Basically, there's this village in the game called Kidlanto. They have an issue where they had to sacrifice villagers to a monster in a cave near the village.
Thus, your hero/heroine volunteers to help them.
And then the Mayor shuts them in the cave to appease the monster. After trying to budge the boulder that was blocking the entrance a few times, encountering the monster (
A MISCHIEF OF MAN-EATING RATS) and then running from it, you go back to the entrance to find a village girl named Nina push the boulder, allowing you to escape.
After meeting up with the Professor living in the forest near the city of Zweig, she reveals that the rat leading the mischief is actually a failed experiment of hers that got away. Basically, she was trying to increase the intelligence of a rat, dubbed
Algernon, for... some reason?
Algernon ended up escaping, and apparently it seems that he ended up in the caves near Kidlanto. To help you deal with the monster and save the village, she hands you... Rat poison. No, really.
You go back to the village and as it turns out, the village chief sacrificed Nina of all people! You then go in the cave to save her, battling Algernon in the process.
Battle strategy: after each round, the rat poison affects most parts of the swarm for a bit of damage. However, one of them isn't damaged. That's where Algernon is. He changes positions through out the battle.
After killing Algernon, your party laments the apparent death of Nina.
However, Nina appears! It turns out she carried some meat, hidden within herself when she was taken to the cave, and she used it to distract the rats while she hid herself as they ate. Your party and Nina leave the dungeon and the village is grateful for your heroics.
And then you go to speak to the Village Chief, who okayed yours and Nina's sacrifices. The only thing he says is...
私が町長です。 ("I'm the village chief.", or "I'm the mayor." in Mana Sword's translation)
Yeah.
Romancing SaGa 3 was rushed to completion like Romancing SaGa 1 before it and SaGa Frontier after it. Thus, a lot of the game feels a bit... unfinished.
A shame really, Romancing SaGa 2 was phenomenal, and, if I recall correctly, it wasn't rushed. The difficulty curve was absurd, though, but that's all the fault of
Kawazu's constantly questionable design decisions, really.