Forgotten Games: The Romancing SaGa Series - SNESdrunk 

4 years later and the 2 most difficult Saga games to translate are officially available for modern systems. What a time to be alive.

The PS2 remake of Romancing SaGa was fantastic and sorely underappreciated. It's quite approachable (for a SaGa game) and remains one of my favorite RPGs to date.

I've always wanted to know more about this franchise. Thanks for the amazing video, bro.

This is basicly the OG octopath traveler, found it out from the amazing OST, sounds like it's worth a play through.

I am definitely going to play Romancing SaGa 3. That looks like exactly the kind of game that I have always wanted to play.

"This is kind of an old, broken game." So it is like a Bethesda game.

Romancing SaGa 2 is available on ios/android as well. an official release and translation from square/enix. If anyone cares, and don't mind playing it on their phone. it looks good. EDIT: I bought Romacing SaGa2 yesterday on the nintendo switch, i was so happy when they announced it for consoles. since i dont like playing on the phone. and it plays so well, and the remake looks so nice without loosing that oldschool feel. i really recomend it on any platform. Its avalible on the eshop for the Nintendo switch, PS4 and on all the curret Xbox models. And ofc steam. Square/Enix did good on this one, and nice to see they give all the platforms love.

We finally getting Romancing Saga 3 bois!

I love these videos that are closer to 10 minutes or more that you make - all your other content is great, but I feel like it's over too soon. Thanks! :D

Thank you for these great videos on all the obscure SNES games. Keep up the good work, SNESdrunk!

SaGa 2 was my first RPG, I loved that game. Bought it because the screenshots on the back of the box made it look like Zelda, I quickly found out it was a different kind of game but really enjoyed it anyway.

So much greatness in 9 minutes. Thank you SNESDrunk!

Probably one of the best videos here! Thank you

I WILL have a good rest of my day now!

Saga Frontier 1 on PS1 and the FF Legends will always be my faves out of the non-Final Fantasy Square/Enix games. I couldn't get into the Romancing Saga games (especially the last one), but I might give them a shot again some other time. THanks for covering this series in the way only you can! :)

I know you are the "SNES" drunk, but I would have liked to see you cover Saga Frontier and Unlimited Saga as they are by far the most interesting games in this series. Still great video!

One of the things I love most about this channel is when I'm watching a video of a game I think I know nothing about, then I see some screens and suddenly I realize I played the game and memories come flooding back.

Been organizing & refining my collection lately. Always find your videos super helpful man, thanks for doin what you do.

Just wanted to say thanks for all the hard work you put into your videos, I enjoy them a lot. You've inspired me to try my hands at doing my own.

The music from these games are amazing, thanks for posting this brother. 👍👍👍

I LOVE these games! I played RS3 on a ROM when I was a teen, twenty years ago. I wanted to play the second one as well so badly, but there was no translation for it. So I waited. And waited. For years. But to no avail - a patch never came. Then, out of nowhere, it was announced that it would come to this-gen consoles. I was shocked ... it was too good to be true - especially since I only play on Xbox, and Xbox always gets the shaft with these kind of games. Once I realized I would actually get to play the game, it made me so damn happy. A year ago, I even got to replay the third installment when it was also released for Xbox. I beat the game with all characters. It’s a great game but sadly the replay value is nothing to write home about. Having played both RS2 and RS3 a lot, unexpectedly I kind of prefer the second one in many aspects. The story feels more complete with more bosses and optional versions of them and the fighting system has a somewhat better balance. Anyway, I really recommend both of them. The formation system REALLY adds a lot of depth. I wish it would be implemented into other titles as well.

