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Romancing SaGa 2 now available in English for iOS/Android

Aeana

Member
From what I'm reading online it seems they are pretty bad bugs even some game breaking bugs in this. Is this true?

Yes. My playthrough of the Japanese version was ended by a bug which left me without an item needed to progress the story.

But it's a SaGa game, they don't come bug-free. SaGa games are like the Obsidian games of Japan.
 

Umibozu

Member
Looking forward to the release. Been meaning to play this series for a while.
Are the touch controls good? Hopefully it doesn't cost too much/take up too much space.
 
Yes. My playthrough of the Japanese version was ended by a bug which left me without an item needed to progress the story.

But it's a SaGa game, they don't come bug-free. SaGa games are like the Obsidian games of Japan.

Any chance that the localization fixes most of these?
 

heringer

Member
Yes. My playthrough of the Japanese version was ended by a bug which left me without an item needed to progress the story.

But it's a SaGa game, they don't come bug-free. SaGa games are like the Obsidian games of Japan.
Wow. This has me very concerned.

I've never played an rpg on mobile before. Do the touch controls work well, or would you need some controller?

They work very well for any kind of turn based games, RPG's included.
 

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
Strong nostalgia coming over me. I want to replay the original Saga Frontiers now too. For as janky as the games could be, they always felt different in how you approached them. Where you could sleepwalk through a final fantasy or Dragon Quest, these games demanded your attention to the systems in place.
 

dallow_bg

nods at old men
You don't need an update. It's intuitive, regardless of what it's labeled. If it disrupts conversation then we don't want it. Half of this thread was whining about the lack of a Vita version or how much mobile gaming sucks. People are banned for saying "XBOX IS GARBAGE I WILL NEVER PLAY THIS PIECE OF SHIT SYSTEM" so why shouldn't they be for mobile, as well? It's time you guys accepted that mobile gaming is here to stay.

It wasn't just Vita complainers who were targeted, it was everyone whose sole contribution to the thread was about how it's not on their favored platform, and that includes those looking for a 3DS or NX version or whatever else. If we missed anything, I'm sure we'll have to do another pass through because people never get the hint the first few times anyway. If you want the Vita version of this game localized, then instead of whining about it and polluting this thread, go tell someone with the power to change that. The same handful of NeoGAF members pitching a fit every time doesn't send anything useful to anyone, but interrupts people actually talking about the announcement or asking questions about the game.

Seems fair enough. Port begging boiled down to exactly that anyway.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
Yes. My playthrough of the Japanese version was ended by a bug which left me without an item needed to progress the story.

But it's a SaGa game, they don't come bug-free. SaGa games are like the Obsidian games of Japan.

Do you know if it affects all version of the game? I'll get this anyway it's too good to pass up. It's been so long since we got a SaGa game in English.
 
I've never played an rpg on mobile before. Do the touch controls work well, or would you need some controller?
Generally movement is the part that can potentially cause the most problems. But if the buttons are designed well then going through the many menus of combat and party management can be a breeze.

Dragon Quest 2 Android (and iOS) was played in portrait style. While in some ways it sounds inconvenient (and is probably a waste on a tablet vs a phone), its VERY cool being able to play a full rpg with one hand while doing things with the other hand.
 

JPS Kai

Member
For those that have played the JP version, how is the game pad support? Also, can you play this in portrait mode with one hand?

My phone case makes it rather cumbersome to play anything on landscape mode for an extended period of time (which in sure an RPG would fill up) but maybe playing something the same way I do P&D might be more comfortable.
 

dallow_bg

nods at old men
For those that have played the JP version, how is the game pad support? Also, can you play this in portrait mode with one hand?

My phone case makes it rather cumbersome to play anything on landscape mode for an extended period of time (which in sure an RPG would fill up) but maybe playing something the same way I do P&D might be more comfortable.

No game pad support.
 

KingWool

Banned
This looks absolutely amazing. Never played it and am looking very forward to it. Should work on iPad too.


Wth is with all the banned people in here? Did I miss something?
 

Umibozu

Member
hopefully it controls as well as the ff 9 port did
This looks absolutely amazing. Never played it and am looking very forward to it. Should work on iPad too.


