History VideoGame / RomancingSaGa

It eventually got two sequels for the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom]], and was [[TheRemake remade]] for the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 PS2]] in 2005 as ''Romancing [=SaGa=]: Minstrel Song''. The subtitle was dropped for release in the West, which had [[NoExportForYou never before seen]] a ''Romancing [=SaGa=]'' title in the first place. An UpdatedRerelease of ''Minstrel Song'' for [=PlayStations=] [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 4]] and [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 5]], UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, PC, and mobile was released on December 1, 2022, improving the graphics and adding additional recruitable characters.

** ''-Minstrel Song- Remastered'' for UsefulNotes/TheNinthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames improved the graphics of the previous remake, and PromotedToPlayable some prominent characters.

* BonusBoss:
** [[spoiler:The Jewel Beast, and Saruin on subsequent playthroughs of ''Minstrel Song'' where you can offer the Fatestones and increase his power, resulting in quite possibly the strongest boss in the entire game when you've given them all to him. Death can be fought at anytime in the Netherworld, Schirach is a NewGamePlus boss as the Unlucky Woman quest carries over to future playthroughs if you didn't talk to her enough times in earlier playthroughs; once it's cleared, just speaking to Schiele once will clear the quest.]]
** The remaster offers TEN superboss versions of existing bosses.

* EverybodysDeadDave: [[spoiler:If you don't [[GuideDangIt beat the]] [[BonusBoss sleeping Jewel Beast]] before he wakes up, this happens to ''the whole Frontier''.]]

* {{Bishonen}}: One of the staple elements of ''Minstrel Song'''s makeovers.

* TheGodsMustBeLazy: Some of the gods take a more direct hand in matters than others; thankfully, the evil gods aren't the ''only'' ones who are active. Your actions attract the attention of different gods; [[RelationshipValues impressing them enough]] by taking quests they find interesting/beneficial, buying magic from their temples, performing [[CombinationAttack Vortexes]] corresponding to each god, fighting in certain regions, or even just fighting different types of monsters can lead to them abruptly intervening during battle, to impressive effect. However, with the entire world at stake, now might not be the best time for them to play favorites...

* KarmaMeter: Related to the RelationshipValues with the Gods: you can curry favor with the evil Gods, too. There aren't many opportunities for this ([[GuideDangIt outside of knowing where to fight and how to perform the combo the bad Gods like]]), but [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential when they come up]]...

* NeglectfulPrecursors: The pantheon of Gods is [[AllThereInTheManual mostly the second generation]]; the original, ancient gods ''left'' after the war between them tore Mardias apart. Apparently they couldn't be bothered to help clean up. And all this was ''before'' Saruin started acting up...

* RelationshipValues: Not with your party members, but with the ''Gods''.

* ShoutOut: Odd example: the unlucky Louie and his [[Creator/{{Disney}} two]] [[Creator/CarlBarks identical]] [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales brothers]].

* Claudia -- A beautiful young woman who has been raised by the witch Eule, hidden away in the enchanted forest of Mazewood. A FriendToAllLivingThings who [[BetterWithNonHumanCompanyRelates better to animals than she does people]]. Naturally, there's a great secret about her that even she's not aware of...

** A fair few sidequests have powerful [[MacguffinGuardian Macguffin Guardians]] such as the Aquatic trio guarding a cave in Crystal Lake or the Clawbug protecting the entrance to [[spoiler:Merholm]].

** [[spoiler:The Jewel Beast, and Saruin on subsequent playthroughs of Minstrel Song where you can offer the Fatestones and increase his power, resulting in quite possibly the strongest boss in the entire game when you've given them all to him. Death can be fought at anytime in the Netherworld, Schirach is a NewGamePlus boss as the Unlucky Woman quest carries over to future playthroughs if you didn't talk to her enough times in earlier playthroughs; once it's cleared, just speaking to Schiele once will clear the quest.]]

* KnightInShiningArmor: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by the start of one scenario, [[spoiler:and {{Subverted}}; Neidhart saves Aisha, but she's more curious about his kingdom than she's interested in him, and he has his own LoveInterest in [[ActionGirl Diana]].]]

