Review

SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered – for fans only

7.4.2025

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

Role-playing game SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered mixes beautiful, hand-drawn backgrounds with picture-book storytelling. Sounds great, but it fails due to a lacklustre story and a tricky combat system.

SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered has one thing in abundance: visual charm. This is mainly thanks to the pre-rendered backgrounds – which could’ve come straight out of a picture book – and the character sprites. They’ve been enhanced for the remastered version and, unlike the PS1 original, aren’t a mess of pixels, but razor sharp.

This version optimised for modern systems also offers some more improvements. For example, there’s additional story content, more battle speed options and transferable skills. Unfortunately, none of these can disguise the weaknesses of the original.

The story starts well, but never pulls me in

In RPGs, you often only play as characters for a short snippet of their lives. Unconventionally, the story of SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered takes place over a period of more than 80 years. Cool idea, but this has its drawbacks. Since you only play individual story tidbits, you have to make up what happens between them. You can select dated events on the world map. From there, you can even play individual events in non-chronological order. This was probably done to make the game less linear. I’m just confused. Sometimes I even miss content, understanding even less of the big jumbled story. If you don’t want to miss out on anything, you have to use a guide the first time you play through the game.

Prince Gustave can’t do magic, so his father, the king, stops liking him and casts him out.
Source: Square Enix

You follow two narrative threads in the game. In the first, I control young prince Gustave. He can’t succeed to the throne since he has no magical powers. As a result, he and his mother are expelled. But Gustave still wants to prove his worth. Wielding a sword he forged himself, he now fights using physical prowess, slowly gaining political power after all.

In the second scenario, you initially follow young miner Will. At the tender age of 15, he sets off in search of powerful sources of magic. Later on, he wants to avenge the death of his parents, putting him on the trail of a devilish egg – no, not the snack, the full chicken kind. Over three generations, his family tries to destroy the dangerous treasure.

The story of miner Will spans three generations.
Source: Kevin Hofer

Although both storylines approach their subject well, they don’t pull me in. I don’t care about the fates of Gustave and Will – I just can’t put myself in their shoes. Their lines are devoid of those great emotions they’re meant to convey. Gustave really gets on my nerves with his adolescent posturing. Even in old age, he doesn’t seem to have learned anything. On top of that, he and Will are too generic for me to bond with them. There are also plenty of other characters in the game, but none of them radiate life. They feel like dolls, no charm at all.

A frustrating combat system

As in most JRPGs, battles are turn-based. They’re a lot of fun at the start; you either fight duels, group battles or wars. Unfortunately, they quickly become repetitive: if certain attacks work against certain enemies, I simply spam them. Battles also take quite some time, but at least you can speed them up in the remastered version.

The game also only vaguely explains many of its mechanisms. Health is the only standard value, really. There are also weapon and skill points that are used up when you unleash certain abilities. These then partially regenerate under certain conditions – which you have to find out for yourself, of course.

Rarely has a JRPG battle system frustrated me this much.
Source: Square Enix

But the confusion doesn’t just end at basic mechanics. Skills are the easiest to win in duels – not that the game tells you that. In these duels, you have to combine individual attacks or spells and, if done correctly, you might learn new, more powerful attacks. There’s no way to find out what the prerequisites for this are. That, or you can only guess at them over time. In the group battles, me learning something is purely up to chance. However, this is extremely rare, and it isn’t enough to conquer the game’s ramping difficulty. It seems that a guide’s mandatory, then.

Learning skills is easiest in duels.
Source: Kevin Hofer

True, you can easily unlock numerous, extremely powerful skills in the first few hours of the game. However, the process just becomes trickier as the story progresses. If I miss my chance at the beginning, the game gets too difficult from the middle onwards. I hardly stand a chance, even in simple confrontations. However, if I develop into an overpowering fighting machine too early, the whole game’s too easy.

What’s more, certain characters only appear briefly then never return. Any skills I learn for them are lost. Well, mostly: in the remastered version, you can pass on skills you’ve learned. That way you don’t have to laboriously level up new characters. However, if you know how this system works, it only ensures that you’ll be levelling up right at the start to avoid having to do it later.

You can pass on skills you’ve learned to other characters.
Source: Kevin Hofer

Presentation as a strong point

As was usual in the PS1 era, all backgrounds are pre-rendered. And my goodness, they’re stunning. Hand-drawn in a watercolour style, they could be straight out of a fantasy picture book. Character sprites are large and beautifully animated too. However, I’d have liked more age-specific sprites for Will and Gustave. We see them throughout their lives, after all. 15-year-old Gustave, for example, looks just the same at 30.

The hand-drawn backgrounds are simply breathtaking in HD.
Source: Square Enix

The soundtrack perfectly accompanies this beautiful scenery. Most of the tracks are catchy and pleasant to listen to, drawing me into the world. Even the battle music makes the constant fighting tolerable – that specific piece is even available in several arrangements.

SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered was provided to me by Square Enix. I tested the PC version. The game has been available for Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Steam, iOS and Android since 27 March 2025.

In a nutshell

Only fans of the genre will enjoy it enough

I love JRPGs. It seems logical I’d also love SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered, then. However, the game and I have developed something of a love-hate relationship. I adore how the world looks and sounds – it’s absolutely unique.

However, the confusing story doesn’t captivate me, and I can’t relate to the two main characters either. I just don’t care about them. Then there’s the combat system. I have to unravel it myself, making the game either too easy or too difficult.

With all that in mind, I can only really recommend SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered to fans of the franchise who are already familiar with its quirks. JRPG fans might also enjoy the game. Anyone else should skip it.

Pro

Great presentation
Catchy soundtrack

Contra

Gameplay hard to figure out
Confusing story

Header image: Square Enix

6 people like this article

Kevin Hofer

Senior Editor

kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.ch

From big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.

Review

Which films, shows, books, games or board games are genuinely great? Recommendations from our personal experience.

Show all

These articles might also interest you

Review
A new take on the strategy epic – Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
by Rainer Etzweiler
Review
"Digimon Story Time Stranger" tested: A JRPG that is addictive
by Kevin Hofer
Review
Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster review: a treat for fans of traditional JRPGs
by Domagoj Belancic