I can't believe I JUST discovered this channel. Subbed. Some feedback: 1. as some of the commenters below have mentioned, Romancing Saga 2 got a PC/PS4/Nintendo Switch/Steam/Mobile port in 2016, fully translated, and with updated sprite art. So I would recommend giving that a try if you're ever in the mood to revisit your older content output. It's my personal favorite game of all time and I highly recommend it. RS2 is one of those games that has a ridiculously epic scale. There are over 200 characters you can put into party. Yes, you read that right. 200. 2. RS1 has stat gain at random as does Minstrel Song, but RS2 and RS3 has done away with that. In it's place, standard stat attributes like strength, dexterity, and what not are now static for each character and can only be adjusted through equipment or spell buffs. Skills are no longer gained at random but uses actual experience tracks now, and are awarded based on the monster you fight. 3. RS2 is also the game that introduced the sparking system where characters can randomly learn new weapon skills in battle. This system was then brought over to RS3 and has been very much a staple of the series since then. 4. RS3 has 2 minigames, if memory serves, which is the army battle that you mentioned, and the business minigame where you are trying to turn a company into a corporate behemoth. All players will get a play a version of this once or twice throughout the game, but Michael gets a whole story arc where you have to play through a campaign of army battles, and Thomas has a whole story arc of playing through a campaign of business games. 5. The event progression in the game is not actually just about doing a certain number of missions and you're done. The first one actually operates on battle counts, where the more battles you fight, the more time moves forward. This is why you could conceivably just fight 2000 battles, and go straight to fighting the last boss. RS2, on the other hand, uses event points system where each event you finish adds a certain number of points. Now, RS2 operates on a generation system you play MULTIPLE generation of characters. So you can't just rack up a bunch of event points and go the last boss. You still need to fulfill a few story conditions to get to the final boss. RS3 also operates on event points as well, if memory serves. Event points, btw, is how Minstrel Song also operates, but you can impact event points through battles too in that game. 6. RS3 greed system is not actually universally implemented. It's pretty specific to Harid for the most part.

As a SNES enthusiast this channel is one of my favorite on RU-vid. Thank you so much for existing

started playing 7th Saga because of your review, have not regretted it, even though it frustrates me from time to time. Wanted to get into romancing Saga and your showing of 3 definitely convinced me. Good, informative video !

The way I see how Squaresoft seemed to work back then: the Final Fantasy games were the ones that brought the big money to keep the company afloat; whilst games like Romancing SaGa, Live-A-Live, even Chrono Trigger were the ones they used to explore & experiment gameplay mechanics with.....I could be wrong, but I guess the same goes for many game companies

The graphics looks amazing for saga 3. wow.

Great analysis. Now with Rs2 and Rs3 oficially released in english its a great time to talk about the series

Romancing SaGa 2 and 3 are some of my favorite games ever. Especially 2. ロマンシングサーガ！

Reminds me of Saga Frontier from the description. I was hyped for SF from an article I saw in a magazine, bought it as soon as I saw it on the shelf but I remember not being able to get into it after playing a day or so.

This is such a great channel. You deserve millions of subs, I've seen so many gaming channels and yours has interesting and competent content / reviews for games. Most game related channels don't feature many Japanese gaming content and as a half Japanese that sucks. But on your channel I can see games that I played as a kid and some I didn't so I get to discover new ones. Domo Arigato dude.

Wow nice to see the romancing sags games involved considering i've played the RS1 remake as well as the others in the series Saga Frontier 1&2 and Unlimited Sage. They are open ended games.

romancing saga 3 is a game from my childhood i played on an emulator years ago but now i am happy that i own a physical version of it on the nintendo switch

Romancing Saga 2 & 3 are available on the Switch physical in English and Saga Frontier remastered.

Thanks Drunk, now I’m itching to try 3

Just in case anyone is wondering romancing saga 2 got an official remaster and translation to English on android. Its also playable on android emulators (I used Droid4x) just fine in case you dont have an android phone. I acualy beat the game 10 minutes ago. Its a nice remaster. It uses reworked backgrounds and world tiles but the characters are still the same Snes sprites not those ugly ff remaster ones. Also many bosses are also animated slightly.

I actually have all three, but have yet to delve into them... The third one looks SO much better that the first and it is really too bad the second still doesn't have a translation, because it looks pretty awesome, as well. Great video, as always... i love when you talk about RPGs lol.

Thanks for the review. Really interesting mechanics on that 3rd game in particular. We non-Japanese really missed out on a lot of cool games!

Saga frontier 1 my favorite in series. The music. The fun. Graphics. Second favorite is saga scartlett. Cant wait for saga frontier remaster.

Just ordered a repro cart of Romancing Saga 1 to start off my journey into this series (beyond the GB Legend series). Can't wait!