* Claudia -- A beautiful young woman who has been raised by the witch Eule, hidden away in the enchanted forest of Mazewood. [[FriendToAllLivingThings Relates better to animals]] [[NotGoodWithPeople than she does people]]. Naturally, there's a great secret about her that even she's not aware of...

* NotGoodWithPeople: It's not that Claudia's shy or snobby; she simply isn't ''used'' to dealing with others outside of Eule and her animal friends.

** The remaster takes this UpToEleven, offering TEN superboss versions of existing bosses.

* JusticeWillPrevail: Albert's worldview, taken to eleven by Lord Theodore and the Knights of the Dominion.

* MutuallyExclusiveCharacters: There are several sets of characters that are impossible to include in the same party, such as Diana and Albert, and Dowd and Farah.

* BadPowersBadPeople: The Sorcery and Necromancy spell sets exist ''purely'' so your enemies have more magic to choose from. You can't find anyone who'll teach these to you, so don't bother. [[spoiler:This also foreshadows Red Mage's [[TheMole true purpose]], like it wasn't obvious from the start...]]

* BonusBoss: [[spoiler:The Jewel Beast, and Saruin on subsequent playthroughs of Minstrel Song where you can offer the Fatestones and increase his power, resulting in quite possibly the strongest boss in the entire game when you've given them all to him. Death can be fought at anytime in the Netherworld, Schirach is a NewGamePlus boss as the Unlucky Woman quest carries over to future playthroughs if you didn't talk to her enough times in earlier playthroughs; once it's cleared, just speaking to Schiele once will clear the quest.]]

* GuideDangIt: Certain subquests fall into this. An example: To make Dowd recruitable, [[spoiler:you have to play Jamil's story, let Dowd leave when he asks, then, once it becomes available, agree to destroy the Assassin's Guild, then sleep at the Inn in South Estamir. That lets you pick him up in ''later'' playthroughs, anyway...]]

Then there's the mysterious Minstrel that shows up wherever they travel, several other adventurers that flit in and out of their lives -- from simple mercenaries to travelers and soldiers with thier own histories and stories to tell -- and the ''festering evil'' that's bubbling to the surface... And, of course, the players themselves, who chooses how to weave all these threads together and determines how their tales unfold...

It eventually got two sequels for the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom]], and was [[TheRemake remade]] for the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 PS2]] in 2005 as ''Romancing [=SaGa=]: Minstrel Song''. The subtitle was dropped for release in the West, which had [[NoExportForYou never before seen]] a ''Romancing [=SaGa=]'' title in the first place. An UpdatedRerelease of ''Minstrel Song'' for [=PlayStations=] [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 4]] and [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 5]], UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, PC, and mobile has been announced to release on December 1, 2022.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The sewers under Estamir and Melvir both qualify. How absurdly spacious are they? [[spoiler: Both have evil temples hidden in their depths.]]

* AllThereInTheManual: A lot of the history of Mardias and plenty of other details were [[NoExportForYou only published in supplemental materials in Japan]].
** However some people were able to get their hands on the material and provide a translation [[spoiler: Long before the game began, there were many deities but two stood out from the rest; Marda; the Creator God of Mardias, and Saiva; The Goddess of Destruction. Both of them fought and their powers brought the fight to a stalemate, in order to turn the tide of the battle, Saiva created a god of her own. She channeled immense amounts of magic to her finger and pricked it with a needle; That needle became an empowered sword known as the Main Gauche/Left Hand Sword. From the wound, Elore; God of Light was born. However, Elore sided with Marda, and Saiva was defeated by Marda and Elore. After Saiva was defeated, her body broke into several parts, which became the three Dark Gods: Death, Saruin, and Schirach. Long after the battle, Mardias became useless and many of the lesser Gods left. Elore stayed and helped Nisa; Goddess of Earth to rebuild the world. Humans then were created from the Terranites (Nisa's Children) who were used as a base model. The current Deities of Mardias are the children of Elore and Nisa, with the exception of Mirsa, who was a human that became a God.]]
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: [[spoiler: Obtaining Mirsa's Armor drastically alters Albert's look. Also, Gray gets a slight appearance change upon completing his scenario quest.]]
* AntiGrinding: The Event Rank system makes grinding a generally bad idea... [[spoiler: Until late in the game, if you're trying to reach ER 22 and unlock Frosthold Fortress ''the long way''.]]
* ArmoredButFrail: The [[spoiler: Dragon Knight]] has some built-in immunities to certain attacks and comes with nice equipment. He only has 5 LP.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The secret recruitable characters [[spoiler: Frielei, Captain Silver and the Dragon Knight]] have incredible stats but absurdly low LP, making them liabilities in the end-game battles.
* BadPowersBadPeople: The Sorcery and Necromancy spell sets exist ''purely'' so your enemies have more magic to choose from. You can't find anyone who'll teach these to you, so don't bother. [[spoiler: This also foreshadows Red Mage's [[TheMole true purpose]], like it wasn't obvious from the start...]]
* TheBattleDidntCount: Interestingly, this can apply to your own party: in several cases, if you get trounced in a fight, the game shows your hero [[YouCanBarelyStand kneeling]] and recovering (though any LP you lost is still gone).
** Actually can be used to unlock all techniques if you fight Pyrix, he has a high spark rate (Ability to learn techs)

