Romancing Saga 2 Review Upgrade Avalon As

By the end of the game, your main character will likely be like a tiny god.

Chrono Trigger (9.99) and Secret Of Mana (7.99) are both quite well-known worldwide, as well.

Its not surprising, then, that Square Enix has diligently ported almost every one of those games to mobile over the last several years.

With only a few holes remaining among their world-famous titles, however, Square Enix is probably going to have to dig a little deeper in their back catalogue if they want to find new candidates to port.

This year weve already seen a lovely remake of Final Fantasy Adventure in the form of Adventures Of Mana (13.99).

Square began localizing the series again with its first PlayStation installment, SaGa Frontier, and from then on, nearly every SaGa game got an English release until the disastrous PlayStation 2 duo of Unlimited SaGa and the remake of the original Romancing SaGa caused Square Enix to rethink its future.

Unfortunately, that means English gamers missed out on the DS remakes of Final Fantasy Legend 2 and Final Fantasy Legend 3.

SaGa s been locked in Japan for more than 10 years now, but its finally getting another shot in the West with this excellent remake of Romancing SaGa 2, the second in the trio of Super NES games.

Opinions on the SaGa series vary wildly, but Romancing SaGa 2 has always been one of the better-regarded installments, so seeing it release outside of Japan on mobile platforms before anywhere else speaks to Square Enixs confidence in the platform, as well as their faith in relatively expensive, IAP-free, paid games.

Theres no question that, like other games in the series, Romancing SaGa 2 has some eccentricities to it, and thats even setting aside the fact that its a 23 year-old game to start with.

At the same time, its such a quirky game that I doubt even many veteran JRPG fans have played anything quite like it, which helps it feel fresh in the here and now.

If youll pardon the use of a tired cliche, its not for everyone, and even those who like it are probably going to hate it at times, but overall, its an excellent game that feels almost completely different from anything else Square Enix has released on the App Store.

Every player starts off by following the brief story of Leon and his sons, Victor and Gerard.

Although Victor is first in line to follow his father, Leon wishes to train Gerard in the ways of combat.

While theyre out taking care of some trouble one day, Avalon, the seat of the empire, is attacked by one of the Seven Heroes, sending Leon on a quest for revenge.

In spite of the name, the Seven Heroes are your main antagonists in this game.

They were once great heroes who saved the world and disappeared, but theyve returned as powerful monsters.

Youll have to battle them all over the course of the game, but you wont be doing in a short amount of time.

You can use your funds to start public works projects, invest in research for new weapons and armor, and increase the size of your empire by battling through set scenarios.

As you complete scenarios, you will occasionally move ahead a generation and have to select a successor.

This eventually culminates in an epic final battle between your ultimate emperor or empress and the Seven Heroes, but until that point, things proceed in a relatively non-linear fashion.

Romancing Saga 2 Review Upgrade Avalon As

You can tackle scenarios more or less in whatever order you like, upgrade Avalon as you see fit, and so on.

Through the use of a special magic spell, each generation passes their accumulated abilities down the next.