SaGa Franchise

[Wolf Kanno]

So after ignoring the series for years outside of FFLegends 2 (a.k.a. SaGa 2) I've finally taken the plunge into Square's second oldest franchise and Squenix's third oldest, SaGa, the franchise helmed by the notorious Kawazu of FFII fame.

At the moment I'm playing Final Fantasy Legends on my GBA because the TV that my SNES is plugged into is about to die. Meanwhile I've been plowing through SaGa Frontier 2 on my PS3. Two pretty different games but some interesting ideas nonetheless.

In FFL, my party consists of two humans, one mutant, and a monster. Money is tight, so I have been really slow to develop the money gobbling human characters and I'm at the annoying point where all the monster meat I find seem to alternate my poor monster between three basic forms. He's currently an Albatross, which is actually better than that sounds. My Mutant has quickly turned into my MVP. While her strength is horrendous, she has 4x as much health as anyone on my team, and her magic is amazing. It's just really annoying that the game doesn't tell me when she actually gets stat boosts, and even more annoying when the game decides to randomly change one of her useful spells. Currently, I'm still trying to find the Hero's Armor set so I can enter the Tower of Paradise. I just obtained the armor after saving a village from Lizard bandits and brought together the very human king with his new bride that is either a slime or an octopus-thing... This game is trippy as hell.

On Saga Frontier 2's front, I'm feeling very conflicted here. This is definitely a game that unfortunately falls short of its full potential. Like from the outside it looks like it has all the ingredients to be really epic, but there are just too many nagging issues. Nothing that keep it from being fun, but this game could have been the title to really launch this series in the West had it handled it's elements better.

Gustav is a very intriguing protagonist. In fact, he's almost a damn villain protagonist in some ways, and his story is very cool on paper but less engaging in execution because the plot jumps around too much in his scenario and it's very obvious that it's not really going to spend much time developing most of the cast in his story as well as him. Still, there is some cool political intrigue and Gustave feels like what it would be like to play as a weird combination of Delita and Algus if they were a bit more sympathetic. I like the fact that we have a reversal of some usual tropes here as well. Gustave XIII was suppose to succeed his father the king but due to lacking Anima, the magical power that just about everyone in this world has, he ends up being disowned and exiled. His steel sword he builds has wound up being one of the best weapons in the game since it's one of the few that can't break. So his chapters are fun to play, but I wish more focus was being placed on the other characters to help really expand the political intrigue cause some of Gustave's planning falls a bit flat since the rest of the cast feels a bit one dimensional at times. Sadly, I can already tell that Gustave may wind up being the villain in the other guy's plot.

Wil Knights story has been harder to get into. On the one hand, I appreciate finally having a full party, on the other hand, Wil's scenario is significantly harder and Wil is not exactly my ideal MC character gameplay-wise. His story is also a bit more... typical RPG since it deals with searching ruins for lost artifacts and Wil searching for the cause of his parents mysterious deaths. So in essence one scenario feels like some lost chapters from FFTactics, and the other kind of feels like a typical JRPG plot. Which is only made worse when I learned that Wil's family scenario actually makes up the bulk of the game and Gustave, who is plastered all over the cover and media artwork for this game has the shorter less interactive scenario. Luckily Wil's party are actually very personable, but sadly, since Gustave rarely gets a party and his steel sword is his best weapon, the fact that Arts cross over between the casts doesn't do much since Wil's group uses different weapons and have access to magic.

Speaking of which, holy hell does this game need a tutorial to explain everything. It's like Vagrant Story all over again where the combat is incredibly deep and complex but the game never explains any of it. There are two different combat styles depending on whether you fight as a group or one-on-one. You don't really have traditional levels or stats, everything is based on what armor you're wearing and what your proficiency is with certain weapons and elements. Weapons can break in combat and skills actually break them faster. There are combo attacks, and apparently there are even Suikoden style army battles as well. I've had to scrounge around for some guides just to make heads of everything.

Overall, it's been pretty fun with both games. I also have Romancing SaGa waiting for me as well, but I'll likely wait until I've finished one of the two games first.

So this is a SaGa thread, which games have you played? Which ones do you recommend, and am I the only one who finds it weird that Hamauzu reused the Battle themes from Unlimited SaGa for FFXIII?

[Fynn]

I’ve beaten the Wonderswan version of SaGa 1 and it was pretty cool, though I couldn’t really pick up the momentum to keep going with this series. I do have my eyes on Romancing SaGa (especially the sexy PSVita ports of 2 a d 3), so hopefully I can get my hands on those too. And Unlimited SaGa has one of my favorite Hamauzu soundtracks. It is gorgeous

[WarZidane]

The only one I've played is Unlimited Saga, which was..really damn confusing to me at the time, dunno if I'd be any better off now :p

I didn't get far into the game before giving up on it. Maybe sometime I'll try out the Romancing SaGa 2 port.

[Wolf Kanno]

The only one I've played is Unlimited Saga, which was..really damn confusing to me at the time, dunno if I'd be any better off now :p

I didn't get far into the game before giving up on it. Maybe sometime I'll try out the Romancing SaGa 2 port.

I've heard it's really quirky since everything is determined by a slot machine.

In FFL News, I've collected all of the King's gear to access the tower properly, but also stumbled on a guide for monsters. Learned I can actually make a pretty strong monster in the first area with a little farming so I'm doing that at the moment while also trying to raise the stats for my humans. Despite common sense, agility seems to be the premier stat for everyone as it's surprising how many early weapons and skills scale with that stat as opposed to strength. My Mutant is doing super awesome and just broke 400hp, to put this in perspective my humans just broke 100hp, and my monster is a Tier 3 (out of 15) creature with about 150hp. Her magic and agility is through the roof as well. My only beef with her is that her spell selection is mostly awful. She has one good spell, two that are completely useless, and one that would be more useful if it wasn't a "affects caster only" type spell. The real issue here is that whenever the game decides to change one of her spells, it's always the useful one. It never touches the other spells and I don't know why. So I've been save scumming like hell to keep it.

[Fynn]

I heard the thing that confused people was basically that all the dice rolls that are usually hidden were in plain view. So the slots weren’t exactly an additional factor of randomness - it was just something that was usually sound behind the scenes, except visible this time.

[Wolf Kanno]

Actually combat does involve a slot machine that you can customize with moves, it also has misses. The game has an interesting Tabletop style "weakness" mechanic where you can give your characters huge stat boosts by equipping them with a weakness to certain attacks or monster types.

From what I've read, the game is some odd amalgamation of Tabletop RPG, Board game, and slot machine. In fact, you have a limited amount of turns to complete a "board" and if you run out of turns by making bad rolls, you have to start it all over. I'll probably have a better understanding of it when I get around to that entry.

In my own SaGa news:

I've beaten Genbuu and I am now ascending the tower. My Mutant still has her same four skills but close to 750hp, I'm sporting a Salamander Monster who is sporting mid-game stats. My humans, who are considered the best race, are the loads at the moment because I simply don't have access to any money or good gear for them. I did get a fun taste of power with the King's Gear you needed to collect, it's a shame you lose it permanently in order to get the Black Sphere to enter the tower.

In SaGa Frontier 2 news, I'm starting to come around to Wil. I think my issue here is that I went from melee focused Gustave to pure mage Wil, and I was trying too hard to play Wil like Gustave. Wil is just not a fighter, his best weapon proficiency is the Staff, which is easily the weakest melee weapon with some of the worst Arts attached to it. Sadly his secondary weapon are swords, but he starts at an abysmal level with them so even using high end Arts gained from Gustave's chapters can't compensate for his general weakness with the weapon. On the other hand, once you actually to bother learning magic Arts, Wil becomes a much better fighter though he pales in comparison to Crutch Character Narcisse who has way better elemental proficiency, starts with Fire magic, and has access to the better Bow weapon letting him be more versatile in combat.

Not helping matters has been the fact Wil's first chapter is pretty hard even when you kind of know what you're doing, and my knack for always forgetting to save often cause I don't like the "save anywhere" feature because I will forget to without a visual reminder. There are two types of combat in dungeons: Duel and Party. Party works like you imagine it would. Duel is a bit unique because it's one on one, and instead of selecting Arts you've learned, you have to select up to four commands associated with your weapons and gear. Every art is made up of a combination of these commands, so you have to put them in the correct order to activate any Arts you own. On the brightside, you can actually teach a character Arts easier by inputting the commands of Arts they don't know yet if you have a guide though it's not a guarantee it will activate. It's still faster and more efficient than the random Spark factor in party battles. Now, the thing about Duels the game doesn't tell you but you'll likely figure it out pretty quickly is that enemies threat levels are different depending on if you're dueling them or fighting the with a party. With very few exceptions, if a monster battle gives you the option to duel them, you probably should because two of my most painful game overs were from fighting them as a group, whereas they are much more manageable at duels.

The main problem with duels besides being incredibly time consuming, is healing. There are no healing items in this game, and in order to use a healing spell in battle like duels you'll need to know the correct combination and hope it activates. The other way to heal involves consuming Life Points. All characters have HP and Life Points. HP works as you imagine but LP is actually more important and significantly smaller. If your character loses all of their HP, they are knocked out for the duration of the battle unless you use a healing spell on them. If LP is depleted, they're dead and can't be used for the rest of the chapter. So long before you actually gain healing magic, you have the option before a round starts to let a character sacrifice a LP point to restore all their HP. Thankfully everyone has enough to not make this a problem but some duels and particular monsters can make you blow through all your LP if you're not careful. To make matters worse, some monsters have the ability to attack your LP directly. It all sounds confusing but it's an interesting set of mechanics.

Anyway, tangent aside, the reason why Wil's chapter is so difficult is because the majority of battles are duels, so combat becomes quite a bit of a slog. I did acquire an overpowered item or two, but by the end of the chapter when they weren't as useful.

[Wolf Kanno]

In FFL news, I've reached the second area you can fully explore in the tower where I'm hunting down some dragons and the orb their guarding that I need to proceed up the tower. My Mutant has reached the visual cap on Magic and HP, but I'm aware that the cap is actually higher. I was able to upgrade my humans, and I'm debating about just farming the are to raise their stats. I've sadly hit the max on HP200 Potions so I'll have to go after the more expensive HP400 Potions instead. The better weapons are much appreciated and nothing in the are poses much of a threat.

SaGa Frontier 2 is the tale of two very different games. I did a few more of Gustave's chapters and he's easily the best part of the game. I did one of his very few optional quests which involved him getting mixed up between two pirate factions fighting over the chance to go legit. Was a pretty cool side story and Gustave continues to impress me.

Wil is like dating a porcupine. I want to like him and his side of the game but by god is he going out of his way to piss me off. Wil's plot has gotten a bit more interesting now that we''re actually trying to get to the bottom about his parents mysterious deaths. You have to traverse this awful desert area to reach a small town where his father went on an expedition with some unsavory characters. When you finally reach the town, you have to talk to everyone who only gives you bits and pieces of the full story but it's interesting nonetheless. The next chapter was better cause it thankfully didn't involve dungeon crawling. Instead, you have to choose one of Wil's team (Tyler is technically the only real choice) and then infiltrate a gang run by the last surviving member of the Expedition that Wil's dad was a part of. Wil finally gets some interesting plot build up and the whole chapter involves running around the town and trying to find an old man and his grandson that the gang is after. It's a bit time consuming but more fun that most of Wil's chapters have been. The next chapter involves going after the gang.

Wil's Chapters are unfortunately very frustrating. The dungeon maps are confusing as hell and it's very difficult to discern what's a path and what's just pretty background as well as what doors can be opened and which ones are just wallpaper. Graphically the game is similar to Legend of Mana, which isn't surprising when you learn that Kawazu worked on that title as well. Yet it doesn't lead to the most intuitive level design which is probably why it;'s a rare sight in the medium after the PS1. None of this would be too problematic if enemies didn't respawn when you re-enter an area. The more annoying part are the battles. Wil's team just isn't that good unfortunately. Wil is a fragile mage and even with some buffing here and there, he is still the most fragile member. Cordelia the guardian and front line fighter kits way harder and has access to the Spear weapons, but she's just as fragile as Wil sadly. Aunt Nina is durably, but she's another pure mage like Wil and she only brought one new spell to the team. Narcisse is a bit more flexible but I'm learning quickly (and this applies to FFL as well) that Bows just kind of suck in this franchise. Maybe I got spoiled with Tactics Ogre... Tyler is the only heavy on the team but his best weapons are the Axe and Bow. Axes are powerful but lack the amount and variety of skills like the Spear and Sword have.

The problem here comes back to what I was talking about in my previous post about Duels. Only Tyler is really built for dueling on the team, unfortunately I need to duel to learn new spells for my mages, but unlike Weapon Arts where they either activate or they don't, Spell Arts have this annoying thing where they activate Custom Spell Arts, which is a fancy way of saying a boosted basic elemental spell. To give an example of what I mean here, if you build a combo using Stone magic three times in a row, you may eventually learn Stone Armor which is an equippable Art that raises a charcter's defense, or you'll get a Lv.2 or Lv. 3 Stone Custom Art which lowers the enemies defense, which is something the basic stone spell already does. You can't actually use these Arts in regular battles and since only three of the eight elements actually do damage, they're not great in duels either. Even worst is that I discovered some of the higher tier spells actually use the same spell order as the level one shit, which means I now have to pray to the RNG Gods to let the spell work. This blows through your SP like no business and while they're are ways to regenerate it, it's a slow process.

What's really been irking me are the enemies. As I stated before, several enemies are easier as duels, but sometimes the game makes you face off with creatures that are frankly harder than some of the bosses. The Gryphon enemy in the chapter I'm currently on is a team battle only enemy, most of his attacks are OHKO to my fragile party, the one that doesn't kill them has a high chance of charming them, and he has more health than anything I've encountered in the game including bosses. It's times like this where I learn to hat Wil's team cause it's just way too fragile for its own good. The issue is that this has been common for every dungeon in I've been in for his chapters. He always has one or two enemy types that have ridiculous health and can usually take out a character per hit. HP is rewarded randomly and like most of the franchise it doesn't use a conventional level system. Money is also incredible hard to come by in his chapters and it's rare to find armor in this game, so trying to get around the Squishy Wizard Brigade has been a bit of a chore for me.

What's ultimately happening to me is that while I'm getting the usual RPG High of progression in Gustave's story, the same can't be said for Wil, he's just been an up hill battle from beginning to end. It sucks getting lost in a dungeon, worrying about blowing through your LP and then suddenly getting ambushed by a Boss in Mook's Clothing and watching your whole team get wiped out.

[Skyblade]

They can't release these games in the West any more because of the copyright on "saga" by the Candy Crush guys, right?

[Fynn]

Actually, Romancing SaGa 2 and 3 got phone and Vita rereleases with actual English translations! Though I don’t think 3 is available here yet

[Wolf Kanno]

They can't release these games in the West any more because of the copyright on "saga" by the Candy Crush guys, right?

I'm pretty sure that case got thrown out for how ridiculously stupid it was.

Interestingly enough, the only main entries that have never gotten a release of some form in the West is Romancing SaGa 3 and the recent SaGa Scarlet Grace which was a Vita exclusive in Japan, but might finally get a western release if it we get the Switch port. The rest of the entries never seen here are mostly mobile titles.

Granted, the series still traditionally does poorly out here. The Romancing SaGa remake on PS2 did abysmal, we didn't receive any of the DS remakes of the original SaGa (Final Fantasy Legend series), and I'm pretty sure Romancing SaGa 2's sales numbers are not that great. It's why I felt it would have been better for SE to release the series as a set of titles with straight ports.

[Wolf Kanno]

Didin't play a whole lot of SaGa 1 today.

In SaGa Frontier 2, I learned the Gryphon enemies that murdered me last time have close to 22,000 HP. T put this in perspective, I just fought my first boss in Wil's Chapters in this very scenario and he has about 3,300 HP. So close to seven times the normal health of anything I've faced before. Salt aside, the chapter turned out to be a pretty interesting one and in hindsight, I must say that SaGa is not afraid of killing people off in this plot. I've already seen several prominent figures in both stories die off, and I even learned one of my playable characters would have actually died had I chosen her for a particular chapter.

I have also learned that using the triangle button while in the equip menu will actually bring up the items stats, which made me realize that I actually did have some armor and stuff I could use to buff my party. If this game could use anything, it's a visual cue for your offense and defense so you can see which items are actually stronger without having to play menu tag.

The most interesting aspect of Wil's plot is that it really has a JoJo's Bizarre Adventures vibe to it. I'm still in Wil's chapters, but I know his story continues through his bloodline and it involves a conflict with an ancient evil artifact.Basically the plot is starting to move away from Wil learning about his parents and is now starting to become more of a personal grudge against this magic Quell that has caused the death of a few relatives at this point. I'm glad it's finally picking up.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm still going slow in SaGa 1, I believe I'm in the dungeon of this particular area that I need to leave. I was happy that for once, my intuition was correct and I found the Blue Key needed to access the treasure/encounter rooms on my way up. The level design of this game is what ultimately reminds me the most of FFII, which is not saying much... On the other hand, due to the quirky leveling system in this game, running from battles is actually a more practical strategy in many cases, especially to conserve spells and weapon durability. My Mutant has not learned anything new, but I did find Cure Tomes which I can equip to give her the spell though it's limited. The tomes are useless in human hands cause they don't gain magic ability. I also forgot to mention what I named my team. Usually I give people names I like such as Tilos or Alma, but since I'm dealing with a four character limit and I feel my classic FFIII playthrough taught me the fun of theme teams, I gave my party a night theme since I'm a night owl. So my two humans are named Nite and Star, my Mutant is named Luna, and my Monster is named Dark.

In SaGa Frontier 2 news, I did my first war battle in Gustave's chapter It was interesting, feeling like an odd combination of Suikoden II and III's system meshed together. You control units on a grid like field similar to Suikoden II and units adjacent to you can offer support like both games, but when you engage in battles it turns into a regular battle mostly with generics, but story characters can lead units and like Suikoden III, they carry their skills with them. Battles are fought for one round and the unit who suffers the most damage retreats. Killing all four units defeats the unit for good. Victory conditions in this case involved killing the leader unit. So this was all pretty cool actually though I wish Kelvin had been available in later chapters and your other General was actually a playable character. The biggest problem with Gustave's chapters is the fact they are mostly story centric and Gustave tends to work alone despite having so many potentially cool party members.

Wil's Chapters have slowed down a bit in the story department, but I appreciate the fact they still maintain a sense of progress as well. With the matters of his parents death resolved, Wil is actually trying to accomplish his original goal in his plot, which was to strike it rich as a Quell/Anima Ore Digger. So he's latest chapters have been more about him establishing himself within his field. I saw one comrade leave for good to retire of all things, I mean can you actually do that in RPGs? I thought RPGs were more about pulling people out of retirement.

The interesting thing now is that Wil has hooked up with a new team. Labella is looking for her wayward brother and joined up when she needed help crossing the continent, she's actually a pretty decent replacement for the character who left as she is a bow user as well who even begins with the Marksmen Role to help her out and she's not too shabby with magic either. Patrick is a wandering and very hungry soldier who is basically a beefier version of Tyler, who despite being one of the few characters who can equip not only heavy armor but steel armor no less, his main weapon is a staff of all things. The final new member is William... well he reminds me of Wil when this game kind of started, in the fact he's kind of useless, but he does seem to have several proficiencies in weapons unlike Wil, so here's hopting he'll pull a Prince Gordon a la FFII and actually be a decent character if I can raise his weapon skill levels. Oh, and he's also Labelle's brother. Despite the new faces, I still have two of my old teammates here as well and will likely drop William for Cordelia. So William and Wil are checking out a major ruin to find a big haul but seeing how we're in a snowy mountain path with baby dragon-like enemies that have way too much health, methinks the team may have bitten off more than they can chew.

[Wolf Kanno]

In SaGa 1 news, I found the Red Orb and defeated Seriyu, making me half way through the Four Gods. I'm sticking around here for a moment cause money is easy to acquire and I want to improve my humans for awhile before I move to the higher floors.

In SaGa Frontier 2 news, the game has finally picked up and gone in some interesting directions. Gustave's story remains pretty cool as you witness him expand his empire, deal with family trauma, and kind of fall back into anti-hero status as he conducts a few purges here and there. What's been really interesting is watching Wil's plot finally connect with Gustave's as the two have had a few missed chances of running into each other.

Wil's plot is the one that really improved. His adventures with William ended as well as you expect and now I'm well aware of why Diggers (Wil's occupation) don't try to steal from Megalith's very often. Very spooky places that does things to people. It's weird to describe, but the locations kind of mess with your head. Anima, the source of magic in the world also seems to have some weird effects on people if it goes wild as I've witness two different people get transformed into monsters by this point. Probably the most interesting aspect of Wil's journey is the real sense of progress in his plot. You really do start to see how time passes in the plot as characters start retiring from the biz. I just did what I imagine is my final mission with Tyler, a character that's been in Wil's party since his first chapter as the guy is almost fifty now and is talking about retiring from the biz. Wil has also apparently moved to the kingdom Gustave's initially conquered and started a family even though he's still traveling and trying to hunt down the artifact responsible for his parents death. As it stands Wil's journey has largely seen him lost most of his initial team. Narcisse and Tyler have retired due to age, Cordelia has also seemed to retire, though it's implied in background materials apparently that her and Wil hooked up and started a family, course she decides to do this after the game starts handing me unbreakable spear weapons with rare elemental anima... Labella likely went home after the events concerning her brother. Patrick is still hanging around and we've been joined by Raymond, who is now my third Archer character.

I have also been introduced to a new protagonist. Johan, a former assassin on the run from his own organization. First impressions were pretty good. His health and life pool are criminally low, but he makes up for it by his weapon specialties being the overpowered sword and martial art skills. He even starts with a powerful Hybrid Art which are special skills that combine weapon skills and magic spells. His scenario is also pretty interesting despite his story being a bit cliche. It also looks like he's going to be involved with Gustave's story, so that will be interesting. Beating his scenario unlocked one concerning the General character in Gustave's plot as well, so it's been a real treat to finally get some background on some of the side characters.

Sadly, it looks like I may be at the end of this generational cycle as the three scenarios left to me all sound pretty ominous for everyone involved so we'll see.

[Wolf Kanno]

The first arc of the generation story is over in SaGa Frontier 2. Oddly enough, Gustave's last chapter ended up being about Johan who frankly never lived up to the potential he should have had. Depends on if he pops up later but I don't think that's going to happen unfortunately.

The Generals story was also a bit underwhelming except for once again showing how interconnected the two main characters kind of are. His flashback story allowed me to play as him, who is pretty snazzy I might add, but the real treat was finally being able to play with Master Clemir and being treated with a young Narcisse. The master guy is a background character important to Gustave's plot so it was nice to finally get to check him out. Sadly the chapter was kind of boring despite the minor treat.

Wil's "last" chapter was actually the coolest largely because it's the only chapter where his group teams up with Gustave. The chapter had a kind of JoJo's Bizarre Adventures vibe to it, but then again, Wil's whole story feels like it is taking cues from the series. What made this really fun is that I finally got to play with old man Gustave. His sprite changes towards the end of his story to his more regal attire and he finally forged his real Steel Sword which is basically a Gut's sword. It's ridiculously powerful too and Gustave is so far the only character I've seen who has done over 1200hp of damage in the game solo. It ended up being a pretty fun chapter overall.

So with their tales over, I'm given two new characters to play with. Technically Kelvin is Gustave's friend but he hasn't been playable since the very early sections of the game and like Gustave, his story so far is mostly plot focused and dealing with the aftermath of Gustave's last chapter and is deliciously realpolitik as a certain background character is a making a move that could spell the end of Gustave's empire.

Elenore is the new kid on the block. She's a treasure hunter leading an expedition with Patrick and Raymond tagging along and with another new face in the swordsmen Rich. What's interesting about her story is that judging by the ages, we've jumped a good twenty years after Wil's last chapter as poor Patrick has gone from being in his twenties to suddenly being in his forties. So far her story revolves around being lost in a forest and having a map that looks like it was drawn by a child as the group's only clue on how to escape. We'll see where this goes.

[Wolf Kanno]

I have finally obtained Unlimited SaGa, and I hope it is as deliciously bad as I've been told considering the struggle it took for me to get a copy of it.

in SaGa 1, I'm traveling up the tower again, but I'm a little lost and the encounter rate is getting a wee bit annoying, though that seems to be a thing in this franchise in general.

SaGa Frontier 2, finished Elenore's first scenario and learned that Rich is actually Wil's son, who is apprenticing under her for the moment. Sadly, the Lost Woods scenario was actually kind of annoying but I got it done. In the Gustave path, the political situation of the game is getting interesting and I still really wish the game had an in-game glossary to keep tabs on characters. Gustave's scenario has switched to his best friend Kelvin and his son Philippe, except due to how a certain scenario played out, I don't think Philippe is Kelvin's biological son and instead might be Gustave's nephew except he might have been killed, but this kid has the Firebrand which is the holy relic of Gustave's former home and then he gets saved by a certain dragon that popped up the last time the Firebrand showed up, and all I really want to know is who the hell half these characters are. From what I've gathered on the Wiki/TV Tropes, a lot of the plot kind of got cut and only appears in the game's Ultimania of which there are no real translations cause SaGa doesn't have as big and resourceful fanbase in the West like FF does. Ugh...

To put this into overkill, I've also started dabbling in Romancing SaGa 1 via emulator. It's really interesting playing a game that graphically feels like the missing link between FFIV and V. You choose between eight characters at the start to be your lead, each with their own scenario. While you can rename them, the really interesting part is you get to choose their parents profession, which in turn changes the characters starting stats. I started with Albert (http://saga.wikia.com/wiki/Albert), who pretty much looks like how I imagined the son of Cecil and Rosa would look before the After Years changed that. So I gave his parents their profession. Albert is the son of a local lord whom everyone pressures with his eventual rise to be a warrior king like his dad. Unfortunately, Albert is still young and his older sister is far more talented than he is which gives him a bit of a complex. When his scenario opens, a local cave near the castle has become overrun with monsters and Albert's hot-headed blood knight sister feels it is there familial duty to clear it out, so she drags you and some guards over to the cave to clear it out.

Mechanically it's interesting. Enemies can actually be seen on the field and engaged that way, though they tend to gravitate towards you. Also, depending on what direction your facing when you touch an enemy will change your party formation, so getting attacked from the side or behind can be quite disastrous cause formations are super important in this game as it utilizes a grid format reminiscent of Persona 1 but less stupid. It's also a bit scary when you walk onto a field and watch as fifteen to twenty monsters swarm you, so if you hate fighting in RPGs, you might want to set this one out.

On the brightside, weapons don't break like they do in the other SaGa games I've played, though I've read they will break if you use Weapon Skills you learn in battle too many times. Leveling is a bit tougher and I kind of feel like the game has two superflous stats that for some inexplicable reason get priority in leveling over something useful like HP or vitality. It does look like the game still takes points from SaGa and your equipment determines which stats go up. Albert begins with a Rapier, which is usually a speed/dexterity stat based weapon, and so he gets a few point in DEX but not strength, but once I equipped him with his sister's Iron Sword, he is now finally getting Strength stat upgrades. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

[Wolf Kanno]

To bring this topic back to more of it's intention before I hijacked the thread, let's discuss the new kid on the block, SaGa Scarlet Grace. SSG is an entry developed to celebrate the franchise's 25th Anniversary. It was initially developed as a Vita exclusive, but has apparently done well enough in Japan for SE to port it major consoles, PC, and smartphones.

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The backstory in a nutshell is that the gods waged war against their fellow Star God known as the Fire Bringer. One of the gods granted his power to a mortal man, who in turn built a massive empire to combat the Star God's forces. Every 150 years, the Star God's forces returned and the Empire battled them, though its ruler was not always kind and in some cases, came close to destroying the world themselves.

Finally, during the seventh battle, the Empire succeeds in finally felling the Star God who explodes like a firework display as his shattered remains drift to the world below. With the threat gone, the Empire is no longer needed but tries to persevere despite it's function being over. Rebellions and resistances spread across the world, as well as the Emperor's sons fighting among themselves. When the Hero Emperor is assassinated, the Empire quickly collapses and seventy years later, most people no longer remember what the empire stood for. Yet even with the Fire Bringer and Hero slain, trouble still stirs, and perhaps people have grown too lax in this era of peace...

From articles I've read, it seems the game is designed to be similar to classic SaGa entries like Romancing SaGa 1 although I've heard comparisons to SaGa Frontier 1 and Unlimited SaGa as well. To explain, the game offers four heroes to choose from who all have unique stories they follow. While they may cross paths with the other heroes, their plots are primarily self contained until almost the end of the game.



Urpina is a noble born to a warrior family known as the Urinas. The family is known for their skill with a special fencing style utilizing dual blades. Sadly, Urpina has yet to master her family's special art, but he upbeat spirit won't stop her from trying.
Leonard is a farmer ho lives a peaceful life in his village. When a villager collapses after saying “to Ai-Khanoum” he sells his lands and heads towards the legendary city on her behalf.
Taria is an artist who makes quality ceramics. Die to her sensitive nature honed through her craft, she can sense that there is a distortion in the world. This distortion prevents her from finishing her work, so she sets out to correct said distortion.
Balmaint is an executioner for the Cohan Administration Seigfrey. When Seigfrey is arrested on charges made by a political rival, Balmaint executes him as well, but Seigfry announces before his death that he will revive seven times, so Balmaint leaves his post to journey and find Seigfry again in order to execute him seven more times.


As typical of the series, each scenario offers tons of characters, about 24 to be exact, but apparently the port plans on adding three new characters as well as voice work for the main four.

Combat works utilizing a bar that shows turn order to help you strategize. Old standby's of the franchise are still in place like characters being able to use multiple types of weapons, Spark Arts, and battle formations that offer up bonuses. There are no dungeons, just events but there is a world map to help you traverse the world which looks cool cause it's designed to look like a pop up book. While the story sequences stick to more of a visual novel approach like Unlimited SaGa did, the battles have some excellent and very detailed animations. Music is composed by longtime SaGa and Mana composer Kenji Ito, who has been absent from the franchise for the last few non-remake installments.

The port will have a host of new features as well that fix some issues in the game but it will also receive extra scenarios written by Kawazu as well. Sadly, despite getting this cool port, there is no word of a Western release. Honestly, the franchise doesn't do well over here, so it's very unlikely we'll get a port, but having it come out on console might be the push SE needed to give us the game to fill up their calendar while RPG enthusiast wait for KHIII and FFVIIR.

EDITGA: And of course, as soon as I post this, Kawazu tweets that they are planning on making an English version.So hurray for good news!

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

I've always loved the SaGa series, though I've never had the chance to play Frontier 1 or 2. I definitely wanna try at least Frontier 1, just because of the variation in playable characters.

I played SaGa 1 both as FFL and the Wonderswan version, then SaGa 2, which happens to be my favorite of the bunch. Played SaGa 3 as well, but never beat it-- I'm not really a fan of time travel stories. I don't know why.

I never got to play Romancing Saga 2, but I played Minstrel's Song on PS2 and I've been slowly working through RS 3-- I've had to take a break because I got myself stuck in the Sea Palace. Might need to restart the game and maybe prepare better...Or I could grind my party up to 700 hp each. They're all in the 500's right now...hnn... :ohdear:

But hey, did you know that Romancing Saga 3 has a stage production?

just in case you're curious, there are some videos below---

The original trailer...
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I even found a little tidbit of the stage production teasing the hell out of me:
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And some of the main actors being interviewed in their frickin GORGEOUS costumes...
> Here's Monica Ausbach, the princess of Loanne
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> And her brother Mikhail, the Marquis of Loanne looking dramatic as ever lmao
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> Katarina, Monica's bodyguard and the one with the weird blue hair
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> Sarah Carson, a settler and probably the most influential in the game (don't quote me on that)
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> Elen Carson, Sarah's sister
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> Thomas, a merchant and I think??? Sarah's love interest? Maybe? The actor is so lively lmao
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> Julian Nohl, another settler that grew up with Sarah, Elen, and Thomas
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> Harid, my mans-- I mean, a warrior prince from a foreign country
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There are others, but too many to mention here. They all have such awesome designs tho, so you should go scour youtube for them if you wanna see more!

I just wanted to share this with you guys, because apparently the Saga fandom STILL exists! When I found out about it, my mind was blown.

...Maybe I SHOULD go back and continue playing RS3. Just seeing this thread has motivated me.

[Rez09]

On the brightside, weapons don't break like they do in the other SaGa games I've played, though I've read they will break if you use Weapon Skills you learn in battle too many times.

Naaah, you can use skills all you want without anything breaking, the only downside to using them is that, as I recall anyway, they can't increase your weapon level, so you still need to use at least one basic attack during a battle for a shot at that. Speaking of those levels though, be careful when unequipping weapons, because you will lose ALL of your levels with a weapon if you remove it. Kind sucks if you remove something like the Chalice. X_ X



I never got to play Romancing Saga 2, but I played Minstrel's Song on PS2 and I've been slowly working through RS 3-- I've had to take a break because I got myself stuck in the Sea Palace. Might need to restart the game and maybe prepare better...Or I could grind my party up to 700 hp each. They're all in the 500's right now...hnn... :ohdear:

Stuck in the sense you can't reach an exit or in that you cannot defeat the boss? If it is the former, you can lose to Forneus, or any other abyss lord that isn't Byunei on Gwayne's back, and get teleported back to one of the cities (as I recall anyway) and you can dodge most of the running fishmen in his castle by hugging the walls if they were giving you trouble. If the issue is the latter, I'd say to knock off the other three first, as he's the most consistently difficult of the four, especially early on with Squall's silly high chance of changing battlefield element to water and healing off a lot the damage you do to him each turn. You can also try running the Genbu or Tiger's Cave formations when fighting him to cut his damage in half if your damage is high enough and just surviving is the biggest problem, though neither helps with Maelstrom's IK chance.

[Wolf Kanno]

In SaGa 1 news, I've reached Byakko's Sky World. Got betrayed, and now I'm racing to stop Byakko before he obtains the White Sphere I need to move on. Funny enough, I've started working on the SaGa Wiki, mostly sticking to the games I'm currently playing since the info is fresh in my memory. Probably learned way more about Monster Transformations than I ever cared to know.

SaGa Frontier 2 news, the last of the important characters from Gustave's first generation has finally passed. The political intrigue has been interesting and we learned the most important lesson about foreign policy is to not be a dick. Also I found the resolutions to one of the bigger antagonists within this arc to be amusing and probably an example of why inheritance laws usually gave everything to the first born.

I've been dealing with Rich on the Knights story arc, he's turned out to be pretty cool, but it already seems like his arc might be coming to a close. Whereas his dad Wil is kind of atypical adventurer with a heart of gold, well unless the Egg shows up in the plot, Rich is a much more worldly and frankly more interesting hero. He's kind of a Han Solo to Wil's Luke Skywalker, or in JoJo terms, he's Joseph Joestar to Wil's Jonathan Joestar. He's more roguish, doesn't have an interest in the family's legacy, a bit of a womanizer (he's teamed up with three different women in his scenario and managed to knock one of them up), more of a man of action, and he moved halfway across the world to get away from his old man. It's been pretty amusing.

Romancing SaGa is going the slowest cause I'm trying to make it through the other two first before really getting myself dedicated to it. Albert is lost and on his own, trying to make it to his liege lords home in the Crystal Valley. Unfortunately, he has as much luck with ships as Cecil did, so now he's fighting off an army of undead on his wrecked ship. I did make sure to teach him a water healing spell when I had the chance but holy crap everything is expensive in this game.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time.

In SaGa 1 news, I've beaten Bya-Ko and I'm heading up the Tower once again. One of the more interesting things about this game is how it starts off "questy" and now has grown more story driven as you climb up. Granted, the stories are simplistic but it's pretty cool when you remember this is a Gameboy title and even the console entries weren't exactly the epitome of storytelling at the time frame of this game's release. My only beef right now is my poor Esper/Mutant, who refuses to learn new spells, or at least seems to have a knack of only wanting to replace the only good spell they have instead of the other three worthless spells they've been carrying since the beginning of the game. On the brightside, I've finally acquired a few of the game's only magic based weapons and on my Mutant, they out-damage most of what my party can do. The difficulty spike has finally kicked in, and my party is finally having to really be careful about weapon durability and spell charges, so that's been nice as well.

In SaGa Frontier 2 news, I've reached the final generation of the Knight's family, Richard's daughter Virginia "Ginney" Knights. She's been amusing so far and has some incredibly luck cause the party she quickly amassed is easily the best team I've had all game. Ginney is an good combo of her dad and grandfather, being very Mage-centric like Wil, but enough points in swordsmanship to switch to being a frontline fighter if need be which is more in line with Rich. Her only bad trait is her low health like her grandfather. Primera is an Ax user with strong stats with spears as well. She's also a steel warrior who comes in the party with a full set of steel based armor. Her growth is low but she's still a pretty good fighter. Roberto is basically Narcisse merged with Labelle, a strong mage character with some actual expertise in Bow weapons. His WP is incredibly low, but he starts with more health than everybody and his magic stats are incredibly high. Gustaf is probably the best of the whole team. Despite looking like a JoJo character with his rams horn hairstyle, Gustaf is almost a copy of another character whose name rhymes with his. Throw in the fact he begins with two different unbreakable swords which the game has poorly hidden the fact they are actually two very plot-centric weapons in Gustave's story, and you've got a wrecking ball of a fighter. Ginney's plot starts off amusing enough but right now she's just meandering around with her team in her dad's old stomping grounds. Contrast this to the Gustave scenario where we've watched the fall of one character and the rise of who I imagine is going to be the main villain. One thing that has bugged me right now is that I'm looking at my inventory and noticed I have two pieces of armor I acquired ages ago in the early game that both have great stats but for the life of me, I can't find anyone who can wear either of them. Inventory space is limited so, it's annoying carrying around stuff that's going to go to waste and the game only allows you to sell stuff at special vendors, of which I haven't had access to for a few scenarios now.

In Romancing SaGa 1 news, again, not far in but this is partially due to both bad luck and my own stupidity making me reset. I'm still in Albert's scenario trying to get back home. I've met with Sif, another player character, who has proven to me that Albert just starts incredibly weak in his scenario. He's a good mage, but his melee stats are several points lower than everyone it seems. Right now I'm trying to help Sif clear some monster in a cave south of her village. Progress was slowed due to dying a lot when I was just Albert, and accidentally selling a valuable piece of equipment I didn't mean to. Money is incredibly rare in this game, and I was recently informed by Rez09 that quests are on a timer determined by how many random encounters you've fought, so grinding is kind of out of the question. Not helping is that leveling up stats only really works if you fight something strong, so it doesn't take long before your characters are too strong and the fights turn into wastes of time since they hardly help your stats or give money. I'm enjoying it still, but know I'm going to need to really sit down and focus on it if I want to make real headway into it.

Had to show you what Gustaf looks like to understand what I mean by JoJo character.
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[Rez09]

I hate to ask what you sold; iron armor, maybe? Also, curious, what professions did you pick for Albert's parents during character creation? That can make a pretty big difference in your starting stats and gear, and if you chose to be left-handed it will make you slightly weaker with swords until you find the left-handed sword later in the game (which is strong on its own, but even stronger if you are left-handed).

[Wolf Kanno]

I hate to ask what you sold; iron armor, maybe? Also, curious, what professions did you pick for Albert's parents during character creation? That can make a pretty big difference in your starting stats and gear, and if you chose to be left-handed it will make you slightly weaker with swords until you find the left-handed sword later in the game (which is strong on its own, but even stronger if you are left-handed).

Since he looked like what I imagined Cecil and Rosa's son would actually look like, I gave his parents those professions, so Paladin and Priest. He's a decent fighter but a pretty good mage except for his low spell charges.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time:

In Saga 1, things have gotten very MegaTenish in this next world. I've jumped from ocean and sky kingdoms to winding up in a thinly veiled expy of destroyed Tokyo and the gimmick this time around is that the Main Bad guy controls the surface and will smurf you up if you step out of a town or subway system onto the regular world map. He's apparently invincible but I'm teaming up with a Biker gang whose leader knows how to destroy the boss's invincibility. Gameplay-wise, I just hit the figurative cap on Strength and Agility for my humans with both now having a minimum of 99 in each stat, but I'm well aware that the cap is actually higher than that. I've been debating about changing my monster as well. Since I discovered I don't have to worry about accidentally making him weaker I'm thinking of changing his class cause while Baku has some great skills, most of them have few charges, so he's often dead weight in battle since he can't fight.

In RS1 news, Albert has helped Sif defeat the monsters in the south and we've journeyed to the Knight's Domain to help their lord and squire named Raphael go deal with their own monster uprisings. Discovered that martial art skills can be taught and wondering if it's okay that I haven't really been teaching anyone magic. On the brightside, these monster dungeons have Gold for me to get so I'm finally starting to get some cash flow, but I am a little sad that equipment based treasure is few and far between. Granted, that might be because the game doesn't have as many upgrades for weapons/armor and instead focuses on giving each of the weapon types it's own strength and weaknesses. Having Raphael was nice cause he's kind of pathetic and allowed me to see how far along Albert has gone in development. While Albert may never be a physical powerhouse like Sif or Lord Theodore, he's surprisingly durable and his magic power is pretty great. I just need to focus on getting him more Spell charges.

In SFII news, I've reached the end of Gustave's scenario on the timeline, which has me dealing with the Battle of South Moundtop. This is considered to be one of the hardest sections of the game by fans outside of the actual final boss battle. I briefly mentioned before that the game has Suikoden style War Battles every once in awhile, mostly in Gustave's scenario, well we're at the last one and it's a doozy. I made about five attempts so far to win this battle and gave up when on the try where I came the closest to winning, I realize that the computer had screwed me out of victory due to blocking my advancement four turns back.

So to explain, there are two ways to win this fight and two ways to lose. The losing conditions involve my Leader unit getting killed, and new to this game at least, having the enemy reach and occupy my base camp, which is something you've never had in previous battles. Win conditions look simple, I have to either kill the enemy leader unit, or survive eight turns until my armies reinforcements arrive. Okay, so anyone who has played Suikoden or other tactical turn based Rpgs will likely say "So what? This is all standard for the genre" the challenge here is that this is the first battle in the game where I don't have access to any special characters. I'm stuck using the lowest of the generics with the closest thing to a specialty unit being archers. The enemy is also mostly using generics, but they get all the special upgraded ones. So my units are stuck using spears with basic skills, while his units get the stronger sword weapons, access to magic, and worse of all, the leader unit and his two bodyguard units are all full steel units with mid-tier spear skills and twice as much health as any unit. This makes the battle very difficult. The bulk of his army can either decimate my soldiers it feels like it by spamming Smash and Flame Naga to one-shot each soldier in my unit, or it can waste it's turns on lower end skills while my archers soften them up and my surviving troops finish them off. Course it all depends on the RNG. The real issue are the steel troops, it is nearly impossible to defeat them through brute force, and they can decimate a unit that is defending if they feel like it, they are that overpowered. The only saving grace is that the leader unit and his two steel units will not attack my army unless I place a unit next to them or until the fourth turn comes.

