Considering that the last chapter in the SaGa series (Unlimited SaGa) was a bit of a mess, we have to at least give Square Enix credit for creating a new games in the series that tried to address many of the weird gameplay issues and graphical inferiority that the previous title was plagued by. While Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song offers its own set of shortcomings, the game is nonetheless leaps and bounds above the last title in the series.

For those who haven't paid attention to this game, Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song is a re-made and reworked 3D game based on the classic Romancing SaGa game released in Japan on the Super Famicom. There are a number of differences between that classic game and this new one - both in terms of gameplay and graphical prowess, but the overall spirit of the original lives on in this new and imagined release.

Like the original, Romancing SaGa is set in the colorful world of Mardias, an ancient land filled with all manner of humanoids (and more recently, as the story goes - monsters!) including townsfolk of all shape and size, noblemen, lizard folk, barbarians, pirates, and nomads that wander the lands looking to entertain.

It is from this cast of characters that eight protagonists rise into the limelight and take the main hero roles in the game. Players can choose from a young nobleman named Albert, a nomad girl named Aisha, an adventurer named Gray, a ranger named Claudia, a thief named Jamil, a female barbarian named Sif, a pirate named Hawke, and a dancer named Barbara. Each character offers different companions at the start of the game, and some have special ways of traveling around the world (the pirate gets a ship, for example). Some of the main characters are pretty well fleshed out, while others are given a pretty vague background story. No matter who you choose, you'll have your footsteps set towards saving the world from an ancient evil that recently found a way to be unleashed.

Some of the characters in the game will give you a different perspective on the game's main story arc, and there's a chance that you'll be able to bring one of several main characters into your party (a neat idea if you're interested in trying them before actually "trying them on their own"), but the story remains unaffected (for the most part) despite it.

The main story arc for the game weaves a tale of ancient gods and dark, dark times for the inhabitants of Mardias. In ancient times there were three evil gods who waged war against the "good gods" and caused chaos through the entire realm. Two of these evil gods were easily defeated, but the third god (Saruin) was more powerful than the rest and could only be defeated by the god of all gods - Elore. Elore, with the help of powerful artifacts called destiny stones, sealed the bested god away. As is the case with evil things, Saruin slowly wore away the power that bound him, and as 1000 years passed it became more apparent to the inhabitants of this fantasy world that soon he would be free.

... And that's about all the story you get in Romancing SaGa. The game then sends the character you've chosen, usually with a couple of companions at the start of your journey, on a series of quests to fetch things, find more companions, and talk to hundreds of NPCs with the hope of unearthing more quests. Quest are important for skill development, because you gets "jewels" when you complete them - and jewels allow you to purchase new skills... and some quests require special skills to complete. So if you find yourself not finding a quest sometimes it can feel difficult to progress any further. This is, after all, is a side affect of being dropped into such an open-ended game world. This open-ended kind of gameplay can be fun, but the problem is that the game comes off as not having any kind of focus or direction. To be fair, there are a lot of secrets to uncover, lots of side quests and plenty of special things that you'll only figure out by playing. Depending on your perspective, you'll either love the game's open-endedness or loathe it..

Combat is a big part of Romancing SaGa because a good portion of your time will be spent fighting off countless hordes of monsters. Players can have up to five characters in a party at once, and since you'll sometimes be fighting stacks of enemies, you'll want to have a moderately big party to survive. Players initiate combat by running into enemies on the world map. If a player encounters multiple enemies they will have to fight them all off or run away - but running away has a cost all its own (more on that in a minute).

Combat is turn-based, so players have to plan out carefully what to do each turn while conserving special points for things like magics and special skill attacks. Once you hit the confirm button, all the attacks you chose will be played out and the enemy will take its turn. Since you can equip multiple weapons (like in other SaGa titles), players can have a myriad of weapon specific attacks at their disposal. Use a weapon long enough and you'll learn some cool new skills and attacks that will make battles easier.

There are a lot of different attacks you can learn in the game, and it's always smart to use a weapon until you've mastered it, so sticking with one weapon of choice is always a wise idea - plus carrying multiple weapons can weigh you down - and traveling light is just good horse sense..