Forum - View topicGAME: Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered
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ChibiGoku
Posts: 687 |
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I honestly think Romancing SaGa, both the original and the remake (which in extension, the remaster) is an extremely overwhelming and scary experience if you haven't played the other entries. The game emphasizes the free scenario system, which requires you to explore, but it could also land you into some serious trouble, especially given the games progress is tied to the Event Rank (or Battle Rank is how most fans refer to it in most games), which increases based off of completing quests and finishing battles. You could, in theory, end up in a situation where you're seriously under leveled to progress through the game, if you don't get proper stat growth and access to money (and jewels here too).
One thing is I wish the game explained a bit more clearer is how the stat and growth system, as well as sparking/glimmering technique stuff works. The game is based off a danger level system, which works with how your characters are in the current fight (it's based off your stats, HP, and enemy level threat), and that can increase sparking of techniques and your stat growth. This is pretty common through most of the series (particularly the games Koizumi is involved in, which are all present in the all-in-but-name Legend of Legacy and The Alliance Alive). The other thing is specific characters will have specific proficiency in regards to abilities, and each ability you use has an individual sparking rate on top of this (I think the remake uses your Class as the proficiency for sparking specific abilities, alongside changing your weapon type, but other games, specific characters will spark specific abilities a lot easier). There's a lot of daunting things about this game and honestly, on a personal recommendation, I feel people would have an easier time with SaGa Frontier, since it's the most straight forward of the game and the easiest, personally and also available on almost every major platform. After that, probably be easier to explore the other games with their much less linear system (and also probably make SaGa Frontier II an easier experience even if it's the most linear of the games, it's one of the more difficult games in terms of bosses and enemies). |
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BlueAlf
 Posts: 1555 |
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Thanks for the review. Yup. Definitely sounds like a SaGa game.
I also heard this version has a new game+? Any insight on that? |
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flamemasterelan
Posts: 497 |
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The game keeps track of how many times you've played the game, and who you've beaten the game with; each playthrough ends with a scene of the MC you've played as, with a special scene once you've completed the game with all eight protagonists, and each playthrough starts with the Minstrel which varies very slightly depending on which order you do them in. Additionally, every playthrough increases the amount of jewels you get in each quest, allowing you to level up your classes more easily, and you're able to offer up any of the game's ten Fatestones to power up the final boss. The biggest feature of NG+, though, is that it keeps track of what quests you've done in previous playthroughs. One specific quest requires a minimum of three playthroughs to complete (potentially more due to the limited times you can interact with it) and at least one quest and two characters require you to have completed specific quests and talked to specific NPCs on a previous playthrough. Also, the game has four "super bosses" which are unlocked depending on quests you've done in the previous playthrough. I believe that's everything, but it's been at least a decade since I last played it, so I could be missing one or two things. |
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pip25
Posts: 187 |
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Um, what does the "American/Japanese event system" refer to? I don't think it's really explained in the review.
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ChibiGoku
Posts: 687 |
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So, the game has a Slow and Faster progression system. The North American version modified this a bit so the progression takes longer to get to the end game territory with the battle ranking system (which is tied to the events you can access), whereas the Japanese version was much quicker (forget if completing events would cause it to increase, but the calculation is different, that said). Theoretically, the North American version is balanced better, whereas the Japanese system could end you up in end game territory with more difficult situations, depending on how well you do with preparing yourself. --- Also to add onto the New Game + stuff, the HD remaster added in stuff to transfer further stuff over, to be more in-line with the other remasters. I'm not 100% sure of everything, but I do know items will fully carry over except story related ones (which includes items bought at a "specific" area). I'm still making my way through the game right now, so unfortunately I'm not quite sure what was all added for New Game + for carrying stuff over. I'm sure someone had a complete list of what changes were made there. I'll see if I can find it and post it here. |
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pip25
Posts: 187 |
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Thank you, now it makes sense. |
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b-dragon
Posts: 500 |
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In addition to the scenario system, and things that are kept track of across character playthroughs, there are (in this version,) more traditional NG+ options. You can carry over stats, (non-event) items, gold, jewels, monster strength, etc. It isn't all or nothing either- you do get to select what gets carried over. You can carry over your prior game's HP scores, BP score/regen, and "other attributes" (strength, dex, etc). Which event items do/don't carry over seems a bit scattershot. It's a bit more restrictive than I'd like. SaGa is a weird series. The intent, especially in this game, seems to be for you to absolutely fumble your first playthrough or few. Its a game that rewards knowledge checks as much as stats. It makes it hard to recommend- the game actively resists understanding and learning, so the time/energy investment is high to get much enjoyment out of it. I definitely have some issues with SaGa games, and this one in particular- I know they are averse to hand-holding, and I think thats fine, but the steadfast refusal to explain how things work is frustrating. And this one feels pretty bad for unexplained, odd systems. For SaGa fans, its an easy recommendation from me. For everyone else, perhaps somewhere else is a better starting point- either SaGa Frontier or Romancing SaGa 3, to my mind. Also, @flamemasterelan, the multiple playthrough quest that you're referring to no longer requires 3 playthroughs. It can be completed in one now (it'll take 2 for me due to a certain spawn point getting destroyed.) |
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sadoldguy
Posts: 68 |
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I played the PS2 version for dozens of hours and even purchased the official game guide (remember those). For most JRPGs, you can cheese the game by overgrinding but in Saga games that just increases your battle rank, which makes the battles even harder and causes the plot to advance, which can lock you out of events like a chance to save a town. So all of my runs ultimately failed.
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BlueAlf
Posts: 1555 |
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It's actually harder than Romancing SaGa 3? Man, this game really is daunting but that makes me interested even more. |
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b-dragon
Posts: 500 |
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I wouldn't say harder, per se. I think its more resistant to players understanding what is going on. That makes it harder as a by-product, but that's actually more symptom than my actual concern. ER, weapon modes, classes...these are all poorly explained, core systems that are unique to this SaGa. That isn't to say RS3 is amazingly well tutorialized- just that I think Minstrel Song has more badly taught core systems. |
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flamemasterelan
Posts: 497 |
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I really think you're overselling this. Like, yes, the game doesn't explain a lot of "core systems," but most of them don't really need to be explained. Weapon modes aren't really necessary to pay attention to in normal playthroughs, and I tended to pick a weapon mode based on the character I was playing rather than any advantage or disadvantage. Unless you're fighting a super boss, they don't really have that big of an impact, and you can usually figure out what they do by going to a blacksmith and playing around with changing your mode or experimenting a bit. Event Rank will only really affect people if they go out to grind. If you mostly fight the enemies in your way, you'll usually be fine, unless you're playing Albert or Sif and then you'll miss some early quests if you don't know about it. (and it's also a thing that affects Romancing SaGa 3, which is why people can miss the Thieves' Hideout quest at the start of the game). And as far as classes...they're explained well enough? They tell you what the class' unique ability is, and what weapons/spells are included in that class. What more do you need? Personally, I always recommend RS: MS as a first SaGa game because it's the closest the series gets to normal. If you can play an open world RPG with turn-based combat, you can play Romancing SaGa. Just know that you won't get it perfect on your first run unless you use a guide. |
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