So with a bit of research, I've learned of two strategies to win this fight but both of them kind of rely on the RNG being merciful to you. The long way, involves waiting out the eight turns. You basically have to wipe out his basic troops by turn four and then place three troops directly in front of his and his steel troops. At this point, you simply defend every round as your troops keep retreating after every battle and by Round Eight, your troops should be retreating back into their home base. I screwed up cause an enemy unit had placed himself in front of the leader and accidentally sent me back two steps so by round eight when that unit retreated again, the enemy leader ended up landing in my base making me lose the battle. The other issue here is that this strategy relies heavily on being able to take down most of his basic troops and as I've mentioned before, they either play dumb or they are horribly efficient at murdering my units.

The other strategy is faster but has more room for error. As I mentioned before, the other win condition is beating the leader, but as I also mentioned, his units are way too overpowered to be taken down by normal means. Instead this strategy involves exploiting a rule the game never tells you about, and you probably will only discover by accident. If a defeated unit tries to retreat but has all of their possible retreat spots taken, then the unit will fail to retreat and instead be destroyed. So this strategy involves rushing the leader unit and then surrounding him. By having at least five or six units attack him in one round, the accumulated damage from arrow support will eventually force his unit to actually retreat even if your units only defend each attack. By surrounding him his unit will have no where to go and be automatically defeated winning the fight. The challenge here is that you need to finish off as many of his normal troops as you can within the second turn, you need to manage to get a troop behind him, and then you need to hope one of his other units doesn't TPK any of your units after you get the formation in place. It's heavily RNG based. So yeah... not a fun fight.

To give this a Suikoden analogy, imagine playing Suikoden II and having to win a battle with three Luca Blight units while you're stuck using the generic faceless units. That's kind of what I'm up against here.

[Rez09]

In Saga 1, things have gotten very MegaTenish in this next world. I've jumped from ocean and sky kingdoms to winding up in a thinly veiled expy of destroyed Tokyo and the gimmick this time around is that the Main Bad guy controls the surface and will smurf you up if you step out of a town or subway system onto the regular world map. He's apparently invincible but I'm teaming up with a Biker gang whose leader knows how to destroy the boss's invincibility.

That's my favorite part! :excited:



Having Raphael was nice cause he's kind of pathetic and allowed me to see how far along Albert has gone in development.


I died, poor Raph. xD At least he's got spirit, even if he hits like a wet noodle. How's Sif comparing to Theo? I never have her when I do that quest and Theo's actually pretty strong when you get there.

I don't generally use magic in RS1 outside of a few buff spells, and I often pick those up quite late, so it isn't really a problem you haven't been teaching people magic unless you want it to be a primary focus of theirs. If that is the case then focus on getting them a low cost spell early to cast when they can to slowly start ticking up their MP, as the game uses that alongside INT to determine magic power and buff strength / duration.

I'm not gonna lie, that war battle sounds like a hell of a thing, but I'm glad they went the hard route with it -- RS3 has war battles too and the final storyline one is a complete joke; nothing you do in the battle remotely matters, even full on suicide rushing the enemy. It is such a missed opportunity.

[Wolf Kanno]

That's my favorite part! :excited:

Well I am lost as hell. The bike is nice to move around this huge map but it doesn't help me avoid Suzaku as much as I would like. I found the ROM and the place I need for a third part, but I can't find the BOARD, which is slowing down my progress. I've also been experimenting with Monster forms and learning that I may have actually had one of the best within it's power tier. I'll have to see if I can get the FIREMAN monster form back. So yeah, I'm stalled until I can figure out where this last piece is.



I died, poor Raph. xD At least he's got spirit, even if he hits like a wet noodle. How's Sif comparing to Theo? I never have her when I do that quest and Theo's actually pretty strong when you get there.

I don't generally use magic in RS1 outside of a few buff spells, and I often pick those up quite late, so it isn't really a problem you haven't been teaching people magic unless you want it to be a primary focus of theirs. If that is the case then focus on getting them a low cost spell early to cast when they can to slowly start ticking up their MP, as the game uses that alongside INT to determine magic power and buff strength / duration.

Good to know on magic. I'm probably not going to focus on it much with Albert outside of what he already has. The magic system is kind of unique what with the whole you can't use opposite elements deal. For your question, Sif is pretty much MVP in this scenario cause her Strength, Vitality, HP, and Agility are significantly higher than most characters I've met. Theodore was pretty awesome too, but Sif still out-damages him and is faster. I just gave her a Bastard Sword and even with the shield lost, she's now doing triple damage than she was before and reached Rank four or five in less than half an hour with it. So she's frightning. Thankfully, Albert has started to really come into his own. What he lacks in strength he makes up for in defense and magic ability and he's a decent fighter. He's more of a Red Mage build than Sif which I can dig.

In RS1 news, Albert finally reached Rosalia, only for me to learn that poor Raphael is now been imprisoned for... not saving a princess from monsters? Anyway, the monsters want one of the magic MacGuffins foretold in the game intro and I went to meet a Sage who knows a thing or two about them. I acquired some mage based gear like a staff and book, but I'm not sure if I'm going to use them. I did accidentally travel back through that one dungeon I climbed through with Theodore and Raph because I thought that was where the game was sending me but I was wrong, at least it game time to raise some stats and weapon levels and accumulate enough money to outfit my party and give Albert a spear. So I'll go rescue Constance soonish.


'm not gonna lie, that war battle sounds like a hell of a thing, but I'm glad they went the hard route with it -- RS3 has war battles too and the final storyline one is a complete joke; nothing you do in the battle remotely matters, even full on suicide rushing the enemy. It is such a missed opportunity.

Interesting to hear that the series used stuff like this before.

As for Saga Frontier 2, after four more attempts, I finally won the Battle of South Moundtop. I used the "Hold the Line (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXLVFnl3WcE)" strategy cause it gives me more control. I largely succeeded due to getting lucky and annihilating the troops on the West side very quickly, and the one troop I didn't finish off made the weird choice of retreating behind their commander, making them pretty much useless for the rest of the battle as they were often too far away from the skirmish zone to do anything.

Finishing this scenario gives you a sort of ending as you learn about Gustave's legacy and the people who made world peace afterwards. There is a cool montage of key scenes within the whole scenario which was pretty cool as what I imagine is Gustave's theme is playing. A pretty nice end overall.

So now I'm jumping back to Ginny and the Knights battle with the Egg. I am now a bit irked cause I've learned a few of the reasons why her scenario is such a huge jump in difficulty, besides just having all of the game's nastiest bosses, is largely cause the game does little to give you warning about preparation. I think the last scenario I did for her was my last chance to learn any more Weapon and Spell Arts as apparently everything in the last dungeon has a low Spark Rate and don't let you level up as much as you would want. I'm also just getting cut off from various shops as I was apparently suppose to convert my Chips I've been accumulating all game into actual cast for the part I'm in. It might not be this bad, but it's sounding to me like my chances of grinding up some levels are very limited and I probably should have made a second save. On the brightside, I have taken most of my good gear off of the other past characters and I have most of the Weapon Arts learned, I just wish I was able to learn Soul Hymn and Reviara before this point cause they sound very important for the final gauntlet of boss fights coming up. I'm not at the final dungeon yet, but I do know it's a point of no return within the game, as well as the "trick" behind the final boss though anyone familiar with Xenogears will know it as well.

[Rez09]

Wait, did land you from the boat and immediately find the knight looking for help?

I don't remember the book in the tower, but the Mage Staff is . . . not generally worth using. It allows you to grind INT when using it as a normal attack but doesn't deal damage and the magic buff skill it unlocks as it levels up, as with all item based magic skills, is nigh useless because it does not use mp in its calculation, instead using a value based on which fire magic spells you know.

[Wolf Kanno]

Wait, did land you from the boat and immediately find the knight looking for help?

I don't remember the book in the tower, but the Mage Staff is . . . not generally worth using. It allows you to grind INT when using it as a normal attack but doesn't deal damage and the magic buff skill it unlocks as it levels up, as with all item based magic skills, is nigh useless because it does not use mp in its calculation, instead using a value based on which fire magic spells you know.

Yes. Pretty much the first NPC I talked to.

I had a feeling magic base weapons would do something like that.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time:

RS1 - Didin't get a chance to play it today, and I probably won't for a bit since I'm nearing the end of the other two entries.

SaGa1 - I'm nearing the end of Destroyed Tokyo. After being lost for awhile, I found the three pieces I need to destroy his barrier, Suzaku then decided to take this game into a much darker direction by wiping out the entire town that is like one of only two safe havens in this place and kidnapped an NPC in order to have a duel on a skyscraper. Pretty neat actually. I'm also still trying to find a decent monster, and may have finally found one. The difficulty has also spiked as this has been the first area where characters have been getting killed more regularly and my lack of healing options cause I rarely carry items is starting to become an issue.

SaGa Frontier 2 - Well the good news is that I did have one more dungeon to explore before the point of no return. The bad news is that I couldn't acquire the four Arts I was gunning for because they are all ridiculously hard to Spark. I did find an optional dungeon I completely missed which helped me get at least one of the skills I've been trying to acquire: Revivira. This spell is basically auto-life and is dirt cheap to cast considering. I had actually given up hope of getting this spell but then I managed to Spark it. As I near the end of the game, I've finally come across some interesting info that finally does a decent job of explaining this games mechanics, specifically armor cause nearly 90% of the relevant stats are hidden from the player. Though it has come too late to help me in this playthrough, it will help me with the SaGa Wiki at least. Overll, it was a productive night as I was able to get some serious levels for my party. I even acquired two more party members for my trouble though I had already decided on my final team awhile ago. My final team will be Ginney, Gustaf, Primera, and Wil. Roberto is a mix bag and Wil has more flexibility although I did acquire a pretty good weapon for Roberto in the optional dungeon. The new chick, is pretty much a copy of Primera but a little more magic focused though not by much. Ginney and Will are both pretty outstanding mages and not surprisingly once you learn his real identity, Gustaf is pretty bad ass as well in that department as well though he's stuck with his two swords and is better in that department. It will be interesting to see how the final dungeon/boss gauntlet goes with my current party, I've been trying to figure out a four member combo to help me out for the fights to come.

[Wolf Kanno]

RS1 - Played around a bit in the dungeon where the princess/noble is. Getting some decent cash and happy I picked up the spear for Albert because he's doing well leveling it up despite me actively avoiding battles.

SaGa1 - Suzaku is done with and this has been easily one of the more interesting chapters of the game. Unfortunately, I need a shop to recoup cause my party got wrecked in that last area and I seriously need some items and new weapons. I've tried to climb the tower some more, but my party is a bit too fragile at the moment and I think I'm being a bit too impatient as well, so I'm taking unnecessary risks and damage for my trouble.

SaGa Frontier 2 - Still delaying the inevitable, I'm trying to see if I can get a hold of a few more items and raise my levels a bit more. I did complete one new story mission on Ginney's path which shed some light on her teammates despite me guessing correctly about one of them. With the exception of Roberto, who seems to be just a smooth talking Digger, the rest of Ginney's party have some heavy credentials attached to them as most of them are related to, associated, or just plain are some of the heavy hitters within SF2's plot. Two nobles, two prodigies, and easily the greatest Digger of the century, it's an all-star cast and feels like an interesting merging of the two scenarios. I'm going to try to fight the Megaltih Beast (optional boss) one more time in order to Spark the last few abilities I really want. For now, I'm trying to grind these skills in an optional area while collecting riff-raff items to chip, in order to make use of the game's economy mechanic I was never aware of until I found some guides on it.

[Wolf Kanno]

Not a terribly productive night...

SaGa 1 - I crawled back into the Ruined Tokyo world and fixed up my party with more weapons and some healing items. The trek up to the big bad has not been pleasant due to a combination of high encounter rates, several enemies having access to instant-death abilities, and my own lack of Revives. Due to the heart mechanics which gives my party only three lives and the fact I have revived a couple of them a few times before, I've been needing to reset when death happens cause I don't want to lose any of my party.

SaGa Frontier 2 - Ugh, the Megalith Beast is not sparking the skills I want and every-time I try to fight this one rare monster in duels, the damn thing is so overpowered it kills me. I may have to just throw in the towel and just bum rush the final dungeon. It's becoming more and more apparent that if I really need to have some of these skills, I actually have to grind them in Gen 1. There are just not as many opportunities in Gen 3 to get good skills since most of it relies on Normal Battle sparking and duels are the way to go.

Romancing SaGa - Rescued Constance and Albert is now an "Honorary Knight" which is as useful as it is in real life right now. Finally reached the location I was suppose to be going and got some interesting story bits and some great music. I am now heading towards Crystal Lake to figure out who is killing all of these teen... I mean I'm going there to retrieve the Aquamarine, which is one of the McGuffins I need for the overarching plot. I was doing pretty well, I have Albert leveling a Steel Sword (Gustave would be proud) while Sif levels up a basic Punch. In typical Square fashion, monk fighters are OP. Unfortunately, despite doing really well overall, I ran into this Cerberus enemy in a regular encounter who completely thrashed my party by doing 200+damage to me, when neither character has reached 300HP. Sucks, but whatever. I'd probably be strong enough to deal with him if I bothered to grind.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time:

I didn't get back to Romancing SaGa today so nothing on that.

SaGa 1 - I finally reached Ashura and that fight did not go as planned as he was able to knock out my two Humans within the first two rounds. This left my Monster and Mutant/Esper to deal with him and they put up a good enough fight to win, but the Mutant didn't survive. So my party got ejected from the tower and I'm back to the first floor except now all the NPCs I've helped are around and the shops have been updated with way better gear. I was able to acquire the Nuke, Excalibur, Flare spell and Glass Sword, so I'm pretty confident I can take down the final boss if I can survive reaching him. For now, I need to farm some cash so I can outfit my team with the new stuff. On the brightside, my Mutant finally learned a new spell and actually traded out one of her useless spells for it. I don't think it's a particularly better spell but progress is progress no matter how small.

SaGa Frontier 2 - Continued to grind but finally decided to say "smurf it" and I've plunged into the point of no return. The party has chased the Egg controlled imposter to the northern continent and discovered an unknown megalith. I had to fight some nasty enemies to get there, but it probably would have done better had I not switched out two characters for my backup party that I rarely use. I wish Axe weapons didn't suck so bad in the end-game. On the brightside, I did Spark two abilities I was looking for, so that should help me now that I'm going into boss rush mode.

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Oh man, I forgot there was a Ruined Tokyo bit in Saga1. I should probably replay it if I'm forgetting things like that.



Stuck in the sense you can't reach an exit or in that you cannot defeat the boss? If it is the former, you can lose to Forneus, or any other abyss lord that isn't Byunei on Gwayne's back, and get teleported back to one of the cities (as I recall anyway) and you can dodge most of the running fishmen in his castle by hugging the walls if they were giving you trouble. If the issue is the latter, I'd say to knock off the other three first, as he's the most consistently difficult of the four, especially early on with Squall's silly high chance of changing battlefield element to water and healing off a lot the damage you do to him each turn. You can also try running the Genbu or Tiger's Cave formations when fighting him to cut his damage in half if your damage is high enough and just surviving is the biggest problem, though neither helps with Maelstrom's IK chance.

I went back and tried letting Forneus kill me... and nope, it just booted me to the title screen. But it's ok, I managed to backtrack my way out of the dungeon. Maybe I'll properly resume playing RS3 now that that's out of the way ...For now.

[Rez09]

Hmmmm, that's interesting -- I know there is some sort of shortcut out of there; I'll have to poke around later and try to figure it out again. Good to hear you got out, though. Out of curiosity, what are you running for a party?

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

- Harid (w/ "true" Kamsheen and a good amount of Sun & Earth magic trained up– I'm proud of how I've played him thus far)
- Ellen (REALLY utilizing her Axe skills, though I never put any time into training her martial arts)
- Tatyana (with Water & Moon affinity, though I'm thinking of ditching her for Undine. Currently I have her play Healer with Harid as a backup when things get dicey, and for the most part, it works out well. ...Just not against Forneus.)
- Poet/Bard whatever he is (really put a lot of time into training him Fire magic– playing him more as a support member than anything)
- Robin (using him as he's designed to be used– and he's actually one of my favorite party members)
- Boston (he's kinda new, but he's quickly proven to be a powerful asset)


As it is, I don't think I'm willing to trade out Robin or Boston, but as I said before, Undine looks like a great replacement for Tatyana and I'm willing to find someone else to fill in the all-out brawn slot if they can top Ellen's stats. I think aside from my main (Harid) she's been in the party the longest.
And you can't tell me not to main Harid, if you're considering that. I am incapable of starting over with someone else. He's ... he's... my mans. :<

[Wolf Kanno]

Done and done!

SaGa 1 is complete. The journey back up the Tower was not nearly as tedious as I thought it would be, and the Hyper I saved made short work of the Four Symbol bosses.The final boss turned out to be a bit more of a difficulty spike than I anticipated, and a bit harder than it should have been so my first attempt ended in failure. I was unaware of a healing pod before the boss fight, so in order to conserve my limited amount of elixirs I had, I had my bad ass monster eat some meat that transformed into a form that was ill-equipped for the battle ahead. Basically a magic-centric monster with low strength and a only elemental spells that the final boss happens to be immune to. X-Calibur also didn't hit nearly as hard as I was hoping, I'm guessing it does elemental damage cause it's damage output was significantly weaker than some lower weapons I had available. The boss just wore me down. In the successful attempt, I had my lead human use the Glass Sword (yes I totally exploited that buggy weapon) and the other human use the Masemune and the Nuke to do some serious damage while my Esper pelted him with Flare. My poor monster was moved to the front to soak up damage and do pathetic damage with Tentacle on the rare occasion it landed. The ending was pretty cool and I loved the highlight reel of the game.

Overall, SaGa 1 is a pretty snazzy game that holds up well. It's short, which I appreciate for my handheld games (See DQIX? you can still be epic and not be a 200 hour time sink) and it's really surreal overall. I almost felt like I was playing a MegaTen title than something out of Square. It balances quirky humor with some disturbing content and it serves as one of those games where I'm surprised it got past the censors gaming had back in the early 90s considering who the final boss is and the amount of death that permeates the game. Pretty neat game, and when I have the extra cash, I'll probably pick up Final Fantasy Legend II so I can finally beat that game that serves as a black mark on my RPG completion rates.



Favorite Race: Monsters
Favorite World: Ruined Tokyo
Favorite NPC: King of Shields and his Monster Wife
Favorite optional room: The one with the dead family.
Favorite Four Symbol Boss: Byakko
Favorite Boss: Either Death Machine's cameo or the Final Boss
Would I recommend it? Hell yeah!

***********************************************************************************************
SaGa Frontier 2 was also completed. I really loved how the final boss was handled and I'm surprised Squenix never bothered utilizing it one of the FFs. So SF2 borrows an idea from Xenogears. The final boss has six minions based on one of the six elements waltzing around the final dungeon. Now you're forced to fight at least two of them (Water and Fire) but the other four are optional. Like Xenogears, not fighting these guys powers up the final boss. The boss gains additional forms depending on which of the bosses you don't fight, dragging out the fight longer than necessary and giving him access to new moves. That part is pretty neat but the other cool factor is that only your reserve party members can fight the optional bosses in duel battles. In a rare act of mercy, the duels can be won in one of two ways, you can either deplete the bosses health like normal, or you can survive fifteen rounds with it before you auto win. Depending on the boss and who you have them fighting, one option is easier than the others.

While I whooped the final boss on my first try, I'll tell you now that I probably would have lost had I not read a few things ahead of time and did some prep work. The final boss easily has one of the nastiest moves in the game called Star Quake. This move hits the whole party for pretty heavy damage unless you have strong magic defense or just a ton of health, but it's real threat comes in the fact it does guaranteed LP damage. LP is a resource used for healing and if a character loses all of it, they are permanently incapacitated for the rest of the chapter. LP cannot be gained and there is only one item that can heal it and only out of battle. Also, the LP on a character is fixed, so you can't increase it. Only two party members have more than 20 LP, the rest are in the mid-teens, meaning that this battle could only last maybe fifteen rounds before my team was too devastated to stand a chance. Now thankfully there are items that protect your character from LP damage but only one of them doesn't come with some kind of catch like how Dead Stones obliterate your Magic Defense. So if I had not known about this, I would probably have lost the battle cause this boss hits hard and he loves using Star Quake. Thankfully his final form trades it for a more conventional super attack I can heal through with Regenerate and timed Life Water spells.

The ending of the Knights family chapter was pretty good and I really enjoyed how it comes full circle a bit with Gustave's story as well. The montage ending was pretty epic and helps really solidify all you accomplished in the game. It even game me some stats:



Arts learned: 115 - I only ever completed Staff weapons, Tree, and Beast Arts and I'm missing about two or three arts per weapon/element except for Martial arts and Bows where I 'm missing more like four or five if you count hybrid arts.
I obtained every combat Role in the game
Saw every scenario (didn't even realize you could miss some of them actually)
I have Rank A in the Commerce Game, which doesn't amount to much cause all the best stuff is locked behind Rank S.
No one seems to know what Enemy A.I. score even means.


Overall, SaGa Frontier 2 was a pleasant surprise but one I kind of had to learn to like for what it rather than what I wanted it to be. SF2 has two different scenarios and the more interesting one is played out more like a historical reenactment as opposed to a drama. It makes the early parts a bit rough to follow but actually plays out well when you get to the second half of the game. The political drama gets some serious brownie points by making the most of the "period of history" concept the game has going for it, as it's able to do some interesting historical narrative stuff you don't normally see in these types of games cause the story never goes beyond the MC.

The Knights story is more conventional RPG but it does get really interesting once it starts to really intertwine with Gustave's plotline. Wil is not a bad dude, but his descendants are all more interesting than him. There are too many characters to really list and choose who were my favorites but I will give special mention to Gustave and Rich.

Gustave is not a typical RPG protagonist and I've got to give him props for being such a conflicting and compelling figure without completely resorting to magical/sci-fi nonsense to make them so like say... Fei Fong Wong or Mr. Cloud Strife. Gustave kind of gets dealt a bad hand and never really gets over it, but does eventually use the complex it gives him to drive him towards so many of his accomplishments and redefining an era. He's not a hero and he's well aware of it, and he often swings back and forth between showcasing the best and worst of a leader. His chapters are always often the most interesting.

Rich was just a treat, I tend to like womanizing roguish characters and Rich was a breath of fresh air after dealing with his boy scout father. It's helped that he's often accompanied by some of the more impressionable party members (though Wil does get Cordelia and Narcisse) and I frankly just liked his story of being the son of a famous man who is trying to run away from his father's reputation so he can become his own person. It's beautifully shown in-game as you don;t even realize he's Wil's son until a few chapters into his story thanks to a bait and switch POV character. I also just liked watching as Rich tries to ignore his family's conflicted history with The Egg and how he eventually realizes too late why Wil is so damn obsessed with it. Frankly, the Egg is shown to be far more antagonistic and freaky in Rich's chapters than it ever was in Wil's.

The gameplay has it's problems, but overall, I enjoyed most of it outside of the steep learning curve in the early game. It wouldn't hurt the game to have a few more explanations on some of it's gameplay concepts though, especially the currency/custom tools shop nonsense cause by the point I realized it existed, I was too far into the game to make any use of it. The music also grew on me, though I still feel Hamazu's battle themes are the best parts and his story themes are often hit or miss. I really loved the art style, and while the sprite work is very cool, it's also jankey in some places. SF2 is sort of the opposite of Wind Waker. Wind Waker looks awful in still photographs but is absolutely fluid and gorgeous in motion, SaGa Frontier 2 looks better when nothing is moving around.



Best Generation: 1
Best Weapons: Swords, Spears, and Staves
Best Magic: Life Water, Regenerate, Delta Petra, Firestorm and Call Thunder.
Favorite Megalith: Insect, just because of all of the cool story parts attached to it.
Dumbest Nobles: The King of Wide and Prince Charles of Jade.
Coolest non-important POV character: Eleanor
Should have gotten more screentime: Patrick, Diane, Marie, Leslie, and the entire Third Generation
Should have been playable: Bart, Flynn, and Leslie
The true final boss: South Moundtop Battle
Whatever happened to...: Flynn, Dirk, Leslie, Marie, and Philippe III?


**************************************************************************************************** **

So with these two games out of the way, I can start dedicating more time to Romancing SaGa 1. I am debating about hooking up my PS2 and trying my hands on Unlimited SaGa as well, but not sure just yet.

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Congrats on beating the two games! And yeah, SaGa 1 sure has a snazzy premise and an edgy final boss, for being a GBA title and all that.

[Rez09]

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/5/58/FFL_Warmech.png/revision/latest?cb=20121210114712

Deessssuuuuuu maaaaachine! A few nasty quirks aside, I love the original SaGa and the amount of ambition that went into making it. Five, effectively, very different worlds to be explored, four different PC types with unique strengths and weaknesses, a pretty solid soundtrack, and relatively fair level of challenge. I also kind of love the final boss' he's bored and creates the tower and the evils in each world for his own amusement, even keeping score books for how far people managed to get before dying, whiiiiich the party aren't super happy about when they get to the top. It's a fun little twist I'm kind of sad was removed. Honestly the only part of the game I dislike is the very start when you are getting the stuff to open the tower, which always felt super slow and grindy to me.

Also, you should try some Unlimited SaGa, you know you want to. You know I want you to. Plaaaaay it, looooove it.



- Harid (w/ "true" Kamsheen and a good amount of Sun & Earth magic trained up– I'm proud of how I've played him thus far)
- Ellen (REALLY utilizing her Axe skills, though I never put any time into training her martial arts)
- Tatyana (with Water & Moon affinity, though I'm thinking of ditching her for Undine. Currently I have her play Healer with Harid as a backup when things get dicey, and for the most part, it works out well. ...Just not against Forneus.)
- Poet/Bard whatever he is (really put a lot of time into training him Fire magic– playing him more as a support member than anything)
- Robin (using him as he's designed to be used– and he's actually one of my favorite party members)
- Boston (he's kinda new, but he's quickly proven to be a powerful asset)

You can finish this game pretty soundly with any team you stick together, the only characters I advise against are Shonen and Sara, so don't feel like you need to replace anyone. Addressing Tatyana vs. Undine, Tat is much less vulnerable to charm, tends to be more sturdy and a better physical attacker, and has innate cold resistance due to her teddy bear; Undine is a vastly superior mage and starts with a Lake Robe and most water magic learned, saving a ton of money and bringing a great mid level armor. I'd say to pick her up over Tat and keep her a pure mage for the crown, as she can run secondary support for the Poet and do a lot of low cost AoE damage, just make sure to do your healing with non-water elemental spells in the Forneus fight. For Ellen replacements, Fairy has the best offensive stat spread in the game by a mile, and comes with the best offensive formation to boot, but she is super squish; Nora is a better Axe/Mace user than Ellen due to her stat spread, and she comes with one of the best defense formations, but she is a lot slower; Zhi Ling is the best archer in the game, and bows do a TON of damage lategame, but you need to complete the Eastern lands side quest to recruit her. Probably the best option is Zhi once she is available, though.

What weapons / techs / spells are your party primarily using? You might be low on damage looking at the party, which will be a real problem in that fight if you don't have a good way, like lv.20 Fire Wall or Firecracker, to rapidly clear the water elemental field and stop Forneus' regen. There is a Meteor Fragment hidden in Forneus' dungeon before you enter the castle section, just keep pushing against the right wall to find it, and you can forge a Kris Naga epee for Robin with it, which is the best in the game and might help if you don't have it yet, and the Royal Ring provides regen and immunity to Maelstrom IKs if you picked that up for Arakes' dungeon already. Herman comes with the Viking axe, which has Genghis Khan as a hard-to-learn-but-silly-strong built in tech, which Ellen might like.

[Wolf Kanno]

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/5/58/FFL_Warmech.png/revision/latest?cb=20121210114712

Deessssuuuuuu maaaaachine! A few nasty quirks aside, I love the original SaGa and the amount of ambition that went into making it. Five, effectively, very different worlds to be explored, four different PC types with unique strengths and weaknesses, a pretty solid soundtrack, and relatively fair level of challenge. I also kind of love the final boss' he's bored and creates the tower and the evils in each world for his own amusement, even keeping score books for how far people managed to get before dying, whiiiiich the party aren't super happy about when they get to the top. It's a fun little twist I'm kind of sad was removed. Honestly the only part of the game I dislike is the very start when you are getting the stuff to open the tower, which always felt super slow and grindy to me.

Also, you should try some Unlimited SaGa, you know you want to. You know I want you to. Plaaaaay it, looooove it.


They downplayed it more than removed it, it's still obvious the final boss made the Tower of Doom for trouts and giggles and is hardly benevolent. I do like the twist that he's been following you though, which again, gives the game a nice MegaTen vibe since FB dresses so nicely in that suit and top hat.

I'll think about Unlimited SaGa at the moment cause SF2 really made m ein the mood to go through Legend of Mana again. I also feel I could use the extra time to double down on RS1. Speaking of which...

So after completing the Aquamarine quest, I went to the mountain to collect a feather for some reason... and was promptly killed for my trouble by that Cerberus monster I mentioned before. I then realized I forgot to save after completing the Aquamarine quest. So instead of doing it a third time, I decided to backtrack and explore a bit more and my oh my did I find a few things. Mainly, I assembled a real team finally. I've been mostly Albert and Sif for the first few hours barring an occasional guest character or two, but now I almost have a full team. I ran into Gray and Claudia in a pub in the second town I was in at the start of the game. I went to the inn and got an event from Claudia that dragged me into a new area but outside of a story event with some interesting implications, there wasn't a whole lot to do in the area. I traveled to the one other city by boat I had not visited yet and found a mage named Myriam in another pub. I tried to recruit the Minstrel, but for some reason I can't get him to join me.

So. unable to find anything else to do I did the Aquamarine Quest in Crystal Lake. Unfortunately, I failed to properly upgrade my team's equipment so I probably took more damage than I should have. I am currently going back to the mountain to fetch a feather. So far here's my setup

Albert - Middle row with Spear as primary weapon, Rapier just in case, and he can use Light and Water Magic.
Sif - Front row with an Axe, Bastard Sword, and Punch. No magic.
Gray - Front Row with Steel Sword, not as well armored as he should be... no magic
Claudia - Middle Row with Bow and Rapier, taught her Earth Magic
Myriam - Back Row, Magic Staff and Rapier, has only fire magic but two spells.

I need to outfit the three new characters a bit better in terms of armor but I don't really have the funds to do so. The team feels well balanced for now.

Also, have I mentioned thay that the artist for the SaGa franchise, Tomomi Kobayash, does gorgeous work?
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[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Oh man, those pictures are beautiful! I have to admit, I've always adored the character designs for all the SaGa games. They just seem so tangible and intricate.

Meanwhile, I've successfully scrambled out of the Underwater Palace and went around digging for more things to do-- which lead to nothing substantial. I've realized that me beating the Black Dragon Ruler and obtaining the True Kamsheen was either a fluke or a stroke of luck-- because I'm definitely not up to level.

Most of my team is ~500 HP currently, aside from Ellen and Harid, who have just recently reached the 600 mark.

I always keep two Tech/Waza slots empty on everyone for the sake of allowing them to learn new abilities, which means having to sacrifice a skill when new ones arise and really micromanage the Waza lineup. I double down on using un-mastered Wazas so that they can be free to remove if ever needed, but there are some I'll be compelled to keep for their satisfactory usefulness. So if the tech/waza lineups I'm about to spew seem stunted... you know why.



Harid has two evade techs which are taking a while to master: Slicing Slash and Lifesteal. For his Kamsheen he has Cross Slash and Holo Sword, and currently he's also wielding a Spider sword with Rollup Strike and Sweep draw. Let's also note that I managed to get the Demi rune and Demi echo specials on the Kamsheen.
Ellen has Far hit and Rollup strike (which are also unmastered... such is fate with Evade wazas, it seems...) On her Francisca Axe I've got Warcry, Skull crush and Dimension cut. She's also got a Bloody Sword attached, but that's merely a backup-- with Backstab attached. It's taking a while to get her better acquainted with the Swords, and I think I might switch to training her something else...I really wanted her to be my offense mainstay but I might be doing it wrong.
Poet has Blade Roll and Thousand Bird evade, again UNMASTERED... But he and Robin seem to learn Evade wazas the fastest. So it's only a matter of time. I think I accidentally wound up really leveling his Sword stats, so that's his strongest proficiency at the moment... He has the Yoto Ryuko on him which, while having a sorta low base attack power, has been incredibly useful since I got it. Its Exorcist special continues to satisfy me, and he's got Dimension cut and Backstab-- Backstab currently unmastered, simply because I keep saving it for the trickier fights. On his Slit Hammer he has Brain Split and Rotation Hit(unmastered), though his axe/blunt skills aren't exactly what I call perfect... but I generally don't use him for techs anyway. His strengths lie elsewhere.
Robin is special. Robin is actually important. He is the absolute fastest at learning techs on my team most of the mastered Evade wazas come from him. Currently he has on Net and Hypnotize, both mastered. He has a Silver Foil, which shouldn't be too powerful, but somehow he's pulled through exceedingly with it-- better, somehow, than any of his spears or lower-power epees. He's currently toting Matador(which I can't for the life of me seem to master) and Snake Shot, and he's learned Werebuster on it. In the second slot he wields the Lucerne, which he's got Dragon Hit and Spiral Charge for.
Boston has Stare and Hypnotize evade, and the rest of his techs are all unarmed, getting learned and mastered rapidly and requiring excessive management; Right now I'm allowing him Air throw, Bolt kick, Reverse throw, and Niagara buster... which... only Bolt kick is mastered.
Lastly, I took your advice and ditched Tatyana, but I think I'm starting to regret this. Here's why: She's useless with techs. Evade techs, maybe, but she hasn't gained one single JP since I got her-- and I've tried my darndest to raise them. Luckily, her magic is good, but I miss having someone to double as archer and mage. So right now she's got Slicing slash and Far hit evade, and... nothing else really matters.


In the magic department, I think I'm doing pretty well.


Harid has been learning Earth and Sun magic for a while now. Aside from the basic Stone Ballet and Sunshine, he has Berserk, Earth heal, Crack, Heat wave, Star fixer, and Day break. You mightt notice by now that Harid's my most useful member against undead enemies, but aside from that he's mainly a backup healer and spellsword.
Poet has all fire magic. His Air slash spell isn't all that astounding vs his techs and he doesn't have any other (essentially) offensive or regenerative spells, but that's not what matters. What matters is that he has an arsenal of support/buff/debuff spells, and unlike most rpg enthusiasts, I take buff/debuff spells seriously. So he's got Hard fire, Feather seal, Bard song, Self burning, and Fire wall. I recall Self burning is what helped get me through the black Dragon Ruler battle. Every time that stupid dragon clawed at him, it dealt a whopping 9999 damage on him. Was this a bug? Maybe. But it got me through the fight, nonetheless.
Robin once more proves to be speciai. Even in the magic department. I spent my first few days of training up his magic finesse by using Wind dart and Shadow bolt as his main go-to attacks, and from there, he's learned a few useful tricks. Nap, Dancing Leaf, Suction, Moonglow, Moon shine, and Soul freeze in that order. He's only recently become my tertiary healer with Moon shine, but for a long while, he was relying on Suction to heal nobody but himself. I can't tell you how many times I had him as the only standing partner, using Suction to both damage the boss and heal himself in one move. Perhaps it's because of this, him being the Last Man Standing in many battles, that he's doing so much better than the others. I don't know...
And then there's Undine, who at least excels in her magic. She's my primary healer and mage, using Squall, Life water and Thunder clap all the ding dang time. She's also got Sparkling mist and Water ball for when the going gets rough, but ...alas, I don't think I'll be using her against Forneus when I get back around to it.
Boston has Squall, but that's it... I'm not going to focus on magic with him.


Perhaps my biggest flaw is that I have too many party members using swords. I don't have an archer right now either, which bugs the ever living heck out of me. Could it be that I'm running an unbalanced party right now? Maybe. But I can't tell if I'm actually doing something wrong, or something right, or if my lineup relies on luck or something. It's a real headscratcher. Either way, I'm gonna be going back in to try my hand against Forneus again.

[Wolf Kanno]

Oiy...

Sorry I haven't posted in this forum for awhile, I've been partially distracted by RL and getting back into Legend of Mana. I was able to get some play time in today and all I can say is oiy...

I'm kind of running into the typical issue with open world games, I have like three quests going on, two of which involve going to locations I've never been to, and being mostly lost. Trying to dodge combat is not helping things and I feel I've met my first party member I may end up ditching.

So I'm currently running this party:

Albert - Spear/Epee - Water Magic (healing mostly) and Light Magic
Sif - Axe and Bastard Sword
Gray - Steel Sword
Claudia - Greatbow/Rapier - Earth Magic
Myriam - Magic Staff/Rapier - Fire Magic
Barbara - Punch/Kick - Wind Magic

Barbara is the newest addition and she's just not terribly good. The other three new recruits have all fallen into their niche but this dancer just isn't cutting it yet, so I may end up ditching her for Hawk, the character I really wanted. I will be sure to remove the Amethyst Fatestone she came with though. I initially felt I was going to ditch Myriam as well, but the little fire mage has proven pretty good.

So last time I was trying to get a Feather from a Great Bird that lives not far from the Rosalia capital. Got the feather, and lo and behold he wants me to do a quest for him concerning the retrieval of a stolen item on some mountain I've never heard of.

I pick up Barbara and get access to the Frontier where I go to fight a Vampire that's plaguing the villages, but I don't think I actually fought him. I faced off with some generic monster instead, so no clue if I missed my chance for this mission.

Came back to South Estamir with the intention of dropping Barbara from my party but the damn Pub owner set me off on a quest to help the ruler of Estamir rescue his kidnapped daughter from the original locals of the area who are part of some Water Dragon cult. Infiltrated the main base and fought a monster disguising itself as the leader of the group's body double. Learned the girl had been sent to the Water Shrine to be sacrificed and went to rescue her. This dungeon is terrible by the way with too many narrow ridges and way more monsters than usual. Thumped the leader and his guards to get the girl back and the Water Dragon has an objection about losing his dinner. I actually get the option to reason with it, and choose so, only for the blasted thing to send me on another quest to another location I've never heard of to retrieve an item they lent to some monster who never returned it...

So now I'm wandering around looking for new locations to help me finish these quests, but I don't know where to go and the internet is failing to provide me with a full map of the Super Famicom version of the game. I also kind of want to start seriously leveling my party because I can feel a difficulty spike coming.

[Rez09]

I would recommend dropping Barbara. She isn't bad, technically everyone can end up roughly the same, but she doesn't come on board with anything beyond her Fatestone and revealing the Frontier location on the map and additional party members early in the game drive up boat costs and money for spells and equipment -- I generally run a party of three ish until I have them geared to satisfaction or need them for something.

Out of curiosity, that feather quest, did you happen to get it from a random old man wandering around outside in Crystal City? I see him all the time and he mentions the feather to me, but I've never actually received any kind of formal quest from anyone.

The vampire is clearly a vampire, so if you are questioning it you didn't find them. :p That mission technically never closes, so you haven't missed out on it, though it might be possible to have the location blocked off in the late game depending on certain other events. If I were to guess you probably found one of the other dungeons in the area, there are four total, or you were in the right one (I believe it is called 'Vampire' on the map) and reached the bottom floor and fought a stationary enemy that was guarding the exit, as I seem to recall there being one on the staircase leading outside in the dungeon.

That water dragon wants you to meet the earth dragon, who is located on the plains below Isthmus' Castle's southern exit. If you don't see it there you should be able to learn the location of both it and the shortcut into the empire from someone in the town on that map.

To open up map locations you might have missed:

Crystal City should have someone that reveals the Steppes, which has two northern exits. The left one leads to a desert, which is added to the map after you exit it from the east, and the right should lead you to a map with an oasis town in it. People in there can tell you about Northpoint, which has boats running to an island with a pyramid.

The island with the pyramid has three locations on it and you can learn about all three from whichever port you land in (as I recall).

Recruiting Claudia and Grey should have unlocked the empire for you, which you use the shortcut or cross the plains from Bruelle to reach.

The empire has a port with boats that run to the pyramid island and the volcanic island where the Bird wants you to go -- I forget which boat is which though. You can talk to the people in the town to learn about the volcano and the dinosaur plains there, though. That should be all of the major map locations.

Regarding grinding: I generally just level as I play, so I don't have any recommendations for that other than the crypt underneath Estamir early in the game, but I do seem to recall grinding for money against the elemental eyeball enemies in the Water Dragon Shrine. I don't recall if it was a good method of grinding money, but I do remember it. Also, you can only carry 9999 gold, so when you hit that point you need to sell something at a shop to get a gem and roll over your money. There is actually a quest item that pretty much requires doing that.


On the RS3 front . . .



Perhaps my biggest flaw is that I have too many party members using swords. I don't have an archer right now either, which bugs the ever living heck out of me. Could it be that I'm running an unbalanced party right now? Maybe. But I can't tell if I'm actually doing something wrong, or something right, or if my lineup relies on luck or something. It's a real headscratcher. Either way, I'm gonna be going back in to try my hand against Forneus again.

75271

This is my final party for the Harid game I did a while back, so . . . I'd say your party is fine. : p There is no downside to everyone using the same weapon class from a mechanical point of view, barring a select few resistant enemies like gels; the actual downside comes from how many copies of high end weapons you can get ahold of. Swords, Fists, and Spears are all pretty equal here, so you just have the upside of sharing techs once someone masters one, but Axes and Bows have limited supplies of the top tier gear, and the axe/staff stuff have the best techs for those classes built into said limited gear.

That said, I dug up one of my old saves before Forneus to see what I was running for the fight. I had:

Harid:
539 hp, 39 Def, 28 Res, 23 Sword Lv, 6 Wind Lv, 12 Moon Lv

Screamer
Earth Shield for Face Hit and Bolt
Sea Tortoise for Water Immunity
Royal Ring for Death Immunity and Regen
Shell Blazer for +1 Dex
Plastic Shoes for +1 Speed and Electrical Resist

Hypnotize Evade
Gushing Wind
Wind Dart
Dancing Leaves

Ellen:
563 hp, 26 Def, 47 Res, 24 Fist Lv, 5 Wind Lv, 13 Moon Lv

Earth Shield for Face Hit and Bolt
Lake Robe for its light weight and Water Immunity
Troll Stone for regen
Power Glove for +2 Str
Plastic Shoes for +1 Speed and Electrical Resist

Bolt Kick
Wind Dart
Tornado

Robin:
478 HP, 54 Def, 42 Res, 25 Epee Lv, 14 Wind lv, 3 Moon Lv

Kris Naga for Snake Sword
Earth Shield for Face Hit and Bolt
E. Martial
Star Trail
Shell Blazer for +1 Dex
Fishscales for Water Immunity

Hypnotize Evade
Wind Dart
Dancing Leaf
Tornado

Undine:
486 HP, 32 Def, 64 Res, Magic Crown, 21 Earth Lv, 11 Moon Lv

Earth Shield (pretty sure this is pointless when casting spells though)
Guard Ring
Devil King Armor for +1 all stats and massive magic resistance (might have water immunity, too)
Headband for +1 Int
Plastic Shoes for +1 Speed and Electrical Resistance

Hypnotize Evade
Stone bullet
Moon Shine
Earth Heal
Crack

Zhi Lin:
448 HP, 31 Def, 42 Res, 25 Bow Lv, 5 Wind Lv

Fairy Bow for Charm Arrow
Holy King Helmet for confusion immunity
Firebird
Shell Blazer for +1 Dex
Fishscales for Water Immunity

Hypnotize Evade
Wind Dart
Dancing Leaf

I went in using the Speculation formation for bonus speed and damage; Ellen, Harid, and Robin were all dropping 1k damage a round, Undine was going full support, and Zhi was doing around 500. Lost a few times due to unfortunate Face Hits and Squall flipping the elemental field away from Wind, but I got it on the third or so try breaking a life cane, so you should be okay in the fight if you are anywhere around these numbers. The biggest thing is probably going to be damage, as I was on the low end at 3500 a turn, so if you can pump that up to at least 4~5K you should be good to go with lower defenses, or, alternatively, run Tiger's Cave if you have enough non-water elemental magic to stop his regeneration and can slug it out with him.

