SaGa Frontier Remastered announced for PS4 / Switch / PC / mobile, coming summer 2021, Fuse added as a playable character

MilkBeard · Nov 28, 2020

The thing I liked about this game is that many of the characters' scenarios can be beaten somewhere between 5-10 hours, with of course Red and Asellus (and maybe T260G) being the longer ones at around 15-20 hours first time. I remember playing Minstrel Song and liking it, but I got so exhausted after playing one character because it was like 50 hours, and never got around to playing another.

Of course, there's a lot of variety, but with some of the content incomplete it can get a little repetitive. At least if you link your play through the system file your characters spark and level faster.

Beef Supreme · Nov 28, 2020

My only question is when they would like to take my money. Can't wait.

Chirotera · Nov 28, 2020

I don't understand Square anymore. They have Chrono Trigger sitting in their back catalog. They have FFVI (which they butchered with their mobile graphics), Xenogears, FFT:WoTL, etc. Beloved titles that would find a great home on Switch et all. They have ready to be ported with not much effort PSP titles (FFIV the complete collection), the FF1 and FF2 PSP titles, Tactics Ogre.

Yet they remaster SaGa Frontier, of all things.

I remember being profoundly disappointed with the title, but my gaming sensibilities were way different back then - so I'm still willing to give this one another shot.

bloodyroarx · Nov 28, 2020

Chirotera said:
I don't understand Square anymore. They have Chrono Trigger sitting in their back catalog. They have FFVI (which they butchered with their mobile graphics), Xenogears, FFT:WoTL, etc. Beloved titles that would find a great home on Switch et all. They have ready to be ported with not much effort PSP titles (FFIV the complete collection), the FF1 and FF2 PSP titles, Tactics Ogre.

Yet they remaster SaGa Frontier, of all things.

I remember being profoundly disappointed with the title, but my gaming sensibilities were way different back then - so I'm still willing to give this one another shot.

This is why probalbly

Hailinel · Nov 28, 2020

This announcement made me recall an old promo VHS for Final Fantasy VII I got in the mail way back when. In addition to some interview snippets with the likes of Sakaguchi and Uematsu, it had trailers for several then-upcoming Squaresoft PS1 titles. It was the first time I ever saw footage of SaGa Frontier, and I just recall the art and color blew me away:

Hecht · Nov 28, 2020

Dope. SF2 was my first SaGa game (well technically it was FFL3, but that one is more of a traditional RPG than most SaGa games), so I missed playing this one. Heard it was unfinished so never really gave it a shot, so looking forward to this.

poncle · Nov 28, 2020

MilkBeard said:
This is dope

This arrangement is great, there are just so many great indie covers for the whole series

More Battle 5

The perfect song to play when you're fighting a planet-sized, planet-destroyer, apocalyptic machine

Some love for Frontier 2 too

Hours Left · Nov 28, 2020

Yo, this is hot! I love this crazy game, and it was a big part of my JRPG journey when I was growing up. Bring it on~

The Dink · Nov 28, 2020

If I remember correctly Fuse was originally meant to be unlockable after beating all of the other characters' stories, right? I hope that's not the case in the remastered version and I can pick him at the start because while I love some things about the original, playing each story one after the other got crazy repetitive back in the day. I can only get DSC so many times...

Armaros · Nov 28, 2020

saintjules said:
Cheers to that! I have the original release and kept hoping for this to be revived in some way. And Fuse storyline?? Unreal.

Only one fight I'm not looking to relive again though.

Ringlord

the super easy way for that fight

have a character learn DSC, it counts as an automatic combo with none of the hidden background stuff regarding combo

Ashodin · Nov 28, 2020

Really hoping this leads to a Saga Frontier 2 Remastered because whew boy that Hamauzu soundtrack

Stencil · Nov 28, 2020

9-Volt said:
Plus when Squre remasters a SNES game, they smoothen the visuals and it looks absolutely ass. Have you tried FF6 or DQ3 remasters? Not good.

