In 1989 Square kicked off the SaGa series on the monochrome Game Boy. The game came out over here as Final Fantasy Legend. Since that already got a 2D remake on the Wonderswan Square Enix is skipping it and remaking SaGa 2 (aka Final Fantasy Legend II) for the Nintendo DS in full 3D. SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu (temporary title) is on track to hit stores in Japan sometime in 2009.
Without spoiling too much of Final Fantasy Legend II players go on a quest to search for their father and collection MAGI. There are a few plot twists which were pretty good considering the time the game was released. However, SaGa 2 was a tough game to beat since your human characters leveled up in a pretty random way. If you used a strength weapon like a Long Sword your character might get a strength boost. Whacking goblins with a whip might lead to an agility boost. Espers or Mutants as they were called in the US version switched spells after battles and sometimes that meant resetting the game if you lost a good ability. The system was kind of neat, but also frustrating. I believe Square Enix will modify this system for the SaGa 2 remake. After all they fixed some of the issues with Final Fantasy II and the remakes ended up being more playable than the unreleased NES version.
While the SaGa 2 remake has only been announced in Japan ask yourself what Square Enix 3D DS remake have we missed out on.
Here is a scan of the new SaGa 2…
… and for comparison’s sake here is some old SaGa 2 artwork.
Images courtesy of Square Enix. Scan of Shonen Jump from Wii@Everyday.
Published: Jan 14, 2009 07:24 pm