For party recommendations:

Harid should probably pick up a shield and drop the Big Sword techs and Spider, as the Kamsheen is extremely strong and can only use single handed sword techs, and shields are very useful. You'll probably also want to either master Back Stab and move it over to Harid or try to learn Gushing Wind or Dragon Tail for better damage. You can grind out new techs well in the King's Capital, I believe it was called -- the place where you found the Kamsheen. There is a large demon in there that can randomly be an Asura, which is the best enemy in the game to learn techs on, and there is a room filled with snakes you can sometimes find Dragon Panzers in, which are decent to grind on and have a chance to drop a rare item used to make a fantastic end game armor.

Ellen is my staple DPS character and usually the one I pick for MC, so she can definitely do the deeps for you. ; ) The problem you are seeing might be coming from the different weapons you are trying to train her in, as opposed to sticking with just one. If you go with axes you can develop the Power Glove in the workshop and slap it on her, which will increase both her accuracy and damage, and you can also develop the Brover there. The best Axe, the Hawk Wind, is available in the Rotten Sea Ruins if you don't mind having to complete the Far East events for it. If you give her swords she can share techs with Harid and double your chances of learning Gushing Wind, ect. She's also a great martial artist and would overlap with Boston there, but you'll want to put her in light armors if you go that route, since effective speed is part of the martial arts damage formula.

For the Poet, working swords should be fine there too, just have him share techs with Harid and focus on spells. He'll become amazingly useful after you defeat Aunas as that unlocks the Reraise fire spell, and I'm sure you can imagine how that'll work out. ;) That Self Burning thing with the dragon is a bug I remember reading about, but I don't recall the details of it -- the spell is pretty useful in the Desert Lance and Phoenix Dance formations even without the bug, though, since the pointman draws crazy amounts of aggro.

Robin is a monster with Epees and Spears and I love him for it. You can make a Kris Naga really early on to nab him the best Epee and you can rock shields with those since they are single handed. Firecracker is an Epee tech that can change the elemental field to fire, too, which is super useful in the Forneus fight. I will advise that you remove Matador though, unless you are using him as your tank in one of those defensive formations. If you don't know the tech and haven't mastered it, Robin can randomly learn it in battle and counter with it, but you have to select it and potentially waste a turn if it is on your list already. That said, buddy is hilarious as a Matador evasion tank in the right setups, especially if you start boosting his speed.

For Boston I don't have much to say -- you've got the lobster man doing what lobster men do best, and Bolt Kick my primary martial arts attack for the mid game.

Undine is generally terrible with techs, and though she can use an epee or bow damn well with her high Dex she doesn't tend to learn new skills well. She comes with a magical crown and I generally keep her with it, picking one of the elemental schools and running the whichever solar school I really need, most often Moon for Shadow Servant.

[Wolf Kanno]

I would recommend dropping Barbara. She isn't bad, technically everyone can end up roughly the same, but she doesn't come on board with anything beyond her Fatestone and revealing the Frontier location on the map and additional party members early in the game drive up boat costs and money for spells and equipment -- I generally run a party of three ish until I have them geared to satisfaction or need them for something.

Yeah, I dropped her for Hawke, and he's proven to be a great asset. I have him using a Steel Sword at the moment, but I eventually plan on him getting a spear and being in the second row with Albert. Getting Hawke largely alleviated a few problems I was having and helped me find the eastern islands I was missing for some of my quests.


Out of curiosity, that feather quest, did you happen to get it from a random old man wandering around outside in Crystal City? I see him all the time and he mentions the feather to me, but I've never actually received any kind of formal quest from anyone.

Yeah, I believe talking to him opens the mountain the bird is at. I even picked up the feather, but I've yet to find a use for it. I'm kind of kicking myself for giving the Aquamarine to Neidhart now that I think about it, but he's also the one who tells you where the feather is.


The vampire is clearly a vampire, so if you are questioning it you didn't find them. :p That mission technically never closes, so you haven't missed out on it, though it might be possible to have the location blocked off in the late game depending on certain other events. If I were to guess you probably found one of the other dungeons in the area, there are four total, or you were in the right one (I believe it is called 'Vampire' on the map) and reached the bottom floor and fought a stationary enemy that was guarding the exit, as I seem to recall there being one on the staircase leading outside in the dungeon.

I went to the dungeon labeled Vampire, and while I fought a stationary monster there, it was a generic monster, not a special vampire one. Beating the dungeon didn't seem to change the fate of the village nearby either that is overrun with vampire spawn. I'll try to go back, but I need to finish the chain of deals nonsense first.



That water dragon wants you to meet the earth dragon, who is located on the plains below Isthmus' Castle's southern exit. If you don't see it there you should be able to learn the location of both it and the shortcut into the empire from someone in the town on that map.

To open up map locations you might have missed:

Crystal City should have someone that reveals the Steppes, which has two northern exits. The left one leads to a desert, which is added to the map after you exit it from the east, and the right should lead you to a map with an oasis town in it. People in there can tell you about Northpoint, which has boats running to an island with a pyramid.

The island with the pyramid has three locations on it and you can learn about all three from whichever port you land in (as I recall).

Recruiting Claudia and Grey should have unlocked the empire for you, which you use the shortcut or cross the plains from Bruelle to reach.

The empire has a port with boats that run to the pyramid island and the volcanic island where the Bird wants you to go -- I forget which boat is which though. You can talk to the people in the town to learn about the volcano and the dinosaur plains there, though. That should be all of the major map locations.

Yep, I finally unlocked most of the world at this point, I met the fire demon and he wants an Ice Sword so I'm looking for that. I recall it being in a shop but I need to find it. While that is going on, I managed to defeat two dragons in Silver's Treasure cove, one of which was a real doozy of a fight but awarded me with the Opal. I've also unlocked two more quests, one involves a town overrun by monsters from the volcano but I can't finish this quest until I find the Ice Sword cause the monster I need to thump won't fight me. The other quest involves the Gold Mines, and I was doing okay in there until I got to the bottom levels and got really unlucky with a group of magic spamming monsters. Oh, and I have the one town attacked by pirates as well. Like three quests all opened up. There was also that quest with the Gecklings, but that involves dropping some one from my team to recruit the Geckling characters and I'm frankly pretty content with my current team. I also had a knight tell me Theodore is doing something stupid as well, but I'm a bit busy at the moment. So yeah, quests out of the wazoo.


Regarding grinding: I generally just level as I play, so I don't have any recommendations for that other than the crypt underneath Estamir early in the game, but I do seem to recall grinding for money against the elemental eyeball enemies in the Water Dragon Shrine. I don't recall if it was a good method of grinding money, but I do remember it. Also, you can only carry 9999 gold, so when you hit that point you need to sell something at a shop to get a gem and roll over your money. There is actually a quest item that pretty much requires doing that.


Ugh, I really don't care for the Jewel mechanic in this game. It made sense in SaGa Frontier 2 cause crowns (gold) was specific to the character, but Chips (Jewels) would carry over to other characters scenarios. In this game, it just seems to be there to annoy the player, and discourage grinding along with some of the other game features.

I've eased up on running from every encounter, there are just too many choke points in dungeons where it's easier to just kill the five sets of monsters than try to bypass them and get into an unfavorable encounter. With that said, I don't fight everything thing I meet either.

Stat-wise, my team has about average 550-650hp per person, and most of the stats are within the 30-50 point range on all characters. I've even achieved all of the weapon skills for a few people's weapons and Myriam has a pretty generous mp pool. I've been meaning to work on Albert's magic, but that's proving to be difficult because he's the slowest party member and the rest of the team (specifically Gray and Claudia) tend to murder everything before he gets a turn. Speaking of magic, it's weird that it says it uses the old charge system like in FFI/III, but it's actually closer to an MP system cause using any spell will drain the other uses as well. Just a weird way of doing it is all.

My real issue in terms of party development is equipment. My party is still stuck using low-to-mid gear. I've been trying to be more careful about converting my gold into jewels so I can finally start outfitting the team with some decent gear but I know I need to hold onto my cash to buy that expensive Ice Sword. I have about three jewels and I'm close to getting a fourth one soonish. I figured I would do the Gold Mine and Pirate invasions quests real fast to get some money and then I can finish the chain of deals nonsense. With the sudden explosion of quests, I'm thinking I've reached whatever arbitrary event limit I need and the game is now pushing me towards the end game. So I'll probably be stepping up my efforts to get better stats and gear. Kind of a shame there are only about four weapons per weapon type. Even more annoying knowing I'll have to relearn all the weapon techs as well.

Also, is there any way to talk to the unique girl spite that has long black hair and wears a ribbon? I keep meeting her in Pubs where she's behind the counter, but can never seem to speak to her.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time!

So to my regret, I dropped Myriam from my team in order to recruit Galahad, in order to complete the fetch quest with the four beasts. Kind of cool they gave me summons, but I kind of wish I had access to the treasure they were guarding as well. Guess it doesn't pay to be nice. I dropped Gally cause he's kind of awful, and switched him with Guella Ha, who is much better, but I still wish I had Myriam. Luckily the new guy lets me do the Geckling quests, but the one they are offering me now, I've already completed. I'm trying to get the quest that gives me access to the Moonstone temple, but I've either missed my chance or I'm missing a step.

I did the Island of Evil, and was a bit disappointed it ended with the bad guy running away. Does he ever come back, or was I suppose to do something beforehand to get the Fatestone he possessed? I also did some quest involving a dinosaur egg, which I'm debating about selling for the cash.

I completed the Pirate invasion quest but lost out of the Gold Mine one, and I'm still holding off on the Theodore quest. The Bard has also offered me a quest involving some Weapons of the Gods, which tells me I'm in end-game mode now. I kind of want to avoid the Frontier as well since I've been hearing rumors from characters in-game about some Jeweled Beast that even the Big Bad is afraid of sleeping there.

I do need to amass more money now, as I finally cashed in all the jewels I have to outfit five of my six team members with the best armor available for purchase. I do still need to pick up some Guardian Rings as well. I have some Cursed Shes as well, but if Lufia 2 and DQ have taught me anything it's that cursed items are more trouble than they are worth. Star Ocean 2 on the other hand, now there was a game where Cursed gear was great!

For the most part, I feel like I'm near the end, so I'll probably be grinding people for better stats and trying to figure out my final team. I really want Myriam back, but if I had to I can sub her for Aisha since I never used her. I'm also warming up to Mr. Geckling, and I've heard Prince Niederhart is available as well. Maybe I'll troll myself and see if Raphael is still recruitable. Once the final team is settled, I'll focus on getting everyone some healing magic and some buff/debuff spells cause monsters are certainly getting nasty enough to warrant it now.

[Rez09]

Update time!

So to my regret, I dropped Myriam from my team in order to recruit Galahad, in order to complete the fetch quest with the four beasts. Kind of cool they gave me summons, but I kind of wish I had access to the treasure they were guarding as well. Guess it doesn't pay to be nice. I dropped Gally cause he's kind of awful, and switched him with Guella Ha, who is much better, but I still wish I had Myriam. Luckily the new guy lets me do the Geckling quests, but the one they are offering me now, I've already completed. I'm trying to get the quest that gives me access to the Moonstone temple, but I've either missed my chance or I'm missing a step.

The Moonstone Temple is part of an earlier quest to heal the emperor; you can still read the books in the empire's library to learn about a fatestone being there and where the pieces to enter it are hidden, but I don't know if you can still obtain them.



I did the Island of Evil, and was a bit disappointed it ended with the bad guy running away. Does he ever come back, or was I suppose to do something beforehand to get the Fatestone he possessed? I also did some quest involving a dinosaur egg, which I'm debating about selling for the cash.

No, sadly the Island of Evil quest is one of the many unfinished aspects of the game and the boss always runs away. The girl behind the counter, despite being just a little tiny bit of an important character, is also unfinished and can't be interacted with in the original version of the game -- sorry I forgot to answer that before. If you ever get around to playing the remake on the PS2, or the Wonderswan port for that matter, both events are fully completed there.



I completed the Pirate invasion quest but lost out of the Gold Mine one, and I'm still holding off on the Theodore quest. The Bard has also offered me a quest involving some Weapons of the Gods, which tells me I'm in end-game mode now. I kind of want to avoid the Frontier as well since I've been hearing rumors from characters in-game about some Jeweled Beast that even the Big Bad is afraid of sleeping there.

Yep, you are right at the end -- the Bard gives out the final quests for the good and normal ending routes and you can pick up those weapons without being forced into the final dungeon. The Jewel Beast tends to be extremely nasty, in theory being the game's super boss, but it actually has some wonky mechanics that make it a lot easier than it is intended to be. I'd say to try giving it a couple whacks upside the head and see what happens. ;)



I do need to amass more money now, as I finally cashed in all the jewels I have to outfit five of my six team members with the best armor available for purchase. I do still need to pick up some Guardian Rings as well. I have some Cursed Shes as well, but if Lufia 2 and DQ have taught me anything it's that cursed items are more trouble than they are worth. Star Ocean 2 on the other hand, now there was a game where Cursed gear was great!

The shoes have the best defense value for an accessory in the game, but they make you weak to everything, unless you abuse a bug with them that inverts that last bit and makes them the best armor in the game. There's a ring hidden in Theodore's castle that gives the wearer regen you can pick up if have any interest in that.



For the most part, I feel like I'm near the end, so I'll probably be grinding people for better stats and trying to figure out my final team. I really want Myriam back, but if I had to I can sub her for Aisha since I never used her. I'm also warming up to Mr. Geckling, and I've heard Prince Niederhart is available as well. Maybe I'll troll myself and see if Raphael is still recruitable. Once the final team is settled, I'll focus on getting everyone some healing magic and some buff/debuff spells cause monsters are certainly getting nasty enough to warrant it now.

I've always found Aisha lackluster unless she was my main character, where she is my favorite of the bunch, and I believe Aisha is the only person that can have Neidhart in her party, and only for an extremely short window -- do correct me if I am wrong, though, the guy is a complete monster from what little you see of him.

Also, if you are looking for a lategame quest that is easy to miss, the is a giant ice castle south of Sif's village that doesn't open until the last chapter of the game; the 'last' destiny stone is in there. I don't recall anyone in the game mentioning the place, so it can be missed rather easily.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time:

Kind of screwing around at this point. I did find the Ice Castle and liberated the Black Obsidian Sword which is now Hawke's main weapon. I stumbled onto the Assassin's Guild quest and finished that bad boy. I'm currently ding Theodore's Madness quest and have the map needed to reach the location he's being held in, but I decided to put that off until I go back to the Frontier to deal with the Jewel Beast, or technically, I'm doing it to finish the Vampire quest since it still seems to be available. I also read somewhere that the Map the Geckling tries to sell you in the Geckling Village for 10,000 Gold is needed for the Moonstone quest, so I might save up for that and see if it's true.

I'm a bit disappointed that I will not be able to get Myriam back into my party. It seems almost all of the available party members are gone now from the Pubs. Not that I mind Guella Ha, but I liked the idea of having a dedicated mage on the team, and the rest of my current line-up are all melee focused except for Red Mage Albert. I did outfit Albert with most of the Water Magic spells just so I can spam the offensive ones to raise the magic level, and because spells that cast Slow on enemies and buff the party sound useful. I want to get him more Light Magic, but with the exception of Faraam's town which is occupied by Fake Theodore, I can't remember where the other temple was that sold it.

Stat wise, I'm feeling pretty good, most of the team have stats in the 40-60 range, and the HP average of the team is over 700hp. There are still a few enemy types I avoid, but I also can fight them with minimal losses if need be. Gear wise, I still need to do the Quest the Bard gave for the God Weapons, and I would like to outfit most of the team with Garal Gauntlets and Guardian Rings before tackling the final areas.

I've heard I can fight Death, but have no idea where he's located.

[Rez09]

Death is located in hell. :D You have to meet him in the evil story route to unlock the final dungeon, as the bard doesn't want anything to do with you, but the only way to meet him otherwise is to kill the Flame Tyrant, I think it is called, in the volcano instead of giving it the Ice Sword then heading down the staircase behind it. It's actually a pretty neat location and you can see the ghosts of various people who have died during the game down there, including ones you've killed. Pretty sure Galahad ends up down there if you decide to shank him instead of just letting him come with you. < . <;

You didn't let Saruin have the super sweet Obsidian Sword? D: Did you at least bring his clearly and unsubtley evil henchghost with you through the dungeon?

Normally speaking Light Magic is sold in the westernmost temple in Melville, I think it is called -- the empire capital, and should no longer be available for purchase after the empire is invaded by pirates, however the fan translation DID fix some bugs and that may have been one of them, so I'd check there. If she isn't in there when you check you might need to take the secret staircase down in there and clear the boss in the basement or find her in the emperor's room; if neither of those work, then Light Magic is locked for the remainder of the game.

I believe you need the map to enter the temple, I normally put off recruiting Hawke until he buys it for me, ala Galahad and the Ice Sword, and then recruit him, but you also need two talismans to get in, one from the great tree in the forest Claudia is from and the other in the shady temple in Northern Estamir from the priest who refuses to speak to you. Problem is, I don't know if those two talismans are still available, the forest one in particular, since you need to tell the tree you want to save the emperor for it and might not have the option any longer if he isn't sick. If you CAN get into that temple, though, it is a great place to farm up money -- it's where I always do it late game, since it is reusable, has a ton of enemies (like everywhere else), and the exit is easy to reach.

Just a side note, two of the game's 'end game' swords are also incomplete, one being the final sword for the evil route and the other being, as I recall anyway, the Obsidian Sword. Both weapons hit hard but only learn a single tech that costs an obscene amount of WP for the damage it does, so if you learn something like sword rain and nothing else that's what is going on there. The Ice Sword might be back in the shop for purchase, though I forget exactly what triggers that.

[Wolf Kanno]

Thanks for the info. For your question about the henchmen, no. He wouldn't join my team but it may likely be due to already having a full party at the time. I also took that sword cause hell yeah I want a cursed weapon! I would also like to hear about this Cursed Shoe glitch.

Update Time!

I mainly returned to the Frontier and finally dealt with the Vampires and took on the Jewel Beast. I was surprised to learn that the Jewel Beast wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Went down on the third round with no character losses, so feeling good about my chances with the end game bosses. At the moment, I'm debating about either finally doing the quest to get the God Weapons so I can level them up before taking on the final dungeon, or finishing Theodore's quest. I'm not sure if I'm going to bother seeing if I can get the Moonstone at this point.

At the moment, I'm starting to feel the burn out from the game cause dungeons are a bit relentless. I still have a few more items to purchase such as Guardian Rings for the team as well as the Garal/Venyl weapons for people not sporting legendary weapons. Not sure if I'm going to bother with magic for the most part, I'll see how the final dungeon goes. I'm imagining it's going to pull what SF2 did and have a significant difficulty spike by endgame. We'll see.

[Rez09]

To my understanding the cursed shoes make you weak to everything, including healing, but you can't take damage from being healed so some kind of crazy stuff happens in the coding when you heal someone wearing the cursed shoes and they gain resistance to everything. There's also a hilarious glitch to make one of your characters into an immortal snowman. And one to gain priority on every action. And one to walk through fixed map encounters. And one to disembark from vehicles several tiles away from them and pop over walls into places you aren't supposed to be. This game has a lot of bugs. :(

There's really no reason to finish Theodore's Quest, as far as I know all it does is slightly change the ending, and I'm not even fully sure it does that. If you are strong enough to kill the Jewel Beast, you should be strong enough to finish the game; there isn't much of a difficulty spike beyond that point. The game has an odd fixation with glass cannon enemies for the most part, and the final two (Technically five, but really two) encounters follow that logic, so if you managed to take the Jewel Beast's attacks and kill it that quickly you should be completely fine, though Saruin does have a bit of a dirty trick up his sleeve if you happen to go the glass cannon route as well. And aren't a snowman.

Little bit of a nifty aside, if you do decide to give up that Obsidian Sword he totally DOES use it in the final fight and his stats are increased accordingly. He's also bugged when you do that and the easiest boss in the game. This is not the case in the remake however, and you can actually give him ALL of the destiny stones there, which is an absolutely hiiiiiiiiiiiiilarious for the two seconds it takes him to kill you.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time:

Sorry this is taking so long. My OCD prevented me from starting a quest and not finishing it, so I did complete Theodore's Quest before finally obtaining the God Weapons, I sort of wish I had grabbed the GW earlier, but was afraid getting them would lock me into only being able to do the final dungeon.

I actually reached the final floor where the boss gauntlet is located, but left because I kind of want my party to gain all of the Weapon Skills for the new weapons I acquired. Unfortunately, only the Eres Bow has been mastered while Albert and Gray refuse to level up their weapons beyond Lv. 5 to my discontent. So I've been kind of farming enemies around Isthmus Castle to gain the weapon skills needed.

[Rez09]

Do they have other high level swords, I assume they are using swords, equipped? There was some kind of bug I remember reading about where the devs intended multiple high level weapons of the same class to increase leveling speed but instead managed to do the opposite, so that might be holding back their weapon leveling.

[Wolf Kanno]

Okay, so I'm currently stuck on the final boss, but after a little analysis, I feel I may have my solution.

The biggest problem with Saruin is that he just has too much damn health. He can actually outlast me, especially since he seems have the ability to half the damage I do on a whim for some reason, not sure if this is a weird Phase mechanic the game just fails to telegraph to you or what, but it does get annoying when an ability that I can only use ten times goes from 3500hp damage to 1700hp for no good reason. Especially when said boss has nearly 3x the health of the boss before it. Though frankly, his attacks are manageable, except for that Charm one. He just has so much health he can take my onslaught and outlast me.

Now, to give him credit, I see that I also have just not set-up my party as well as I could have. I was not expecting him to take scratch damage from the Obsidian Sword which I have on Hawke and he sadly has no real good secondary weapon with great skills to fall back on. I have also largely ignored magic for most of the game outside of Myriam and Albert. In a way, this game is kind of doing the same deal as SF2 did where the player probably doesn't bother using most of the game mechanics or tools, cause up until the end, there has really been no reason to. I've never really needed a dedicated healer until this fight and most battles end by the third round cause as far as I can tell, nothing has had over 30,000hp in this game until the final boss.

So I have decided that my new strategy is going to involve leaving the dungeon, thankfully the dungeon is actually pretty short and easy to move around in without fighting a fuck ton of monsters outside of the gauntlet guarding Isthmus Castle; and head back to town to teach my heroes some magic. Mainly give everyone a healing spell, a buff spell, and maybe that image spell so his powerful physical hits don't shave off 90% of a character's health, and then trudge back in to fight him. I will also either give Hawke the Garal Sword and have him master it for it's final skill in order to have a fourth major damage dealer, or I'll give him Yacomb's Spear from Albert and focus on making Albert do support. I need to rearrange the team and better prepare them for a war of attrition, instead of a blitzkrieg. I mean, I feel my current set-up can win this fight, but it would largely involve the RNG falling into place for me every time, and we all know how often that happens. Instead I'm just going to rebuild the team around a fight of attrition.

[Rez09]

I loooooove the Saruin fight so much. He's a bit cheatsy, though. >: 3 Instead of a Garal Sword you might consider investing in a Garal Flail, as he can be debuffed temporarily by its later skills.

[Fynn]

So this thread has kind of inspired me. The only SaGa game I’ve played is the first one (Wonderswan version) and I really like the look of the Vita remaster of Romancing SaGa 2, and apparently we should be getting 3 soon too! I hope to get the former for my birthday (maybe) but then I will still be left without RS1. The question is - should I go for the fan translated SNES version or Minstrel’s Song?

[Rez09]

Minstrel's Song. The game is a full remake, like FFIV DS, rather just an enhanced port with a new paintjob, and they expanded nearly every aspect of the original title in it, including more characters, more in-depth combat, more quests, storyline bosses that were missing from the original, more equipment, equipment upgrading (as I recall, anyway), and they fixed all of the crazy bugs plaguing to original title. You also get the lolz of voice acting. The original is still pretty nifty and completely playable if you want to check it out instead of buying a new game, but MS is the definitive version of the title.

[Fynn]

That’s great to know, thanks!

EDIT: So Minstrel’s Song is a bit hard to obtain for me now, though it is the version I’d prefer at this point, but I am considering emulating the SNES version. Is there merit to playing them one straight after the other (as in are they different enough) or will they feel too samey?

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Hey, just popping in with an update: I got past Forneus. A while back, actually. I don't exactly remember the details 100%, but I do know that Boston, Robin and Ellen played offense with their strongest attacks and healing was shared between Harid and Robin. I think Robin was the last man standing when Forneus was finally beat. I think Suction is what saved the day, but honestly it's all a blur now.

I also went and beat Arakes, closing a second abyss gate earlier than I'd expected to. In fact, while I'd assumed it would take at least three tries, I beat him in one go. Awesome. That was much easier than Forneus. As per @Rez09's suggestion, I equipped Harid with Spider and slapped Power Glove onto Ellen-- so that probably helped a whole ton.

Now I've taken to the Dry River and wound up in Mung Village. Undine got booted out of the party and replaced by Zhu Lin, though I find I'm actually okay with this. While I do miss having a base af mage, Zhu Lin is already proving useful with her marksmanship. I don't even know what the heck I'm doing at this point. Just... going to some cave to fight bad-guys? We'll see.

Meanwhile I've been seriously considering buying Minstrel's Song. I'll likely have enough free time for it so I'm probably gonna just buy a used version on Amazon. That's how I usually get old games these days, anyhow. If @Fynn gets it too, maybe we can start it up at the same time and compare our progress as a fun little experiment. :P See how different each playthrough actually is.
But yes, do feel free to join us in nerding out, Fynn. The SaGa franchise needs more love.

[Rez09]

That’s great to know, thanks!

EDIT: So Minstrel’s Song is a bit hard to obtain for me now, though it is the version I’d prefer at this point, but I am considering emulating the SNES version. Is there merit to playing them one straight after the other (as in are they different enough) or will they feel too samey?

If you do a single playthrough of the original into a single playthrough of the remake it should be fine; you'll be retreading ground, but it is nifty to see the scenes redone in 3D and you'll pick up on a lot of the differences.

Regarding RS3, the normal progression path for the demon lords seems to be Arakes -> Byunei -> Aunas / Forneus, so once you have Forneus down you should get Byunei and Arakes super easy. :) Aunas is either really easy or hard depending on your party setup, as he absolutely murders direct contact attackers, but he's generally easier than Forneus outside of that, if only because he isn't as prone to constantly resetting the elemental field and Fire isn't a generally offensive magic type.

For the part with Zhu Lin in the party, Bai wants you to head all the way to the southern caves and fight the odd human looking people there -- the random Kuwagamons aren't hostile, which is a nice change of pace. After you complete that you'll eventually end up with another mission that requires you to head north instead and you can bring Bai on that mission with you, and she has a super nasty Tornado on her the helps a lot in the boss fight.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah, sorry I haven't updated in a bit. I've been actually productive lately which leaves little time to play games, not to mention all I've really been doing is grinding weapon/magic levels.

I taught everyone Healing and Strength Water for the final boss, and some Mirage magic for Doppelganger, but I doubt I'll be able to really utilize that anyway. I gave Hawke the Garal Sword to give him some better Weapon Skills and gave Guella Ha a Garal Flail since Rez09 mentioned it has some debuffing skills I can use and the Garal Spear skills are terrible. I'm currently heading back into the dungeon, and fighting everything I can to level up the skills, but I may leave once again to buy a few more Magical Shelters (their like tents in FF) cause I have a sneaking suspicion I'm going to have to fight Saruin's minions again, cause I think that fight resets every time you leave the dungeon.

Hawke has nearly maxed out his health, and most of the team is close to breaking into the 900hp range. Sadly, I don't gain too many stats boosts anymore from battles, but that's kind of expected this late into the game.

My first strategy attempt is simply to use the first round to have everyone cast Strength Water to greatly boost their damage, and then just unload the fourth lv. weapon arts into him, with self healing anytime he hits the team with one of his group attacks, and have Albert (who has the highest Water magic levels) to use his turns to heal anyone who takes a brick ton of damage from Saruin's melee attacks. That should hopefully seal this deal as I'm pretty sure I've come close to beating him in the past with the old set-up if the background changes are anything to go by. I kind of want to get this over with cause I'm itching to start my FFV LP.

As for the topic of Minstrel Song, I can't say for sure since I've only played the original at this point. I know from the Wiki it adds a ton of features from the later installments like Life Points and weapon crafting, as well as utilizing the later installment's versions of weapon arts (which is a boon in the game's favor I might add) as well as actually finishing the game. The characters also got redesigns for better or for worse depending on your taste. Still it's been an enjoyable ride, so I feel the more the merrier in recommending the title.

[Fynn]

So I got my hands on Minstrel Song, actually! Should start it soon. Any tips? Who should I pick, what should I look out for? From what I read, I feel like Grey and Claudia could be a good choice, leaning a bit towards Grey since I heard he starts on a relatively small space so I shouldn’t get overwhwlmed

[Wolf Kanno]

If I could do my playthrough over again, I would use Grey or Hawke as my starting characters. Albert isn't bad, and technically his story gives the game a nice bookend feel so don't worry about starting with him either. Frankly any character works out pretty well, though I feel Barbara starts with the weakest usable party members at first.

Of the none main character options: Guella Ha and Myriam are both pretty good party members that I really enjoyed. I've heard the Prince guy is pretty badass, and Albert's sister is also pretty snazzy. There are a few extra characters in Minstrel Song as well like Silver.

[Rez09]

Interestingly enough, assuming this isn't changed in MS from the original, both Grey and Claudia start with two party members, so I can't use that to offer one over the other. xD Grey starts with a knight and mage, so you get to toy around with magic early, and Claudia gets a bear and wolf to play around with, which is pretty spiffy. Personally, I think Claudia is the more interesting of the two, but, like Wolf said, all of the characters work out about the same.

[Fynn]

Hawke is probably the character that appeals to me the most based on aesthetics (I feel he’s the only character whose redesign was an improvement actually - poor Barbara :( ), but since he’s a pirate, isn’t it like things would be way more open from the start with him?

[Rez09]

Only moderately; he's limited to a small sea for his starting chapter and the events that knock you out of there take your ship, so he's on roughly equal ground with everyone else, the biggest difference being the island he starts on lets you pick which side of the main continent you land on, so while most characters start on the western side and two start in the east, he can go either way.

Also, yeeeeah, not a fan of the redesigns at all, and I can't pretend to particularly like the graphical direction they went with the game as a whole. Some people, like Jamil and Hawke, are roughly on par with their original designs, and I do give credit to Hawke for looking his role a hell of a lot more than he did in the original, but most, Sif and Aisha being the two in particular that bother me, aren't . . . uh, good.

[Fynn]

Tbh I think all of the new designs look good on their own, just fall flat compared to the originals. The Barbara example I mentioned - she looks perfectly fine now but I just loved that full mane of curly hair if only because it’s so rare in Japanese games (plus she was really similar to my wife before). At the very least, I’m glad it was still Tomomi Kobayashi redesigning the characters, so at least it was HER remixing her designs, and not someone else butchering them, so I’m honestly A-OK with that, even if I preferred the older designs.

I guess I might just go with Hawke then! Still, it’s interesting since whatever guide I look up online, everyone has a totally different opinion on who is the best and the worst. I’ve seen Gray consistently appear on both lists, never really in the middle

[Wolf Kanno]

Grey is actually one of my better party members and I still amazed that his heritage of Warrior/Thief is doing better on his melee stats than Hawke's Martial Artist/Warmaiden. Granted, Hawke has like a hundred extra HP.

While I know Minstrel Song mixes things up with customization, the leveling mechanics are similar to FFII, so essentially anyone can be awesome if you take the time to level them, course this also tends to dissuade you from recruiting new people, except for the odd quest. I do know that starting with later entries, including Minstrel Song, their is suppose to be a stat preference scale that adds more variety to characters. In my SaGa Frontier 2 file, my main issues with Wil Knights was trying to play him as a melee character when his stat upgrades favored magic, so once I started playing him to his strengths, we got along groovy.

I will give you the warning Rez09 gave me about the RS1, try to avoid battles as much as you can, cause the quests available to you are based on a timer. Doing quests move this timer forward, but so do battles, so don't grind too much if you can help it in order to get access to the most story quests.

[Fynn]

Yeah, I heard about that. Apparently there are field skills that help you avoid battles for that? Might just rely on that to try to avoid encounters altogether

[Wolf Kanno]

And... DONE!

My initial strategy of just powering up and changing out some weapons helped immensely, along with a surprise of the RNG just seriously going my way. Saurin kind of kept wasting turns on buffing or ineffectual skills instead of spamming his powerful group attacks, and the extra damage allowed me to finish him off without too much trouble. Got to see Albert's ending and the final sequence was pretty cool. Kind of liked the psych out ending.

Overall Romancing SaGa was pretty interesting. I liked the variety of characters and the quest lines gave a nice lore to the world that kept me invested. Hawke, Claudia, Gray, and Sif were my favorite characters. I think of the main cast, Jamil and Aisha were the only ones I didn't bother with cause by the time I found them, my main party was pretty much set for me.

My favorite quests involved the Knights/Theodore, as well as the Geckling and Assassin's Guild quests. My least favorite was probably the one that involved acquiring the four summons.

I only have three gripes with the game overall:

1) No surprise since I believe everyone hated it, but the way Weapon Skills were handled in this game was tiresome. I probably could forgive having to learn each weapon individually if your character didn't lose all their XP with them if you so much as unequip one. Doesn't make sense. Like somehow Albert drops his rapier and magically forgets all of his skills. Speaking of which, rapiers suck in this game.

2) The Jewel mechanic makes no sense to me in this game beyond being another anti-grinding tool to punish players who fight too much. I never mentioned this mechanic in SF2 because it made sense in that game. Cash can't transfer between characters but the Jewel equivalent currency could, and so you needed to convert cash to jewels as the story went along. Here it just gets in the way as you'll quickly hit the max cash limit halfway through a dungeon, making most treasure chests moot and making any money you get in battles worthless until you leave the dungeon and start converting your Gold to Jewels. It just felt like a tiresome mechanic.

3) This last one is probably the least bothersome of the three, but I felt a need to mention it. I kind of wish the narrative had just a tiny bit more structure to it. Albert's story arc really has no meaningful closure, and then the game sort of just becomes "do quests until we tell you to fight the final boss" which is like 80% of the game. I appreciate the open-ended quest aspect of the game, especially coming off a Super Famicom title, but it sort of felt like I was just wandering around instead of working towards a goal. I get the feeling RS2 will fit better for me as the open questing serves to reinforce the ultimate goal established in the beginning whereas Saruin's resurrection in RS1 doesn't really feel like a big deal until nearly the end of the game when his dungeon unlocks.

With all that said, I enjoyed the game and happy to have played it. Looking forward to Romancing SaGa 2 which I picked up for the PS4. I also have Unlimited SaGa to play but I may save that one for later cause I want to play it around the same time I play Dawn of Mana just to get a double taste of the two PS2 games that nearly ended both franchises and see if that reputation is truly warranted.

Course I'll be taking a break from SaGa for a moment as I really want to start my FFV LP, and I need to finish Legend of Mana as well. I'll keep checking back with this thread, and who knows, I may end up jumping into RS2 anyway pretty soon. Not like I haven't beaten LoM before.

[Fynn]

Btw, what hero did you start with? Also, I can’t wait for that Romancing SaGa 3 port they have coming along that’s supposed to release on all the things RS2 did, so I hope to get both on Vita soon!

I am also actually kinda considering streaming my RS: MS playthrough, but there are two issues. 1) I have never streamed anything so I have no idea how to do it and if my PC can even pull it off and 2) my PC currently has no internet connection and I can’t afford a network card yet so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Wolf Kanno]

I used Albert. He's kind of a Red Mage type character with a focus more on healing since I chose Paladin and Priest as his heritage. The nice thing about him is that his story gives the game a book end type of feel cause his story more than others plays up the rising monster surge and inevitable resurrection of the Big Bad.

[Fynn]

Hmmm... sounds enticing but I kinda really don’t dig Albert’s design -_-

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

I have been inspired to buy Minstrel's Song. Haven't continued RS3, but I'm going to try progressing a bit tonight.

Hmm, I wonder, is there an uptick in RS-related sales recently? I feel like it's getting more traction than it used to. (that is, more traction than none at all)

[Fynn]

It probably helps that they’re actually marketing new games. Has Scarket Grace been confirmed for the West yet?

I also think Western gaming sensibilities (and attitudes toward JRPGs) have also shifted considerably. Minstrel Song was panned both critically and by fans here, mostly for its lack of structure and open ended nature, while Romancing SaGa 2 is getting heaps of praise today for those exact same things. I think it’s all because open world and sandbox games have become such a huge influence on gaming in general

[Wolf Kanno]

Yes, SaGa Scarlet Graces has been confirmed for the West (http://www.siliconera.com/2018/04/26/series-creator-says-saga-scarlet-graces-english-version-works/), though it doesn't have a release date just yet. Chances are they're waiting to release the console ports in Japan first. And yeah, Kawazu has stated that the reason RS2 got a release in the west is due to the growing popularity of open-word titles.

They did release a new trailer:
DUAvcWLqWz0

[Fynn]

S, when are you picking up Minstrel Song? It’d be cool to start around the same time :D Which hero are you choosing?

[Fynn]

So I just started with Hawke. Got a bit lost at sea but I’m at the port now reading tutorials. There’s a lot to take in but it doesn’t feel TOO complicated. Yet :shifty:

[Fynn]

Guess it’s just me updating now. Sorry for the triple post, staff ^^;

So I saved the Gecklings from the weapons dealer and now I’m going deep into the jungle to find Silver’s treasure which, if I’m assuming right, is one of those magical thingamabobs that are meant to stop Saruin or something? Idk the game is vague so far. Also, the lizards are basically satanists? In any case, the jungle is confusing and I’m constantly worried that I’m taking part in too many battles because the enemies are constantly chasing me into corners and I have to fight like five battles before leaving. At this rate, my event rank will skyrocket to the point that I can’t do anymore quests before I even leave this island -_-

I also encountered this lady at the pub who’s like “please go away”. I hope I won’t miss the resolution of this quest because it looks very interesting.

My party so far consists of Gawke, Guella Ha, Pirate, Diana and Amazon. I assume I shouldn’t really invest much into the characters without actual names as I’ll probably want those more interesting (and likely stronger) characters in my party later. I am amused at how nonchalant Diana is about the whole thing. I approach her, she says “I’m looking for my long-lost brother” and then suddenly joins my party without any other context whatsoever. It’s corny, it’s old school, and I love it.

Any tips on how I should spend jewels on character classes? So far I’ve reached level 2 with pirate for Hawke, with an additional level in thief for proficiency purposes, Guella Ha got a level in Geckling Warrior, and Diana got a level in... uh... can’t remember the name but it’s the class with Terrology.

Oh yeah. The voice acting. Not nearly as terrible as I suspected, but not exactly top drawer either. I do know it will get annoying eventually, since every single line of dialog in this game is voiced and cannot be skipped or fast-forwarded :(

[Wolf Kanno]

Getting swarmed by enemies is normal in this game. I had dungeons in the original where I would enter a room and I started having flashbacks to old school Gauntlet.

Sadly, you will never get closure for Diana's story. Well not without playing a certain other character's story. The bar lady is actually part of an unfinished quest in the original. You could see her in taverns but never speak to her. The Silver Quest, at least in the 16-bit version, is pretty long with two possible boss battles in it, so be prepared. You do get an additional reward for completing it that you didn't in the original though.

Getting buddy buddy with the Gecklings will help you complete a quest I couldn't start in the original that leads to another of the Fatestones. In the original, the Fatestones are equipment and items that give pretty snazzy stat bonuses, so they're worth going after, though a few of them may involve being a bit of a jerk in order to keep them.

[Fynn]

Hmm. Interesting. I am actually pretty good with the Gecklings since I freed them. We’ll see how that goes. All I know right now is that the Geckling Map is really not helping me find my way through the jungle :eep:

Any word on whether Diana’s story and the mystery pub woman quest are finished in the remake?

[Wolf Kanno]

The mystery woman's quest is finished in the remake, Diana's story is left purposely without closure. I'll just spoil it for you, Diana is Albert's older sister. To understand her backstory, you need to play his chapter, but the game is set up in a way where the two can pretty much never meet. If you keep her in your party, you'll never meet Albert and likewise, she can't be recruited if Albert is the chosen MC or in your party. Diana appeared in Albert's ending, but it's unknown if they ever meet again. Made slightly dickish considering Albert and Diana can both do missions for the one character who knows they are both alive. From what I've read elsewhere, Diana is a better character than Albert stat wise.

The only two quests I'm aware of that were not completed in the original but finished in the remake involve the mysterious bar lady, and the necromancer. They both also dealt with the two missing Fatestones as it was impossible to get all of the stones without hacking the game since neither of these missions were completed.I wouldn't be surprised if there was more cut content. From what I've read elsewhere online, there are a lot of unused assets in the code and heavy implication a few other surprising characters were meant to be recruited which entails more missions that were likely cut in the original. The remake adds back a bunch of stuff and actually has a larger roster of recruitable characters than the original which is kind of daunting to say the least.

[Fynn]

Pho. So it looks like I should probably keep Diana. Am I correct in assuming that only the names characters are worth keeping around? Or maybe there’s a generic “Warrior” or something out there with hidden potential or some shit? And are there quests that require you to have specific members in your party?

[Wolf Kanno]

In my limited experience, "generics" tend to disappear. You can usually only recruit named characters.

Yes, there are a few quests that require certain people. For instance, the Geckling quests you've been doing can only be done with Guella Ha on your team. The Hidden Village Gecklings won't give you the time of day without him on your team.There is a special Harem quest that can usually only be undertaken by Aisha and Jamil since Time Event for it is incredibly small and they're located closest to it. There is one quest that can involve a character needing to be recruited, but you can also do it without him but it will affect your Karma meter. Claudis has a rather simple mission you can do that requires her on your team as well.