Yeah, I'm kind of bummed about the Square Filter, but I'm open to it for this one since I never played the original much, and a lot of the graphics looked to be that weird pre-rendered 3D stuff anyway. I could be mistaken on that, but that's my memory of it.

Chirotera · Nov 28, 2020

bloodyroarx said:
This is why probalbly

It's weird that they would make decisions on this instead of cold, hard, business. I don't think I'll ever understand Japanese corporate culture.

Xenosaga · Nov 28, 2020

Chirotera said:
It's weird that they would make decisions on this instead of cold, hard, business. I don't think I'll ever understand Japanese corporate culture.

No it's a lot more focused on the preference of what they like from people in position of power or history. Nier was able to get Automata greenlit despite the franchise not being commercial success the higher ups liked Taro's games.

Tfritz · Nov 28, 2020

Chirotera said:
It's weird that they would make decisions on this instead of cold, hard, business. I don't think I'll ever understand Japanese corporate culture.

romancing saga reuniverse has been downloaded 20 million times in the two years since it's release

Vamphuntr · Nov 28, 2020

Wow would have never expected them to remaster this to be honest. I love the game but I cannot say it's amazing. It was my first SaGa game. I do wonder what else they will improve as a lot of stuff appeared to be cut outside Fuse. This was one of the big game that was fun to mess with a gameshark back in the day to access content that was disabled.

DiipuSurotu · Nov 28, 2020

Chirotera said:
It's weird that they would make decisions on this instead of cold, hard, business. I don't think I'll ever understand Japanese corporate culture.

Honor and shame are huge parts of it

SkyOdin · Nov 28, 2020

Chirotera said:
I don't understand Square anymore. They have Chrono Trigger sitting in their back catalog. They have FFVI (which they butchered with their mobile graphics), Xenogears, FFT:WoTL, etc. Beloved titles that would find a great home on Switch et all. They have ready to be ported with not much effort PSP titles (FFIV the complete collection), the FF1 and FF2 PSP titles, Tactics Ogre.

Yet they remaster SaGa Frontier, of all things.

I remember being profoundly disappointed with the title, but my gaming sensibilities were way different back then - so I'm still willing to give this one another shot.

Back in the SNES days, the SaGa series sold just the same as the Final Fantasy series. Romancing SaGa 3 in particular has as much cultural clout in Japan as any of the SNES Final Fantasy games. At the launch of the PS1, Square had four big franchises: Final Fantasy, SaGa, Mana, and Chrono (whose sequel evolved into Xenogears). And SaGa Frontier did go on to sell over a million copies. The only reason that SaGa diminished in stature was in comparison to the monster that the Final Fantasy brand became post FFVII, along with its unfortunate lack of western interest due to no official localization of the SNES games.

I guarantee you though that if Romancing SaGa 2 had released in the west back in the 90s, then it would have become a cult classic in the US.

Currently though, SaGa Re:Universe is Square Enix's best performing mobile game. The SaGa remakes have been doing well for themselves too. It really isn't a surprise to see the series getting more remakes.

SirNinja · Nov 28, 2020

bloodyroarx said:

We need someone at Square who's just as passionate about Final Fantasy V and VI as Kawazu is about SaGa. :-/

Hours Left · Nov 28, 2020

I feel like they've really been pushing SaGa to become one of their marquee series lately. It's gotten more love over the past two years than I can ever remember.

hwarang · Nov 28, 2020

Glad I procrastinated on replaying Saga Frontier :')

Desi · Nov 28, 2020

I like how every Saga universe game I play is very difficult and leveling doesn't any make sense.

Tfritz · Nov 28, 2020

Hours Left said:
I feel like they've really been pushing SaGa to become one of their marquee series lately. It's gotten more love over the past two years than I can ever remember.

i'm not sure that's the case. their marquee series tend to be getting, let's say, more ambitious titles both on mobile and on console. even when compared to something like seiken densetsu, SD was getting, like, full 3D remakes and mobile games while SaGa is getting slightly spruced up ports* and sprite-based mobages.

