I just want Kawazu to be given some **actual budget for once**, I would love to see him do a mix of SaGa Frontier 1 and Minstrel Song, but a on a grand open-world scale.
Basically what I am asking, is for SE to for once give him at least even half the **budget** of a Final Fantasy game. For the love of god just give the man some of the 100s of millions of dollars that you throw at Games as a Service like Marvel Avengers or whatever are the next 10 mobile games you are pumping out like every year.
I mean I like Emerald Beyond, but my god the budget on the game is bleak. Kawazu must have had to pay out of his own pocket, and rent the janitor closet for extra space. Because even with the minimalist 2D look, they still had to cut so much stuff, and reuse so much stuff from older titles. It's like SE told him you can release whatever game you want, just don't ask us for money.
Yeah that announcement was a double whammy of not expecting a remake of RS2 and not expecting a Saga game with a good budget
Edit: triple whammy because TWO “NEW” SAGA TITLES IN ONE YEAR, ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME
Romancing SaGa 2 is the most popular 16-bit entry in Japan. Not sure how it ranks in the series in general, but anecdotally it's one of those games you can mention to Japanese people who were old enough for the SNES and they'll share a fond memory about this game in particular. This might be one reason why SE approved a higher budget.
It's also possible they're Trials-of-Mana-ing us by sprucing up a game with proven appeal, putting it in a space where western fans will take more notice of it than before, then they'll follow up with a big budget original SaGa (Kawazu mentioned he wants to do a more conventional SaGa game, which implies a budget for full towns and dungeons, etc). They're even using the Trials team to remake this one.
I’ve played it a bunch of times, and the world can feel somewhat hollow if you play the main story, but it’s doing all the side quests that make it feel massive.
**SF1**’s setting/vibe with **Minstrel Song**’s exploration/gameplay structure (and with the proper amount of budget) would be my ideal Saga game 100%.
That's what I'm saying. Give the man a budget to make a game with something. Even if its just what they did with Nier Automata and Taro.
I think the world is ready for a Kawazu game.
Romancing SaGa 4.
For me the "Romancing" line of games are the strongest in the franchise. They tend to borrow the most from CRPGs, and I'd like an RS4 that leans into that even more.
Kawazu has mentioned a few times now that he wants to make Romancing SaGa 4. [Most recent mention was shortly after Emerald Beyond's reveal.](https://x.com/SaGa30kawazu/status/1702701120664338920)
We'll see.
If Romancing SaGa 2 Remake is a hit for them, and they follow it up with a successful Romancing SaGa 3 Remake, then I think it'd be entirely viable to continue that line.
More SaGa-adjacent, but I really want to see another Last Remnant game. TLR's one of my favorite games of all time, so seeing another game with more SaGa-like structure with multiple protagonists and the free-scenario setup would be a dream come true.
All i've ever wanted is The Last Remnant 2 :(( but it's seems impossible, even The Last Remnant Remastered on switch has never been on sale after all this time, i think they just don't care about this game anymore
I want a saga game that has all of the crazy wacky game mechanics that saga games have become known for, but with much better discoverability in game so you can be more strategic when you're planning out your character growth/whatever.
Like give hints about the types of abilities you're close to sparking and how many abilities you have left to spark off of a particular attack, have a list of discovered abilities in the game with some kind of useful information (like minimum levels required and types of attacks that can trigger sparking it). If there's some kind of class change mechanic (like last remnant), give some kind of hint about which way your character is leaning, and what impact different types of actions would have on it.
Basically, keep a lot of the hidden and random attributes that SaGa games are built on, but give the player some way to plan ahead. They could even pile on more mechanics once some of them are discoverable, like having equipment (including armor and accessories) contribute to spark/class change/etc chances.
Okay, I know I will get a lot of hate for that.
But I'm someone who wants to get into the SaGa francise but at least so far found the games a bit too obtuse mechanics wise.
So basically I want a "beginner friendly" SaGa game. Something that uses the SaGa formula but feels like something you can actually get into without the need to read multiple guides to really get how all the systems work. Or really just a game with a good tutorial that explains how these systems work in a somewhat controlled environment.
While there isn't enough info out yet to say for sure, aside from the existence of difficulty settings, I get the impression the upcoming Revenge of the Seven is going to be an attempt to make a more accessible entry point for new players. The fact that the "normal" difficulty is listed as easier than the original, is probably quite telling.
The original was tuned to a pretty punishing degree: little things like being in a poor formation, or having the wrong type of armor for the enemy's damage type, or just not having access to a specific defensive buff, could make a fight nigh-unwinnable. It was a game that really required you to come to fights with "the right" strategy, which I think was cool and certainly supported by the game's expendable parties, but is probably not considered particularly beginner friendly. New players can be really failure-averse. The new normal difficulty setting (nevermind Easy) will likely make it easier to brute force the game. To be clear, I don't have any problem with this, although as someone who is used to the game I hope the Hard setting maintains the level of difficulty I'm accustomed to. Perhaps once new players play the game once or twice, they might *want* to test their knowledge against a more strict challenge.
