As a casual Saga fan, I suggest people have a character on their team that punches. Some punch type of attacks have the additional effect of Stun that saved my butt a ton of times in past Saga games
Do punching characters gain additional hits the more you level it up (similar to monks), causing more chances for stun, or is it just more damage with chance to stun?
@@keithshaughnessy1730 sort of but not how you’re thinking. RS characters gain attack power from four sources: raw stats, equipment, weapon skill level, and techniques. In most games stats don’t level up but they can be modified by equipment and buffs/debuffs. Equipment is equipment. Weapon skill level does level up and makes your damage dealing with that weapon type stronger plus lets you chance upon higher power techniques. Techniques are learned randomly based on how good you are with a given weapon type and how strong the enemy you are fighting is. Techniques can just be stronger hits that cost resources or have secondary effects such as causing a status effect, hitting multiple enemies at once, or making defense easier. So it’s a bit like weird Pokémon with a default attack. (If that makes any sense at all)
@squidlump no clue, so let's see if my attempted summary means I understood it. So a character whose main purpose of punching enemies to gain stun chance would not then gain multiple punch basic attacks similar to how monks work in FF games as it got stronger, it would just gain better punching techniques.
You did a good job Jesse. Thanks for doing the research and introducing people to SaGa. I hope this one takes off here, its a fantastic series with a deep history and great mechanical turn based experience. Many people want turn based Final Fantasy or to play turn based RPGs again. And of course we have MANY choices now and in past, this isnt Final Fantasy but it might just become a favorite to others like it did to me.
This weirdly gives me context for a few games that were always in my older brother's collection, but I never really 'vibed' with despite having played a few times (or attempting). I may have judged this series too harshly. I VERY clearly remember playing SaGa Frontier 2 when I was but a wee thing, and now I think after actually having the series explained to me better now that I have a LOT more context on how games work in me old age... It does sound pretty cool as a series. Cheers, Jesse.
Thanks for making this video explaining the mechanics and stuff. Id seen a trailer for romancing saga, but it didnt mention the neat leveling mechanics so i wrote it off as just another jrpg. I bought the game because of this video and i've been enjoying it :)
I owned all 3 Final Fantasy Legends games on the Gameboy. They were such a great time, even if they weren't Final Fantasy games. As well as Final Fantasy Adventure which would be the start of the Mana Series.
Just found out about this game today from a random vtuber video with like 200 views... it looked good so i already ordered it. Finally one of these games with at least PS3 graphics and voice acting.
I always thought that Romancing Saga was a carbon copy of FF. Since I've never had any interest on FF I've stayed away from it. But I love the skill system, I'll definitely check it out!
I had never heard about Romancing SaGa before but I tried the demo on a whim and actually found myself really enjoying it, so knowing a little background is helpful
I Pre-Ordered this months ago. For Years I wanted Square to give 2 the Minstrel Song Treatment. And they did, with extras. Square Literally gave me one of the EXACT games I wanted from a Dev.
The mobile game is technically a direct sequel to Romancing SaGa 3. Its not bad for a mobile game but it is just basically short cutscene-fight some battles-short cutscene. Thats the only game that is/has a story tie-in sequel though.
@@daodos That's part of the reason that I hate mobile games for JRPGs. I guess I will play through what's out then since there's still a month left. Maybe I will record it for posterity, though someone probably already has. A huge part of Xenosaga's plot was on an old mobile game and now the only way to experience it is by watching some Japanese guy's video of him recording his old flip phone with a camera while he plays through it. And when I mean huge, I mean you won't understand a big part of Xenosaga 3's plot without the info from the mobile game. I understand mobile games make a lot of money. But god are they terrible for preserving story elements.
Huge SaGa fan here, became a fan since Romancing SaGa 3 on the Super Famicom, Then when SaGa frontier came out i was obsessed lol, like nuts spending so much time that isnt normal for the normal person. Anyways I really love the battle system and how you increase your stats and love how challenging it can be. For Romancing SaGa 2 i was a little turned off from it in the beginning because i like to pick who i want in my part and customize them how i want this stats to turn out but i had to get use to losing them as time advances and you become a new emperor but after the first couple of times it happened i started to really like the system. I still hold RM3 and SaGa Frontier way up there as my favorite in the series but RM2 is moving up close since this remake.
