Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of The Seven Review

The newest entry in the SaGa series, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of The Seven, is a remake of the original Romancing SaGa 2 released almost a decade ago. With the team behind the Trials of Mana remake, the game has seemingly been in good hands while in development.

The Romancing SaGa is a series that can almost be described as a mix between JRPGs and soulslike games, with its increasing complexity. This has made Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of The Seven one of the more anticipated titles pushed out by Square Enix.

The classic remake modernizes the game while staying mostly faithful to the original. The premier inheritance system basically lets you pass down skills to succeeding generations to defeat the main enemy of the game. You start off with the helm as Emperor Leon, who isn't too long for the world.

This interesting premise makes Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of The Seven extremely compelling. Your Emperor is not immortal, and whenever they die, a new one rises up.  Unlike many traditional JRPG games, the game offers a very deep dive into progression. Each character has a certain amount of LP or Life Points. When a character's LP goes down to 0, they are permanently lost, making every character you have a temporary affair.

The complexity and difficulty of Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven make it nearly impossible to go on without losing some, if not a lot, of your party. This is par for the course, as you will have succeeding generations inheriting newer skills to beat the seven heroes.

You can always just 'pass on' and change the attributes of your Emperor. This is sometimes necessary, and emperors of different races and classes unlock certain things and lore bits. They also come in handy as certain story elements can only be accessed or otherwise progressed with them.

The primary method of learning a new skill is via the 'Glimmering' mechanic. This allows your characters to gain a lightbulb that gives a chance for the characters to learn a new skill if you use the skill the lightbulb is on. This adds a layer of complexity in that you will often find yourself going the sub-optimal route in hopes of unlocking newer skills. The systems for weapons really are used in all parts of a character's progression; every type of ability has a different scale. So, a different meter for weapons, for magic, and so on.

Weapons work in a manner of linear progression where the more you use them, the better you get. The game has even more mechanics, like the formations, the classes, weapons, and skills to use. The game progression is also pretty non-linear. You tackle quests and fight the seven in a manner of your own choosing. Of course, this affects the gameplay in every way.

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven’s classes and weapons are pretty varied and balanced as well; you will rarely be using a class or weapons just because they're good, giving you a lot of room for flavor. Magic and skills are relied on BP, which acts as the currency for managing them.

Combat is mostly similar to other JRPGs. Turn-based tactical battle with a party against enemies. You use actions and skills, the same old stuff. The enemies are varied and somewhat unique, even in terms of abilities.

The game also has a management system where you basically just control your lands, build new structures, and expand your empire—well, more like reclaim it. Some of these structures, once built, allow you to enter a mini-game that is basically quizzes, which, when you pass, will give you a lot of rewards.

Some of these buildings and structures you make are essential to your characters, too, such as the smithy or the incantations lab. They allow you to get better gear and magic for your party.

With all these systems, the game can be very off-putting due to its difficulty. Despite the depth, the difficulty is somewhat construed. Missing a key item, spell or just not knowing about a tactic will leave you grasping at straws and soft-locked out of really winning. This is somewhat solved by the game's inheritance system since you can always just wait for your successors to be better.

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven presents a lot of options with replayability since you get to choose the way you do things, leaving you with innumerable alternatives. The branching storyline is complemented by the depth of the story as well. The lore is immaculate, and the difficulty makes everything even more interesting.

Graphically, the game isn't on the levels of Metaphor: ReFantazio or Final Fantasy, but the art style gets the job down and makes the world persist and persevere. While it doesn't look too shabby, it doesn't miss its music at all. The music really sets the tempo and mood for the game, enriching the experience even more.

Going back to the lore, some mechanics are interconnected to the lore, somewhat forcing you to learn the story of your empire. Not everything is spoon-fed, either, as many quests and storylines are untracked, giving you only clues and hints about the path. The world is also highly reactive. From changing the story to entire levels, everything you do has a consequence, and more often than not, you will see the consequence.

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven's systems are almost thrown onto you, which provides a very steep learning curve that can sometimes be insurmountable. Sometimes, the progression is very flawed, as some bosses are easier to do than others. This is an aggravated level as, at points, you'll feel like you're wading through the chaff and then suddenly face a humble mini-boss that you just can't beat.

The game also possesses the hated mechanics seen before in games like Fallout 4, where the enemies scale along with you. This is an understandable stopgap preventing people from just grinding lower-level enemies, but when you spend much of the game easily wading through, let's say, goblins, and suddenly they one-shot you, it turns things from strange to annoying.

The game is a true RPG, giving you a lot of freedom not only in your characters and decisions but also in the story. Choices matter; actions matter. It's a shame that when it comes to combat, your choices hardly matter, especially further down the line.

You're never too weak or too strong in Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven. Well, you'll usually be a bit weaker than the enemies, but that's how it'll remain for most of the game. You'll die a lot, and to fix that, you might try to get your health up; only the enemies will scale alongside you to account for that. So, your only way is to keep fighting and losing until you get some good new power to shift things on a major level.

The game is also sometimes a bit strange in its Glimmering Mechanic. Games usually reward you for being efficient or good; here, it's the opposite. It actively makes you use inefficient moves and equipment because it makes you better.

For all the heart of the story, the characters are pretty vacant. Since they'll be dying a lot, the game doesn't really do much to flesh them out. They're more like flesh puppets and masked stormtroopers with no personalities. This makes cycling through them somewhat boring, too, as the only consequence you face upon their death is the loss of all the hours you spent grinding them up.

The game heavily focuses on combat and the turn-based aspects, and it does that part well. Aside from the straightforwardness of things, you'll not really be bored, be it for the many enemy types or just the streamlined combat.

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of The Seven is a remarkable game, building on a title that was ahead of its time. It brings a lot of flavor and uniqueness to the scene. For a JRPG, it has a somewhat generic story while still being pretty compelling. For a Generational game, it lacks many of the general facets of the genre, yet it manages quite well to bring it together.

As a remake, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of The Seven has a lot of QoL changes and makes things more modern, all the while keeping things extremely faithful to the original. If you like JRPGs and especially are a fan of Final Fantasy, this game is for you.