History VideoGame / SaGa2

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SaGa_2_TV_Tropes_5941.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: Humans,[[strike: mutant]] espers, robots, and monsters? Awesome.]]

Full Name: ''[=SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu=]'' ("Treasure Legend"). The second game in the ''VideoGame/{{SaGa|RPG}}'' series for the UsefulNotes/GameBoy, released in North America as ''Franchise/FinalFantasy Legend II.''

One fateful night, your father wakes you up and explains in vague detail that he has to leave you and your mother behind to go on a mission of great importance involving something called MAGI, which, when combined, will form a statue of the Goddess Isis. As a memento, he leaves you with one MAGI, Prism.

Several years later, you, accompanied by several schoolmates, set out in a search through many different worlds for your missing father and collecting various MAGI around the way. Along the way, you see different and varied worlds, meet helpful allies and powerful enemies, and eventually, save the worlds.

Despite the obtuse gameplay that would characterize the ''[=SaGa=]'' series, ''[=SaGa=] 2,'' like its predecessor, was one of the original Game Boy's most memorable [=RPGs=], thanks in part to what was at the time a high level of character customization and varied set pieces -- one minute you'd be exploring a high-tech metropolis ruled by a beauty obsessed tyrant queen who has forced two young lovers apart, and the next you'd be in a world inspired by medieval Japan to take part in a detective story. As a result of its wonderfully oddball setting and unique mechanics, it's generally regarded as the strongest game of the original ''[=SaGa=]'' trilogy.

In 2009, the game was [[VideoGameRemake remade]] for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS for the series' 20th anniversary, with upgraded graphics, tweaked gameplay elements, new characters, designs by ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'''s Gen Kobayashi, and a new name: ''[=SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu: Goddess of Destiny=].'' Although [[NoExportForYou it will never come out on western shores,]] thanks to ''VideoGame/UnlimitedSaga'' and ''VideoGame/{{Romancing SaGa}}'' bombing hard, a fan translation group has translated it.
----

!! ''[=SaGa=] 2'' provides examples of:

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: There's one in Venus's world.
* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler: Apollo. Venus to a lesser extent, but she's a more obvious RichBitch who's full of herself.]]
* AfterCombatRecovery: Characters killed in battle are revived with 1 HP afterward. Also counts as something of an {{Anti Frustration Feature|s}}, as this replaces the costly system of hearts and the life house from the previous game.
* AllMythsAreTrue: {{Subverted|Trope}} twice: First in the Port Town in Apollo's world, where the inhabitants think that an [[spoiler: undersea volcano]] is actually the god Neptune, and the second when it is revealed that [[spoiler: the idea that the Statue of Isis/The Goddess was made out of 77 MAGI/Treasures,]] which had been taken as a given since the beginning of the game, isn't entirely accurate.
%%* AndTheAdventureContinues
* AntiGrinding: Done via BreakableWeapons: Every usable battle command has a limited number of uses, be it a shield, SpellBook, or weapon. As such, every battle costs money... And you might not earn enough of it back to make LevelGrinding financially practical. (Of course, this also raised the difficulty level, since if ThatOneBoss was giving you trouble, you just had to bull through it...)
* ArrangedMarriage: The thrust of the Mini-Story of Venus's World is the arranged marriage between Flora/Olivia and Nils/Julius, despite the former's love for Leon/Anthony.
* ATasteOfPower: Mr. S can [[OneHitKO one-shot]] just about any enemy or even group in the first cave you go to, but he leaves after you go through it. Also comes with the Cure spell which should be able to full-heal any of your party members. Some players exhaust all his skills before exiting the cave to earn money.
* AwesomeButImpractical: The Seven Sword (or Seven pronged Sword in the remake). It hits seven times with one swing. The catch? You get only seven swings with it, and you need both a very high Strength to deal significant damage, and a high Agility to score all seven hits with it. And it doesn't even raise those stats if equipped on a Robot.
** And on top of ''those,'' the only way to get it is by beating the absurdly powerful enemy, [[ThatOneBoss Haniwa.]] Haniwa only appears in the [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon last dungeon,]] is arguably as powerful as the [[FinalBoss Arsenal,]] if not more so, and it's a slim chance that you will get the Seven Sword anyway!
* BadassInANiceSuit: Apollo.
* BadassTeacher: Mr. S.
* BagOfSharing: A variation: While there is a shared inventory, it cannot be accessed during combat. To use an item during combat, it must be equipped into each character's personal inventory.
