What does this game want from the player?

[Grey]

I've been playing for a few hours, and I don't "get it." I want to like this game. It seems so unique. I like exploration, a game doesn't need to hold my hand, but there needs to be something interesting to explore. I just see monsters or towns with nothing to do. I like not having quest markers or being told exactly what to do, but there need to be clues. It was neat to look for someone and talk to the innkeeper when I returned and she wasn't there, but that seems to be the exception. Everything else has been aimlessly running around the towns talking to NPCs over and over on the off-chance they have something to say that might help is tedious. Do I go to another country? How many hours am I supposed to be running circles with nothing to go on? Sometimes people mention a name or place as if I'm supposed to know either one. "Lord Patrick's Manor" or "merchant Buck" mean nothing to me, and I've talked to everyone I can talk to. I'm just getting mugged repeatedly. What the hell is going on? How is one supposed to enjoy this game?

[Beezus Hrist]

Here, use this: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/369196-romancing-saga-minstrel-song-remastered/faqs/43160

[Grey]

Unfortunately, this is an optimisation guide for quests and even recommends NOT using it for first time players, and doesn't really answer the question of "how is one meant to enjoy the game". If this is actually meant to answer that question, I suppose it would say a lot about the game, but maybe other fans can confirm or not.

[Beezus Hrist]

Originally posted by Grey:

Unfortunately, this is an optimisation guide for quests and even recommends NOT using it for first time players, and doesn't really answer the question of "how is one meant to enjoy the game". If this is actually meant to answer that question, I suppose it would say a lot about the game, but maybe other fans can confirm or not.

Use the guide anyway and try to enjoy the game. You don't have to do all the quest, but try to role play the ones that make sense according to the character and region you start in. Start with Albert as he is the must cinematic one, and slowly, the game will teach you how to play along with the guide.

If that is too much, play Romancing Saga 2 Remake and that one will show you how Saga games function.

[Grey]

I see. Thanks for the input, I'll give it a try sometime and hopefully update this question for posterity.

[Zevedeos]

A quote of an answer I gave to someone else, that might help you understand and decide if this game is for you:

General rule of thumb to not miss content or progress the story/event rank too fast:

In this version of the game you can choose at start for the progress of story/event ranks to be slower than normal. Do so. This is a sort of exploration type of game, that doesn't hold hands. I'd say that in some sense it's JRPG turn based "souls-like", with this remaster they added QoL features to make it easier to handle and play through.

Then prioritize on unlocking world map nodes and finding possible quests by talking to all NPCs you find in your way. Read what they have to say as in their dialogue some might give you a hint for some quest or something. Avoid doing unecessary battles while exploring and finding treasure chests as well as completing quests. Once you are 100% sure that there is nothing else you can find and do(with this you can also be helped by googling some quest guide/walkthrough for the game if you'd like) at the current state of things you can then focus on fighting some monsters to progress the event/story rank.

If I remember correctly this game is meant to be replayed around 3-4 times to unlock every single possible thing it has.

You can also be assisted through some existing 3rd party software("trainers" and "cheat tables") to freeze/lock event rank among other things and battle as many monsters as you like.

Adding:
Also pay attention to your suroundings, some Inn's may have a "poster" of possible quest or some other area/location with item, mechanism etc to interact with(for example with Grey-my favorite, you can find his "personal" specific quest/weapon somewhere in the caves on the island he begins on). This game is sort of decently open ended. To give you an example, you can "go straight" to the last boss and finish the game from quite early on (at least you could do this in the PS2 version, I don't recall if this is possible in remaster).

Also the first NPC to talk in a new town/city/village should always be the kid from "adventure guild" or something, they are the ones that usually unlock new areas for you.

[Grey]

Because each of the characters offers a different experience, is there a strong narrative at all, or is more simply a setting/world to explore?

[Zevedeos]

Originally posted by Grey:

Because each of the characters offers a different experience, is there a strong narrative at all, or is more simply a setting/world to explore?

Each character has their own smaller or bigger(depends on which character) starting story(for example Albert has the most "linear" beginning, out of all the characters), after which you enter a non linear exploration of the world and do(or not, up to you) various quests based on the world lore, until you in one way or another reach the end boss.

The exploration and quests that you do, will do occasionally affect and/or unlock other quests and different outcomes to those quests and few can somewhat affect the ending too.
There are multiple ways/paths to trigger the end boss sequence, one very early(which is anticlimactic as you haven't done or explored much of anything, nor will you understand much of the ending cutscenes but it's interesting/fun in it's own way to find this sort of "secret" path to faster ending/completion), and 2-3 ways late game(event/story rank wise, which you can check in the "party" menu screen - to see at which node / event rank you are currently on).
And for example if you manage to collect all the fatestones, you can change end boss difficulty.
There will be different quests available according to event/story rank, so you can miss-be locked out of quests if you progress the event rank too fast(which happens by fighting monsters).

To not spoil too much on the following:
In one of the elemental bosses rooms, if you look/search closely you will step into something very interesting(at least it was very interesting to me, I think it will be for you too).

And you can also unlock other playable characters to put in your party in same or next playthroughs.

There is a lot of lore and content in the game. It's just not easy to find all of it, as it's designed to not be a linear and hold hands type of experience.

If you don't read and follow game guides, it will take quite a while to unlock/achieve everything. Expect to put easily more than 100 hours into the game without guides and with enough patience.

Pay attention to details and try stuff.
To give you another idea of something hidden. If you talk to a certain someone at the Inn(any Inn<-- clue) multiple times without making a choice(do something like talk/cancel), you will be given a new option.

Honestly you can get a very good idea of the game's content from the leftmost video of it on the store page. Everything it shows is from actual gameplay and things you can do in it.

Another way to get a good idea about this game and it's remastered version:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SaGa/comments/z9c9c1/romancing_romancing_saga_minstrel_song_before_you/?rdt=61179