SaGa is a series of science fiction role-playing video games produced by Square, now Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu. It has since continued across multiple platforms, from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System to the PlayStation 2, and like the Final Fantasy series, the story in each SaGa game is independent of its counterparts. The music of the SaGa series consists of musical scores and arranged albums from various composers. Some of these composers have created soundtracks and pieces for other Square Enix franchises including the Final Fantasy series and Mana series. The SaGa series is divided up between the original series, released as the Final Fantasy Legend series in North America, the Romancing SaGa series, the SaGa Frontier series, and Unlimited SaGa.
The music of the original series was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Kenji Ito, Ryuji Sasai, and Chihiro Fujioka. Ito went on to be the composer for the Romancing SaGa series, with each arranged album from the series arranged by a different artist off of Ito's work. Ito composed the soundtrack for the first game of the SaGa Frontier series, but was replaced by Masashi Hamauzu for the second game of the series and Unlimited SaGa. Music from the original soundtracks of the SaGa games has been arranged as sheet music for the piano and published by DOREMI Music Publishing, while tracks from Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song were played at the Press Start -Symphony of Games- 2006 concert and Extra: Hyper Game Music Event 2007 concert in Tokyo and a piece from SaGa Frontier 2 was played at the fifth Symphonic Game Music Concert, held in Leipzig, Germany on August 22, 2007.
SaGa The original SaGa series consists of Makai Toushi Sa·Ga (lit. "Warrior in the Tower of the Spirit World ~ Sa·Ga"), released for the Game Boy in 1989, Sa·Ga2: Hihō Densetsu ("Sa·Ga2 ~ The Treasure Legend"), and Jikuu no Hasha ~ Sa·Ga 3 [Kanketsu Hen] ("The Ruler of Time and Space ~ Sa·Ga3 [Final Chapter]"), both of which were released for the Game Boy in 1990. The three games were published in North America as The Final Fantasy Legend, Final Fantasy Legend II, and Final Fantasy Legend III. The original releases spawned only one album to date, a combined soundtrack album for all three games. Another album was released in Japan on September 9, 2009, SaGa 2 Hihou Densetsu Goddess of Destiny Original Soundtrack, which is the soundtrack album for the Nintendo DS remake of SaGa 2, SaGa 2 Hihou Densetsu Goddess of Destiny. The soundtrack for the DS remake of SaGa 3, SaGa 3 Jikuu no Hasha Shadow or Light Original Soundtrack, was released on January 12, 2011.
The music of SaGa 1 was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, and that of SaGa 2 by Uematsu and Kenji Ito, while the music of SaGa 3 was composed by Ryuji Sasai and Chihiro Fujioka. Uematsu has stated that while SaGa 1s music could be made of better quality, the emphasis was on enjoying the game, and not solely its appearance or sound. The Game Boy's sound hardware was different from that of the Famicom, which Uematsu was used to composing for at the time, with new stereo and waveforms and only three notes; as a result, Uematsu struggled with deciding how to work with these, developing new themes for the music in the process despite SaGa 1s director Akitoshi Kawazu's desire to have the music be in the same vein as Square's preceding Final Fantasy titles. Uematsu has stated that the Game Boy was a system he would like to compose for again. SaGa 2 was the first soundtrack or album that Kenji Ito worked on.
All Sounds of SaGa
All Sounds of SaGa is a compilation album of the soundtracks for The Final Fantasy Legend, Final Fantasy Legend II, and Final Fantasy Legend III. The first album of the two-disc set is split between 15 tracks from SaGa 1 and 19 tracks from SaGa 2, while the second disc holds 20 SaGa 3 tracks and an arranged medley of SaGa 1 tracks by Uematsu. The album was published on December 21, 1991, by NTT Publishing/Square with a catalog number of N32D-007/8 and re-released on December 15, 2004, by NTT Publishing with a catalog number of NTCP-1004/5. The album has a total length of 1:28:18 and 55 tracks.
The soundtrack was well received by reviewers such as Patrick Gann of RPGFan, who held that it contained some of the "best composition[s]" in any video game soundtrack. He credited the excellence of the soundtrack to the limited audio resources the composers had to work with on the Game Boy, which in his opinion forced them to be more creative in their compositions. He did note, however, that he felt that the extra arranged medley, while good, was not "anything special". Kero Hazel from Square Enix Music Online had similar comments on the album, praising the composition of the album and its ability to "push the Game Boy sound hardware to its limit", and also felt the arranged medley was lacking. Hazel added that in their opinion the sound quality of the recording equipment used was not as high-quality as would be expected.
Track list
SaGa 2 Hihou Densetsu Goddess of Destiny Original Soundtrack
SaGa 2 Hihou Densetsu Goddess of Destiny Original Soundtrack is an album of music from the Nintendo DS remake of SaGa 2, SaGa 2 Hihou Densetsu Goddess of Destiny. The album was released by Square Enix on September 9, 2009, with the catalog number of SQEX-10171. It includes music from the original game remixed for the DS by Kenji Ito as well as eight new tracks composed for the remake by Ito. The new tracks are "Future Quest", "Muse's Paradise", "To the Lands of Another World", "Thrill! Surrounded By Enemies", "The Whereabouts of the Fierce Battles", "The Goddess of Destiny", "Twilight Courtesan Journey", and "Militant Meat". The album contains 27 tracks and has a total duration of 1:02:10.
