The past few years have been a great time for fans of old games. Tons of titles have gotten reboots and remasters, bringing great joy to any gamer that was in love with nostalgia and the games of their childhood. Unfortunately, not every game gets a remaster, so some fans are left with dismay and disappointment.
Fans of SaGa Frontier, a JRPG from Square Enix that was released for the PS1 in 1998, this was the case for them. But thankfully, that is no longer the situation for fans of that title, as a remaster has been announced, and it’s even better than it sounds at first.
The game, originally released in the US in 1998, is being remastered for multiple platforms, including the Switch, PS4, mobile, and PC. Unfortunately, the Xbox is being left out, but considering that it was a PlayStation game, to begin with, we’re not entirely surprised. On the other hand, some cut content is being restored for this new version.
In the original game, SaGa Frontier presented players with a grand total of seven potential protagonists, on top of allowing them to explore the world in a non-linear fashion. Both of these features are a major reason for the game’s popularity. For the Remaster, there are now eight characters to choose from, but the addition to the roster is not really new so much as revealed. Fuse, who appeared on the start screen but was not available in-game all those years ago due to being cut content, has been restored. Because each character has their own motivations, goals to achieve, and endings, it’ll be possible for players to go through the game eight separate times while still having a mostly fresh experience.
The eighth character is not the only bit of cut content that is being restored for the game. There are also other scenes and sections that were cut from the original release that are being restored in this remaster as well. Needless to say, this should be the most complete version of the game to ever exist, giving old fans even more incentive to purchase it.
Admittedly, with the game set across a whole solar system, SaGa Frontier was considered confusing by some critics at the time of its release. But even so, it was well-received in Japan and has a cult following. Of course, since the game was just released, it’s a decent time away from release, with only a vague window of Summer 2021 provided to us.
Perhaps it’s not actually a great surprise that SaGa Frontier is getting a remaster, as Square Enix has actually remastered and released a number of different games from the series over the last two years–in 2019, Romancing SaGa 3 and SaGa: Scarlet Grace both made their debut on far more modern systems than their original release.
As for how much the remaster of SaGa Frontier will cost, we don’t know anything of that sort for now.