Also, new to the remake is a Favor mechanics where your actions and the quets you do incurs favor among the various gods of the world. They will show their favor in battle with some cool pyrotechnics.

[Fynn]

So in the end, I should just not worry about all the stuff I can’t possibly do this time around and enjoy my adventure around the world. Got it.

Is Guella Ha decent in the end, or do you think I should replace him with someone better who comes along? In general, which characters are good? I know you said Gray was great

[Wolf Kanno]

I liked Guella Ha personally, he wasn't my first choice but I really warmed up to him by the end. Honestly, I would just recruit who looks interesting to you as most of the characters can be built to what you need and you shouldn't restrict yourself. A large part of the cool factor of this game is the serious amount of options in terms of party choices and quests.

[Fynn]

Well that’s good to know. I was asking specifically because I enjoy Guella Ha and I think the way Hawke is so fond, almost protective of him is adorable and it would be pretty cruel to just tell him to get lost. Diana looks pretty cool so far too, and I guess the only members I am thinking of replacing at this point are the nameless Pirate and Amazon. I’m just worried I’ll find someone cool and then someone even cooler but will no longer have enough party space and have to choose between them :/

[Fynn]

Ok that dragon guarding the gate stone wiped me out in one turn. What.

[Rez09]

Is that on the Geckling Island in / near the treasure cave? If so that thing is pretty nasty early game, so you might want to come back later.

. . . Actually, that's pretty true about every dragon in game.

[Fynn]

But don’t those things scale with my level anyway? And are all fatestones guarded by dragons?

[Wolf Kanno]

But don’t those things scale with my level anyway? And are all fatestones guarded by dragons?

I think they scale like the level mechanics in VIII, where monsters have a "base level". I was halfway through the game before I ran into the dragons.

[Rez09]

Going by the original title, as I am far less familiar with the remake, normal encounters do scale with you but boss encounters do not. As I recall only two fatestone quests require fighting dragons, but the other quest can't be started until very late in the game anyway so you don't have to worry about that one. While the fatestones are nice they are not required for completing the game, so don't get too hung on obtaining them super early, especially the one you found as it is one of the ones that should always be available.

[Fynn]

Thanks for the tips. I guess I’ll just move on from this island for now.

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Now I, too, have Minstrel's Song.

I still have yet to resume RS3-- keep telling myself I'll do it before bed, but then I end up too tired or too tormented by agonizing headaches to touch it. Anyways, I put in a good 4 or so hours into Minstrel's Song today, using Jamil as my main. I think when I played (what little I did of) the SNES version, I started out with Sif. Right away I noticed some huge differences from the original game and the remake-- and also some similarities between Minstrel's Song and the unimported SaGa 2 & 3 DS remakes. The cursor sfx is largely similar, and so too are some elements of the battle system. I'm enjoying the painterly effect and the soundtrack so far, and Jamil is cute as a button. I actually had to replay the first half hour because I got myself killed in the catacombs in Estamir Tunnels. Whoops! But that's ok, it gave me more time to get used to the field mechanics before setting out beyond Estamir.

I got a couple quests done (Yassi Cavern and Saoki Cavern) and did some exploring around the Kjarat, Frontier, Rosalia and Dry Lands regions before I remembered I have a freaking comic to work on. I'm already thinking ahead even out of game, considering what I need to do to get to some currently inaccessible treasure chests and climbable spots. My gameplan is to move on to the Crystal Lake and Mt. Scurve quests that I opened up in Crystal City, then use the jewels I acquire from them to increase Jamil's Survival skills so that he can climb to inaccessible places and open "invisible" chests I noted in previous dungeons. I also desperately want to increase Hawke's axe proficiency so that he can be more useful in battle without draining DP from his weapons. So... yeah. I need all the Jewels I can get.

So far I seem to be enjoying the party I've got. Aside from the aforementioned Jamil and Hawke, I have Barbara and Myriam, and of course the Minstrel. They're all very stable combatants, though I have my eye on Guella Ha. I dunno, there's just something wonderful about that character's appearance and I get the feeling he'd be an awesome addition to the party... but I'd have to cough someone up.

Anyway, good stuff, man. Eager to play more.

[Fynn]

So like I said, I decided to leave the dragon for later. Only played a little bit last night, but I traveled to North Point and took a too of the town. A lady wants me to find some nymph statues and I also replace my Amazon with a Sorcerer and kinda can’t wait to find some more actual characters now

[Fynn]

I’ve reached Crystal City today and I have Sif in my party! I’ve also unlocked around ten locations today, so things are getting a bit overwhelming

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah that tends to happen.You're begging for quests and characters in the beginning and then suddenly the game releases all of it on you at once.

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Note to all playing Minstrel's Song:

Do not-- I repeat, DO NOT enter the Geckling Cave on Walon Isle with a full bladder. Go to the bathroom first. You have been warned.

[Fynn]

Another tip is that there’s map on the first floor and you should go out of your way to find it before descending to the lower floors because you might end up taking that staircase on the lowest floor that takes you immediately outside. Also, the dragon is probably too tough for you if you’re here early.

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Real update tho: I powered through quite a few quests today. Did Mt Scurve and then Crystal Lake, then went and got the first half of the Water Dragon Rite-- while also beating the dude that had initially killed me in my first hour of gameplay in the Estamir Catacombs. I then wandered over to Walon Isle and lost my s*** over a geckling that literally talks like Gollum. That's what that previous post was all about. I'm still reeling from that, actually. And then I saved some Gecklings from a weapon shop (???(more gecklings than I expected there to be)) and watched a geckling parade and lost it again. I had to call it quits for the day there because I was in tears and couldn't breathe and needed to pee badly.

So that's my story.

[Fynn]

And here I thought you meant the dungeon was long :p

[Fynn]

I’m torn. I want to have Claudia and Gray in my party once I find them, but of the names characters I already have Sif, Diana and Guella Ha, all of whom I really like. I’m worried I’ll have to drop Guella Ha but idk if that’s ideal here :(

[Rez09]

Guella is awesome; I'd keep him if you like him.

[Fynn]

He’s okay but I think I want the other two more.

[Rez09]

RIP Lizard master race. ; -;

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Update: I haven't played any RS:MS over the weekend, but I did get back into RS3 today and finally completed the quest in the East. I followed up with a brief jaunt to Pidona and rescued the fairy from the circus, then did some inventory management until my gamepad ran out of juice. I have a sort of love-hate relationship with the games Inventory system, in that it doesn't have an auto-sort button. It at least makes me more mindful of what I have or don't have and allows me to customize the sorting to my own whim, but it also takes extra time when you get a new item and you want it in a specific spot (IE: A Salve in with the potions/consumables). There's really no way around it, and I'm sure most people just leave the inventory to get all messy, but I can't-- I'm a bit OCD, so long as the focus of my attention has nothing to do with my bedroom.

I do believe that before the weekend officially started, I played SOME RS:MS. I completed the saving Constance quest in Knight's Dominion and puzzled over Ligau Island, trying to figure out how the heck to trigger Mt Tomae's availability, and it turned out all I had to do was talk to the bartender at the pub in beast-infested Jelton, something I would never have figured out if I hadn't looked it up. It took me an entire hour trying to figure it out before I finally did. In that time, I also acquired the Falcata and a Dragon Egg... Instinct told me to avoid the dinosaurs in the nest at all cost, and I managed to until I had to head back out. I tried to beat the first one that caught up to me to no avail so I wasted LP and booked it, and then got caught up with another and wasted MORE LP... then at the last second just one step away from the exit, I got caught in one last encounter from behind. At that point everyone was down to 5-1 LP and I couldn't run anymore, so I had to tough it out. I gotta say, that was the diciest battle I've ever been in so far. It took me several rounds and a defensive strategy to eventually beat the damn thing, and what made the stakes even higher was that I hadn't saved for a while (how stupid of me) so the adrenaline was pumping the whole time. Made the victory all the more rewarding, that's for sure.

Those dinosaurs are no joke, man.

[Fynn]

Finally found Gray and Claudia, so now I think I have a party that I’m gonna keep. I also did a quest in Melvir in which a woman was terrorized by a butterfly at night. I kinda had to go into maze wood twice because the first time I only picked up the pendant - turns out I also had to pick up the plants there to let her know where I’d found it. It’s not like I could tell her where I found it or anything :roll2

[Rez09]

Those dinosaurs are no joke, man.

That's Grey's first quest in the SNES game, too. You gotta pray and run your ass off once you find that egg. xD

Out of curiosity, do you give that pendant away or keep it? There's a pendant in the original game you find in Mazewood, but you get it for a different quest and in what I assume is a different way since you didn't mention a giant talking tree. It wasn't the most intuitive process, so I'm wondering if they switched it up in the remake.

[Fynn]

There was this lady who said there was a butterfly stalking her and then when I entered the mazewood it basically just led me to the pendant. I’ll have to check to see if I still have it though

[Fynn]

So yesterday I learned I am a complete fucking idiot who doesn’t understand proficiencies. I kept wondering why my climbing is still level zero when Sif’s survival attribute is at level two. Only then did I learn proficiencies work like spells, as in you buy them for specific characters, not for your party in general. So I realized I wasted thousands on buying Hawke all the proficiencies I could get my hands on in the hopes that I’d be ready for anything - now most of them will be unusable since he won’t learn all the attributes so I’ve basically thrown away a bunch of cash.

Sigh

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Yeah I ran into the same exact dumb stick a bit ago. Luckily I was quick to find the reason as to why I was being so faily thanks to my mom coming in to watch a little of me failing to jump and saying "How do you level that up then?" Big 'uuuuuhhhhh' moment right there.

Anyhow, I only did one measley thing on RS:MS since my last update, and that was going to Mt. Tomae and having Pyrix not only help get rid of the monsters in Justern but also.... promise the Ignigarde, in return for finding the Ice Sword. Honestly, I didn't feel up for just flat-out killing him, not only because it seemed wrong, but also because I was pooped and didn't think I'd stand a chance. So, onward I went to try and go about Bayre Plateau and got lost and confused, and gave up for the time being.

On the RS3 front though, I got A LOT done. I explored the Crystal Palace, completed the Zweig tournament, defeated the Dragon Car, and did Ice Galaxy before farting off back to the Demon King's Palace to see if I didn't miss anything my last time there (yeah...I actually missed a lot. Oops.) I also meant to go in there to trigger an event that was supposed to make a new cave available between Farce and Stanley, but I couldn't figure out where it was. I'll probably go back in there again-- there might have been a secret passage I missed or something.

All in all, even though I'm definitely enjoying RS:MS, I find myself much more engrossed in RS3 for some reason, and I can't quite put my finger on it. It might be because of a slight difference in how proficiencies are upgraded between the two games, but that's a very minor thing. It does however feel much more rewarding for me in RS3.

[Rez09]

The Devil King's Palace doesn't open the cave you are talking about, but it does contain an empty chest with a prayer in it about death being great or something -- it is on the bottom floor of the main castle in a room to the left of where the teleporter drops you. You need to have learned that prayer to fight the bonus boss in the cave you mentioned and it drops the only Death Fragement in the game, which you need to make either the best bow or mage ring in the workshop.

The cave itself requires you having beaten the second boss in the thief cave, so if you haven't been back there in a while there should be a new boss hiding at the back where the bandit leader was. If you don't have the cave open there is a woman in the bottom left house in . . . Stanely, I believe it is (the left of the two), and she should mention monster activity in the thief cave and add it to your map. After clearing it out the second time you can talk to her again and she should open the second cave -- she might even open it the first time you talk to her if you are late enough in the game.

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Well, uh... bad news, guys.... :[ I lost a lot of progress in RS3. I think I accidentally exited out of the rom without saving the session, which shot me back by several hours-- before my last post was made, at the very least.

That's fine though I guess... Kinda serendipitous actually, because before the progress loss, I had realized that I was underpowered for the boss battle I was trying to get to... And then I'd started up the Maximus quest, and discovered too late that I needed 10000 gold in order to get into the holy shrine tower or whatever it is. After doing some reading up I found that I could have gotten all that gold if I'd just done all three parts of the business minigame, but I couldn't do that because as soon as the Maximus Quest is triggered, you're unable to open the business minigame menu with a certain NPC standing outside of the tower.

Sooo... after that happened, I retired Undine and instead put all the spells she had on Boston. I'm already finding that he's actually doing much more damage with his water magic than Undyne was, and he's not even up to the level she was at yet. For now, Undine has been replaced with Thomas, until I find someone I definitely want. Thinking about getting either Paul or Zhi Lin, but I think I'll do that after I've finished the business minigame and then completed the Maximus quest, since that quest locks Herman into the party. (Maybe next time I play through I'll get Herman sooner so I can turn him into Black and have an even better axe-weilder than Ellen...)

Looks like the ruins aren't gonna happen for a loooong while...

[Wolf Kanno]

While there is no word of the English version release date yet, SaGa Scarlet Graces has a new Japanese trailer ofr the port version showing off the four main characters, as well as one significant character in each of their scenarios. It also highlights the combat system which is where a good chunk of the game's production values went.


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I felt this way playing SF2, but watching this trailer made me really feel like Kawazu is a huge fan of JoJo's Bizarre Adventures cause the combat animation feels reminiscent of the manga series. Anyway, the port comes out in Japan on August 2nd, so hopefully we'll learn more about the Western release afterwards.

Also, Rez09 will be happy to know that Kawazu has hinted (https://gematsu.com/2018/06/romancing-saga-3-remaster-news-due-out-around-tgs-2018) that the Remaster of Romancing SaGa 3 may be showing up at the 2018 Tokyo Game Show in September. Fingers crossed that we'll see a western port of that as well.

[Fynn]

Ooooh really looking forward to that RS3 port!

[Rez09]

< _______________ <

I might be on another playthrough of that at the moment, actually. My God, let me tell you rare drops in that game are absolute hell.

[Wolf Kanno]

While a few other games have dominated my time and I'll likely not go into full blown investment until much later, Ihave been playing a bit of Romancing SaGa 2 and it's a really interesting change of pace from the rest of the series. The LP mechanic is introduced in this game but serves a unique function. Health is completely restored after every battle except for LP, but since this is a generational story, if your MC's LP reaches zero, they die and you switch to their successor. Due to this LP=true death, you have a crap ton of characters to choose from to be in your party since anyone of them can die permanently so characters are less story focused and more class focused. It's still too early to see where it will go, but the Sim-lite empire building aspect of the game has some interesting potential as well.

My major gripe from combat in the first game has been removed, any skills your character learns from using a weapon stays with them instead of losing them when you switch out equipped weapons. The rest of the game plays out a bit like the original from there, but there is a group of advisors in your castle that spy for you and give you a heads up about what quests are available, which is a neat time saver instead of having to chat up every NPC you meet. You also have two different bank accounts, a personal one you carry around to buy stuff in shops, and one for the empire which can be used to research new weapons, armor, spells, and formations.

You also unlock unique classes and characters through these events, a very early one is a Thief who plagues the citizens at night. Once you gain the ability to switch to night time, you can encounter her in the city and do a minor quest that eventually ends with you recruiting here to your cause. I'm not sure how all of this will translate once we start to seriously jump through time skips. I'm only on Gerad, the second emperor, and the one seen in most of the official artwork.

[Wolf Kanno]

TGS 2018 is here, and as Kawazu promised, we get our first look at the Remaster of Romancing SaGa 3 that will be coming out early in 2019 in Japan for Switch, PS4, Vita, XBOne, PC, and even mobile. They also announced a new mobile title that is the SaGa equivalent of Final Fantasy Record Keeper.

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[Rez09]

Oh . . . oh God. I was super down with the RS3 update until I saw that Byunei animation, gaaaahhhhhhhhhh. Oh well, the rest looks fine. Better come out over here, I need to waste even more of my life on that game. >: I

[Wolf Kanno]

We just got a new trailer for Romancing SaGa Re: Universe, which for those who don't know, is a bit like Record Keeper where you can collect characters from the whole franchise. Though this trailer shows the game takes place 300 years after RS3 and will actually feature a main story campaign with new heroes and villains.

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[Wolf Kanno]

Decided I was bored finishing up questlines in FFXV and needed something new to sink my teeth into, well until I get back to the FFV Let's Play. So I picked Romancing Saga 2 back up and I'm now playing as the successor. I got to choose between four characters and the 11 year old me couldn't resist choosing the female heir who happens to be named Beaver of all things.

During the end of Gerad's reign, I infiltrated the Thieve's Guild and got them on my side as well as took down an obnoxious Slime monster so some badass monks could save face with the the local town they protect and got both groups to serve my empire. I should have headed south but instead takled the Ocean Fortress set-up by the next member of the Seven Heroes and run by their henchmen. The cool thing is that I asked the Thieve's Guild to help scout the place out and the Thief I met earlier volunteered to do so. In addition to finding the entrance to the place, she also set up markers through the dungeon telling me where to go and which rooms actually had treasure in it. The boss fight could have gone better but I won nonetheless and jumped to the next era.

The orchard I commissioned as Gerad is now finished and earning the kingdom more Gold, and with my new Empress, I've recruited one bow user, a meat shield, and called in the favor for my monks from last gen. I'm keeping my fifth slot opened because I really hope to recruit a mage. I started reading up on the game a little and one tidbit I read explained this game kind of works like RS1 where magic is underwhelming in the beginning but becomes crucial by endgame and with the revelation of Global XP that I didn't know about, it seems like this is something I really need to start cracking on sooner rather than later.

For now, I'm investigating the Gemstone mine my ancestor should have cleared out.

[Wolf Kanno]

Made a bit more progress.

Found out where all my castle mages are hanging out and recruited me a Pyromancer with some Wind magic as well. My team was really awkward in the beginning but things are starting to go a bit more smoothly. Beaver is suppose to be a Spear/Bow user with a bit of a magic touch, but for the life of me, I can't seem to raise anything for her but the Divine Magic she has. Thankfully, I grinded enough Sword levels in the previous generation that she's still a powerhouse with those weapons and she even sparked a new skill once I realized she wasn't learning anything new because I already hit her cap of equippable skills. Walrus, my frontline fighter is a poor substitute for his previous generation counterpart. I don't think he's as good with shields and he's had very few HP increases. My bow user is doing fine except she dies a lot. She may actually be my first party death if this scenario continues any further as she has like 3 LP left at this point. Not that she started with a lot mind you. My monk is pretty badass actually and even learned a free healing technique that will be amazing once I jump to the next generation and gain the ability to teach all my party members the skill. His only issue is that he's completely worthless against slimes and magic beings, like he can do close to 200 damage against most things but does nothing against slimes and he can't really learn many other weapon types either making him a bit too specialized. Speaking of which, my mage has a really bad habit of dying too, but she's gained quite a few magic levels really quickly which is making her more useful in battles especially with MP being tied to magic levels. Her greatest contribution has been sparking an excellent skill for rapiers, Matador, which is basically a defensive move that evades enemy attacks and counters with a surprisingly strong hit. Excellent for a squishy mage character low on MP.

I finished clearing out the Mines and increased my imperial coffers while also expanding my territory. Making the local town a hotspot for miners also allowed me to learn about the Beast Road, which I needed to go through to reach the HQ of the Armed Merchant's Guild which are causing a ruckus in a nearby town that has a ship I need to get to my final objective of this scenario. Not a pleasant place but at least it didn't have a boss fight. I sneaked into the town and reached the boss who gave up without a fight. I was offered the choice of disbanding, subduing, or allying with the guild and figured it would be in my best interest to ally with them. I've now reached a town that has a similar fishing tradition as some rural Japanese villages in the south, and I'm hearing tales of mermaids. I also learned that a few of the expansions I can make for my empire require me to raise certain stats and stuff or fight more battles, so I may focus on that a bit next playthrough, but I'm leery to do some of it because I know that battles = Time in this game and I don't really want to advance the story too quickly. As usual for the franchise, you have to be careful about old RPG habits, and you certainly need to plan in the long term. I'm really starting to get into the game right now which is nice.

[Wolf Kanno]

I know Gerald is one of only three playable emperors you get that has actual character artwork, but Empress Beaver probably got way more done during her reign than Gerald did.

From my last playthrough, I didn't save properly so I had to do the pirate scenario again but luckily saved when I reached the town itself. I chose to subdue them instead of allying with them and got a trophy and access to the Corsair class for my next generation. I blew most of the empires money on building a Magic Laboratory which arrived during the next generation and gives me access to not only more mages, but the ability to teach magic to all my party members as well.

I accidentally started the mermaid quest in Atlantica, and while I saw it to a certain point, I learned I can't complete it properly because my PC is a female and the scenario requires a male lead. So I backed out from there and will hopefully be able to do it in the next generation. I opened up the way to both the Savannah and Cumberland which was my next story destination. In the Savannah I explored and found a few small villages that ended up being destroyed thanks to a giant termite infestation. I fought the Hive Queen, who has easily been the hardest battle in the game thus far and beat her. Rescued the Mole people her hive was occupying and even unlocked some cool new gear for my team. The hard part was that both my mage and archer took some heavy hits to their LP and since both of them are pretty snazzy, I ended up using some save scumming options when either got killed off for real, which ended up making the Cumberland scenario more difficult than it should have been.

Cumberland was interesting, the King asks you to visit him because he wants to get a second opinion on which of his three children should ascend the throne: His eldest Georg who guards the border wall to the Savannah and commands the respect of all of the kingdom's army; Sophia, only daughter and wisest of the three who is expanding the commerce and infrastructure of the kingdom; or Thomas, youngest of the three but the king's favorite. I opted for Sophia, cause I felt she was the best choice and hey, I'm a freaking Empress, and the royal lines could all stand to have more lady rulers. Well as one would expect, the king mysteriously dies the very next day and Thomas is pronounced king. From here the scenario takes a few interesting turns. Completing it unlocks the Crusader class which feels like a statistical upgrade to the heavy infantry class with better stats for magic, making them feel like a Red Mage class of sorts. This ended Beaver's scenario and I jumped to the third generation.

I now realize that in addition to the four I choose, each of them represents a random class I've unlocked. Beaver for instance was a Thief/Vagabond class which probably explains why she was suppose to be good with bows. I initially chose Herbert, a Light Infantry character, but I ended up getting thrown into a scenario where my team was captured and sold into slavery. We lost all our gear and had to fight our way out with out bare hands, but unfortunately for me, only my Corsair character Magellan had any levels in hand to hand combat and I forgot to teach the team any skills before leaving the Empire.

Since I wasn't ready for a party wipe, I reset and had to play out the last part of Beaver's story before trying again because the auto-save had me stuck in the slave scenario. This turned out for the best though, because the heirs I could choose were a much better selection and I had access to the new Crusader class, so now I'm Emperor Peter who starts with good levels in Swords, Spears, Light Magic and I have access to Wind magic as well, which meant I could shake up my party build as well. My Team consists of the Archer Anne, the Light Infantry Medea who stats with fire magic, the Corsair Magellan, and the Earth and Fire Mage Rose. I taught Water magic to Magellan. I still need to visit the Dojo so I can unlock my new formation and teach a few skills to my new team.

I'm split on what to do here though. If I go the slave route, I'm going up against another one of the Seven Heroes which may end this scenario rather quickly. On the other hand, since I'm rolling with a male emperor, I can see if I can finish the mermaid scenario which I also know will end this scenario. If I go with the mermaid one, I'll likely spend this scenario just grinding out magic levels and sparking as much weapon techs as I can since the battle number shouldn't affect anything since I'll likely be doing a scenario that ends this generation prematurely anyway. I kind of want to get access to Fusion Magic as earl;y as possible, but apparently I'm going to need to seriously grind some magic levels to build up my global levels so I can finally get the ML to research the spells in the next generation. This has kind of been the real fun thing about this game which SF2 did a little of, which was the fact you needed to kind of prep more for the end game than be overly concerned with how your current team is doing. I also need to do these battles because I need another 500,000 Gold for the empire so I can build a University and unlock the Tactician class which apparently was suppose to help me out in Cumberland and the Steppe scenarios. So maybe grinding and doing the mermaid scenario will be for the best.

So far, I've been having an absolute blast with the game now that I'm getting into the swing of things and reading up a bit more on the mechanics. I do have two gripes with the game so far.

1. The localization feels off in places. I'm not sure if this is due to the localization team having to do a rush job or something or if this is simply due to the limitation of the game's origin as a 16-bit JRPG, but there are certain places where the dialogue often feels like a direct translation as opposed to actual normal sounding dialogue. The ending dialogue to the Cumberland scenario for instance has two characters offering weird dialogue asking for forgiveness despite not actually doing anything to really cross me. I can't tell if the translator simply didn't get a chance to smooth this dialogue over, or if the dialogue was referring to an alternate way this scenario could have played out but due to the game's limitations, they couldn't hold separate dialogue for every part of a scenario. If that makes any sense. It's not hurting the entertainment value of the game, but it dawns on my that SE currently would likely never have allowed something so glaring to go to release had this been an Final Fantasy, and this strikes a chord with me because I also felt SE cut corners when working on the SoM remake.

2. It kills me that this game doesn't have a better UI when displaying statistical information. I think one of the best things that ever came out of the FFIV DS remake was the fact the game finally properly displayed all of the statistical information on equipment when you played around in the equipment menu. I can't believe it took Square until FFV to finally display this type of info. SaGa, and this extends to every entry I've played so far, is the absolute worst in displaying this much needed information. Which is all the more infuriating because the gameplay mechanics of these titles are leaps and bounds more complex than FF. So to give an example of what I'm talking about, most armor displays one stat to represent their defensive level, similar to FFIV. Here's the catch, that stat is not a representative of the armors total defensive power, it's actually just how much it defends against Slash damage. There are two more types of physical damage in this game and six types of magical damage which are never displayed, so you can't even trust looking at the character's Attribute screen to get a fair assessment of what your armor is actually doing. SaGa Frontier 2 pulled the same crap with several items that looked statistically weak turning out to be game breakers because the game never explains their full attributes like whether the item absorbed certain elemental damage or boosted others. So now I'm going to probably have to have a full equipment guide on my phone at all times just to figure out how I should be equipping my team. Weapons have a similar issue as well.

Other issues I've seen is just the sheer amount of algorithms go into weapon sparking and how it correlates to your party members class and I haven't even touched on the Global Level mechanic which ends up being the most important level to strive for. It just dumbfounds me that such a mechanically and technical rich franchise would simply flat out leave you in the dark on so much of how it works. This has been going on since FFII for crying out loud. If Kawazu and the rest of the SaGa team simply conveyed this info a bit better to the players, I feel the game's would stand a better chance of being accepted in the West. Hell, I still can't seem to find a guide that agrees on how Unlimited SaGa's mechanics actually work

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

I started the Mermaid Quest, now have to find a few more items to get the potion from the witch. Had a surprise boss fight as well where I learned how utterly broken the sword skill Heatwave is. The tech does damage based on the opponent's HP so for bosses or tanky big guys, this attack can do quadruple digit damage. This in a point where doing 500hp of damage is considered a great attack. I also befriended the Mole men and unlocked their race as playable characters. I also reported back to one of the Savannah villages and unlocked the Hunter class and liberated the region adding to my empire. I was annoyed because I've been trying to save my money to build a university but I had to spend money to build a bridge in one of my cities which unlocks a new scenario in that region. Knowing I would likely not get enough cash to make it this generation, I opted to expand the Orchard since it's purpose is to generate money as well.

I've been able to raise my magic levels a bit and sparked a bunch of new attacks. My Corsair Magellan has been odd though because he's technically an Axe Specialist based on his Type Classification but he rarely sparks Axe skills. Unarmed skills on the other hand... Anne, my Bow specialist is the same way, she's not quite as good as the last two Rangers I've had in terms of sparking techs or gaining Bow levels. Also, Rose, me Earth Magic specialist is way better with her Fire magic, though it helps that Fire Magic is more useful than earth ones at this point in the game. Peter and Medea keep sparking good techs for 1h-swords which is great because I was seriously lacking good skills for them. I kind of want to raise all my magic types to Lv. 10 but I'm not sure if that's going to happen because Earth magic, like Cosmology/Light magic levels slowly it seems. My water magic is also on a non-caster type character but's he's been getting levels rather admirably. The issue with Wind magic has been that Anne has absolutely no talent for it and Peter's class makes him painfully slow, so it's hard for him to get a turn before the rest of my team decimates the enemy.

My big issue now is that my current team is actually pretty good. It's a good combo of classes so now I'm debating about tackling one of the Seven Heroes. I can't figure out how to get to the Landship without going the Slaver Route which is suicide because my team only has one strong hand-to-hand fighter. I may have to wait a generation and build a specific team for it, which is something I've read about that you have to do with a few of the Heroes. So I may still try to finish the Mermaid quest, but it's a shame I'll waste a good boss fighting party on it. I may explore a bit more and see if there any more scenarios I can unlock. This generation has been surprisingly directionless, but I also haven't explored all of the areas that are available to me. Hell, I haven't even returned to Cumberland to see what has happened to it since I liberated it with the Empress. Still a fun ride.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time

I've reached the fourth generation.

Peter collected all of the ingredients for the Mermaid Potion but first I went south past the Ludon region where I met the roaming Mu (fantasy yak) herders who were being pestered by some monsters in a nearby cave. I went in hoping for treasure but instead liberated the area and unlocked the Herder class. Finally took the plunge and finished the mermaid quest which ended Peter's reign prematurely. I did have to laugh because when you visit the mermaid with the aid of the potion, the two of them get excited and wander off screen before it blacks out and reappears with both of them sighing and thanking each other for a good time. I'm sure this is meant to be a thought of as them going on adventurers or something but it really looks like they're doing something far more adult...

I didn't care for the choices of my next emperor because for some reason I rolled three boys and one girl, and said girl was already a class I've been (Thief) so I reloaded and used my Auto-Save for a new selection and lo and behold, one of my choices was a Neriad (Mermaid) which felt incredibly appropriate.

This has easily been the worst choice I've made all game. While mermaids have some amusing quirks, she has easily been the crappiest party member I've had to deal with. Her health, and more importantly, her Life Points are abysmally low. I played her for like one evening and she's already down to one LP thanks to enemies being very aggressive against her. Making matters worse was the fact I accidentally locked her into quest without a full team which meant they all got beat up pretty badly. I wish there was an easier way to get around sometimes, especially in regions like the Steepe/Savannah/Jungle region because they are only accessible by traversing a few dungeons. The other issue with her is that Mermaids are mages. So she started with Water, Wind, and of course Light magic but I have not grinded enough levels to have access to the really good stuff yet because leveling magic, like RS1 and FFII is a chore. Making matters worse is that she's a Type 5, meaning her best weapons are Clubs and Maces which has been the one weapon type I've neglected the most next to Rapiers. So I'm taking advantage of the act she inherited my better Sword/Spear levels to make her a better fighter. Her one unique quirk, which I learned is shared by all of the non-human races, is that in addition to being immune to Water based attacks, she actually gets a minor Regen Buff like monsters do when she fights in an area of her element. Sadly, she doesn't teach my group any new formations.

From Avalon, I picked up a Water Free Mage, who sadly came with Earth Magic as his secondary element. I have yet to unlock any offensive magic for either element, so I had him lose his Earth Magic and traded it for Wind Magic, but he starts with an abysmal level in it so my Mage has been kind of useless until I finally got his Wind Magic levels up. He does have more HP and LP than my Empress though, which is kind of sad...

My last three members have all proven to be quite good though. I returned to the Savannah and recruited a Hunter which feels like an upgrade to the Archer class. Good bow skills and even has strong levels in One-Handed swords which has been nice. The best thing about him has been the fact he's actually sparking new techs. My last Archer only sparked one new move the entire generation, but this guy has sparked three bow techs and one sword tech. His health pool is also much better than the Archer class as well.

While I was in the Savannah, I paid a visit to the Mole people and recruited one of their members. Mole people start with Earth Magic and get a regen buff in Caves or Mountain regions. He is also tanky as all hell. Despite saying he has good numbers in Martial Arts, he's not as strong as I would like. The weirdest thing about Moles is that their primary weapons are Rapiers. He has sparked like seven new Rapier techs which has been great and his levels with it are strong enough to make up for the weapons awful stats. He's been a very solid party member.

My last recruit, who ended up getting me stuck on that quest I mentioned earlier because I was too lazy to traverse the dungeon area to reach the Ludon region, was the Mu Herder. They specialize in Martial Arts and Clubs. Despite being a guy wearing an ethnic hat and a straw cape, he's is built like the Mu's he guards and is tanky as all hell. A surprisingly good party member who has finally shown me what Club/Mace weapons are really capable of once you have strong levels in it and spark a few decent techs. Wish I could have gotten to him before my Empress lost most of her LP.

When trying to recruit my herder, I went to the town of Moblem to take a boat to Toba, which would lead me to his mountain home without having to wander through a grindfest dungeon. Unfortunately, I couldn't use the boats because my Corsairs had decided to rebel. I learned from their former leader that an upstart overthrew him and took over their town of Nueno and stopped all sailing and was halfing my income for the empire. He allied himself with Subier, one of the Seven Heroes. Unfortunately, talking to him locked me into having to sneak into Nueno to topple this guy. I took the ocean path because I had never done that before. With only four party members, two of which are squishy mages, I was unable to utilize and of my Formations, leaving my Empress exposed to get the shit kicked out of her. There were also two really nasty fights I was stuck having to do which cost me more LP than it should have and I probably should have reset when they occurred. I beat the guy down, but he escaped vowing revenge. Got my guy and remembered a thing I never finished in the last gen.

You can commission a scientist to build a moving bridge in one of your bigger cities, but something destroyed it last gen and the scientist refused to rebuild it until I figured out what caused it. Turns out it was a Narwhale trying to protect her child from Subier. So the bridge was restored. I finally accumulated enough Gold to not only start construction of my University, but to unlock the Imperial Guard class though neither will be ready until next generation. Went through the desert to find a village being hounded by the one of the Seven Heroes forces and liberated it as well. Traversed the jungle to finally unlock a passage to Comroon Island where I stopped the local volcano from erupting and started the first step to either recruit the Salamander Race, or unlock Dark Magic. Called it a night after that.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Oh boy, what a complete disaster this last generation has been. I really don't like the Neriad race. They are just way too freaking fragile for their own good and armor doesn't seem to help them a whole lot either. Not helped by the fact the enemy A.I. often targets the characters with the lowest HP.

With her lousy 1LP, my party became a serious glass cannon experience, so I was basically trying to complete a few smaller quests to hopefully bump myself into the next generation. I lost my first party member after I found this stupid Stone Boat in the Jungle region which will allow me to cross the Lava Rive on Comroon Island to visit the Salamanders, but the boat severely restricts my movement speed and the whole area is filled with speedy enemy types so I kept getting into random encounters like no bodies business. The worst part? Turns out I didn;t even need it because stopping the volcano earlier already cleared the lava and gave me access to the village. I wound up finding the Amazon Village and recruited a fragile if complete badass Amazon warrior to my team named Jeane who replaced my crappy Water Mage. Afterwards, we followed Jeane to the village of only men. Apparently the Amazons actually originate from this village but their new queen turned all the men against them and they fled. She's trying to get into a tower but the guardian blocks her way. So I go into her tower to speak with her and barely make it to her after beating some evil plant creature. She then asks me to face the guardian for her and I end up being locked into an unwinnable situation. My poor team was too banged up to deal with this guy but I couldn't leave because this queen chick blocked my way. So I opted to let him give me a party wipe and chose a new successor. I chose a Heavy Infantry unit named Tortoise.

He picked up a Fire Mage, a Neriad, one of the newly created Imperial Guard units who are badass, and I went over to Cumberland to pick up the Crusader. I also finally found. While heading back to the Amazon village to recruit a new Amazon, I learned the hard way that I cna only recruit them if I'm an Empress, so my dude was quickly expelled from the area. I did find myself over to a region that is basically SaGa Japan and they're fighting with the leader of the Seven Heroes Wagnas. I also started a war with their Daimyo even though his best soldier knows it's a stupid idea to fight the empire. I hightailed it out of there because I really didn't want to deal with the situation just yet. Unfortunately, I was unable to avenge my previous Empress because my University opened up and after taking a fun quiz, unlocked the Tactician Class. met a Tactician who helped me to finally deal with that damned Landship in the Steepes, and while that dungeon was obnoxious and had maybe one decent piece of treasure, I toppled another of the Seven Heroes, Bokhon the Puppeteer. T

hat ended up actually finishing off the era. My new Emperor is a Tactician cause why not? Recruited a Light Infantry because I'm seriously neglecting my Greatsword techs. Picked up a new female Imperial Guard because I love their sprite design better than the male ones. An Earth mage with sub fire magic, and picked up my new Nomad Class I unlocked by stopping the Landship. With the landship gone I can finally travel the region unmolested and even have better access to Cumberland region without needing a boat.

So a few scenarios opened up in this era. My mines are troubled by a mysterious force that knocks out my miners which is hurting my Empires ability to make money. The Comroon Volcano looks like it's going to blow again, and there was flooding hitting a region to the south of me. I'm going to do the Mines first cause money is always important, but then I want to do the Comroon scenario because this is where I can unlock Dark Magic, but like the Mermaid Quest, this will prematurely end my current Emperor's reign cause they end up becoming an apprentice to a dark sorcerer who helped me fix the volcano the first time around. I may also try to follow the Minstrel and collect a few more of his instruments because I think it has to do with unlocking another race.

My biggest concern at this point is that I know I'm coming close to reaching the final era. I still don't have Fusion magic, and I fell behind trying to make new gear thanks to waiting around to make the 2 million gold needed to open my university. I did notice my Magic Lab is bustling with more people because my levels with Light magic have grown stronger in the last generation. I've also unlocked the third and fourth spells for a few elements but Earth Magic is still lagging behind and Water still doesn't have an offensive option. Since I'm going to sacrifice this guy for the Dark Arts, I may spend some time leveling up my magic and trying to Spark some more techniques. I also want to tackle a few more of the Seven Heroes, so if I have one more Emperor/Empress before the Final Emperor, then I plan on spending it being more proactive with dealing with the actual bad guys of the game. I know that killing Five of them will shoot you straight to the last scenario, but I've only dealt with two of them at the moment. So that means I can take down at least two more without worrying about ending the game prematurely.

I'm not sure what concerns me more, the idea I might be jumping into the final scenario unprepared, or the idea this game will already be over because it's honestly been my favorite experience with the SaGa brand so far.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Okay, so the Tactician is only slightly better than Neriads. He thankfully has more actual health and armor options, but he also has awful LP like them and the Formation he teaches is better served with a sturdier class. On the other hand, he is next to Thief as one of the fastest classes in the game, and he's a pretty decent mage, but unfortunately that means he can't spark anything...

I decided to try and grab the Dark Magic option and this turned into a bigger headache than I imagined. You lose the revenue from two cities, you lock yourself out of access to the Salamander Race, your current emperor/empress abdicates the throne making you choose a new successor, and you have to fight a really nasty boss. Said boss walloped my party. Hell just trying to get to him eroded away most of my party LP. This boss was obnoxious because he regenerates 10% of his health after every round which was like 994HP. He also exclusively uses Fusion Magic. This battle came down to a few things, my damage output, whether he successfully charmed anyone, or if he used the Sandstorm spell which was pretty much a TPK if he did so cause my team is ill equipped to deal with magic attacks. He pretty much kicked my ass all evening. Finally I decided to chance grinding a few skills or levels in the dungeon and sadly my team simply refused to Spark anything. Luckily the grind wasn't a total waste because I did raise a few people's HP and I found a second Poseidon Spear which I gave to my Imperial Guard. That weapon alone practically doubled her attack. After that, it was just a suicidal charge against the boss that finally beat him. Afterwards my Emperor abdicated the throne and I had to choose from among my party my actual successor. I went with the Imperial Guard who teaches a really nice formation that is up my alley. It's an improved version of the Imperial Cross move called Imperial Arrow which boosts most of my team's speed. My Nomad also Sparked a really good Axe skill.

Afterwards, I recruited Capella,a robot servant the local mad scientist made for me as a gift. She's amusing because she's actually pretty foul mouthed. She's an odd character, and one I imagine most gamers would actively avoid. She starts with 99 LP and Lv. 15 in all physical stats as well as comes with a huge collection of Martial Art skills. She can't use magic, spark abilities, or wear armor, but her stats are superior to most of my party. The real catch here is that she's A.I. controlled and does her own thing. It works out most of the time for me, especially with the Imperial Arrow formation since I have her on point taking the brunt of the enemy attacks. Still I know some people hate these types of characters.

Afterwards, I returned to the scene of my battle with the Sorcerer and claimed the Dark Tome and some other items. I swung back by the Amazon village and remembered I had some unfinished business with Rocbouquet of the Seven Heroes. I did my rematch with the Stone Guardian and won thanks to the awesome Axe skill I picked up and I was even able to seriously raise some of my magic global levels. Ooh, and my Empress sparked the unique skill from the Burning Sword which is not a bad skill. Rocbouquet learns some info in the tower and wanders off to another tower in the jungle, but I choose to return back to Avalon to drop off the Dark Tome, teach one of my characters dark magic, and approve a crap ton of Fusion spell research I unlocked by grinding some magic levels. I then return to the Jungle and enter the Shrine, but it's late so I save for the night.

I'm pretty sure this will be the last Emperor before the Final One. Assuming defeating Rocbouquet doesn't end this era, I'll try to unlock Diver or Desert Warrior next. Though it looks like I do need to beat all of the Heroes before the final dungeon unlocks so I'll at least get the chances to unlock them with the Final Emperor. I also learned this game has a NG+ and for once it's actually worth it. Not necessarily because you unlock new content, technically the game is so content rich it's damn near impossible to see everything in one go. Hell I just learned that it's possible to unlock the final dungeon and beat the game before the Final Emperor shows up. What you get to keep is all of your money, Global Levels, Formations, magic, and any skills unlocked in the Dojo. Unfortunately, anything learned or acquired by the Final Emperor's team does not carry over. Not as bad of a loss as you would think, especially since enemies scale with your team, so the likelihood of reacquiring any lost skills is still fairly likely in NG+. Regardless, this means that if I can continue pass this current scenario without a jump, I should focus on grinding some more and try to acquire some more skills to take with me into the final chapter, especially since I would still like to at least acquire all of the first tier Fusion spells and level up Dark Magic since it's actually pretty OP.

Here's a great fanart piece of Rocbouquet. She probably has more fanart than the whole cast combined.

75926

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Man that dungeon blew. Course it didn't help my party was pretty badly banged up and I have a thing about losing units. The toughest parts of the dungeon was this one room with multiple doors all guarded by monsters. If you chose the wrong door, you got thrown into the basement which was filled with these Shen Long type dragon enemies who are basically mini-bosses. Also, when you return to the correct floor, all of the enemies you've slain are respawned...

After that mess, you reach Rocbouquet but she has one of those dragons guarding her. The guy gits pretty hard, gas an annoying lightning based group attack he pulls out whenever it's inconvenient, gets two turns per round, and if you don't spam earth magic to change the room element, the bastard restores 999hp per round until you do so. I think it says something that the mini-boss gives you more Tech Points than the actual dungeon boss.

