At face value, Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered offers less to recommend it than many other titles publisher Square Enix might have repackaged for today’s generation of JRPG fans. Its plot isn’t as ambitious as the ones in more popular JRPG franchises, and this remaster features a complex series of play mechanics that might repel newcomers accustomed to more approachable and conventional design. However, that doesn't stop the experience from being worthwhile and, occasionally, even deeply satisfying.
Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered surprisingly represents the fourth distinct attempt to bring this particular experience to its potential audience. The game debuted on the Super Nintendo in Japan in early 1992 and a port to the Wonderswan Color followed in late 2001. In 2005, Square Enix remade the game as Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song, which it released in North America without the subtitle, and now another remaster has hit the market.
Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered's story unfolds in the world of Mardias, a millennium after a war between gods left much of the land in ruins. Heroes and victims of that war have retreated to the world’s far corners to lick their wounds, while the glorious battle to seal away the dark god Saruin faded to legend, yet evil stirs once more.
Like other games in the SaGa franchise, Minstrel Song Remastered allows players to start their journey as one of several possible characters, with options ranging from an orphan with a noble background to a pirate with scruples. Their diverse circumstances and backgrounds are introduced, and then players explore an increasing number of towns, dungeons, towers, and other attractions that dot the map. Along the way, they can team up with several others from the core cast, or enjoy assistance from a supporting cast that includes more playable heroes than ever before. For the first time, it’s possible to eventually add side characters such as Schiele, Marina, Monica, and Flammar to the active party.
Characters fit into an assortment of JRPG classes, each with “proficiencies” that allow them to use numerous weapons and their accompanying skills. Provided the party has the resources, its members can change disciplines multiple times over the course of their adventure, which puts a lot of control in the player’s hand. However, that freedom can prove distracting. It forces players to develop and stick to a plan for progression, as it’s all too easy to spend a bunch of resources (known as “jewels”) on an ability that seems extremely useful but serves little utility. Monsters award few jewels once defeated, which leaves players to either complete a lot of side quests and hope for great rewards that may not follow. Players may also end up grinding for these jewels, if other options fall through.
As if all of the above weren’t enough on its own, Minstrel Song Remastered also employs an alignment system, not unlike something players might have encountered in a punishing Shin Megami Tensei adventure. Certain quests, locations, and characters become unavailable if the wrong actions are taken, or even if the right ones occur but not quickly enough to suit the requirements. In the worst case, this might lock out vendors that are the only ones to carry particular components necessary to enhance armor and weapons. Players are then left to scour the wastelands in search of foes that might drop them. This may have unintended consequences given that enemy difficulty scales alongside the player’s stat gains, even if players are dumping their resources in the wrong ones.
Because players can approach virtually every piece of the story from so many different angles, and even miss large chunks of it if they’re not properly exploring their options, the lack of tightly scripted plot elements shouldn’t come as a surprise. With that said, there is a genuine thrill that comes from locating new areas, in making the most of available resources at shops, and in mastering the many systems at play that affect everything from exploration and combat to character progression. The longer a person plays, the more familiar they may become with the game world, and the greater the temptation will be to venture off the beaten path and see what secrets might lurk around that dangerous corner. Minstrel Song seems to have been built to appeal to those players who appreciate an absorbing world where the plot steps out of the way for hours at a time. In that regard, the progression resembles something like the recently remastered The Last Remnant, a similarly expansive adventure developed by some of the same talents.
The game has a few rough edges, but there are numerous quality-of-life improvements in the remaster, at least. They allow players to customize everything from how quickly time passes, what selections are remembered and persistent in battle, and how quickly characters run while exploring the maps. When selecting destinations, it’s also possible to see which wares the available shops carry without traveling halfway across the map, which is handy. Gamers who come to love the experience will spend dozens upon dozens of hours traversing Mardias, even with a New Game+ option allowing them to carry over some of their most vital accomplishments, so any concessions to convenience are most welcome.
It’s worth noting that Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered looks and sounds quite good on modern televisions, to the point that it is frequently easy to forget the bones of the package ran on the PlayStation 2. Character models and their battle animations seem to have received the most attention, which is vital since the game spends so much time shuffling players from one skirmish to another. On the other end, though, backgrounds are a bit blurred and generic, but that causes the activity in the foreground to pop a bit more. The deformed characters take some time to get used to, especially during the occasional story sequences, while the generally flat voice work leaves something to be desired.
Three decades after Romancing SaGa made its debut in Japan, players around the world have literally dozens of great choices when they decide which JRPG to tackle next, even if they’ve been exploring the genre for years. Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered doesn’t have the high profile that might allow it to jump to the top of most JRPG lists, but its quietly engaging experience is a bountiful reward for those who give it a proper chance.
Romancing SaGa - Minstrel Song- Remastered is out now for Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC. Game ZXC was provided a Switch code for this review.
Romancing SaGa