* BigBad: [[spoiler: Apollo. After his defeat, the last challenge in the game is to prevent the entire world from collapsing, and while there are lots of monsters, it is no longer strictly a case of good vs. evil.]]
* BigGood: [[spoiler: The Goddess, called Isis in the 1991 localization. She comes back to life with the assembly of her statue.]]
* BlackoutBasement: Inverted. There's a cave that's so bright that you can't see anything unless you have a certain MAGI.
* BlessedWithSuck: Mutants can randomly acquire weaknesses to elements.
* BlindIdiotTranslation: Not quite the same depth as ''VideoGame/TheFinalFantasyLegend'' suffered, but it still needs a rewrite.
* BookEnds: The game both begins and ends with the protagonist's father announcing that he will be off to search for a legendary item. [[spoiler: During the ending, however, both the protagonist and their mother decide that they'll be joining him. And in both cases, they leave by going out the window.]]
%%* BoringReturnJourney
* BossBanter: [[spoiler: Apollo]] talks a lot during the battle. Your party members talk back a bit when the battle is almost over.
* BossInMookClothing: The Haniwa -- an unique enemy in the final area -- is definitely challenging enough to be a boss in its own right. It also possesses the elusive [[InfinityPlusOneSword Seven Sword.]] If you're lucky, you'll get it from him as a drop. If you're not, he'll use it on you.
* {{Bowdlerisation}}: See the infamous bananas example below. The NA translation also awkwardly glosses over the subplot where the hero thinks Dad walked out on the family to have an affair. As a result, the hero appears to angrily storm out of Lynn's house after the Dunatis boss battle for no good reason.
** The SecretOtherFamily implication was not lost on every young gamer, even in English.
* BreakableWeapons: One of the series' characteristics. All weapons [[spoiler: except for the Xcalibr]] and spellbooks have a limited number of uses.
* BrokenBridge: You must collect of all the MAGI in a given world before you can open the door to the next.
* BrokenPedestal: At one point, the hero believes (mistakenly) that [[spoiler: Dad abandoned the family to play hero and have an affair with Lynn's mother.]]
* BubblyClouds: Valhalla.
* TheCameo: The [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI Death Machine]] appears as a boss battle in the dungeon south of Final Town. It had also previously appeared as a boss in ''The Final Fantasy Legend.'' (In ''[=SaGa=] 2,'' this enemy's depiction is a new illustration including the digit "2" painted on the side of the machine.)
** TheFourGods as seen in the first ''[=SaGa=]'' return; they are some of the tier-5 ultimate transformations for your monsters.
* {{Cap}}: The game can display only up to 999 HP, and once a Human or Mutant has 999 or more HP, they cannot gain any more either through battles or Body potions. They can keep any excess from a gain that will put them over 999 HP though, making the theoretical max HP for them to be 1038 from using a Body potion when they have 998 max HP. It just won't be displayed properly. The remake averts this case displaying four digits, although the same logic that they cannot gain HP when they have 999 or more still applies.
** In the Game Boy version the money counter will only display up to 999,999 but it is possible to actually have more than that, and can be seen by going slightly over 999,999 and buying something and noticing the new total is not 999,999 minus the cost of the item.
* CaptainErsatz: [[Franchise/IndianaJones Dad]] is a traveling AdventurerArchaeologist who wears a hat and carries a whip (albeit an electric shock whip), and has previously found the [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk Ark of the Covenant]] and the [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade Holy Grail.]]
%%* ChainsawGood
* CharacterClassSystem: Of a sort. Players don't pick classes for their party, but races, each of which have their own advantages and weaknesses:
** Humans have eight equipment slots, granting them a great deal of customization in the weapons and armor they can use; but are incapable of using special skills.
** Espers (Mutants in the NA version) only have four equipment slots, and their stat growth is slower than Humans; but they have naturally higher levels of mana and can learn special abilities such as spells and immunities.
** Monsters cannot use items at all, but can use special abilities by default. Their stat growth is stagnant, but they can change into a new form by devouring meat from defeated enemy monsters. Generally speaking, meat from stronger monsters -- especially bosses -- will transform a monster into a stronger species.
** Robots, like Monsters, cannot increase their stats through battle. Instead, their stats are determined solely by their equipment: more weapons and armor means higher stats, and they can equip multiple pieces of the same armor to boost their stats. Like humans, they have eight equipment slots, but all weapons they equip have their maximum uses reduced by half. To compensate for this weakness, the uses of all equipped weapons can be restored when resting at inns. They are naturally immune to certain status ailments, but are more susceptible to magical damage.
