SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu

SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu (Sa・Ga2: 秘宝伝説, lit. Sa・Ga2 ~ The Treasure Legend), originaly released in the North America as Final Fantasy Legend II, is a game released for the Game Boy as the second game of the SaGa series. It's the sequel to Makai Toushi SaGa.

A remake for the Nintendo DS, titled SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu Goddess of Destiny was released exclusively in Japan in 2009.

Story

 * "...MAGI... The symbol of great power. The legacy of the ancient gods who made this world.

Many fought for the mighty power. Some won and some failed. Now.... another legend of bravery is about to begin...."
 * —Intro

Prologue
The game begins one late night while the player character sleeps, they are awoken by their father, an explorer and archeologist, who tasks them with protecting an artifact called the Prism while they are gone on their journey. Years later, the player character has grown of age, and their father has yet to return home. Asking their mother if it is alright to leave on a journey to find them, she relents, but asks them to pay a visit to their instructor Mr. S. He informs the player that the Prism artifact is in fact one of the 77 pieces of MAGI which has caused much conflict in the worlds due to greedy people hoping to use their powers to obtain godhood. Now wondering why their father has such a piece, the player character, along with three close friends from school, embark on a journey to find both the player character's dad, and stop the evil forces from collecting the MAGI.

Chapter 1: Ashura's Reign of Terror
When the party reaches the first town, they learn that the land is plagued by an invading army. Ashura, ruler of the Desert World, has invaded this land seeking the relics of god to make himself invincible. The party speaks with the Priestess Kai, a woman born with Magi within her which has granted her miraculous healing abilities, in order to gain clues to find Magi and hopefully the MC's father. She guides them to a hidden temple she fears Ashura's forces will find.

At the hidden temple, the party discovers a team of thieves have already taken most of the magi and treasure. When the party comes across the thieves, they give chase only to find them ambushed and killed by Ashura's forces. It turns out the thieves were some of Kai's followers who came to the temple to take and hide the Magi before Ashura's forces could find them.

When the party tells Kai, she decided to accompany them and help them strike down Ashura's fortress which guards the entrance to the world tree. With Kai's help, the team is able to defeat Ashura's vanguard and the fortress collapses. With new faith in the party, leaves to return to her temple as the party climbs the tower to reach Ashura's desert world.

In the desert world, the party discovers that Ashura's fortress lays hidden in a terrible sandstorm. After investigating the local towns, the team learns that someone has already tried to steal the relics back from Ashura but has been imprisoned. After learning the secret of the sandstorm, the team finds Ashura's fortress where they meet a mysterious explorer who wears a mask. When he learns the team is also there to defeat Ashura, he pleads to join them. Together they climb the fortress and meet the fearsome Ashura and a climatic battle ensues. Through sheer will, the party overcomes the demon lord, but in his final breath, he reveals that he has sent his minions to take the Magi power within Kai.

Chapter 2: To the Giant's Village to Rescue Kai.
Mask departs from the team to continue his own journey, while the party returns to Kai's shrine. They learn that Ashura's servants have somehow shrunk down and invaded Kai's body to steal the Magi within her and are slowly killing her. The party's only hope is to go to the Land of Giants, to find a potion to shrink down to human size.

Climbing back up the Pillar of the Sky, the team is able to pass through a door thanks to the power of the relics they've collected. There they find the Land of Giants. only to learn that the Giants are no more. The Giants had envied the other creatures of the world and wish to interact with them, so they created a potion that could shrink them down to the size of the other creatures and have since mingled with the rest of the races. Even trying to explore their ruins proves too difficult as their steps and buildings are the size of mountains compared to the party.