In comparison Rocbouquet is a joke. She has one lousy offensive move which is a powered up low level Wind spell. Other than that she loves to spam her signature move Temptation which charms all Male party members for her real offense. Lucky for me, I'm sporting two ladies, a robo chick, and one of my guys is equipped with an accessory that protects him from Charm status. Charm is also heal-able with a standard status heal spell unlike most other RPGs I know. So in comparison, she was kind of a joke. After beating her, the Amazon region finally joined the empire. I didn't raise my magic levels high enough to earn any new spells, but my global levels went up enough for me to order research into another Fusion spell. I also approved research into a new club weapon, though it's the Bow I really wish I could get a serious upgrade for.

After words, I traveled to the South Longit region to investigate the Storm being caused by a ghost pirate ship, but it didn't look like I could enter properly. So I went to the Melu desert to see if I could find that wandering Oasis, and after half an hour of wandering about I finally found it and the Desert Warriors I heard of. Unfortunately for me, they have picked a fight with Noel. He's another of the Seven Heroes and it turns out he's also a very overprotective brother to Rocbouquet. So he starts a fight with me and utterly crushes my team with his martial arts prowess. I learned afterwards that his Battle script changes depending on whether you fight him before or after his sister and if you do so after, he gets seriously souped up with twice as much health, souped up stats, and pulls out two of his really nasty attacks. Realizing this team was ill fit for this battle I chose to return to the boat but noticed another area I've never explores, the Maze of Memory. It has four orbs in it and I went with my favorite color of green first which has me in a Jungle setting filled with lizards, snakes, and birds. This area is interesting because as you progress the floors the enemies get harder but start at their weakest initially. So this might actually be a pretty snazzy place to spark some new techs.

Speaking of which, I just learned that some equipment have unique spark techs attached to them. My Blazing Sword's Pyrowave technique is such a move and the Comroom Hammer has a pretty snazzy group hitting one as well. My Nomad finally Sparked an upgrade for the Haphazard Arrow Tech called Rain of Arrows and it seems that much like SF2, some techs spark if you spam certain other techs, so I may start experimenting in this are a bit if I can find me some decent monsters to fight. I may also take the plunge and let a few party members die off as well. Save scumming is getting tedious and since this is likely my last MC before the actual Final Emperor, I should probably experiment with some more classes to spark as many abilities in this era as I can while also working on my magic.

75927

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

I've mostly been exploring the Maze of Memory. I learned that it's an optional dungeon created for the Remaster. There are four orbs which transport you to dour different multi-floor dungeons which has randomized treasures, one unique gift per dungeon, and each leads to a special Dragon boss who fills in a bit more of plot and beating them unlocks the Ultimate Optional Boss. What's neat about this place is that you can run into pretty much every monster in the game in these dungeons which is great for leveling and sparking techs. I fought and lost badly to one of the dragons, I hear they're really meant to be tackled on NG+ so I'm going to leave them alone, especially since beating them only unlocks another optional boss.

The Green Maze involved running into a group of bumbling Goblins who end up teaching you a really powerful offensive focused Formation. The Red Maze has you run into a Yuffie wannabe ninja who is treasure hunting and tricking you into traps before running back to get your help cause they are inept. The nice thing about Ninja's is that they're basically the Female version of the Monk class except they can also use swords. The Purple Maze had me follow a Diviner (Onmiyoji) who was hunting an evil spirit. He gets possessed instead and we defeat the ghost to get him to join, so I've now unlocked two new classes and got a snazzy new formation for my trouble. I've also been acquiring a bunch of good items I'm hoarding for the Final Emperor.

In tech news, I've sparks a good chunk of the Axe and 2-handed sword moves. I also had Juno (my Empress) unlock a pretty good spear move but I've been a little disappointed in her because she doesn't spark many offensive techs. Course basic swords are the hardest weapon class to spark but I can't seem to get her to spark anything. I have raised my magic levels enough to unlock most of the fourth tier spells except for Dark, but I've also been able to unlock what I believe is all of the Tier 1 Fusion Spells including the ones with Dark Magic. Sadly I won't be able to access any until the next generational leap.

Where I'm a little disappointed is that I've seriously been neglecting my Blacksmith. I'm trying to have them forge some new gear, but I've been lagging so much with them that they're still not making anything that is actually better than some of the gear I've found in dungeons. Hell, I'm starting to think part of my team's real issues is that I'm still only using mid-game gear despite the fact I'm encountering more and more end game type monsters. I was able to upgrade my Orchard again an its starting to bear fruit even.

I think I'll hit up the Blue Maze to see what treasures lie there and then I'm going to tackle the Ghost Ship.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Not a huge one. I did a small quest to retrieve another of the Bard's instruments, I think I might have all of them at this point but I'll double check. The instruments are needed to recruit another race, or so I've heard. In the course of getting this instrument, I finally allowed my Light Infantry, Nomad, and Earth Mage to get killed off for real so I can replace them with two of the new classes I unlocked and a Monk so I can try to get the last of the Martial Art skills. My Ninja is pretty awesome as she's decent with magic, great at martial arts and Greatswords, as well as being one of the fastest party members with good health. The Onmyoji (screw their English name) is a Dark Magic specialist, and though I should have had him sub Earth magic, I gave him fire instead which is about the only bad choice I made here. He's pretty snazzy because before this class existed, there really wasn't a dark specialist class in the game, only a few select characters had decent affinity with it. He's also good with spears and bows, which is great because most mage classes are awful fighters, my Earth Mage certainly was. I also learned that I unlocked the fourth tier Fire spell.

With that, I ventured into the last part of the Maze of Memory, the Blue Water zone which unfortunately had a high quantity of slimes as well which made giving my Monk Earth magic not so much of a bad idea. This zone has a merchant who sells some rare items as gimmick in it. Unfortunately each item is worth my money cap, so you can only really get one of the three items per visit. I opted for an item that raises the drop rate of items from monsters. The real treasure of this area is a special ore you can take back to either of your blacksmiths to either forge a real strong 1H Sword or a pretty snazzy piece of armor. Since I know the Final Emperor/Empress each come with their own unique weapon, I opted for the armor, especially since I feel I'm lagging in that department. I've been doing these small quests for the sake of getting my blacksmiths caught up on new gear. My orchard has also expanded and in wracking in more cash flow, it even has two golden fruits on it at this point. Not sure if I'm going to try for the full unlock since it requires me to fight like another 1000 battles

With the new crew, I'm split on what to do next. Part of me feels like I should wander around the Maze of Memory some more and simply grind my magic and techs before I take the plunge into fighting another member of the Seven Heroes. I just keep thinking this is going to be the last free emperor before I get locked into the final one. Techs learned in the final era can't transfer and I won't be able to unlock anymore fusion magic until NG+ since I need a generational skip to unlock them once commissioned. On the other hand, I honestly feel like this is going to be one of those games I may actually come back to, so I probably shouldn't worry about leaving things for NG+.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time!

Well my efforts were rewarded with some good and bad revelations. As I figured, the Ghost Ship scenario ended up closing this generation off. I didn't fight one of the Heroes I was suspecting but I did unlock the Diver class. What really turned out to be a surprise was that I didn't skip to the Final Emperor like I thought, so I have one more generation to work on Techs and Magic. Even more amusing was that Coppelia was an option to inherit the Emperor title. I went with that option and got a trophy before it dawned on me how bad of an idea that was. As a machine, Coppelia can't use magic or spark techs, which would severely handicap my efforts to finish up a few things this generation, so I went back to the previous save an re-rolled my emperor.

I opted for a pirate and picked up a Onmiyoji and Ninj again, because that worked out well last time, and opted to recruit the new Diver class and try again with a herder. There were two problems here: the herder is only accessible by going through a dungeon because the nomadic assholes are still chilling at the bottom of the map after like four generations. I've leveled up enough that random encounters are often filled with boss like enemies, so reaching them tends to wear my party down pretty badly. The other issue is that the Diver class kind of sucks. They are a mage class with no sparking potential and I already had a mage character on my team. Top it off, they are really frail like the Tactician and Neriad classes.

I opted to try my luck with a temple nearby the herder camp and was promptly destroyed for my efforts because with the exception of my emperor and herder, everyone else was incredibly fragile to use. Realizing I didn't really want to save scum my wayt through this generation with a fragile team, especially since the few quests I have left are all going to put me on a direct confrontational path against one of the four remaining Seven Heroes, I opted to just elect a new Emperor from the list. I went with a Nomad, who is also a fragile class but has speed and are experts with Axes which ae one of the few weapons I still need to spark for. I picked up a new Onmiyoji cause I need to raise Dark Magic ASAP this generation and opted for a male Imperial Guard. While I hate their design, the male variants have one thing over the female ones, they are more focused on their spark types. The female ones are all over the place and you have to check a guide to see which one you're dealing with and even then they are more mage like in use. The male ones are all Spear experts and it's another weapon I've been neglecting, so this will be nice to use. Sadly, he's still slow as molasses. I opted to go with a female Crusader, so I took a boat to Cumberland to recruit one. She's great with magic and is also a Hammer expert, which is another weapon I'm neglecting.

Now here, I felt I should go after one of the three remaining classes to unlock. I still have the Desert Guards, Irises (Harpy) and the Samurai classes left to recruit. The Desert Guards require me to beat Noel of the SH to get them, and he has been taking his steroids since the last generational jump as he's gained a new sprite and has opted to combine his wickedly powerful fisticuff ability with finally showing us why he carries that big sword around... So trying to tackle that with a four member team seemed like a headache, so I opted to return to fantasy Japan and see if I can recruit either the Irises or the Samurai. This is where my bad news came in. I learned that I screwed up the scenario to recruit the samurai and so I've locked myself out of getting them. I was suppose to fight the head of the order in the previous generation where I opted for the Mermaid romance. Unlike other scenarios, this was one required I fight this guy, so jumping a generation has him die from natural causes instead and locked me out of the class until NG+. This is concerning because they are the best spark class for swords in the game, and I have a real soft spot for samurai. With that disappointment out of the way, I returned to Avalon to recruit a Ninja, who is the female equivalent of the class, just speed instead of survivability, and she can also learn Monk techs as well, so it's hardly the end of the world.

I did get the benefit of seeing what a bunch of my Fusion spells had to offer. They're a little annoying because I have to have the character using both types of magic in order to learn the fusion spells, but they make up for it with some real firepower. My mages can finally do some real damage like the high end spark techs I've learned. The other great thing I've learned is that I am actually pretty close to having most of the weapon type tech skills unlocked. Like I'm only missing maybe one or two high end skills per weapon. So that's a major relief. I'm also not far from reaching level 30 with a few magic types which will allow me to unlock their final spells and hopefully push their global levels high enough to unlock the final tier of Fusion magic in the game. I also hope to use the insane amount of cash I have to unlock as many weapon and armor upgrades as I can.

My goals for this round is to finalize my techs and magic, hopefully unlock the final tier of fusion spells, recruit the last two classes I can, and hopefully free the last four territories of the map, though the last one will likely not happen because I'm pretty sure they're all controlled by one of the four remaining Heroes. I know that if I defeat two more, I'll automatically jump to the final era. So I need to figure out who I want to tackle since I'm pretty much out of story scenarios to do. I will have to beat Noel to get the Desert Bandit for sure, but from what I've read, I can probably unlock the Irises without having to fight Wagnas, since they're only needed to reach his fortress. I don't really know where the other two are though. We'll see what needs to be done because I'm actually further along than I thought I was. Also, I've been netting some really good armor and shields lately. I just wish I could start getting some of the better weapon upgrades because I feel my power output is getting a bit sluggish depending on the weapon type.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time!

Ended up having a more time than I thought. So I collected the last of the Bard instruments and went to Mt. Chikapea to recruit the Iris race. Cleared the local castle of it's monster issue and watched as Wagnas ran away with a floating castle. Decided I didn't really want to bother and went to go see my herders because I'm still looking for Subier.

Instead, I got a mission to help find a missing boy and calf. This dungeon was kind of obnoxious because it has multiple paths but 90% of them just send you out of the cave. Instead you have to check each entrance until you hear the sound of the baby mu. At the bottom of this damn cave, I ran into Dantarg, another of the Seven Heroes I never even had a slight clue where to look. Turns out he's not interested in his group's revenge plot, instead he's assimilating monsters until he becomes the strongest being. Since he wasn't actually causing any harm, my Emperor told him he would let him live and asked nicely if he could get by to help the child. Turns out Dantarg found this whole premise incredibly insulting and a battle ensued. I don't think he was at full power but he was surprisingly manageable compared to Noel. It helps that I unlocked two beastly techs for hammers and spears. One lowers the enemies defense in addition to being one of the strongest hammer moves in the game, the other lowers all of their stats and is the second strongest spear move in the game. Suffice it to say, he didn't last very long.

Feeling more confident, I decided to try my luck with Noel so I can unlock the last available class to me. Noel was much harder, but again, he was surprisingly manageable, especially with the Fusion Spell Firewall no selling some of his attacks along with a certain Light spell that no sells all Blunt and Slash damage which is mostly what he had. I figured this would have jumped me into the final era but it didn't. I did not wish to fight Wagnas cause I hear in addition to being the strongest boss, he's also one of the most annoying to fight because he loves group hitting status magic. So I decided to look up where Subier was and it involved utilizing a certain quest line ship that I didn't even think about trying. Definitely could have used some better clues for this one. Thankfully for me, I also learned that I screwed Subier out of his ultimate second form by doing a minor quest earlier involving a narwhale and a broken bridge. He went down pretty easily compared to even Dantarg.

This finally leaped me to the Final Emperor. I've been told that the Seven Heroes have all been resurrected because my ancestors couldn't finish them all off. and technically I've been fighting copies of them instead of their true bodies which are still hibernating. The mysterious oracle from the beginning of the game returned to inform me of this and my emperor recognized her, which she reveals that in addition to the power of my ancestors, I get their memories too. Unfortunately, she also informed me that the Inheritance spell has run it's course and no future emperor/empress will be able to inherit my power, so the Final Emperor is going to have to finally end this war once and for all. She tasked me with going to her village which is on the other side of the mountain where the Irises are. Not sure if I can still fight Wagans' double or not.

In the war effort/empire building department. I didn't acquire all of the territories before the end it seems. I never got the bottom three regions to fully unlock and although I'm sure one of them is the final dungeon and other is Romancing Nipon, I'm not so sure about the third territory which I figured would have been the region Dantarg and Subier were in. I also technically lost Common Island since I let the volcano destroy it because I wanted Dark Magic. Which was worth it by the way. I was able to acquire a good selection of weapon and armor upgrades that are finally better than some of the gear I had been using for awhile. I'm sure I'm still missing a few high quality pieces. The real good news is that as far as I can tell, I unlocked all of the Fusion spells with my previous Emperor and so they should all be available this generation, this includes all of the Dark Fusion spells. I still need the fifth tier spells for Fire, Earth, and Dark magic but the ones I've gotten for Water, Light and Wind have been pretty awesome. Light gives you a really powerful group hitting attack, Wind gives you a move that allows your character to make a sword out of wind which helps keep my weapon slots opened, and Water gives you a freaking team Haste spell which came in handy against Noel. The real fun thing about the Haste spell is that it actually changes the music by speeding it up. Not a unique track, it just speeds up the track, really neat. I also have four fruits on my Orchard and it's almost earning me 10,000 gold a pop by existing. I still need like 700 more battles to fully unlock it, but I'm not likely going to get there.

So we're at the tail end of the game. I need to seriously look at what skills and spells I have and see what my options are. Not sure what I want my final team to be. I imagine the Irises are like the Neriads, so I'm likely to ignore them, I do want to check out the Desert Guard though. I imagine I'll keep an Imperial Guard and Crusader. In fact, my lat generation team, well the one that survived more than one dungeon was so well balanced and had such good synergy, I may just go for that. I'll likely change some magic around. FE will likely keep Light magic, but I may experiment with two other elements. Thankfully I only need to teach him one of a particular spell to open up the option for Fusion spells. We'll see. Looks like I'll be wrapping up this great game in the next few days.

75929

[Wolf Kanno]

Been a fruitful evening.

So I went back Yuyan (Romancing Nippon) and took down Wagnas' annoying flying fortress. He was definitely the most obnoxious to fight against besides Rocbouquet until I realized most of his attacks are fire based and Fire Wall made him useless. Afterwards, I was struck with an event within Avalon itself, which I won't devolve too much info because it's an optional event that requires you did something earlier in the game. This was easily the most obnoxious sequence I've dealt with in the game. Also the one that brought back bad memories of the massive and aggressive monster spawn rate from RS1. With that sequence over, I went back to the Irises and grabbed the treasure there so I could finally reach the Hidden Village. Here I met the oracle and finally got a bit more of the backstory concerning the origins of the Seven Heroes. From there, I finally unlocked the final area and for a lark, decided to try my hand at fighting the final boss.

This boss has several phases, basically it starts with you fighting one of them and eventually more of them appear. By the final phase, you're basically fighting another party. The two most obnoxious phases has to be the starting phase and the true final phase. The starting phase is a pain because Rocbouquet is the first hero to fight and she brings her obnoxious Temptation skill with her. Unfortunately for me, I have only one woman on my team and only one accessory that protects again Mind attacks, so this phase is obnoxious because she's constantly removing two of my party members from the battle. Surprisingly, this gets mitigated as more Heroes appear because she uses the move less frequently. I may need to invest in another accessory to protect myself though because the two characters she keeps making useless are my two best damage dealers.

The final phase is annoying because the boss gains a few extra attacks and starts being far more aggressive with all the new abilities it gets from each of the heroes. The real trouble here is that the boss finally starts getting several turns in a row, so the fight becomes more about survival. I may need to prioritize Fire Wall just to protect me from one of the more obnoxious group attacks they have and I may need to equip the Anti-Hell Claw move as well since that attack can be dangerous when merged with some of their other abilities. I could return home and better set up my team, but I kind of want to try and beat them down a few more times because I am able to reach their final phase pretty easily outside of the hiccup with the Rocbouquet rematch.

In development news, I unlocked the final spelss for Fire and Earth, which if I had to redo this game, I would have specialized earlier if I had known what these skills were. Fire's final spell is Auto-Life (Reviver is it's actual name) and the final Earth spell is Vajra Shield which works like the Golem spell in FFV but only affects one character. I also have one more change to the city I was able to make, which sounds like one that I felt should have unlocked earlier and may had I not waited so long to open all the areas where recruits are. You basically build a new section of town where all of the special regional classes can be recruited so you don't have to march all over the map to recruit people like the Herders or Amazons anymore. You can potentially build your party from just Avalon.

I'll attempt the final boss a few more times and see if I can just end it with what I have, we'll see.

[Wolf Kanno]

Game, set, and match.

As per usual for the series so far, the final boss is a much nastier piece of work than anything before it. I am forever grateful that I made it a point to master magic as early as I could.

So my initial attempts just never worked out too well. Trying to prep for a long term battle with two of your party members getting charmed almost every round just doesn't work out too well, not to mention my damage output was just not as good as I hoped. So I hopped out of the dungeon and went to check out the last optional dungeon I missed which had a dragon theme going for it. Most of the bosses weren't a big deal after trying to tackle the final boss. I gained some dragon armor and a dragon sword for my emperor. I then returned to Avalon and reworked my magic. While everyone has magic on my team, two are specifically setup for it, but one proved more useful than the other so I had the other change out their magic load to mirror their partners so I could finally have two people with the awesome healing spell Elixir (Max heal and restores status). I also went to my storehouse and picked up the Darkstone Ring I acquired earlier in the game. There is a quest early in the game where one of your imperial mines has shut down due to a mysterious illness. Turns out it's thanks to a darkstone uncovered that drains health. When you destroy it, you can take it's remains to the mole men who will fashion a nice ring for you. It blocks all Mind status effects like Charm so I picked it up to help me. I had it stored because the ring is also cursed and will drain your LP if you sleep anywhere that isn't your Emperor/Empress' bed chamber.

So with a better prep work, I returned to the final dungeon, which as far as final dungeons go, isn't so bad, and had my rematch with the Seven. My first attempt was okay until the one guy I can't keep from getting charmed used Gilded Shield (High chance of blocking all physical attacks) and basically sunk my team's chances of beating the boss. Thank goodness Revive doesn't work on them. Anyway, after the second attempt and the second time he pulled this stunt, I gave him the other ring that protects from Charm and took it off my main damage dealer. This ended up being the key to victory because my third attempt on the boss with this new party build ended with the team getting wrecked by the boss using Subier's Tidal Wave move. Well the guy who screwed me out of the last two fights has a move called Fire Wall that blocks all Fire and Ice/Water magic for one round. So that became his job though it hurt my damage output so I had to have my other mage go offense with her Hammer moves. I then discovered that the Light Wall move works in a similar manner where it drastically reduces damage from some attacks like that obnoxious Tidal Wave. My guy with Fire Wall knows that move, but thanks to the Sword of Gaia my second mage had equipped, he had it too, and even better it cost Skill Points instead or Magic Points so I didn't have to worry about sacrificing a steep cost per round that could be used for healing or a party haste cast. Now with four damage dealers going all out, the boss didn't last much longer this fourth attempt and the game finally came to an end.

The credit sequence is actually pretty fun, because it's a weapon/magic expo while the credit role and honestly, the spell effects in this game are pretty cool and I really missed out on some cool end game skills for a few weapon types. The game then goes through all of my heirs and lists their accomplishments within the game. My final two Emperors accomplished the most according to this system. Finally, I saw the last part of the ending which was a nice bookend feel to the game's fun intro.

Hardest Boss: Final Boss
Most Challenging Seven Hero: Noel
Favorite Weapon: One handed Sword and Spear
Favorite Magic: Light, Water, and Dark
Best Classes: Ninja, Onmiyoji, Crusader, Hunter, and Imperial Guard
Least Favorite Class: Tactician, Neriad, and Ocean Diver
Favorite Scenario: Termite Queen, Landship, Cumberland, Mermaid Love story, and the battle with your first Seven Hero
Least Favorite Scenario: Lost Child and Calf, Sunken Ship, and Wandering Oasis
Favorite Addition to the Empire: The Orchard and the Magic Lab.

Final Thoughts:
Overall, this was a pretty fantastic game. Granted, you need to understand what you're getting into to really appreciate it. If you only play the genre for great character drama and major plot twists, well look elsewhere, you're not going to find it here. If you want a challenging JRPG with a strong concept that rewards you for planning for the long game, then this is the game for you. Honestly the core gameplay is deceptively deep with multiple classes, weapon types, and the sheer amount of scenarios to play around with. This game largely rectifies most of my grievances from Romancing SaGa 1 such as poorly implemented weapon skills, and losing out on potential party members, as well as the odd time lapse scenario that basically forced you to save grinding until the final dungeon unlocked. Here everything works out fairly well with a more subdued Tactical vibe to handling party members which made it easy to acquire a good class again if one is lost, but doesn't punish you for treating your non-emperor/empress characters as pawns as you play the long game to finally take down the Seven Heroes. While building Avalon leaves much to be desired and will hardly even wet the appetite of something use to more in-depth city building style games, there is a certain charm and sense of satisfaction as you watch the capital expand or liberating territories. It also helps build a real interesting narrative as you watch as your lineage build this massive empire and unite the known world to stop a greater evil. The ending also places a nice touch on this larger narrative and almost has a Suikoden type vibe to it that I appreciate.

The introduction of the Waza/Spark mechanic is also a nice touch here. I know most people hate leaving something as important as skills to RNG, but there is nothing quite as satisfying as battling a difficult boss and then hearing that little jingle of music as the light bulb icon comes over a character's head and they unleash a devastating special attack on the enemy. Though it's hidden, looking up the Type Proficiency of a character will curtail a good chunk of the RNG factor. I also appreciated that the game would record these skills even if the character who learned it dies. This concept of spending time to build up your future generations is a nice touch as well. You might lose a skill in your current team if that character dies, or you instruct your minister to build a new addition to the city they'll never see, but it's gratifying to jump to the next generation and discover you've unlocked more spells at the Magic Lab, seeing that new University or city section be open to the public, or check the dojo to find all the skills your old team had are waiting there to be taught to your new team. Oddly enough, much like Dark Souls, you don't really get annoyed with dying so much in this game. Classes also have enough stat differences, weapon type proficiency, and uses that party building is pretty satisfying and you start actively seeking scenarios that might unlock a new class for you to use. It's also nice that some weapons themselves just have weapon skills you can permanently unlock with them that adds a bit more life to equipment. Also the formation mechanics are awesome, and I'm happy I didn't have to put up with RS1's annoying one. Helping everything here is that the game is pretty challenging, having the same feel as the challenge found in the NES era as opposed to the softer 16-bit era.

The scenario mechanics are also both more generous and fair in this entry. You don't have to worry about avoiding battles, in fact the game kind of urges you to fight to your hearts content as early as possible so you don't need to by the end. The LP mechanic feels like a scrappy mechanic in later titles, but here, it has a logical purpose and ties into the overall system of the game's various game mechanics. Choosing your successor is fun and I like you can choose from both male or female characters. The plot overall is pretty epic despite not being character focus and the title brings back a nostalgic feel of when you the player would fill in the gaps. A less imaginative player would find the game pretty dry and boring, but for me, I was really having fun kind of filling in the gaps of who each of my successors were and their relationship to the Seven Heroes. Also, how awesome is it to actually play as a benevolent empire in a JRPG? My only real complaint is something I mentioned much earlier which is that the game has a terrible UI for displaying information on weapon and armor, as well as Character Type. All information you really need to make this game less of a headache in some places. Thankfully, there are a few really informative guides online to help, but it still feels a bit annoying to have to resort to that just to enjoy the game.

Would I recommend it? Hell yeah, honestly, it's easily my favorite entry in the SaGa franchise to date, and I now really hope Romancing SaGa 3 does get brought over, as well Scarlet Graces which has a plot that sounds like a combination of RS1 and 2 just with a less benevolent Royal family. While my plate is quite full at the moment for games I'm going to play, I do hope I get to replay this gem again soon. Not sure if I'll tackle NG+ or simply go with a fresh title and try out that Final Empress.

75933

[Rez09]

Eyyyyy, glad to see you finished the game and loved it -- I still haven't given the game a fair shot yet, as I keep getting pulled into 4X games on my days off, but, one day, one day I will get around to playing it. And Legend of Legacy. And RS3 again. > .<

[Wolf Kanno]

Honestly, I kept giving the game the shaft as well for awhile and then finally found myself at a moment where I didn't have anything particular I wanted to play and so I picked this game back up. Got hooked surprisingly fast actually.

[Rez09]

I should be getting my Switch back today, so I'll probably end up picking it up there finally -- the Steam version wasn't doing it for me, but maybe the more traditional feel of the Switch will. Besides, I really need something to play to keep me sane while people take turns five minutes longer than they should be in other games anyway, and this has always been the mostly highly regarded entry in the series.

Have there been any updates on the RS3 remake release date?

[Wolf Kanno]

Nothing new since the last update I gave. It's still coming along with Scarlet Graces, but I haven't heard anything since.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update on the status of Romancing SaGa 3, and it's been delayed. It was suppose to be out around now, but Kawazu mentioned recently that the game was delayed until an unspecified time later this year (https://www.siliconera.com/2019/03/05/romancing-saga-3-has-been-delayed/).

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Late to this thread but I love the first SaGa Frontier.

Asellus is the peak choice for starter character.

75968

[Rez09]

Asellus is pretty great; it's a shame some of her story points were cut from the game. D: I'm rather partial to T260 and Emelia myself, though I honestly enjoy every chapter that isn't Lute's.

[Rez09]

Alrighty, finally following in the footsteps of another here and picked up RS2 on le Switch and started playing. I've only played up to the first boss on both the SNES and Steam versions of the game previously, so this is largely blind, and I have to say the interface here feels odd coming off of RS3 -- I certainly hope they opt for a more traditional look for the menus in the RS3 port.

I picked my starting Empress, who I won't be seeing for a while, and immediately ignored the King and left the cave without fighting anything just to see if I could -- turns out it is not only possible, but progresses the story as well. :p Progression was pretty standard from here until the first boss fight, minus my death at the hands of a mimic box, where I learned my Soul Steal evade, and following that I took the advice I was given went to the dungeon that popped up before heading back to the boss. My RS1 instincts are still in full gear, so I've been avoiding all the fights I can, and have happily found that rushing area bosses removes most enemies from dungeon, so I can backtrack and loot to my heart's content, which is what I did here and picked up an . . . Elder bow, I believe, which I gave to my blonde archer, and a box filled with gold. Like, a hilarious amount of it. Too bad I didn't lose it all because I didn't make gems before opening it. :roll2

Following the cave I went back to the first boss' house and killed a few mimics, picking up some more money and a helmet along the way, then attempted to kill the boss himself, which actually proved pretty problematic with with his random AoE attacks, especially Ill Storm (fun story -- you can learn this attack in SaGa Frontier! :D) due to its combination of poison and damage, and I had to leave to pick up healing balms from my treasury to deal with the that. I also seemed to remember LP healing items in there in the SNES version, but they were either removed for this version or I'm just wrong -- either way, I trekked back and beat the boss this time, kicking off the farthest I've been in the title so far.
:party:

Decked out in my sweet new armor, I sat on my throne and commissioned a magic research facility, so I'll be able to learn magic once that finishes. As this game uses a max WP/JP system like RS1, where effective MP is based on weapon/spell ranks, I want to get to leveling those as soon as possible. I also recall this game unlocking new spells based on how many levels in a school your party has, so that's another big reason to invest early. I also was offered to build an orchard or something, but I lack the funds, soo . . . bleh. Being finished with that, the game has informed me I need to visit a canal fortress, but I instead decided to visit a village near it and look for new information.

From what I gathered there, the town is normally protected by some nearby mountain monks and everyone seems to love them, but after hitting up the bar I overheard some patrons talking about them not clearing out some nearby monsters, so I went over and they asked me to clear out the cave instead, which I decided to do. After visiting the monks, of course, since their place was also added to my map. Talking to their leader, it turns out someone left a physical attack resistant gooball on the second level of the cave which they can't deal with, as they are all godawful with magic, but since I am specializing in Fire magic I told them I'd take care of it, much to their leader's joy. He then warned me about using 'tight' formations in the fight due to the boss' electrical attacks, after which I proceeded to dodge my way through the cave and run face first into the encounter in the Imperial Cross formation and wiped almost immediately. :wacky: Fun story, this slime here pops up in RS3, complete with its row attacking electricity :D. Following that defeat I swapped over to the Free Fight formation and stomped the encounter, and after exploring a bit more told the monks I cleaned the place out, which made them about 30 kinds of happy and they went in to clear out the remaining monsters. The final area after the boss had mobs after I killed it, so I decided to follow them back in to see if they actually did anything and, lo and behold, they not only did, but you can find them at the back killing off the last of the mobs and one of the guys is super happy about it. Warm feelings of success. The patrons at the bar are also talking about joining my town now too, though I doubt that is of any real consequence -- the other people in the bar telling me about another town and gem mine was however, and so was my next destination.

Stopping into that town, people told me monsters took over the gem mines and one old lady said her son had moved away due to the mines closing and that she missed him, so of course I had to help. :roll2 After talking to a few more people for any extra info all I learned was that the crystals in the mine were trapped, so I took that into account and headed in. The area was super short and had some doors that led to crystals, but after that mimic crap earlier I avoided picking them up, and again rushed the boss on the second floor: three Frog Princes. It was around this time I realized I was underleveled as all hell, because these things literally one shotted my characters, but I lucked out and Sidewinder can OHKO frog type monsters like in RS3, so my thus far fairly unimpressive epee user actually carried my through the fight. There was a room visible behind the boss I was planning to check out before I backtracked to those trapped crystals, but the game autoejected me from the dungeon upon killing the boss and it appears this chunk of the map was added to my empire, as it lit up on the map.

Heading back into the mines I found a bunch of villagers are there now, merrily mining away, and they already dug up the crystals on the first floor and taunted me about the phat loots they got from them. ; -; One of the miners also mentioned that they get headaches from the second floor and haven't been mining down there, which sounded like trouble to me, so I saved and went down to check things out in that back room -- which had no monsters at all and three crystals for me to loot! Yippie! :D I also went and talked to the old lady again, and her son did indeed come back and his kids are running around in her house, one of them holding a literal piece of poo and chasing the other around with it. :erm: She also told me about this beautiful lake nearby, and since it opened a new location on the map, I decided that'd be my next destination, after . . .

Heading back to Avalon to check up on things and totally not because my blonde haired archer gave her last in our grueling deathmatch with killer frogs. Farewell, oh archer, your highly inaccurate AoE attacks shall be sorely missed and never forgotten.:salute: Seeking a replacement, I decided to take a mage with me this time and picked up a wind/water mage, which is an interesting combination coming from RS3 where you can't mix earthly elements on a single character, though I don't recall that being a limitation in RS1, instead using opposite schools in that game, so I'll have to do more testing later to see what I can and cannot combine here. Our chancellor also informed me that our magic academy was completed so I decided to pop into there and learn some new magics for everyone, combining sun/fire on my epee user, water/wind on my tank, and mono earth on my swordsman. I don't know if I have the patience to keep all these leveled, but I'll give it a shot -- if nothing else, four party members having access to non-item healing now will be useful-ish. I also found stairs into the sewers in the back and found an empty bar down there with a door my character freaks out about when I try to open, not to mention a backdoor into my own prison, soooooo . . . that's secure. Heading out of the town people are talking about thieves and someone has been robbed too, and a kid told me about rooftop pathways, but I don't seem to be able to do anything with this information yet. There's also a big hole in the cemetery I can't interact with and people talking about moonwatching in the town, but sleeping in the moonlight or whatever it is called Inn doesn't seem to do anything so . . . back to exploring with me!
^ _^ /

Oh, I also stopped by the town with the first boss in it, and the people are back and one is talking about pirates or something, but, again, nothing opened up by talking to people, so I'm just assuming this does stuff later.

Heading to that lake the woman mentioned I entered a plateau crawling with monsters and wandered around until I found it on the western side, but nothing seems to be happening there yet. Bossman says it is pretty, though. A bit more exploring and I end up in a new village to the south of the plains where things are, unsurprisingly, going terrible and people are starving, a thing the kids are quite intent on informing me. Speaking with the people there I learned about a tribe to they trade with, but no now towns are added to my map; a new dungeon, however, is, so of course I head there.

Much like the other dungeons so far, this one is super short and I rushed to the boss on the second floor after maybe . . . 4 encounters? Big problems here, though -- four snakes, I am ungodly underleveled, they don't insta die to Sidewinder, they are immune to my stun spell, and they murder me with AoE poison attacks and hypnosis. I attempted air barrier in the hopes it worked like Dancing Leaves in RS3 and I could gamble on it, but this is sadly not the case, and after numerous attempts and strategy tweaking I discovered one of junky epee techs I had could actually paralyze them, so it again became a game of "dear God, keep the fast lady with the pokey stick alive!". Fortunately I had been using an accessory on Gerard to prevent sleep, and after moving that onto her it only took two or three attempts to clear the fight. I . . . seriously might need to invest in some new equipment and leveling soon, though. ^^;

Returning to the village, people are magically not starving anymore and told me about this town to the south with awesome bisons, so I went there and, of course, they are having problems of their own that it is up to me to solve. :D It seems there are monsters preventing their herd from migrating, and the lake will be thawing soon, so unless I help them kill a dragon they will be trapped. Little else of note is being said in the town, so I've agreed to help them, and that is where I am currently. Wish me luck, I'm sure I'll have no problems at all with this next area. :spin:

Edit: Turns out, 'Dragon' means four lizards that are vulnerable to blind, stun, and paralyze. Might've just stomped that fight and picked up a 'Spasher' sword that over doubled my single handed sword user's attack. :erm: Seems I am now friends with the people of this area as well, and they have joined my empire! :D Unfortunately, it also appears this was the last great act of king Gerard, and a full century has passed since his death -- but that means we get a new character, and I am going with . . . the pink haired Shirley, new queen of Avalon!

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm glad to hear you're playing this gem of a title. Here's some tips:

1. Don't worry about grinding, in fact you really should be fighting as much as you can because the only two things it affects are Global Levels and how many years pass between successors. Global Levels affect the stats of your next generation characters, so trying to avoid leveling will just make them start out weaker. The only real way to lose out on events is to start the quest and then do something silly like let a generation pass. So level early and often, especially magic. Random encounters scale with your party and their global level, but bosses usually don't and the Seven Heroes have secondary forms that they attain based on the order you face them or doing certain events, so yeah, forget RS1 rules.

2. Speaking of magic, it works a bit like RS1, where you can equip up to three elements as long as they don't oppose each other so: Light/Dark, Fire/Water, and Air/Earth. All magic is pretty awesome so you should definitely try to level them up as much as you can. Also, once magic reaches a global level of 15 and 25-30ish, you can unlock Fusion Spells like Ill Storm. There are actually very few abilities in this game you can't teach your party, even most of the signature moves of the Seven Heroes can be learned through special means.

3. Some weapons have weapon skills/magic abilities attached to them. They still have to be sparked, but once learned the weapon will always carry the skill, so don't judge a weapon by it's stats.

4. The Orchard is new to the remake, and it basically nets you an extra bit of income for every certain amount of battles you achieve.

5. Unlocking new additions to Avalon requires reaching certain milestones. The Magic Research facility is based on your current Emperor's magic level. Try other things to find the others.

[Rez09]

Ooooooh, tips, much appreciated; the game's been pretty fun so far, and is a completely different feeling beast from both RS1 and 3, so the new information is quite welcome. :D The encounter part in particular is quite interesting, as I avoid encounters in RS1, 3, and Frontier for most of the entire game, making this the first in quite some time for me where they are actively beneficial.

On that front, Empress Shirley's reign has also proven beneficial for all, as I commissioned the planting of an orchard and diverted some monies over to the blacksmiths for the development of super sweet helmets. Following that I checked to see if any new formations were available, but none were, and went about assembling my new team: 1 heavy infantry on point, 1 air mage in the back, and 1 monk and light infantry on either side. I don't know damage formulas for this game, particularly regarding fist damage, so I assumed RS3 rules weren't in play and loaded everyone down in heavy armor except for my mage, who I gave double necklaces. Following that I took everyone to the magic research center and, after seeing I unlocked no new spells last generation, decided to focus everyone down on two schools this time instead of spreading, giving everyone fire and light magic. I also passed the Elder bow I picked up to my mage and the Splash sword to my light infantryman, and with general preparations complete my team traveled south to where we helped the bison herders earlier.

Unfortunately, they were all gone when we arrived, but I did remember the leader mentioning their seasonal migration and noticed another path to the south on the map, which I took in the hopes of getting more quests from them. This path is another one like the plateau before where you have to actually cross it to change map areas, so I found myself skating along a frozen lake in a very simple puzzle before reaching the tribe again in their second settlement. Sadly, talking to people here didn't reveal any new quests, per se, but the leader did mention a nearby location the tribe didn't screw around with, so of course that was to be my next destination. ;)

Returning to the map, I found the area marked with a red X, which was a first and I assume meant I wasn't supposed to go there, not that that stopped me. Have to say though, how much this place looked like the Ice Palace from RS1 almost did, because that dungeon is absolutely obnoxious and I had no intention of putting myself through a place like that this early in the game. Fortunately, I quickly discovered this was the shortest dungeon yet, being 1 main screen and five sub screens with chests in them. Two of the chests were traps that got me mugged by skelebros, but the other two contained phat lootz, and the last room contained a simple switch puzzle, two more chests, and one unmistakable staple of the series strutting in the back. I picked up the Grim Reaper bow from the first chest and gave it to my mage, then saved and rammed my face into the Giant in the offhand chance it wouldn't be as powerful in this game as it is in the rest of the series.

Spoiler: it is.

With my characters hovering around 200 hp the giant was a guaranteed OHKO on anyone in my party it decided to hit, it attacked twice per turn, and it was impervious to my instagib attacks and paralysis. I clearly was not winning this fight. However, I did notice this enemy had an incredibly high spark value, so I decided to grind-and-run against it for a bit and walked away with the Reaper bow's AoE death attack, Marionette for Shirley, an AoE slash for my heavy infantry, corkscrew for my monk, and fillet for my light infantry, acquisitions I considered generally worth the lp price I paid. I also discovered that the giant was NOT immune to the stun status from my epee, so I formulated a plan to remove everyone's armor and give them epees with feint to see if that would work. Of course, to do this I would have to leave and travel back to Avalon, which I decided to do since it would be a good time to check up on things there.

Returning home I immediately checked to see if I had unlocked any new spells, which I had not, nor did I receive a status update on the orchard when I sat on the throne -- seems planting was going to take longer than I expected. Helmet was done though, so I got that at least. It was promptly deposited into my armory while collecting the epees. :D After loading everyone up with feint and more balms, I decided to hit the royal bedroom for some much needed WP/JP restoration before heading out.

And failed to fall asleep. :0

It turns out, sleeping in my bed allowed me to walk around and after exploring the town for a bit I met up with one of the thieves people were talking about, who had a secret room in my own castle! :mad2: After helping her out I got a quest from the guild proper, which led to the brutal murder of a poor squidman, and now I have the help Wolf mentioned for the canal quest once I decide to finally do it, which would be right about . . .

not now. Instead I returned to the ice dungeon to attempt to clear out the giant there, which, after a few attempts and removing everyone's armor, actually did work! Turns out all I needed to do was run at him naked with my weapons flailing. :roll2 My reward for this arguably unfair win was a pretty sweet axe, though without a dedicated axe user it doesn't have much of a home in my party at the moment -- it'll find a home for sure later.

Wrapping up that dungeon I returned to the village to tell the elder, but it would seem they have migrated again, so I went back to their first location and met them there, only to learn that one of their kids and baby yak wandered off. Interestingly, they didn't ask me for help this time, but I think they know by now that Empress Shirley is on the job, so things are covered. :D

The new location on the map was actually stupid annoying, with a lot of false routes, and I had to follow the kid's voice to find where he was, one time even wandering around lost until I found a false wall I had to walk through. It wasn't Crowley bad, but even still, y u do this, Japan? :mad2: The worst was yet to come though, because once I found him he somehow managed to be behind one of the game's main bosses, and I wasn't interested in picking that fight just yet, so I reloaded my save to exit the cave -- I'll be back for him later when I am ready to progress to the next generation.

Without any other clear destinations besides the canal I set to talking to people again and someone in the starving village opened a new location for me to explore, so I went there next. The town was nice enough and seemed problem free, so I suspect a volcano is going to erupt on them later, but until that point all I really learned from the town was about another town that used to have mermaids, so off I sailed to there.

Much like the previous town, this location was relatively uneventful, but I did find a dancer in the bar at night who won't talk to me and I can't follow, because I appear to open doors so hard it wakes up the sun. :shobon: Again, I think I'll come back here after I finish exploring. Speaking with more of the town's folk revealed the location of a nearby witch who sells love potions, and since poor Shirley seems lacking in her love life I decided to adventure that direction, finding yet another short dungeon and meeting said witch, who took all my monies in exchange for THE most garbage LP potion. :stare: She made up for it by telling my about the desert though, so that was fine, and off I went to the land of sun in my metal suits.

