Romancing SaGa 2

In Romancing SaGa 2, the player plays as the Emperor or Empress of Avalon, a castle located in the northwest corner of the game's world map. The Treasurer, in the throne room, tells the player the fund reserve in their castle treasury. Development of new equipment and spells, and establishment of services in Avalon will consume funds. The Treasurer also fills the Emperor with walking about funds if the player needs it. Also in the throne room is the Accountant. He tells the player how much money they collect per battle. When the player controls more land on the map, the amount increases. In the southeast corner of the throne room is the Chancellor. He tells the player what problems need to be solved in the world and where to solve them. Solving the problems he points out aids the player to advance to the next generation. The Fighters are the default characters that join the player early in the game. The Formation Soldiers demonstrate any battle formations the player happens to know and will collaborate with the player to make new formations. If the heir the player chooses knows a formation, it is recommended that the player consult the Formation Soldiers. Throughout the game, the player will be able to expand the capital. They will not appear until the player cleared a generation though after accepting the offers to start the public works. ==Synopsis==

In the backstory of Romancing SaGa 2 there was a group of seven warriors, dubbed the Seven Heroes, who saved the world from monster invasions but vanished immediately afterwards. After a millennium, the Seven Heroes have returned, but are now corrupted by dark powers and begin attacking the continent. Leon, ruler of Avalon, begins a campaign against the Seven Heroes which is passed down to his younger son Gerard after he dies, then on to subsequent heirs named by each ruler and inheriting their abilities through a special spell. Over time, Avalon expands into an empire, with its ruler and a chosen group of warriors killing each of the Seven Heroes. When six of the seven are defeated and the final Emperor or Empress takes power, it is revealed that the Seven Heroes faced up to this point were copies, and the seventh copy has gone to protect the Heroes' original bodies. The final Emperor or Empress, whose inheritance magic has worn off, defeats first the final copy, then the true Seven Heroes. The story is bookended by a minstrel retelling the game's events and concluding that the Empire of Avalon was turned into a commonwealth after the Seven Heroes' defeat; the still-living Emperor or Empress listens to the minstrel. Later versions of Romancing SaGa 2 include an optional dungeon revealing that the Seven Heroes were betrayed by their people, the Ancients, due to fear of the power they gained by absorbing monsters with an earlier version of the inheritance spell, returning from the realm of monsters to exact revenge on the Ancients. ==Development==