*which is fine by me, the folks doing these ports clearly have a sense of aesthetics not found in any of square enix's other port/remake department

Ra · Nov 28, 2020

i will cry if this has a 30fps cap.

bakedpony · Nov 28, 2020

This is the song that has not left my brain since 1998

Faiyaz · Nov 28, 2020

K.Jack said:
i will cry if this has a 30fps cap.

Isn't this a turn-based jRPG?

Hours Left · Nov 28, 2020

Tfritz said:
i'm not sure that's the case. their marquee series tend to be getting, let's say, more ambitious titles both on mobile and on console. even when compared to something like seiken densetsu, SD was getting, like, full 3D remakes and mobile games while SaGa is getting slightly spruced up ports* and sprite-based mobages.

*which is fine by me, the folks doing these ports clearly have a sense of aesthetics not found in any of square enix's other port/remake department

I think high quality 2D can be marquee. It doesn't have to be AAA to be a prominent series IMO. The amount of SaGa love we've seen recently has been quite significant.

Septimus Prime · Nov 28, 2020

asd202 said:
Oh wow please do the same for Saga Frontier 2. If this was SF2 and they would add content I would go crazy

Yes. Wow, yes, holy shit. As for 1, it was okay, but 2, damn.

Ra · Nov 29, 2020

Faiyaz said:
Isn't this a turn-based jRPG?

Every genre with movement on the screen is better has higher framerates. And there's no reason for the strange 30fps caps they've been having on the previous SaGa remasters anyway, when the SNES games ran at 60fps.

Faiyaz · Nov 29, 2020

K.Jack said:
when the SNES games ran at 60fps.

Oh, I know 60 fps is objectively better in every possible way. I was wondering why it'd be such a huge deal since it's a turn-based jRPG, but I understand now after reading this part.

TwinBahamut · Nov 29, 2020

FF Seraphim said:
Wait is that the implication? I only played the game when it came out on the PS1 I just thought:

His magic went crazy and since you command Time itself you literally froze time itself. Then the game just ended.

It is my interpretation at least. Might be colored by the way it ended for me.

The screen faded to gray in the middle of Liza squashing Hell's Lord with the DSC, rather than one of Blue's spells or something. So it just led to me imagining that was the fate of Hell's Lord: having his face smashed through the floor by Liza over and over for all time. The ending opens itself to interpretation, so nothing wrong with people having somewhat different takes.

Euphoria · Nov 29, 2020

This is my GoTY 2021. Don't even care what else is coming.

I saw Timelord. I saw giant Shrike Lab turtle boss. I saw exact same game in all its glory with updated visuals and it's beautiful.

Amazing!

Rirse · Nov 29, 2020

TwinBahamut said:
It is my interpretation at least. Might be colored by the way it ended for me.

The screen faded to gray in the middle of Liza squashing Hell's Lord with the DSC, rather than one of Blue's spells or something. So it just led to me imagining that was the fate of Hell's Lord: having his face smashed through the floor by Liza over and over for all time. The ending opens itself to interpretation, so nothing wrong with people having somewhat different takes.

So JoJo Part 5 Golden Experience Requiem.

Hailinel · Nov 29, 2020

Chirotera said:
It's weird that they would make decisions on this instead of cold, hard, business. I don't think I'll ever understand Japanese corporate culture.

This isn't unusual at all. Projects like these only get off the ground when there's internal support to push for them. Square Enix could otherwise be totally fine ignoring SaGa remasters, but they don't because there are both people internally that push for them, and they make financial sense as smaller projects.

Euphoria · Nov 29, 2020

I hope one of these consoles has a physical copy. I must have one.

KhandoleezzaRice · Nov 29, 2020

Will it tell me why it wants to know my blood type doe?

Warukyure · Nov 29, 2020

SirNinja said:
We need someone at Square who's just as passionate about Final Fantasy V and VI as Kawazu is about SaGa. :-/

I mean I think there's that one guy... But I think he's off making some crazy sequel about FF7 and maybe trying outdo the craziness in KH3.

