Where were you when this happened?
store.steampowered.com
I’m here today with two great bits of news for you all, first of all (as you may have guessed from the title) Romancing SaGa 2 is coming to Steam! The second bit of good news is that you don’t have to wait long, it’ll be out on Friday the 15th of December!
Wow so this is the power of modern videogame systems?
PSA : If you want to get into the SaGa franchise, SaGa Frontier or Romancing SaGa remake on PS2 are the best places to start.
That said, if you have played a lot of JRPGs and want something refreshing, give this a shot.
I was considering making a thread for this. But I guess I won't have to.
Anyway. Neat it's coming out sooner then I thought.
Are SaGa games related?
I just hope it doens't look like ass upscaled. At least they didn't they butcher it with FF mobile treatment.
No. They're standalone games despite the numbers and such.
It's for everything by the way: Steam, Switch, Xbox One and PS4
>Xbox One
I don't know why they bother.
Cool
What if I haven't played a lot of JRPGs?
SaGa games are actually some of the few challenging JRPGs out there.
You might like it. Just keep in mind SaGa games don't quite play like your typical JRPG. Usually.
It's probably super easy to port to both PS4 and X1, and they Square has the money to do so.
Also, they might have a partnership white Mircosoft were they have to release a number of games on their system ever year.
I like the sound of that.
I only love Saga Frontier 2.
Its music, that is. Never really bother playing it years ago because my hand was full with both Chronos and Xenogears. From what I see from the battle system seems like Romancing Saga 2 is just your usual JRPG of old, which I'm totally okay with, but is there uniqueness to it? Plot, difficulty, anything?
Romancing SaGa games are anything but usual JRPG fare, though. Someone put it best when they said they were essentially an evolutionary dead end for a sort of sandbox JRPG approach that never lived past those entries and maybe stuff like Metal Max series. Which makes Romancing SaGa titles especially difficult to quantify and compare.
SaGa Frontier 2 is a mix between usual SaGa formula and typical JRPG.
Coping from another thread:
>Romancing SaGa 2
Non linear, Sandbox
Unique characters mixed with Generics, very large cast
Generational gameplay
Somewhat more story focused than previous entries
Establishment of key mechanics like sparking begins here
Very tough for beginners
You have to remember that this was still the SNES era, so this game even got made with kind of impressive.
Give it a go.
Also, do try SaGa Frontier 1. It's amazing as well.
Hey, neat. This is much better than trying to buy the game for Vita anyways.
It's a bit tough to get into, as it's a bit more complex than your usual JRPG fare.
I suggest trying few lesser known JRPGs on SNES and PS1 before trying it out.
Info on SaGa series for those interested : hardcoregaming101.net
How was the translation in the mobile/vita version?
I really like how all games clearly built on top of each other, but each was also doing the setup and story differently. It's interesting how all three games are pretty different today decades later.
I hope they give all three games the same treatment.
Romancing SaGa 3 has already been announced for phones. Will be made by the same team.
Hopefully, it comes to PC as well.
Heard Romancing SaGa 3 has some pretty crazy romhacks.
There's a whole bunch. Which to this day I'm still not sure how it happened. Like for one example there's one hack that's basically a remake of FFL2 using RS3 graphics and shit.
Romancing SaGa 1 already got an incredible PS2 remake, Minstrel Song, so you ain't gonna see more of that, Kawazu only does one remake for his games.
The Romancing SaGa 2 remake is basically the same exact game but with new backgrounds, a few animated enemy sprites and some new content among extensive bugfix, all the rest is straight out from the SNES original.
Romancing SaGa 3 has already got a remake/remaster announced that will include new stuff/rebalance and it has already been confirmed for the west, for now the only platforms are Mobile and Vita, but considering what happened to RS2, it's probably going to end up for all platforms since the new producer is a great fan of the series and wants a SaGa renaissance, blessed be his soul.
Mediocre, but better than nothing.
Yeah, the RomHack community for RS3 is the most active community together with the Mario one, they managed to fit in basically all other SaGa games' mechanics, characters, bosses and music into RS3, together with a few other unique hacks like Tohou characters.