Following the completion and release of Romancing SaGa in early 1992, almost all staff from the title were recruited to work on the latest Final Fantasy title, meaning production on any SaGa sequels were halted. Ultimately series creator Akitoshi Kawazu was pleased, as he would otherwise have had no time to innovate on the Romancing SaGa design and might well have left Romancing SaGa 2 mechanically similar to its predecessor. Production began in April when new employees had joined the company and Kawazu could create a production team. Kawazu acted as director, lead designer, and scenario writer. The only returning staff besides Kawazu were programmers Yuki Anasawa and Hiroshi Takai, illustrator Tomomi Kobayashi, and the sound team of composer Kenji Ito and sound designer Minoru Akao. The mostly-new staff meant that Kawazu's sometimes-drastic changes to the game mechanics were easily accepted. Production lasted one year, and had a staff of around twenty people. The staff included planner Akihiko Matsui, who joined the project following work on Final Fantasy V and would go on to co-direct Chrono Trigger; and future composer Yasunori Mitsuda as a sound designer. Another new team member was Kyoji Koizumi, who helped design the battle system. Kazuyuki Ikumori acted as graphic designer, with his work focusing on background environments, and the opening and ending sequences. This was his only work on SaGa as he was transferred into the Final Fantasy series later on. It was produced by Tetsuo Mizuno, then-president of Square who would go on to found AlphaDream. Kawazu wrote the scenario in parallel to the gameplay system development, with some planned story elements needing to be dropped due to cartridge limitations. Changing from the multiple disparate protagonists of Romancing SaGa, the narrative and gameplay instead focused on a ruling dynasty over several generations. Written as a traditional fantasy, the narrative was designed to advance based on the number and order of bosses defeated, with almost all other elements being a wide selection that player could choose from freely. The Seven Heroes were portrayed in-game as former allies who had drifted apart to pursue their own goals in subsequent years. Subier was the first of the Seven Heroes to be created, with his name being a double meaning pun on the Japanese god Ebisu and the Ebisu neighbourhood where Square was based. The names of male members in the Japanese versions were anagrams of station names along the Yamanote Line. The one female member Rocbouquet was a challenge, with Kawazu eventually making her name an anagram of Ikebukuro, a commercial center in Tokyo. Their concept and number drew inspiration from the Seven Lucky Gods. As with other SaGa titles, the gameplay mechanics were laid out first before the storyline and worldview, with the leading mechanic this time being the inheritance of skills through a lineage. The inheritance mechanic was part of a scrapped concept for the original SaGa. The central concept was that while the game's ending was set, what happened during the intervening millennium of history was up to the player. As with other entries, the gameplay was designed to be open-ended and influenced a great deal by player choices. Kobayashi was surprised at hearing of a sequel to Romancing SaGa, and being asked back to design the cast. Compared to her book illustrations with at most six characters, Romancing SaGa 2 had dozens of characters to design. She began with characters from the Avalon Empire, particularly the first two rulers Leon and Gerard. Leon was originally designed with dark skin and a dour look, but this was scrapped, with the current version being designed around a long-haired flamboyant type. Gerard's role and personality resulted in a more youthful and "boyish" design, though she had hoped to design a more unconventional protagonist after her work on Romancing SaGa. Her favorite character designs were the more challenging ones, such as the android character Coppelia. Music Following his work on Romancing SaGa, Ito was left feeling completely burned out. Recalling his work on the game, Ito said he had worked through feelings of suffering from that creative exhaustion. He worked as both composer and arranger on the title. As with Romancing SaGa, Ito differentiated the soundtrack from the music of Final Fantasy by adding more percussion instruments. The soundtrack includes arrangements of tracks by Nobuo Uematsu; "Heartful Tears" from The Final Fantasy Legend, and "The Legend Begins" from its sequel. Two music albums were published by NTT Publishing in 1995, the official soundtrack and an arrange album. A remastered album was released in 2014 by Square Enix, which included the original main battle theme which had been left out of the original album release. The remaster was supervised by Ito. A reissue, which included an interview with Kawazu and Ito, was released in 2020. ==Release==

Romancing SaGa 2 was released on December 10, 1993. The remake was the best-selling retail game in Japan during its week of release, with 114,891 physical units being sold. A Nintendo Switch 2 version of the remake was announced and released on July 31, 2025, with a paid upgrade available for owners of the Nintendo Switch version. An Xbox Series X/S version of the remake was announced and released on September 25, 2025, also with Xbox Play Anywhere support. ==Reception==

In Japan, the game topped the Famitsu sales chart in December 1993. Romancing SaGa 2 went on to sell nearly 1.5 million copies worldwide, as of March 2003. It is the best-selling entry in the original Romancing SaGa trilogy, followed by the original game and Romancing SaGa 3. Nintendo World Report said the game lacked interesting stories or characters, but called the gameplay system rewarding with many weapons to choose from and skill points to use. Reviewing the PlayStation 4 version, Push Square disdained the menu system taken from the previous mobile remake, and noted balance issues that made the traditional process of leveling up characters potentially hurt the player as the bosses grow stronger as you do. Reviewing the iOS version of the game, TouchArcade loved how radically different it was from what kinds of games Square Enix had released in the Apple App Store until then. Despite enjoying the game, they noted the game's unexplained play systems and called its balance system "atrocious". They also mentioned the poor translation into English and the lack of Mifi game controller support. ==Legacy==

Romancing Saga 2 expanded the non-linear gameplay of its predecessor. While in the original Romancing Saga, scenarios were changed according to dialogue choices during conversations, Romancing Saga 2 further expanded on this by having unique storylines for each character that can change depending on the player's actions, including who is chosen, what is said in conversation, what events have occurred, and who is present in the party. Several of the game music tracks were featured in Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call as downloadable content. PCGamesN credits Romancing SaGa 2 for having laid the foundations for modern Japanese role-playing video games. The game's progressive, non-linear, open world design and subversive themes influenced modern Japanese role-playing video games such as Final Fantasy XII (which Akitoshi Kawazu worked on), Final Fantasy XV, Nier: Automata and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. ==Notes==