Let me start by saying that I will restraint myself greatly as to not gush too much, and end up filling the post with a huge wall of text that no one cares to read. That said, here we go.
Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song - PS2
~A small disclaimer in case others don't know, RS:Minstrel's Song is actually a remake of the 1st Romancing SaGa on the Snes, it's probably the reason they didn't make an enhanced port of it like they are doing now with Romancing Saga 2 and the upcoming Romancing SaGa 3. And while it's a Remake, or because it's a remake, there are a lot of differences between it and the original Snes version, but each of them are great in their own right, and so I don't lose focus I'll try to keep this only about the PS2 game.~
First, no mention of the SaGa series should start or exist without the mention of the creator of the series, Akitoshi Kawazu. Almost everything that this guy has made or was deeply involved with, turns into gold for me, and while I really want to explain in detail, I'll sum his whole philosophy in making JRPGs through a quote he made in an interview not too long ago:
RPG Site: That actually brings me to my next question, which is admittedly a little bit blunt. I'm not sure if this is the case in Japan as well but in the West, SaGa games can have the reputation of being sort of 'weird' or 'confusing' or 'strange' in how they play or tricky to figure out. I personally find that a bit endearing, but, is that something you intentionally try to craft within these games?
Kawazu: (laughs) So the perception that SaGa games are kind of difficult and confusing is also the case in Japan as well. But even then, we have outspoken fans that support the series and enjoy that aspect of the series, and we think that would be the same in the West, too. In regards to 'how difficult' we make the games, that's always something I have trouble balancing the right way. But there are two directions I like to consider. Sometimes a player might stop playing a game because they find it too difficult. But in other cases, players might find a game too simple and stop playing out of boredom. I would rather lean towards the former, where players are more likely to quit because they find a game too difficult rather than quit because a game is too simple. That's always the tone and direction that I tend to go with. But balancing the right challenge, difficulty, and doing something experimental is something I always work towards.
As for the SaGa games he said:
JP: If you look at the SaGa games all the way from Final Fantasy Legend through Romancing SaGa and SaGa Frontier, they're all very different from one another. What do you think is the unifying theme of the SaGa games? What binds them together and makes them "SaGa"?
Kawazu: The rules of each game might be different, but the unifying theme is that... Allowing the players to play the game the way they would like to play it. Giving them freedom to take the game in the direction they want to take it, without interfering too much on the design side. I feel that's the unifying theme behind SaGa.
I love this remake, the amount of detail and love put into making this game is jaw dropping. I mean just take a look at the first thing you get when you start the game, which is the intro. This intro, not only does it still look and sound beautiful after all this time, but just look at the attention to the small details, l love how the minstrel's fingers tap, move and hush the guitar strings in tune with the music, something so small, yet so great:
~ The Intro video - The song "Minuet" by Masayoshi Yamazaki. ~ (video link).
First thing's first, as this is a SaGa game, let's start by addressing why most people find the series confusing and/or difficult. Well the main reason is that most people or JRPG fans in general go into this series expecting it to play like other JRPGs, which leads to being disappointed and viewing the game as weird, which happened to me the first time I got into the series.
To give you an example, it's like someone who approaches Dark Souls thinking it's something like Devil May Cry, and after dying for the third time in a row in one minute, throws the game and says it's "unbalanced and too hard". Of course that's not true, just because both games are hack and slash action games, doesn't mean that you should expect Dark Souls to play like DMC.
So how should you approach it ? well, like any other SaGa game (or Kawazu game really). Like you're playing an adventure. A Kawazu game is made with the idea that you'll be going on your own special adventure, that no matter who many people play this same game, your adventure will be special and unique that no one will be able to replicate including you. That every choice you make will have consequences, and that you should take responsibility for them, and most importantly in the Romancing SaGa series, that the world you are playing in, is ever changing and moving forward as you play it. If you approach the SaGa series with the mindset of "I'll grind here for 5 hours and then just beat everything with ease" like other JRPGs, then the game will beat the shit out of you, why ? because this isn't how an adventure should be, each boss should feel like a boss that takes everything you have to beat, each monster encounter should feel like you're fighting monsters with an actual chance they can kill you, and when you are at the start of an adventure, you should be weak like you're starting an adventure, and when you're at the end, you should feel like the freaking powerful hero you have become. That's why SaGa games don't have levels or XP, the only thing you get is just stat increases depending on what happened in the battle.
