Romancing SaGa 3 Review – Con-fun-sing Classic

Romancing SaGa 3 is best described as a great “sink or swim” JRPG experience. The amount of freedom that comes from its non-linear format is incredible, even in 2019, and its characters and sprite work are excellent. Though the non-linearity can also provide its fair share of problems, those who are willing to put some time into Romancing SaGa 3 will find it to be a rewarding, intricate, and occasionally frustrating JRPG.

Romancing SaGa 3
Developer: Square Enix
Price: $30
Platform: PS4 (reviewed), Playstation Vita, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC
MonsterVine was supplied with a PS4 code for review.

It’s incredible to think that the SaGa franchise has been going since 1989. While the series doesn’t have an enormous following in the West, Japan’s love for it has led to remakes, mobile games, and even a stage-play. After playing Romancing SaGa 3, I can understand the enthusiasm, as there’s really nothing quite like it. Be warned though, this is one JRPG that doesn’t hold your hand.

You start Romancing SaGa 3 by choosing one of eight characters. Each one has their own backstory and role to play, as well as their own playstyles and interactions with the main story. Though each character has differences in their narratives, they follow the same basic story. Every 300 years, an eclipse called “The Rise of Morastrum” endangers the world. All children born in that year die by the year’s end, with the exception of a sole destined child. The first child became the evil Archfiend that conquered the world, while the second child became the holy Matriarch that gave the world hope. Now, after the third eclipse has occurred, the world fears the unknown third chosen child, as they could decide whether good or evil triumphs again.

As your chosen character, you aim to close the Archfiend’s deadly Abyss Gates that have re-opened as a result of the eclipse. Along the way, you find the chosen child and (without getting too into spoilers) save the world from the expanding darkness of the Abyss. It’s an intriguing story that holds up surprisingly well, especially when you can choose to skip large portions of the story at any time. You can fight the final boss without defeating the Abyss Lords, and partake in the events of the story in almost any order you choose. With all this flexibility built into the game, it’s impressive that Romancing SaGa 3’s story is able to stay interesting, no matter how you choose to experience it.

“Their stories can be riveting, heart-breaking, or goofy, and I was never bored with any of them.“

The characters are the best part of Romancing SaGa 3’s story, as they’re possibly the most eccentric cast in any JRPG. You can recruit a Lobster martial-artist, a living Snowman, a fairy, a superhero and his overweight body-double, and many, many more strange and charming individuals. Somehow, these diverse characters all feel at home in the world of Romancing SaGa 3, and none of them feel distracting or out of place. Their stories can be riveting, heart-breaking, or goofy, and I was never bored with any of them.

While being able to experience the story in such a non-linear way is a great feature, this freedom is also the biggest problem in Romancing SaGa 3. Since there’s very little guidance of any sort, you can miss story events, do tasks slightly wrong, or completely miss out on characters and side-stories by no fault of your own. For example, the only way to recruit Flurry the snowman is to ask a specific NPC about something called “The Aurora”. If she says it will be out tonight, you have to look at the world map, expand it to full-view mode, and wait as the background slowly changes color. Eventually, it will turn into a starry sky with the Northern Lights illuminating it. Then you have to look at a specific section of your map, where you can go to the snowman village that has appeared on your map. This is so obscure and complicated that it’s almost impossible for a first-time player to figure this out without sheer luck, and there are quite a few situations like this in Romancing SaGa 3. 

“It’s a strange and sometimes wonky mechanic that can catch you off-guard if you go into the game expecting the usual JRPG grind, but once you get the hang of it, it’s quite fun to mess around with the system.“

The gameplay of Romancing SaGa 3 is quite unique, as it seems to take inspiration from the original Final Fantasy II. Rather than traditional level-ups, your characters receive stat boosts based on what they do in battle. HP and/or SP could be increased at the end of any battle, making every battle matter in a way that few other RPGs do. At the same time, the game’s difficulty increases depending on your own strength, which encourages you to focus on getting better equipment, and taking part in difficult fights and boss battles while fleeing weaker ones. It’s a strange and sometimes wonky mechanic that can catch you off-guard if you go into the game expecting the usual JRPG grind, but once you get the hang of it, it’s quite fun to mess around with the system.

Another unique feature is the tech “spark” mechanic. While using attacks with different weapons, your characters can suddenly “spark” a new technique or evasion method. This means that they learn these new abilities for future battles, and if you use them a lot, these new techniques can be taught to any other characters that use the weapon the technique corresponds to. It’s always exciting to spark a new technique, and it can really save you when a party member sparks a ridiculously powerful technique when a boss battle is going downhill. It does take time and a bit of patience to get used to all these complicated systems, but once you have the hang of it, Romancing SaGa 3 becomes a rather fun and rewarding game.

The visuals of Romancing SaGa 3 are excellent, as it features some exceptionally detailed sprite work. Characters and enemies are all distinct and well-designed,  Bosses are slightly animated through tweening, which makes them feel more special and imposing. The music is top-notch as well, as could be expected from a Squaresoft SNES-era JRPG. Quite a few of the tracks are still stuck in my head as I write this, and I hope the soundtrack is added to Spotify sometime soon.

The Final Word
Romancing SaGa 3 isn’t for newcomers to the RPG genre, but it’s an excellent and complex game that JRPG fanatics will certainly appreciate. It can be ridiculously vague at times, but the game’s non-linear structure and plethora of well-developed mechanics make it a truly unique and enjoyable game.