As a lover of RPGs, I try to give every long running series of turn-based battlers a chance. One series I struggled to gel with for a long time though was the SaGa series, because it just felt inscrutable to me. That changed last year with the release of Romancing SaGa 2: The Revenge of the Seven. This modern remake of a classic was a much smoother experience for a newbie like me, and helped me appreciate what makes this series great. With new found knowledge I was excited to test my SaGa skills with Romancing SaGa -Minstel Song- Remastered International, which was admittedly a bit of a rude awakening.
In the game’s land of Mardias there has long been peace, as its three evil deities were sealed away long ago in a war of gods. In the modern age though one of these evils is on the verge of coming back, because of a selection of magical stones of course. It will at some point be your mission to save the day and overcome this, but not before hours of questing as your chosen hero.
There are eight starting heroes who will all eventually make their way to this final confrontation, but each will do so in very different ways. With each of these campaigns taking anywhere from twenty to over fifty hours there’s a silly amount of content for those seeking a true ending, but even one playthrough of Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song will be long enough to be worth your cash.
The choosing of a main character is your first decision in Minstrel Song, and one of the most difficult to get right. All the characters admittedly have stats you can look at before making a decision, but you don’t get to know about a specific level that will make the game harder if you’re not careful. Thankfully the dancer I chose didn’t completely ruin my game from the first moment, and set me on a journey I wouldn’t soon forget.
I’m not sure I’ve ever played a JRPG with as much freedom as Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song, but that’s not entirely positive. I started playing the game like any other RPG, and wandered through a town, gathered a new ally and jumped into the nearest cave to find a missing person. It turns out this was a massive mistake, because with a small party of inexperienced idiots we were struggling by floor two. Instead I needed to chat to some people in town to unlock new locations to explore and fill up my team with all sorts of pub crawling misfits. I ended up wandering across continents via menus and getting dozens of tips on different quests I could then follow, and was pretty suitably overwhelmed.
With a full team though I was able to jump into battle with more confidence, and that’s where the game really shines. Combat involves picking everyone’s move, but some cost more ability points than others, and some use your weapon durability to deal more impressive damage. Balancing point use is a key part of battle, although as you gain these and hit points back between fights it enables you to go all out to win.
The most exciting battle mechanic of all is still the glimmer system, which enables you to learn and use new skills on the fly if you’re lucky enough. Against tougher foes this is more likely to happen, but the random nature makes it especially exciting when a flashy attack happens at the perfect time. I must admit I preferred the system slightly more in The Revenge of the Seven as it gave you more of an idea of what might glimmer, but it’s still very unique and compelling.
This is only one way your characters will get stronger in Minstrel Song. There’s no traditional leveling up though, instead your characters gain individual stat points at random at the end of each battle. This makes for some particular miserable grinding to get stronger, which is probably the main problem I had with the entirety of the game.
It’s not the only problem that Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song has though. The lack of clarity given on certain systems will frustrate many, and really you’ll either need to do your own research into the game or just sort of go with the flow and accept your lack of understanding. The visuals even remastered are dated too, and outside of the low fidelity they just aren’t exciting.
It’s worth talking about what this new version of Minstrel Song adds in 2025, although the answer to that will only be important to certain people. The only addition to this international release of the game are the new language options, so unless you’re playing in French, German, Italian or Spanish you’ll be playing the same game as the 2022 release. It’s certainly interesting the earlier version wasn’t just patched, but at least more people can now play this very intriguing game.
Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered International is a very unique RPG, and whether or not you appreciate that will depend on your tolerance of other issues like the grinding. It is absolutely one of the most free form examples of the genre I can think of though, and for some that will make it a very special game.