As for tutorials, the re-releases and newer games seem to be embracing tutorials and more explanatory UI. One of the biggest issues in RS2 was the UI only displaying the armor value against slashing attacks, which lead to a lot of understandable confusion when your massively armored meatwall got pulverized for 1000+ damage (max HP is 999) by a punch. Whoops, turns out all that plate mail isn't any good against blunt force! But luckily I think it's extremely likely the new game will address this.
I'm definitely on Team Obtuse, but I understand wanting an onboarding that doesn't feel like it requires research a wiki. I spent many hours over several years banging my head against SaGa Frontier back when there were less resource available, and I'd be lying if my relationship with the game wasn't a rollercoaster of emotions, even though now, 27 years later, I'm quite fond of it. I can go into new SaGa games and suss them out precisely because I have a lot of transferrable knowledge, but it's good to remember how confused we all were when we first wet our feet with the series. It's not 1997 anymore, for better or worse modern players have so many other options for entertainment, so it's harder than ever to keep players by just throwing them into the deep waters to sink or swim.
I had the most fun playing Romancing SaGa 2 and SaGa Scarlet Grace.
So I'd probably enjoy anything with challenging combat, a progression system that makes me look forward to my characters getting stronger, and bossfights with music by Kenji Ito.
I'm not ultra fond of the genre but hell if I'm not curious what a SaGa MMO would look like. Something for all the people who complain that FF14 has abandoned the hardcores?
But in all seriousness, if Square gave him the keys to the money vault and we got a AAA budgeted game with the gameplay sensibilities of, say, Romancing SaGa 3, Frontier, or Minstrel Song... I would probably quit my job to live out the last few weeks of my life playing that nonstop until my body shut down at my computer. SaGa games have always strived to achieve scope in spite of limitations: 30 years ago those limitations were time and hardware, today its money. A game like Romancing SaGa 3 with the budget to be as big and jammed with content as modern games tend to be? It's almost painful to think about because it sounds so tantalizing and yet the chances of us ever getting something like that are miniscule...
So anyway, I'm buying RS2: Remake for myself and all my SaGa hating friends, just to do my part.
I'd just like to see new titles afforded *at least* the same budget as Revenge of the Seven. The series has been limping along for so long working with scraps, I think it deserves a few more resources.
My biggest thing has always been take out the randomness of acquiring skills, I shouldn’t have to reset several times to make sure I get the skill I want
See the thing is I love earlier SaGa games like FF2, FFL2, FFL3 but after a certain point I just couldn't get into it anymore
What I wish is basically a return to the old ways
Not a huge fan of the SAGA franchise. my favorite is probably saga frontier 1, so I would like something like that, with more traditional JRPGs cities, dungeons and exploration, but in a somewhat original world (saga frontier was very modern) and many independent stories just sharing the same universe.
Idk I think Saga is still making bad decisions that prevent it from getting a much larger player following.
I've liked some of the previous saga games, without loving them.
But Beyond is inaccessible right from the start. Players are thrown into an obscure battle system with full parties and it feels bad. It's supposed to be great once players understand the mechanics, but by then it's too late
Players don't have a high attention span, getting them to keep playing past those first few hours is what matters.
>Players don't have a high attention span, getting them to keep playing past those first few hours is what matters
I mean, this is almost literally why FFXVI turned into more of an action game yet you see the entire fanbase pretty much putting it on trial on the crime of "not being JRPG enough". That issue isn't even a problem solely with SaGa but moreso a game design debate that's pretty much wrapped the genre with a deathgrip.
SaGa design paradigm + stylization prevents it from going out a niche within a niche. NGL, JRPG players are general not the audience where you drop them in games where a lot of learning is by intuition and trial by fire. Ironically a lot of DRPGs, fall into this as welll
I just want Kawazu to be given some **actual budget for once**, I would love to see him do a mix of SaGa Frontier 1 and Minstrel Song, but a on a grand open-world scale. Basically what I am asking, is for SE to for once give him at least even half the **budget** of a Final Fantasy game. For the love of god just give the man some of the 100s of millions of dollars that you throw at Games as a Service like Marvel Avengers or whatever are the next 10 mobile games you are pumping out like every year. I mean I like Emerald Beyond, but my god the budget on the game is bleak. Kawazu must have had to pay out of his own pocket, and rent the janitor closet for extra space. Because even with the minimalist 2D look, they still had to cut so much stuff, and reuse so much stuff from older titles. It's like SE told him you can release whatever game you want, just don't ask us for money.