* BeefGate: As your Event Rank goes up and you defeat weak enemies, chances for stronger enemies to take their place grows. You have to upgrade your equipment regularly if you want to survive.
** A fair few sidequests have powerful [[MacguffinGuardian Macguffin Guardians]] such as the Aquatic trio guarding a cave in Crystal Lake or the Clawbug protecting the entrance to [[spoiler: Merholm]].

* BreakingTheFourthWall: After the credits of each scenario, [[spoiler: whichever hero you played as comes out, thanks the player directly and makes a few comments about how you helped them, then prompts you to [[NewGamePlus guide one of the others]] and disappears behind a door.]]

* ButThouMust: Averted in some places, with appropriate consequences. For instance, [[spoiler: killing Wuhan prevents you from taking a certain quest from him. You can still trigger it, but won't get the extra rewards.]] [[spoiler: In another case, if you want to keep the Aquamarine, you can't talk to or try to recruit Prince Neidhart, as the Aquamarine is his kingdom's treasure, and he won't let you keep it.]] Yet another case, [[spoiler:after a certain quest, you will be offered knighthood, which you can decline. However, everytime you decline, the one offering you knighthood repeats the exact thing again and again, everytime, until the game finally lets you decline.]]

* ChainOfDeals: You can end up on one courtesy of the [[FourIsDeath Four Elemental Gods]]. Notably involves one of the more obvious KarmaMeter moments: [[spoiler: [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential potentially murdering Galahad to get the Ice Sword]].]]
* ChallengeRun: Easy in-game path to one: Collect all the Fatestones [[spoiler: and set them on the altars in the TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. Voila, super-powered Saruin. Have... fun?]]

* {{Crossdresser}}: [[spoiler: Jamil]]'s storyline ''starts'' with this; at one point he has to crossdress to get past a guard, [[spoiler: by passing himself off as the newest member of Wuhan's harem. Farah is extremely amused.]] While you can perform this quest with other heroes, ''they'' can't take this option.

* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: The "Moonlit Butterfly" quest results in the client discovering this. Initially assumed to have walked out his family while his wife was deathly ill, the player character discovers the father had actually [[spoiler: found the cure to her condition only to get lost inside Mazewood Forest and die there. The butterfly plaguing the woman was her father's soul trying to reach out]].
* DarkIsNotEvil: Death, in addition to being the god of [[ShapedLikeItself death]], is also the maintainer of the life cycle and the protector of lost souls. [[spoiler: He even serves as the harvest god for the people of Uso.]]

* DeusAngstMachina: ''The Nymph Statues''. [[spoiler: Three brothers pull up three sacred nymph statues in their nets, and decide to try selling them. This calls down the wrath of ocean god Yucomb, who sends his followers to get the statues back. Mainly through violence. After two of his brothers die horribly, the third decides to return the last statue to the sea and beg forgiveness. He's met by their baby sister... ''and'' their mother, who [[TooDumbToLive grabs the statue from him, ranting about how they'll live like royalty,]] [[DisneyVillainDeath then plummets to her death]]. ''In front of her only surviving son and daughter.'']] ''Jeez''...

