The PS2 game is technically the first game in the Romancing SaGa series to be translated into English, and it ditched the “Minstrel Song” title when it was localized. However, like all of the previous SaGa games, it was critically panned – although not quite as much as Unlimited Saga – and sold poorly.
![Iso Game Ps2 Romancing Saga High Compressed Iso Game Ps2 Romancing Saga High Compressed](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j-TKB6awJUo/UVtwJw8nyeI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/tLJZV7TBmks/s1600/dolphin+emulator.jpg)
![Saga Saga](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125817671/536830556.jpg)
While it's not for everyone, I love this game! I still have my original PS1 disc and strategy guide, and I enjoy popping this title in to play. There are zero cutscenes and the characters aren't tied into one epic story that leads players around by the nose. It's just not that kind of game; the payoff here is in the gameplay, party building, and in the amount there is to discover in the game. You chose one of seven characters to play. Each character has a unique backstory, quest, and style of play, though you do most of your leveling through sidequests that are available in all playthroughs. For some players the shared side quests are going to be repetitive, but for me there are ways to make playthroughs fresher with different and even hidden characters and through the non-linear play. The journey takes you to diverse planets that range from high tech Koorong and its sewers... to planets where people study magic... to the belly of a space creature... or even a planet that is infested with ghosts and monsters. I enjoy the variety of worlds and the diferences in who you can recruit depending on who is in your party and which main character you chose. Different races use completely different systems to level up. For example, monsters have to absorb abilities from other monsters to gain power and change forms as opposed to humans who gain proficiency from using a certain attack or spell repeatedly. Mecs upgrade through equipment. You also have to sometimes unequip ablities to have enough space to learn new ones. So it's a game that offers incentive to learn the mechanics of the leveling system. After recruiting enough people, you actually make several parties and can choose between them at the beginning of a battle. Rather than random battles, the game displays monster icons on the screen that you can avoid, though they chase you. Because it's non-linear, you can get into trouble by wandering into difficult areas early on. A walkthrough or strategy guide is useful in giving you options for where to go so that you don't get stuck--without making you follow one specific order. Saga Frontier is far from perfect, but there's just something about the creativity behind it that I find compelling. I'm still discovering and rediscovering things years later.