One of my favourite games since I started playing video games many years ago is the Final Fantasy Tactics series. From the time I picked up an original PlayStation controller and started in the adventure in the land of Ivalice I was hooked with the strategy and the gameplay.
From there I also picked up and played through Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the GameBoy Advance and loved this game just as much. Even with the GBA’s limited musical and graphical ability the game was just was grand.
Now comes Mercenaries Saga 2 for the Nintendo 3DS. Unreleated to the FFT games in any way this game does share a similar look, feel, and sense of gameplay. And while Mercenaries Saga 2 may not have the level of extreme depth as Tactics did, this new game is definitely a delight.
As I said, Mercenaries Saga 2 looks and feels like the Tactics game of ol and is a turn-based strategic RPG
The game stars Claude who is the Captain of the Kingdom’s Order of the Silver Eagle. One day, while he is guarding Prince Laz’s hunting session, an assassin appears. Claude covers the Prince’s escape, and stops the assassin, but it is just a trap, and the Prince is poisoned by a blade. To aid the prince, Claude has to lead the Silver Eagle north, so that they can find the only antidote, an Erni Herb.
Battles take place on an isometric map, and tactics vary from terrain to terrain
Characters can assist each other, based on their position, and also attack enemies from behind. Use acquired points to learn new skills, and change class, then level up in Free Battle.
You start off with a team of four characters who are each in a different job class like knight, mage, etc. As you raise your skills and level up through the game you can change those jobs, which will allow you so change you skills and abilities.
And as was said above, you can also fight in free battles to level up your characters outside of the story battles. So if a required story battle is too tough you can step aside and do a little grinding before you continue.
As I alluded to earlier, if you have played and enjoyed Final Fantasy Tactics or other strategy RPGs you’ll know what to expect and will enjoy this game. Rideon Games did a great job with the game.
One difference from Tactics is that instead of having an overworld map where you travel from town to town or dungeon to dungeon, you instead simply choose the option in the menu in between story battles in order to advance. This does prevent you from getting overwhelmed and allows you to focus straight forward with the story. With some games that have a lot of freedom it can be troublesome to find the next “story” mission.
In between the battles you can also visit the shop, purchase wares and gear up your party. One thing that does seem to be missing is an Inn function in the menus. There doesn’t seem to be a way to restore your MP without using items purchased at the shop. This is actually a little confusing as when you are in this state the game shows your status with full MP. So you’ll wander into the next battle feeling confident and then annoyed when you see your real MP status as virtually depleted.
One thing that is nice and feels like it makes the game a little easy in the early going is that every time your character levels up you will also restore your HP to full. This can be handy and make things easier, though does make you feel a bit silly when this happens directly after having another character issue some healing magic or potion. Your MP does not fully restore at this point. It does feel like MP does slowly restore, though I can’t be sure.
But what about the actual gameplay? How does the game play in the actual battles themselves?
Battles are essentially what it’s all about. And thankfully they play really well.
You can choose where each character moves and see where their range is before they move. And if you do move and realize that you can’t reach the target of your attack or other action, you can take the movement back and restrategise. You can also check out the range of your enemies, which can influence your decisions.
The battles aren’t too tough and navigating through the in game menus and the battlefield are done seamlessly. It makes you interested in checking out the original Mercenaries Saga game, though I can’t find it anywhere. There doesn’t seem to be a first game in this series.
Mercenaries Saga 2 was originally released by developers Rideon as a smartphone game in Japan in 2014. The game was ported to the 3DS in Japanese and then translated and localized for North America by Circle. There is also a third game already available for smartphones in Japan.
If you enjoyed Final Fantasy Tactics you will enjoy this one as well. Rideon Games did a solid job on this game and it is definitely worth your time. It retails for $4.99 and is available exclusively in the Nintendo 3DS eShop.