* ChineseGirl: Lynn/Lin.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: You walk around the interior of not one, but two volcanoes. Wading through the lava has no ill effects apart from one HP of damage per step.
* CrutchCharacter: The [=NPCs=] who join you are usually stronger than your characters. This can work to your detriment, since relying too heavily on them can cause problems down the line.
* CuteMachines: Robots definitely qualify, or at least the ones that you can pick for your party.
* DamselInDistress: Lynn, a couple times.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: If you lose a fight, your characters will end up in Valhalla Palace, and Odin will offer to revive you and let you start the battle over. In exchange, though, you have to promise that, if you ever meet him while you are still alive, you will fight him.
** And you eventually do. Death in battle after that point leads straight to a GameOver.
*** It can even be good to be wiped out at least once. If you haven't been wiped out up to that point, Odin is harder and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking you'll just jump into the fight without any dialogue.]]
* DeathSeeker: Odin.
* DegradedBoss: Some "bosses," especially early on, are normal enemies from later worlds.
* DifficultySpike: After you lose the relics. As with VideoGame/The7thSaga you've been using PlotCoupons to [[AmplifierArtifact increase your power;]] once the plot takes them away things become more difficult.
* DisappearedDad: What essentially sets the story into motion.
** Lynn has one as well, and who is revealed in the ending ([[spoiler:it's Mask]]).
* DiscOneFinalDungeon: Ashura's Tower.
* DiscOneNuke: Dunatis is a class "9" monster, meaning that mutants can recieve far more advanced powers from defeating him than they were meant to have at that point in the game (P-Blast, specifically is pretty much a one-hit kill for everything in the next two worlds).
** You can get *any* power in the game from him, including the stuff from the highest tier of mutant abilities (Flare, O-All, and Recover).
** Additionally, the final use of any of the martial arts skills -- even the lowly, inexpensive Punch -- does obscene damage. Trouble with a partlicular boss? Buy some cheap Punches, burn them down to a single use... and then hang on to them until you're ready to unleash unbelievable damage.
** Earlier in the game, if your monster class started out as the Baby Dragon, eating the first dungeon's boss' meat and then the Ashura's outpost boss' meat will make them into a powerful monster that will wreck everything and resist all damage for the next 3-4 worlds. This also applies to "sub-boss" enemies that have meat drops, including the fixed encounters in the [[spoiler:Guardians Base, Sewers and Dragon Races]] gaining you access to more powerful monsters than you should have at those points in the game.
** Minor example, the first town (outside your hometown) sells Gold gauntlets, which can be afforded with a little bit of money farming. Since any piece of equipment of the same material provides the same defense boost to robots (i.e. Gold gauntlets are just as good as much more expensive Gold body armor), put these on your robot and put him at the front of your party for some nice early physical tanking.
** With a bit of grinding money in the first world, the SMG from the second town will destroy most enemy groups in one attack for the next two worlds. Equip it on a robot and it has essentially unlimited use. Even better, right after the town where you can buy it, there is a dungeon that has large enemy groups allowing you to rack up a ton of money quickly.
** Buying and equipping the complete set of Giants Armor in the 3rd world on a character will give them a ridiculous strength and defense total, so they can hardly be touched by enemies for a while. Even better if you have a Robot in the party since the cheapest piece, the gauntlets, are just as good as the helm or body armor to them.
* DismantledMacGuffin: The MAGI are pieces of the legendary statue of the goddess Isis.
* DoWellButNotPerfect: You ''will'' want a TotalPartyKill at least once before [[spoiler: reaching Odin]] if you want to see a few extra scenes.
* DubNameChange: Among others, Sensei becomes Mr. S, Olivia becomes Flora, Denpachi becomes Kame, and The Goddess becomes Isis. This is due to namespace conventions, allowing a max of four characters.
* DungeonTown: Sort of. You can encounter random battles outside of buildings in the Desert Town.
* EleventhHourSuperpower: Your final NPC is [[spoiler: the Goddess Isis herself]]. With 99 in every stat, one Flare spell can wipe out most enemies in the game.
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The Guardians' base.
* EliteTweak: Martial arts moves are deliberately built to not only become more powerful when you use the last use of one, but to increase the power of future uses of said moves when you buy another "batch" of them. Problem is, ordinarily, that you normally have to burn through a huge number of uses (for example, 90 punches, when the cap for uses of other weapons is 50) to get to that point. However, there are tweaks to plow through the uses faster, allowing someone with enough patience and cash ([[spoiler:and a robot in the party]]) to suddenly have fists that could decimate gods in the first few hours of the game.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The Desert Town is a town in a desert. The Final Town is, but the Final Dungeon isn't. The Nasty Dungeon [[ThatOneLevel very much deserves its name]].