* DoomMagnet: ''The entire Frontier''.
** The three Nymph Statues also qualify, considering [[spoiler: how angry Yucomb is at their theft.]]
* EverybodysDeadDave: [[spoiler: If you don't [[GuideDangIt beat the]] [[BonusBoss sleeping Jewel Beast]] before he wakes up, this happens to ''the whole Frontier''.]]

* FakeKing: Late in the game, [[spoiler: the villains take advantage of Theodore's {{Lawful Stupid}}ness by replacing him with a KnightTemplar BodyDouble, who promptly starts making unreasonable demands of his peers and declares war on Weiserheim because Lady Flammar won't give him the Ruby Fatestone.]]

* GenkiGirl: ''Aisha''.
* GlassCannon: Any build focusing on Magic.
** As far as characters go, [[spoiler: Dragon Knight, Captain Silver and Frielei]]. They have impressive stats, but LP counts that barely surpass starter mercenaries make them very frail.

* TheGodsMustBeLazy: Some of the gods take a more direct hand in matters than others; thankfully, the evil gods aren't the ''only'' ones who are active. Your actions attract the attention of different gods; [[RelationshipValues impressing them enough]] (by taking quests they find interesting/beneficial or even just fighting different types of monsters) can lead to them abruptly intervening during battle, to impressive effect.
** Actually it is more than that, buying magic from temples and fighting in certain regions will also increase the value, and performing [[CombinationAttack Vortexes]] corresponding to each god.
* GuideDangIt: Certain subquests fall into this.
** Example: To make Dowd recruitable, [[spoiler: you have to play Jamil's story, let Dowd leave when he asks, then, once it becomes available, agree to destroy the Assassin's Guild, then sleep at the Inn in South Estamir. That lets you pick him up in ''later'' playthroughs, anyway...]]
* HiddenElfVillage: Merholm. [[spoiler: In this case, though, the inhabitants only head there ''after'' deciding that the world's growing too dangerous.]]

* HostageForMacGuffin: [[spoiler: You are the hostage held by Scorn and Schiele has to give up her Fatestone to save you. However it was a RestrainingBolt keeping her dark magic sealed away causing her to awaken as her old self: Schirach quickly kills Scorn, leaving the stone behind for you to keep.]]
* HumanPopsicle: [[spoiler: Freilei but that can also be due to the effects of the Obsidian Sword]]
* HumanSacrifice: Unrelated to the VirginSacrifice below is how [[spoiler: ''the player'' can engage in this, by venturing into the Underworld and offering up one of your party members to Death. Death always takes the second person in the party, not [[FourIsDeath the fourth as you might expect]].]]

* ItsPersonal: [[spoiler: Jamil towards the Assassin's Guild after learning what they did to Dowd/Farah's mother.]]

* Creator/KenjiIto: Composed the entire ''Romancing Sa Ga'' series music.
* KnightInShiningArmor: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by the start of one scenario, [[spoiler: and {{Subverted}}; Neidhart saves Aisha, but she's more curious about his kingdom than she's interested in him, and he has his own LoveInterest in [[ActionGirl Diana]].]]
* LastOfTheirKind: [[spoiler: The Taralians are descendants of the the goddess Nisa's chosen. During the last war between the gods, she sheltered them in [[HiddenElfVillage her underground temple]]; they emerged to find the world vastly changed and their culture all that remained of the old world.]]

* LethalJokeCharacter: The secret characters [[spoiler: Freilei, Silver and Dragon Knight]] have absurd stats....and absurdly pitiful defenses. Not an issue for regular fights, but end-game bosses will eat them alive.

