Romancing SaGa 2

A boss encounter in the original (top), and a standard combat encounter in the 2024 remake (bottom). While having different presentation, the two versions share similar mechanics and structure.

Romancing SaGa 2 is a role-playing video game in which the player take on the role of rulers for Avalon, an expanding empire fighting the corrupted Seven Heroes across a nonlinear narrative; this is dubbed Free Scenario System.^[3] Rather than a central cast, the player takes on the role of successive rulers of Avalon−with only the first and last playable characters pre-determined−who must face the Seven Heroes across several centuries. The campaign has a non-linear narrative structure that is based on quests taken by the player, which expand Avalon's influence.^[4] The story progresses by completing available quests, such as exploring different territories or defeating main story bosses, and once enough quests are complete the story skips forward, which results in either new quests becoming available or previous ones unavailable based on past activities.^[3][5] Alongside excursions to dungeon areas, the current Emperor manages the territory and capital of Avalon.^[4] Based on the current territories their available funds, the Emperor can initiate projects that can be used to develop or enhance weapons and equipment.^[6]

While exploring dungeon environments, enemies are represented by sprites on the field; touching a enemy initiates a battle whereas dashing causes them to vanish so they become hard to avoid.^[6][7] Combat uses a turn-based system, and the player assigns all character actions at beginning of a turn; the actions' order are dictated by each unit's speed.^[6] The party's proficiency in battle is adjusted through Formations, different configurations of the five party members can grant advantages, such as increased defence or attack power; dashing into an enemy or being attacked from behind breaks the party's formation, removing these advantages.^[7][8] Characters have different innate character classes and access to six different weapon types; light and heavy swords, axes, maces, rapiers, and bows. Continued usage will increase a character's weapon proficiency and increase the likelihood of learning new techniques related to them.^[6] There is no experience point-based leveling system, with character statistics raising based on skill points that are accumulated in battle by using specific weapons or abilities.^[8] New abilities are unlocked by using weapons enough times in battle or by triggering different situations, such as parrying an enemy attack.^[6][7] Depending on a character's proficiencies, they may focus on melee attacks or have access to magic, such as healing or inflicting status effects.^[6]

Characters not only have health and Battle Points, which fuel abilities and spells, but Life Points (LP) which are depleted when their health is depleted, they are attacked while knocked out, or by attacks which target LP. If they still have LP, a character is restored to full health after combat is finished.^[6] If a character's LP runs out, they are subject to permanent death, with the current Emperor's death or a full party defeat forcing a new Emperor to be chosen from available candidates.^[4] A central mechanic for the chosen Emperor is "Inheritance", which allows the player to transfer abilities and statistics from the previous Emperor to the next.^[5] The only traditional Game Over comes if the final playable Emperor runs out of LP.^[6] The 2016 remaster includes a New Game Plus option allowing the player to carry money and unlocked abilities into a new game.^[7]

The 2024 remake Revenge of the Seven carries over the gameplay and combat elements with some additions and alterations.^[9] During combat, the turn order for the player and enemy parties is displayed on a timeline, which can be influenced by actions taken during combat, and actions taken by characters play out immediately.^[9][10] Hitting enemy weaknesses fills up a bar that is used to power United Attacks. When selected, United Attacks have two or more characters perform more powerful versions of linked abilities, dealing increased damage without moving them on the timeline.^[10][11] The player can have a current Emperor willingly abdicate the throne rather than falling in battle.^[12] The remake includes a post-game scenario ending in a secret boss fight. Completing this fight unlocks New Game Plus, which allows character stats, abilities, and learned Formations to be carried over into a new game. The remake also features a "Casual" difficulty setting as well as higher "Expert" and "Romancing" difficulties that are unlocked after completing the game.^[13]

In the Romancing SaGa 2's backstory, a group of warriors, dubbed the Seven Heroes, saved the world from monster invasions but vanished immediately afterwards. After a millennium, the Seven Heroes have returned but are now corrupted by dark powers and begin attacking the continent. Leon, ruler of the land of Avalon, begins a campaign against the Seven Heroes, which is passed down to his younger son Gerard after he is mortally wounded in battle. Over subsequent generations, the Emperor's power is passed down using the Inheritance spell, with each Emperor expanding and defending Avalon. Over time, Avalon expands into an empire, with its ruler and a chosen group of warriors killing each of the Seven Heroes. When six of the seven are defeated and the final Emperor or Empress takes power, it is revealed that the Seven Heroes faced up to this point were copies and the seventh copy has gone to protect the Heroes' original bodies.