* {{Excalibur}}: One of the game's best weapons, a sword with infinite uses and the ability to attack an entire group.
* {{Expy}}: With his [[http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c393/amadeus_of_dk/saga4.jpg leather jacket, fedora, and whip]], the protagonist's heroic, treasure-hunting father takes more than a couple of cues from Franchise/IndianaJones.
* FantasticVoyagePlot: Enemies micronize to enter Ki's body. Your party does the same in order to save her.
* FantasyKitchenSink: Frequently used in the series as a whole, but the deity lineup in this installment provides a good example: Ashura/Asura (Indian), Venus and Apollo (Roman), and Odin (Nordic). The English translation continues the theme by naming the Goddess Isis (originally Egyptian, which clashes with a her look and mismatched weaponry).
* FireIceLightning: There are spells called Fire, Ice, and Thunder, and enemies or your own Mutants can have weaknesses or immunity to them. Mutants will also start off with Blizzard (male) or Flame (female) which hit all enemies but are slightly weaker than the single-group spells.
* FixedDamageAttack: While there is a slight bit of randomness, the Glass sword completely ignores physical defense and the O-Weapon skill (which halves physical damage) and deals about 1000-1050 damage. The Laser gun similarly ignores any defense and skills, always dealing damage in the upper 300s.
* FloatingContinent: The entire world is made up of these smaller worlds floating in the sky, connected by Sky Pillars to the Central Temple.
* GambitPileup: [[spoiler:The Guardians misled Apollo by spreading the misinformation that there were 77 Relics, rather than the 78 there actually were. When Apollo obtains 77 and immediately tries using them to transform into a "true god", the incomplete transformation causes him to melt and then explode instead. But the heroes, the Guardians ''and'' Gods were part of Goddess's own GambitRoulette, as she intentionally divided herself into 78 pieces and scattered them around the world precisely to inspire legends and raise heroes strong enough to help her do regular maintenance on the world, the Sky Pillars and the Central Temple. At the end of the story, she divided herself up again so that the entire process could repeat itself sometime in the distant future.]]
* GameBreakingBug: At certain points (specifically, when your MAGI count is at specific numbers) in the game, using the trashcan as an item will act as permanent stat-raising Power and Speed potions. However, if you overdo it, you may permanently screw up your MAGI counter and be unable to progress.
** If you die because of poison, chances are you suddenly find yourself staring down the barrels of Arsenal ''way'' before you're capable of beating it. Even though Odin will revive you when you die, your only real option is to reset.
* GlassWeapon: Like the first game, has the glass sword, an incredibly powerful weapon which breaks after a single use.
* GoodMorningCrono: The game begins with the hero being awakened by their father, who gives them a piece of MAGI and leaves out the window. Played with in that it happens during the middle of the night.
* GratuitousEnglish: In the original Japanese version, a student in ''Nihonbashi'', the town Hana is from, tells you "[[TemptingFate please don't play this game]]" in katakana English.
* GuideDangIt: Good luck finding out how the leveling up system works and how monsters evolve into the one you want without a strategy guide handy.
** Good luck figuring out how the leveling system works ''with'' a strategy guide handy.
** If you can't seem to do enough damage to Apollo to matter, don't worry. [[spoiler:He'll die on his own eventually, so your main objective is not to dish out everything you've got against him, but to survive. Beating the crap out of him just speeds up the inevitable.]]
* GuestStarPartyMember: Several join and leave at various points in the game.
* HappilyAdopted: Possibly, the main character's parents are apparently human; so if the MC is a robot or monster; likely this.
* HealingSpring: In the volcanoes, there are tiles that will heal 100 HP to all party members each time they're used. You can just use them multiple times to restore everyone to max.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Dad on two occasions]], though it's not a permanent loss.
* HubLevel: The Celestial World, which connects to each of the game's independent worlds.
* HyperspaceArsenal: Applies to both the common inventory and each characters' personal one; it's particularly hard to explain, for example, how characters can conceal a Leopard 2 battle tank.
* ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin: Due to Nintendo censorship, the opium being smuggled in the Edo World is '''bananas''' in the North American version. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d somewhat, as a townsperson wonders why bananas would be illegal in the first place.
