Romancing SaGa Minstrel’s Song Remastered International PS5 Review
Summary: Romancing SaGa Minstrel’s Song Remastered International, is a long title for a game that felt incredibly long to review. Whilst it wasn't for me, I suspect fans of previous SaGa releases will appreciate the PS5 Remaster.
3
a SaGa to review
I was so excited to try Romancing SaGa Minstrel’s Song Remastered International, which I’m just going to refer to as SaGa Minstrel’s Song from now on. I have so much nostalgia for Japanese RPGs that harken back to all my early teenage years, with hours moulded into a bean bag in front of our family TV until my own spine reflected the bean bags curve. But I struggled with my review for SaGa Minstrel’s Song. I’m going to try my best to not hate on this game, especially since I can appreciate some still novel gameplay mechanics… but I think I only enjoyed the cut scenes.
I am only passingly familiar with previous SaGa releases (I was always more of a Final Fantasy nerd), but I have always devoured RPGs broadly. I love the process of coming to understand the systems that govern the world, succeeding by harnessing failure and the feedback it provides, and gratuitously devouring the lore and the narratives of the characters, protagonists or not. As I reflect on this, I am left with more questions about my experience with this game. Maybe I have changed more than I realised as I’ve grown older, had kids, etc. Maybe my expectations are higher, or too high? Maybe I simply don’t have the time and capacity to give a game like SaGa Minstrel’s Song a proper chance, and therefore this game is not for me.
I’m going to start with the things I actually did like about this game. The characters and their sprites are absolutely bonkers, and I love it. I spent a good amount of time going through the concept art before I even started the game just to enjoy the energy and spirit captured by the illustrations. The remastering seems proficient with regards to the environment and the sprites – worth noting it is obviously a remastering rather than a remake with all the pros and cons that usually entails, like purity of the legacy coupled with simplicity of environments and minimal details.
I really relished the breadth and depth of choice SaGa Minstrel’s Song promised. I have always been a grinder when it comes to RPGs – I usually do my best to exploit the systems available until I truly reach ‘main character’ status, whether a game’s story wants me to feel powerful or not; and when I can’t, I leverage time and the grind. But I have always been a completionist too, trying my best to complete each side quest and pursue each faction quest line before completing a game (or doing as many playthroughs as I need until I’ve seen all the endings and narrative beats I can).
So on the face of it, I should love SaGa Minstrel’s Song… I mean, there are 8 protagonists, each with interesting backgrounds and very different introduction acts. My experience of the story so far is that the narrative is driven more by the quests you complete and who you speak to rather than being compelled or propelled by a linear narrative. My experience is that the party I gathered was entirely based on who I met and spoke to, the timing that I visited different areas (sometimes the characters I expected weren’t even available when I tried a different path; sometimes I couldn’t even find a path to find them). And that seems to be the one of the fundamental novelties of the game – the way it leans into letting the player discover and set the story and pace.
Unfortunately this is where my experience of SaGa Minstel’s Song diverted from what I had hoped. I really struggled with the literal gameplay of Minstrel’s Song. After 8 hours of making almost no consistent progress without save scumming, I leaned on a walkthrough for the previous Remaster. That got me only so far, and I’m grateful that it allowed me to experience some of the more straightforward story lines, like Albert. But I ran into hard trouble with the proficiency system. It is such a lovely idea, but I could not consistently activate even simple proficiencies like Lurk or Move Silently, let alone trying to predict when I would be able to activate them with a classic fixed camera that worked really well at hiding monsters’ approaches. And since I couldn’t consistently avoid battle, I was always struggling to keep the Event Rank low – for those of you unfamiliar, the ‘Event Rank’ is a mechanism for ensuring players proceed with quest and exploration rather than grinding, ensuring monsters become significantly more powerful if you choose to consistently engage in battle. I’m genuinely unsure if I’m missing something despite perusing all the in-game tutorial content and walkthrough details; if this was a bug; or if I’m simply experiencing friction from a game system.
Final Thoughts?
And so unfortunately the majority of my experience with Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered International was struggling to constantly avoid battles, constant save scumming just to make it through story beats, hoping that the more time I spent playing the more I would learn, assuming that it was simply my unfamiliarity that was leading to the friction. I imagine most of the fan base would suggest that I simply don’t understand the game. Whilst I can appreciate that my lifestyle doesn’t necessarily allow me the indulgence Minstrel’s Song might demand, I think this is a good example of a game that would have benefited more from a Remake than a Remaster – and the opportunity to include some quality of life options that have become the norm since the games initial release, let alone accessibility options. Considering how much I struggled during my review, at this point I would only recommend the game to people who already know the SaGa series and it all it entails, and even more specifically a fans of Minstrel Songs previous release.
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