* MutuallyExclusiveMagic: Opposing elements cancel each other out, barring you from having a full selection of spells: [[PlayingWithFire Pyrology]] opposes [[MakingASplash Hydrology]], [[BlowYouAway Aerology]] opposes [[DishingOutDirt Terrology]], [[MasterOfIllusion Illusion]] opposes [[MindOverMatter Demonology]], [[HolyHandGrenade Cosmology]] opposes [[BadPowersBadPeople Sorcery]], and [[StatusBuff Bewitchery]] opposes [[BadPowersBadPeople Necromancy]]. However, there's a way around this: [[spoiler: Certain weapons channel magic. Teach a caster all the spells of that class ''before'' learning the non-barred class, then equip the channeling weapon on them. Voila! Just remember that the channeling cost is based on your skill with that weapon, ''not'' any actual talent with the magic itself...]]
* MythologyGag: The Saw from ''VideoGame/TheFinalFantasyLegend'' returns in this game as the Bilqis Axe, which turns into the {{chainsaw|Good}} with the technique: Fury of Bel'kwinith. Not as effective as the original as you can't cut Saruin, or his siblings into pieces as you did the Creator.
** To further reinforce the point, it relies on the Agility stat, which the original Saw used.

* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: Followers of Yucomb, god of the sea, who can take human form with his blessing. One of the Minstrel's tales is a fable about the Nymph Statues that connects them to mermaids: [[spoiler: According to the fable, the statues are actually three of Yucomb's daughters, TakenForGranite after a StarCrossedLovers incident.]]

* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler: Captain Silver.]]

* {{Reincarnation}}: [[spoiler: It is AllThereInTheManual: When any life dies, be it man, beast or flora, when they arrive in the Netherworld they must abandon their memories of their lives in order to be reborn, otherwise they must remain in the filth of Purgatory until the stress forces them to abandon their memories.]]
* TheRemake: ''Minstrel Song''
** RemadeForTheExport: Minstrel Song was the first Romancing Saga game released in the West and was simply titled "Romancing Saga".
* SealedEvilInACan: Saruin, obviously, as per the {{Backstory}}; also, [[spoiler: The Jewel Beast, destroyer of the Frontier unless [[GuideDangIt the player delays his awakening]]... and sometimes not even ''THEN''.]]
* SecretLegacy: Claudia is actually [[spoiler: [[RagsToRoyalty the princess of Melvir]], whose mother died shortly after her birth, and was given to Eule to protect her from assassins. [[TomatoInTheMirror Naturally, Claudia herself is the only one unaware of this]].]]

* ShutUpHannibal: Before the final battle, [[spoiler: Saruin makes a dramatic speech about making the world pay for his past humiliation and imprisionment. Your hero tells him to stop whining already and get to the fighting.]]
* SplitPersonality: [[spoiler: Poor Darque]] suffers from a form of this that can turn into a full-fledged SplitPersonalityTakeover if you [[spoiler: favor Aldora.]] Sucks to be them.

** While The Minstrel is a decent ally, easily available for most of the game, he automatically leaves whenever you enter a pub, [[spoiler: can't participate in any of the three ending quests, and if you complete the Trials of Elore, he won't rejoin you ''at all'',]] so trying to use him may be more trouble than it's worth.

** The [[spoiler: Dragon Knight]] recruitable in later playthroughs sounds amazing given his built-in immunities to certain attacks and excellent stats. [[ArmoredButFrail Shame about that LP though]]....
* StairwayToHeaven How you enter [[spoiler: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIt8eKc3H7E&t=2m21s The Trials of Elore]]]]

* StealingFromTheTill: Implied. Melvir's treasurer Patrick is [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight nonplussed to find out monsters were robbing the bank in Aurefont]]. [[spoiler: That's because he may have been paying off thieves to do the same thing beforehand]].

* SummonMagic: All the different schools include a 'Summon Elemental' spell, calling a ElementalEmbodiment to take your place in battle for a bit. [[AwesomeButImpractical Since they're limited to just that element, though, this isn't quite as great as it sounds.]]
** There is Stimulacrim: Summon a Snowman to fight in your stead, only problem is that it eats up a lot of BP and possibly LP but the Snowman summons can replace all characters and each Snowman has 777 HP, if Character was [=KOed=] when Snowman was summoned, the HP of it will be halved.

* VirginSacrifice: Involved in two different quests; in the first instance, [[spoiler: you can actually choose to ''walk away'' and abandon the victim to her fate rather than tail the guy into the sewer. This earns you massive points with Saruin, though you obviously lose out on the reward.]]
* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: No matter which of the three ending quests you use to unlock it, it all comes down to the same place: [[spoiler: Saruin's prison Quietus, sealed beneath Isthmus Keep.]]