We’re thrilled to have gotten a chance to speak with Shinichi Tatsuke, producer of Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven the other day, to get to pick his brain on the latest SaGa game. Also, be sure to check out Frank’s glowing review of the game as well.
Do you see any series that have taken influence from Romancing SaGa which, in turn, went on to inspire you?
Shinichi Tatsuke: I’m not personally aware of any titles overtly influenced by Romancing SaGa, but if there are, that would be a huge honor. For this title, we were actually influenced by Square Enix’s very own Octopath Traveler. We looked to it for reference in transitioning the battle system from the original version (where the player selects each character’s turn action and then all five party members execute their actions at once), to the timeline system, in addition to the mechanism for going after enemy weaknesses.
What challenges do you think Romancing SaGa as a franchise faces in the modern market?
Tatsuke: We made various efforts in order to increase recognition in the West, such as localizing the game text into French, German, and Spanish, in addition to English, and including English voiceovers as well. We’ve prepared a beginner-friendly difficulty level for those who have never played a SaGa title, too. In addition, we prepared many tutorials and made the overall game rules easier to understand. As you can see, our hope is that as many players as possible will be able to enjoy the game.
Was there anything regarding the remake that you wanted to do that was too wide-scale for the project, and what was it?
Tatsuke: I think we were able to realize almost everything we set out to accomplish with this remake! I feel especially moved that we were able to include episodes about the Seven Heroes’ past which were not in the original. In the original story, it’s clear that they are enemies to be defeated, but there was little depiction of their backstory. I’m excited for players to find out why they were once referred to as heroes, and why they have returned to take revenge.
