Romancing SaGa 2

"''"This is the Legend of the Seven Heroes... ''Once, they subdued countless hordes of demons, and saved the world... ''And then vanished from it... ''Kujinshi... Subier... Dantarg... Noel... Bokuohn... Rocbouquet... Wagnas... And one day, so they say, they will return to save the world again..." Long after the people were scattered across the world, they told the legend, and were thankful for their salvation... However, as peace and prosperity came, the legend was forgotten... The world of man was once again prosperous. The peaceful times that brought stability to the nations came to an end. An era of division and war began... And the names of the Seven were spoken once more... ''...and then... they came... ...so they say...."

Romancing SaGa 2 is the 5th game in the SaGa series by Squaresoft, released in 1993 for the Super Famicom. It does not focus on just one character but a lineage of an empire.

Initially only released in Japan, the Android and iOS ports were released worldwide in 2016.


 * Action Girl: Lots of them.
 * After-Combat Recovery: This game, as well as subsequent entries in the SaGa series, uses this setup along with free post-battle resurrections, but only with health points: LP is lost every time a character is KO'd and attacked while they're down, or hit with attacks that directly target LP; and once it hits zero that character is gone for good.
 * Anyone Can Die: Due to its multi-generational setup, the game will force you to lose some or all your current party characters permanently due to death from old age or due to the Take Up My Sword trope.
 * Artifact of Doom: The Demonstone Ring. It negates status ailments, but you must sleep in the Emperor's Bed; otherwise, the other party members aside from the wearer loses Life Points at an inn. And it can't be unequipped.
 * Artificial Gill: The Fishman Potion. Cue the annoying Fetch Quest. But as a benefit, you unlock the Nereid Class.
 * Auto-Revive: The Revive spell does this.
 * Back from the Dead: Kzinssie and the Hive Queen, who both receive massive upgrades.
 * Bag of Spilling: Subverted; all the items you are equipped with are sent directly back to storage after completing each generation. It's still annoying to reequip the characters you do have though.
 * Battleship Raid: A Land Battleship!
 * Because Destiny Says So:
 * Beef Gate: The Canal Fortress Gate, which is a door guarded by 4 regenerating monsters. Each time you take down one or two, they will respawn. Destroying the gate will allow you to enter the fortress, but if you do, you cannot recruit the City Thief Class and you will also have trouble finding your way around the fortress. Also, said gate fight will have to be repeated if you leave the area and try to get back in. Pretty much all the Seven Heroes except the first Kzinssie battle are Beef Gates.
 * Big Bad: Wagnus is the leader of the Seven Heroes. Also, he's also the most difficult to fight.
 * Big Creepy-Crawlies: The termites complete with Hive Queen
 * Bonus Dungeon: The Ice/Snow/Sand Ruins, as well as a hidden town which allowed an deeper explanation of the game's backstory.
 * Charm Person: Rocbouquet's Temptation ability charms all males in the party; and there are other techniques as well that can charm allies.
 * The Chessmaster: Bokhohn; as he commands a large number of the monsters under the command of the Seven Heroes.
 * Chosen One
 * Clingy Costume: Subverted. The Iron Will, which can negate mental ailments such as charm but can't be unequipped if gotten through cheats. Some Classes have a permanent 4th item which cannot be removed either
 * Combat Tentacles: One of the abilities Subier has is called Tentacles; and does it hurt!
 * Continuing Is Painful: LP does not replenish by staying at the inn. It's not okay to have a lord running low on LP during an important mission, which can sometimes render the entire quest uncompleted by the next lord.
 * Cool Sword: Moonlight Sword has a healing technique built into it in addition to Moonshades, which shoots out frigid Blue Skulls at the enemy. Dayblade has Holy Light, which deals out HUGE damage to undead monsters.
 * Elemental Powers: You cannot have spells of opposite elements, though.
 * The Empire: You are the ruler this time around!
 * Evil Genius: Bokhohn basically weaseled his way into the group. The man is extremely crafty and an amazing politician.
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * Fallen Heroes: And there are seven of them.
 * Flaming Sword: The Providence Cut Technique.
 * Game Favored Gender: The Final Empress as she will be immune to Rocbouquet's Temptation in the final battle, she also has the Moonlight Sword as the default weapon.
 * Gender Bender: Wagnus is male but his demon form is a very female cross between a human and a butterfly with Vapor Wear covering his very feminine breasts.
