character, the sport provides a selection between enjoying with the slower (US) timer or the traditional pace (Japanese) timer. I have to say, this was a revelation for me. Whereas that slower timer may be very useful in a primary playthrough, I recall my subsequent playthroughs of the PS2 model and pondering, “why hasn’t the Bard opened up the ultimate dungeon for me but?” Now, enjoying with a brand new save file and making an attempt the Japanese “regular” pace for the primary time, the stress was on for me to decide on which quests I might, and will, moderately full earlier than reaching endgame standing.
One minor frustration is that in the case of language choice, you may solely decide between English and Japanese. This setting controls each the textual content and the voice performing. Do you wish to play with English textual content and Japanese voices (or vice versa)? Too unhealthy. Often, I wouldn’t complain about this, however… effectively, we’ll get there.
The most important usability change was additionally utilized in SaGa Frontier Remastered and Assortment of SaGa Remaining Fantasy Legend: fast-forward.
In fight and exploration, now you can simply set the pace between regular, double, and even triple pace with the contact of a button. Moreover, you may alter these settings individually primarily based on context, so if you’d like fight sped up however subject exploration at a traditional tempo, have at it. For longer treks or in grind-heavy dungeons, I fortunately opted for 3x, as my characters Sparked and Glimmered their approach to new abilities and combos. This device is essential in a sport designed for heavy replay (and sure, I’m significantly contemplating clearing this sport with all eight characters).
Sing for me… however don’t converse
As famous above, the soundtrack to Minstrel Tune stands out as top-of-the-line. Interval. Not only for SaGa or for composer Kenji Ito. Not only for Sq. Enix as a writer. This one is pinnacle JRPG music, each bit as diverse and attention-grabbing as your favourite Remaining Fantasy rating. The opening vocal theme, “Minuet” by Masayoshi Yamazaki, is an emotional expertise. The battle theme, “Passionate Rhythm,” consists of vivid guitar work and unimaginable non-lyrical vocals by Kyoko Kishikawa. Dozens of recent tunes had been composed for the Minstrel Tune model as effectively. Granted, there haven’t been any modifications on this 2022 Remaster, however that’s okay with me. This soundtrack already acquired its nice overhaul in 2005; I don’t wish to danger a downgrade in high quality in an try and reboot greatness.
Voice performing, however?
In the event you had requested me in 2005, I feel I’d have stated it’s refreshing to see a JRPG get English voice performing. The standard wasn’t the query, simply whether or not or not it was current. Apparently, that was additionally the opinion of no matter group labored on the voice performing for this sport in 2005. The English voice performing didn’t age effectively. In any respect. The voice actor for the Minstrel character, who does a lot of the narration, is satisfactory. Everybody else is both painfully monotone or nails-on-chalkboard annoying. As a lot as I’ve loved enjoying by this sport with Aisha, I by no means wish to hear her converse once more. No less than I can alter the voice quantity all the way down to 0 within the menu.
However, once more, what I can’t do is play the sport with English textual content and Japanese voice. And I desperately want that I might, as a result of the Japanese VA is becoming for most of the eight protagonists.
The world is the story
One of many causes I really like the SaGa collection is that it does an amazing job of permitting you a lot paths to character improvement with some significant story rewards. On the similar time, the story is informed paradoxically by the world. The minor characters, sub-quests, tools, and even the structure of the world map of Mardias supply particulars which can be each bit as essential as, say, Prince Albert’s primary questline. The intimate particulars of a person matter, however they don’t affect the primary plot on their very own. These items keep separate, and that’s okay. To me, it feels proper.
With out spoiling an excessive amount of, I’ve to gush about one among my favourite “morality selection” mechanics on this sport. Whereas the ultimate battle will at all times be the sport’s endpoint, there’s a prolonged dungeon and boss battle previous to the epic showdown. The truth is, there are three of these dungeons, however you’ll solely acquire entry to 1 in a given playthrough primarily based on choices made all through all prior quests. The do-gooders ascend to heaven to get a blessing from the gods. The ne’er-do-wells descend to hell and make a take care of Loss of life incarnate. Many in-between will discover their approach to a lush backyard of paradise to entreat with historic giants.
In some methods, even the sport’s many complicated mechanics (stat development, tools, class, traits, proficiency) assist inform the story. For extra on how these issues work and why I feel they work effectively, I refer you once more to my 2005 overview of the PS2 model.
Act your age
In the event you’re anticipating Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Tune- Remastered to face as much as at present’s finest and brightest RPGs, know that it typically gained’t. That is clearly the case for the graphics and the voice performing. When contemplating the sport’s age and retail worth level, nevertheless, I might argue that Minstrel Tune has aged properly total. Sq. Enix have executed followers an amazing favor by making a sport this dated play this effectively and nonetheless be a lot enjoyable, on practically each console market out there at present. Take a while. Play the sport. Discover out for your self what makes this deceptively strategic sport a lot enjoyable to grasp… er, um, Remaster?
