After four generations, I’d finally built the perfect fighter: a ruler that could dodge nearly any attack, wield multiple weapons, and put the fiercest of enemies in the ground. The pinnacle of royalty, and boy, was it satisfying.
That idea is only possible in Romancing SaGa 2, a fascinating 1993 RPG that took a novel approach to its storytelling — fighting for the Kingdom of Avalon’s future across seven generations. It’s a bold approach that really lets players craft their own stories rather than tell it to them, and three decades later, it still feels novel. That unique core is still at the heart of the Romancing SaGa 2 remake, but Square Enix’s gorgeous update gives the game a new lease on life. It’s a dazzling remake that at times feels like an entirely different game, even if the soul at its heart still feels the same. It still doesn’t fix some of the original game’s flaws, but it’s easy to see why a special game like Romancing SaGa 2 demanded a remake.
Once in a Generation
Romancing Saga 2 begins with the story of Gerard, the young inexperienced prince of Avalon. When his father, King Leon, takes him along on a monster-hunting expedition, the pair come back to find their kingdom under siege by an army of demons, led by a twisted version of one of the legendary heroes who vanished ages ago. While the story initially focuses on Gerard learning to become a ruler, the biggest surprise is just hours in when you instantly jump ahead 100 years to another ruler taking on the mantle.
The defining characteristic of Romancing SaGa 2 is the idea of time passing and playing as different generations. From the core gameplay and leveling systems to the way the narrative plays out, it all revolves around the passage of time. But it also means Romancing SaGa 2 doesn’t have a “typical” story like you might expect from other RPGs.
Although you have party members and meet characters, this isn’t a character-based story, meaning outside of major story moments, you won’t be seeing a lot of cutscenes, character dialogue, and meaningful relationships. Instead, Romancing SaGa 2’s storytelling plays out from a more overhead sense — it’s all about crafting your kingdom’s legacy, securing Avalon’s place in the world, and turning it into a flourishing civilization. Avalon is more the main character here than any character.
But what it means is that Romancing SaGa 2 is a very freeform experience — you need to pick which characters and classes you invest in, choose which quests to explore and areas to conquer, and decide who leads your kingdom. It’s absurdly systems-heavy, but the satisfaction lies in how those systems all come together, how it allows you to feel like Avalon, and the people who inhabit it, are really your own. That’s an approach that might not appeal to everyone, but it’s undoubtedly unique.
At the start of each generation, you choose a new ruler, allowing you to switch things up to a brand new main character and class if you want. Each of your party members will shuffle forward to a new character as well, passing on their skills and abilities to someone entirely new. There are a ton of mechanics that tie into generations passing as well — magical research you started conducting will be completed, items and equipment you invested in will now be sold by shops, and techs characters have learned for battle can be taught to anyone at the dojo. As you complete quests, you’ll be able to conquer different areas of the world, expanding your influence and power, and letting you construct new buildings and improve Avalon.
Romancing SaGa 2 is a complicated game with a vast web of interconnected systems, but the way they all seamlessly connect to your core experience is continuously impressive. But what’s even more notable is how this remake improves on nearly every facet of the game.
For King and Country
While all those core elements of the original are present in the remake, it’s hard to not look at this version as practically an entirely different game. The most obvious change is the massive overhaul made to graphics, music, and voice acting. The original Romancing SaGa 2 was a 2D-pixel art RPG released in 1993, and the transition to a massive 3D world is staggering — like the difference between A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. The way you interact with the world is integrally changed, the layout of levels, and exploration. That alone is a seismic shift, not to mention the addition of extensive voice acting and full orchestral score. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Romancing SaGa 2 is an astoundingly gorgeous game, filled with colorful and vibrant locations. There’s a painterly pastiche to the game’s aesthetic that makes it feel like a moving version of all that concept art you saw for RPGs in the ’90s.
But that’s not the only massive change, as nearly every system has been updated or streamlined to be more approachable. In the original version, a lot of the various systems were obtuse and not explained, but this remake has extensive tutorials that get players to terms with everything they’ll have to juggle in Avalon. With so many updates and alterations, a more heavy-handed tutorialization feels fitting here, even if figuring out those systems might have been part of the original experience
Romancing SaGa 2’s battle system has been given the most drastic overhaul, making it feel more in line with recent SaGa entries like Scarlet Grace or Emerald Beyond. It’s still a turn-based system where your team and the enemy team go back and forth, but now the entire move order is listed in a timeline on the top of the screen — making it much easier to plan your strategy and adjust. While each character does have a set class with specific strengths and abilities, every character can use any kind of magic or weapon.
In Romancing SaGa 2, you level up by actually using weapons or skills, everything has its own experience gauge. Using a sword grants you experience in swords, or a healing spell grants you experience in Water Magic. It’s an intuitive system that lets you customize each and every character, leaning into the builds and party composition you want. The remake smartly streamlines things by simplifying the resources you need to manage into one, Battle Points, and adding a few new classes for extra variety. But there’s an extra wrinkle in how you can lose characters permanently — as each time they fall in battle, they lose a Life Point, and if their stock gets to zero, they’re gone forever.
That systems-heavy approach makes Romancing SaGa 2’s turn-based combat a blast to play. Battles play out fast and responsively, and often require some serious strategy and party planning, especially when you factor in different Formations that can give your party unique stat boosts. This is honestly one of the best turn-based combat systems Square Enix has ever created, down to the sheer variety, the consistent challenge across the experience, and the level of control you have over party composition.
Seeing the Vision
What’s most interesting about Romancing SaGa 2 is how compelling the experience feels, despite not having any really substantial storytelling or characters. Yes, there are some twists and turns, but the way the systems build out the story is incredible — how it invests you in the experience through the sheer quality of seeing your kingdom grow and change.
That being said, this can lead to some pacing issues, especially with how freeform the story lets you tackle quests and objectives. There’s also still a sense of the game’s system being obtuse, particularly in how unclear advances to the next generation can be. Beating major story bosses always advances a generation, but other events can also make that happen, and it’s not really clear.
Despite the major overhauls, Romancing SaGa 2 is an RPG that’s clearly going to appeal to a subset of players and absolutely won’t appeal to anyone who wants a more grounded story-based experience. But that’s kind of what I admire the most about it — Square Enix didn’t make concessions to make Romancing SaGa 2 appeal to a wider array of players. All of the dense systems are here and better than ever, and the world and visual presentation have been updated to match modern standards, if not even exceed them a bit.
Romancing SaGa 2 is a game that’s unrelenting in committing to its vision, and if you can buy into it, you’re in for one heck of a ride. There’s still nothing else quite like it.
8/10
Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven launches on October 24 for PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Inverse reviewed the PC version.
INVERSE VIDEO GAME REVIEW ETHOS: Every Inverse video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless fetch quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about a game’s design, world-building, character arcs, and storytelling come together. Inverse will never punch down, but we aren’t afraid to punch up. We love magic and science-fiction in equal measure, and as much as we love experiencing rich stories and worlds through games, we won’t ignore the real-world context in which those games are made.
