Romancing SaGa 2 Revenge of the Seven brings attention to its new difficulty modes with bizarre Japanese ballad

Square Enix just dropped a new video to promote the upcoming Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven remake that is coming out later this month. The promo, featuring Japanese comedian AMEMIYA singing dramatically, may have some viewers scratching their heads. In fact, the video riffs on the original Romancing SaGa 2’s notorious reputation in Japan for being a hardcore RPG, with an amusing song highlighting the remake’s improvements. 

The song in question is a parody of AMEMIYA’s breakout hit “Hiyashi Chuka hajimemashita” (I’ve started serving cold ramen). Hiyashi Chuka (literally “cold Chinese food”) is a refreshing chilled version of ramen. This phrase is often seen on the sign boards of Chinese restaurants in Japan at the start of summer. In AMEMIYA’s original song- which is in itself a parody of overwrought dramatic ballads- the singer plays the role of a ramen shop owner who only managed to serve Hiyashi Chuka in his ramen shop on December 20, by which time it is way out of season. In the song, he goes through all kinds of hardships and bad luck (his wife leaves him, he becomes the victim of fraud etc.), punctuating each verse with an increasingly distraught “Hiyashi Chuka hajimemashita.” 

In the Romancing SaGa 2 Revenge of the Seven promotional video, AMEMIYA sings a brand-new version of the song called “Casual Mode hajimemashita” (I started casual mode). In the song, AMEMIYA recalls tough memories of playing the original Romancing SaGa 2, always dramatically returning to the refrain “I started casual mode.” This references the new difficulty modes added to the remake, which players can switch between mid-game. 

Some of his laments will be familiar to anyone who has struggled with tricky games- such as “I saved just before the last boss and now I’m stuck.” Other lyrics are more specific to the original Romancing SaGa 2, for example “every time I escape battles, the enemies get outrageously strong.” (Fortunately, the producer revealed that this won’t be an issue in the remake). 

Later in the song, AMEMIYA reminds die-hard fans that Romancing SaGa 2 remake also has a hard mode that is “true to the original.” As the original game was only released in Japan, the remake will be most overseas fans first experience with Romancing SaGa 2. They are perhaps lucky that they can pick the game’s difficulty and don’t have to suffer the unforgiving nature of the original unless they want to.  

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is scheduled to launch for PS4/PS5 and Nintendo Switch on October 24, with the Steam version following the next day.