May 2025’s Monthly Game Club game is SaGa Frontier 2! It’s a hidden gem of an RPG from Square during their heyday, part of the long running SaGa series helmed by Akitoshi Kawazu.
SaGa Frontier 2 was originally released for the Sony PlayStation in April 1999, and was released in the west the next year. It recently received a remaster for modern platforms as well.
The game was nominated by @Herb in June 2024, and here’s what they have to say about the game:
Saga Frontier 2 has aged very gracefully thanks to choosing a watercolor 2D aesthetic and containing one of the best soundtracks on the PS1. This is Squaresoft at their height, when they were an absolute hit factory. Saga Frontier 2 was overshadowed by the other Square titles of the time, but based on its’ own merits it deserves a seat at the table as one of the greatest PS1 RPGs.
Herb said it great!
It turns out I’ve been playing this game since the remaster came out, and I have been really loving it. It’s beautiful and interesting and different.
The story follows the life journeys of two main characters, Gustave and Wil, whose fates intertwine.
Key art by Tomomi Kobayashi of Wil Knights.
Also, the sound track is one of the earliest projects by Masashi Hamauzu, who would later go on to compose for Final Fantasy XIII among other Square (Enix) games. The sound track is fantastic in SaGa Frontier 2!
Should I play the original or the remaster?
I’d say play the Remaster since it’s readily available, has more legible text, has more content that didn’t make it in the original game, and—most importantly—has battle speed up options!
Some people don’t love the way the backgrounds look upscaled in the Remaster, so do a little prep/research first if you’re particular about that sort of stuff.
More SaGa
Interested in more SaGa? Check out the SaGa thread for more recent thoughts from the forum:
