This isn’t to say that Romancing SaGa is a copy-and-paste experience from Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy because, while there are certainly similarities, the game has its own distinct nuances. Sporting a bigger party in battles than other Square RPGs at the time, battles do seem to take longer to unfold as every character gets a turn to take action, but not in a way that took me out of the overall experience. The combat mechanics, like I mentioned before, favor a slightly different attack pattern than its contemporaries, despite also involving turn-based battles. Not once did I feel like I was playing a pastiche of Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy and I mean that as a compliment.
In all fairness, I only got to play about 30 minutes of an early build of the upcoming remake, which was long enough to get a solid feel for the gameplay and its presentation. What that does mean is that I couldn’t see if several notable elements from the original version of Romancing SaGa 3 will be retained for Destinies United. Reading up on the subject after the preview, the 1995 game featured permadeath for the supporting characters, like Fire Emblem, and alternate game modes that had players managing the wider war effort. In the preview that I played, I hadn’t seen those features but also wasn’t at a point where I could try them out if they were available too.
As someone who had never played a Romancing SaGa game before TGS 2026 but has played a lot of Super Nintendo era Square RPGs, getting to try out Romancing SaGa 3: Destinies United was like discovering lost treasure from that halcyon period. The gameplay is just as engaging and familiar as it was playing its contemporaries, while boasting its own robust cast and nuances in its combat system to distinguish itself. This is a franchise that hadn’t been on my radar before but certainly has my interest now and any of ‘90s turn-based RPGs should give Romancing SaGa 3: Destinies United a try.
Published by Square Enix, Romancing SaGa 3: Destinies United releases February 16 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
