Romancing SaGa 3 - Review @ Niche Gamer

Niche Gamer has reviewed Romancing SaGa 3:

Romancing SaGa 3 Review

Before Square Enix was known as the company that only made Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts games, they were a very creative developer known as SquareSoft. They used to make so many varied and interesting JRPGs, and would cover a wide range gameplay mechanics like the genre-bending Live A Live or the tactical adventure Treasure Hunter G.

If you were a fan of SquareSoft games in the 90s, there was a good chance you had to resort to playing the fan translations for some of their games. JRPGs traditionally have a lot of text, and the Romancing SaGa games were especially dense due to the multiple playable protagonists and endings. Up until now, you didn’t have much choice but to play a fan translation.

SquareSoft before the Enix merger was a behemoth of a RPG developer, and some of their ambitious games would become too costly to localize to the west. The Romancing SaGa games were among some of the casualties. and it wouldn’t be until exactly 24 years later Square Enix would finally release an enhanced port of Romancing SaGa 3 to the the whole world.

The Verdict: 7

The Good

• Open ended and nonlinear JRPG with lots of exploration
• Multiple protagonists with unique party members and alternate endings
• Huge replay value thanks to new game plus
• Kenji Ito's music is electric
• Undeniably charming old-school sprites that have a lot of expression and personality

The Bad

• Hideous new UI design and new background art is a mixed bag
• The various systems and mechanics are not explained at all and requires a manual to understand how to play
• 30 frames per second
• Butchered boss sprites thanks to laughable animation