Thanks. I hope you'll do a video about the star ocean's games one day

I'm currently streaming RS3, and rarely have I sworn so often and so loudly at a game. And I love it.

3:29 oh hey... it's the music that was remixed for that micheal jackson beats everything up thing from a few years ago. So this is where it comes from.

Playing the PS2 remake (and reading the guide for it to understand Event Rank) of the 1st game puts a lot of how the game works into perspective.

I remember trying the translation of Romancing SaGa 3 and having no idea what to do. I might try it again.

Love Snes Rpgs sooo much. Every of them.

Great review :D

Good video on a series I never heard of

I lol'd when I saw how many enemies roam around the areas. Holy crap. That is someone at Square begrudgingly going along with it, you just know. "You don't want random battles or grinding. huh? They're too old fashioned you say - don't wanna go along with tradition, huh? Well lets see how you like THIS, director!", lol. Oh my God, that's just sheer lunacy. Very amusing, kind of amazing. Fantastic vid, SNESDrunk!

i remembered playing this game in our local videogame shop like 20 years ago, in the original Japanese and still manage to beat it, it took like 6 months of 1-2h a day, worth every minute

Saga 2 is coming out on the switch soon and i think im getting it now.

Romancing SaGa 2 is on phones. It's a waaay better remake than the Steam FF games.

Romancing Saga 3 looks, plays and sounds great, but I did not know what to do at a certain point

Played Romancing Saga 2 and 3 as re-releases on Xbox One; and they were rough. I'm not really used to those mechanics, and I got my rear end handed to me throughout.

I don't see graphics as limiting or even bad when you compare it. That's all subjective and the real limiting factor in all this is lack of imagination of the player. Thanks for making this video though. I've been a long time fan and I think this series kicks the ass of every Final Fantasy and other standard rpgs with the exception of maybe Seiken Densetsu 3 or Chrono Trigger.

Can't wait for Romancing Saga 3 remaster.

Romancing SaGa 3 is incredible, anyone who hasn't played it yet should play it as soon as you can!

This got a remake in Nov. 2019! It's on steam.

It's funny how different the three Game Boy SaGas are from the rest of the series. They have some quirks, but compared to the Romancings, for instance, I think they're pretty normal, linear JRPGs, with very little focus on individual characters' stories (if there's any at all). I also highly recommend them, even the first FFL, although you might need a FAQ because it's a little obtuse sometimes, and the translation is often awkward. FFL2 & 3 are fantastic, of course. I agree that 2 is probably the best & most accessible. 1 and 3 are the quirkiest. I get some really strong nostalgia for the FFL games, and I have to play one at least every couple years. Great sprite art, great music, and interesting mechanics, like "mutant" party members randomly learning magic, and monster party members transforming from eating defeated enemies. I wish Square would make more games like them! I dig RPGs with super-malleable parties, and an alternative to the classic FF job system is nice once in a while. Thanks for the cool video. I have very little experience with the SaGa series outside of FFL1-3, so this was really informative!

The art really looks like the old Dragon Quest Monsters in some bits, like the desert areas and palm tree. Never played it and still feel nostalgic! Probably because the era. I miss those time, but at least I can revisit old titles.

I also love the romancing sage series due to you can really customize your team. However the thing I found most frustrating is the enemies level up with you.

Shoutout to Juanita Christblaster

Never heard of this game. Wow it looks intriguing.

Gonna need an update on Romancing Saga 2!

3 looks beautiful 😀

Romancing SaGa 3 looks like just the kind of RPG that I'd love to play! One with W-RPG structure and J-RPG presentation

I still own the Final Fantasy Legends 2 & 3 for Game Boy and they are my absolute favorites!! Romancing Saga looks fun, but I love those FF games. I don't even have a Game Boy anymore but I intend to get one lol

Would be nice if you could come back to Romancing Saga 2 now that we have it in English on Vita. I've just started to get into these games and love them. I also played those older gameboy titles back when they released from a friend and didn't know they were part of the Romancing line of games.

Dang, did this video come out right before the official English release of Romancing Saga 2? I was looking forward to hearing your thoughts about it, so that's a bummer! Maybe you could make a quick video about just Romancing Saga 2 some day?