Fortunately, this desert is far, FAR less annoying than RS1's, because while the sandstream gimmick is the same you can at least see them here, so you aren't being wildly tossed around out of nowhere while you are trying to navigate the place. I didn't spend much time here, as I generally dislike deserts in this series, but knowing RPGs in general something cool is hidden here, and though I immediately left to explore the town I found on its south-eastern end, I'm sure I'll be back here at some point.

Said town is at the base of some monster filled towers which I was going to explore, but some of the town's folk told me one of the Heroes is doing something in there, so much like the guy with the kid I'll worry about this more after I'm done exploring. Other people I talked to told me about mirages in the desert and an oasis out there the men in the village had gone to find because it would, in some unclear way, help them with the boss in the tower, so the call to the desert was much closer than I expected and the game clearly wants me to head that way. Shirley bravely took a boat to Japan instead.

Turns out Japan was much less interesting than I expected and most of the houses were empty, but I did manage to find two men talking about the strangest locations they had seen, one telling me about the desert I had just come from and the other mentioning a jungle to the north, which became my next destination.

The jungle here is, fortunately, NOTHING like the one in RS3 and can be navigated normally, and through my exploration I stumbled upon . . . another monster filled tower with a town at the base, just like in the desert. More of the Heroes' handiwork, I assume. :shrug: Talking to the people revealed that something was definitely up with the town, because they were all talking about their queen and how all the women in the town left due to jealousy. They also mentioned something about a guardian and that their queen had entered the tower, so I went in after her, bopping mobs up and down the tower along the way and actually winning an upgraded epee for the Empress. :score: Unfortunately, while I did find the Queen at the bottom of the tower, she was being guarded by a large plant boss, which, after saving-and-fishing with a bit I learned the following about: it is of poor temperment, kills me dead, has more than 1500 health, and is immune/highly resistant to stun, paralysis, instant death, and/or general shenanigans. As a general rule in the series axes take care of plants like this quite well, but as I didn't train up anyone to use that axe I found earlier I sadly had to leave her in its thorny plant clutches for now -- hopefully she and it won't be magically petrified by the time I come back. On the plus side, someone knocked a hole in the wall nearby, so I was able to walk out of the dungeon without backtracking, which was pleasing, and it brought me to the street outside.

Without much else to do in that town, I went back to explore the jungle some more and found a path to the east that led me to a woman being attacked by some wild dogs, who, of course, I saved. She then thanked me and led me to her village, which was filled with Amazons! And not only that, but the women from that town with the tower too! :0 Talking to people it turns out the queen is, in fact, one of the Heroes, and a master of charms to boot, so it is probably good that I didn't succeed in freeing her with my mostly male party. I also, from speaking with the town leader, appear to have unlocked the Amazon as a recruitable class now, which is awesome since she says they are good with bows and bows are a pretty top tier weapon class in RS3. :D I also told her I'd help get rid of the lady in the tower, cause Empress Shirley is awesome that way. :3

Annnnnd that . . . is where I am at currently.

[Rez09]

Turns out, Empress Shirley did a whole lot of walking on this day. X_X

After leaving the Amazon village I decided to check out the jungle more and exited from the northeastern path, finding another small village. Talking to the people here revealed no new quests, but I did learn a few interesting things, notably that the people in the town with that tower are stone masons and that some really slow person had passed through the town, though that information didn't mean much at the time. I also ran into people that offered to heal me, but did silly things instead. Much MP was not regained from this visit. With nothing else of note in this town I continued my exploration to the north via boat.

And I ended up on a small island with volcano problems. :-/ Guess I called it right before, just in the wrong place, though there are a LOT of elements in this game I'm recognizing from RS1, so I was less surprised to find this than I should have been. Speaking to the people in town revealed that a wizard was out to help them, as well as some people living on the other side of the volcano they traded with, so I popped outside and visited those people on the other side of the volcano.

Or, at least I attempted to. I met a super chill lizardbro at the entrance to their town, but the place was covered in lava and he informed me I'd need a stone boat like the trader in the previous town if I wanted to traverse this place. Hrm. Oh well. I returned to the first town to speak with this trader to see if he had the boat still, but it turns out that someone broke it so he couldn't lend it to me, and that he had found it in the jungle I just came from and had drug it all the way here, which he had no intention of doing again. Amusingly, this also likely made him the slow man the kid in that town had seen. :3:

Putting the boat mission aside for the moment, I decided to pay that wizard a visit, annnnnd he lives in a skull covered tower, which is super legit and inviting and in no way evil at all. Speaking to him, he told me he had an ice seed to plant in the volcano that would save the town, so I told him I'd deliver it to the peak and went for a short climb, plopping it in the top. When I did it completely stopped the lava flow from the volcano and I immediately came to the realization that I . . . probably totally just boned those poor salamanders. I immediately checked on them after climbing down the mountain and, sure enough, their entire lava lake was gone, though now I could explore the village. To my surprise, none of them, not even the elder, seemed angry about the situation, or even noticed it, which was a bit odd, and there were no quests being offered. I did, however, stumble upon their library, where I found out that wizard had been studying their stuff and apparently stole some of their slabs, which is pretty lame. I also pieced together that the volcano had formed a new nearby island in the recent past and that I probably shouldn't have stopped it up, something everyone here telling me the wizard was untrustworthy in no way reinforced.

Done with that area I returned to the first town and spoke with the mayor, who had the wizard oddly close to his side. Nothing negative really happened from the exchange and the mage left without any indication that he was evil, not to mention the town joined my empire, but I was pretty unsatisfied with this outcome and attempted to pay said wizard a second visit only to find he is nowhere in his tower now and I can't climb to the top due to magic. I was also taunted by unobtainable chests and decided to reload from before I took the ice seed quest in an attempt to reach the 'manders before meeting him.

Unfortunately, this did require that stone boat, so I went back to the jungle and couldn't find anyone in either the tower town or the amazon village that offered any information about it. I did discover that guardian people mentioned the queen having problems with earlier though, and picking a fight with it I saw it was a reskinned Giant from that ice dungeon earlier. It also did a lot more damage, but also only attacked once per turn, so I figured I'd play around a bit and see if I could cheese it with ye olde feint spam.

Turns out, uh . . . yes. Yes you can.

Also turns out the devs may have been aware of this exploity behavior and decided to include a bonus middle finger to anyone attempting this method as well, because the guardian randomly decides it has priority, even when you have been going first for the past 10+ turns, and chucks out a poison attack that does over 300 hp of damage to everyone and insta-wipes my party. I do not know for certain that this a hard programmed thing, and it certainly could just be terrible luck on my end, but at over 20 attempts and a 100% rate of occurrence, it certainly felt intentional enough for me to give up. Upon deciding I was unable to kill this boss I decided to further explore the jungle in case there was another town of stone masons I could snag a boat from, but all that turned up was an empty hidden cave and another path to the northwest that led out onto the savannah, which I decided to explore.

This area was fairly uninteresting from what little I saw of it, and, after stumbling into the rather unexpected find along the eastern edge of a town completely overridden with insects, I turned along another northwesten path onto the steppes, which, in RS1, was where Aisha and the nomads lived. Let's see if the trend continues and we find them here too! :D

Actually, I did not find them, but I did find the absolute hilarity of what appeared to be a ship crashed dead in the middle of the place, which begs the real question of how the hell that happened. Since I couldn't interact with it, I kept wandering around until I found some exits to a great wall in the north, which were quite locked, and another exit to the west to a town.

The town itself was pretty uneventful, one of the people themselves telling me it was a just a boring town, which likely meant it was not at all and filled with mages in hiding. I didn't pick up any new quests, though I did find out some new information: this is yet another place where people were talking about moongazing, Matild -- er, Cumberland is behind the northern wall, and someone mentioned a lake to the south with a forgotten path to it or something? Hrm. I also found an empty warehouse next to some docks, which immediately made me question if I had stumbled onto the Dophore Firm's "Moving" operation from RS3, but no one in the town was getting mugged, so likely not. Oh, someone also mentioned that nomads USED to live on the steppes, so there's the RS1 reference I was waiting for. :D With little more to do I spoke to the man at the docks to see where he could take me and two destinations popped up, one I had never seen before and the other being the town next to Avalon. You know, the one I couldn't sail from due to pirate activity. Figured I should see what happened if I tried to take that trip. :shifty:

Yeah, nothing actually, I just ended up back near Avalon and when I tried to head back I was told by the dockhand I couldn't sail out due to pirates from the canal fort. Seems legit, seeing how good they got me on the way in. :shobon: This seemed like a good time to check up on things back in town though, so I used to opportunity to do just that. Sadly no new spells had been unlocked, nor was my orchard completed, so I'm fairly certain now those are going to require some form of time advancement to unlock. I also pulled my axe out of storage, not because I had someone to give it to yet, but because my light infantryman was down to 1 LP and I figured it might be time to purposely kill him off for a replacement -- I also removed all of my monk's gear too for similar reasons, only not because he was at 1 LP, but because his remarkably poor performance had somehow managed to instill some rather murderous designs into my head. :stare: And no, after testing, this game does not use RS3's martial arts formula, as naked monk damage is the same as fully-loaded-up-in-metal suit monk. I also hooked Shirley up with the LP potion we had in storage, because she was down to 2 LP at the time and I'm not quite ready to pass on to the next generation yet; there's still so much to see!

:bounce:

Following our brief return we set back out along the rather long and circuitous route back to the desert, whereupon I quickly learned somethings I did not notice before -- you only have half your HP in this place, and red snakes are bad and randomly barf up earthquakes. Also, lightinfantryman died. Fell down a barfquake hole. Monk, however, was still at full LP despite having no armor and being on point in the formation. . _. Anyway, I popped back into Avalon to pick up a replacement, and seeing no one that said they were good with axes I picked up the burly chick that kind of reminded me of Sif and gave her the amethyst axe. She made good use of it by immediately matching my monk's damage in the desert. Not that we were fighting a lot there, mind you, since the half HP and quakesnakes made it extremely dangerous for our 3 LP Empress, and instead I focused on exploration of the area instead. I did manage to find one of the mirages the people in that town mentioned, then I found the exit to the south that led to an empty map -- clearly I needed someone to mention locations down here before I could do anything with the area.

Heading back into the desert I found that same mirage again, only this time it was the Wandering Lake and let me in. The people here revealed that this place had a cursed water supply that fully restored your LP, but reduced it to 1 the instant you left, and I seriously -- and I do mean SERIOUSLY -- considered partaking of the curse just to rid myself of that monk who somehow STILL was at full LP despite my best efforts to murder his lazy ass. :mad2: I was a bit confused about how this place was supposed to help people with that tower in town though, because nothing here would make anyone stronger, so I explored more and found I could swim in the lake and made my way into the building where I learned about some ruins from that southern exit I found earlier. Still no idea how that would help the townsfolk, though. :-/ This means there is either another oasis I haven't found or people are looking for something in the revealed ruins, so I decided to head there next.

This place popped up as another red X, which I'm going to assume just means ruins from here on out, and inside were some monsters and a fairly simply teleporter puzzle, ultimately leading to some money and a . . . phantom sword, I think it was? This thing is on par with my axe damage wise, which is super nice, though unfortunately my inftantryman died, so . . . now I'm in the opposite boat I was in earlier and have a strong sword and no one using swords. :jess:

Back to exploring the desert, my search for another oasis instead led me to another town on the north end where people kindly informed me of the half hp in the desert thing, which kind of makes me think I was supposed to come into the desert through here first? Probably? I dunno, either way there were no new quests to be found here and the right exit just took me back to the savannah from earlier, so I decided to check out the lake above instead. You get a boat to sail around with in here like the dragon lake in RS1, and I found a giant fish underwater I can't interact with and an empty cave along the western shore. werd. Taking the eastern exit from the lake brought me back to the map with that town I was in earlier with the two boat destinations, so I went back there and headed east onto the steppes to continue exploring that area.

To my surprise, I found a random hut while following the western edge of the map, so I went inside and, lo and behold, the nomads ARE still on the steppes! One of them also mentions horses, just like Aisha had in RS1. Maybe I will get one? :D Talking to the people I learned that the ship I saw earlier was not somehow crashed but built there instead, and talking to the elder he revealed it was a fort of somekind and people were making drugs there. But even the Holy King banned the sale of narcotics! D:

Doooooooooooppphhhhooooorrrrrreeeeeeee!!!!

He also asked me if I wanted to help them storm the fort, or maybe help come up with a plan, which, I mean, duh. We just stormed it. :shobon: He yanked me around and we ran straight at the thing which, to my absolute amusement, as in I actually cracked up, popped out of the ground and sailed away, which scared the crap out of the nomad who then in turn ran off. I mean, I was dying at this point, I have no idea how that boat was moving, but I did the most logical thing I could think of when dealing with floating forts and rammed myself into it. A lot. To no effect. Sad to say, since the only method I know of infiltrating floating forts is by visiting a nearby town and getting captured, and since I'm pretty sure that only works on floating tree forts with barrier shifting skeleton men at the helm, I decided to give up on this for the time being and went back to the nomad leader, who had . . . honestly, no advice to give. Eh, them's the breaks, I suppose? :shrug:

Since I was already in the steppes I decided to head south again back into the savannah and finish exploring that, which revealed another small town with no quests. Actually, this one was probably the least eventful since Japan, as all I really learned was that two other towns existed on the savannah, both of which I had already seen, and that . . . molemen exist? Ehhhh? Sadly, this wrapped up all of my exploration options on the continent and I was forced to either take on one of the main quests I had seen or to head back to that town and take the boat to where it was heading, so of course I did that. Because, I mean, who even quests?
:smug:

Uh, funny thing though, walking back into that town it was overrun with monsters which . . . was a surprise. At first I assumed this was like the monster invasion in RS1 and probably meant that I screwed these people over by bumping that ship, but on inspection the monsters here didn't . . . actually want to fight. They just kinda grunted at me. werd. I talked to the guy up near the warehouse and he offered me a job, which I assumed was of genocidal inclination, so I agreed, and . . . he drugged me. And stole my stuff. And stuffed me into the hold on the ship. Huh. I decided to break free, which actually would have been complete hell as I was totally unarmed, except that in the single most ironic twist of fate ever the naked monk I'd been passively trying to kill for the last hour or so was suddenly the most useful person on my party and his ranged paralyze attack basically carried me through all the fights here. Sadly this isn't one of the cases where you open a box and find all your gear though, and instead I had to scavenge what useful stuff I could find from the boxes on the ship itself, and let me tell you, all of it was traaaaaaash. Except for a super sweet blazing sword, which I gave Not-Sif, since she still knew double strike. This area took quite a while since I had to conserve MP/WP big time, and Shirley having 1 LP was not much help. I finally slugged my way to the boss, though.

Annnnnnnd, unfortunately, it turned out this boss was one of the Heroes I had been trying to avoid, and there was no realistic way for me to avoid fighting him, so I had my first big boss battle with no gear, four people who were bad at martial arts, 1 LP, and almost no MP. It went about as well as one would have expected. I'm tenacious though, and this boss actually seemed rather weak, especially since his major gimmick is that Marionette tech I got on my epee ages ago (which, I want to share, is some HOT trash when YOU use it), so after some tweaks I came up with a plan: I removed all of the armor from my monk and Not-Sif to maximize their speed and put them on the wings of the Imperial Cross formation as attackers, loaded my other 3 members in full armor, had the pointman spam counter, and left Shirley and my mage focused on defending and healing. It took a few attempts and about 20~ turns due to low damage, but we finally got him! One down! Kind of . . . unintentionally, but still. This added the steppes to our empire and returned us to Avalon without . . . advancing the generation? :shrug: Whatevs, our orchard is now complete and that is where I have currently ended. Still need to check out that boat and kill my monk, though. :x

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah, the Landship guy was my first Hero as well. I took an optional path, you can eventually unlock a University in Avalon that creates the Tactician Class for you, and the first one you meet will come up with a plan to take on the Landship without losing all of your gear. He's also the easiest of the Seven Heroes overall.

Also, you've unlocked the Herder class by helping them. If you speak to the main guy with an open slot, he'll join you. You'll have to do this with all of the unlockable classes until you build housing district, which is one of the last additions to Avalon.

As for the Volcano quest, you get something either way whether you use the Wizard or the Salamander People to solve the issue. Which one is a better prize depends on the player. If you want I can tell you.

A few more tips:

Formations are gained based on the class of your current Emperor/Empress. Not every class grants a formation though as most of the starting classes and the Remake classes don't offer anything.

If your Emperor/Empress dies but the party still lives, then their successor will be chosen among the surviving party members and you won't jump a generation. If the whole party gets killed though, then it will jump to a new generation. Also, if you feel the quest you're about to complete will jump you forward a generation, save before you finish it. The Successors you choose are randomized but based on whatever classes you have currently unlocked but sometimes the game sticks you with the same classes, so save scum to get a better selection.

Generation skips are based on a point system assigned to each quest, so certain quests have a higher likelihood of advancing a generation than others. The Seven Heroes are worth a lot, so you can generally do maybe two quests and take out one hero per generation though there are ways around this, and getting one of the trickiest trophies in the game involves knowing this info. Basically it's possible to beat the game without ever reaching the Final Emperor/Empress generation but it involves doing a few counter-intuitive things.

Personally, I would keep the Monk around to help spark more Barehanded techs as some of them are super useful, including a healing move that doesn't cost mp. Super useful for mages and Successors.

Classes are not cut in paste with their skill sets. At least not all of the time. Oddly enough, the proficiency skill of a class comes down to which character you're using in that class. Most classes have about ten people within them, but they cycle through them based on if you jump a generation or if you killed one of them off. Funny enough, it does eventually cycle back to ones you may have used before. I think in my Final Emperor Generation, I had cycled back to the Heavy Infantry member that accompanied Gerad's dad in the opening. Anyone, if you need help, here's a link to a list (https://saga.fandom.com/wiki/Tech_Spark_Types) that tells you what every playable characters Spark type is.

[Rez09]

It is interesting that they linked learning types to individual characters instead of classes -- and thank you much for that list, I'll probably use it in an upcoming generation to spark some high level techs if I can find a good target. The Guardian seems like a good choice, seeing everything the Giant taught me, though I might get lucky and find a better fixed encounter.

Anywho, following our return to Avalon I was informed the orchard had been planted, which I checked out. It wasn't especially interesting, but I imagine it'll look better later in the game after I've upgraded it a few times, something a person there rather directly implied by telling me to throw more money at the project. Sadly not much else was happening in the town, and I still haven't opened any new spells, though on the plus side I did find my stolen gear safely stashed in my armory, which, though completely illogical, was very appreciated. I also picked up my new . . . gauntlet, I think it was, and commissioned another piece of armor, though I forget which now. With little else to do we then set back out across the sea to that town, which we can fast travel to now :), to FINALLY take the second boat to Douglass, wherever that is.

And it turns out, it goes to Cumberland! I guess walls really don't work. :0 The town itself wasn't too eventful, but I did learn about the king having three children and Thomas being his favorite, and that there is an old dude who is mad about kids trampling his damn lawn, which is always amusing. I then decided to visit the castle above me and, to my surprise, the king knew who I was! He then introduced me to his son, who didn't actually leave any kind of impression and ran off, then he asked if I met his other children, which I had not and honestly told him. He revealed their locations to me and asked that I return to him after talking to him, so I recognized this from Wolf's playthrough as that succession thing. Before leaving I wandered the castle talking to people and learned that Thomas likes to play in a nearby forest or something and isn't too keen on his studies. Seems pretty kidlike to me. With little else to do in town I exited to the map to meet these other two siblings.

I started with the small town to the right and the people in here seem to really like the princess, who is apparently quite intelligent and seeking to open Cumberland to foreign trade via a new port to get around the wall. Hilariously there is a kid in town that hates her because she is building a school. xD Speaking to her she seems nice enough, though nothing else of note is really happening here, so I head to the southern fort now.

The guards here don't talk. :stare: At first I thought this was like those bugged/unprogrammed NPCs in RS1, but talking to some of the ministers it seems this is supposed to be a sign of their extreme dedication to their duty and unwavering diligence. Don't know how I feel about that level of zeal, though. From what the ministers say the prince is strong and highly dedicated to the defense of his country, so I imagine he and his sister are at political odds. I decided to finally go up and meet him and . . . wow, he was only slightly more talkative than his soldiers, literally just saying who he was and nothing else. Nice fellow.

With both of them met I returned to the map and saw the Great Wall was now on my map, which is odd since it wasn't before, so I went to check it out in case something was afoot, which . . . might have been? I'm not really sure, honestly, because the doors are open now and no guards are here, but nothing else seemed suspicious, so I just returned to the map to look for that forest Thomas was in. At first I thought it might have been an unmarked location, but after moving around the map for a bit this was not the case, so I went back to the capital to sniff out more information. In doing so I noticed there was a path into the woods near the old man's garden, and since he had been whining about kids trampling the thing I checked it out, and, lo and behold, I found Thomas sitting quietly by the castle. Talking to him he explained he didn't want to be king and that he hated his studies because felt the king was grooming him to be his successor when he himself felt both his siblings could do the job better. I actually felt pretty bad for the kid. :(

With all the kids met properly I returned to the king, who pulled me aside to ask who I thought his heir should be, and though I wanted to be a rebel and take a different choice than Wolf here, like . . . who else could I choose? Thomas doesn't want it, other prince is a soulless lump, and the princess is actually going to do and improve things. The king agreed with me and after making the choice complimented Shirley on her empressness and hoped his daughter could be like her, which I found hilarious since her great exploits consist of limping around at 1LP for ages (and I can't even begin to imagine what that looks like), unproductive globe trotting, a near lifelong, and thus fully unsuccessful, plot to murder one of her bodyguards, and being a slave. Lewl.

Anyway, after that we took a short nap and were awoken to the news of the king's death and Thomas' disappearance, though I figured where he was and met him there. Shortly after a guard ran up and spilled the beans on the minister's plot, so now we know it was an assassination. :0 Thomas and I then ran to his brother where we tried to explain the situation, but someone announced a royal decree calling for the execution of the older brother, which was . . . unfortunate timing. :ohdear: I was expecting a fight, but fortunately the princess ran in and explained everything, and I was then sent to defend the wall from monsters, who I clubbed upside the head for interfering. I've got vengence to reap, yo, I dun need the likes of you here! :mad2: I also learned my party is quite strong relative to the monsters at the moment, and the boss is one of those damn quake worms from the desert, which is kind of nifty, especially since I wasn't at half hp anymore. I stabbed it.

After that I met up with the siblings in the capital, which they had retaken, and the elder prince told me where the minister had run off to, so I went to the new location on the map and ran through it, picking up a new suit and rubber shoes (Yas! >: D ) along the way, eventually catching up with him on the docks. After revealing the rest of his plan to offer the kingdom up to the 7, I mugged him and returned to the siblings, who decided that Thomas should indeed inherit the throne, and he then, in turn, handed the kingdom over to . . . me? Huh. The kingdom was offically annexed and added to map and Shirley then sat on their throne in front of them and gave her final immortal word of grace:

'Phew'

And thus ended the reign of Shirley, her successor a yak herder from the tundra.

[Rez09]

Immediately after gaining control of my new emperor I sat back on the throne to see if I could build anything new and, lo and behold, I could build a university, which I funded, and my minister informed me both that my gem mines had a problem of somekind and that some nearby inventor was looking for me, so two new quests opened there. I then popped over to the formation room to see if I learned anything new and I unlocked something like the Mu Palisade, which became the Tiger's Cave formation in RS3. I was actually pretty excited about that, considering TC is one of the premier defensive formations in 3 and how I beat some of the abyss lords super early in the game, though further testing in this game reveals it to be of mixed value -- it includes a fixed turn order, which is better than RS3, but gear progression is much different between the games and stun attacks are hyper prevalent, so on the whole it is worse. Damn right I used it all the same, though. >: ) Following that I checked on my blacksmiths who . . . asked for money to make something, so either I lost what they were previously working on due to a generation skip or I forgot to commission something the last time I was here. Either way, invested in armor again, then went about building my party.

I started with the magic research facility to grab up one of those cool looking mage ladies, who ended up inferior to the normal mages I am sad to report, and to check up on my magic progression, where I have finally unlocked two new spells -- a stunning fire attack and single target solar one. I picked up both. I've been looking forward to a strong archer, since I feel that is one of the weapon classes I've been missing out on, and recalling that nomad saying they were good with bows I went and recruited one of them as well, giving him that Grim Reaper bow from waaaay back. I then decided to pop into Cumberland to recruit people there since I remembered Wolf mentioning crusaders or something and decided to check in to see who the new king was and got a chuckle out of it being Thomas still, albeit a descendant of his who looked the exact same. Visiting the other two siblings let me recruit both of them, and it seems they are quite different despite sharing a class, with the princess focused on magic and maces and the prince swords and . . . lances, maybe? Hell if I know, I gave them both swords. I also checked to see if the new dock was done here, and it is, but I need some kind of navigator for it and so can't do anything yet. Boooo.

My party rounded out I decided to FINALLY clear that canal fortress and popped into the bar to meet with the thief lady, but she . . . was not there. Hrm. I went back to visit her in town and it turns out they all hate me now, so ditching her in that bar two generations back was probably a poor choice. I'll keep that in mind for a later playthrough. I went back to find another way in and hired someone find an alternate route, though he said I only paid half of his fee, which I assumed meant my treasury was empty (turns out I was just out of petty cash), so I wandered off elsewhere to quest.

Checking other towns I had been to I found a quest in one town to collect a bird's nest monsters were after, some dude talking about making soup from it, but no one seemed to care once I picked it up, sooo . . . I've got a cool nest now, I suppose. Further random hitting up villagers didn't reveal anything new, nor did visiting that dancer in the mermaid town again, so I decided to head back to quests I had learned about but not completed and went to check in on that infested village I found earlier.

The enemies here seem to be fixed or largely fixed and aren't a threat to me, so I jumped down a hole to search for the source of the problem and molemen, but the area is a dead end -- I even checked the walls and found a place where you can see some out of bounds termites in the distance, but I couldn't do anything more, so I left to visit the other surrounding villages to learn what I could, which ultimately amounted to something about a giant bird on the savanna? I found a bird enemy flying about, but fighting it doesn't seem to do anything, so . . . I pretty much gave up at this point and headed through the south exit into the desert.

Which wasn't the desert at all.

Turns out there was a fourth village on the steppes, which was odd because people in that other town said there were only three, and these people actually DO know about the termites and are freaking out, the elder in particular telling me how great a threat they are. Just don't build wooden houses, man. :shobon: I thought maybe I could do something with the nest now, but no go, so I tried the bird again, no luck, and crashed at the inn, which actually progressed the quest. I went down the new hole and met some molemen who were being accosted by shovel wielding bugs and fought the queen, which ultimately added Molepeople and the tribesmen, not to mention the savannah, to my empire. Wewt.

The game then returned me to my throne room, where I learned the university was complete, and I paid to expand the orchard again. Excited to get some book learnin' done I visited said university and it . . . was uninteresting except for a test I took, which was pretty easy and they said would boost enrollment. Swoot. Free from anything else going on in the city I went back to the fortress since I had enough money now and snuck in via boat. There were mobs everywhere and lots of FF2 doors, but at least some had loot in them, and I picked up an Exorcist sword, I think it was, which I think became the Yoto katana in 3, so I imagine it has a built in AoE that murders the undead. Remurders the undead. I also found another magic boosting necklace, though I don't know exactly how much this improves damage, and found the boss, who was super easy at this point. Following that this area was added to my empire and ye olde Yak man retired, being followed this time by one of the princes of Cumberland.

The orchard was upgraded when I started, but no new events came from sitting on the throne after that, so I checked out my new formation, which is one I don't recognize from 3, basically putting three people on point defending two people in the back, which I'm down with and decided to use for the rest of the scenario. Checking out the university it is full now and I found a lazy guy there who I could recruit, though I didn't due to already having my party planned out this time. After that I snagged another mage from the research center, a Moleman to grind out Epee techs (fencing molemen? Eh? PS. Their casting animation is hiiiiiilarious), the elder from that same town, and another princess from Cumberland, cause you can't break up the siblings. :) I also commissioned ANOTHER piece of armor, and I'm fairly certain at this point I have been missing out on what they are developing by advancing generations.

Our first order of business was to recover some of that cash I'd been throwing away by retaking our gem mines, so I went back there and discovered some undead wandering around a new bottom floor -- it seems we were too greedy with our mining, and dug too deep. D: Rather unexpectedly I found The Dark Crystal at the back of the mines and decided to shatter it, lest skinny bird people and giant crabs take over my empire while I am away. I now have this shard on my persons, which . . . is probably not a good thing, as my emperor said the crystal was sapping the lifeforce out of the miners around it.

After that I paid a visit to that inventor, who didn't have a cool robot for me like I read about, but instead a flying machine I crashed into his ceiling then stole, because duh.

I then ended up back at the mermaid village because I remembered a kid mentioning the dancer being from a different town when I stopped in with Shirley and was wondering if it would open now if I talked to him again, but instead was treated to a different dance than I saw last time, which was weird. I tried following her out the back door again, but, alas, it seems I still open doors hard enough to wake the sun, so that didn't work. The kid didn't say anything new about her town, so I spoke to all the other villagers until it was night again and revisited the bar, this time getting the dance the herder saw, so it seemed to be changing up. Did it a third time and she finally talked to me and ran off, this time my emperor gently opening the back door and not scaring away the night so I could see she was, unsurprisingly, a mermaid. Wewt. She stopped appearing at night then, so following the villagers' advice I visited the witch from earlier and she had a quest for me to make the love potion, needing water from that lake I found during Gerad's reign, an egg from the savannah bird I kept mugging, and that nest I found last generation. 1 out of 3 ain't bad.

I trekked back to the savannah and talked to the villagers around until someone finally told me that I was attacking the wrong bird, and I found a hydra attacking the proper bird off in a corner of the map I found suspicious my first time through but then totally forgot existed. :wacky: The fight wasn't too bad, but I did learn some important things from it -- regenerative elemental fields DO exist in this game, they are not visually represented in any way, and you do not appear able to change them once they go off. This is, interestingly, a step down from both RS1 and 3, and one of the few times thus far I've seen this game do anything worse than both other entries. Anywho, I got my eggshell following the fight, and that is where I am now. :D

[Wolf Kanno]

I'll just tell you, since you're likely to miss this. You can take the Dark Crystal from the mine to one of the Mole Men in their village who will make an accessory out of it. It gives the equipped character some good stat boost and protection from certain status effects but comes at the cost of making you lose 1LP every time you sleep in a bed that isn't the emperors. I'd still make it because it is a great accessory for the final boss fight and it does protect you from Rocbouquet's Charm attack.

Mole Men are the best with Epees of all the classes from my experience. I believe I learned the vast majority of them from the one time I had one in my party. Crusaders probably have the largest variety of Spark Types of any class though half of the female ones are pure spellcasters. The male Imperial Guard members are the best for sparking spear skills. The most difficult weapon to spark are the one-handed sword skills because unlike other weapon types, only certain spark types/classes can unlock certain skills. So even if you get a good Type 13 character, they may still not be able to spark every ability.

Imperial Cross was certainly one of my favorite formations, though I preferred the upgraded Imperial Arrow later on since it gave the point man a huge damage boost and everyone but position gets both a speed bonus and auto-defends after their turn. Phoenix is a pretty good one as well which is learned from having a Tactician as an emperor. The one I've heard is really good is the Rapid Stream formation learned from the Armed Merchant/Pirate class emperor which is great for random encounters because it gives a good power boost to the whole team and allows the whole team to go first though it does screw you over a bit if the enemy survives the first round.

[Wolf Kanno]

Just as an update.

Romancing SaGa 3 will have more info released at Tokyo Game Show this year (https://www.siliconera.com/2019/08/12/romancing-saga-3-remaster-enters-final-adjustments-stage-more-to-come-at-tgs-2019/). So we may finally get a Japanese release date and hopefully a western one as well.

[Wolf Kanno]

Just as stated, we got ourselves a new trailer for Romancing SaGa 3 as well as a release date for Japan on November 11th of this year. No word on an western release but here's crossing fingers...

9Ml6EHPavmg

[Fynn]

(please come to vita please come to vita)

[Rez09]

Uggghhhh. I hate that the battle animations look so good, but the animation on enemies looks so baaaaaaad. T -T It looks bad in the RS2 port as well -- I guess people like that squish tool look? Again from the trailer it looks like they are expanding on some sections of the game, and I'm excited for that -- this time we saw what LOOKS like a Sphinx, which is one of the more famously removed/incomplete enemies from the original title and the top of the faerie class line, and there are some story segments I saw that weren't familiar, like Julian's portrait while those kids are talking and Harid with Ludwig and Fatima, though . . . maybe that is from his 'good' ending? I don't think it is, I'm pretty sure she just walks up to him while he is moping under a tree, but I dunno, I'm always a greedy bastard and steal the Kamsheen from the King's Capital. Here's hoping we get more Ludwig, though! I kind of hope the Japanese release hits with multi-language support and a physical copy so I can import it -- I'm still rather annoyed my RS2 is digital only. T -T

[Wolf Kanno]

TGS Trailer for Romancing SaGa 3 which is basically the one they did for E3 as well. This one does mention some of the new content like a bonus dungeon, two new scenarios, and New Game + feature. The game now has a Western release of November 11th 2019 and alos mentions that SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambition will be released on December 3rd 2019. Both games will be digital only but Fynn will be happy to know that Romancing SaGa 3 will apparently still be for the Vita out West though Scarlet Graces will not.

Yllzq7L9yMA

[Fynn]

Shame about Scarlet Graces, but I'll take it!

Also, I feel like I should point this out: the graphics look A LOT better than in RS2. It seems like theyre following the same formula, i.e. classic sprites against HD backgrounds, but they just mesh together so much better. It was pretty weird in RS2 when you had these SNES sprites against these super-polished backgrounds that just seemed out of place.

[Wolf Kanno]

Also, I feel like I should point this out: the graphics look A LOT better than in RS2. It seems like theyre following the same formula, i.e. classic sprites against HD backgrounds, but they just mesh together so much better. It was pretty weird in RS2 when you had these SNES sprites against these super-polished backgrounds that just seemed out of place.

I imagine part of that is due to the original game's graphic quality. RS2's graphics were closer to FFV while RS3's graphics are a post Chrono Trigger title, so Square was at the top of their game graphics-wise for the system. So imagine the scale up to HD would look less jarring. In RS2, I know they largely changed the backgrounds to HD style while maintaining the traditional sprites for enemies and characters so they didn't have another Steam fiasco.

[Rez09]

I . . . am quite sad these will be digital only. RS3 is one of those games I'd love to display. Oh well, such is life, I suppose. I hope they aren't planning that route for the upcoming Star Ocean port too. . _.

[Wolf Kanno]

I am knee deep into Death Stranding, but I did pick up Romancing SaGa 3 for my birthday. Will likely start before Christmas.

[Rez09]

It's a pretty faithful port and I enjoyed it about as much as the original -- the new dungeon has some extremely powerful reward items that are super easy to get and several of the rare item dropping enemies are in the there as fixed encounters, which speeds up grinding for Feathers, Hydra Leather, and Beautys an absolute ton. Feels like instant death skills are less accurate, though.

[WarZidane]

Picked up Scarlet Grace Ambitions (which is cheaper than romancing saga 3, go figure), interesting so far.

Started as Urpina (both because I wanted to and the answers I picked to the questions at the start resulted in the game picking her for me anyway), getting the hang of the combat. Since encounters aren't random, I wonder if there are places to grind later on, because I definitely see myself doing so for some more materials and HP. :p

Also with some encounters I'm both afraid to start them and to skip them, because they're clearly out of my league but I have no idea how long they'll be available.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm bumping this because I acquired Final Fantasy Legend 2 for Christmas, so SaGa2 here I come! Not to mention I still have Romancing SaGa 3 and Unlimited Saga to go through as well. Will be another SaGa year I feel.

[Wolf Kanno]

Couldn't help myself, and started SaGa 2. I've been wanting to play this game for years after it eluded me victory years ago. A friend lend it to me, and I played until almost the very end, but got stuck on what I thought was the final boss (may have been the second or third to last) and then gave it back when my frustration peaked. So now I plan on seriously conquering this beast of a game. It's been so long since I last played that I barely remember anything, so this should be a pretty pleasant experience.

Since I did a night/lunar theme for my party in SaGa 1, I'm doing a Day/Solar theme for this one. My main character is a Human Male named Sol, my team is composed of a Female Esper/Mutant named Eos, a Monster named Bast, and a robot named Suny. With the first piece of MAGI (1/77) in my hands, my team leaves our small village to go find my MCs father. I kind of forgot how comedic this entry was, and how goofy your Indiana Jones inspired dad is. Mr. S helped us get through the starter cave, and I bought some equipment in my first town. Then I headed to the shrine that the priestess Ki resides in to learn where to go next.

I tackled the first dungeon and chased after some thieves. Got the first three MAGI pieces which I forgot I could equip. Turns out the thieves were actually servants of Ki trying to take and hide the MAGI pieces so that Ashura, the ruler of the adjacent world, couldn't get a hold of them. So far it's been a pretty fun ride, though I'm going to have to read up a bit on my party classes to make sure I'm building them right.

[Wolf Kanno]

Been having a wild time with my team. I just took down Ashura with an NPC called Mask, who is basically your main characters dad. I kind of forgot how much the game holds your hand in the early parts by supplying you with some balance wreaking NPCs. This entry really feels like a strange love child between SaGa 1 and Final Fantasy II in its design. I think it's also interesting how the fake antagonist from the first game is this games first major villain. They're not the same character, since this Ashura simply used magic artifacts to transform themselves from a lowly Goblin into this final boss wannabe. I am currently about to pull a BoFII and find a means to dive inside a persons body to fight off demons that possessed them. For my team...

Sol (Human): He has not been a bad character, keeps getting HP boosts and he already has close to 300hp which is double anyone else on my team at this point. He's gotten good using Punch, and I started making him use Rapiers to build up his agility. I just wish I could start seeing some boosts to his stats other than his HP. He's tanky but not as hard hitting as I would like.

Eos (Esper): My MVP except when I faced off with magic immune Ashura. Her Mana and Agility are both quite high, and the game's better magic algorithm means she's packing some good spells. Since I have a better idea about how weapons work from the first game, I've supplied her with a Psi Knife which is helping boost her magic power even more. She currently has Flame (AoE), Cure, Ice (hits one group), and has immunity from Poison. Her one glaring weakness is how fragile she is. She's just now getting some HP boosts, but I need better armor for her, or some way to raise her defense. My biggest regret is that I think the party order works like old school games and I have her in the second slot, so she's taking more hits than she should.

Bast (Monster): Whereas my monster was pretty bad ass in SaGa 1, I'm struggling with this one. Part of my issue is that his starting form was easily the best form I've had and trying to find something decent has been an uphill battle. Every time I get them to be something decent like an Octopus or Slime, I try a new meat and manage to get them knocked back into a lowly Goblin or Flyman. I may have to consort a guide.

Suny (Robot): Suny has been reliable but not terribly standout. They have the best defense of my team, unless magic is involved, and the second highest HP. I feel my biggest issue here is really just a lack of focus, as I spend more of my time working on my human and monster, that I haven't properly invested in Suny like I should. Again, I may need a guide, if only to figure out what classification each weapon type is to help build his stats, and to also remember to check my inventory to see if there is anything I can toss their way.

As for the NPCs, Ki has been my favorite since she's with you the longest and has the best assortment of abilities including magic. Mr. S. was nice, but leaves before you really get used to him. I wish I had grinded more with him. Mask is very good, but lacks variety in abilities. He makes up for it with ridiculously high stats though.

I'm off to the third world to learn the secret of micronizing from the lost Giants. I forgot about the world tree aspect of this game, and I like how it builds on the Tower concept from the first game.

[Wolf Kanno]

A little over halfway through the game now. I just reached Edo and as usual, I've got to give Kawazu props for just the sheer variety in the worlds. While a few are just place holders for story stuff, a few have some interesting designs. I liked the Giant's World, where you have to figure out how to navigate a massive abandoned Giants village, of how Venus' world is some futuristic acropolis with Jetson style moving streets and then the outside if a massive jungle. Edo is a pretty adorable remake of the same historical era of Japan, and this story sequence plays out like a detective story with a Zenigata Heiji (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenigata_Heiji) stand-in as a potential party member.

Overall, I'm really enjoying this game more than the first SaGa due to a lot of the technical changes. This is probably the most story-centric entry in the series just shy of the PS1 entries with a continuing plot and some really wacky characters as potential party members. The gameplay mechanics are also much more refined. Despite the "random" factor of the game, there is much more control on how your team can be built which has made this playthrough much more smooth than my first one. In fact, I'm still trying to figure out how I almost reached the end of the game with a half decent monster the first time, cause holy shit is the algorithm for them so much more complex and specifically built to prevent players from exploiting it. Robots are also just a fun class and I'm a little sad they rarely show up after the Game Boy entries. I still enjoyed the original, but you can tell this is where Kawazu really got his start on how he wanted SaGa to be like. Especially when you consider the next SaGa game he actually worked on was Romancing SaGa 1. He didn't work on the third entry, which is why it plays very differently from the rest of the series, well until he helmed its remake.

Of anything, I'm a little sad we never got the DS remake of any of these games. Would have been nice to get one with a better translation and no censorship.

[Wolf Kanno]

Sorry I haven't been updating this. I had a moment of distraction caused by another game/series. I finished the Edo area which is just delightful as its filled with a lot of amusing tropes from samurai films including the final boss fight being a battle with the shogun's dead father on the roof of the castle. There was also a world earlier that involved riding dragons and entering a race to win more MAGI piece.

Recently, I've plunged into the Nasty Dungeon, which I can only imagine what its Japanese name really is. Refreshingly, it's an optional dungeon as there are no MAGI pieces to collect in this world, but interestingly enough, its also not scaled for endgame either. The point of this place is really just to work as a grinding spot for underleveled players and to give you a whole bunch of awesome loot. In fact, that's probably the only part of the dungeon I find nasty is that there is more loot in this dungeon than you have inventory space for, so it eventually turns into a game of making some tough decisions as you drop valuable gear and armor for ones that might be better. The series infamous Glass Sword is in here too as well as the Hyper Cannon and Nuclear Bomb. My robot is pretty badass now. I also have almost maxed out my Human's health, but since my robot is better about taking hits, I may move him into the front row cause I keep using the Giant Helm for its strength boost over some of the other helmets that give better defense.

My Monster has also reached the highest level of the Third Tier, I just need something from the fourth Tier to finally appear so I can finally feel safe feeding my monster Meat again. They are currently a Sylph which has really good elemental resistance and a good selection of spells. I wish they had better stats though.

My next area to go to is Valhalla, where I have to deal with Odin and lose my free resurrection for the rest of the game. :(

[Wolf Kanno]

Sorry I haven't updated this in awhile. I've been distracted by Zelda.

