Tear Ring Saga

About

Tear Ring Saga is a tactical RPG for PlayStation where you control two separate armies across a war-torn island. You play as Runan and Holmes, two princes leading their own units through grid-based battlefields. Each protagonist has distinct missions, Runan follows a linear campaign against an invading empire while Holmes offers open-ended choices between story progression and resource gathering. Combat uses a turn-based system with class-based characters that die permanently if defeated, adding weight to every move. The game stands out for its dual-narrative structure and deep strategic layering. Managing both armies lets you shift troops and gear between them, creating complex long-term planning. Though released in 2001, it remains a niche favorite for its balanced difficulty and branching scenarios. The lack of modern conveniences like save scumming makes victories feel earned, even if the dated presentation won’t wow newcomers.

Storyline

There are two protagonists in the game, Runan and Holmes, each with their own army to command. Though the two armies travel separately for the majority of the game, the cross paths at several point of the story, allowing the player to switch allocations of fighters and items amongst the two groups. Runan's story follows a strict set of scenarios where he battles against an enemy empire, while Holme's scenario allows for more freedom, allowing the player to ignore the main scenarios in favor of gathering treasure and increase the army's strength. The game takes place on an island continent called Riberia, which had long been divided and ruled under four kingdoms. However, these kingdoms were destroyed by the evil Zoa Empire and its devil-worshipping ruler, and the island was starting to regress into a period of instability and darkness. The Rīve Kingdom was one of the four kingdoms of Riberia, and the first protagonist, Runan, is the prince of Razelia; one of the principalities within the kingdom. After the fall of his father's principality, he escaped and went into hiding in a nearby port-town. However, this town also fell into the hands of the Empire, and Runan and Holmes, the prince of another one of the kingdom's principalities, retreat to the newly created Uelt Kingdom with a small contingent of troops. The two receive assistance from the Uelt king, and begin a long journey to destroy the evil empire.