SaGa 2

Humans,~~mutant~~ espers, robots and monsters? Awesome.

Full Name: SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu ("Treasure Legend"). The second game in the SaGa series for the Game Boy, released in North America as Final Fantasy 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 RPG's, thanks in part to the (at the time) 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 other, you'd be in a world inspired by medieval Japan, taking part in a detective story.

In 2009, the game was remade for the Nintendo DS for the series' 20th anniversary, with upgraded graphics, tweaked gameplay elements, new characters, designs by The World Ends With You's Gen Kobayashi, and a new name: SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu: Goddess of Destiny. Although it will never come out on western shores, thanks to Unlimited Saga and Romancing SaGa bombing hard, Fan Translation group Crimson Nocturnal has translated it.

Tropes used in SaGa 2 include:

Absurdly Spacious Sewer: There's one in Venus' world.
Affably Evil: Apollo. Venus to a lesser extent, but she's a more obvious Rich Bitch who's full of herself.
After Combat Recovery: Characters killed in battle are revived with 1 HP afterward.
All Myths Are True: Subverted twice: first in the Port Town in Apollo's world, where the inhabitants think that an undersea volcano is actually the god Neptune, and the second when it is revealed that 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.
Almighty Janitor: Literally! The Goddess's primary purpose of existence is to maintain and repair the world as necessary.
And the Adventure Continues...
Anti-Grinding: Done via Breakable Weapons: every useable battle command has a limited number of uses, be it a shield, Spell Book or weapon. As such, every battle costs money... and you might not earn enough of it back to make Level Grinding financially practical. (Of course, this also raised the difficulty level, since if That One Boss was giving you trouble, you just had to bull through it...)
Arranged Marriage: The the thrust of the Mini-Story of Venus' World is the arranged marriage between Flora/Olivia and Nils/Julius, despite the former's love for Leon/Anthony.
A Taste of Power: Mr. S can 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.
Badass in a Nice Suit: Apollo
Badass Teacher: Mr. S.
Bag of Sharing: 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.
Big Bad: 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.
Big Good: The Goddess, called Isis in the 1991 localization. She comes back to life with the assembly of her statue.
Blackout Basement: Inverted. There's a cave that's so bright that you can't see anything unless you have a certain MAGI.
Blessed with Suck: Mutants can randomly acquire weaknesses to elements.
Blind Idiot Translation: It could be worse, but it still needs a rewrite. Spruced up in the Fan Translation.
Book Ends: The game ends as the protagonists' father announces that he will be off to search for a legendary item. Unlike the first time, however, both the protagonist and his/her/its mother decide that they'll be joining him.
Boring Return Journey
Boss in Mook Clothing: The Haniwa - a unique enemy in the final area - is definitely challenging enough to be a boss in its own right. It also possesses the elusive 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 Secret Other Family implication was not lost on every young gamer, even in English.
Breakable Weapons: One of the series' characteristics. All weapons except for the Xcalibr and spellbooks have a limited number of uses.
Broken Bridge: You must collect of all the MAGI in a given world before you can open the door to the next.
Broken Pedestal: At one point, the hero believes (mistakenly) that Dad abandoned the family to play hero and have an affair with Lynn's mother.
Bubbly Clouds: Valhalla.
The Cameo: The Death Machine appears as a boss battle in the dungeon south of Final Town. It had also previously appeared as a boss in Makai Toushi SaGa. (In SaGa 2, this enemy's depiction is a new illustration including the digit "2" painted on the side of the machine.)
Captain Ersatz: Dad is a traveling Adventurer Archaeologist who wears a hat and carries a whip (albeit an electric shock whip), and has previously found the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail.
Chainsaw Good
Chinese Girl: Lynn/Lin.
Convection, Schmonvection: 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.
Crutch Character: 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.
Damsel in Distress: Lynn, a couple times.
Death Is a Slap on The Wrist / Reset Button: 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 Game Over.
  - 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 you'll just jump into the fight without any dialogue.
Death Seeker: Odin.
Degraded Boss: Some "bosses", especially early on are normal enemies from later worlds.
Disappeared Dad: What essentially sets the story into motion.
- Lynn has one as well. In the ending it turns out to be Mask.
Disc One Nuke: 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).
- Additionally, the final use of any of the martial arts skills -- even the lowly, inexpensive Punch -- does obscene damage. Wanna kill That One 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.
- 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).
Dub Name Change: Among others, Sensei becomes Mr. S, Olivia becomes Flora, Denpachi becomes Kame, and The Goddess becomes Isis.
Dungeon Town: Sort of. You can encounter random battles outside of buildings in the Desert Town.
Eleventh-Hour Superpower: Your final NPC is the Goddess Isis herself. With 99 in every stat, she can wipe out most enemies in the game with one Flare spell.
Elaborate Underground Base: The Guardians' base.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Contains subversions and straight examples. The Desert Town is a town in a desert. The Final Town plays it straight, but the Final Dungeon doesn't. The Nasty Dungeon very much deserves its name. The First Town and 2nd Town play it straight if you don't count your hometown as being the first town you visit.
Excalibur: One of the game's best weapons, a sword with infinite uses and the ability to attack an entire group.
Expy: With his leather jacket, fedora, and whip, the protagonist's heroic, treasure-hunting father takes more than a couple of cues from Indiana Jones.