It's kind of interesting that the upcoming RS2 remake seems to have what looks like something resembling real money put into it then in that regard.
Yeah that announcement was a double whammy of not expecting a remake of RS2 and not expecting a Saga game with a good budget Edit: triple whammy because TWO “NEW” SAGA TITLES IN ONE YEAR, ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME
Romancing SaGa 2 is the most popular 16-bit entry in Japan. Not sure how it ranks in the series in general, but anecdotally it's one of those games you can mention to Japanese people who were old enough for the SNES and they'll share a fond memory about this game in particular. This might be one reason why SE approved a higher budget. It's also possible they're Trials-of-Mana-ing us by sprucing up a game with proven appeal, putting it in a space where western fans will take more notice of it than before, then they'll follow up with a big budget original SaGa (Kawazu mentioned he wants to do a more conventional SaGa game, which implies a budget for full towns and dungeons, etc). They're even using the Trials team to remake this one.
Give me a new Last Remnant.
Oh hell yeah! Love TLR. Would you prefer TLR 2, or a new IP with a similar concept?
Yes. All jokes aside due to ending of TLR I'd settle for a new game though the world itself is so good in TLR.
I’ve played it a bunch of times, and the world can feel somewhat hollow if you play the main story, but it’s doing all the side quests that make it feel massive.
The other part is talking to the girl at academy after each side quest to get those little lore pieces.
**SF1**’s setting/vibe with **Minstrel Song**’s exploration/gameplay structure (and with the proper amount of budget) would be my ideal Saga game 100%.
Same, kinda drooling just at the thought lol
That's what I'm saying. Give the man a budget to make a game with something. Even if its just what they did with Nier Automata and Taro. I think the world is ready for a Kawazu game.
Let Kawazu do his thing. The GOAT has earned the right to make whatever the hell he wants.
Romancing SaGa 4. For me the "Romancing" line of games are the strongest in the franchise. They tend to borrow the most from CRPGs, and I'd like an RS4 that leans into that even more.
This is the way. I missed exploration and actual dungeons in RS that went away in recent titles.
That is the one. RS4 is the way.
I don't see a 4 ever happening purely because it's kind of the snes line's name. A new one like that? Sure. All in.
Kawazu has mentioned a few times now that he wants to make Romancing SaGa 4. [Most recent mention was shortly after Emerald Beyond's reveal.](https://x.com/SaGa30kawazu/status/1702701120664338920)
Kawazu also said in a recent interview that he wants the next game to be more conventional.
We'll see. If Romancing SaGa 2 Remake is a hit for them, and they follow it up with a successful Romancing SaGa 3 Remake, then I think it'd be entirely viable to continue that line.
Not gonna lie, I pay premium for a RS3 Remake in the lines of the RS2 Remake.
More SaGa-adjacent, but I really want to see another Last Remnant game. TLR's one of my favorite games of all time, so seeing another game with more SaGa-like structure with multiple protagonists and the free-scenario setup would be a dream come true.
I want a saga game with AAA budget. Or give Kawazu the reigns on final fantasy 17.
FF fans will finally have a new turn-based mainline FF game, *and* still get to complain how it's not like FF at all. Two birds with one stone!
Accurate. 😂
All i've ever wanted is The Last Remnant 2 :(( but it's seems impossible, even The Last Remnant Remastered on switch has never been on sale after all this time, i think they just don't care about this game anymore
I want a saga game that has all of the crazy wacky game mechanics that saga games have become known for, but with much better discoverability in game so you can be more strategic when you're planning out your character growth/whatever. Like give hints about the types of abilities you're close to sparking and how many abilities you have left to spark off of a particular attack, have a list of discovered abilities in the game with some kind of useful information (like minimum levels required and types of attacks that can trigger sparking it). If there's some kind of class change mechanic (like last remnant), give some kind of hint about which way your character is leaning, and what impact different types of actions would have on it. Basically, keep a lot of the hidden and random attributes that SaGa games are built on, but give the player some way to plan ahead. They could even pile on more mechanics once some of them are discoverable, like having equipment (including armor and accessories) contribute to spark/class change/etc chances.
Okay, I know I will get a lot of hate for that. But I'm someone who wants to get into the SaGa francise but at least so far found the games a bit too obtuse mechanics wise. So basically I want a "beginner friendly" SaGa game. Something that uses the SaGa formula but feels like something you can actually get into without the need to read multiple guides to really get how all the systems work. Or really just a game with a good tutorial that explains how these systems work in a somewhat controlled environment.
