returned to create new art, including character sketches based on Naora's redesigns. The game's logo made reference to the Minstrel, a recurring figure in the game. The game was announced in September 2004 via an issue of Jump, and released in Japan on April 21, 2005. A dedicated guidebook in Square Enix's Ultimania was released on July 17, containing gameplay explanations, a strategy guide, interviews with the production team, and a gallery of promotional and concept art. The Ultimania also included a novella written by Benny Matsumaya, a long-standing contributor to the SaGa series' additional media. The game later re-released through PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 on April 9, 2015 as a PS2 Classic. Its release, together with a special edition which included a download code and a jigsaw with an artwork by Kobayashi, formed part of the company's 25th anniversary celebrations of the SaGa series. A North American release was announced at E3 2005, featuring alongside other major titles from the company including Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy XII and Kingdom Hearts II. The game released in North America on October 11. For its Western release, the "Minstrel Song" subtitle was dropped as the original had never released outside Japan. The English dub was handled by New Generation Pictures, who had collaborated with Square Enix on several titles within the Final Fantasy and Valkyrie Profile series. The localized version received no European release. Due to the existence of Minstrel Song and its Western release, the original title was not remastered as later Romancing SaGa titles were. A remaster of Minstrel Song was announced in May 2022 for Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The remaster includes upscaled graphics, improved gameplay and additional elements. The game was released on December 1, 2022. Music The music of Romancing SaGa was composed and arranged by Kenji Ito, who had previously worked as co-composer for Final Fantasy Legend II (known in Japan as SaGa 2: Hihō Densetsu) alongside Nobuo Uematsu. Ito had helped with the sound design of Final Fantasy IV, and knew that much of the cartridge space had been taken up with the graphics, impacting the music's quality. Kawazu gave no specific instructions about songs, but often requested rewrites. Ito delivered most of the score before the final four months of production, and then had more rewrite requests. When creating the score, Ito broke away from