Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven

This... is probably one of the most unusual JRPGs I've ever played. You play as the ruler of Avalon, an emperor or empress whose goal is to reunite a fractured empire and defeat the Seven Heroes, legendary saviors who have somehow returned as monstrous threats. The premise sounds fairly standard, but the way the game actually plays is anything but. This is a very open ended game. After the first hour and a half, you're free to explore the world with a party of 5, tackle different regions in almost any order, and pursue whichever quests catch your interest. Almost everything you do is tied to the passage of time, and some quests or events can disappear permanently if too many years pass before you deal with them. You'll miss quests, recruitable characters, equipment, and entire storylines simply because you made different choices or focused on different problems. Normally it's annoying to miss content, but here it's just part of the experience. History keeps moving forward whether you're ready or not. If your party gets wiped out, for example, you don't get a game over screen, you simply select a new ruler and continue. The progression system is also highly unconventional. Grinding only gets you so far because enemies scale alongside your growth. You can't simply overpower every challenge by spending hours fighting random battles. Instead you need to find stronger equipment, develop better abilities, exploit enemy weaknesses, and make use of the combat system surprisingly powerful status effects. Unlike many JRPGs where bosses are immune to everything interesting, SaGa 2 often lets you use debuffs against major enemies. More than once I turned a seemingly impossible battle into a manageable one by experimenting instead of just hitting harder. This is very much a gameplay first game. The story on the other hand is fairly bare-bones. There are some interesting revelations surrounding the Seven Heroes, learned through optional scenes and flashbacks, but most of the game is driven by exploration and side quests rather than narrative storytelling. What kept me invested was the sense of growth. Over successive generations, your capital expands with new facilities, better crafting options, magical research, and additional services. The inheritance system is also interesting. Each new emperor inherits the skills and knowledge acquired by previous rulers, so over time they will become your most versatile (and possibly strongest) party member. Most quests are fairly straightforward: go somewhere and kill something, but some are surprisingly complex, requiring multiple steps to be completed correctly or within a certain timeframe. This is especially true if you disable quest markers and rely entirely on information provided by NPCs. Despite the passing generations, advancing timelines, and seemingly missable content, SaGa 2 is much more forgiving than it first appears. You have plenty of time to experience the vast majority of what the game has to offer, and it's surprisingly difficult to completely ruin a playthrough. While you'll inevitably miss some events, recruits, or rewards on a first run, I never felt pressured to constantly follow a guide. It's also an extremely content packed game. Beyond the main story there are optional bosses, superbosses, a post-game dungeon, NG+ and additional difficulty settings. Visually, SaGa 2 looks just okay. Pleasant, but nothing spectacular. I think it uses the same engine as Trials of Mana. The environments are bright and charming, the character designs are distinctive, and everything is easy to read. That said, I'm not entirely convinced it's worth its full asking price. The production values are solid but not exceptional, and much of the appeal comes from the strength of its systems rather than its presentation. Still, if you can pick it up during a sale, it's an easy recommendation for anyone looking for a JRPG that dares to do things differently.

the game is pretty fun and all. i can recommend it too,but for me the game is constantly crashing and is turning me away slowly. might continue in the future but i tried every recommended fix for crashes but nothing works