The album was poorly received by Patrick Gann, who described it as, instead of an homage to the original sounds or a full remake with live instruments, a "half-assed synth upgrade" which left the pieces sounding neither new nor classic, but instead just dated. He concluded that the "compositions are far more interesting in their original Game Boy format than on this new arrangement".
SaGa 3 Jikuu no Hasha Shadow or Light Original Soundtrack
SaGa 3 Jikuu no Hasha Shadow or Light Original Soundtrack is an album of music from the Nintendo DS remake of SaGa 3, SaGa 3 Jikuu no Hasha Shadow or Light. Square Enix released the album on January 12, 2011, with the catalog number of SQEX-10221. It includes music from the original game remixed for the DS by Ryuji Sasai and Kenji Ito, as well as new tracks composed by the two. The album contains 27 tracks and has a total duration of 1:12:03.
The album was well received by Jayson Napolitano of Original Sound Version, who described it as a rock reinterpretation of the originals. He claimed that Ito "does a stellar job throughout", and that Sasai, while not as consistent, also generally does a good job. He felt that there were only a few pieces that did not do a good job presenting their original works.
Romancing SaGa The Romancing SaGa subseries of games consists of Romancing SaGa, released in 1992 for the Super Famicom, Romancing SaGa 2, released on the Super Famicom in 1993, and Romancing SaGa 3, released on the Super Famicom in 1995. An enhanced remake of the first game was made for the PlayStation 2 in 2005 called Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song; this version was the only Romancing SaGa game to be published in North America. The series has sparked nine albums: a soundtrack album for each of the three games, an album of arrangements of Romancing SaGa 1 music in a French musical style, three albums of orchestral arrangements of music from Romancing SaGa 2, 3, and Minstrel Song, a promotional soundtrack album for Romancing SaGa 3, and a single for "Minuet", the theme song of Minstrel Song. The music for all of the Romancing SaGa series was composed by Kenji Ito, while each arranged album was arranged by a different artist and Minuet was written, composed and sung by Masayoshi Yamazaki. Ito created the music of each soundtrack based on images from the games, though he never played the games themselves.
Romancing SaGa Original Sound Version
Romancing SaGa Original Sound Version is a soundtrack album for Romancing SaGa. It was composed by Kenji Ito, with the exception of one track, "Heartful Tears", which had been composed for SaGa 1 by Nobuo Uematsu and was arranged by Ito. The album covers 38 tracks and has a duration of 1:02:50. It was first published by Square on February 21, 1992, with the catalog number N25D-009, and reprinted by NTT Publishing on November 25, 1995, with the number PSCN-5036 and on October 1, 2004, with the number NTCP-5036. The first 34 tracks come from the game, while the last four tracks are bonus tracks from other games.
The soundtrack was well received by Patrick Gann, who noted Ito's ability to push the audio hardware of the Super Nintendo to its limit, with various sound effects that were beyond what other similar games were using.
La Romance
Romancing SaGa La Romance is an album of music from Romancing SaGa arranged in a French musical style by Masaaki Mizuguchi. The original tracks were composed by Kenji Ito. The 11-track album has a length of 42:05. It was first released on July 20, 1992, by Square/NTT Publishing with a catalog number of N30D-025. It was reprinted by NTT Publishing on November 25, 1995, and October 1, 2004, with the catalog numbers PSCN-5037 and NTCP-5037.
The album received mixed reviews from critics. Eve C. of RPGFan disliked the album, calling it a "disappointment" and citing that in her opinion it did not sound French, that many of the tracks were "boring", and that the arrangements were "mediocre". Patrick Gann, however, said that he was impressed with the album, applauding the instrumentation and calling it "quite the CD". Dave of Square Enix Music Online mostly agreed with Gann, calling it "extremely diverse" and full of "inspired arrangements", marred only by a couple of disappointing tracks.
Romancing SaGa 2 Original Sound Version
Romancing SaGa 2 Original Sound Version is a soundtrack album for Romancing SaGa 2. It was composed by Kenji Ito, with the exception of two tracks, "The Legend Begins" and "Heartful Tears", which were composed by Nobuo Uematsu and arranged by Ito. The album covers 35 tracks and has a duration of 1:12:29. It was first published by Square on December 3, 1993, with the catalog number N25D-022, and reprinted by NTT Publishing on November 25, 1995, with the number PSCN-5038 and on October 1, 2004, with the number NTCP-5038. The first 30 tracks come from the game, while the next four tracks are bonus dance music tracks and the final track is a different version of the game's prologue theme.
The soundtrack was warmly received by reviewers such as Patrick Gann, who said that "while no track on here is amazing, [...] they are all at least fairly good". He also enjoyed the "medieval/renaissance" feeling of the tracks, as well as the relative scarcity of "character themes" compared to the soundtracks of Romancing SaGa 1 and 3.
Eternal Romance
Romancing SaGa 2 Eternal Romance is an album of arrangements of music from the Romancing SaGa 2 soundtrack. The album's 10 tracks were arranged by Ryou Fukui, and were originally composed by Kenji Ito. The soundtrack has a length of 58:17 and was published by NTT Publishing three times: on February 21, 1994, with a catalog number of N30D-025, on November 25, 1995, with the number PSCN-5039, and on October 1, 2004, as NTCP-5039.