** In the remake it's just called black market goods. Which would also include Opium, but mostly the expensive as hell weapons and armor Echigoya normally sells. And bananas.
* ImperfectRitual: [[spoiler:Apollo]] assembles the MAGI to become all powerful, but doesn't realize that [[spoiler:he is missing one of them]]. Because of this, his OneWingedAngel form is flawed and the heroes are able to defeat him.
* InfinityMinusOneSword: The {{Excalibur}} mentioned above; it's found in a treasure chest near the end of the game.
** The Gungnir can be found a little earlier than the Excalibur and is like an Infinity Minus Two [[strike:Sword]] Spear. The damage calculation is exactly the same as the Excalibur, although it only has 30 uses rather than infinity.
* InfinityPlusOneSword: The Seven Sword, a rare drop from a fairly rare enemy in the final area of the game.
* InventoryManagementPuzzle: The common inventory is 16 items instead of 8 like the previous game, however this gets problematic at the Nasty Dungeon.
** Mutants have this in and of themselves, being able to carry up to only 4-7 items. They will develop up to 4 abilities in empty slots, with new abilities replacing the bottom-most one if they have the maximum of 4 or no more inventory space. Some players prevent them from learning 4 abilities by filling up all their item slots, since it can be limiting to only have 4 actual equipment slots.
* ItemCaddy: The robot halves the number of uses for an item when it goes into his inventory, but the item heals back up to half at the inn.
* JerkassGods: The most prominent villains are tyrannical gods. Also subverted in that there are mostly nice ones like Isis and Odin.
* LastDiscMagic: The Flare and slightly weaker P-Blast spells which are [[spoiler:normally]] gotten near the end of the game. Not only are they the most powerful magic and hit all enemies in a battle, but the fact that they are non-elemental is a huge asset considering that in the late game many enemies are immune to any elemental magic.
* LethalLavaLand: Features not one, but two volcanoes.
* LighterAndSofter: Compared to the first of the ''[=SaGa=]'' series. [[spoiler: EverybodyLives (except a few {{Red Shirt}}s) in this game. Well, everybody who wasn't evil and corrupted by the MAGI, anyway.]]
* LostForever: The extremely useful "Flame" and "Blizzard" skills that Mutants start the game with cannot be relearned if they're replaced.
* LoveTriangle: Flora/Nills/Leon (Olivia/Julius/Anthony in Japan).
* MagikarpPower: The martial arts weapons like Punch, Kick, etc. They start out weak, doing little to no damage, but get stronger as they are used up, and the last use will deal a ridiculous amount of damage.
* MacguffinDeliveryService: [[spoiler:As part of his plan to collect all of the MAGI, Apollo lets your party find most of it, even helping them along at certain points - then takes it all from them in the final world in a HostageForMacGuffin ploy.]]
* TheManBehindTheMan: The Magnate, to the bumbling and corrupt Shogun.
* MechanicallyUnusualClass: Robots and monsters. A robot's stats are dependent on their equipment, so equipping multiple types of the same item will (usually) boost the relevant stat, like equipping swords for strength or shields for defense. This means their power tends to rise dramatically when you get new gear, but they won't level up with your party and there's a hard cap on their abilities due to limited gear.
** Monsters can't raise their stats either, but by eating meat they change forms completely. With a bit of luck or a guide, they can become very powerful by eating the right meats, and they don't need any items or equipment. On the other hand, without a guide every meat is a crapshoot that could turn your badass demon lord into a useless fly if you're not careful.
* NonIndicativeDifficulty: While one might think a faster dragon is better in the Dragon Race, picking a faster dragon makes it more difficult. The faster dragons must fight more rather tough mid-bosses than the slower ones. On slower dragons, some of these encounters are taken care of by the other racers, and on the slowest, the player only needs to fight the last one. No matter which dragon the player chooses, they will win the race as long as they can make it to the finish line.
* NoobCave: To the north of your hometown.
* OffscreenTeleportation: much more {{Fridge Logic}}ky here than in most other [=RPGs=], since nobody else in the game ever seems to be possibly able to possess enough MAGI to travel from one world to another.
* OneWingedAngel: [[spoiler:Apollo, once the MAGI kick in.]]... but if you play defensively, it turns out to be a ClippedWingAngel.
* PhysicalGod: Multiple, and many attempting to become such.
* PlotCouponThatDoesSomething: The MAGI have a variety of gameplay-relevant uses. Many of them raise a particular stat or provide protection against an element, others can teleport you to previous worlds or even be used as a weapon.