 * Generational Saga: The story chronicles a roughly 500-year lineage of emperors.
 * Generation Xerox: This game takes this trope Up to Eleven. It runs on a generational system, but except for Leon, Victor, Gerard, and the Final Emperor/Empress, there will always be the same lines of characters available to provide you quests and similar recruitable characters with Palette Swap to fill your class rosters no matter how many hundreds of years have passed.
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Most of the Seven Heroes show up in quests that tie back into their plans and you can go in expecting to fight them. Dantarg is the exception, however, pretty much showing up to fight you without much buildup or prior warning.
 * Global Currency: Crowns.
 * Gotta Kill Them All: You have to eliminate all Seven Heroes as the story unfolds.
 * Hard Levels Easy Bosses: Enemy grunts scale up as your characters gain health and skill with weapons. Bosses, however, don't. Not to say that the game is devoid of hard bosses though, it's just you will sometimes end up fighting grunts far more dangerous.
 * The Seven Heroes however are the exception, they do become stronger as you level up, the only one who doesn't is Subier, he is upgraded only if you kill Master of Ocean beforehand. Dantarg has 4 forms depending on your stats.
 * Harping on About Harpies: The Irises.
 * Hello, Insert Name Here: Subverted with every character but the final generation ones.
 * Hidden Elf Village: The Village of the Ancients.
 * High Altitude Battle:
 * Horrible Judge of Character: Strange thing is that Noel does not hate Kzinssie at all and STILL sees potential in him.
 * How We Got Here:
 * Idea Bulb: This is the game in the SaGa series that started the system of learning techniques and evasions during battle.
 * Interspecies Romance: Completing the Southsea Mermaid side quest when a male emperor. The current emperor chooses to stay with the mermaid under the sea as the breath potion he took has the side effect of being unable to return to land after three uses. Knowing this, he accepts the fate to be with the mermaid.
 * Lamarck Was Right: The game has a system of inheriting the previous Emperor's abilities. Justified with magic, though.
 * Life Energy: LP, as per the SaGa series standard. Run out of them, and you are as good as dead.
 * Magic Music: The 5 instruments of the bard are packed with this. They are required to meet with the Iris race.
 * Musicalis Interruptus: Dungeon or area music would stop and change to boss music at a certain part of the Dialogue with bosses or the Seven Heroes.
 * Mutually Exclusive Magic: This feature has been carried over from the previous Romancing SaGa game. However, you can combine specific elements if they are not opposite to each other to create new and more powerful spells.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: If you encounter the narwhal without the Toba seashell, you can choose to fight it. However, killing it will allow Subier to assimilate to his much stronger form.
 * No-Gear Level: If you choose to sneak aboard Bokuohn's landship by purposely being abducted. That being said, characters with Stuck Items keep them, making characters like the Molemen a good option for that mission.
 * Non-Human Sidekick:
 * Mole Men
 * Merfolk: The Nereids
 * Salamander
 * Harping on About Harpies: The Irises
 * Our Mermaids Are Different: And how!
 * Palette Swap: Every recruitable character and emperors except Leon, Gellard, Last Emperor/Empress, and a few others...
 * Ruins for Ruins Sake: 3 of them; all sidequests.
 * Samurai: East Guard.
 * Sequential Boss
 * Shout-Out:
 * Sword Fight:
 * Take Up My Sword:
 * Also can happen in later generations if you get a Total Party Kill.
 * The Chessmaster: (Bokuohn; as he commands a large number of the monsters under the command of the Seven Heroes)
 * The Empire: You are the ruler this time around!
 * The Strategist
 * Thieves' Guild: Using the empires' own graveyard as their base of operations
 * Time Skip: From less than a year to 250 years depending on how many enemies you killed.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Gellard,
 * Every person ascending to become Emperor or Empress gets this since it removes any Crippling Overspecialization their initial class would have had (a Squishy Wizard receives more health and proficiency in previous weapons, a Bare-Fisted Monk can handle weapons and use magic, etc.)
 * Trojan Horse:
 * Warrior Prince: You are the Emperor who has to save the world.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: To get the Dark Magic, you must allow the towns of Zemio and Tsukijima to burn. This however causes the Emperor of that time period to abdicate the throne.
 * Wutai: The entire Eastern lands.