Making Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven
It’s an RPG for the ages - but what went into its creation? We speak to Producer Shinichi Tatsuke about how they brought the classic-style RPG to life in a new way.Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is a very special game.
It’s an RPG of incredible scope, but also as warm and welcoming a game as you’re likely to find. Its generations-spanning story, deep and snappy combat, and free-form scenarios simultaneously capture everything great about classic turn-based RPGs, but also feel excitingly fresh and modern.
It is, in short, an utterly wonderful RPG, and with the game now available on Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and Steam, we were eager to talk to its creators all about it.
So we did just that. We got in touch with the game’s Producer Shinichi Tatsuke to learn about the creation of this amazing RPG. We hope you enjoy the interview!
What makes Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven unique to other RPGs?
In most RPGs, you have a single protagonist, and you play through only a small portion of their life. But Romancing SaGa 2 is different!
The player takes control of the Emperors of Varennes Empire in order to defeat their arch-nemeses, the villainous Seven Heroes, but the Seven Heroes are too powerful to be defeated in a single generation. Therefore, the Emperors must pass their abilities, knowledge and experience on to the next Emperor.
This goes on for thousands of years until the Seven Heroes are finally defeated, so it’s a fairly unique game!
The inheritance system is a big part of the game - but how does it work mechanically?
Any Emperor can pass any techniques and spells that they have learnt on to the next one - and the player gets to choose which character inherits them. Once this has happened for enough generations, the most powerful Emperor of all emerges.
But Emperors don’t just inherit their predecessor’s abilities - they also inherit their memories. That’s pretty helpful for progressing the story!
In the original version of Romancing SaGa 2 (released exclusively in Japan back in 1993) the mantle of Emperor would only be passed on if the current one died in battle, or if there was a significant leap forwards in time during the story. In Revenge of the Seven, however, you can choose for an Emperor to abdicate the throne themselves.
You can also now choose between six characters when selecting a new Emperor, making it easier to appoint a character you like as ruler!
The game has a very vibrant and eye-catching art style. How did you select it for the game?
We wanted the design to resonate with a lot of players. We took the 2D sprites of the original game and the illustrations of Tomomi Kobayashi as a starting point, and then reworked them into more contemporary designs.
Early on, we considered going with a slightly more painterly style for the illustrations, but we decided on the current style because it was closer to the feel of the original game.
What inspired the game’s combat system?
Originally, we tried having all five members of the party perform their actions at once, because that’s how it worked in the original game. But we felt that having the 3D characters wait rather than acting straight away after their action had been selected was bad for pacing.
Instead, we made it so that characters would take their moves in the order dictated by the timeline, like the systems used in FINAL FANTASY X and OCTOPATH TRAVELER.
We also wanted to find ways to vary the pacing of the combat a bit, so we came up with the system where exploiting enemy weaknesses fills up the Overdrive gauge. Then the party can pull off a United Attack!
One thing I love about the combat is how fast and snappy it feels. How did you achieve that?
We significantly shortened the cycle of selecting an action, taking that action, and then waiting for the next character to take their turn. The result of that is that the pacing of battles feels really good! The team really put a lot of effort and consideration into the pacing, so I’m very proud of how it all came together.
One thing I love about the combat is how fast and snappy it feels. How did you achieve that?
We significantly shortened the cycle of selecting an action, taking that action, and then waiting for the next character to take their turn. The result of that is that the pacing of battles feels really good! The team really put a lot of effort and consideration into the pacing, so I’m very proud of how it all came together.
There’s an enormous amount of freedom in how you set up your party, but it never feels unmanageable. How did you ensure you offered this complexity without it overwhelming for players?
It’s true that the level of freedom here is very high! Any character can use any weapon, for example.
However, each character has a predetermined set of equipment and skills that works best for them, which means it’s not difficult to get to grips with the options, even for newcomers. We’ve also staggered when new systems and mechanics are introduced to the player, so gradually, one comes to see all the depth of customization in the game.
Additionally, we paid a lot of attention to the in-game tutorials - something that the original game lacked quite a bit - so the player has much more information available to them compared to before.
One of the ways that the game feels very newcomer-friendly is how it makes traditional SaGa franchise mechanics easier to understand. For example, it’s now clearer when players will learn new techniques in battle - or ‘Glimmer’ as it’s known in-game. How did you achieve this?
From the outset of development, one of our major goals for this title was to make it more accessible for newcomers, so little things like making glimmers more understandable were a key consideration for us.
In the original game, for example, there was no way of knowing which techniques could be developed by glimmering. In this game, a lightbulb icon appears next to any techniques that can more likely trigger glimmering, so it’s much clearer for the player when they can learn something new. We’ve also included a Glimmer Chart in the game’s menu.
The game also includes multiple difficulty options. Why add these to the game?
We wanted fans of the original to be able to enjoy this game, but we also wanted it to be accessible to new players as well. But we knew that it would be difficult to appeal to both camps of players with just one level of difficulty.
As a result, we came up with the Hard (Classic) difficulty level for fans of the original game, Normal difficulty for players who are used to conventional RPGs, and Casual mode for players who just want to focus on the story.
But actually balancing the game in such a way that it would please both fans of the original and new players as well was very challenging!
The game also offers a lot of choice through the Free-form Scenario system. Please can you explain how that works in the game?
The player is free to choose the order in which they defeat the Seven Heroes, and how or where they extend the reach of their empire.
There are also some key decisions waiting to be made in certain parts of the world, and these decisions can lead to new allies joining your cause, or even bring about the downfall of other nations.
Is there new story content in this new version of the game?
We’ve made some small additions to the story, but also added some content that looks at the Seven Heroes in their heyday. It sheds some light on why they were once called heroes, and why they have returned to take revenge on humanity.
The game has so many different classes to play as. Do you have any particular favorite classes or characters?
My favorite characters are Gerard (the second Emperor in the game), and Emerald (the court mage). These were the first male and female characters we made during development respectively.
We set the benchmark with these two and applied it to all the other characters after that!
Many thanks to Producer Tatsuke for his insight.
Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is out now for Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC via Steam.
- Get Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven on Nintendo Switch
- Get Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven on PS4 | PS4
- Get Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven on Steam
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