* PointOfNoContinues: Your game will be immediately and truly over if your party can't survive anymore after defeating Odin at Valhalla Palace!
* PortTown: Apollo's world has one.
* PublicDomainArtifact: The Square mainstays--{{Excalibur}}, UsefulNotes/MuramasaAndMasamune, are here. Also, the sword-type enemies in the game are all named after legendary weapons.
** In the original version, the Samurai bow is called the Yoichi bow.
** Gungnir is present, and used by Odin himself. One can be found for use by your own party.
* RandomEncounters: Frustratingly, (depending on Game Boy model) you can have one right as you load the game, if you're in any non-town area.
** Frustratingly is most definitely the wrong word. This was EXPLOITABLE. Saving the game and restarting the system reset the RNG - so if the first encounter on turning on the system was a battle that gave you a stat bonus (or item drop), saving and then restarting the system was GUARANTEED to trigger the same battle with the same reward. Finding a battle with a HP, Strength, or Agility increase and exploiting it in the first couple worlds would give you a character with 999 HP, 99 Strength, 99 Agility, creating both a DiscOneNuke and GameBreaker.
* RareCandy: Body potions raise a character's maximum HP by 40 points. Power, Speed, and Magic potions raise a character's strength, agility, or mana respectively by three points. Can only be used on humans or mutants.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: You can have them in your party, even as the protagonist.
* {{Samurai}}: Taro/Ronin.
* SadBattleMusic: The fight with "Ninja" in the world after Guardian Base.
* SaveScumming: Depending on which model Game Boy you're using, may be useful in raising your party's stats quickly.
* SayMyName: F L O R A ! ! !
* SecretOtherFamily: [[spoiler:Lynn turned out to be the daughter in what appeared to be Dad's second family, and the main character assumed the worst of him at first. Turns out that the family was Mask's family, and Dad was helping care for them in Mask's absence.]]
* SelfImposedChallenge: Using intentionally unbalanced parties (such as four robots or four monsters) is a popular form of self-imposed challenge with this game.
* SequenceBreaking: See GoodBadBugs, no longer above, but can be found at sites like [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/gameboy/585710-final-fantasy-legend-ii/cheats GameFAQs]] under "Mid-Game Warp".
* ShipLevel: The Edo world, where you raid [[spoiler: Echigoya]]'s ship.
* ShoutOut:
** The entire Edo world is basically a shout out to Japanese detective and samurai movies.
** The main character has to keep telling people that he isn't really interested in collecting the Relics, [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade but is looking for his father]].
* SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: You can equip items on your temporary party members, but you can't remove them once you do. You can also use [[RareCandy stat potions]] on them, albeit it is a waste unless all your human/mutant characters have the potion's applicable stat maxed (or you simply don't have any humans/mutants in your main party).
* SorryILeftTheBGMOn: While your party eavesdrops on Echigoya and the Shogun's evil plan, suitably evil dungeon music plays. It's replaced by a more heroic theme just before the party barges in, and the villains wonder aloud where the music is coming from.
* SoundOfNoDamage: Metallic "ping" whenever a physical attack is blocked by a shield or otherwise does no damage (the latter accompanied by the text "No damage.")
* SourceMusic: The music played on the jukeboxes must be being played in-universe, as at one point in the story a specific tune is needed to advance the plot.
* SpaceElevator: The Pillar of Sky.
* StatGrinding: Humans and mutants have a chance to gain stats at the end of battle based on their last action, so using strength-based weapons gives you strength, agility-based gives agility, and spellbooks gain mana. Using a shield actually has a small chance of giving a defense gain. Everything else does nothing (and mutants almost never gain strength), so unless you already know how it works, good luck. Also, which weapons are strength, agility, or mana based is never listed in-game, so testing them on robots is really the only way to be sure what you're getting.
** The game [[AllThereInTheManual originally came with a reference card]] that listed all the weapons and what stat they use to deal damage. It didn't help people who bought used copies, though.
** Thankfully the remake tells you flat out what stats and multipliers each weapon uses. The only remaining ones that aren't so clear are bows and martial arts/taijutsu (which deal fixed damage but increase agility) and whips (which have strength damage multipliers, but increase agility).
** One way in any version of the game to find out which stat a weapon can boost is to equip it on a robot. Whichever stat it boosts on a robot is the one that can randomly be increased when the weapon is used by a human or mutant, with a few exceptions for the Defender and P-swords.