Wth is with all the banned people in here? Did I miss something?
portbegging/shitposting/thread derailing
 
Was there a recent remake for Romancing SaGa 1? I remember when SaGa 2 DS happened and was surprised they skipped to 2 but it seemed like there was some kind of phone remake for SaGa1 that happened a couple years before.
 
I've never played any SaGa games... what's the elevator pitch for this series? Given the excitement some have about this announcement, they must have special charm. Reading the wiki page, it sounds like there's some strategic decisions in addition to typical JRPG gameplay? A bit like Suikoden?

I must say, this port looks really great visually compared with the FF ports. Even the UI looks great. It looks like they've taken some liberties with the original sprites (different architecture, trees, etc), but those animated sprites look great.
 

kollapse

Neo Member
This is really exciting news, and highly unexpected. I tried playing through Romancing Saga 1 on SFC a couple years ago, but it's too open-ended for my awful Japanese. I understand 2 is a major improvement over 1 in many ways, so I can't wait to give it a try.

I seem to remember that the fan translation for 3 wasn't complete; have there been any updates for it recently?
 

Alboreo

Member
Ridiculously disappointed that the vita version isn't coming. Still, I'll probably get it because I'm a sucker.
 
This is really exciting news, and highly unexpected. I tried playing through Romancing Saga 1 on SFC a couple years ago, but it's too open-ended for my awful Japanese. I understand 2 is a major improvement over 1 in many ways, so I can't wait to give it a try.

I seem to remember that the fan translation for 3 wasn't complete; have there been any updates for it recently?
From what I heard it was mostlt complete. There's also a fan patch of RS1 that was made as well last year.
 

studyguy

Member
Kinda gives me hope for other old SE titles that got tossed.

I know SE did Front Mission 2089 for mobile like 10 years back. Maybe if this does okay they might consider brining an actual old Front Mission to mobile. Seems slow enough for it, no?
 

RedBoot

Member
Was there a recent remake for Romancing SaGa 1? I remember when SaGa 2 DS happened and was surprised they skipped to 2 but it seemed like there was some kind of phone remake for SaGa1 that happened a couple years before.

Romancing SaGa 1 has a PS2 remake, Minstrel Song.

SaGa 1 (which is a different game) had a Wonderswan remake, I think. Might've been ported elsewhere.

I've never played any SaGa games... what's the elevator pitch for this series? Given the excitement some have about this announcement, they must have special charm. Reading the wiki page, it sounds like there's some strategic decisions in addition to typical JRPG gameplay? A bit like Suikoden?

RPGs with open gameplay, ability to play through the game in different ways, paths, etc. Almost to a fault, at times. Character progression is random, with stats, abilities, etc being gained during/after combat.

If you want something non-linear with a lot of different ways to play it, it's a good series. SaGa 2 (aka Final Fantasy Legend 2) and SaGa Frontier 1 are good starting points.
 
Yes. My playthrough of the Japanese version was ended by a bug which left me without an item needed to progress the story.

But it's a SaGa game, they don't come bug-free. SaGa games are like the Obsidian games of Japan.

Pretty much. Every SaGa game is rife with game breaking bugs. The English SNES patch actually fixed some of the more easily fixed gameplay balance bugs, but couldn't do things like restore broken quest lines.

Romancing SaGa 1 has a PS2 remake, Minstrel Song.

SaGa 1 (which is a different game) had a Wonderswan remake, I think. Might've been ported elsewhere.

SaGa1 and SaGa2 also showed up on DS IIRC. I think SaGa2 got an English patch.
 

studyguy

Member
The elevator pitch of every SaGa game for me is "How do I break this system hard enough to fuck every enemy possible" the mechanics are always the most interesting part of SaGa games.
 

Aeana

Member
A JRPG franchise known for bugs? Thats odd.

A lot of it comes from the fact that every single one of them has had major things cut before release, and they fail to clean up all of the loose ends in the process. I think that's most obvious in SaGa Frontier though. RS2 generally feels like a finished game, but it has some weird bugs that are caused by doing things in orders not tested by the testers. The nonlinearity is a major cause for bugs, just like many western RPGs.
 