Fantastic Voyage: Enemies micronize to enter Ki's body, your party does the same in order to save her.
Fantasy Kitchen Sink: 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).
Fixed Damage Attack: 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.
Floating Continent: The entire world is made up of these smaller worlds floating in the sky, connected by Sky Pillars to the Central Temple.
Game Breaking Bug: 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.
Good Morning, Crono: The game begins with the hero being awakened by his/her/its father, who gives him/her/it a piece of MAGI and leaves out the window.
- Played with, though: it's the middle of the night when this happens.
Gratuitous English: In the original Japanese version, a student in Nihonbashi, the town Hana is from, tells you "please don't play this game" in katakana English.
Guide Dang It: 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.
Guest Star Party Member: Several join and leave at various points in the game.
Healing Spring: 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.
Heroic Sacrifice: Dad, twice, although he got better both times.
Hub Level: The Celestial World, which connects to each of the game's independent worlds.
Hyperspace Arsenal: 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.
I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: Due to Nintendo censorship, the opium being smuggled in the Edo World is bananas in the North American version.
- Lampshaded somewhat, as a townsperson comments on 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.
Infinity+1 Sword: The Seven Sword, a rare drop from a fairly rare enemy in the final area of the game.
Item Caddy: 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.
Kenji Ito: His first game music composition.
Lethal Lava Land: Features not one, but two volcanoes.
Love Triangle: Flora/Nills/Leon (Olivia/Julius/Anthony in Japan).
Magikarp Power: The martial arts weapons like Punch, Kick, etc. They start out weak, doing little or no damage, but get stronger as they are used up, and the last use will deal a ridiculous amount of damage.
MacGuffin Delivery Service: 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 Hostage for Macguffin ploy.
The Man Behind the Man: The Magnate, to the bumbling and corrupt Shogun.
Miyamoto Musashi: The last samurai-style mooks you fight are named after him.
Nobuo Uematsu: Composed half the soundtrack; Kenji Ito composed the other half. The Japanese version of That Other Wiki lists who composed which songs.
Noob Cave: To the north of your hometown.
Offscreen Teleportation: much more FridgeLogicky 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.
One-Winged Angel: Apollo, once the MAGI kick in.... but if you play defensively, it turns out to be a Clipped-Wing Angel.
Physical God: Multiple, and many attempting to become such.
Plot Coupon That Does Something: 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.
Port Town: Apollo's world has one.
Public Domain Artifacts: The Square mainstays--Excalibur, Masamune, and Muramasa, 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.
Rare Candy: 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.
Ridiculously-Human Robots: You can have them in your party, even as the protagonist.
Samurai: Taro/Ronin.
Save Scumming: Depending on which model Game Boy you're using, may be useful in raising your party's stats quickly.
Say My Name: F L O R A ! ! !
Secret Other Family: 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.
Sequence Breaking: See Good Bad Bugs, no longer above, but can be found at sites like GameFAQs under "Mid-Game Warp".
Ship Level: The Edo world, where you raid Echigoya's ship.
Shout-Out: The entire Edo world is basically a shout out to Japanese detective and samurai movies.
So Long and Thanks For All the Gear: You can equip items on your temporary party members, but you can't remove them once you do.
Sorry I Left the BGM On: 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.
Sound of No Damage: Metallic "ping" whenever a physical attack is blocked by a shield or otherwise does no damage (the latter accompanied by the text "No damage."
Space Elevator: The Pillar of Sky.
Stat Grinding: The leveling up system is a fairly early version of this...it's complex for a game boy game, but thankfully many games do not function like this anymore...because you are not actually guaranteed stats to increase; only the last two actions mutants and humans make can be leveled; and good luck finding out what weapons level up which stat, because some swords you would think level up your strength but they really level up your agility.
- The game 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.
Soup Cans: one may still have to look at a guide to figure out what weapons level up which stat.
Tank Goodness: Eventually, you can equip(!) a Leopard 2 tank (referred to just as "Tank" in the American version) as a weapon.
Too Awesome to Use: 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.
- The Glass sword actually is pretty practical for the final battle, since it ignores the O-All skill and ridiculous defense that the final boss has.
- 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.
Turn Undead: The Prayer spell book, which is as powerful as a Flare spell book but only works on undead.
Unnamed Parent: The protagonist's father.
Unstable Equilibrium: 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.
Unusually Uninteresting Sight: 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.
Useless Useful Spell: Somewhat subverted, as certain bosses are vulnerable to Sleep, Paralysis, and Stone.
- Gambit Pileup: The Guardians misled Apollo by spreading the misinformation that there were 77 Relics, rather than the 78 there actually were. This destroys Apollo instead. But the heroes, the Guardians and Gods were part of Goddess's own Gambit Roulette, 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.
Walking Shirtless Scene: Leon/Anthony. The remake gave him a shirt.
Wicked Cultured: Venus embraces this. Also, Apollo qualifies.
Wutai: Edo World. Also, Lin's town in the remake.
You Can't Go Home Again: 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.
Your Princess Is in Another Castle: The party defeats Ashura, who the story appears to set up as the Big Bad, in the second world.

