SaGa Frontier 2 tells an ambitious, generational story that involves two major familial lines over the years and the way a mysterious object intertwines these stories. Originally a little bit of a messier experience, SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered smoothes out some of the rougher edges and adds some greatly appreciated quality of life aspects while also slapping a nice coat of paint on its beautiful watercolor art.
SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered
Developer: Square Enix, Bullets
Price: $29.99
Platform: Steam, PS5 (reviewed), PS4, Switch, iOS & Android
MonsterVine was supplied with a PlayStation 5 code for review
SaGa Frontier 2 originally came out in Japan on April 1st, 1999, for the PlayStation 1, but I wouldn’t play it until the next year when it was released in the US on February 15th, 2000. The first Frontier game was my introduction to the SaGa back then, and I was hungry for more of it after spending a massive amount of time learning the ins and outs of SaGa Frontier 1. I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but I happily grabbed it the first time I saw it in my local Blockbuster, and I remember just being blown away by it when I played it. From the beautiful art style to the gameplay improvements, I was eating it all up, even though the first one was still in my regular game rotation. It’s sat in my mind that would absolutely shine from a remaster for a long time, and there is plenty of footage of me talking about it online at this point, so you can imagine my excitement when this was properly announced.
SaGa is a series known for being very open, so it is interesting that here in SaGa Frontier 2, there is a stronger focus on narrative, world building, and characters than ever before. You get to know a huge cast of characters because this isn’t a story told over a few years, but nearly 100 years and multiple generations of characters. One thing that really stood out to me on my playthrough of the remaster is just HOW good this story was. It’s been quite some time since I last played it, and while I liked the story, I was more interested in the broader strokes of good versus evil that framed it. This time, though, there is so much political intrigue that I noticed going on as these lords of the land betray each other, and make decisions that you see ripple through the story for years, which didn’t stick out to me as much as a kid.
You follow the story of the Knights family, as well as the family of Gustave XIII, in this story. Will Knights is a brand new “Digger,” which in this world is an explorer trying to find ancient “Quells,” which are tools created long in the past that hold significant power and value, so they are highly contested. Many of the larger dungeons in the game belong to the Knights sections, so they feel a little bit more like a traditional SaGa Experience. Gustave XIII is the besmirched son of a royal family who is exiled along with his mother because he cannot channel anima, which is similar to magic in this world. A lot of the major story events of the timeline happen in his scenarios, and he is the only character to have Army Battles in them, giving it a bit of a more unique feel.
All of your favorite SaGa standbys are here; you level up different stats at the end of fights instead of gaining a singular level, so you can customize characters to your liking, but they also have clear strengths and roles to play as well, so you might have a better experience doing that. Of course, it wouldn’t be SaGa without the Glimmer system, making combat always be one lightbulb away from a shot of dopamine and a new attack to use. One of the other gameplay modes, the 1-on-1 duels, which are new to the series, actually lets you try to learn specific techs instead of the semi-random nature of the mechanic previously. The 1-on-1 battles had me learning high-level techniques pretty early on, which was really handy to keep up with the growing power of enemies.
There is another new game mode for the series as well, with army battles. These honestly are mostly inoffensive, but rolling some bad RNG can really make these battles of generic soldiers drag on or turn into a bad situation quickly. Unfortunately, army battles are also home to one of the most frustrating parts of the game, the Battle of South Moundtop. To this day, it still gives me trouble, and I had to bash my head against that mission as a kid to beat it. It comes out of nowhere and is a huge jump from any of the previous army battles. I might be holding a grudge, but it’s a jarring comparison.
The backgrounds and art look absolutely stunning after their upgrade, and while they looked great on the PS1, you can now see just how much detail and love went into every screen of this game. To make things a little bit more manageable, you can have characters inherit stats from other characters, which will make them stronger and lessen the amount of time you have to spend grinding up a new generation of characters, which is greatly appreciated. Adding to that, in the additions, you can access other characters’ inventories MUCH easier now, so you aren’t wondering what happened to that powerful Quell you found 30 years ago. A speed-up function was also added, which made me realize just how much time I spent watching battle animations in this game as a kid. This is another great addition that should be standard in these kinds of remasters.
They restored some content that didn’t make it to the full release as well, fleshing out the story even more. They added some post-game super bosses, as well as a full-on New Game+ mode and the inclusion of Go! Go! Digger is great to see, especially because that last one was locked to the PocketStation, and I never had the chance to play with it. Does it slightly break the game balance by injecting tons of weapons and armor into the economy? Maybe a little bit, but this game is notorious for soft-locking people just because they weren’t strong enough for a fight you can’t grind before, so I don’t think giving us extra power is the worst thing they could have done.
The Final Word
SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered lets the best parts of the original game shine, while sanding out some of the rough edges that can detract from the player experience. The story shines as one of the best ones in the franchise, and the addition of new types of combat keeps things feeling pretty fresh. This is a full featured remaster, and I hope we continue to see the SaGa series get this kind of love and care from Square Enix; it deserves it.
MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