I played Final Fantasy Legend 1, 2 and 3 on GB back when I was a real young kid, and those games were brutally difficult back then. I had to figure out ways to cheese pretty much everything in those games. Like, I'd save after every random encounter and always try to run every encounter - if I failed to run I'd reload and try again. Avoid all random battles so my weapons wouldn't break. It was like 30 years ago I was playing those things and I can still recall a surprisingly amount of all of them, they were very impactful on my young mind.
I still remember in the original end game, you can use certain water spell to skip enemy turns, then you just use the fastest formation, some recovery for mp..... That's how I cheese the final bosses 😂😂😅
Ive been playing through all the Final Fantasy games in order + 16 (most recently beat 9), and this leveling system seems a lot like FF2, which due to my contrarian nature is one of my favorites so far. Looking forward to trying out this game a lot more now
I've played the demo and I found it to be alright at the time. Seeing this video and seeing the depth it can have in its battle system, has me really intrigued
I am kind of curious if there's a romance system because the name is romancing saga 2 but that would make strategy guides probably a pain to find but would be really funny from the developers to do
The Romancing is the adventurous type of Romance. Not the love between two people. That said there is some of that in the game through quest(s) No romance system though.
Thx for the introduction, I have zero experience with this title, the only question that always went into my head was "Does this have to do anything with romance?" XD But this looks like a title worth checking, thx.
6:00 and that is the reason i find it tough to even try this... I do not want my characters to die. Even if it is part of the plot i hate it since it is like being forced to lose.
Looking at the remake they def took some good notes from The Bravely Default/Octopath devs with that weakness system. Unless they are the same devs in which case well done keeping the good thing rolling.
Its the developer of Trials of Mana remake! Xeen. The original game had these weaknesses but they were not visible/known and were more about damage type (slash pierce blunt missle element)
The generational system and persistent empire upgrades almost sounds like they made a modern rogue-lite in 1993. I assume there's more of a consistent storyline in there and a single generation takes more to play than an hour, but I am kinda intrigued.
Agree! Romancing Saga hands down the best of the three series (okay, this is my opinion!) Good luck to all new to Romancing Saga 2 players The original was already hard and the remake is even harder (that is if you picked Classic Mode ahahaha)
I tried the Romancing SaGa 3 remaster a few years ago and of not for this video and Geekenders would have probably skipped this one. That 3 remaster was just super frustrating for me.
Question, I want to play the first game to better understand the story and to play it for myself. Is the first game called, "Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song"?
Serious inquiry. Is it possible to die so many times that you run out of playable characters? Also, does the player create these characters or are each character's aesthetics randomized/predetermined?
Aside from the unique characters (Leon, Gerard, Coppelia, and the Final Emperor/Empress), each class has about 8-10 characters that appear in sequential order after you recruit them, reduce their LP to 0, and/or trigger a timeskip. Now, if you somehow manage to exhaust a class's entire roster, the next one that appears is just gonna be the first character in the list. Example, Heavy Infantry: If you manage to kill Bear, Bison, Walrus, Ox, Gorilla, Tortoise, Rhino, Ferdinand, and Snail, the next Heavy Infantry to appear will be Bear.
Ah Romancing SaGa 2, the game where you can choose between learning the best spell in the game or not accidentally wiping out an entire playable race from the world.
How much story is there and are the companions any interesting, do they have personalities, backgrounds and stories? I got the feeling that the companions are just blank dummies, possible with random characteristics tied to, since you generate basically infinite amount of them?
They are not infinite or random. Each one has distinct stats tied to them. Story wise theres often story related to recruiting but not much in interaction between each other honestly. The story especially this one has interesting moments still. I promise you would be surprised by some characterizations in moments. This remake is adding more story however with new side quests, choices to complete quests, and also adding details from the stage play and additional cutscenes fleshing out the Seven.