Romancing Saga the minstrel song on the PS2 is awesome awesome awesome. And at the time I found it beautiful. Saga Frontier on the PS1 comes 2nd. Or 1st, I don't know. But that one I found ugly right from the start. I hope the Vita gets the remakes they promised.

Thankfully both 2 and 3 are avalible on current gen

Would you say that your opinion on Romancing SaGa 3 is more positive than it was in your Super Famicom RPG's series?

For those who happen to see this, the Romancing Saga series got an official English port on the switch!

Well, sometimes you have to be in the Mood for such open Games.

I came back to this video to remind myself what your thoughts were on RS2... well it is available on Xbox One as of a few months ago. Checking out that link 👍

I'm telling you octopath traveler is the next in the SaGa series

Hey SNESDrunk, just an FYI: RS2 and RS3 both have recent Remasters that were released for almost every major platform, from the vita to the switch, xbox, ps4, pc, etc. You should check them out!

probably wanna redo RS2 segment since it's really just a mention here, plus now that we have official english translation on remasters. I did finished RS3 1st back then, but when I play RS2, I was kinds mesmerize by the story, whilst kinda tragic. Overall, I kinda like RS2 better.

Still waiting for a non-portable version of the RM2 remake.

The one I spent far too much time on was probably the merchant minigame, where you negotiate to buy out businesses.

Hey I would love if in the future you do the joe and mac series, really fun games. Thanks!

Speaking as someone who loves the SaGa series to death, I've found that the biggest problem with it is that difficulty curve is too wide - very difficult to someone unfamiliar with them, yet very easy to someone who is familiar with the system. RS3 is particular (and maybe the first two, IDK) had two damning balance issues: mastered techs could be used by everybody in the group and TP/MP-restoratives were cheap and plentiful. This meant you had no reason to diversify your party - you have a much easier time with five axe users than with each character using a different weapon - and there was no reason not to just spam your most powerful attack. This is why I recommend Ministrel Song so highly, as not only does it have an excellent soundtrack (as all SaGT games do), but it very masterfully deals with those two major problems. The game can still be a bit on the easy side if you get too familiar with how the system works and there's a *lot* of useless classes amongst only a few good ones, but I would call it by far the best offering of the lot.

Snes drunk!!!! WERE NOT WORTHY!!! WERE NOT WORTHY!!! Haha thank you for your amazing content that brings back fond memories and knowing we arent alone in our love for great classic snes games. So glad you decides to keep on making videos.

From a pirate to a lobster! From a superhero to a snowman!

Have you done the Wizardry games? Heart of the Maelstrom is an SNES hidden gem!

Amazing Review! I love RS3, but the game is indeed so messy that playing it on your own will surely prove to be a challenge.

Not sure if you'll see/read this. But have you played the Romancing SaGa remake? Also, have you played the Saga Frontier games? What are your thoughts on those?

I loves Romancing Saga 3 games forever! But, can't finished because lost somewhere, lacking walkthroughs, English translation was not very good... and so on. I hope Magno from RomHacking website will working better English translation, and will released it after USA version of Romancing Saga 3 was released on PS Vita and Android version at coming soon!

Its cool that the original meaning of romance was fantasy.

RS3 is soooo good. Getting to the bottom of Leonid's castle at the beginning of the game was intense!

Juanita Christblaster! lol, that's a great name :D

I played Saga Frontier 1 & 2 and tried Unlimited Saga but couldn't do it. I gave up on that series after that. I do have the Romancing Saga game on PS2 just staring at me. I may try it.

Hm. I tried playing 3rd game some years back and got lost cuz the battle system looks so different. Didn't know it was an open world SNES game. That's interesting. I MIGHT try them one day but idk I don't want to get lost

damn weapon + stat combination system is cool... hmmm what else is there unqiue about the classes/items/skills ?

I'm noticing a lot of similarities between this and the Project Octopath Traveller game

4:00 RomaSaga 2 entirely has glitched translations

@5:00 That sounds _a lot_ like Berserk. Not sure at which point was the manga in '95 though.

i have been playing the re; universe game from google play the last 2 years and it's really good

Romancing SaGa 3 was really great but I got stuck at the rats part. Always meant to replay it.

i remember liking the gameboy games better than ff and ff2, never knew they were a part of this franchise. thanx for the video

4:42 - The Professor! That's what smart people call her.