I finished Valhalla, which was pretty short, but I had to redo the Odin fight a few times cause I was hoping to either get my Esper to learn a higher tier spell or to get a monster meat drop so I can jump my monster into the final two tiers that are actually worth using. I eventually got the monster drop instead which was the better reward. With that dungeon finished, I have all but one of the Magi pieces left and then my team encountered Apollo, who reveals he was the big bad the whole game and secretly had the final piece and kept it until he could steal all of the pieces I collected by holding all the NPCs I've met as hostages. With him gone, the MC's dad appears and reveals there is actually a 78th piece that the Guardians had been keeping a secret in case anyone tried to collect all the Magi.

I've now plunged into the Final Dungeon, which is a bit of a misnomer cause I'm pretty sure there are two more dungeons after this one anyway. I was having a rough time until I switched around my party. My MC may have great armor and the highest HP, but he's too susceptible to things to take point, so I moved my Robot into lead role. I've also hit one of the bigger dilemma's for Humans and Espers by end game which is armor issues. The Dragon Armor is weaker than the Arthur Armor or Parasuit, but it grants total immunity to the elemental magics, whereas the other two pieces only protect me from certain elements and status effects. My Robot gets a Dragon Armor no matter what since the magic immunity is a god send for it, but it's hit or miss for my organic party members. So it's turning into an issue of debating whether I want to protect them from elemental magic, or protect them from physical attacks.

I've actually reached the final boss of the Final Dungeon, who is War Mech from FFI funny enough. Yet, I'm having a hard time keeping my Esper alive for this fight since she has the lowest HP and all of WM's attacks are defense ignoring. I really need her to learn a new spell or two here. After this dungeon, I should be squaring off with Apollo, which will put me where I left off the first time I ever played the game, so I'm excited for that. The difficulty has certainly spiked in the last few locations as well, which feels par the course for this series.

[Wolf Kanno]

Finally defeated Apollo, which means I've passed the point of the game I was originally stuck on in the past. I lost my Father as a support character, but gained Isis, the complete form of all the MAGI pieces and the guardian of the world system. She tasks us to help her reboot the whole system since Apollo and the other New Gods screwed everything up and now the Arsenal security system is preparing to bring all the worlds down with it in hellfire.

I am really wishing I had picked up some Healing Rods and Flare Spell books in the last town, cause I need better healing and damage output for my team. The two minibosses of this last section were both brutal, especially Fenrir, who uses a powerful group attack I can't defend against and ignores defense. In true SaGa fashion, the final section cranks up the challenge to 11. I did get my Monster to be the highest tier of Demon class which grants him both Flare and the Cure spell, so hell yeah!

The final boss has been a serious pain in the ass, but I'll do a few more attempts and see what I can do.

[Wolf Kanno]

Took him down after my foruthish attempt. Kept forgetting to equip the glass sword so I could some serious damage. I did barely win though with my Esper of all people being the last character standing and she finished it off with her Psychic Gun. The boss has three phases, when it starts off, it hits you with its four main cannons that do about 200hp when all four are active. As you damage it, cannons get defeated and the damage goes down, so you need to probably have one character focus on healing during this point cause you want your HP to be as high as possible for the final round. The second phase has the boss use a powerful smashing attack that does a lot of damage if it lands but can be negated by using a shield or Tank. The final phase is where shit gets real. The boss unleashes its main cannon and its basically Zeromus' Big Bang attack on steroids. I've seen it do 115hp, I've seen it do close to 700 hp in a game where your HP sort of maxes out at 999hp. The attack does random damage, though squishy characters and your robots will certainly feel the higher spectrum more than others.

I had my robot Suny use the Tank for the first ten rounds and switch to the Laser Rifle when I ran out of uses. The Tank made the second phase a breeze, and he ended up surviving the final phase for longer than I expected due to some RNG with the damage.

Bast, my monster was the highest level of demon class for this fight. He basically sunk all of his uses of the Flare spell in the first round so I didn't take as much of a beating which was nice. Afterwards, I has him switch with my Esper for healing duty until he was flattened in the final phase after the second or third use of the Smasher Cannon. He did end up being the MVP in some ways cause due to his speed allowing him to get his healing spell off before the boss attacked, he was able to heal up Eos to survive the following two rounds where she finished him off.

Sol, my human, performed admirably, but I wish he had last a bit longer than he did. He started the battle using Gungnir to do damage since his stats allowed him to do slightly more damage with it than X-Calibur. In the final phase, he used the Glass Sword to do a massive 1100 damage to the boss which may have bean the factor that won the fight besides Bast keeping Eos alive. Unfortunately, some bad luck with RNG had him knocked out before anyone else in my party cause he kept getting hit with the 500-700hp damage hits and Eos was just not fast enough to save him.

Eos was pretty much the MVP of this fight despite goign in with a bad setup. I was never able to learn any useful high end spells like P-Blast or Flare for her, instead I kept relearning a second set of Cure spells which are certainly better than a lot of other things she could have obtained. I didn't get her any Flare tomes or Heal Staffs to make her a more useful healer or damage dealer either, but luckily, her Magic stat was ridiculously high so the Psychic Gun did like 600+ damage a pop, allowing her to keep uo with Bast's Flare spells, and Sol's end game weapons. Her strategy in the first round was just to keep the team healed up and once Bast ran out of Flare spells, she switched with them and started pumping the boss with Psi-Gun until the third phase where she helped Bast keep the party alive, but once it became clear healing wasn't going to save everyone in time, I had her switch to offense and she thankfully killed the boss when she did as her health was probably less than a 100hp by that point. It really helped that she seemed to luck out with RNG as I felt she would have died in the round she killed the boss, but was thankfully only hit for a little over a 100hp that round.

The ending has Isis explain how she's a fail safe used to restore the very structure that keeps all the worlds in tact and she sleeps or a thousand years between reboots. The party is a bit sad they won;t see her again but promise they'll tell their descendant about her when the next reboot comes. With that, the party reunites with the MC's Dad and we get to watch a montage of the party revisiting all of the worlds on their journey home. The final scene has the MC's dad waking them up in the middle of the night like in the opening, saying he's leaving to find the Lost Ark (have I mentioned that your dad is an Indiana Jones expy? He wears the fedora and uses whips as well) and the MC tells them they want to go with them this time, which he agrees. The two are stopped from exiting out the window by the MC's mother who scolds them for leaving her behind all the time and ask to come along this time. So the whole family leaves on an adventure.

Overall thoughts:

Favorite World: Either Edo, the Giant's World, or Venus' world
Least Favorite: Nasty Dungeon
Favorite Boss: Odin or the Magistrate's Father
Favorite Guest Party Member: Your Dad, Teacher, or Isis.
Best Race: Robots or Espers

In terms of gameplay, SaGa 2 is a much needed improvement over the original. Espers have better control of how they develop, humans don't feel as broken, monsters are also better balanced. Robots are a cool new addition and add a lot of variety to team builds despite being the most broken of the classes. The worlds also have a little better variety to them and I enjoyed the guest party system. I do feel this game is more difficult, but largely because its better balanced than the original.

MAGI also just gave you more customization options, which I appreciated even if the game strips this mechanic away from you during the final parts of the game.

Story wise, I appreciate that the scenarios have a little more depth to them and characterization with the NPCs. SaGa1 was always a bit weird cause it almost felt like the later section had more depth to them than the earlier ones. Yet, I kind of liked the more MegaTen vibe of the original. In hindsight, SaGa2 is certainly a lighter and softer story than the first game, with a lot more humor spread throughout it which made it more memorable in some ways, but lacked the kind of twists and drama of the first game. I like both, but for different reasons.

Music was also pretty snazzy, this was the last game Uematsu did but the first one that longtime SaGa/Mana composer Kenji Ito would work on.

Overall, I would recommend this game if you want a fun and simple portable RPG with a bit of challenge going for it. Its also a pretty good intro to the series as well because there is certainly more of a story and cast to this game than the first entry and I feel the lighthearted nature of the game may be more appealing to a general audience.

[Wolf Kanno]

I may be starting Romancing SaGa 3 soonish, so any tips or insights? I know this does the multi character choice like RS1, I'm wondering if that means the quest system works the same as well where I'll be punished for grinding?

[Wolf Kanno]

So I started RS3, chose Ellen as my starting hero and I just finished the quest concerning the party escorting Monika to safety at Leonid's Castle. I am at the point where the team has split up and Ellen has teamed up with Khalid to visit Zweig. I have made the terrible choice of talking to anyone who looks interesting and am now currently saddled with the Minstrel and a funky girl going by the name Soufle. Unlike everyone else I've used so far, these two appear to be more blank states with the Ministrel being sort of good with anything, but me being too early in the game for him to have too many good techs, while the girl is pretty much just dead weight at the moment. I did wander into the woods and met the Professor, which was a hilarious scene, and I tried to find her four pets, but the Dragon ended up killing the whole party and I had not saved in a while. I'm not sure now if I'm going to make a second attempt or if I'm just going to try to do the tournament in Zweig.

Ellen - Currently using both Axe and Martial Arts since she has high strength and speed. I've also taught her the starting Genbu and Lunar magics which both give her some more buffing skills. I had here wearing some heavy armor but had her switch with the Ministrels armor since it had roughly the same defensive stats at a third of the weight. Her Axe skills are a bit basic at the moment with series tradition Tomahawk and Helm Splitter which seems to have worst accuracy than I remember. My favorite skill she's learned is a buff skill War Cry. On the Melee front, she's learned Kick, Counter, Eye Gouge, Tumble, and a healing ability I forget the name of. I really enjoy her as a character, though I have reservations about the story she's going to have since she's kind of avoiding all the interesting people. I am also not sure how I feel about using an Axe specialist since I tend to never care for the weapons in the series. I'm already having flashbacks on SF2 where axes were brutal early game but became less and less useful as time went on.

Khalid - I've been trying to build up his Spear use, but I may just forego that and still to his sword play since he starts with a ridiculous high affinity with it and his sword comes with a unique technique. I have taught him Soryu magic and I've transferred a few skills Julian sparked before he left the party to better round him out. He's a powerhouse for sure that Ellen has only recently caught up with. I find him amusing so I'm happy I got him back on the team.

Minstrel - The hard thing about Jack-of-All Stat characters is figuring out where you actually want to take him. He starts with Club weapons, of which I'm giggling to myself cause apparently the Cudgel is a better Mace weapon than his starting War Hammer, but I've also never had much luck with Maces. They do get some cool support techs' but I don't really know how good the Minstrel's Spark class is for that. I've given him a longsword as well. I do like his Harp and the buff skill it grants, though my magic levels are still too low to get any major use out of it at the moment. I just read he won't leave my party until I kill a Sinistral though, which is a bit disappointing...

Souffle - Is pretty much dead weight at the moment. She has terrible stats, uses a Rapier of all things as her weapon, and comes with really nothing, not even some real direction on where to build her. She's amusing and I like her design. She reminds me of Josephine from Suikoden V, though she was a slightly better character in battle...

Overall, I'm having fun with the game. It feels like the game that I was wishing Romancing SaGa 1 would be, with a little more character and story in its scenarios. I am happy I'm jumping into this game with better knowledge of how the series works. I think the only thing that has thrown me off is the fact in addition to sparking techs, you now have to master them in order to transfer them to new party members. Kind of screwed me over as I failed to master a few Bow skills Sarah picked up. I do like naming the four elemental magics after the Four Gods since it s a nice shout-out to the Game Boy entries. Also, can I just say that I find it interesting that magic gets more useful the further the series gets? It's ho-hum after a certain point in the GB entries unless you luck out and learn Flare, it was forgettable in RS1, not bad in RS2 at first but eventually became game breaking. Its starting on a better footing in RS3, and by SF2 its pretty overpowered and detrimental to success by endgame.

[Wolf Kanno]

Put in a good chunk of time last night. I've changed my mind on some characters. I've recruited two new characters with one being the Hunter Ward, and the other being the Zorro expy Robin.

After getting my ass handed to me by both the Dragon pet and in the Zweig tournament. I finally ventured to the local town dealing with a monster demanding sacrifices. Only to get locked and murdered by said monster. I couldn't even figure out what to do for that quest as the monster is a little BS with that Bubonic Plague attack and having no less than nine target spots, so I did cheat and look it up. Before that though, I ventured to a snowy town and recruited Ward by helping him clear up the monsters by the frozen lake. With a full team, I was able to go back and finish the pet quest. I simply needed the extra DPS and the journey through the Frozen Lake after handing Souffle a Bow garnered some extremely useful techs. With that done, and a better clue of what to do this time, I retired the Sacrificial Cave quest and was able to escape and get the Rat Poison from the Wonderful, Fabulous, and certified GENIUS The Professor which allowed me to take down her fifth "pet". Afterwards I headed to Lance where I waltzed into a weapon shop and was asked to make a delivery to a nearby town, which automatically sent me onto the road between the villages where I was harassed by thieves who may have stood a chance had I not completed the above three quests. I reached the following town where I was introduced to Robin. Robin, next to Boston and Flurry, was one of the recruitable characters I learned about a way back when I was mildly looking into the series. Having grown up watching a bunch of the old Zorro cartoons, and being a super hero comic book fan, I had to recruit him. So I wandered around the town activating all of his little scenarios. Learned that their was actually two of them, and saved them both during the big clash against the local corrupt merchant group giving me a chance to recruit the chap. I then returned to Lance, where I went back into the weapon shop and was propositioned to deliver stuff to another town. I was propositioned in this town to do some mercenary work, but chose not to so I could return to Lance a third time, ignored the dude in the weapons shop so I could finally get explore the town. Learned some good info about the Abyss Gates and higher tier magic. I took the ship to sail to Pedonia which is the town I vaguely remember Thomas and Sarah said they were heading to when they ditched me. I left that place, but then checked out the shrine of the Matriarch and then decided to call it a night. I really want to go back and try the Zweig tournament since my whole team is competent at this point.

Ellen - She's not doing too bad. She's been a little slow to level up magic, but I often forget to use it so its really more of my fault and she's doing better than Khalid in this regard. My big issue with her is that she's slow to spark new moves and she has a tendency to spark moves that are difficult to master like Counter. Axes and Fists are serving her well, but she's maybe sparked one new move since the initial intro party split up which is frustrating. I will say that Lunar and Byakko magic are working out well for her build as one starts with a move that raises strength while the other has a speed boosting spell, two stats she excels in. She's doing good with stat upgrades though her Axe weapon is a bit lower than I wish, but that may be due to me trying to master Counter so I could remove it from her skills set. She is at least falling into her role easier than some characters I've played during the series.

Khalid - He's a beast, and while its annoying that he insists on having a Scimitar permanently equipped, especially since its already getting obsolete, I finally got him a silver sword I use all his attack with making him back into another powerhouse with Ellen. I did start making him use that spear he carries and the asshole managed to spark some really powerful moves including Windmill (which I'm already dreading to master), Double Strike, and freaking Aim. Sadly, he is not been such a good boy when it comes to sparking sword techs, but I blame a lot of that on myself again and the fact that the Scimitar's innate skill was easily his best move for the longest time. So now I'm going to try and get him to start living up to that swordsmen moniker he has. I've taught him both Soryu and Solar magic, but he's really slow to grow in this field which isn't terribly surprising.

The Minstrel - Is now the new dead weight of the team. He may start with good stats, but he seems like he grows pretty slowly. He's mostly been successful with Mace weapons, and while they are nothing to scoff at, they're one of my least favorite weapon types and they always seem to spark less often than I would care for. His biggest contribution now was teaching him Genbu magic and learning that healing magic will actually bring downed characters back up, so he's been team medic, though I've had to transfer the self healing martial art tech to him to keep him alive more often than I would care. He's a good support character, but he's lacking in offensive capabilities and even trying to switch him to another weapon has been a slow process. The annoying thing was learning that he won't leave my team until I take down an Abyss Gate (which I haven't even reached the point in the game where they are an issue yet) or simply letting him get perma-killed in battle which I'm less inclined to do.

Souffle - I learned from the TV Tropes page her real name is Tatyana. She's gone from being the dead weight of the team to being my badass archer. She is still a glass cannon who tends to get KOed the fastest on my team, but switching her to a bow from her crummy rapier was a godsend as she was able to not only spark most of the skills Sarah had done in the intro, she managed to spark two super useful skills with Flash Arrow (hits all enemies and inflict Blind) as well as Beast Slayer (does extra damage to beast type enemies, a godsend against the current crop of bosses) so she's done a serious 180 on me. I also taught her Suzaku magic, but I haven't tried it out to see if she's any good with it. I was originally going to drop her, but now I'm growing a bit more attached.

Ward - His character art and sprite are amusing. The guy looks like Slash from G&amp;R. It was nice to have a character who specializes in Great Swords, especially since that weapon type served me really well in the two previous entries. He's sparked a few really good skills like Sunder and Riposte. He second uses maces but seems to be awful with them for some reason. Not going to teach him magic, but it is nice to have a real meat shield on the team.

Robin - I have not really had much of a chance to really figure him out. He start with a rapier, but I'm hoping he'll be able to spark some actual techs with it. Rapiers were pretty troutty in RS1 but were surprisingly more useful in RS2 if you bothered to use the Mole People to spark their move sets. I'm hoping RS3 carries this tradition, though I know not to expect and high damage coming from him. I'm glad I got to recruit him, but not sure if he's going to be a long haul character yet.

I feel one of the biggest issues with RS3 at the moment is that it has too many cool characters to recruit. My team is largely falling into place, so the idea of switching people out for new characters that will need to be broken in doesn't sound appealing. At the same time, there are a lot of cool characters I wouldn't mind recruiting, including some of the other main heroes. Whenever I get around to a second playthrough, I'll probably choose Mikhail next since I'm getting plenty of Khalid (he was my original second choice behind Ellen) in this playthrough. The other thing that slightly bothers me is the magic system names cause the four elements are mixed up except Suzaku. Genbu is water, Soryu is Wind, and Byakko is earth, but traditionally, and even going all the way back to the first SaGa game no less, Soryu is suppose to be Water, Byakko is Wind, and Genbu is Earth. Was a little confusing in the beginning. I also have no idea what the Crown that appears next my SP stat means, so I'll have to look into that. Oh SaGa and your refusal to ever explain yourself. :p

[Rez09]

You can sometimes cheese through the tournament early in the game due to the semi random matchups you get, but I'd generally recommend putting that off until later in the game, generally around the time you are planning to fight the four main bosses, as the big reward for the tournament itself is opening up an item and character for recruitment, but doing so requires beating one of the game's nastier bosses.

I don't know if you've been doing this or not, but you can change formations in the menu and Khalid grants everyone the Desert Lance formation at the start of the game -- the formation gives a speed boost to the pointman and has them draw additional aggro, which makes it an excellent position to master Counter from. That said, I'd actually recommend removing Counter from Ellen's move list; she can spark it whenever she is physically attacked and hasn't acted yet if it isn't learned or mastered, but you HAVE to select it from her skill list to use it if it IS learned or mastered. This basically means you can use whatever attack you like if you don't have it learned and she can randomly counter with it if she is attacked before she gets her selected action off, but you lose your action for the turn if you know counter and choose to use it but an enemy doesn't attack you or uses a skill that won't trigger it.

There is a workshop in Pidona you can upgrade Khalid's Scimitar in, and its built-in Demi Rune attack can upgrade into the AoE Demi Echo attack if you keep using it against stronger enemies, and it is a contender for the best damage vs. TP cost skill in the game. Windmill is a super useful tech, and even if it is a pain to master there are several fights it'll make a lot easier if you can pass it around.

I don't know if you got skinny or fat Robin -- Skinny Robin's biggest boon is his high starting MP and good selection of wind magic, while Fat Robin starts with the very strong, and notoriously difficult to spark, Screwdriver; both characters are quite good and worth using. The biggest advice I can give for either of them is to grab an Estoc from the town you recruited them in then push for a Meteor Fragment from an early spelunk into Forneus' dungeon to forge the ultimate Epee in Pidona. Both are decent at sparking its built in tech, which is a powerful, low-ish cost AoE attack; the fire dungeon also has the Nightingale rapier in it, which has a built in heal spell they are both decent with too.

That crown next to your SP means all SP requiring skills cost 1 less to use. You earn crowns for specializing in either physical or magical attacks, and some characters have 'invisible' crowns for specific things they specialize in, the ones I recall being the Robins for Epee techs, Water spells for Boston (I believe), and, due to some odd oversight in the original, Earth for Undine.

[Wolf Kanno]

Ooh good to know about Khalid's sword and crowns. Unfortunately, I've already mastered Counter so no good there. I have been playing with Formations, just earned a new one last night from the couple who make you do the dream world. I'm also using skinny Robin.

I tried my hand at the tournament and made it to the second round, but got knocked out quickly in the second round by an annoying mage team where it seemed like every enemy used Life Drain. So I gave up there and did my first mercenary gig for Fazos I think? I saved just before I did it, because the UI is a bit misleading. I figured I simply needed to reduce the enemies moral to 0, but it turns out I needed to push the leader unit into the end field of the enemies side instead. I got the hang of it after my third attempt.

After that, I couldn't really find much else to do in the smaller towns, so I headed to Pidona where all the action seems to be. I met up with Sarah and Thomas. Was a little disappointed that Ellen and Sarah's reunion was a simply "Hi" I mean we've both been adventuring for ages, I was expecting a bit more of a scene when they reunited, especially considering they didn't leave on the best terms. Followed Thomas to Muse's house and helped saved the kid tapped in the Archfiend's old castle. You would think the people in the slums would just move in there considering its abandoned. Afterwards, I entered Muse's dream world to face off with the Dream Eater. This was a nice ode to Cyan's dream eater experience, but sadly I enjoyed VI's version a little better since we were watching a character we grew with whereas here we're getting glimpses of the psyche of a person we just met. Like both, I had to eventually look up a solution to it cause its not very good about cluing you into what you do during the loop part. I really wish I didn't have to be stuck with Charl and Muse for this mission. Not helped that only after the fact did I learn that I was meant to give him the Silver Armlet to make him less useless. Of course, I had a funny moment where again, I really wish the game gave you better item descriptions, cause I convinced myself that Khalid, whom I had given the Silver Armlet to for the defense bonus could dual wield if you gave him a second sword, not realizing it was the silver armlet doing it until again, right after the fact. Charl wasn't a bad character per se even without the item. He sparked a pretty decent Spear move. My real issue was just not having access to my fll party because the dream world turned out to be a really great place to level. Since I was stuck with Charl, I opted to bring the Minstrel since I had him as a bench-warmer, but I really should have chosen Robin so I could spark some more moves with him. I ended up getting Riptide and Dragon Tailspin for swords, Big Swing and Cranium Splitter for spears, Thunderkick for melee, Incorporeal Stance and Running Slash for Great swords, Rotator for clubs, and Megahawk and Hyper Hammer for Axe. I also learned Avoid Hypnosis and Avoid Decimate (though that one was in the Archfiend Keep) as well. Great place to level except for Muse who seriously could never catch up. I dragged her into the final fight anyways since the rest of my team was so beefy and learned later it helps you avoid his nastier second phase.

With that done, the circus is in town but I couldn't actually see anything so I left and saved for the night.

[Wolf Kanno]

Oof I did a lot today, so much I'm probably going to forget some details.



Rescued the Fairy from the circus, though she ran off.
Found Tatyana's hometown and she's no longer on my team.
Found Black's Treasure
Kicked the crap out of Undine and Volcano and stole the Archfiend Shield for myself.
Sopped a Lovecraftian inspired serial killer in Vanguard.
Transformed Vanguard into a ship.
Recruited Boston
I have found the Tower in the desert where the religious cult is. I can't seem to get in though.
Got my ass handed to me by Gwayne I want to say. The baby dragon the Matriarch raised.
Found the jungle city with hints to where that fairy ran off to.
Nearly won the Zweig Tournament thanks to Backstab but got my ass handed to me in the final round against the final Goblin enemy from Team Gob.
Got my ass handed to me by the plant creature guarding the Shifting Sands.
Restarted the Blacksmith shop in Pidona and have acquired most of the item I can that don't require a secondary item.


I think I've unlocked like 80% of the map by this point cause I'm running out of places to go. I'm actually currently doing a quest with Boston which will probably open the door to Forneus, but I really don't want to fight him as my first Archfiend. I've explored the Archfiend's Castle cause I heard the earth archfiend's location is near, but can't seem to find it. I feel I'm at the point now where I need to start fighting these elemental lords but I don't really want to face the one I'm well on my way to finding, and while I have a strong idea of where the other three are, it seems like I'm missing an event flag to activate them cause I can't really enter the tower or climb the fogged mountain. The Archfiend's Castle led me to a dead end with a magic door requiring a ring, but that almost feels like something end game. My party has grown pretty well, but I am reaching the point where I want to drop some people.

Khalid is doing okay, especially once I upgraded his scimitar to a Falchion. He seems to spark new moves more with curved blades that regular ones. I really need to develop his magic better.

The Minstrel is doing okay, but I'm also kind of bored with him already. He's been a Mace/staff specialist so far, but I'm still not terribly impressed with this weapon. He does get perks for sparking some interesting moves though.

Ward is the guy I'm the most conflicted with. On the one hand, I was never partial to his character but he's been a pretty good badass and I feel like a Greatsword specialist seems a bit rare in this game so far. I may still drop him though despite being one of my better characters.

Robin is amusing but my god it seems like an act of god to get him to master moves. I blame that for why sparking new rapier moves has been rare with him simply because I'm wasting too much time trying to master the few he has sparked. I do love his high wind magic though, and I keep forgetting he has them. I will probably drop him eventually as well, but I can see myself picking him back up later.

Ellen is not doing so bad, she's been sparking some really good crowd controlling techs, but I wish she would spark a few more boss killing kinds cause I'm getting smacked around a bit more than I am comfortable with. I really need to focus on her magic, I've been severely neglecting it. I wish she would spark more melee abilities, but perhaps Boston will fix that area.

[Rez09]

The Divine King's Tower is part of a quest chain you have actually already started, but you lack a required character to move it on. It is fully optional however, though, I'd argue, is pretty worth doing, as long as you can deal with the Red Dragon there, since it is harder than the actual boss of the tower.

Forneus is the hardest of the four fiends, but his dungeon is super easy to access and has some decent loot with no sub-bosses guarding them. The Meteor Fragment is only a few screens in, hidden in a side room along the right side of one of the walls, and alone is worth running in to get, as it makes a good items in the workshop.

The mountain fiend cannot be fought until one of the other three are taken down, so you aren't doing anything wrong with that flag or missing a conversation anywhere or anything.

The locked door a the bottom of the castle isn't end game and the earth fiend is probably the best one to start with. His dungeon has several mini-bosses, but all can be skipped, and the ring itself is a pretty decent accessory I'd recommend picking up as soon as you can even if you want to put off fighting Arakes himself.

Dobis and Master Dobis, those little goblin archers, are stupid nasty, but you can find a shield called a Wonder Bangle that offers something like 99% evade against bow attacks; I believe one is in Arakes Dungeon, which is the one I usually pick up.

As I recall, only 4 characters in the game are especially good with greatswords, and since two basically don't count due to limited recruitment, Ward and Paul are your options for that.

[Wolf Kanno]

The Divine King's Tower is part of a quest chain you have actually already started, but you lack a required character to move it on. It is fully optional however, though, I'd argue, is pretty worth doing, as long as you can deal with the Red Dragon there, since it is harder than the actual boss of the tower.

Good to know. Is this the quest that requires the old pirate in Arch Stone? I can't seem to recruit him even though I've picked up his treasure. Funny enough, he was the first guy I talked to about the treasure in that town.



Forneus is the hardest of the four fiends, but his dungeon is super easy to access and has some decent loot with no sub-bosses guarding them. The Meteor Fragment is only a few screens in, hidden in a side room along the right side of one of the walls, and alone is worth running in to get, as it makes a good items in the workshop.

Yeah I remember reading that in one of your earlier conversations in this thread no less. Don't really want to deal with him yet, but I may take up the offer to explore his dungeon.


The mountain fiend cannot be fought until one of the other three are taken down, so you aren't doing anything wrong with that flag or missing a conversation anywhere or anything.

Good to know.


The locked door a the bottom of the castle isn't end game and the earth fiend is probably the best one to start with. His dungeon has several mini-bosses, but all can be skipped, and the ring itself is a pretty decent accessory I'd recommend picking up as soon as you can even if you want to put off fighting Arakes himself.

So I just need to find this ring. Hm...


Dobis and Master Dobis, those little goblin archers, are stupid nasty, but you can find a shield called a Wonder Bangle that offers something like 99% evade against bow attacks; I believe one is in Arakes Dungeon, which is the one I usually pick up.

Yeay, I was doing really well until the Master variant, who is wickedly fast wiped out three of my party members in the first round and Ellen probably could have taken him out if he didn't pull off that Arrow spam attack that did over 500hp of damage. I was really piss how close I was to finishing this quest.


As I recall, only 4 characters in the game are especially good with greatswords, and since two basically don't count due to limited recruitment, Ward and Paul are your options for that.

I've noticed a serious lack of Greatsword users. Maybe they were compensating for having too many classes in RS2 that could use them. The starting Heavy and LIght infantry had a lot of people who could use the class. Ugh, that makes dropping Ward a bit more difficult for me cause his techs have been pretty great overall. I have yet to encounter Paul.

[Rez09]

Yeah, Herman is the person that tells you about Black's Cave and is also the person you need for the quest. You've already gotten Vanguard to move, so I don't think you can recruit him any longer, but it may be possible by recruiting Nora then visiting the tavern in Pidona and talking to the barkeep. The flag for him telling you about Red Coral around where Herman is has always been wonky and might not work, but it is probably your best shot.

Paul can be recruited in two ways. The first is to lose to the thieves during the missions from the man in the Lance weaponshop with an open party slot and a non-Nora/Ellen female party member. The second way is to visit Nina's house after clearing an Abyss Gate -- she's in the town with the Sacrificial Cave quest in the bottom right house.

You've been in the town with the Ring, and probably talked to the person that has it honestly, but he won't mention it or give it to you until you've seen Arakes' door. You are supposed to piece together where it is from one of the comments you hear in the top-right house in the northern part of Pidona, but even then the hint isn't super clear.

[Wolf Kanno]

Found the ring, thank you for the tip. Sadly I don't think I can recruit Nora as I started the blacksmith scenario but have yet to see her since. I've recruited all of the former blacksmiths though. They are currently making me a Francisca and the Beastial Leather I think?

Anyway, wandered the caves beneath Boston's home and met the dragon Forneus sent to murder his species. Took him down and managed to spark three really good techs finally giving me a high damage axe skill and another great high damage Greatsword skill, as well as Pressure Point for melee. I really wish Robin would start sparking better rapier techs. I also wish someone in my party would spark Blood Suck or Life Drain Immunity so I can finally be done with those two annoying enemy skills. The dragon enemy also gave me my first taste of one of the more annoying aspect of the Archfiends which will likely be them manipulating the elemental field to get that doozy of a regen bonus every round. The most annoying part of the fight was having to make two party members go from using high damage skills to elemental spells/skills just to change the field effect so the boss would stop regenerating 999hp every round.

With that done, I opted to go to Zweig and do the tournament which I finally won. I even got my revenge on the Goblin team. I forgot to mention this last time, but I also did the quest for the professor to take out her demon car running amok, which was a pretty cool battle I remember seeing glimpses of from screenshots. The music track for the fight is pretty stellar, though I would say that Romancing SaGa 3 has probably the best soundtrack so far of the three SNES entries.

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With the tournament done, I was asked to go meet out neighborhood vampire and retrive the Holy Grail he's guarding, and so now I'm doing a standard RPG flavored version of Castlevania with all the sub-bosses guarding the rather lackluster treasure of his castle. I hope I don't need an open spot to recruit Leonid when I finish this and can come back, cause my team is still at full capacity.

Boston by the way has been interesting, very similar to the non-human races you can recruit in RS2 although Boston is leagues better than the Nerid race.

[Rez09]

If you didn't opt to recruit Nora at the start of the blacksmith mission she is gone forever -- you still might be able to get the coral message from the tavern without her though, so I'd give it a shot.

Fun story about those elemental fields: you can use them for regeneration and evasion as well. There is a water spell called Water Pole (I believe, I'm not super familiar with the Remake names), and Dancing Leaves in Wind Magic that grant the target the magical shield status, which grants end of turn regeneration and something like a 20% chance to dodge attacks when the spell's respective field is active.

You seem to be fairly developed stat wise, so there are two easily missed quests that you can open now. If you talk to the Astronomer's sister in Lance she should have an option to ask about the Aurora, which she should tell you is approaching now. To find it, after you see that message, exit to the region map, then again to the world map, and wait for a good long while (Feels like around 5 minutes to me, but I'm super impatient, so it may be less) -- don't leave when it starts, make sure it fully occurs, then return to the region map around Lance and you should see the Aurora Path. There is an item called the 'Dragon Scale' you find in Leonid's castle (and in two other locations, though one is permanently missable) which makes end-game tier gear in the workshop, but you can't use until you encounter one of a certain class of enemies, the first of which is at the end of Aurora Path quest.

The other is a hidden cave that opens by talking to an old woman in the bottom left house of the left of the two towns that are fighting each other with mercenary armies -- I believe the second 'transport-goods-past-thieves' mission leads you to the right of the two towns. It's the one below the Thieves Cave if you went there earlier. She'll tell you about either the Thieves Cave or Ancient Cave. You'll need to find a password in the Devil King's Castle to fight the boss in the ancient cave, but it is the best grinding spot in the game outside of the new bonus dungeon or Khalid's unique dungeon.

[Wolf Kanno]

Oh well next time I guess for Herman and Nora. Maybe when I do a Katrina run.

[Wolf Kanno]

Proper Update:

I finished the Holy Grail quest, and damn Yami is a an asshole. I should have known from the name since he's a mythological bigwig. I had to read up on why he was regenerating 999hp per round was because he had one of the Celestial environment magics going, but while I was able to change it a little with some of my Solar/Lunar magic I have simply not leveled up my magic to make this a worthwhile endeavor.

The real killer for me was just not having a good set up. Two of my characters were sporting good armor that unfortunately gave them a Lightning weakness while the few who compensated for that had Blunt damage weakness which made his headbutt move almost a TPK. Between his annoying regeneration and spamming the Group Suction spell my next biggest problem was that he kept killing Boston who had all my Water healing magic and his melee did great damage to him, whereas Robin tended to be one of the last men standing but he has no good techs for damage. In fact this fight has made me start to consider dropping him because the man will just not spark new Rapier techs, loves to spark defensive ones, but they are never skills I would love to have a defense against like Charm, Life Stealer, or Blood Suck which were all too common in this dungeon. Thankfully my other three characters had great damage techs that could compensate for Yami's healing every round but it still turned into a "finger cross" as Ellen was the last one standing. I was a little annoyed I had to stick to techs cause boss fights are great places to spark new techs. The other issue was just finding a decent formation to use. Yami's lightning skill attacked a line, but outside of Free for All, most of my formations had some part of the team lined up. I ended up sticking to Genbu Stance for the regen effect since this boss could hit really hard, despite this stances terrible penalty to speed. I did pick up a few good items in the last part of the dungeon including a nice piece of armor I wish I had for that fight.

With that done, I got the Grail, but decided I wasn't going to give it to the king of Zweig cause fuck him and his tournament. I was debating about dropping Robin by this point for Leonid, but kept him on cause I really would like some new Rapier skills that aren't the usual "inflict status/skip turn" variety. Went back to Pidona to pick up my new gear and set my blacksmith shop to make new stuff. I took Rez09's advice and opened up the ruins by the warring towns. I really wish I had fought more battles here, I kept dodging a few cause I was bee lining for treasure but ended up finding the boss first. After Yami, this thing was a joke. I just made sure it didn't turn the field to Earth magic and largely smacked it around. Killing it ended up making all of the enemies disappear but at least I acquired a Deathstone for crafting. I did thankfully fight enough battles to get my next set so I'm getting a Dread Ring for my trouble.

I did forget the other place Rez09 told me, so I instead wandered back to Archstone and Vanguard. The Pub owner does mention Red Coral in the Tepid Sea, nut it doesn't seem to activate any kind of quest, so I opted to head back to the desert and quicksand area. I took out the plant guardians by just treating them like the boss they really are and now I have been swept away to the Great Plains, which seems to be a popular locale in these games as all three Romancing SaGa titles have some Great Plains area and a character/class associated with a nomadic tribe that lives on there. Boston has now been kidnapped by some elder lady who wants to study him, and I have her granddaughter leading me on a trip to visit a not-so-friendly tribe to the south to figure out better relations before the Elder Lady will give me Boston back and send me to the one nation in the east that can possibly get me a boat trip back to the main area of the game.

Since I have a source of free healing and a new Archer character, I'm thinking I may grind some levels in magic for Khalid and Ellen while giving Robin and the new girl a chance to spark some much needed techs for their weapon types. I am happy to finally have some money after the tournament, but I'm hesitant to spend much of it since money seems to be a lot harder to come by in this entry compared to the first two entries. I figure I may try to craft some better gear before I invest too heavily since I've sort of hit a plateau on available gear in regular shops.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update!

After traversing the Desert of Death, I ended up on the plains where I had an archer forcibly placed in my party at the loss of my Lobster man Boston. I did as the old woman said and traveled to the south the to speak with the natives. Kind of clever how they did this cause half the cave system is a dungeon. The elven looking figures walking around turn out to be monsters while the creepy insect people turn out to be the tribe you need to talk about. They inform us of a great evil summoning the Sinistral forces up in the north. With our missions complete, I lose the archer girl and get Boston back and sent on my way to the Eastern capital, where as the old lady had predicted, I was immediately captured and imprisoned since I am a foreigner. The old lady turns out to have some sway over the captain of the guard and so I get sent on a mission to hunt down whatever dark force is summoning all of these monsters. Turns out its the Archfiend's Armor which was buried in a cave. Had to fight it and the minions it summoned but now I have me some cursed armor to go with that Shield I stole right from under Volcano and Undine's noses.

With peace restored, I was finally able to explore Xuan proper and leave to head back to Pidona to get my new items. Afterwards, I did the Aurora quest Rez09 mentioned and I'm glad I got a heads up, cause I have no idea how you would have figured out how to do that with otherwise. That sent me to Snowman village and an ice themed dungeon where I acquired the Eternal Crystal that I can use to enlist one of the snowmen, as well as the Ice Sword which was a much needed Greatsword upgrade for Ward. Picked up two more items from my shop and I also unlocked the new remake dungeon, though like RS2, I'm going to ignore it until near the end of the game.

I headed back to the Jungle to see if I can find that fairy, and instead found the Fire Sinistrals temple, so now I have a better option than Forneus as my first Sinistral. I eventually found the fairy village after looking up a guide to find it since the Jungle is super confusing and has a bit of a Lost Woods vibe to it. Not really worth the trouble outside of stumbling on the Fire Temple. I then headed back to the plains and heard about an elephant village who said go west on the plains. I misinterpreted this as having to travel through the plains and wound up back in the Desert of Death where I discovered the Crystal Ruins. Got some nice gear here and left. I then learned that talking to guy actually had the village appear on the map proper, so I went in there and learned about some ruins. I traversed the ruins and picked up a few good pieces of equipment though I'm still missing a few rooms. I discovered the final treasure which through me into a boss fight I wasn't expecting and I got totally wiped for my trouble, so I'll need to redo the ruins altogether. I chose to close there for the night.

While I do want to play with some other party members, having the archer character in my party sort of re-introduced me to the hard truth that recruiting a new character will likely be a pain in the ass since they'll be underleveled compared to my main team. We'll see. I will also apologize to Robin cause I finally looked up a Tech guide for this game only to discover the poor boy has largely sparked most of the non-weapon specific Techs for rapiers. It's just a crappy weapon, as usual. Unless of course we're talking the first two SaGa games where they are a great weapon class. Back to techs, I've honestly sparked more techs than I thought I did and with the exception of staff/hammers and spears, I've sparked a good chunk of techs for every weapon type with only a few endgame techs, techs that can only be learned by using other techs, and weapon specific techs being the things I'm missing. I'm also chuckling because one tech I am just having the hardest time sparking is Yo-Yo which has been a tech that always gives me a harder time than I feel it should sparking than any other Axe skill. I may not learn it now since I one of the items in the Ruined Sea is an axe upgrade to replace the Francesca. So here's my team rundown.

Ellen - She's my main powerhouse for the team after learning a few high end Axe skills that allow her to get close to the 2000hp damage mark. I still need to buff her magic, but I've stopped leveling her melee to focus on getting her Axe proficiency as high as possible. She's been a really good party member this whole game. I'm trying to Spark Yo-yo, Sky Drive, and I think there is one more skill I'm missing associated with her Twist and Turn tech. Other than that, it's mostly weapon specific skills.

Khalid - Has been pretty stable compared most sword experts I've dealt with in the series. Very reminiscent of Grey from RS1. Not having the weapons tech tree split among five different tech types certainly helped. He's missing a few more skills than other characters but sword has more techs than most other weapon types I've noticed. He has been using an Evil Eye for his main sword, which I've already sparked it's two token skills. I do need to get him to work on spears and magic more.

Ward - Has probably been the biggest surprise within the party. Greatswords are just a badass weapon in the Romancing series and whereas Khalid and Ellen have one token high end skill to use in boss fights, Ward has two, and technically has two more I need to spark. These weapons are so good, I didn't even realize until after I acquired the Ice Sword that Ward has been using one of the weaker Greatswords in the game. Currently I'm trying to spark both of the Ice Sword's unique techs as well as the last two regular techs I need that are connected to earlier techs.

Robin - Has been a little disappointing, but in hindsight it's really more of the fault of Rapiers just kind of being more of a debuff weapon than a pure offensive one like Axes and Greatswords. The other issue is myself, cause I could have built him into a better character if I hadn't been stubborn about using him to his strengths and instead focus on building him with more practical skills like one-handed swords and Genbu magic. He did finally spark a good tech for dealing with Undead, but I think I only have two skills left including the highest end tech and one that can only be taught by using the Mesmerize tech. I get the feeling the real big damage techs are directly linked to specific weapons, making this closer to RS1 where the rapier was a useless weapon until you got the rare story based fourth tier weapon. His Soryu magic has been great, though I should have invested in Tornado earlier in the game.

Boston - Is not a bad character, but certainly one that is built for very specific things only. He has largely doubled the amount of Melee techs I have unlocked, and he's a real powerhouse. His high end Genbu magic was also super useful once I taught him a few more useful skills. His water immunity is also super useful in places. Boston's only problem is his crappy equipment options, turning him into more of a glass cannon than I would care for. He also tends to get targeted more often than any other character, likely due to his lower defensive stats to the rest of my better geared team. I'm liking him, but I may also drop him for the moment until I need to deal with Forneus.