For the most part, SaGa games function like this: There's some personal story in the beginning to explain why you set out on your journey There are a lot of side quests that mostly have nothing to do with you There's an ending that also has nothing to do with you and is completely about the villain. They are very world-focused games and not character focused. There are exceptions though. Some characters in SaGa Frontier have very character focused stories. SaGa Frontier 2 progresses through chapters and it's basically like playing through key moments in the history of a country.
@@daodos Thanks! I figured there's basically infinite random companions since they can permadie(?) or at the very least when the player dies and there's a time skip. Can you run out of companions and soft lock, or do they recycle them then, being possible to get same companion hundreds of years apart? That would allow them to be more interesting with stories and backgrounds, albeit at the cost of immersion. This will probably go into the ever growing wishlist/backlog of games.
@@jepeman If I remember right, you always have access to the same class of character. (Mage, Mercenary, Thief, etc.) It's just that their name's and outfit colors change every generation. I haven't beaten the game myself yet, but I do know that every time you die (if you don't reload a save) the imperial calendar moves forward some amount of years and you are forced to switch to a new Emperor, until you reach the final emperor. So my guess would be that they have enough characters to fit the maximum amount of deaths you could have. So essentially the game works like this, you either finish a quest and time moves forward forcing a new Emperor or you die and time moves forward forcing a new Emperor.
It's the ye olde definition of romance, which basically refers to a fictional story filled with adventure and mystery. The REAL question is why the G in SaGa is capitalized!
Its very interesting to see a game that possibly inspired a ton of media. From my hero academia all the way to Skyrim. Not saying they were inspired by the game but the potential is definitely there
The 7 seem pretty unthreatening on a meta level if they just let generations pass without successfully taking over an already weakened kingdom, but an interesting system certainly.
They have their interests elsewhere. There are actually conditions in the original where if left alone they will achieve stronger forms. Though nothing crazy dynamic.
You don't even show gameplay of the game until over 6 minutes into a 10 minute video. For at least 5 minutes you are not even talking about the game just the history of the franchise before I just got so bored I skipped ahead to see if you ever even get to the game. This is the worst beginner guide video for a game I have ever seen. What were you thinking? You don't need to talk about the original game or history when talking about a remake and trying to guide new players on how to play.
As a casual Saga fan, I suggest people have a character on their team that punches. Some punch type of attacks have the additional effect of Stun that saved my butt a ton of times in past Saga games
Disable skills are always good, right after raw dps. Any other strategy is secondary.
Short swords are good for similar reasons as well!
Do punching characters gain additional hits the more you level it up (similar to monks), causing more chances for stun, or is it just more damage with chance to stun?
@@keithshaughnessy1730 sort of but not how you’re thinking. RS characters gain attack power from four sources: raw stats, equipment, weapon skill level, and techniques. In most games stats don’t level up but they can be modified by equipment and buffs/debuffs. Equipment is equipment. Weapon skill level does level up and makes your damage dealing with that weapon type stronger plus lets you chance upon higher power techniques. Techniques are learned randomly based on how good you are with a given weapon type and how strong the enemy you are fighting is. Techniques can just be stronger hits that cost resources or have secondary effects such as causing a status effect, hitting multiple enemies at once, or making defense easier.
So it’s a bit like weird Pokémon with a default attack. (If that makes any sense at all)
@squidlump no clue, so let's see if my attempted summary means I understood it. So a character whose main purpose of punching enemies to gain stun chance would not then gain multiple punch basic attacks similar to how monks work in FF games as it got stronger, it would just gain better punching techniques.
I really love these beginners guides you do Jesse. Keep them up.
You did a good job Jesse. Thanks for doing the research and introducing people to SaGa. I hope this one takes off here, its a fantastic series with a deep history and great mechanical turn based experience. Many people want turn based Final Fantasy or to play turn based RPGs again. And of course we have MANY choices now and in past, this isnt Final Fantasy but it might just become a favorite to others like it did to me.
This weirdly gives me context for a few games that were always in my older brother's collection, but I never really 'vibed' with despite having played a few times (or attempting). I may have judged this series too harshly. I VERY clearly remember playing SaGa Frontier 2 when I was but a wee thing, and now I think after actually having the series explained to me better now that I have a LOT more context on how games work in me old age... It does sound pretty cool as a series.
