Brave Saga 2 (ブレイブサーガ2), released 5/2/2000, developed by Pandora Box, released by Takara

This is the sequel to 1998’s Brave Saga, which I played before. It’s closely related to that game so please read the previous posts on that if you haven’t yet.

In the year and a half since the first game, the only Yuusha series was GaoGaiGear, which was running when the first game was released and by now was finished. Since all of the other series had their storylines in the first game, this game focuses heavily on GaoGaiGear and a new original villain group. In addition, the three series that were only cameos last time (Votoms, Galient, and Dagram) are brought back for somewhat more in-depth story. I believe that they also used some characters and episodes from the other Yuusha series that had not been used in the first game.

You can transfer your save data from the first game. This allows you to get a few hidden units, and I think some of the dialogue changes as well but I’m not sure of all the details.

Overall the game is similar to the first one. On the story side, the biggest change is that all of the dialogue is voiced, even the side scenarios and just random optional dialogue sequences. If you actually let all the dialogue play out the game is quite long; my timer was near 70 hours when I finished, and I could have taken longer if I had actually visited all the places to get every optional conversation.

The new original characters are servants of Maou Baldo. They apparently ruled Earth at one time, and now they have returned to retake it. They split the world into 7 parts, which restores it to the “Beltanu” that they ruled before. This has scattered the yuusha units across the different parts, as well as some of them being disabled or destroyed in space from the first assault. The main character of the previous game, Baan Gaan, is one of the missing units.

To step into Baan Gaan’s place, we have a new main character Shizuma. He is the last descendant of the clan that formerly sealed away Maou Baldo, but they are able to steal his 6 “affeta” which give him his power. Before he dies, his mother uses the last of her strength to put him in a temporary body. The overall story develops as Shizuma tries to retake the 6 affeta from the generals of Baldo, while also dealing with the Zondarians (GaoGaiGear) and finding the various heroes.

At first you can only visit Japan, but every time you beat one of the generals, a new area of the world opens up. Between missions you can visit other places; some will just have conversations, but some have side missions that can unlock additional characters.

The upgrade system has been streamlined a bit. The items are gone (along with the developing new items). As in the previous game, you often have separate units that can combine. In this game you still have to upgrade the units individually from the combined form, but fortunately the levels carry over. Upgrading the weapons can unlock new weapons, or give new “guts” powers, which is a new part of the system.

The battle system is quite similar to the previous game. Unfortunately you still can’t skip animations. There are a few new system components:

• Guts – every time you get hit, you gain a “guts” point and when the gauge fills you can use a unit’s “guts” powers, or with some units it lets you transform into a more powerful version. The guts powers include buffs, heals, and special attacks.
• Fire extinguisher – This is more of a gimmick than anything else. A few stages have the goal to put out fires on the map, and you have to use a subset of your units that have this fire extinguisher power. Outside of that it has no use.
• Combo attacks – I don’t remember if this was in the first game, but some units have combination attacks with other units.

The game is quite easy; I sent out my lowest level units on every stage except for the final boss stage and I had almost no trouble. Even the final boss was only slightly difficult. This is probably welcome for people who are Yuusha series fans because it lets them use whatever units they want.

Overall this is a mid-rank game, I think. Unless you are already a fan of the Yuusha series, the story isn’t really anything special. The gameplay is too easy for serious strategy fans, and the length of the game might also be an issue. There’s nothing that makes it unplayable, but also not much that would make it a top recommendation.

By the time this game came out, the Yuusha series was over: declining sales had led the creators to make GaoGaiGear the final entry in the franchise. There were still a few OVAs and such that came out later, but not much. As for Brave Saga, there was a 2001 Game Boy Color game that was a regular RPG, and then a 2005 SRPG for PS2, so we’ll be seeing the series one more time.