GameShark | PlayStation 2 | Reviews | Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song Review

Using these special moves does cost you battle points and durability points on the weapon you're using too. Characters earn a certain amount of these battle points (or BP), so using them in one round and then using a basic attack is always a good idea because BPs regenerate over time. Sadly a weapon's durability points don't regenerate, and if they reach zero you won't be able to use it until it is repaired. Weapons can only be repaired by taking them to an Inn or a weapon shop, so paying attention to that is of great importance. This is one of the odd elements in Romancing SaGa that just doesn't make any sense.

Interestingly, hit points regenerate after each battle is over, so players don't have to worry about quaffing potions or using healing skills after each fight is done. If a player is bested (loses all their hit points) in battle they get knocked out and are unusable during the combat round. When a player gets beat in combat they lose life points, or LP, and if they lose too many, they'll die forever. You can replenish life points at an inn, but that's a real pain when you're out in the field and have to return to town to keep your party members from disappearing forever (which is what happens when your life points hit 0). Running from battle and some traps will take life points away as well. This is the second game element that really throws the entire fighting formula off its axis.

As you fight off monsters out in the world, your basic battle stats climb and you grow. Stats including stamina, hit points, dexterity, and charisma increase and goodies like gold and jewels will be rewarded. As we mentioned already jewels are used to buy skills and level up your character class. The class system is pretty open-ended in the game, but getting too creative can be a real gamble considering that jewels aren't as plentiful as they should be. You can also level up skills independently and gold can be used to buy field skills that give you extra bonuses against traps, or allow you to find extra treasure..

And there's the game in a nutshell. Romancing SaGa offers a wide variety of things to do, but no real direction in a lot of important areas. Romancing SaGa is ultimately a role-playing game with a lot of gameplay substance but no cohesive storyline to back it up. The story is almost nonexistent, and some of the characters feel like they weren't fleshed out enough to make them interesting. There's a lot to do, and the game looks great, and there are some very appealing gameplay elements but it's also at times a confusing experience. If you can get by the oddball gameplay elements (durability points, life points and the confusion of finding quests as an example) and dig an open-ended RPG world, then Romancing SaGa is worth a test run.