Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered

the granular systems of this game can be intimidating, but the intention behind their design was not for you to have all of gameFAQs at your fingertips and trigger your micromanaging fomo. it was originally an SNES game that was trying to give you a fresh experience every time. if you've never played a saga game before, this is a great place to start, and i implore you to play it without looking at a guide first. here are some spoiler-free tips to help you manage the difficulty: 1. set progression to slow and focus on discovering and completing quests instead of fighting random battles 2. recruit a bunch of characters and try them out, but don't invest money or jewels into them until you are sure you want to keep them 3. spend your money on strong armor and healing spells before cool weapons. also, have everyone learn a healing spell! it's way cheaper than potions that's all you need to know to enjoy your first playthrough. it goes as deep as you want, but there's no obligation to get into that right away (and no point if you don't enjoy the surface). gl hf!

Definitely recommended for the gameplay and party-building, but I also recommend using guides to see which quests are available and where to upgrade your classes and avoiding encounters with only 1-2 enemies unless they look strong (you can either use smoke bombs which can be refreshed at big town inns, or simply retreat), the way this game works is that you obtain skills from attacking strong enough enemies and it has a time system which progresses as you do battles, meaning you want to do as few "useless" battles as possible.

The definitive way to enjoy Romancing SaGa 1, by far.

I found this game frustrating. Not due to difficulty itself. But do to a horrid punishing system where you are actively punished for killing monsters and fighting by a hidden battle point system. Fight to much and your points go up and you lose quests, gear, and progression items. Then it limits how much you can run from a fight without a high cost. Then if you try to avoid fights that is limited also (sneak skills). THEN if you do get seen by monsters half of them run so fast you can not avoid them. So what this creates is a frustrating experience where instead of feeling good fighting you get frustrated. And that sucks because I love the glimmer skill unlock system. This game is a huge NO for me.

A worthy remaster! If you were a fan of the original, you will appreciate the quality-of-life improvements and content additions, along with the updated graphics. Playing through the game once again scratched that nostalgic itch for me.

Played this on the PS2, again during COVID, and am now playing on Steam here with the QoL improvements, and I appreciate this game more each time. Ever since I played SaGa Frontier on the PS1, I always hoped that other titles in the series would be similar, and I would say that RS: Minstrel's Song is probably the closest (the biggest difference being the shift from sci-fi to more traditional fantasy) The story is simple, no long-winded back stories or friendship monologues, the towns and dungeons are just the right size and variety- large enough to give you a sense of scale, but your destination is still within a minute's stroll. The enemy encounter dodging/chaining system is intuitive and engaging, easy to master without getting dull. You can equip and use proficiencies like Climb, Pick Locks, etc which make each dungeon more distinct and interactive The game operates on a hidden "Event Rank" system - fighting battles causes time to pass, and, likewise, enemy difficulty scales with ER. These elements stress people out, but it's all in their heads. You can complete the game through grinding and persistence without mastering or monitoring all of the game's systems. For example…