By now you're probably wondering, what did I mean by the world of this game is ever changing and moving, well it's a living breathing JRPG World, few (if ever) JRPGs have manged to make worlds like this. it has it's own events and plots, and depending where you are and at which time you might miss them, but even if you miss them you'll at least hear about them, and in another playthrough, armed with knowledge of where they happened and when, maybe you can not only witness these events personally, but even be a part of them or hell, even change them ? All of this is done brilliantly through the use of the Battle Rank System, or as it called in this game, the Event Rank. This system counts the number of battles you do since the start of the game. Think of it as an in-game world clock, each time you win a battle, life/events/characters/nations aka everything in this world moves forward with there own agenda and plots. Of course the Event Rank is hidden, but not totally hidden, you can still vaguely somewhat tell where you are through a special character that is found in every city.
So what's the use of this living breathing world ? well for one it's a great way to tell the player, stop playing this epic adventure as a video game, where you just grind mindlessly and hoard items. No! This is an adventure, so go out there an actually freaking go on an adventure, talk with people, check pubs and hear rumors, explore the world, find hidden dungeons and cities, discover hidden cities, learn the lore of the world, and just go and live life in this great world we built for you.
So in order to help people and JRPG fans to avoid that type of confusion, here is the first trap that people who are used to classic JRPGs will fall into, and that is, A Sense of Direction. No one will tell you which town to head to next, where to fight your next boss, or which well the kids fell into. If you haven't realized it by now, the number one word you should have in your mind while going into this game is Adventure, you're here to make your own quests and to what you want, meaning:
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You're not here to Save the World.
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You're not here to Take Revenge on the Evil Empire.
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You're not here because You're the Chosen One.
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You're not here to Restore Balance to the Elements.
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You're not here because War...War Never Changes.
None of those, you're just a guy/girl/not even human, sometimes you have a backstory or a job, sometimes you don't, meaning that you're are free to do what you want, help who you want, and ignore who you want, that's why before you start the game you're given a choice between . To drive this point home, the game will drop you in this massive Map:
~ RS:Minstrel Song's Overworld Map ~ (picture link)
Each of the countries and islands you can choose will further more be split into more smaller cities and locations(gif link) that you can visit, and there is a huge list of them, but that's not all, there are also a lot of cites and locations that can only be discovered and unlocked either through quests, exploration, simply talking to people, or even just recruiting someone who knows about them. Each city will have it's own:
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Quests and Events.
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Characters to join you're party.
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Shops with different items, some only specific to that city or location
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The big cities will each have their own Temple where you can buy their own special school of magic.
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Special Classes to learn.
Speaking of characters, other than the 8 main character that you choose at the start of the game(gif link), that range from a Famous Pirate, a Dancer, a Prince, or even a nobody with no past. There is still a huge list of characters to invite into your party as you travel the world, and they are divided into two groups. A nameless characters with no backstory or their own goals, but just a group of just normal people going around. Those characters names will be the same a their class (Rosalin Soldier/Valhalla Warrior/ect...) and can be found in Pubs all around the world. But what if you want to have special characters in your party ? then you can also get special characters that have their own backstory, goals, special moves, or even unique abilities.
Also if you're wondering, why have all of this ? it's yet another layer to emphasize the freedom of choice and the feeling of an adventure, for example, you could go and get that ordinary city solider to join your party, but then don't expect to be able to just walk into a castle for and meet with kings and such. Or maybe you see a Prince asking for help to revive his kingdom, and accept him into your party, now you're welcomed by the same guards that denied you entry before, but it's not all sunshine and roses, because now the prince's villains and troubles are also yours. Of course at any time you have the old "we need to talk", and kick him out of the party. Of course here again the game shines, because on who you kick out of the party, you might still have a chance to get them again, or maybe after a certain point in their story, they are no longer recruitable. All of this and I still haven't even talked about the hidden characters that not only have their own special moves, and equipment, but also their own special requirements and events to get them to join you.
