A huge thank you to Square Enix for providing us with a copy of the game!
Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered is a hell of a JRPG that takes the normal conventions we have all come to know and stomps on them. After choosing 1 of 8 characters, each with different backstories, you will embark on a nonlinear journey where you decide how to progress in the story. Recruit heroes for your party and customize their classes, abilities, and magic to fine-tune the way you want to. The floor is yours, what decisions will you make to complete the story?
Romancing SaGa breaks a lot of those conventions I have gotten used to and I love it personally. The fact that stats increase based on actions you make and learning new abilities based on how much you use a specific weapon is awesome. The freedom can feel a little overwhelming at times, and there are some older features from the PS2 era still in place, but I would definitely recommend the game to others. But how does it perform on the Steam Deck you ask? Let me tell you!
It runs really well. Without any setting changes, you can easily stick to 60 FPS with a 9W - 10W battery drain. This will give you 4.5 - 5 hours of battery with sub 60c temps. I encountered no issues at all with performance. You could bring down the framerate cap to 30 to increase battery closer to 7 hours, but it felt a bit too sluggish for my liking.
I also mentioned earlier about some features that carried over from the previous generation. The biggest one that gets me is the lack of camera control. You can't move the camera around yourself, which for a 3D game, feels really weird. It wasn't an issue 85% of the time, but there were a couple of instances where I wanted to rotate the camera for a better angle but couldn't. Going through dialogue felt a little weird as well, pressing buttons to skip certain lines sometimes skipped the next one, but just letting it play out worked fine.
The in-game framerate is also set at 30 FPS, while the menus are at 60. It isn't really an issue, just something to note.
Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- is absolutely awesome. I fell in love with the abnormal gameplay elements that made the game up and felt free as a bird to take the game on at my own pace. It isn't one for everybody, but if you generally enjoy JRPGs and looking for something new, get this game. On the Steam Deck, you will have a near-perfect experience! I am happy to say this is a Best on Deck game.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- is a JRPG that breaks the normal conventions in an enjoyably fun experience that runs near perfectly on the Steam Deck!
