I had a chance to preview Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven during Pax West 2024. Then only just this past weekend, Square Enix announced that the game got a demo with the save data being transferred to the full game. This is my experience with the demo.
Beginning the Game
The demo of Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is the game’s prologue. You start as Emperor Leon helping train his son Gerard with the help of some of his bodyguards to fight off some goblins. This teaches you the basics of normal combat with skills, or magical abilities.
The mechanics are the same as I discussed in my preview for Pax so I am not going to get in-depth but the way the tutorial is such a slow burn that helps newcomers extremely well. This is absolutely going to be the SaGa game to introduce people to the style of game that the SaGa series is.
When you get back from the training, Gerard and Leon go to their kingdom of Avalon. Victor is the brother who holds down the castle as Leon and Gerard go through their adventures. When they come back to the castle, Leon gets a secret meeting with a masked woman who warns them of Kzinssie, a recently returned Hero apart of the Seven legendary heroes.
As they are away, Kzinssie attacks the castle and hits Victor with a skill called Lifesteal. Leon and Gerard come back and immediately make a goal to finish off Kzinssie and then that becomes the final dungeon of the demo.
After you combat Kzinssie, the lifesteal skill hits Leon and he tells the bodyguards to take Gerard and him away from the dungeon. On his deathbed, Leon teaches Gerard more about the discussion he had with the masked woman. It was about passing your powers and abilities down your bloodline by connecting your minds and wills. When Leon passes away, Gerard then achieves the powers and skills his dad possesses.
Combining My Two Previews
My preview from Pax West 2024 is directly after this interaction with Gerard and Leon. I really enjoyed having discussions with the NPCs as Gerard. A lot of the discussion in the demo is about how the kingdom wants Gerard to stop focusing on combat training and more on his already bright mind. They want a strategist to be the heir to the throne and leave the adventuring to Victor and Leon. Having this knowledge makes the preview make my interactions with the cast make more sense.
One character in the preview flat-out refuses to follow Gerard because he doesn’t believe he has the strength to become a combat king and should just focus on his studies. The demo showing the preconceptions the Kingdom of Avalon has with Gerard helps a lot with my understanding of how Gerard does have a lot to prove. Gerard is the member of his bloodline who has no combat prowess and even in the demo, he is one of the weakest with his skillset and takes the longest to level up his efforts.
Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is panning out to be a masterclass remake of the original Romancing SaGa 2. I love the pacing, the story, and the way these characters are being written. I am excited to see where else this game goes, and where the character you chose to play comes into effect.
Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven will be available for Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, and PC via Steam on October 24th, 2024