An important thing to note here, that like other SaGa games, characters will have Life Point (LP), which are a separate thing than HP, and some characters will be gone forever if they lose all their LP (which can be replenished if you rest), and some others will just leave the party, and you can go and recruit them again from the places they hang out in.
Back to being on an Adventure, as mentioned before there is no "main quest", you're just a character in this world and you do what you want, then how do you find things to do ? the same way you do everything in an adventure, talking to people, finding treasure maps, hearing about rumors, exploring the world and so on. You see the quests are there it's just up to you to find them, but even when you find them, they aren't spelled out right to you as a quest, and there is no ding sound effect or a massage that says "you found a quest" (with a few exceptions), most of the time you'll just be visiting a town's pub, and find the game's mascot, the Minstrel, and then he'll will say something like:
~ The Elemental Lords ~ (video link)
That's it, that's all you get, but then as you travel the world, you'll learn about the location of each of them, and if you go there you'll actually meet the elemental lords(gif link), and maybe even get a quest from them, or if you're stupid enough, ask them for a fight, in which you'll get reket, but at least you'll lose while listening to some of the best JRPG music out there:
~ A Challenge to God's Four Guardian Kings ~ (music track link)
I can listen to the OST of this game for hours. Which leads us nicely into our next topic, the music, composed by the series veteran and a great composer in his own right, Kenji Ito, if you never heard of him before or played game composed by him, then this one will make sure you'll never forget his name. I don't want to hype it too much than I already have, but it's a really good. And to be honest what elevates this game even more, is how they combine the art and music in such a seamless manner. You might have already noticed how the game is 3D from the videos above, but what you might have missed, is the painting theme that game has going on, how they try make each place you visit or character you meet, to look like it just came right out of an oil painting, here is personally one of my favorite beautifully done scenes, where they show how they mix the fantastic art that melts into seamlessly into 3D, with fantastic music tracks:
~ The intro To fighting Scorn ~ (video link)
One of my favorite aspects of this game is the items, because you're going on epic adventure, and fighting epic bosses, then the rewards should be epic as well, and they seriously nail it in this game. so much variety in items and what they do, there are great items that will increase your stats, then there are epic items that will grant you immunity and give you the ability to cast their own school of magic. And of course there are legendary items that will have their unique abilities, which I don't want to spoil here, but all I can say is that they are worth the trouble you went through to get them. Items are so unique that a lot of times are had to ignore items with better stats in order to keep the items with unique abilities.
A very important thing to watch for while playing this game, or the SaGa series in general, is that you shouldn't bother yourself with the idea of "Omg, am I missing something ? is this the best outcome ?", because if you do that in this game, you'll never finish it, worse is that the whole game will be ruined for you. Because the game is made with the idea that you will miss out on things, or not being able to complete certain quests on your first time through, that's why you should just enjoy the game for what it is, a beautiful and relaxing adventure, and don't be like me who didn't realize this fact until I was on my 4th restart of the game because I missed on one little thing here or there.
Finally the point I wanted to get across is, the game is made to give you limitless possibilities, because notice that until now I haven't touched or said anything about the Blacksmithing system , which is a huge topic alone. I didn't talk about the Magic system, the Arts combo system, the Magic Synthesizing system to upgrade or invent new spells, the Class system, the Talent system, the Fate-stones, the Formation system, Trading with monsters, and so on.
And to give you an idea of how big each of these systems are, you can easily play the whole game without touching any of them, because like everything else in the game, it's up to you to explore and try for yourself. it's a huge game with a very complex and very well done and detailed designs that you can keep on playing for weeks and weeks, in fact it's made with this in mind because there hidden things you can't get in your first playthrough and some even after two or three playthroughs.
Akitoshi Kawazu made the game for players to make their own adventures and make their own discoveries that no one else did or had, that's why till this day there things still being discovered about this game, like I said I tend to lose focus the more I write, so I'll stop here, and all I hope is that this will give some people the motivation to give the game or series another try or maybe try them for the first time.
Submitted October 24, 2019 at 04:09PM by VashxShanks https://ift.tt/2p0rZX7
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