Cheers, Jesse.
I loved SaGa Frontier back in the day. Hunting down all the skills and abilities and building power combos was great.
Jesse talking about SaGa?? Hell yes!
Thanks for making this video explaining the mechanics and stuff. Id seen a trailer for romancing saga, but it didnt mention the neat leveling mechanics so i wrote it off as just another jrpg. I bought the game because of this video and i've been enjoying it :)
Love seeing you cover this game Jesse
I owned all 3 Final Fantasy Legends games on the Gameboy. They were such a great time, even if they weren't Final Fantasy games. As well as Final Fantasy Adventure which would be the start of the Mana Series.
Just finsihed the demo before watching this. AND I AM HYPE
Just found out about this game today from a random vtuber video with like 200 views... it looked good so i already ordered it. Finally one of these games with at least PS3 graphics and voice acting.
This sounds like a really fun twist on the Final Fantasy style. Definitely going on the wishlist for when I have more money.
I always thought that Romancing Saga was a carbon copy of FF. Since I've never had any interest on FF I've stayed away from it. But I love the skill system, I'll definitely check it out!
I really love Saga Frontier 2 on the PS1. ❤
I had never heard about Romancing SaGa before but I tried the demo on a whim and actually found myself really enjoying it, so knowing a little background is helpful
Mr Jessica Cox making a guide? I'm sold why did I come by this game?
I Pre-Ordered this months ago.
For Years I wanted Square to give 2 the Minstrel Song Treatment.
And they did, with extras.
Square Literally gave me one of the EXACT games I wanted from a Dev.
The mobile game is technically a direct sequel to Romancing SaGa 3. Its not bad for a mobile game but it is just basically short cutscene-fight some battles-short cutscene.
Thats the only game that is/has a story tie-in sequel though.
It is unfortunately shutting down in a few weeks.
@@daodos That's part of the reason that I hate mobile games for JRPGs. I guess I will play through what's out then since there's still a month left. Maybe I will record it for posterity, though someone probably already has.
A huge part of Xenosaga's plot was on an old mobile game and now the only way to experience it is by watching some Japanese guy's video of him recording his old flip phone with a camera while he plays through it. And when I mean huge, I mean you won't understand a big part of Xenosaga 3's plot without the info from the mobile game.
I understand mobile games make a lot of money. But god are they terrible for preserving story elements.
Oooh, I recognize the name Romancing Saga! What a cool surprise of a video, thanks for this guide! Guess I'll have to finally play the PC remaster 👀
Huge SaGa fan here, became a fan since Romancing SaGa 3 on the Super Famicom, Then when SaGa frontier came out i was obsessed lol, like nuts spending so much time that isnt normal for the normal person. Anyways I really love the battle system and how you increase your stats and love how challenging it can be. For Romancing SaGa 2 i was a little turned off from it in the beginning because i like to pick who i want in my part and customize them how i want this stats to turn out but i had to get use to losing them as time advances and you become a new emperor but after the first couple of times it happened i started to really like the system. I still hold RM3 and SaGa Frontier way up there as my favorite in the series but RM2 is moving up close since this remake.
The great heroes are the model for one piece' 7 warlords
Incredible video, love your passion and your knowledge as always. If I snag a PS one day, I will absolutely get this
I played Final Fantasy Legend 1, 2 and 3 on GB back when I was a real young kid, and those games were brutally difficult back then. I had to figure out ways to cheese pretty much everything in those games. Like, I'd save after every random encounter and always try to run every encounter - if I failed to run I'd reload and try again. Avoid all random battles so my weapons wouldn't break. It was like 30 years ago I was playing those things and I can still recall a surprisingly amount of all of them, they were very impactful on my young mind.
I still remember in the original end game, you can use certain water spell to skip enemy turns, then you just use the fastest formation, some recovery for mp..... That's how I cheese the final bosses 😂😂😅
Gimmie that kind of generational build up and fight but in a game like enshrouded and I'd be all in.
I'd settle for just more Generational games in general.
Especially RPGs, it's untapped gold.
