Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven Review

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is a turn-based RPG developed by ArtePiazza and Square Enix. It is a blast from the past from its original Debut in the early 90s when the JRPG genre would slowly become more and more prevalent in console home entertainment. Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Ultima would be some of its elder brethren, aiming to achieve their fanbase, story, and popularity.

One thing about the Romancing SaGa series that would either assuage or refrain gamers would be its unique take on the genre’s gameplay structure. Starting right at the beginning of most Romancing SaGa entries, the player can select between many different characters to begin their Journey. What can players expect from this remake of a 16-bit Japan exclusive? Find out in our Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven review!

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven
Developer: ArtePiazza, xeen inc.
Publisher:  Square Enix
Platforms: Windows PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 Nintendo Switch (reviewed)
Release Date: October 24, 2024
Price: $49.99

Those who are familiar with the more recent Octopath Traveler series will be familiar with this approach because it gives a lot of freedom to choose.

In the case of Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, the game takes a slightly different direction where the player must temporarily take the role of Avalon’s current king, Leon, and his youngest son Gerard.

Hoping to educate Gerard to be a worthy magistrate of the royal family, he takes him along for a small excursion to a sealed cave where the player begins their adventure. Not more than a couple hours into this prologue, disaster strikes the two protagonists and a new heir must be chosen.

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven boasts the most engaging turn-based combat since Persona 5 and even the recent highly rated Metaphor: Refantazio.

Much similar to Octopath Traveler, Weaknesses must be exposed to gain an edge over the monsters you will face, creating a scenario of having to go based on the monster’s appearance or by randomly fishing between weapons and spell elements.

Though always going for an enemy’s weakness is wise, it isn’t crucial in the lesser difficulties as monsters have much lower health pools. If you so choose to go with the “classic” difficulty, perhaps not.

As battles continue, you will learn of your new dopamine injection known as “Glimmers” which will randomly occur when you fight. These new attack and magic commands will take your encounters further with new options.

Each glimmer skill usually branches out into learning more, such as Double Cut eventually teaching you Cross Cut, an effective sword technique against undead.

Lastly, constantly hitting an enemy’s weakness will fill a gauge that will allow your party to perform devastating combo attacks. It is a must for dispatching bosses or even groups as fast as possible.

Customizing your retinue of heroes is an ever-growing pursuit of many different options. As in most RPGs, it’s wise to grab a beefy tank, which is available right at the start with the character Bear, a heavy infantry who will serve you well as your wall of defense.

Need some heavy-damage pumpers? Look no further than the Light infantry heroes such as James and John or their female counterparts Jessica and Audrey who, based on gender will have many different stats and weapon specialties.

Sex matters and there are only two to choose from, no more, no less than two, So choose wisely! Apart from those two entry-level jobs are available from the start, expect to discover many more as you explore the game’s many missions and side stories.

My personal favorite, the Female Vagabond excels in both bow and martial arts which has a lot of advantages in both early and late game. She’s also got a lot of personality and a very cute design, possibly one of the best female designs to ever be on a screen.

Though Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is a remake, it does have some new features apart from its original counterpart. One particular feature that caught me completely by surprise was the ability system. Each class now has a unique “ability” that grants them a passive with an extraordinary effect.

If you unlock the Female Ranger’s ability “corruptor”, it will massively increase the chance of inflicting status ailments.

This is an absolute must if you wish to stun enemies by preventing them from acting entirely with early learned abilities like stun slash or Feint. This strategy saved me a lot of deaths playing in “classic” mode as it gave me a very strong chance each turn to prevent a boss from attacking outright.

The fun with abilities not only stops there, but once an ability is learned, it is possible to equip it to other heirs and characters, allowing for a much more vast array of tinkering and customization among your retinue. The Heir system is where Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven takes selecting your protagonist to a whole new level.

While not being able to do it right at the start during your time as Leon and Gerard’s story ends, a large time jump incurs, and you get to pick from a pool of classes who shall inherit all of the abilities from your recent retinue. Skills and magicks they have learned thus far in your playthrough are all essentially passed on to the next.

This may be somewhat perplexing to an average RPG enjoyer, but once they see that the newly selected Heirs retain all of their previous heirs’ abilities, progress is by no means lost, despite having to select a fully new roster.

In addition to building your Heirs, Avalon, your kingdom must also get stronger. Through the use of very large spending of your collected money, you can add facilities to aid your adventure against the seven heroes.