>a remake of FFL2 using RS3 graphics and shit
That's fucking crazy. Seems like these hacks are more or less confined to the Japanese fanbase though, which of course is pretty obvious considering it's SaGa, but still saddening.
Getting old translated games? Yes please.
On the one hand I'm glad more people will get to play this, on the other, it's on steam and I've had a strict "no business with valve" rule since inception of steam, so I won't be touching this.
Have fun though. It's a very good game.
>"no business with valve" rule since inception of steam
Why?
That's a fairly strange rule to have, unless you are holding a massive grudge against how they tried to handle TF2 online over a decade ago.
SaGa is a big cult series in Japan, the west never really got into it for some reason and it always got bad reviews from casuals who never even bothered learning how to play the games and complain that it's too different from other JRPGs, which it is, but that's the whole point of the series, to go beyond standard mechanics and explore the possibilities of the genre.
Japan showed that they were just waiting for the series to come back after Wada tried to kill it, I wonder if this time the west will finally see the light, though considering the reception for the mobile version, I doubt it.
Is this the one where you eat monsters to become other monsters?
No, those are only the GB games and SaGa Frontier.
There are various non human party members though.
I personally loved the system in Legend of Legacy. FF2 was pretty bad and the systems in FFL1 and FFL2 were questionable. (FFL3 felt a lot like a standard JRPG, though.) I realize that Romancing SaGa is more likely to be like the FF2/FFL games than something like Legend of Legacy, but I'm interested in giving it a shot.
>(FFL3 felt a lot like a standard JRPG, though.)
You should try the DS remake. It's a lot more SaGa-like
Who here Empire's Front Line?
youtube.com
Nah, they're more like the Final Fantasy games. They might share mechanics and themes but are otherwise their own thing.
I've never played these games but I hear they use similar system as Last Remnant did?
The series did fine for itself until Square decided they didn't want to bring the SNES games over and then did very limited marketing(at best) for SF1, a game that was sabotaged by budget and time constraints.
The next SaGa game they actually marketed everywhere was Unlimited SaGa and we both know how well that went.
Technically the other way round, but yeah Last Remnant basically feels like a SaGa Gaiden game.
Stance against their business model as a whole. Steam isn't and hasn't been a good thing from where I stand. Not worth hijacking your thread though.
>(FFL3 felt a lot like a standard JRPG, though.
That's because it's the only game in the entire series that wasn't done by Kawazu, the DS remakes fixes quite literally everything wrong with it.
>I realize that Romancing SaGa is more likely to be like the FF2/FFL games
Hahaha, no.
They play absolutely nothing alike the GB SaGa games.
TLR is a SaGa Gaiden more or less, so kind of.
The basic ruleset is there, but TLR is more of an expansion of the Commander Mode from Romancing SaGa 3 than anything, not to mention that it's linear, doesn't have multiple MCs and so on.
But yeah, if you liked the general philosophy behind TLR you'll like SaGa games, not to mention that if you paid attention to the lore in TLR you'll understand a lot of references and cameos from SaGa.
I'll never get how Unlimited ever even got a release in the west. I'm not complaining, but it's a miracle in itself.
At least it doesn't have gay system like the PS2 1.
you can always get the mobile version, unless you dont want to give your money to google either, which I wouldnt blame you for
>I'll never get how Unlimited ever even got a release in the west
Kawazu literally forced the suits to release the game and release it everywhere by using his status as one of the founding fathers of the company.
He was also aware that the game wouldn't have a good reception but he didn't care.
Minstrel Song is great, shut up.
How much will it cost?
Can I play it without playing the other games that came before it?
I'm not saying it's bad, it's just the random battle meter moving the story along fugs it up.
So can anyone give me some advice for this? The systems look pretty intimidating. What should I be aiming for in general?
Too make it fair make your party members master only one weapon and one magic.
>mfw I rented Unlimited Saga over a decade ago on a whim without knowing anything about the series
That sure was an experience.
>Can I play it without playing the other games that came before it?
All SaGa games are stand alone, so yes.
>What should I be aiming for in general?
Like all SaGa games, do not fuck things up is the best general advice.
That means do not grind like a retard since the games and especially RS2 have antigrind measures, explore, learn how to fight things, train your characters well and have fun.