They soon find that one of the shops in town sells artifacts from the Giants ruins, but can't seem to get the shopkeeper to talk. When they try to find a back route to his shop, the team encounters the MC's father who is surprised to see them. After a warm exchange and the MC wishing to return home with them, their father tells them that he can't return home until he knows the Magi is safe from other darker forces. The party agrees to help him, but still need to help Kai, so their father moves ahead of them while they interrogate the shopkeeper. He reveals that a man at the pub named Johnny helps him get the merchandise because he may actually be a former Giant. When the party confronts Johnny, he reveals a secret entrance to the town at the base of one of the staircases, on the grounds that the party keeps quiet about him and his operation. From there, the party explores the massive town and eventually finds the Micron potion, and return to Kai's shrine.

Using the micron potion, the party shrinks down to microscopic size and enters Kai's bod where they face off with Ashura's remaining forces, as well as Kai's natural bodily defenses. They retrieve the Magi located in her hands, feet, stomach, hearts, and finally her brain. With the Magi safely removed and Ashura's forces vanquished, they save Kai and return to their adventure.

Chapter 3: Lynn and the Three Riddles
Climbing higher into the pillar, the party comes to a world ruled by the demigod Apollo, who is beloved by most of his subjects as a compassionate figure compared to the bloodthirsty Ashura. Apollo thanks the party for vanquishing Ashura by giving them a piece of Magi, which he claims not to need. He then tells them the key to finding the rest of the relics in his world lies in deciphering three riddles.

The first riddle is to seek a fire found in water. In the first town the party runs across, they discover all the fisherman are terrified of the sea god Neptune who has been turning the oceans red and sinking ships. A scholar claims that Neptuen is but a myth and proposes that the real culprit may be an active volcano hidden under the sea. Hear ing the tales of a sailor who marched into the sea to find a mermaid they were smitten by, the team finds a path to the volcano. There they uncover several magi, including the relic the Eye of Truth.

The second riddle speaks of finding darkness in blinding light. The party learns of a cave to the north of the sea port that emanates a blinding light, with the Eye of Truth, the party is able to navigate the maze like cave and find the remaining relics.

The final riddle speaks of seeking out a wind that can only be found under the earth. The party comes across a mountain town who claims the local mountain god Duantis is stirring on account of the breeze emanating from the caves into the mountain being caused by them. The party take a path behind the mountain in order to delve deeper into the cave where they discover a local girl named Lynn who is exploring the cave to find a special potion to help her ill mother. Unfortunately, the path forward is blocked by Duantis, who turns out to be a rogue robot guarding the caves within the mountains. The party helps Lynn defeat them and take the Magi the robot had used to power itself up.

When they return Lynn home to give the potion to her mother, the MC is troubled to discover their father is there to, looking after Lynn's mother and being too familiar with the family unit in general. They assume that their father had left home and started a new family in this world, tearing down their image of their beloved father. A bit distraught, their companions encourage the MC to continue their quest to collect Magi and explore the various worlds.

Chapter 4: The Guardians
In the next world, the party comes across a town filled with shady people seeking Magi or information about the mysterious Guardians, a secret organization sworn to protect the Magi from those who would abuse it. Overhearing a conversation from a citizen about how the local pub always has a certain tune playing, the party plays it on the jukebox, only to discover it serves as a hidden key to open the door to the Guardians safe house. Their unintentional discovery has them captured.

