Knowing genre conventions can be a blessing and a curse for both the game and the player.
Take Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song as an example. I’m more than familiar with the genre, so I thought I knew what I was in for. I began my quest, chose a fun looking starting character, refused the ‘slow’ option and jumped into fighting every monster I could to grind my way to being a demi-god. Typical RPG stuff. Then I was then confronted with a boss fight, which is when everything started to go horribly wrong.
Romancing SaGa is not your typical RPG.
First, let’s talk about what it is. Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song is a 2022 remastered version of a 2005 PlayStation 2 remake of a 1992 Squaresoft SNES RPG. This new international version duly adds French, German, Italian and Spanish localisations. It’s also a chance to once again examine a game doing quite a bit differently.
You start by picking one of eight characters. This is where I went wrong. While there are eight starting characters, it does not mean that all eight are equally good choices to start with. I chose Hawke, the pirate, because he looked cool. Do not do this. Some of these characters are best for experienced players. Once I restarted and opted for Albert, I had a much better time.
The second mistake I made was playing it like a regular RPG. I battled to beef my characters up and didn’t click the ‘slow’ option at the start. Who wants to play on ‘slow’? The answer is anyone who has a clue about how the game functions.
You see, like some RPGs, Minstrel Song keeps track of time. Some quests become available or unavailable depending on how long you have been playing. I’ve seen this before. But what I didn’t realise was that in Minstrel Song time progresses not by time passing in the real world, but by the number of battles you fight. Every battle progresses the in-game time, so rather than fighting everyone to buff up, you actually want to be efficient with who you choose to fight. The ‘slow’ option slows the rate of time passing and is great for beginners. If you’re a newcomer, choose this option. Once I’d restarted and made better choices, I found myself enjoying it more.
So, it took a while to get on board. And it’s not the only way Minstrel Song confounded me.
Despite the name, Minstrel Song really isn’t about epic stories. The story is actually bareboned, filled in with some pretty poor voice acting. No, the main story isn’t why you’re here. You’re here for the quests. And there are lots of ‘em. Instead of grinding to get stronger, the aim is to complete quests to get better equipment, earn money to pay for upgrades and recruit new team members from one of the many towns.
It’s also incredibly open ended. You can choose your quests, travel around freely, and you can recruit any number of weird and wonderful companions. That’s why there are eight starting characters – you’re not following a linear story like most RPGs, but rather experiencing the world from different starting points and viewpoints. These can intersect, but only occasionally.
Even in 2025 Minstrel Song feels significantly different and remarkably centred around player choice. You really are just left to your own devices. In most RPGs, you’re not really role playing. They’re often story games where you experience the story from the perspective of a character. In Minstrel Song, you have the freedom to do what you want, and the world responds to your choices.
That’s a good and bad thing. Some people are going to love Minstrel Song. It’s going to push every button they have. They’re going to playthrough it with every character (something the game encourages by having a very solid New Game + that ups your rewards) and spend hundreds of hours exploring its nooks and crannies. I, personally, felt a little bit overwhelmed. I like a little more direction and hand holding.
I think there’s a lot to love here. The battle system still feels great. We’re in full turn-based entering commands territory here and I could rant for a good five minutes about how that’s where a lot of games should have stayed. But one aspect of the battle system also is the real microcosm of the game’s strengths and weaknesses.
It’s all about Life Points. Every character has them. If they get knocked out, their Life Point score reduces by one. You don’t want characters to get knocked out because this Life Point score is persistent across battles (unlike health, as you automatically heal after each battle). When a character’s Life Points falls to zero, they die. They’re out of your party. I love persistence in games. But it also really sucks a lot!
Life Points are restored at inns. But that means leaving whatever dungeon you are in, travelling into a town, and then returning to the dungeon. If you encounter a difficult enemy there’s always the chance they’ll permanently kill a member of your team, too. This will make every other battle afterwards much more difficult. Permanently difficult. In this way, Minstrel Song feels weirdly like a roguelike. You experiment, try different things, mix things up and then get ready for your next run. Except it’s a roguelike where a run last 20 hours.
Minstrel Song has achieved cult status for a reason, and this remaster is the best way to enjoy it. The graphics look sharp and shiny (I played this on a Switch 2, where it looked really nice in handheld mode), and the music is awesome. But don’t go into this without knowing what you’re in for. You’re going to need a guide, or a lot of time. Getting into Minstrel Song is an investment.
If you’re willing to move to its rhythms, you’ll have a great time. For me, I wasn’t quite romanced.
Red Art Games’ Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered International is out 9th Dec on PS5, PS4 and Switch. Developed by Square-Enix.