The crazy kids at Square Enix have released a demo for their remake of the '90s RPG Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge Of The Seven , in which you take on a dynasty of customizable heroes battling vengeful ancient heroes. It's a turn-based combat game with an empire-building component, where you take on a series of emperors, passing on your skills and knowledge to your heir. In what I consider a poetic complement, you can import save data from the demo into the full game. See, that's what counts as “poetic” right before lunch on Thursday.
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The demo gives you the beginning of the story, and ends with a battle against Kzinssie, one of the aforementioned slacker heroes. New to SaGa and worried you'll need to play the first one before trying out the remake? Good luck, kid: according to producer Shinichi Tatsuke, Revenge Of The Seven “has no connection to the rest of the SaGa series in terms of worldview or storyline” and is “designed to be easy to learn even for beginners, thanks to some seemingly copious tutorials and difficulty mode options.”
We covered some of the remake's new features in our announcement post , but I can't wait for you, jaded denizen of the internet, to saunter back through the slack waves of the internet and check out something we've been releasing for a while now. three months ago. As the story of Revenge Of The Seven shows, time is forever marching on, wearing away the cartilage in our finger joints that we can use to click on links to the past. So here's Tatsuke's newly circulated transcript. I hope your knuckles are still working well enough to scroll:
There are many new features in this remake! There are new chapters from the Seven Heroes' past, the battle system has been updated with Combo Attacks and increased strategic elements through the timeline, we've added new areas for character development with abilities, plus new classes, new formations, new techniques, and new spells. The game also features upgraded facility development and equipment crafting, in addition to new mini-games such as University Exams and Mr. S Finder. I'm also happy to share that there are three difficulty modes to choose from, fully voiced event scenes with English and Japanese voiceovers, a complete remake of the music track, and the option to switch between the remastered version and the original retro music… There's quite a bit for players to explore in the full game, and there's even more to come!
Tatsuke also has some advice on combat – basically, attack enemy weaknesses to fill your Overdrive gauge and perform a big Combo Attack – and some comments on the aspect of Revenge of the Seven that I found most intriguing, the Crusader Kings-esque Lineage system.
“There is a limit to the techniques, spells, and such powers that a single emperor can learn,” he points out. “However, these powers can be passed down to emperors of various classes over generations, eventually helping to create emperors with overwhelming power. You will need to accumulate several generations' worth of power and experience to defeat all Seven Heroes.”
OK, it doesn't look like there's any raw materials for another Gigaknight Excelsior here, but I'm living in hopes of some sort of surprise in-breeding mechanic and some filial backstabbing. Otherwise, the combat system seems pretty cheerful and there's a good range of classes and abilities to choose from.
The Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge Of The Seven remake is set to release on October 24, 2024. The team behind it also worked on the Trials Of Mana remake, which is popularly considered a “good game.” If you have one of those “Switch” things and access to Nintendo's eShop, I hear the demo is available there too.