The final Emperor or Empress, whose inheritance magic has worn off, defeats first the final copy, then the true Seven Heroes. The story is bookended by a minstrel retelling the game's events and concluding that the Empire of Avalon was turned into a commonwealth after the Seven Heroes' defeat; the still-living ruler listens to the minstrel. Later versions of Romancing SaGa 2 include optional story content revealing that the Seven Heroes were betrayed by their people, the Ancients, who feared the power the heroes gained by absorbing monsters with an earlier version of the Inheritance spell. The Seven Heroes returned from the realm of monsters to exact revenge.

Following the completion and release of Romancing SaGa in early 1992, almost the whole development team was recruited to work on the latest Final Fantasy title, which halted production on SaGa sequels.^[14][15] Ultimately series creator Akitoshi Kawazu was pleased, as he would otherwise would not have had time to rework game mechanics, which would have left Romancing SaGa 2 overly similar to its predecessor. Production began in April for the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) when new employees had joined the company and Kawazu could create a production team.^[15] Kawazu acted as director, lead designer, and scenario writer.^[16] Other returning staff included programmers Yuki Anasawa and Hiroshi Takai, illustrator Tomomi Kobayashi, and the sound team of composer Kenji Ito and sound designer Minoru Akao.^[14][17] The mostly-new staff meant that Kawazu's sometimes-drastic changes to the game mechanics were easily accepted.^[14] Production lasted one year and had a staff of around twenty people.^[18] The staff included planner Akihiko Matsui, who joined the project following work on Final Fantasy V and would go on to co-direct Chrono Trigger;^[19][20] and future composer Yasunori Mitsuda as a sound designer.^[21] It was produced by Tetsuo Mizuno, then-president of Square who would go on to found AlphaDream.^[16][22]

As with other SaGa titles, the gameplay mechanics were laid out before the storyline and worldview, with the leading mechanic this time being the inheritance of skills through a lineage.^[18] Kawazu compared the in-game role of Emperor to a corporate CEO; his original pitch for the game compared its management elements to SimCity (1989).^[23] The inheritance mechanic was part of a scrapped concept for the original SaGa. The central concept was that while the game's ending was set, what happened during the intervening millennium of history was up to the player.^[24] As with other entries, the gameplay was designed to be open-ended and influenced a great deal by player choices.^[25] The battle system was principally designed by Kyoji Koizumi, who chose to work on it when Kawazu offered him the choice between gameplay and story.^[24] Koizumi had aspects of each enemy's design reflect how they appeared in battle; for example, enemies with a lot of health also have large sprites.^[26] Kawazu attributed the ability growth and unlock system to Koizumi. Kawazu saw it as an improvement over the original Romancing SaGa.^[23]

Kawazu wrote the scenario in parallel to the gameplay system development, with some planned story elements needing to be dropped due to cartridge limitations.^[24] Written as a traditional fantasy, the narrative was designed to advance based on the number and order of bosses defeated, with almost all other elements being a wide selection that player could choose from freely.^[25] The Seven Heroes were added late into development as a clear end goal for the Inheritence mechanic to be built around.^[23] Their concept and number drew inspiration from the Seven Lucky Gods.^[24] Kawazu described them as former allies who had drifted apart to pursue their own goals.^[18] The leader Subier was the first of the Seven Heroes created, with his name being a double meaning pun on the Japanese god Ebisu and the Ebisu neighbourhood where Square was based. The names of male members in the Japanese versions were anagrams of station names along the Yamanote Line. The one female member Rocbouquet was a challenge, with Kawazu eventually making her name an anagram of Ikebukuro, a commercial center in Tokyo.^[15]

In addition to being surprised a Romancing SaGa sequel was being produced, Kobayashi was surprised she was asked to design the cast once again.^[17] Kawazu began working with Kobayashi on designing the characters six months into the game's production, with some draft designs already turned into pixel art. Gerard's design was one the earliest to be completed, with his pixel art version influencing Kobayashi's artwork.^[23] Compared to her book illustrations, which had at most six characters, Romancing SaGa 2 had dozens of characters to design.^[27] She began with characters from the Avalon Empire, particularly the first two rulers: Leon and Gerard. Leon was originally designed with dark skin and a dour look. This design was scrapped in favor of the current version designed around a long-haired flamboyant type.^[17] Gerard's role and personality resulted in a more youthful and "boyish" design; although she had hoped to design a more unconventional protagonist after her work on Romancing SaGa. Her favorite character designs were the more challenging ones, such as the android character Coppelia.^[27] Kazuyuki Ikumori acted as graphic designer, with his work focusing on background environments as well as the opening and ending sequences.^[28]