Vaenyr

Member
I love the look of this and am glad that it's getting localized. How is the gameplay? It looks like the classic Final Fantasies, is it comparable?
Never really played any SaGa games, but I would love to try this one out.
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
This is generally considered to be the best of the SaGa series, right? I own the SFC so it will be exciting to get this remake. The first phone game I pick up in years.
 
Great news! Looking forward to getting this. A little bummed to hear that there are some game breaking bugs, but I'm going to get it anyway and hope I don't trip them.
 
Kinda gives me hope for other old SE titles that got tossed.

I know SE did Front Mission 2089 for mobile like 10 years back. Maybe if this does okay they might consider brining an actual old Front Mission to mobile. Seems slow enough for it, no?

A new Front Mission game is rumored to be in development with the producer of Armored Core.
 
RPGs with open gameplay, ability to play through the game in different ways, paths, etc. Almost to a fault, at times. Character progression is random, with stats, abilities, etc being gained during/after combat.

If you want something non-linear with a lot of different ways to play it, it's a good series. SaGa 2 (aka Final Fantasy Legend 2) and SaGa Frontier 1 are good starting points.

Thanks! Sounds interesting enough to pick up if they price it more affordably than the FF titles, due to the potential for game-breaking bugs.
 
I've never played any SaGa games... what's the elevator pitch for this series? Given the excitement some have about this announcement, they must have special charm. Reading the wiki page, it sounds like there's some strategic decisions in addition to typical JRPG gameplay? A bit like Suikoden?

I must say, this port looks really great visually compared with the FF ports. Even the UI looks great. It looks like they've taken some liberties with the original sprites (different architecture, trees, etc), but those animated sprites look great.
SaGa is a very controversial series, but it is also one of my favorites! We didn’t get any of the Super Famicom games back in the day because of… well I don’t really know why. It’s a darn shame because the trilogy is some of Square’s best work

Square started rectifying this error 10 years ago, when they released the Romancing SaGa 1 remake on PS2 in English. Now…. that remake was HEAVILY different from the original SFC release, but it is an amazing game in it’s own right.

Now we’re finally getting Romancing SaGa 2. Thank god. This game is a wonderful.

What makes it awesome?

The music.

Check this stuff out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS7GAoEcbyk

https://youtu.be/WhCK6od2KHs

This stuff is DOPE, yo. Kenji Ito is an amazing composer and it’s a shame his name isn’t passed around more when people talk about great game composers. The final boss theme is one of the best in the industry, but I don’t want to spoil it.

The Battle System
The SaGa franchise represents Square at their most experimental. Often times these games will have some of the weirdest turn based battle systems you’ll find out of a major publisher. And I adore that.

RS2 plays kind of like SNES Final Fantasies in that battles are side facing, and you pick your attacks from a menu. But from there, it gets weird. You have typical stand bys like HP and TP (this game’s MP), but HP fully recovers after every battle. If your HP drops to 0, that character begins losing LP. LP does not recover after battle and if the character doesn’t have any LP, they cannot be revived without staying at the inn. Pretty cool, right?

BUT that’s not all. RS invented the glimmer system. This system is RAD. You essentially learn abilities in the middle of battle by using specific weapons. Wanna learn bow techniques? Use bow attacks and then suddenly your character will “spark” a new technique! It’s pretty cool and feels great when you learn a new ability in a heated moment in the middle of a boss fight

The Story!
SaGa games are traditionally fairly non-linear and RS2 is no exception. Where as other games in the franchise have you select 1 of 8 characters and follow their personal journey though, here you follow a multi-generational struggle of a royal family. Characters pass down learned abilities to their heirs!

But the story itself is great too. Probably one of the most tragic. It’s about 7 legendary heroes who were dragged to the underworld while fighting a demon. The underworld twisted their natures. After centuries, they have broken out of the underworld and are bent on destroying the world.
 
Guys. I can't believe we're getting another SaGa game in English.

MP1C3yR.jpg
 
I'm really happy this is getting an English release.

iOS/android only means I'm likely going to wait for a sale. square-enix does them often enough that I can wait.