Empire Building in RPGs as well.
So many rpgs coming out around the same time, it's kinda crazy this year.
Ive been playing through all the Final Fantasy games in order + 16 (most recently beat 9), and this leveling system seems a lot like FF2, which due to my contrarian nature is one of my favorites so far. Looking forward to trying out this game a lot more now
i love seeing Jesse flex his gaming experience with videos like this! the game doesn't really look like its for me but it sounds interesting.
I've played the demo and I found it to be alright at the time. Seeing this video and seeing the depth it can have in its battle system, has me really intrigued
I am kind of curious if there's a romance system because the name is romancing saga 2 but that would make strategy guides probably a pain to find but would be really funny from the developers to do
The Romancing is the adventurous type of Romance. Not the love between two people. That said there is some of that in the game through quest(s) No romance system though.
no
I never played romancing saga but I played the original saga frontier one of my favorite childhood games,really liked the open ended storyline.😊
Thx for the introduction, I have zero experience with this title, the only question that always went into my head was "Does this have to do anything with romance?" XD
But this looks like a title worth checking, thx.
I can only see the logo for this game as Romancing Salsa and I'm disappointed it's not a condiment dating sim.
Do you date Caseoh in the end? he's really 'Cheesy'
6:00
and that is the reason i find it tough to even try this... I do not want my characters to die. Even if it is part of the plot i hate it since it is like being forced to lose.
Looking at the remake they def took some good notes from The Bravely Default/Octopath devs with that weakness system. Unless they are the same devs in which case well done keeping the good thing rolling.
Its the developer of Trials of Mana remake! Xeen. The original game had these weaknesses but they were not visible/known and were more about damage type (slash pierce blunt missle element)
@@daodos Cool so Xeen borrowed a really good mechanic from the dev of the other games. Sounds good to me.
this one looks like a ton of fun I'm definitely picking it up, it's been a strong ass year for jrpgs
I'm more interested in the 2017 remake. At least that one doesn't require Denuvo to be installed.
Truly glorious
The generational system and persistent empire upgrades almost sounds like they made a modern rogue-lite in 1993. I assume there's more of a consistent storyline in there and a single generation takes more to play than an hour, but I am kinda intrigued.
A game for grognards like me who are used to these kinds of systems from back in the day.
explained like this it sounds like a RPG version of Rogue's Legacy
Agree! Romancing Saga hands down the best of the three series (okay, this is my opinion!)
Good luck to all new to Romancing Saga 2 players
The original was already hard and the remake is even harder (that is if you picked Classic Mode ahahaha)
I tried the Romancing SaGa 3 remaster a few years ago and of not for this video and Geekenders would have probably skipped this one. That 3 remaster was just super frustrating for me.
I checked the demo and now I’m hooked
Final Fantasy Legend 3 on Gameboy was amazing.
Playing through the original and then will play remake!
Ok I’ve heard enough. Now the only question is to get this on the ps5 or the switch
So, does the new upgrade feel less like consummating your relationship with a pencil sharpener or are you still buying black market chrome?
Question, I want to play the first game to better understand the story and to play it for myself. Is the first game called, "Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song"?
Is this game similar to Fire Emblem? As far as the recruitment of party members for your team and stuff
Serious inquiry. Is it possible to die so many times that you run out of playable characters? Also, does the player create these characters or are each character's aesthetics randomized/predetermined?
Aside from the unique characters (Leon, Gerard, Coppelia, and the Final Emperor/Empress), each class has about 8-10 characters that appear in sequential order after you recruit them, reduce their LP to 0, and/or trigger a timeskip.
Now, if you somehow manage to exhaust a class's entire roster, the next one that appears is just gonna be the first character in the list.
Example, Heavy Infantry: If you manage to kill Bear, Bison, Walrus, Ox, Gorilla, Tortoise, Rhino, Ferdinand, and Snail, the next Heavy Infantry to appear will be Bear.
Thanks so much 🙏🏽
I would like to see you do a playthrough of this..... please 🙏
yo we talking romance salsa
You sold me. Thanks Jesse
I wanna buy this on Switch or Steam, is there any way I can do this while crediting you?
