Jarpig pride worldwide (Let's talk about JRPGs)

[BulletMagnet]

Square's got more stuff on GOG, and it's a bit of a curveball: Romancing SaGa 2, Romancing SaGa 3, SaGa Frontier (Remaster) and SaGa Scarlet Grace are available DRM-free.

[Sima Tuna]

Nice. I like every SaGa game to greater or less extent. I don't think there are any bad ones I have played.

Square is having their golden week sale now, I think.

[Obiwanshinobi]

So, can what once was released as Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song for PS2 be purchased DRM-free for PC on GOG now? I'm confused.

[Sumez]

So, can what once was released as Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song for PS2 be purchased DRM-free for PC on GOG now? I'm confused.

Nah, seems they only have the four BulletMagnet mentioned

The new port of Minstrel Song is still called Minstrel Song
But it's a (very liberal) remake of Romancing SaGa 1, which doesn't have any other recent re-releases

[Hazuki]

What are those versions exactly? All I know is that they're obviously not the SFC originals due to hi-res graphics, wide resolution, monster animations and whatnot.

Some mobile rereleases ported to PC, then?

[Sima Tuna]

What are those versions exactly? All I know is that they're obviously not the SFC originals due to hi-res graphics, wide resolution, monster animations and whatnot.

Some mobile rereleases ported to PC, then?

You'll have to be a little more specific what you're asking about.

The versions of Romancing SaGa 2 and 3 sold on Steam are basically mobile ports, yes. Romancing Saga 2 was the first port to be done and so it has the fewest quality of life additions and is generally the least improved. But... It also preserves a lot of the ambiguity and challenge of RS2 on SNES. The visuals of the mobile ports are pretty weird, because they are largely *very similar* to the SNES graphics but just touched up and HD-ified, sometimes in strange ways. The colors of the RS2 port can be a little garish as a result.

Romancing SaGa 3 is a mobile/Steam/modern consoles port. Low budget, but it was done after RS2 mobile so it has some improvements in quality of life and features. I personally like both of these releases, since they largely keep the spirit of the originals intact.

Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song Remastered is an HD version of the ps2 reMAKE of Romancing SaGa 1. Basically, it's just an HD version of a ps2 game but with speed up and Battle Rank clock, plus a few other neat things. I love this game. It's probably my favorite SaGa game and I love the remaster.

Romancing SaGa: Revenge of the Seven is the modern reMAKE of Romancing SaGa 2. It's basically a completely different game from SNES Romancing SaGa 2. It's much easier but also has many more added story and gameplay elements. In practice, the combat plays out similarly to a mix of Minstrel Song and Scarlet Grace Ambitions.

Speaking of which, Romancing SaGa: Scarlet Grace Ambitions is the definitive edition of the mobile/Vita Romancing SaGa game of the same name. It's a fine game but feels pretty stripped down and low budget even compared to something like Minstrel Song.

The SaGa Collection contains SaGa 1, 2 and 3 which are the original Game Boy games which spawned the series. I don't remember if they use the original translation with bananas in place of opium or not.

SaGa Frontier Remastered is the definitive version of the PS1 game SaGa Frontier, a very much misunderstood game which has since become a cult classic. Many people swear by this as the best SaGa game, but I would probably nominate RS3 or Minstrel Song for that honor personally. I'm also quite partial to Romancing SaGa 2 (not revenge of the seven.)

Almost every SaGa game is available on Steam/modern consoles now, although we still don't have Romancing SaGa 1 in anything close to its original SFC version. After the success of Revenge of the Seven (particularly how it hit the mainstream jarpig fans,) I'd expect Kawazu is at least considering which SaGa games might be suitable for full remake treatment.

Oh yeah and SaGa Frontier 2 exists on Steam as well. No Unlimited SaGa yet but Kawazu confirmed it's coming, IIRC.

[Hazuki]

I see. Thanks for all the info.

Have you ever tried the English fan-translations of SFC RS2 and 3? I know the first game eventually got a full translation, but 2 and 3 remain incomplete. 3 got a full Spanish translation which I can read to some extent but still prefer English. I was wondering if one can still go through those incomplete translations anyway.

I can read some Japanese (hiragana, katakana, some kanji and got a pretty solid grasp on how the grammar works), but it's not as good as my English (which is also not my native language), so I don't have enough confidence in it for such complex games, unless if I were to use guides at the same time.

I've always been fascinated with the Romancing SaGa series ever since I was a teen and always wanted to play them, but language barrier kept getting in the way. I'd still like to experience the original versions before any remakes/rereleases.

[Mortificator]

I wasn't able to enjoy Romancing SaGa 3 with its low-quality translation patch and it doesn't look like progress has been made in the 20-odd years since

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I think a lot of translation groups enjoy the "prestige" of being the first to release a translation to the extent that several games get fairly bad translation patches and nobody ever bothers to revisit the game to release a better one. There's a couple SFC games, in particular Tales of Phantasia only has one really abysmal translation (there's significantly better ones for the PS1 version, which in all honestly does play better).

[TransatlanticFoe]

Started Final Fantasy XII ages ago, about 30 hours in, but stopped for some reason - vaguely remember it was because I was trying to do a hunt but I couldn't get it to trigger.

Came back to it today. Started miles away from what the map said was my next objective, no memory of it whatsoever. Tried to do the next hunt on the list, got completely owned and had to run away. Went back to find the main objective, turned a corner into a boss fight and got completely owned again.

Sigh. I'm going to have to start the whole thing again aren't I? I have no idea what's going on anymore.

[ryu]

Sigh. I'm going to have to start the whole thing again aren't I? I have no idea what's going on anymore.

That's what I'd do... but for me it's been roughly 20 years since I quit out on the game

[BulletMagnet]

Squeenix's latest GOG offerings are Legend of Mana and Trials of Mana.

[Hazuki]

That new Final Fantasy Resonance that just got announced...

Finally a new FF game that I'd probably enjoy playing.

[BulletMagnet]

Too bad about the Denuvo, maybe if it ever comes to GOG I'll snag it.

Speaking of which, not a Square offering, but indie RPG Sea of Stars finally made it to said storefront the other day after receiving its final update.