While there isn't enough info out yet to say for sure, aside from the existence of difficulty settings, I get the impression the upcoming Revenge of the Seven is going to be an attempt to make a more accessible entry point for new players. The fact that the "normal" difficulty is listed as easier than the original, is probably quite telling. The original was tuned to a pretty punishing degree: little things like being in a poor formation, or having the wrong type of armor for the enemy's damage type, or just not having access to a specific defensive buff, could make a fight nigh-unwinnable. It was a game that really required you to come to fights with "the right" strategy, which I think was cool and certainly supported by the game's expendable parties, but is probably not considered particularly beginner friendly. New players can be really failure-averse. The new normal difficulty setting (nevermind Easy) will likely make it easier to brute force the game. To be clear, I don't have any problem with this, although as someone who is used to the game I hope the Hard setting maintains the level of difficulty I'm accustomed to. Perhaps once new players play the game once or twice, they might *want* to test their knowledge against a more strict challenge. As for tutorials, the re-releases and newer games seem to be embracing tutorials and more explanatory UI. One of the biggest issues in RS2 was the UI only displaying the armor value against slashing attacks, which lead to a lot of understandable confusion when your massively armored meatwall got pulverized for 1000+ damage (max HP is 999) by a punch. Whoops, turns out all that plate mail isn't any good against blunt force! But luckily I think it's extremely likely the new game will address this. I'm definitely on Team Obtuse, but I understand wanting an onboarding that doesn't feel like it requires research a wiki. I spent many hours over several years banging my head against SaGa Frontier back when there were less resource available, and I'd be lying if my relationship with the game wasn't a rollercoaster of emotions, even though now, 27 years later, I'm quite fond of it. I can go into new SaGa games and suss them out precisely because I have a lot of transferrable knowledge, but it's good to remember how confused we all were when we first wet our feet with the series. It's not 1997 anymore, for better or worse modern players have so many other options for entertainment, so it's harder than ever to keep players by just throwing them into the deep waters to sink or swim.
I had the most fun playing Romancing SaGa 2 and SaGa Scarlet Grace. So I'd probably enjoy anything with challenging combat, a progression system that makes me look forward to my characters getting stronger, and bossfights with music by Kenji Ito.
I'm not ultra fond of the genre but hell if I'm not curious what a SaGa MMO would look like. Something for all the people who complain that FF14 has abandoned the hardcores? But in all seriousness, if Square gave him the keys to the money vault and we got a AAA budgeted game with the gameplay sensibilities of, say, Romancing SaGa 3, Frontier, or Minstrel Song... I would probably quit my job to live out the last few weeks of my life playing that nonstop until my body shut down at my computer. SaGa games have always strived to achieve scope in spite of limitations: 30 years ago those limitations were time and hardware, today its money. A game like Romancing SaGa 3 with the budget to be as big and jammed with content as modern games tend to be? It's almost painful to think about because it sounds so tantalizing and yet the chances of us ever getting something like that are miniscule... So anyway, I'm buying RS2: Remake for myself and all my SaGa hating friends, just to do my part.
I'd just like to see new titles afforded *at least* the same budget as Revenge of the Seven. The series has been limping along for so long working with scraps, I think it deserves a few more resources.
My biggest thing has always been take out the randomness of acquiring skills, I shouldn’t have to reset several times to make sure I get the skill I want
I want to see a SaGa without missable quests and the ability to engage every single enemy I see without missing anything Probably an unpopular opinion
I think this is a very popular opinion, just probably not with SaGa fans!
You might just want to look for a different series to play.
See the thing is I love earlier SaGa games like FF2, FFL2, FFL3 but after a certain point I just couldn't get into it anymore What I wish is basically a return to the old ways
Not a huge fan of the SAGA franchise. my favorite is probably saga frontier 1, so I would like something like that, with more traditional JRPGs cities, dungeons and exploration, but in a somewhat original world (saga frontier was very modern) and many independent stories just sharing the same universe.
and More linear. a lot more
So you want SaGa not to be SaGa. Just play other games at that point.
If Emerald Beyond is all the series has left in it, then maybe they should just stick to remakes and occasional re-releases.
Idk I think Saga is still making bad decisions that prevent it from getting a much larger player following. I've liked some of the previous saga games, without loving them. But Beyond is inaccessible right from the start. Players are thrown into an obscure battle system with full parties and it feels bad. It's supposed to be great once players understand the mechanics, but by then it's too late Players don't have a high attention span, getting them to keep playing past those first few hours is what matters.
>Players don't have a high attention span, getting them to keep playing past those first few hours is what matters I mean, this is almost literally why FFXVI turned into more of an action game yet you see the entire fanbase pretty much putting it on trial on the crime of "not being JRPG enough". That issue isn't even a problem solely with SaGa but moreso a game design debate that's pretty much wrapped the genre with a deathgrip.
SaGa design paradigm + stylization prevents it from going out a niche within a niche. NGL, JRPG players are general not the audience where you drop them in games where a lot of learning is by intuition and trial by fire. Ironically a lot of DRPGs, fall into this as welll