Romancing SaGa 2
Romancing SaGa 2 is one of the many titles in the lauded SaGa roleplaying game series. In this popular entry, released in Japanese only in 1993 and boasting sales in excess of one million copies. Sit upon the throne of the Varennes Empire and control several generations of rulers in a valiant battle against the Seven Heroes. A dynamic freeform scenario system – a hallmark of the million-selling SaGa RPG series – enables you to take command of a variety of protagonists along the line of imperial succession and experience the history of a nation as it grows and changes based on your actions. Experience a compelling narrative that served as the cornerstone of the title's success on its initial release back in 1993. Use weapons and martial arts in heated battles to learn and master new combat techniques. Take advantage of each character attributes, learn new battle formations, concoct spells and temper weapons to grow the Varennes Empire.
Game Discussion
Steam User 8
"A rough start, but a legendary journey awaits."
This was my first time playing Romancing SaGa, and as a fan of classic JRPGs—especially the Final Fantasy series—I was curious to try this often-overlooked gem from Square Enix’s golden era.
At first, it felt a bit overwhelming. The game doesn't hold your hand. The non-linear progression, lack of clear directions, and tough combat might frustrate newcomers. But give it time. Once I got used to the mechanics and embraced the freedom, it slowly transformed into one of the best JRPG experiences I've had.
Romancing SaGa is like a puzzle you learn to love piece by piece—strategic battles, unique characters, branching stories, and a world that changes based on your actions. It rewards exploration and experimentation in a way most RPGs today don't dare to.
Definitely not an easy game to jump into, but if you're patient, it becomes something truly special.
A Final Fantasy spinoff that dared to be different—and succeeded.
Steam User 3
A remarkable piece of gaming history that is definitely worth your time, if you can get past some of the funky stuff. The remake is an improvement in every way, but there will always be a soft spot in my heart for the SNES RPGs of yesteryear.
+Excellent party customization
+Superb soundtrack
+Lots of freedom in when/how to tackle various events
+Breezy battles with decent difficulty
+Grinding is mostly unnecessary
+Generous New Game+ system
+One of the most epic and brutal final bosses, ever
-Menus for equipment and skills are lacking a lot of information (the menus in general are pretty unwieldy)
-Party members can't be removed unless they die an LP death, which is annoying if you find somebody else you'd prefer to recruit
-SaGa hallmarks of zero explanations and tutorials for various systems fully on board here - don't be afraid to look up any guide just for some basics. I'm embarrassed to admit how many generations it took before I figured out I could sit on the throne to have the chancellor bring back offers for building upgrades
-A few late game bosses can be quite spongy
Even if you were lukewarm (or less enthused) on the first Romancing SaGa game, give this one a shot. I found it to be a much more satisfying experience that didn't punish me for...everything. This also runs perfectly on Steam Deck with zero adjustments needing to be made.
Steam User 2
Fantastic game. Mediocre to poor remaster. Currently the only way to play anything resembling the original 2D version of the game in English.
The original sprites are (mostly) used here with (mostly) tastefully redone backgrounds. Unlike some of the other Square remasters, the sprites and the backgrounds use matching perspective, so the characters don't even look like they are walking around tilted at a weird angle or anything like that.
Unfortunately, the sprites and the backgrounds are in mismatched resolutions, and neither are scaled correctly in HD. You can force the sprites to scale correctly by running the game at 426x240, but that cause some nasty issues with the backgrounds and text.
For some unfathomable reason, it also runs at (badly framepaced) 30 fps, despite the original being 60 fps.
I ultimately settled on using Nvidia DSR to run the game at oversampled 8K, with Special K to force somewhat tolerable framepacing, and a CRT shader (Megatron specifically) in ReShade using BUFFER_WIDTH/18 and BUFFER_HEIGHT/18 for the resolution params. It still looked worse than the original in some regards, but at least it didn't look completely broken anymore.
Should such an option present itself, i would *strongly* recommend playing the original with a translation hack instead, but this remaster is an enjoyable enough alternative in the meantime.
Steam User 0
It could use a few more music tracks, but its a fine game other than that.
Steam User 0
This was my first SaGa game and I absolutely enjoyed it! Nowadays it's easier to recommend the remake, however. This was also their first SaGa remaster, so it's not as fully featured as the later ones. Still, if you want an open-ended SNES era JRPG with a unique structure and mechanics, I can definitely recommend this!
Steam User 0
This game having mixed reviews is a crime. romancing saga 2 is one of the most unique rpgs i have ever played. i highly recommend it
Steam User 2
Rewarding and very unique old school RPG game that is semi-free form where you play as the Emperor across multiple years and generations and grow your Empire.
Couple of down sides design quirks to be aware of:
Some of the quests are 'old school' and there is not a lot of guidance/hints around how to complete them. You might need to use a walkthrough.
By design, you can't dismiss people from your party and they have to die in order to leave your party and a lot of monsters can kill your characters in one hit. That is to encourage you to try out new characters. Dying is okay for the most part and actually often beneficial as you can pick another party member to become the Emperor/Empress while inheriting their skills.
The game doesn't tell you how close you are to learning a new skill/tech. It's semi-random but can be triggered by battling
harder monsters and using the right type of weapons for your class.
Certain mechanics are not quite well-explained such as how to get new formations. For example, you have to be an Emperor from a different class and then talk to the formation officer instead of just gaining a new formation by choosing a new Emperor from a different class.
After every time skip or when party members die you have to manually recruit and re-equip and respec your party members which is very annoying and time consuming.
Unfortunately I ended up stuck because I couldn't leave before the final boss and I didn't quite have the right skills/spells. Unfortunately the game doesn't tell you this and I don't have earlier save file to revert to. I'm surprised they didn't change this in this remaster to at least allow you to leave.
There seems to be crashing that can happen if you quit while in combat.
There are other quirks but hopefully this gives you some idea of what you're in for.
Still recommended as a journey however except for that last dungeon. :-(