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Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest may be video game developer Square Enix’s two biggest series, but the Saga franchise could make a solid case for the company’s third-most important intellectual property. While the initial title in the series was the Game Boy’s Makai Toshi Saga, or Devil World Tower Saga, the more eloquently named Super NES follow-up, Romancing Saga, is where the series really took off, and 10 games are now counted as part of the Saga saga.

2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the Saga franchise, and in celebration Square Enix is collaborating with a partner that’s at once completely unexpected and totally obvious: Saga Prefecture.

Far, far to the west of Square Enix’s Tokyo offices you’ll find the Japanese island of Kyushu. The island is divided in to seven prefectures, one of which is called, coincidentally, Saga.

Saga Prefecture gets its name from the kanji characters 佐賀, while the game’s is simply the English word saga. Like all foreign loanwords, it gets written in Japanese using the phonetic characters called katakana, and looks like サガ.

Somewhere along the line, somebody noticed that “Romancing サガ” and “Romancing 佐賀” would be read exactly the same way. Representatives from Saga’s tourism promotional boards got in touch with Square Enix, and the two decided to team-up and promote the prefecture and role-playing game series all at once with an awesome web-page filled with 16-bit-style artwork.

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As the background music cycles through three pieces from the Saga series, visitors can scroll down the page to reveal characters from the games milling about. Clicking on them causes a window to pop up with additional information about the bit-mapped heroes.

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There’s even an Easter egg, as clicking on the bonfire at the very bottom of the page releases a pack of gruesome monsters.

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Okay, so that covers Saga the game, but what about Saga, the prefecture? Well, mixed in among the adventurers and treasure chests are a number of items Saga is known for, with facts about them revealed with a click.

▼ Whoa, is that a kraken in the corner?

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▼ Nope, it’s a tasty Fubako squid, one of Saga’s regional delicacies!

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Even Saga Prefecture’s governor, Yasushi Furukawa, gets in on the fun, with a profile that lists him as having 958 hit points.

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Let the cursor hover over his photo for a second, and he morphs into a Romancing Saga-style sprite and shows off his fighting moves!

▼ Seeing your governor perform a drop quick may be old hat to citizens of California or Minnesota, but this is new ground for Saga residents.

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The Saga/Saga tie-up isn’t limited to online festivities, either. From March 13 to 16, a joint exhibit of artwork from the game series and handicrafts from the prefecture will be held at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, where visitors can also enjoy a menu of dishes made with Saga-sourced ingredients. The final day of the event features an appearance at 6 p.m. by Governor Furukawa, as well as Saga producer Akitoshi Kawazu, character designer Tomomi Kobayashi, and composer Kenji Ito, plus a live musical performance.

So while the nature of the project may not be exactly what gamers were hoping for, it’s still a treat for lovers of art, music, culture, and most of all, puns.

Related: Romancing Saga Website, Romancing Saga Roppongi Hills Event website
Sources: Itai News, Dengeki Online
Images: Romancing Saga Website