* StealthPun: The Seven Sword; the kanji for "to cut" consists of the kanji for "seven" and "sword".
* [[SolveTheSoupCans Soup Cans]]: one may still have to look at a guide to figure out what weapons level up which stat.
* TankGoodness: Eventually, you can equip(!) a Leopard 2 tank (referred to just as "Tank" in the American version) as a weapon. It works like a shield and deals massive damage to one group.
* TeaserEquipment: Two minor examples. The Giants' world sells Giant equipment which is far more expensive and far better than anything else you will be able to afford for quite a while. Echigoya's shop about 2/3 of the way through the game sells equipment that isn't sold until the final town, though [[spoiler: it eventually becomes unavailable]]. In both cases the equipment is quite expensive but not unreasonably so, but it will take a lot of cash grinding to get.
* TokenGoodTeammate: [[spoiler: Odin]] turns out to be the only New God who isn't evil. And even he [[spoiler: ends up challenging you to a fight to the death, though for honorable reasons.]]
* TooAwesomeToUse: The Nuclear Bomb and Glass Sword weapons, which are one-time use items which end up being impractical for the final battle, since they take up valuable inventory space.
** There's also the Hyper cannon, which wins any non-boss battle (even mini-boss battles are fine), but it can only be used three times and there's only one in ''the whole game''. Since the Hyper Cannon had 3 charges, it could be given to a robot, resulting in a permanent Hyper with 1 charge that would refill on resting. Only the fact that most story bosses were immune to it kept this from becoming a Game Breaker.
* TurnUndead: The Prayer spell book, which is as powerful as a Flare spell book but only works on undead.
* UndergroundMonkey: Most monsters have five different tiers, all with the same sprite but different names/stats/abilities.
* UnnamedParent: The protagonist's father.
* UnstableEquilibrium: The fastest characters (those with the highest agility) in your party usually end up only getting further ahead, since they will always get a turn in battle (you have to act in battle to have any chance of a stat gain) and the slower characters might not.
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Monsters and robots are every bit as common in town as humans. Not to mention the fact that your main character can be a monster with two human parents, and no one even brings up the matter.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Leon/Anthony. The remake gave him a shirt.
* WickedCultured: Venus embraces this. Also, [[spoiler: Apollo]] qualifies.
* {{Wutai}}: Edo World. Also, Lin's town in the remake.
* YouAreWhoYouEat: Monsters transform this way, although the form they change to is rarely that of the monster they just ate meat from.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After you clear the North Cave, Mr. S stays behind to guard your hometown. He stands in the cave for the rest of the game, preventing you from returning.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: The party defeats Ashura, who the story appears to set up as the BigBad, in the second world.
* ZeroEffortBoss: [=BabyWyrm=], the first boss, can be easily one-shot by Mr. S. He even seems pleased with himself when you ask him for advice after that. Averted in the remake, where he could take a little more, unless your characters can do enough damage to one-turn kill him.

!!The remake provides examples of:

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Compared to the original release,
** Characters can choose to do nothing on their turn, rather than being forced to use an item if they have anything usable.
** If the enemies drop meat and there are no monsters in the party, the game will simply acknowledge that instead of redundantly asking the player whether they want to eat it.
* BalefulPolymorph: Occurs to your party when you first run into the muse Thaleia.
* BareYourMidriff: Human Females playable characters; the muses Repsira, Melmene, Leio, and Pollynia; The Goddess.
* BeehiveBarrier: Shields which protect the entire party form this effect when activated.
* {{Bishonen}}: Want a male human or male esper character who looks [[BigBeautifulMan burly]] or [[RatedMForManly manly]]? Tough luck -- ''all'' your possible appearance choices appear impossibly skinny with androgynous faces. Granted, these characters are not ''quite'' adults, but a great many teenagers in any country look nothing like this [[HollywoodHomely and still look perfectly alright]].
* BloodKnight: Repsira, she will award points for fighting while allies have fallen in combat.
* BonusBoss: The Arena of the Dead; souped up versions of bosses you already fought; the only reason to challenge it is to get an item based on your team status (Using Threads of Fate). All weapons/spellbooks/items and threads consumed during the battle are returned to you afterwards. Extremely easy to exploit given that some bosses are weak to petrification (Ashura Soul for example)
* BookEnds: In addition to the existing bookend, the remake as another one during its pre-title screen cutscene, which shows the protagonist's father as he makes his journey, which mirrors the game's ending which has a journey to the same places, but in reverse.