Romancing SaGa 2 was released on December 10, 1993.^[40] Three guidebooks were published by NTT Publishing in association with Square; two in December 1993, and a complete guide in February 1994.^[41][42][43] Like the other Super Famicom SaGa titles, Romancing SaGa 2 was originally exclusive to Japan.^[44] Square localization staff member Ted Woolsey attributed this to a lack of manpower and the wish to keep staff focused on the production of Final Fantasy VII and Trials of Mana.^[45] Kawazu attributed the lack of localization both to its unconventional gameplay and the large amount of text in need of translation.^[44]

The game received Virtual Console re-releases on the Wii in 2010, the Wii U in 2014, and the New Nintendo 3DS in 2017. The Wii version became unavailable after the shutdown of Wii's online services.^[40] CERO rated these versions a higher-than-expected rating due to references alcohol and drugs.^[1] The game was ported to mobile phones.^[1][46] It originally released for i-mode on November 1, 2010;^[46] an EZweb version followed on March 3, 2011.^[47] The port included a new dungeon called the Maze of Memories, featuring the background lore for the Seven Heroes. Several bugs and exploits from the original were fixed, with a new area included to replace a popular exploit to increase in-game funds. New character classes were distributed as paid downloadable content.^[1] This version shut down in 2018, when the services for older mobile titles ceased.^[48][49]

Prior to release, Romancing SaGa 2 was highly antipicated in Japan. It was consistently the most wanted title on Famitsu's list of expected releases from September 27, 1993 through November 14, 1993.^{[77][78][79][80][81][82]} The original release topped the Famitsu sales chart in December 1993.^[83] Romancing SaGa 2 went on to sell nearly 1.5 million copies as of March 2003.^[84] It is the best-selling entry in the original Romancing SaGa trilogy, followed by the original game and Romancing SaGa 3.^[85] Reception of the remaster was varied; according to review aggregate website Metacritic, the PS4 and Switch versions saw generally positive reviews,^[69][70] while the Xbox version saw a mixed response.^[71] Nintendo World Report's Bryan Rose summed up the game as having "a certain old school charm that invites any old school RPG fan to give it a shot",^[75] while Alana Hagues of RPGFan described the game as "equal parts fascinating and frustrating".^[5]

The original's gameplay design was generally praised. The reviewers for Famitsu praised the gameplay as addictive and entertaining once they got a grasp of the systems,^[72] and TouchArcade's Shaun Musgrave positively highlighted the game as different from other Square Enix mobile titles at the time while faulting its balancing and lack of tutorials.^[8] Michael Baker of RPGamer lauded its mechanics but felt the difficulty could be off-putting,^[4] while Hagues—despite enjoying the combat—criticised its lack of guidance and difficulty spikes.^[5] Rose positively noted the amount options players had to experiment with,^[75] Liam Dolan of Nintendo Life highlighted the character customisation and combat system as a major reason he kept on playing,^[74] while Cody Perez of GameRevolution negatively noted the high number of enemy encounters despite enjoying the game's overall design.^[73] Robert Ramsey of Push Square felt that the game was undermined by poor balancing and the lack of a conventional leveling system.^[76]

The presentation was generally well received. Hagues positively noted the music in her review,^[5] and Baker called the final boss theme "one of the best of its generation".^[4] When mentioned, the remaster's graphical upgrade was praised, but its controls and menu design were often faulted.^{[5][8][74][75][76]} By contrast Perez described both the sound and art design as "repetitive and forgettable".^[73] Commenting on the localization, Musgrave noted grammar and spelling mistakes, negatively comparing it to early localizations from Square.^[8]

In contrast, the story saw less favourable responses. Ramsey felt the game's "rather unique approach to storytelling" set it apart from other titles of its time,^[76] Perez praised the free scenario system as setting the game apart from others of its time,^[73] but Rose felt lacked interesting stories or characters to hook her.^[75] Dolan felt the story and dialogue lacking despite the original premise,^[74] Baker felt there were no characters he could become attached to beyond its opening and ending sections,^[4] and two reviewers from Famitsu highlighted the characters as difficult to connect with compared to the fate of Avalon as a whole.^[72]

Romancing SaGa 2 has become a fan favorite within the SaGa series and introduced a number of gameplay elements that would continue to be used going forward, such as formations and maneuvers like parrying.^[3][85] Western journalists have noted its gameplay design and narrative structure in relation to later role-playing games.^[93][94] Within the SaGa series, the game served as the model for two spin-off projects: Emperors SaGa in 2012,^[15] and Imperial SaGa in 2015.^[95]