I liked the first SaGa Frontier too, mostly the lesbian Vampire chick plotline. But the second one was awesome because you really played a saga over decades.
Isn't Octopath pretty much following those footsteps?
I love that man.
And Minstrel Song is great, but one wishes voices could be turned off.
Just play. Die. Learn. From your mistakes first, but then also from everything you can gather by keeping your eyes open. This is very much an old school game where heuristic is integral part of the playing process.
Only tip I would give is: don't grind.
I remember growing up playing a lot of 7th SaGa and not playing much else of the series.
Octopath doesn't really look like it's taking a lot out of SaGa games other than cloning a few characters and having a pseudo sandbox, all the rest is completely different.
7nth Saga/Elnard is not even a Squaresoft game dude, it has nothing to do with SaGa with the capital G.
everyone and their mother should try Metal Max, its basically JRPG Fallout
sadly only MM Returns is translated
I would kill a man to get the Metal Max series in the west.
I loved Returns and Metal Saga to bits. The monster design is super unique, and there's not really any other games out there like them.
Return was pretty neat.
>mfw during my first playthrough I stubbornly fought Brass Banshee on feet in the ruined skyscraper because I thought I'd miss the bounty if I bombed the building
>Find out in another playthrough it just survives the bombing and you can fight it on your tanks, which makes it a lot easier
>tfw crea-tech is so fucking poor and tiny that Xeno will never come over.
>if it does some shitter like NISA will likely nab it
>Glory of Heracles is still dead
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUCK this so much.
Metal Saga had an official western release.
It bombed though, partially from lack of marketing and partially because the western box art is fucking horrific.
>tfw no The Last Remnant sequel
Kawazu doesn't like sequels, you should just accept that.
There's still a chance they will someday do a game with a similar system though, Scarlet Grace has quite a few cameos from TLR when it comes to weapons, and they also reworked some mechanics like Morale or Interrupt for that game.
I do wonder if we are going to get ports of scarlet grace.
here is hoping on the slim chance they will go nuclear and release fucking everything over time including Unlimited and the kitchen sink
>Scarlet Grace
Really hope this one lands out of Japan at some point. Seems really interesting.
I hope so too. Eventually. Too bad it's stuck on Vita so hardly anyone would buy it even if by unholy miracle it got localized.
Man, I would kill for a proper complete SaGa collection for PC, and I say this as someone who also imported Scarlet Grace, I would totally double dip even if it's a Steam release.
It's fairly different from all the previous SaGa games, I really like it but I don't know if people are fine with a game with no dungeons, no cities and basically just...pretty much a wargame in videogame form.
>that """art""" design
You can keep this weeb visual diarrhea.
>Isn't Octopath pretty much following those footsteps?
For me, Octopath looks like Live-A-Live/7th Sage/Seiken Densetsu 3 (multiple character + free form) with Yasumi Matsuno like story and presentation.
You make my heart go aflutter.
Yeah, what I've read about it make it look very interesting and different. Something I wouldn't mind playing on PC with my notepad open to record experimentation.
They actually cared about it.
youtu.be
>Romancing SaGa 3 is supposed to get the same treatment than Romancing SaGa 2.
>It's still not out on mobile
Katrina > All other playable characters.
I didn't consider it, but yeah, Octopath is pretty similar to Live-A-Live in structure, even having "character actions" as well. I feel like combat draws obviously from Bravely, but limits the turn-stacking to boost-stacking to make more notable effects in boosting your abilities (such as guard being able to cover allies at max stack level)
>MFW Seiken Densetsu 3 will most likely get an official english mobile release and will end on Steam someday
...
>Romancing SaGa remake on PS2 are the best places to start.
Hardly. But its still a good game.
please elaborate
Live A Live isn't exactly freeform, all the characters are also stuck in their own miniscenario instead of sharing a sandbox world and just having a different story.
It is interesting, especially for the sheer amount of event variations in it, but it's still something pretty experimental when it comes to design, especially the new battle system, it's also less complex than Unlimited when it comes to general mechanics, so if you want something more hardcore you're probably going to be a bit disappointed, though that might also be a plus if Unlimited is too complex for you.
Unlimited pc remake, when?
