Biggest Differences Between Romancing Saga 2’s Remake And The Original

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home March 9, 2025 3 Views 9 Min Read
Biggest Differences Between Romancing Saga 2's Remake And The Original
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Summary

  • Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven features improved graphics and re-orchestrated soundtrack for a more vibrant experience.
  • The remake offers three difficulty options and thorough tutorials to cater to different players.
  • Quality-of-life features like auto-equip and map markers enhance accessibility, while voice acting is available in two languages.

JRPGs took a long time to catch on in the West. The Saga series took even longer. Beginning in 1989 and presented in the West as a Final Fantasy outcrop, Saga came into its own with the Romancing Saga subseries. Despite their overall crunchy presentation, these titles were ahead of their time in many ways and featured mechanics that would become a staple of RPGs.

Romancing Saga 2 Revenge of the Seven. The Schools of Synthesis Magic.

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Romancing Saga 2 was denied a Western localization upon its 1993 launch, and only with the 2016 remaster did it become fully playable in English for the first time. In late 2024, the game finally got its due with a full 3D remake like its sister series Mana – Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven. Here are the biggest changes from the original.

8

Graphics

The original Romancing Saga 2 had bad graphics for its own time, and the ensuing decades have not been kind to it. Drab dungeons and eye-watering menus abound. Although the game excelled in many departments, it fell short visually.

Several characters casting magic spells in three side by side images in Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven.

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That issue is allayed with the 2024 remake, which features a vibrant 3D art style. While models are not highly detailed or meticulously animated, they are pretty to look at. The world of Romancing Saga 2 is brought to life in a way the Super Famicom version could never manage.

7

Soundtrack

Romancing Saga 2 had a killer 36-song soundtrack. However, the limitations of the Super Famicom meant that its instrumentation would often get muddled, as MIDI instruments simply can’t compare to real ones.

Rejoice, then, because the remake features an entirely re-orchestrated soundtrack performed by over 100 musicians and arranged by original composer Kenji Ito himself. The new soundtrack has much more space, and the guitars sound like actual guitars. If you’re a purist, you can switch to the original soundtrack as well.

6

Difficulty

Romancing Saga 2 was a difficult game, made all the more challenging by its open-ended systems that it did not teach you about very well. The slightest mistake would result in harsh consequences, and as this is a game where permadeath is enabled, you could lose characters you liked for good.

In contrast, the remake has adapted to changing tastes. Not everyone has the time to get killed over and over again, and not everyone plays turn-based RPGs for the gameplay. To accommodate your playstyle, the game offers three difficulty options: Casual, Normal and a hardcore difficulty for classic fans. These choices do not affect the story.

5

Tutorials

Part of the reason Romancing Saga 2 has always maintaned a niche status is that the game is just too weird and complicated, even for most RPG fans. It also offered nothing in the way of handholding.

Final Empress on the left, dancer in the middle, crusader on the right in Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven.

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Where the original Saga 2 sucked at teaching you how to play it, the Saga 2 remake takes great pains to make sure you understand it thoroughly. Each system is meticulously explained through pop-up tutorials, which are saved in your journal to be viewed at any time, just in case you missed them due to an accidental button press.

4

Quality-Of-Life Features

Much like other modern JRPGs, Romancing Saga 2 recognizes that its slow-paced, time-consuming genre can be intimidating to newcomers. To this end, the game is filled with a host of quality of life features to make it more accessible.

Romancing Saga 2’s remake features auto-equip, a minimap, map and gameplay markers to guide you, and even an option to auto-rotate the map to fit your perspective. Those who would criticze such enhancements can turn them off as they please, but these changes are a welcome reprieve from the Super Famicom title’s cumbersome nature.

3

Voice Acting

Much like any SNES JRPG that wasn’t Tales of Phantasia, Romancing Saga 2 lacked voice acting due to the technological limitations of the time. Over three decades later, the game is now dubbed in both Japanese and English. The remake features voice acting in two languages and subtitles in eight.

Unfortunately for English listeners, the Western dub can bring some early anime dubs to shame with its halting nature. Luckily, you can turn down the voice volume in the options, or switch to Japanese.

2

Localization

The original Romancing Saga 2 was not localized until its 2016 remaster, and for decades fans had to rely on an incomplete English patch. The official localization was appropriate, but took another year to come to modern platforms.

Gerard on the left, A formation in the middle, and king Leon on the right from Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven.

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In contrast, the remake’s localization has been fully reworked and was timed for a simultaneous worldwide launch. The localization’s writing is subpar at points, relying too much on flowery prose that would have been outdated even at the time the original Saga 2 came out, but it makes for an enjoyable – and playable – game nonetheless.

1

Gameplay

Even though the Saga series has remained dormant for many years and has never reached the heights of Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, its devoted fanbase insists upon its gameplay. Romancing Saga 2 for the SNES had a fairly standard battle system, but the remake has an ace up its sleeve.

Battles now feature an option for a United Attack, which allows two characters to deliver a chain attack linking powerful spells and skills. This unique system does far more damage than normal attacks and is sure to be a boon to newcomers and veterans alike. The gameplay changes are not to be criticized for tarnishing the spirit of the original: sometimes you can do better than the spirit of the original, and Romancing Saga 2 does.

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