Lowblood · Nov 29, 2020

All y'all here talkin' about Blue's ending and I just want to know what that damn Cube thing that everyone talks about in Emelia's quest is. Luckily that one's tied to Trinity and has a decent chance of coming up in Fuse's quest.

Euphoria said:
I hope one of these consoles has a physical copy. I must have one.

Most of Square's digital stuff (including the Romancing SaGa remakes) have been getting physical Switch releases in the Asia region (which includes English), so that's what I'm expecting here.

leder · Nov 29, 2020

Euphoria said:
I hope one of these consoles has a physical copy. I must have one.

Hoping for this as well. I think so far the only thing that got one was RS3 having an Asia physical release. So I'd put the odds we get one for this at 50/50.

Hours Left · Nov 29, 2020

Watching the footage again, it looks like Ren might be a playable character in Fuse's scenario, which would be cool. I wonder what other new characters will be playable. One of my favorite parts of the game was recruiting all the different party members and making fun party combinations.

Also I hope they flesh out Blue/Rouge's ending and Emelia's good ending. The former is vague as hell (if intentionally so) and the latter is not as substantial as her bad ending.

saintjules · Nov 29, 2020

Armaros said:
the super easy way for that fight

have a character learn DSC, it counts as an automatic combo with none of the hidden background stuff regarding combo

Thanks for that. Just read on it and didn't know about this move. Interesting.

tiesto · Nov 29, 2020

Although I've never actually beat it with all of the characters (I've made it pretty far with most, but usually hit a wall with the difficulty), I absolutely love the original SaGa Frontier. The variety in the different worlds is spectacular, where else can you go to a Magic Kingdom-looking place, the belly of an interdimensional beast, a gypsy town where fortune tellers reveal your destiny in all sorts of unique manners, the back alley of a cyberpunk city, all in the course of one (of 7) quests. Hearing that the unfinished content will be added back is the icing on the cake. SaGa is one of those series I never expected to get the love it's been getting recently (a new game, remakes of RS2 and 3, a remake of this, and a compilation of the Game Boy games).

Time to brush up on how to do the Dream Super Combo again...

Sabot · Nov 29, 2020

I will support this in the hopes that SaGa Frontier 2 gets remastered.

Dreamboum · Nov 29, 2020

Ren will finally be playable

i-Jest · Nov 29, 2020

I don't know how Kawazu got this project greenlit but God bless that man. Maybe the mobile game, SaGa Re;Universe, is doing well enough for this to happen. EVERYONE support this release so we can get the second one too! SAGA series needs all the support it can get.

DeejayDoom · Nov 29, 2020

i-Jest said:
I don't know how Kawazu got this project greenlit but God bless that man. Maybe the mobile game, SaGa Re;Universe, is doing well enough for this to happen. EVERYONE support this release so we can get the second one too! SAGA series needs all the support it can get.

Universe is among the top grossing mobiles games on JP.

DTJAAAAM · Nov 29, 2020

Didn't really expect this to actually happen, but count me in! Hoping that they give players access to the debug room's party builder as an unlockable feature so we can mix and match characters between scenarios.

Tfritz · Nov 29, 2020

i wonder if people were as bewildered by trials of mana's full 3D, voice acted remake as they are about saga frontier getting an enhanced port

i-Jest · Nov 29, 2020

DeejayDoom said:
Universe is among the top grossing mobiles games on JP.

Well that explains why this Remaster is happening.

Lowblood · Nov 29, 2020

Dreamboum said:
Ren will finally be playable

Ooh, nice. Thought that might be possible but I wasn't going to set up too much hope. I wonder if anyone besides Fuse will be able to get him (not Emelia, of course).

Fuse also gets Doll and Rabbit, as expected. They won't be Red-exclusive anymore. Always liked Doll, even if she looks like she just stepped out of an 80s music video.

SaGa Frontier Remastered announced for PS4 / Switch / PC / mobile, coming summer 2021, Fuse added as a playable character

Shamed a mod for a tag

Too damn tired

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

Rap Genius

EA

Rap Genius

Shamed a mod for a tag

Saw the truth behind the copied door