Romancing SaGa
Romancing SaGa is a 1992 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Famicom. It is the fourth entry in the SaGa series. It was subsequently released for the WonderSwan Color in 2001 and mobile phones in 2009. A remake for the PlayStation 2, subtitled Minstrel Song in Japan, was released in both Japan and North America in 2005 by Square Enix. A remaster of Minstrel Song was released worldwide in 2022 for Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Windows.
The storyline follows eight different protagonists on quests through the world of Mardias, all culminating in a fight against the dark god Saruin. Gameplay features nonlinear exploration of the game world, with the turn-based battles featuring group formations. As with other SaGa titles, there are no experience points and character attributes and skills are dependent on actions taken in battle.
Production began in 1990, with Nintendo requesting Square develop a new SaGa entry for the in-production Super Famicom after the success of SaGa titles on the Game Boy. Series creator Akitoshi Kawazu acted as director, designer and scenario writer. The character designers were created by Tomomi Kobayashi in her first work for the series. The music was solely composed and arranged by Kenji Ito, who had previously co-composed music for Final Fantasy Legend II.
Later versions included cut content and features from later SaGa titles. The PS2 remake included redrawn artwork by Yusuke Naora and a redone soundtrack from Ito. The Super Famicom version sold over one million copies, and met with positive reception in the region. The PS2 remake sold 500,000 units across Japan and North America, seeing mixed reviews in the West due to its difficulty and art style. The remaster saw some praise for its updates, but several found it unwelcoming for series newcomers. Two more Romancing SaGa titles were developed, and gameplay elements from Romancing SaGa would be used in subsequent SaGa titles.
Gameplay
Romancing SaGa is a role-playing video game where the player takes on the role of eight different protagonists, playing through their narratives and an overarching story in a nonlinear style. After choosing a protagonist, the player explores the game's overworld freely, triggering narrative events, engaging in battles, and performing side activities. Over the course of the game a party of characters is built up, with some recruitable members being the unchosen protagonists. Progression of the main narrative is based on the number of events the player completes, their current strength, and speaking to certain characters. This free exploration is dubbed the Free Scenario System.Battles trigger when the player encounters enemy sprites in field and dungeon environments. The party engages the enemy in a preset formation arranged on a 3x3 grid, which impacts both attack range and defence from enemies. Equipment for playable characters includes their current weapon and armour. Abilities use a pool of Battle Points. There are no experience points, with character statistics raising at random based on actions in battle. New abilities are unlocked by using weapons enough times in battle. Winning the battle also grants the player money, used to buy items and equipment. If a party member falls, they will return to low health at the end of battle. If the entire party falls, the game ends.
The PlayStation 2 remake Minstrel Song retains the original narrative and many gameplay concepts including non-linear exploration, but all environments are rendered in 3D and elements from later SaGa titles are incorporated. As with the original, once the protagonist is chosen, they can progress as they like through the scenario. The game uses a quick save function, creating a temporary save when the party is in field or dungeon environments. Hard saves can only be done in towns, where merchants selling new weapons and equipment can be utilised.
The player can customise their party through which characters they recruit, and character classes that impact abilities and statistics, magical schools that allow the blending of different elemental magic types, and weapon forging. In addition to statistics rising depending on battle actions, a character learns or upgrades their skills by using it multiple times in battle. If several party members focus on one enemy, they unlock a Combination attack. Character health is two-layered, with standard health and Life Points. LP are limited in number and only renewed by resting at an inn. A character loses LP by being knocked out enough times or through attacks which target LP; if the player character loses all LP, the game ends.
Synopsis
Romancing SaGa is set in the fictional world of Mardias. One thousand years before the game's opening, a war raged between three evil gods—Death, Saruin, and Schirach—and the benevolent deity Elore. By the end, Death and Schirach are stripped of their powers, while Saruin is imprisoned through the combined effort of ten Fatestones and the sacrifice of the hero Mirsa. The Fatestones become scattered through the world, and the powers of darkness gather themselves to free Saruin from his imprisonment.The game focuses on eight characters, each with their own narrative who are drawn into the quest to recover the Fatestones and defeat Saruin once more. They are Albert, heir to a noble lord in the region of Rosalia; Aisha, a peace-loving member of the nomadic Taralians; Jamil, a thief operating in the city of Estamir; Claudia, a woman raised by a witch in the land of Mazewood; Hawk, a notorious pirate; Sif, a warrior from the snow-covered region of Valhalland; Gray, a treasure-seeking adventurer; and Barbara, member of a travelling band of entertainers. Other recruitable characters are The Minstrel, wandering bard, Diana, Albert's older sister, Neidhart, prince of Rosalia, Raphael, young squire of the Knights of the Dominion, Guella Ha, lizard man, Galahad, paladin from Rosalia, Myriam, witch, Brau, brown bear, Sylvan, white wolf, Gian, knight of Melvir, Patrick, snooty treasurer, Dowd, Jamil's best friend, Farah, Jamil's girlfriend, Herman, loud, obnoxious member of Barbara's troupe, Captain Silver, pirate, Red Mage, an adventurer, Frielei, guardian of the treasure of Frosthold Fortress, Darque, wanderer who has lost his memories, Aldora, powerful sorceress and sword-wielding dragon knight.