The remake provides examples of:

Baleful Polymorph: Occurs to your party when you first run into the muse Thaleia.
Bare Your Midriff: Human Females playable characters; the muses Repsira, Melmene, Leio, and Pollynia; The Goddess.
Beehive Barrier: Shields which protect the entire party form this effect when activated.
Bishonen: Want a male human or male esper character who looks burly or manly? Tough luck -- all your possible appearance 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 and still look perfectly alright.
Blood Knight: Repsira, she will award points for fighting while allies have fallen in combat.
Bonus Boss: 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)
Book Ends: 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 parallels the game's ending.
Combination Attack: One of the bigger gameplay changes is the ability to sometimes link player attacks for additional damage.
Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Played ludicrously straight during the Dragon Race.
Fashionable Asymmetry: The Female Humans
Fetch Quest: Many of the "Free Scenarios".
Gatling Good: 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.
Gay Option: Kinda. There are changing interpersonal relationship dynamics between the party's characters, with bonds like family, love, friendship, hate, strife, etc. The love dynamic can be between any two characters, and gender is irrelevant. Considering the PR schizophrenia over even a hinted gay relationship in a DS game partially marketed at children, one can see how this might have complicated bringing the game to the West.
Geisha: Erato, complete with Shamisen.
Goggles Do Nothing: Several of the models for human player characters.
Horned Hairdo: Venus.
Hot Dad: Dad.
Kill Sat: The Hyper Cannon/Wave Cannon is shown to be one.
Laser Sword: The “Laser” sword, which was actually called a lightsaber in Japan, now looks just like one, too.
Made of Explodium: Every boss: the rhino, Ashura, Dunatis, even a ninja. If it has boss music, it explodes.
New Game+
Palette Swap: Every available character for your party, and several mooks.
Preexisting Encounters: Replacing random encounters.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: 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).
Relationship Values: An important, yet not essential, part of the refitted combat system, which affects your chances of getting different special items.
Robot Girl: The muse Euter. Complete with online chat speak such as Plz and using the number 4 instead of the word for.
Sheathe Your Sword: The only way to defeat the muse Repsira.
Shout-Out: One particular armor in the remake is the "Barrier Jacket", which raises Spirit (Mana) and protects you from magic. Say hi to Nanoha for us.
- Also one of the human female palettes you can have is of Asellus from SaGa Frontier (Green Hair, Pink clothing)
Walking Shirtless Scene: Male Espers.
Video Game Remake
You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Zettai Ryouiki: Several variations of the Female Espers; Lin.