* BossRush: The Soul's Dark Regions features up to five battles in a row. While most of these are just souped up regular monster encounters some of the trials will feature mutiple bosses in a row.
* CombinationAttack: One of the bigger gameplay changes is the ability to sometimes link player attacks for additional damage.
* DinosaursAreDragons: Played ludicrously straight during the Dragon Race.
* DiscOneNuke: As long as you can defeat a boss that you're not meant to (hint: use martial arts), the Arena of the Dead can earn you free weapons and armor that you are not supposed to have at that point in the game.
* FashionableAsymmetry: The Female Humans.
* FetchQuest: Many of the [[SideQuest "Free Scenarios"]].
* GatlingGood: The Vulcan Canon. While it appeared in the first game as well, only in the remake can you see it in all its enemy-killing glory.
* GayOption: ''Kinda''. There are changing interpersonal relationship dynamics between the [[TrueCompanions party]]'s characters, with bonds like family, love, friendship, hate, strife, etc. The love dynamic can be between any two characters, and [[EveryoneIsBi gender is irrelevant]], [[InterspeciesRomance as is species]] or [[{{Robosexual}} being a robot]]. Considering [[VideoGame/HarvestMoon the PR schizophrenia]] over even a ''[[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship hinted]]'' [[GetBackInTheCloset gay relationship]] in a DS game partially [[MoralGuardians marketed at children]], one can see how this might have complicated [[NoExportForYou bringing the game to the West]].
* {{Geisha}}: Erato, complete with Shamisen.
* GogglesDoNothing: Several of the models for human player characters.
* HornedHairdo: Venus.
* InconsistentDub: The fan translation has some bizarre naming choices, which may be product of never being entirely finished. The majority of names are reverted to the Japanese originals, but Isis keeps her DubNameChange. Conversely, the "Killer" enemies are given a DubNameChange to "Cutthroats", when they didn't originally have one. Most bafflingly, the key item that shrinks the party normally uses its awkward Japanese name of "Become Small", but uses its English name of "Micronizer" in the story recap.
* KillSat: The Hyper Cannon/Wave Cannon is shown to be one.
* LaserBlade: The “Laser” sword, which was actually called a lightsaber in Japan, now looks just like one, too.
* MadeOfExplodium: Every boss: the rhino, Ashura, Dunatis, even a ninja. If it has boss music, it explodes.
%%* NewGamePlus
* PaletteSwap: There are four different color palettes available for every playable Human, Esper, and Robot design. Several Mooks also qualify.
* PreexistingEncounters: Replacing random encounters.
* RedOniBlueOni: The muses Polynia and Melmene. Polynia will award you points for dealing large amounts of damage while Melmene will award points for taking minimal damage (Defending and Parrying).
* RelationshipValues: An important, yet not essential, part of the refitted combat system, which affects your chances of getting different special items.
* RobotGirl: The muse Euter. Complete with [[LeetLingo online chat speak]] such as Plz and using the number 4 instead of the word for.
* SheatheYourSword: The only way to defeat the muse Repsira.
* ShoutOut: One particular armor in the remake is the "Barrier Jacket", which raises Spirit (Mana) and protects you from magic. Say hi to [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha Nanoha]] for us.
** Also one of the human female palettes you can have is of Asellus from ''VideoGame/{{SaGa Frontier}}'' (green hair, pink clothing).
** One robot palette is suspiciously a shade of dark green like [[Franchise/{{Gundam}} Zaku]] units.
* TooAwesomeToUse: Unlike the previous version, most single-drop weapons like the Gungnir, Muramasa, Yoichi Bow (Samurai Bow), Glass Sword and Wave Cannon (Hyper) are now also pre-set drops from the Arena of the Dead or random drops from the Soul's Dark Regions, both of which can be repeated to your heart's content.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Male Espers.
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* BlindIdiotTranslation: Not quite the same depth as ''VideoGame/{{Makai Toshi SaGa}}'' suffered, but it still needs a rewrite.

* TheCameo: The [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI Death Machine]] appears as a boss battle in the dungeon south of Final Town. It had also previously appeared as a boss in ''Makai Toshi [=SaGa=].'' (In ''[=SaGa=] 2,'' this enemy's depiction is a new illustration including the digit "2" painted on the side of the machine.)

* ZettaiRyouiki: Several variations of the Female Espers; Lin.

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* BookEnds: The game both begins and ends with the protagonist's father announcing that he will be off to search for a legendary item. [[spoiler: During the ending, however, both the protagonist and their mother decide that they'll be joining him.]]