I can help but feel disappointed about it though. First adventures of mana and now this?

I'll be happy about an English release and content with that
 

Kapow

Member
Most giddy i've been for a gaming announcement in a while holy smoke. I bought all three for the snes early last year and I've been waiting for the second one to get translated but this is even better wow. Absolutely loved the first game despite the annoying time windows you had to complete certain missions and stuff like that. Always liked the combat system and how you learned skills
 
Correcting myself from earlier, Saga2 and SaGa 3 DS both got fan translation patches but SaGa 1 never did (or was never ported to DS).

I'm really excited for this, Romancing SaGa 2 and 3 are the only two with previously incomplete translations, and this is an excellent looking remake.
 

SkyOdin

Member
I've never played any SaGa games... what's the elevator pitch for this series? Given the excitement some have about this announcement, they must have special charm. Reading the wiki page, it sounds like there's some strategic decisions in addition to typical JRPG gameplay? A bit like Suikoden?

I must say, this port looks really great visually compared with the FF ports. Even the UI looks great. It looks like they've taken some liberties with the original sprites (different architecture, trees, etc), but those animated sprites look great.

I love the look of this and am glad that it's getting localized. How is the gameplay? It looks like the classic Final Fantasies, is it comparable?
Never really played any SaGa games, but I would love to try this one out.

The SaGa franchise as a whole is one of Square's longest-running franchises. The original SaGa games were released on the Gameboy, with the American title of Final Fantasy Legends. Those games laid the groundwork of what makes the SaGa franchise what it is: an emphasis on atypical game mechanics, open world design, and a wide variety of character customization/development options. The Romancing SaGa series is a trilogy of games released on the Super Famicom that built on that foundation of the original Gameboy trilogy and added a lot of significant changes and improvements, with a change to more traditional fantasy settings. At the time of their release, the Romancing SaGa games were selling as big in Japan as the Super Famicom Final Fantasy games were. The series still has left a pretty big impression on Japan's collective pop culture memory.

Probably the core of SaGa game mechanics is a system where, instead of more traditional classes and levels, characters gain stats based on what actions they take in battle. If you attack with a sword, your physical attack stats improve and you have a chance of learning a special sword technique. Cast a lot of spells and you gain more magic power and MP. Most SaGa games also feature either the ability to construct a party by recruiting the characters you like out of a much larger pool of potential party members. So the SaGa series leans towards having a lot of replay value, since between different party set-ups, developing characters in different ways, selecting different main protagonists to play as, making different story choices, or taking of different quests, two different play-throughs will give very different experiences.
 

SkyOdin

Member
Correcting myself from earlier, Saga2 and SaGa 3 DS both got fan translation patches but SaGa 1 never did (or was never ported to DS).

I'm really excited for this, Romancing SaGa 2 and 3 are the only two with previously incomplete translations, and this is an excellent looking remake.

SaGa 1 was never ported to the DS, actually. Only SaGa 2 and SaGa 3 did. The original SaGa was a much shorter game, though. It is only a fraction of the size of the later two games, since it was originally designed to be able to be beaten on a long train ride. SaGa 2 and SaGa 3 are, in comparison, full scale RPGs with a lot more content and options. A remake of SaGa 1 would be a lot harder of a sell compared to its sequels.
 
BUT that’s not all. RS invented the glimmer system. This system is RAD. You essentially learn abilities in the middle of battle by using specific weapons. Wanna learn bow techniques? Use bow attacks and then suddenly your character will “spark” a new technique!

So you start off with specific classes but can have the characters branch into other specialties? Uncommon for a JRPG. I can start to see why this was a hard game to QA.

Where as other games in the franchise have you select 1 of 8 characters and follow their personal journey though, here you follow a multi-generational struggle of a royal family. Characters pass down learned abilities to their heirs!

Reminds me of Rogue Legacy! Or perhaps that's where RL got the idea from.
 

Manus

Member
Man this place is a graveyard. So what people can get banned now for complaining about not localizing games to the Vita? If that's true I see tons of whining in other threads about countless of things. This is a video game forum. This place is madness sometimes.
 
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