Characters
While the main party consists of generic characters the player creates, during several points of the story a fifth character will join the party to help out. This includes: There are other characters who appear during the course of the story:
 * Dad - The hero's father, he helps out twice on their adventure and is the founder of the Guardians, the people who have sworn to protect the MAGI.
 * Hana - A detective. Her father, also a detective, was killed while investigating smugglers. She is looked after by the turtle Kame and has feelings for Taro, a schoolteacher.
 * Isis - The Goddess that is summoned by bringing all the MAGI together, Isis helps the party defeat Apollo who has used the power of the MAGI to gain God-like powers.
 * Ki - A beautiful cleric, she maintains the Shrine of Isis. She was born with MAGI, enabling her to heal others.
 * Lynn - Living in Apollo's world, she goes out on her own to find a cure for her sick mother and joins the party in Dunatis' Cave.
 * Mask - A mysterious member of the Guardians who was imprisoned by Ashura, the party rescues him and he joins them in thanks. It is revealed to later be Lynn's dad.
 * Mr. S - The main character's teacher, Mr. S is a yellow slime monster who helps guide the party through their first cave.
 * Taro - Another member of the guardians, Taro came to Edo to become a school teacher before joining the party.
 * Apollo - A God in his home world, he sends the party out to find the MAGI, but his intents are far more sinister than first realized.
 * Venus - A Goddess who only values beautiful things and expels anyone in her world who is not beautiful in her eyes.
 * Ashura - A six-armed monster who lives in a tower in his own world where he has imprisoned Mask. He also has a base in the first world where his minions cause trouble for the Guardians.
 * Odin - A God who watches over fallen heroes in his palace, Valhalla. If the party dies, they are sent to Odin where he revives them. Later on, he challenges the party to battle, though his intentions are noble. He is perhaps the only "God" in the game who is not greedy and power-hungry.

Gameplay
At the beginning of the game, the player creates their party using a guild system similar to The Final Fantasy Legend. They are given a choice of four races, three of which are from the original Legend: Additional guest characters will also assist the party at certain points and unlike the main party these characters have actual names and back stories.
 * Humans - Humans do not learn any abilities, but their stats increase randomly after battles depending on equipment used. They have the most equipment slots and are able to take potions to increase their stats.
 * Espers (called Mutants in the English version) - Like Humans, Mutants get random stat increases after a battle. They also may learn or forget a skill, with up to a total of four skills being available to learn.
 * Monsters - Monsters get stronger by defeating other monsters. After an enemy is defeated in battle they may drop some meat which the monster can eat, turning them into a new monster thus increasing their stats and possibly teaching them new skills.
 * Robots - Robot's stats are dependent entirely on their equipment. Any weapon used by a robot only has half the durability but when a robot rests at an inn their weapon's durability is fully restored. Their weapons will also not break when all of their durability points are used.

Battle is a standard affair, taken in turns. When the attack option is chosen, the character must decide which weapon they want to attack with. However, equipment has durability. Using a weapon will decrease its durability by one and when it reaches zero it breaks and must be replaced. Luckily a character can equip multiple weapons so they will not be totally useless should one of their weapons break. Every weapon has limited use regardless of whether their attack, agility, or mana-based. Even shields have durability.

Spellbooks can also be bought. While expensive, they are usually stronger than a mutant or monster's version of the spell. Monster and Mutant abilities also have limited uses, but are restored at the Inn. New to the game are the MAGI pieces which can be equipped to boost stats or work as weapons and items battle. Each party member can only equip one at a time.
 * List of Weapons
 * List of Equipment
 * List of Items
 * List of Relics

Development
After the smash success of the original SaGa title for the Gameboy, Square tasked Akitoshi Kawazu and Hiromichi Tanaka to begin working on a sequel. They set out to make a larger game and to better hone some of the ideas they used in the previous game such as the unique leveling system for Espers and Monsters. Nobuo Uematsu returned to work on the score and was accompanied by Kenji Ito who made his debut within the series. The game sold incredibly well in Japan at the time and received good reviews in the West as well.

Like the previous game, SaGa 2 was released in West re-titled as Final Fantasy Legend II to connect it to the first entry. In 1998, Sunsoft American Corp got the rights to republish this entry along with its peers for the Game Boy Color.

In January 2009, Square-Enix made a 3D remake of the game for the DS in honor of the 20th Anniversary of the series.

Trivia

 * The US cover for Final Fantasy Legend II is identical to the Game Boy cover for Final Fantasy Adventure and the SNES cover for Final Fantasy IV (Released in the US under the name Final Fantasy II).
 * The Nintendo DS remake of Final Fantasy Legend II was number 14 in gamesTM's Top 20 Most Demanded Video Games to be released in the UK, along with fellow Square-Enix game Blood of Bahamut for the Game Boy Advance.
 * This was the first SaGa game composed by long time series composer Kenji Ito.