Ah Romancing SaGa 2, the game where you can choose between learning the best spell in the game or not accidentally wiping out an entire playable race from the world.
Or you can be like me and try to save the race and then fail and get neither.
When i heard this games leveling system was literally FF2 I was so mad I didn't play it before
Where is the romancing?!
Where is my Saga Frontier remake?!?! I want to play as Blue and fight my twin brother Rogue, then play Red the power ranger fighting evil cyborgs....
I recently tried that game... Is it normal to only have the protag and white rose in the end game
How much story is there and are the companions any interesting, do they have personalities, backgrounds and stories?
I got the feeling that the companions are just blank dummies, possible with random characteristics tied to, since you generate basically infinite amount of them?
They are not infinite or random. Each one has distinct stats tied to them. Story wise theres often story related to recruiting but not much in interaction between each other honestly. The story especially this one has interesting moments still. I promise you would be surprised by some characterizations in moments. This remake is adding more story however with new side quests, choices to complete quests, and also adding details from the stage play and additional cutscenes fleshing out the Seven.
For the most part, SaGa games function like this:
There's some personal story in the beginning to explain why you set out on your journey
There are a lot of side quests that mostly have nothing to do with you
There's an ending that also has nothing to do with you and is completely about the villain.
They are very world-focused games and not character focused. There are exceptions though. Some characters in SaGa Frontier have very character focused stories. SaGa Frontier 2 progresses through chapters and it's basically like playing through key moments in the history of a country.
@@daodos Thanks!
I figured there's basically infinite random companions since they can permadie(?) or at the very least when the player dies and there's a time skip. Can you run out of companions and soft lock, or do they recycle them then, being possible to get same companion hundreds of years apart? That would allow them to be more interesting with stories and backgrounds, albeit at the cost of immersion.
This will probably go into the ever growing wishlist/backlog of games.
@@jepeman If I remember right, you always have access to the same class of character. (Mage, Mercenary, Thief, etc.) It's just that their name's and outfit colors change every generation. I haven't beaten the game myself yet, but I do know that every time you die (if you don't reload a save) the imperial calendar moves forward some amount of years and you are forced to switch to a new Emperor, until you reach the final emperor. So my guess would be that they have enough characters to fit the maximum amount of deaths you could have.
So essentially the game works like this, you either finish a quest and time moves forward forcing a new Emperor or you die and time moves forward forcing a new Emperor.
ok i'm sold. color me interested.
I'm honestly wondering which language I should use for the game: english or japanese. I'm thinking english, but I Wanna hear how Japanese sounds.
I'm still waiting on an explanation on how I can Romance SaGa....
It's the ye olde definition of romance, which basically refers to a fictional story filled with adventure and mystery. The REAL question is why the G in SaGa is capitalized!
How does this game differ from minstrel song. Cause i utterly despised every minute of the 5 hours i spent trying to get into it.
"Sorry, this promotion is not available in your region" , thanks Square Enix...
Its very interesting to see a game that possibly inspired a ton of media. From my hero academia all the way to Skyrim. Not saying they were inspired by the game but the potential is definitely there
The 7 seem pretty unthreatening on a meta level if they just let generations pass without successfully taking over an already weakened kingdom, but an interesting system certainly.
They have their interests elsewhere. There are actually conditions in the original where if left alone they will achieve stronger forms. Though nothing crazy dynamic.
Hahahaha... You would think that. Let's just say there's a NARRATIVE reason the old game had a high difficulty the remake had to tone down.
Maybe they are attacking 12 other kingdoms at the same time?
You might not be a priority.
Stop shouting! Geez
You don't even show gameplay of the game until over 6 minutes into a 10 minute video. For at least 5 minutes you are not even talking about the game just the history of the franchise before I just got so bored I skipped ahead to see if you ever even get to the game. This is the worst beginner guide video for a game I have ever seen. What were you thinking? You don't need to talk about the original game or history when talking about a remake and trying to guide new players on how to play.
So it like Skyrim but Japan.
Where is Skyrim?
Man sad you dropped badly
Damn it i dont need more games to buy! my poor wallet!