While each character has their own personal quest, they are drawn into the quest for the Fatestones. In Minstrel Song, the characters are overseen in their quest by the Minstrel, a figure who is secretly an avatar of Elore. Once enough Fatestones are collected, the chosen protagonist faces the reawakened Saruin, defeating him for good. If Minstrel Song is cleared with all eight characters, a final scene shows them talking together, then setting out as a group watched over by the Minstrel.
Development
Production of Romancing SaGa began in 1990, when Nintendo approached series developer Square about developing a new SaGa title for their in-development Super Famicom. The request was due to the success of the previous SaGa titles on the Game Boy. Series creator Akitoshi Kawazu was pleased at Nintendo's request, as he could make substantial improvements to his gameplay design on better hardware. There was also demand for a third Game Boy SaGa, so two projects began in parallel; Kawazu led a team on Romancing SaGa, while Square's new Osaka studio developed Final Fantasy Legend III. During early production, Kawazu wanted to break away from the SaGa brand and call the game something different, but ultimately it retained the SaGa name. The game's "Romancing" title was suggested by Nobuyuki Inoue, inspired by the adventure movie Romancing the Stone. Kawazu was a little mixed on the impression given by the title, but the illustrations and music helped make the game more in line with the "romantic" style implied by the title. Kawazu acted as director, lead designer, and scenario writer. The producer was Masafumi Miyamoto, founder and former president of Square.Production was difficult, as while Kawazu had a larger team to work with, they also faced new technical and design issues. Kawazu's aim was to change the gameplay style of having a single path players had to travel, instead creating multiple stories for players to experience at their own pace, giving birth to the Free Scenario System. The Free Scenario System was designed as a direct contrast to the linear story structure of Square's Final Fantasy series. The eight protagonists, with their own stories within the same world, drew inspiration from taiga dramas, with the number referencing the Japanese novel Nansō Satomi Hakkenden. Albert's scenario was the first to be written. The number of characters was also due to Kawazu's wish for the formation system. The narrative was difficult for Kawazu, as he needed to create a central plotline while crafting eight independent narratives. Due to Nintendo's strict cart size limitations, several planned elements had to be cut from the final product.
The characters were designed by artist Tomomi Kobayashi. Kawazu had been looking for a suitable illustrator for some time, and when he saw samples of Kobayashi's work contacted her about working with him. Romancing SaGa was Kobayashi's first video game work, so she had to get used to the large amount of creative freedom she had compared to her previous projects. She was only ever sent a name and some elements from Kawazu, but otherwise left to her own devices. Kawazu had a lot of input on what the characters were like, such as Albert being the only left-handed character, but could not have as much influence as he wanted due to other development needs. Hawk's design was inspired by the character Blood from Princess Knight. Kobayashi's favorite characters were Hawk and main antagonist Saruin. Kobayashi designed 40 unique characters, and at the height of her work was designing six per day.
The sprites were designed by Kazuko Shibuya, who had worked for the company since the 1980s and designed character sprites for the Final Fantasy series. She created the character sprites based on Kobayashi's designs. Due to their deep narrative connections, Kawazu asked Kobayashi to design the characters before any sprite work was done. An important part of the sprite design was keeping the "delicate" colours within the limited pixel art style of the game. The game made extensive use of kanji characters, as hiragana writing would take up too much space, but Kawazu needed to make sure the kanji was legible, making them extra-large and going against standard 8x8 pixel limit for writing. Yoshinori Kitase acted as the game's field map designer, creating the world map. The graphic design staff included Inoue, Tetsuya Takahashi and Hiroshi Takai, the latter of whom would work as a designer on future SaGa titles.