SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered review: As the world turns

It’s a great time to be into SaGa. Kawazu’s team has been able to build on the success of some risky remasters, all the way to making a brand-new game and a full remake that has helped solidify SaGa as one of Square Enix’s secret weapons. As such, SaGa Frontier 2: Remastered was seen as the perfect time to try a “shadow drop,” and see how the RPG community reacts. I hope it does well, because not only is a new SaGa always a good time, but this remaster is a beautiful example of how an older game can be preserved and refined at the same time.

Originally released for the PlayStation in 1999, SaGa Frontier 2 is a big change from the first SaGa Frontier, which was more traditional, well, for a SaGa game. Typically, SaGa plays with multiple lead characters, non-linear storytelling, and deep character-building systems that reward risk and exploration. Frontier 2 is more like opening a history book, with the chapters laid out in front of you, that tells a specific story in chronological order. But you could, if you want, skip ahead or read chapters out of order. Each chapter is listed in a menu, with titles and dates you can compare to a larger historical record. While you can miss some things, the story isn’t changing based on your discoveries or seemingly random elements impacted by your choices.

Dungeons and Drag… ging a giant sword to disrupt order and right generational wrongs?

At a high level, Frontier 2 tells two stories that take place over several decades and eventually intersect as the world changes and things brewing in the background boil over. There’s Gustave, once heir to a throne but exiled when it’s discovered he can’t use magic. Then there’s Wil, a “Digger” who travels the world and explores caves in search of “Quells,” who discovers a mysterious object that seems to be the centerpiece of tragedy wherever it ends up. As Gustave’s rise to power shows us how fleeting and fragile human power structures can be, Wil’s side is a more fantastical adventure that explores a conflict between family and responsibility.

You can also look at these parallel stories as two sides of an RPG coin. Gustave’s stuff is more story-driven and uses combat sparingly, while Wil’s is a more familiar journey that assures us SaGa hasn’t left behind the joys of fighting skeletons underground and watching numbers go up. Gustave’s arc uses SaGa’s systems as a means to an end, restricting equipment, yanking characters in and out of your control, and doing interesting things like using weapon durability as a narrative device. Wil’s story has characters that come and go over time, but you’re also able to explore dungeons and work on things that have a cumulative impact on your progress. It’s a strange approach, but one that feels in conversation with SaGa’s interest in video game story structure.

I wasn’t sure what to think at first, this being my first experience with Frontier 2. But Gustave’s story, its twists and turns, and bittersweet payoffs ended up being so compelling I forgot about whatever rubbed me the wrong way at the outset. Wil’s parts were a struggle at first as well, but thanks to a clever pair of features for the remaster and the power of grinding in SaGa being fun for me, the experience evened out for the most part. Gorgeous visuals helped, with stylish and detailed character sprites paired with hand-painted, watercolor backgrounds that are scaled up with minimal smudging (turn the filter off too, good lord). I was just about ready to give this one a high spot on my personal rankings, but a couple features or gimmicks from the original game were annoying at best and frustrating obstructions at worst.

Polishing a gem

Let’s start with the good stuff. First, one problem with the original game is how when you’re introduced to new characters, not only are their stats not scaled up, but if a character you’ve invested in is suddenly benched, their equipment goes with them. Many scenarios will rug pull you like this, and then drop you in a dungeon you can’t leave to heal up. So you’d end up in some wacky situations in which you’re mostly running from enemies for dear life. The remaster introduces Parameter Inheritance, which lets you link two characters together so they share stat gains.

You also get multiple instances of a Japan-only PocketStation minigame, which you can run in the background to produce equipment for you. This stuff really helps correct for what feels more like an unintended side effect than the usual SaGa difficulty shenanigans. Plus, Square Enix bringing PocketStation games out is a brilliant use case for its remasters. That’s the kind of silly stuff that gets lost to time more easily than classic games and it’s cool to see it used and used smartly.

Smells like “we can’t release Breath of Fire 3 on the PSP” around here

Something that soured my experience every time I was forced to engage with it is the Duel system, an attempt to shake up the usual turn-based, 2D RPG combat that executives keep convincing themselves is the reason Madden and [Popular Shooter of the Moment] people don’t show up. Not to suggest that’s what happened here, but it smells a bit like meddling. This system lets you (or forces you) to have a one on one fight, in which you pick verbs based on your equipment and abilities, which translate to the… abilities you already have and earned the normal way.

Or it’s a chance to experiment and create new moves, kind of giving you some extra control over SaGa’s Glimmer system. In practice, it feels like “Sparks” in normal combat have a reduced rate, to encourage messing around with Duels. Also, the character you choose transforms from a lovely, artful sprite into a hideous, blurry 3D model that may as well have “Corporate Mandate” stamped across it. Duels are ugly, awkward, and get in the way of good stuff, so I do not like them. I do not like them here nor there, I do not like them anywhere.

A few parts of the story introduce a gimmick that has you play a rudimentary tile strategy game to portray an epic battle. These aren’t nearly as offensive as the Duels, and come off like cute, little distractions. Until the fangs come out, at which point a final battle of the bunch decides it wants to cosplay Fire Emblem all of a sudden. You’re given an unwinnable (on paper) scenario, which asks you to hold on against the odds to buy time for reinforcements.

The map is set up in such a way that there’s really only one reasonable solution, and even with that there are parts you have to stroll right up to RNG and punch it in the face, then pray it doesn’t swing back. In a SaGa game. The pace is slow, and having to repeat the battle (especially once you figure out the solution) is maddening. This is more of a one-off moment than a persistent issue, but it really soured a climactic moment of the story. The other times you engage in battle like this are not challenging at all, and fail to prepare you for the kind of thinking that later scenario wants.

When everything came together and the journey(s) ended, I knew I’d remember SaGa Frontier 2: Remastered for its compelling and distinct storytelling. That’s on top of the usual dopamine-spewing systems and aggressive contempt for convention I expect and enjoy from SaGa. But the annoying gimmicks, especially the Duel system, had me immediately second-guessing the prospect of hitting that New Game+ button. The remaster does a wonderful job making changes to the original without breaking anything, and even makes a big problem easier to deal with without paving it over to make it unobservable. This might not crack the top of my SaGa list, but it’s still a worthy entry in my favorite cult RPG series. Frankly though, I’m glad I waited for the remaster to try it.

Saga Frontier 2 is available now on the PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, and mobile. A Nintendo Switch code was provided by the publisher for this review.

Lucas White

Contributing Editor

Lucas plays a lot of videogames. Sometimes he enjoys one. His favorites include Dragon Quest, SaGa, and Mystery Dungeon. He's far too rattled with ADHD to care about world-building lore but will get lost for days in essays about themes and characters. Holds a journalism degree, which makes conversations about Oxford Commas awkward to say the least. Not a trophy hunter but platinumed Sifu out of sheer spite and got 100 percent in Rondo of Blood because it rules. You can find him on Twitter @HokutoNoLucas being curmudgeonly about Square Enix discourse and occasionally saying positive things about Konami.