Square Enix Teases an Epic Return for Romancing SaGa 3

My full introduction to the RPG genre, more specifically in regard to the pixelated, turn-based titles, was through games developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo with titles like Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, and Final Fantasy. One RPG series by Square I wasn’t familiar with at the time was Romancing SaGa, which was a Japanese exclusive franchise for the Super Famicom for years. My genuine first hands-on introduction to this particular RPG series was through a preview of Romancing SaGa 3: Destinies United, the upcoming remake for modern consoles, at Tokyo Game Show 2025.

Originally released in 1995, Romancing SaGa 3: Destinies United is slated for release in February 2027 and comes in a full 3D presentation as opposed to the HD-2D remakes that Square Enix has made for its Dragon Quest and Octopath Traveler remakes. This makes the visuals in the Romancing SaGa remake really pop and makes venturing around maps outside of battles a bit more immersive. It also helps the combat come to life more, with richly rendered animations punctuating turns rather than the sprite-based work from recent HD-2D releases; the Romancing SaGa remakes aren’t courting nostalgia as overtly.

The game’s story is a relatively generic medieval fantasy tale, with a group of warriors and sorcerers teaming up to defend the realm from a monstrous threat tied to the prophesied Child of Destiny. The real appeal here is the game’s combat system, which focuses on techniques taking advantage of enemy weaknesses but also honing them through repeated use to upgrade them for subsequent skirmishes. That means sometimes I’d be using certain attacks in battle even if they didn’t make the most tactical sense at the time because I was on the verge of upgrading them moving forward. It was also a welcome change to other Square RPGs from the era that was more used to.

The highest compliment that I can pay Romancing SaGa 3 is that after playing the early build preview of the remake, I immediately picked up Square Enix’s remake of Romancing SaGa 2 and its remaster of Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song when I got home. As far as I’m concerned, these games are the 16-bit equivalent to RPG comfort food and, as someone who sunk in countless hours battling Kefka in Final Fantasy VI, it was like I found a long-lost treat, to continue the culinary metaphor. The battle system felt intuitively familiar and the aesthetics also shared sensibilities with the RPGs that had grown up with over 30 years ago.

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.

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