There will be a Secret of Mana collection that will be released on Switch soon. With Final Fantasy Gaiden, Seiken Densetsu II and III on it. And there are rumors for mobile port.
>pretty much a wargame in videogame form.
Is it comparable to TBS/4X games?
When you get 5 level 4 art combos consistently.
Honestly, I don't think the problem most people have with Unlimited is so much the *difficulty* proper as much as the abstraction.
It's a very dry game. I have a friend who describes it as "a game deigner's game for game designers", same as there are"writers' writer" and "music for musicians". And I think it's a fair description.
Most people never get to a pooint when the game is actually difficult, because can't find in them to even play the game to that point.
I wonder if that design was intentional or not.
>Is it comparable to TBS/4X games?
Not quite since it works on Kawazu's own ideas, but a lot of wargame mechanics like FoW are in the game, although again, filtered through Kawazu's own design, FoW for instance covers the various provinces you have still not visited but it's not something that exists in battles.
Not to mention you're playing on a literal virtual diorama with popup models for NPCs, dungeons, towns and whatever else, many of which also change dynamically depending on your decisions throughout the game.
You're right on the money.
Unlimited's big problem is indeed the abstraction, and I agree with your friend on that idea, Unlimited is a lot more interesting taken from a designer's point of view since it incorporate so much exotic and out of the field stuff, but you can say the same for all of Kawazu's games.
Can't wait to get this.
Also, another thing about Scarlet Grace is that much like Unlimited is one of the few videogames where it's like there's a GM holding the reins.
In Unlimited it's easier to feel it since it works on a more abstract system where everything works through turns and abstract decisions like "move north during this turn", "try to lockpick this chest, roll the dice/reel for lockpicking, one turn passes", but Scarlet is also similar since the game also has a pseudo turn system in the sense that entering a town, engaging in one battle or generally triggering one event counts as a virtual turn of sorts, that makes other events on the map that have a turn count update dynamically, as in "you used one turn to fight a sea monster, the poachers nearby have taken a ship towards this city".
It's a very interesting system.
Great game.
Too bad the mobile version tends to freeze/crash on me, so I hope that doesn't happen with this port.
>Too bad the mobile version tends to freeze/crash on me
That's weird, I thought the update fixed that problem.
I play on Vita and I never had any problems outside of the high volume for some effects, which was fixed in a patch.
>more people care about this on Sup Forums than in /vr/
/vr/ doesn't even have SaGa generals anymore
Color me interested.
You find nice SFW things in the least expected places:
Romancing Saga Artbook Time Weaver e-hentai.org
SaGa Frontier 2: Perfect Works(Incomplete) e-hentai.org
/vr/ SaGa threads were killed by a handful of really dedicated shitposters who persistently ruined the threads.
A shame, but that's how it is.
/vr/'s general discussion quality also really sank in the last two years, the SaGa threads weren't the only victim.
Looks a lot better than I expected.
>Color me interested.
It's pretty fun, especially because in a few regions some looping events have a dedicated subevent that is apparently useless but is in truth an marker for a quests' development that indicates your progression through the loop.
Some other events also permanently alter the landscape, like breaking a dam, unleashing a sandstorm or making a volcano erupt, and 90% of events have many variations, depending on which MC you're playing as, the order in which you complete the events in the game and also how you clear them.
Some MCs also have unique insight or variations on certain events, as usual, Scarlet is the SaGa game with the most expansive event scripts and variations up to now, which makes up for the slightly less expanded battle mechanics compared to previous mainlines.
There's also 77 characters you can recruit, so taking a different route or decision is very rewarding when you find a new character to mess with, some characters are also really well hidden.
>>/vr/'s general discussion quality also really sank in the last two years
You can only talk about so much before threads become almost literal reposts. I like /vr/ but its always been a "weekend getaway" styled board for me.
It's not just that, I'm talking about the userbase in general, now /vr/ has a lot more people who are prone to gratuitous shitposting, see the recent Chrono Cross threads.
The board's content did get stagnant, but the general user quality has also sharply declined in the last two years.
What are the odds the RS2 port is testing the waters for an eventual Scarlet Grace port? Because seriously it seems like most these things would appeal a lot to strategy fans.