The Minstrel - Has been on the backburner for quite some time. If I had known he would not be able to be dropped until I took down a Sinistral first, I would probably had avoided him. He's largely part of the issue of why I haven't really been able to play around with more party members cause he's the character I'd love to drop, but simply can't. He's not a bad character at all, but I find that with SaGa titles, it's better to stick with a specialist and just build a well-rounded party than to deal with Jack-of-All types. It's part of the reason why I rarely used mercenaries in RS2. He has sparked some great skills, and I did try to make him a staff/club specialist, but that's another weapon type that is pretty subpar outside of a few weapon specific techs and the endgame ones. I remember it took a long time to like this weapon type in every entry I've played.

My gameplay for the moment is to finish the Rotten Sea dungeon and finally tackle one of the Sinistrals. I kind of want to save Earth for last, and I know Wind doesn't unlock until I beat one first. That leaves Forneus, who has a reputation as the hardest boss in the game and whoever the Fire Sinistral is. So I may tackle the Fire Sinistral first, but I'm probably going to drop Boston recruit the snowman cause I've heard there may be a special scene if you bring him to the fight. Once that's over, I'm probably going to drop the Minstrel and snowman so I can either recruit Sara or Theodore to get a bow or spear specialist on the team. I may even drop Robin as well and simply grab both. I read somewhere I need to leave a slot open if I want to recruit Mikhail and his group who have been non-existent since the prologue. I may also dabble with Leonid as well.

I'm pretty sure Khalid and Ward are not going to leave my team, they are both just too useful to drop at this point, especially since it look like Greatsword experts are in short supply in this entry in Ward's case.

[Rez09]

If you can beat the green Dragon Ruler, you should be able to take down all of the Sinistrals. ;p

If you want Julian, Monica, or Mikhail, they can only be recruited until Byunei is defeated on Taftan -- once she is down, unless Mikhail specifically (as I recall, anyway) is in your party, the Loanne Castle doors lock up again.

[Wolf Kanno]

Ah, good to know. I didn't play yesterday so I don't have any real updates. I have found some great fan art though.

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[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

This one will be a doozy. The Theme of tonight's playthrough is how procrastination and screwing around instead of doing what you're told can actually be beneficial.

After getting thumped like four times by the Dragonlord, and thumped in such a way where I knew I needed better gear and a full party using endgame techs and magic, I departed from the ruins, but stole everything else. I'm pretty sure I've screwed up all of my chances to deal with the Archfiend Tower, so I plunged into taking out the Four Sinistrals (Lufia flashbacks notwithstanding) and so I dropped Boston and recruited Flurry the Snowman, who was a bad trade outside of the fact the guy is virtually immune to fire magic thanks to the item that lets him leave his village. The Fire Temple was pretty easy, and I was a little surprised how low level the monsters in there were. Aunas the Fire Sinistral was rather tame as a boss with only his permanent Self-Immolation protection causing me serious issues. In fact that spell did most of the damage for him. He still went down fairly easily though.

Next up, I decided to drop Flurry cause yikes, as well as the Minstrel after I stripped all his gear off of him. I went to Loann and picked up Mikhail and then I went to Pidona and picked up Sarah. I didn't make the same mistake with Mikhail as I did with Robin, and I made him my spear specialist which compliments his rapier talents. I did slip into the Ocean Palace to clear of all of its treasures, and it was easily the biggest pain in the ass of the four dungeons just because it loved to use narrow corridors with standard SaGa bajillion enemies trying to bum rush you. was still a little worried about tackling Forneus yet, so I left and decided to tackle fan-favorite and Rocbouquet's successor Buné the Wind Sinistral. I remembered getting my ass handed to me by a different dragon earlier in the game called Gwayne whom my party was trying to convince to help them. Walking back to his den, I ended up hitting pay dirt in a battle where I managed to spark Sky Drive, Yo-Yo, Twin Dragon, and like three different Bow techs. Sky Drive, for those who don;t know is one of the best Axe Techs and one that is ridiculously hard to spark. Once I reached Gwayne, I was ready for another throw down, but this time he actually decided to help me out of his pride as the master of the sky. While this fight was super easy, it wins major points for just being super cool as you battle Buné in the sky with just your lead character and Gwayne. Gwayne is a beast in battle and he has a tech where both of you combine an attack together. Pretty neat. Afterwards, I returned to the boss's den to actually collect all the loot because going with Gwayne makes you skip her dungeon entirely and just fight her. Prety annoying place with the weird ameba monsters.

With that done and the Celestial Armor I made from the Meteorite Shard, I ventured back into Forneus' den to face him. I have a feeling that either he was toned down for this version, I was a little too over-leveled, or the RNG gods were simply in my favor cause I whooped his ass. I only saw Maelstrom once, and it didn't kill anyone either. The only hard part with him was just keeping the elemental field away from water, which I am grateful I bought Earth Heal for Ellen. After that resounding success, I thought I might as well just take down all four.

Alloces lair was not what I was expecting, but I have to remember he's technically hanging out in the old Archfiend's Lair. It was a pretty trippy sci-fi setting which was neat. The hard part of this dungeon was just making sure I don't find the boss first before the treasure, especially since this lair had more bosses guarding treasure like two more Meteorite Shards! Again, I was way over leveled but the boss ended up getting an advantage over me since he was the last Sinistral. Reaching his chamber had my party encounter the rude boy you always find in Pubs who always tells you to scram. Anyway, with the previous Sinistrals, when you find their chamber you usually have an opportunity to choose whether you'll fight them or come back later so you can heal up, but this story sequence plunged my party straight into a fight and we were a little more beaten up than I would have liked, made worse by me trying to level up magic for my party cause I've neglected it for so long I don't even have enough MP to cast some of the ultimate spells with some of my characters. Thankfully, Alloces was a joke though he did smack Sarah around since she had the lowest HP/Def of the team. With that over, I hit the major twist in the game and lost a party member but traded them in for the Boy. So with that all over, I decided to call it night after I turned in my last two shards for their items in the Blacksmith and I opened up the Matriarch Trials, which I'll do tomorrow.

Current Team:

Ellen - Has become a serious powerhouse, I'm still trying to spark the weapons skill off the Axe I picked up in the swamp ruins where the Dragonlord is. I have made the Bowler Axe as well, but I haven't decided if I'm going to upgrade just yet. I've been trying to power up her Earth Magic and get her more MP. She'll need a lot of work in that area, but honestly now that I have Skydrive, I only have one more tech I need for her Axes, which I hope I will spark since it looks like it's an upgraded group hitting attack. Axes have always been a weapon I underestimate int these titles, glad I went with them in this entry with Ellen. She's my powerhouse of the team. She using a Celestial Armor, Lightning Shoes, Power Gloves and the Royal Ring.

Khalid - Has been having a seriously hard time sparking any new techs, but he did finally master Monsoon Blade which is a tech he's had for over half the game and is his go to boss killer skill. Like Ellen, I've been trying to level up his magic, and likewise, I'm sticking to raise his Wind Magic, of which Khalid has serious envy with Robin who has four times as much MP and double his level in the magic. I'm happy I have him focusing on swords, and he's currently using the Dragonscale Sword as his main weapon. I can't remember what's he's equipped with but I do need to finally buy him a Power Gloves like Ellen. I've been waiting to unlock most of the gear before I go on a serious spending spree.

Ward - Has also been having issues sparking the last few techs, but most of them are understandable. Ward has been a serious powerhouse and for the first time now, I finally got him out of full armor. Found a few pieces of good gear for him, and the Ice Sword has been phenomenal allowing his normal attack to do as much damage as his lower techs. My only beef with the weapon is that while I love it has the ice equivalent of Self-Immolation, I'm annoyed that activating the counter it gives substitutes his actual turn. I've had a few encounters get dragged out because the enemy target him and he does his weak ice counter instead of his enemy killing tech I asked him to. Other than that, Ward's been great and I really have no qualms with keeping him on the team.

Sarah - I forgot I gave her the Vivacity Staff in the beginning of the game. That would have been useful... Sarah was having a difficult time catching up, but she was doing a pretty good job, The issue being that I was really bad about mastering bow techniques so she's sparked a ton of techs, just mostly stuff my previous two archer characters had also sparked before. None of them are endgame techs either, but that's fine since I prefer using bows for mobs. I gave her Water magic to go with her Lunar magic, but it's evident she prefers leveling Lunar over water.

Mikhail - While he is still behind my main three, he's making good strides thanks to giving him spears of which I discovered I had a lot of good techs for, and lucking out and acquiring a Titan Armor in one of the dungeons which has made him as durable as my main team. He's sparked a few good spear techs, and as I said the transition isn't so hard since spears and rapiers are leveled by the same stats. I taught him Fire Magic because I have seriously neglected it, I think Tatyana was the only other fire specialist I've used. Though, much like Sarah, Mikhail prefers Solar magic that he started with. I'm probably going to keep Mikhail until endgame. I'll leave Leonid for NG+, though I may play as Mikhail for my next playthrough if I don't pick Katrina.

Robin - Has been benched, and while part of me was thinking of dropping him for either Undine or one of the Far East characters, I may stick with him cause he's been with me through a lot and he's better built for it than trying to train up someone new. So he's in reserved, and may be back on the main squad soon if the new kid doesn't pan out.

The Boy - Haven't had a chance to really use him, but I'm excited he's a greatsword specialist, so I was able to outfit him with some good techs and can now double my chances of sparking the remaining skills. Glad I kept the Flamberge since the kids starting gear was rubbish. I've taught him Water and Solar magic but the kids main issue at the moment looks to be the same problem I had with Flurry where he's so underleveled he may not be able to catch up fast enough. I'm a little annoyed the game dropped him into my party to be honest. This reminds me of Meythia in SF2 who was a decent character that was unfortunately dumped on you in the second to last dungeon and was unfortunately unable to catch up to my main party. Not helped that her specialties overlapped with another character I had longer. I'm hoping this kid will turn out better.

Overall, it's looking like I'm not too far off from wrapping this game up.

[Rez09]

If you don't mind playing around the downsides, the Devil King Shield you stole from Undine and Volcano prevents the Ice Barrier status from the Ice Sword from being set, so you won't ever lose a turn to that weak counter attack and Ward will have around a 20% chance to block any blockable attack.

Forneus DID seem easier in the remake, but he's always been a very RNG heavy boss, so it is hard to say.

[Wolf Kanno]

Good to know, I may switch over to the shield for him when I get ready to do the final dungeon.

I'm sure the Forneus situation was just a combination of me being a little too overleveled, the game making him a bit easier by toning down his RNG, and what little RNG was there just fell into my favor. A similar situation happened with Subier in RS2 though I did deny him his upgrade, but his aspect was the one that seriously screwed me over the most after Rocbouquest's Charm spell for the final boss fight.

I do need to start leveling magic and maybe practice using those Fusion spells since I know most of them are good from RS2, but it seems like they went out of their way to make them more cumbersome to use in this entry. If I've learned anything from the SaGa series its that you should never neglect magic cause it almost always bites you in the ass by the endgame.

[Rez09]

Fusion spells and multi-techs in this game, while definitely extremely strong, are limited to Commander Mode and cannot be used normally -- swap Ellen into the 'Bench' spot on your party and go into battle to play around with it a little bit. It makes formations, loadout, and position more important, but you give up fine tuned control for it; Sarah is a really good character to use if you do a later run and want to play through with it.

[Wolf Kanno]

Good to know, a later playthrough is going to be interesting.

Update Time!

Oof, this was a rough patch.

So I did the Hunter, Royal, and Challenge trials to gain some of the Matriarch's armor at her shrine. Hunter was a pain because it doesn't really explain what you need to do, so I had to look it up. Basically this ninja guy challenges you to "use your bow skills" but what he's really asking is for you to actually land a hit on him, which is damn near impossible under normal means since his evasion is sky high. The trick is to use a skill like Flash Arrow, which has 100% accuracy. Once that was finished, I made smooth sailing and was happy to learn The Boy is actually not a shabby Bow user.

The Royal was easier, you either choose a long path that deals with lots of annoying weak enemies, or you do the short path where you fight three bosses in a row. I went short path and even managed to Spark (though I haven't managed to master) Disarm, the final defensive tech for Greatswords.

The Challenge was interesting and way more obnoxious than the previous two. First you face off with a boss who challenges your life force by using a tech that only targets LP. Thankfully he has like little health and without even using high end techs I could take him down in one round. The second fight was the doozy, involving a fight against five enemies with way more health than I would care for, using nothing but charm attacks on my team. I had to redo this fight several times before I lucked out and was able to win with minimal damage. Charm is easily the most obnoxious enemy ability in the series, being the bane of my existence for all three Romancing entries. More on that later...

With this done, I learned that all the gear I have left to make at Pidona requires an item. I have all weapons but one, but it requires a Deathshard of which there is only one per game and I've already used it for the defensive item. The last three defensive items I have require rare item drops and one item I can only find doing the Maximus quest, of which I'm pretty sure I missed my chances to activate. So... I went back to the Ruins by the SaGa India city and had my rematch with the Dragonlord. He was still a bitch to face, especially since the Boy is way underleveled, but I managed to score a victory and got to keep the cool shield he was guarding.

With nothing else to do but the new optional dungeon, I decided to advance the story... Big mistake. I really should have hit up the optional dungeon first, cause I hit a point of no return. So traveling to SaGa China, I learned that the hidden fifth Gate to the Abyss was being guarded by the Emperor of SaGa China and I had to team up with my allies there to sneak into his castle. This involved a war battle, which I initially failed, but retried a few times until I was able to get five hour delay on the enemy despite losing most of my forces. The Castle was a huge boss gauntlet, but I really liked the fact the layout and story sequence was very similar to the Edo sequence in SaGa 2. Even the final boss was a battle on the rooftop of the castle and involved the ruler summoning a proxy to face instead. There were a few nasty fights for sure in this area, but I breezed through faster than I thought I would. What makes this the point of no return is that once you enter a new room that isn't a treasure room, you can't back away, so I was trapped in the castle the moment I entered, and now I'm stuck in the Abyss dealing with the rematch fights against the four Sinistrals.

Aunus was the first to be taken down. He was more obnoxious than I remember and his permanent Self-Immolation effect meant that characters like Khalid were screwed outside of having him manipulate the elemental fields to keep the boss from getting his regen bonus. In fact keeping Khalid and the Boy alive was a real pain in the ass, but this boss did eventually go down. I find his true form interesting since he was one of the more human looking Sinistrals with this Apollo/Ares style design, while his true form is an old wizard made of fire.

Alloces was the next up, and the main thing that saved me a bunch of grief for this fight was having the majority of my party spark Earthquake defense which neutered his most annoying attack that I can't normally defend against. I did have a bit more of a challenge trying to keep the elemental field from Earth, not helped by the fact my best mage is earth elemental. Still, this fight has been the least stressful and took the fewest attempts to win.

Then there is Byūnei. I love how the easiest Sinistral fight for me has turned into the biggest fucking pain in my ass. She was actually the first one I faced, and she whooped my ass so many times I decided to check out the other bosses hoping to get some stat boosts to make this fight easier. My initial issue was her stupid Gaze attack which kept charming party members, even Ellen. Though to be honest, her entire attack pattern is obnoxious. She can attack up to four times a round, has a charm attack, that obnoxious Delta attack that does ludicrous damage even when my characters blocks it, and her obnoxious shield attack that halves all damage she takes. She's also the fastest of the bosses so far so trying to plan around healing has not been helping and the effects of Hypergravity and Hasten Time don't seem to matter much against her. I ended up going back to the Earth Sinistrals area to grind Lilith's who also have the Gaze technique and I sparked and mastered the defensive technique just so I can give it to my whole party. While the other two were no slouches either, she has proven how poorly developed my team has been up until this point for endgame, especially since I never really had a chance to develop the Boy, and its showing. Not helping things is how Khalid has transformed into a glass cannon for these boss fights. I've had to rest a few fights cause he got LP killed a few times. Once again, the series poor equipment communication is likely to blame cause despite having what looks to be the highest defense and magic defense, he seems to always take twice as much damage so his gear is obviously low on some kind of defense option I can't see. I also really wish I had taught him some water magic cause having my speediest character with a healing option would be nice, but then again, he spends 3/4ths of his time healing himself. Now that I have Gaze defense and don't have to worry about Charm, I feel I have a slightly better chance against her, but she's been brutal and one of the toughest fights to keep out of the Wind field since a lot of her moves are high level wind spells and my MP is limited for high end spells to keep changing the field.

Course the biggest issue at hand is that my team is hardly optimal. I really didn't think I would be plunged into the final area with no means of going back, so my party is not outfitted as well as I would have liked. I meant to pick up more Earthen Shields and Power Gloves for the whole team for instance.

The Boy is way too underleveled and while I've tried to raise his MP and magic levels, he is highly resistant to doing this. While I have a few good bows and Greatswords for his weapon options, he's underleveled in them to be a major damage dealer, so I'm mainly using him for support with a Staff of Vivacity. His other issue is that he has the lowest HP and not the best armor options I could really give him. I spent some time grinding him up more HP, but I really should grind him another 50hp just to be safe. I would like to raise his weapon levels as well since they factor in the most for his techs, but magic is priority since he's the only character with Water magic. I am also a bit disappointed with Hasten Time. It has a huge MP cost (all of your MP) and doesn't seem to make as much fo a difference as it did in RS2. I'm also disappointed it doesn't speed up the battle music like it did in RS2.

Khalid, as I said before, is just taking too much damage per round. I imagine its because I have him equipped with a Twilight Robe, I may need to switch his armor for the boy since Khalid is a front row fighter. I did manage to spark his upgraded Scimitar attack, not that it does me much good at this point. His magic has gotten good, and Tornado proved invaluable against Alloces but against the actual Wind Sinistral, his magic is a liability. Also the ultimate spell for Wind Magic is terrible. Sacrifice LP for HP instead, like that's useful. Maybe if I had a character with 30 LP.

Ward has been a pretty awesome asset for most of these fights. he's my actual tank, and I'm happy I was told about the Archfiend Shield. While it doubles his SP cost for skills, he has the second highest SP of my team, so no worries there. My biggest gripe was that he managed to Spark Scattered Petals, which is like the best Greatsword skill in the game the last time I fought Byunei, but since I can't run from these fights, I lost it instead. Here's hoping I can get it again cause the extra thousand damage it does is much appreciated.

Mikhail has also been a great character, but these fights are finally showing that I need to develop him more. I need to boost his MP so I can cast Revivar twice for instance. He's sparked a few good epee and spear techs and he does great damage and can survive pretty well despite his low HP. I just need to beef him up a bit better and I wish I could spark Triple Strike/Triumverate or Beast God Stab/Divine Lancer. He's come through the most of the new characters.

Ellen is still a gem and the real powerhouse of my team. My only problem at this point is that I need two of her on my team. She's been the happiest accident of the team as she's proven to be the most flexible in that she deals the heaviest damage but she's a good healer in a pinch as well. I have also managed to raise her Earth magic past 20, so she's doing pretty good on that front. She's only missing one Axe skill (the actual best one it seems, Deadly Spin) but she has so many good endgame ones and high enough Axe skill to be the best damage dealer on the team. My main issue now is that my other party members are constantly dragging her into support rolls in these boss fights.

I may attempt Byunei a few more time. Hoping the Gaze defense will allow me to whittle her health down more and eventually win. I'm already dreading Forneus and grateful I kept all those Fish Scales in my inventory so I can at least have some defense against his water magic. Going back to series tradition, all the enemies in the final area that are not bosses, are not the best for sparking new techs, but I'm thankfully still getting good HP/SP/MP gains. The free healing is also very much appreciated. I haven't been this poorly prepared for a final boss gauntlet since RS1 and probably SaGa 2.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

Game, set, and match.

This was a doozy. The extra levels and access to Gaze defense certainly helped me out with Byunei, but I ended up having to sacrifice one of my Vivacity Staffs to save my party towards the end, cause it seems like she gets a boost to all of her attacks after her HP is nearly depleted. In fact, every boss in this dungeon seems to do that, but its never telegraphed to you, you start noticing attacks OHKO people. On the brightside, I managed to spark a new sword tech with Khalid and I got the Greatsword one back as well, though I only managed to master the sword one. She was easily the toughest fight of this bunch, and I would argue she ended up being the hardest boss in the final area overall with some stiff competition.

Forneus, who turns out is a sexy Greek god in his true form, was far more manageable than the other bosses. Switching to the defensive formation really helped because he likes physical attacks more than magic. The real fun part was deciding I wasn't going to bother switching the elemental field with him cause it was too much of a pain in the ass and lo and behold, I managed to do by accident anyway.

With those two out of the way, it was time to face the final boss, but RS3 had one more below the belt punch waiting for me. After spending so much time leveling up the Boy, the game removed him from my party for story reasons, meaning I got stuck using Robin of whom I had benched for quite awhile. This caused me to have to rearrange a few things and dropped a second magic healer from my team since only Earth, Water, and Lunar have healing spells. I now kind of regretted using that fourth Vivacity Staff I had. The final boss... is weird. Not that this isn't new for the series in general. Thank god I defeated the Four Sinistral first otherwise I wouldn't have stood a chance. The boss pulls a Xenogears, or more correctly Xenogears does a RS3, and they boss is powered up if you don't tackle the other Sinistrals, gaining more HP and their signature attacks. This leaves me with just three phases. The Light Phase is annoying cause the boss takes half damage from everything, and while most of its attacks are not threatening, they can easily wear you down if you're not careful. This is important cause just before it goes to Dark Phase, it gives you a taste of its true power and can knock out a few weaker characters in a round, before it gets two more turns to pull off its phase shift. Dark Phase is a bigger pain in the ass with more group hitting attacks, harder hitting single attacks, and instant death attack, and a move that makes a character accidentally attack their comrades instead. On the brightside, he takes full damage, on the downside, your party takes area damage during this shift making all of those attacks I mentioned above and easy means of getting killed quickly. In act, dying to this boss pulls a Lavos and you get a special ending where the bad guy wins.

He annihilated me about twice and then I reformed the team a bit. The big issue is that I'm not sure if the boss shares HP or not between its phases. Which came as a shock when it went back to its previous phase. I had to use the Genbu Formation for its Regen effect as well as sacrificing all of my Vivacity Staffs (for those wondering, SaGa traditionally never has group healing magic, the staff has one as its ability but it sacrifices the staff when you use it) and was down to almost no SP when Mikhail managed to land the killing blow. You have no idea how relieved I was cause I was really not prepared for this endgame.

The ending is pretty interesting, especially since it shares some elements of the bad ending. Ellen's personal ending was kind of boring, but to be fair, Ellen is probably the most down to earth character from the initial lead selection. She's just a tomboy from some back wood village, and unlike Justian she has no desire to get mixed up with royals, and her sister ended up being more important to the plot than was first thought. In fact, that may be one of the bigger criticisms with RS3. It has a similar issue from RS1 where your chosen lead doesn't matter after the intro. Until we sealed the fourth Abyss Gate, Ellen honestly had no stake in anything in the game. I don't even really know why she bothered to face off against the Sinistrals in the first place other than she was a traveling mercenary who took some odd jobs towards it. Granted, we the player are meant to fill in the blanks, and I did so, so I'm not that annoyed, but for a game that does a lot more for characterization, it was a bit disappointing it still ultimately fell into the same trappings as RS1.

Until the very end, I really enjoyed this game overall. I really wish I had not jumped the gun and went into the final area unprepared, because the last two nights have been frustrating and stressful, and while I want to blame the game, it technically gave me fair warning. So I have no one to blame but myself. Still, I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth which is a shame cause I was having a blast before that. I imagine a second playthrough will be much nicer. I still wish I could have figured out how to do fusion spells and combo attacks cause the ending exhibition made them look super cool and useful. I'm not surprised the game made them harder to implement seeing how utterly broken fusion magic is in RS2. So let's do a breakdown:


Favorite Weapon Techs: Axes and Greatswords
Most useful tech: Focus (I can never remember the long winded new translation name)
Least favorite Weapon: Rapiers as usual.
Weapon I wish I mastered more: Bows and Fists.
Best magic: Earth and Fire
Magic I wish I used more: Solar and Lunar
Favorite characters: Ellen, Robin, Boston, Mikhail, and the pushy old lady from the Far East
Least favorite: Muse and the Minstrel since he cost me a few quests.
Favorite boss fight: Byunei/Gwayne fight, and the Hot Rod battles
Least Favorite Boss Fights: Yama, True Byunei, and the Final Boss
Favorite story arc: The Warring mage village, anything with the Professor, Vanguard, Muse's Nightmare.
Least Favorite: Finding the East, Forneus' Dungeon, and screwing myself over with a few quest cause I had a full party.
Best soundtrack of the 16-bit entries? Yep
War Battles? They were fun if a bit tricky.
NG+ Lead: Either Mikhail, Theodore, or Katrina.


I'm happy that I got a chance to play this entry. I still prefer RS2, but this game is a strong contender in its own right. Now I only need to play SaGa 3 (FFL3), SaGa Frontier 1, Unlimited SaGa, SaGa Scarlet Graces. Of course I only own one of those four right now (Unlimited) but I'll definitely invest in the others when the time comes. It will be interesting to see what the new mobile title is going to be like considering its a distant sequel to this entry.

[Wolf Kanno]

The mobile game just dropped the other day. Just wanted anyone interested to know. It looks like it's FF Record Keeper just with SaGa characters and mechanics. Not sure how I feel about it being a distant sequel to RS3.

[Wolf Kanno]

Alright, I have officially started Unlimited Saga. I'm starting with Laura's quest. It has been a really weird experience so far, but I'll probably post a real update once I get a little farther in. I have only reached the second town so far.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Okay it's official, Unlimited Saga is easily the weirdest and most brutal entry in the franchise. The series bad tendency of not explaining anything really hits its zenith with this entry because even having played through so many entries myself at this point, this game is a radical departure from previous entries.

So dungeons and the world map now work like a table top game, where you move your character's avatar piece on the board. Sometimes you find monsters, sometimes you find treasure. Like D&D, as long as your characters have the skills, they can check the area to find any treasure or evade a monster by checking for initiative. Treasure chests now need to have traps removed and lockpicked to even get to their contents and any time you use a skill, the Reels appear to serve as the dice. It's pretty unique, though I wish that either treasure chests weren't all booby trapped, cause it sucks to screw up and watch your LP get shaved off. I also really wished that the movement controls were not mapped to the analog stick only. The UI for these sections are not the most intuitive.
When you reach towns, you visit Inns and Blacksmith shops to get items, information, recruit new people, or go on adventures. Most of this is done from a menu system. It's a real shame actually because the sprite animations in this game are really fluid and nice but they're only relegated to combat. The rest of the game's visuals are a little disappointing though the actual background drawings are nice and detailed. Musically, this might actually be my favorite OST by Hamazu. It has a nice Suikoden IV vibe to it with some of the instrument choices though he loves his violins a wee bit too much.

Combat is the weirdest part, as it looks familiar but plays very differently from any entry before it. So you still have LP and HP, but unlike every entry before it, your HP basically works like armor. So even if it's reduced to zero, your character will still stand, but now they'll likely take LP damage from any attack afterwards. Enemies work the same way where you really need to strike their LP instead of just shaving off their health. HP regenerates, but not after combat like in the RS series, instead you have to make the character rest by either making them set out of combat or when you're exploring you hit the R3 button to choose to wait for your turn and have the whole team regenerate their health. How much they regenerate depends on their regeneration level and what they are equipped with. Light armor tends to give you a bonus to HP Regen in exchange for lower defense, while heavy armor gives you a penalty for better defense. Equipment itself is complex with armor now having skills attached to them. Some gear just come with good skills, some armor skills can be unlocked in battle, and the blacksmith shop can add some to weapons and accessories as well. Crafting seems to be a big deal as well but I'm only scratching the surface for that at the moment.

Weapons and accessories still break in combat, and the only thing taken from SF2 is the idea that magic is tied to the materials in your gear. So instead of MP, your magic will consume your weapon durability. Though it helps if the item or weapons has a spell art attached to them to do so, otherwise you need special panels to use magic. Weapon Skills also consume the durability, though I'm not sure if higher skills drain the durability faster or not. Though I do seem to burn through gear faster in this entry than in SF2 or the GB entries. Speaking of weapon skills, they have the most radical change in this entry. The game brings back RS1's weapon system with a twist by merging it with later entries sparking mechanics. All weapons can have four skills unlocked on them that vary from different attack types, to parry skills, to magic arts that allow magic use. When your character sparks a tech in battle, what they are really doing is sparking an advanced version of one of these weapons skills and then it is permanently added to the weapon reel and works a bit like a critical hit. I'm not sure if sparked moves can spark higher moves, but I'm going to assume so. When you engage in combat, you get five turns for one round of combat. You can either have your whole team use a move or you can have some use multiple turns and others none. Characters that are not given turns will leave the field of battle which allows them to regen some HP and protect them from getting hurt in the combat round. When you get your turn, you choose what attack you want from a list based on what your equipped with and what magic may be available to the character. you input every character command and then the round starts with turn order based on speed. When a characters turn comes up their battle reel will come on which at first just lets them do their attack but as you spark better moves, they will be added to the reel. You also have the option to Hold the attack, which delays it so that it can be combo with other attacks your party does, so for once you have a little more control over the combo system than you did in the Frontier entries. What makes it dangerous is that you sometimes combo with enemies instead and that can sometimes end a battle with a pyrrich victory.

You only level up when you finish a quest, your character will generate four random panels to add to their board. These range from weapon panels that increase your proficiency and spark rates with a particular weapons, skill panels that give your character the ability to avoid enemies, diffuse traps, pick locks, haggle, or use diplomacy, and finally there are familiars and magic tomes. Familiars grant your character access to particular elemental magic, while tomes allow you to teach your character specific spells but they work a bit funky as they actually gain a form of XP from fights, and occasionally, the game has you choose one of three spells to level up. Tomes are not generated like normal panels, you have to find them on quests, and then at the end, choose to give them to a character in exchange for a panel. The way panels are arranged on the character grid determines their stats, and you gain bonuses if you have panels arranged a certain way. What the game doesn't tell you is that you can't rearrange a panel once it's placed. So if you're not aware of these arrangements and don't pay attention to the stat screen when your choosing where to put your shiny new panel, you can accidentally screw yourself over. The panel grid itself also has a rather unintuitive design where each point on it corresponds to a particular stat that is only shown to you as a symbol and some of them are vague, and others are not as important as you would think. So if you want to raise your strength, you need to pop a weapon panel next to the strength panel and if you have two of them adjacent, you'll get a bonus. Some of your stats are your characters elemental affinity, and that is actually more important than your magic stat in determining magical damage. You'll need to place familiars or magic tomes by them to get bonuses. Skill is a stat that determines damage for daggers and spears, they need skill panels like Lockpicking or Diffuse to raise their stats.Magic is a useless stats, and so is endurance since it doesn't affect defense. Panels also have levels so if you get a higher level one, you should replace the old ones unless you're trying to maximize stats.

Oof.... so yeah, complex.

I have reached Voldstam, which is like the fourth town in the game. Laura is an ex-pirate who accidentally saves a kid's life and learns he's actually the missing prince of a fallen kingdom named Henri. So her story is mostly about trying to get him to a safe place while being pursued by mercenaries and bounty hunters. We recruited one of the other "main" characters in Judy. She's a pint sized sorceress looking for her grandfather. I really wish I could find more characters because having a large team seems important in this game considering how long dungeons can be and how quickly LP can be shaved off if you have a few bad run ins with the Reels or combo attacks.

Laura - Is specializing in Axes and Swords a the moment since they are powerful strength based weapons. She also has Diffuse Lv. 2 and Lockpick Lv. 1 for notable skills. I'm debating if I'll make her pure melee or try to go with the red mage route with her since she starts off with Fire magic. Hybrid classes are apparently not ideal in this game but apparently Laura and a few others are rare exceptions.

Henri - Oof, he's a mix bag. I really need to get his panel board under control to get him some decent stats. He's a skilled based fighter so only daggers and spears for him. He has a Lv. 1 Diplomacy skills that has come in handy but his board is all over the place. His saving grace among the team is that he comes equipped with a special dagger weapon that is unbreakable, so at least I won;t have to resort to melee when his weapons break.

Judy - Has been surprisingly more useful than she looks. She starts with some good fire magic, but I have unfortunately burned through the weapon that had the spell. I gave her a bow and she has sparked some really good techs with it already. She sparks more than poor Henri. I have her with mostly Familiar panels as well as her starting Forbidden Tome Panel and a Metal Magic Tome I acquired in an earlier mission. I probably should have checked first to see if she was even good with Metal before giving it to her so I feel like a dunce in that regard. My biggest boon with her was acquiring a Lockpick Lv. 2 Panel for her. Now if I could only have her gain a Fortunteller or Magic Lock panel I would be set.

It has been a serious uphill battle in terms of the learning curve, but I am having fun.

EDITGA: I forgot to mention the true scrappy mechanic this game introduces. Combat actions, in addition to consuming weapon durability, also consumes HP. So fighting a few battles can quickly drop your HP to 0 before your next battle, leading to either more risky encounters, or forcing you to consume valuable turns in side adventures to constantly restore health. It bring me back to Romancing SaGa 1 which also punished you for fighting too much. It's such a counter-intuitive design and probably my biggest pet peeve so far besides the game's general "I won't explain the rules to you, and don't bother with the manual because it also leaves out a lot of info" nonsense the series is known for.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Well, I don't actually have much of an update other than to say I ended up having to start over. It's been a mixed bag. I learned that one mission I screwed up earlier always has a dumb ending no matter how well you do. I ended up losing all of my nifty bow techs from Judy. Laura is also just not earning weapon panels like she did the first time through. I worked my way back to where I left off.

There is a side mission involving a really obnoxious haunted mansion. It's filled with treasure, undead, and demons and unfortunately for me the enemy types are the ones that will pursue you and attack on sight, so the place is obnoxious, especially when I keep screwing up diffusing traps or lock picking treasure. I got farther than IO did the first time, but I'm thinking of tackling this dungeon once I have another party member or two.

I'm going to re-attempt the Cemetary mission since it was another one I screwed up my first time through. I have to find a key among some graves, but if you fail to acquire the key from the right grave, the grave disappears and you can't see how the quest really ends. It was screwing up all of these minor quests that drove my OCD to restart. Unfortunately, I saved over my first file... This game is starting to become a bit like Demon's Souls where my constant failure is driving me more than "I am having so much fun" but hopefully like DS, I'll breka through and start to really appreciate it. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm still technically in the early game.

Laura - Has been doing better unlocking skills for her gear, and even a few techs for them. Sadly she has not been getting weapon panels as much as I would like. I'm guess it may have to do with trying to avoid combat too much in some missions and the few I fight a lot in I can't seem to complete within the mission time limit. She has managed to get a high level lockpick skill which I'm happy that I have, I just wish Henri had gotten it instead. She also managed to get a Fix-It panel which allows her to repair weapons in dungeons as long as they have some durability left. I need to clear her panel of all these skill based ones cause they are not doing her any favors stat-wise.

Henri - Is still a mixed bag. He's the one who keeps learning the weapon panels I want for Laura and he keeps getting haggling skills as well. He has managed to get a higher tier diffuse skill so that's been a real boon. Yet he's having a hard time unlocking weapon skills or techs. He did manage to gain a Shield panel which was nice since shields are useless without one. He's still a work in progress overall. I'm trying to turn him into a thief build since Skill is his highest starting stat. Now if he would only learn lockpick...

Judy - Isn't quite as awesome as she was in my first file. I did manage to unlock all the skills for her starting weapon, and I made sure not to burn through her spell uses. She learned Detect Undead, which doesn't do what it says. In fact I've learned a good chunk of the game's magic spells have incredibly misleading names. Detect Undead actually lowers the stats of all undead enemies on the field. All of the "Detect" skills do this with their appropriate enemy class. I am annoyed that I lost the item in my old file that taught her to use Purify. That spell turns out to be a Healing/Esuna spell all in one. So I'll need to keep an eye out for that. Otherwise, I'm just trying to get her awesome bow skills back while looking out for fortuneteller.

As of now, I only wish I knew how I can get blacksmiths to repair weapons. I've tapped out two really good items and I don;t want to reforge them through weapon creation in case I lose some of their awesome skills. I also don;t want to resort to save scumming just yet, but this game almost seems to be built on it. I'll clear out the next set of quests and hopefully hook up with the other character I met in an inn who looks like she may may be a potential party member.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

I have been coming to the conclusion that the game really wants me to be following the main plot and wait until I have a real party before tackling some of these missions. I've been stuck on the Abandoned Castle mission for the last two days. I've spent that time failing this mission reading up on some stuff for the game. I've been dabbling in blacksmith stuff and even managed to make a Damascus weapon for Laura, though it's on hold until later since it qualifies as "too good to be used" at this early point in the game. I'm hoarding any Mullock I find since it and steel are the key to forging Damascus gear.

I did advance the plot a little and acquired a fourth party member. I also did a wacky mission that involved destroying a mansion with a magic axe. Pretty fun stuff. I did technically advance the game much further but reset because I was afraid that this might fall into one of those weird categories where some side missions may disappear if I advance the plot too much because SaGa is kind of notorious for that kind of thing. So I know I get a fifth party member rather shortly after this next story part, so I may just advance and grab him since I can only level up by doing side missions and story dungeon missions.

For those wondering why the Abandoned Castle mission has been a bitch and a half, the structure of this mission is just cruel. You have a 150 turns to finish the mission. It is three stories with close to twenty rooms per floor. The place is loaded with treasure which I've already cleared out most of it. The issue comes that you kind of have to follow a story element in this dungeon where you're chasing some Crazy Old Man who is responsible for the curse on the dungeon. The place is crawling with aggressive monster types and they will level up into their higher tier classes depending on a few factors. The dungeon has several puzzles which often require lots of backtracking to hit switches. One of them will likely take 20 turns on its own. Half my issue is just getting harassed by the monster in this dungeon and the other half is messing up trying to open locks or diffuse traps which the place is filled with. The boss of the dungeon is the Old Man's pet Wyvern who slaughtered my battered party the first time I encountered him. I whooped his ass the second time, the one time I got to that point with most of my party's LP intact since everything in this dungeon is either tanky, powerful, or both. The issue is that once you beat the boss you have to leave the castle within the allotted time frame and that is what failed me the last time. I needed maybe five more turns to escape and finally beat this silly dungeon. I'll come back with the fifth guy I feel...

Laura - Has been doing pretty good with sparking new weapon techs and really showing how fun the battle reel gets once you've acquired a few skills. As I guessed, there are higher tier abilities for the different weapon techs. She's been an Ax/Sword specialist and if I ever manage to find a decent magic based panel for her (like a Familiar) I may start having her move into the Battle Mage role I plan for her. As series tradition, she can't seem to spark any new techs from Tomahawk. She did once, but that was one of the times I got killed doing the Abandoned Castle mission. She's been a real powerhouse and has the best LP of my team at the moment, which is a bit of a problem since I tend to make her tank hits but this is one of those games where "MC death = Game Over" so I'm hoping I'll get a better tank later.

Henri - Has been my second tank character since he surprisingly has the next highest LP at 12. He also tends to parry attacks more often than poor Laura, probably due to using daggers instead of swords. I have him using Spears which has been really good for him as well. He's been sparking some good moves and Spears are once again pretty brutal. In fact I'm starting to see that piercing weapons are more consistent with doing LP damage to enemies. I'm trying to keep him light weight since it affects his ability to dodge and his speed. While the third skill for his unbreakable dagger is so-so, the fourth skill is actually pretty good and compensates better for the weapons low attack power.

Judy - Has been doing a bit better now that I've figured out how to do learn and use magic more effectively. So in order to learn magic from tablets, you have to use magic in battle. The issue is that casting takes time so magic is notoriously slow. I also think the amount of XP you get is dependent on both the type of spell you use and the tablet. She's focusing on her Forbidden Magic tome. for the moment. She has done a great job sparking moves for her bow, I'm only annoyed that heavy metal bows are the ones that start with the more useful Random Arrow skill than lighter wooden bows. One saving grace is how her staffs do learn a parry skill so that's been helpful. I am annoyed because I learned too late that enchanted weapons can't be reforged, so her awesome starting staff with Fire Arrow is now just a staff that lets me use any Fire Magic I've learned but sadly she hasn't learned any spells for that class. I did manage to find an armlet with the Purify spell so she can actually heal in my team. I'm hoping I can find a Water and Fire Tome for her once she masters her Forbidden Tome.

Michelle - Ah the new girl. Michelle hits a character archetype I always forget that I really love, and that's the character that is cursed with bad luck. You bet your ass that Ashton was my favorite character in Star Ocean 2. Like Ashton, her bad luck does actually play into her character build. She has a cursed gauntlet on her that she's trying to get rid of. I would love to get rid of it too because it's occupying her middle slot on her board and is a Negative Panel that can't be combo with any other panel for stat bonuses. So she's kind of gimped, except her starting stats are pretty damn good, she';s one of the fastest characters in the game, and she comes with a gun. Her panel selection isn't bad either except for the fact they're all in the wrong place. She has a sword panel but it's over by her magic while the Earth Magic Tome she has is where her strength is. On the other hand, her stats seem to lie, or equipment simply makes that much of difference because she's on par with Henri at least with damage and her Earth Magic is pretty good. I've already taught her Boulder and Sleep. I've even upgraded her gun for more uses, but sadly it doesn't look like guns get additional techs like other weapons, instead their reel modifies damage based on if you hit a reel that has a focused shot versus a miss panel where she fires blindly at the enemy. Her biggest draw back so far has to be pathetic LP. She has 6 in total. My ten year old squishy mage has 10. So poor Michelle has to stay in that back-row until I acquire more gear with Life Protection. She does have a serious knack for unlocking skills on her gear though. Like in the first dungeon I had her for, she was unlocking a skill for her equipment about every other battle. Did I mention she reminds me of Scorpia from the new She-Ra series? She actually says hi to monsters when you encounter them and will say Oopsiedaisey when she screws up a skill roll.

Overall, my team isn't too bad. The big change has been delving into weapon crafting a bit more and finally getting everyone geared with some better materials. Going from stone swords and Copper axes to ones made from Iron or Silver is a big boon. I just need to be careful because my team really does better with lighter gear. I'm also trying not to ignore magic and build Judy up with Michelle and Laura as backup mages. I can give Henri some enchanted items so he can cast magic as well but I'd rather focus on getting him more thief skills like higher tier panels for Lockpick and Diffuse. I may just jump further into the plot to recruit my fifth party member who looks to be the heavy hitting tank character this team desperately needs. I wonder if Laura and Henri's story is partially inspired by Albert and Sif from RS1? Henri is also a run away prince of a fallen kingdom, and Laura is a bad ass semi-replacement mom figure/bodyguard. It just reminds me of the scenario I sort of wrote for the two characters when I played them.

77130

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Only a minor one. Quests take way longer in this game than other entries so this game may be a slow burn but I'm starting to "get it" and it's becoming quite enjoyable.

I moved the plot along and got a damn CGI cutscene no less. I keep going back and forth with the VA work in this game. Some people work, others are terrible, and then some people go back and forth. Laura is such a character where her VA is sometimes pretty good and other times groan worthy. Henri's voice only throws me off because he's voiced by a girl who is not trying to hide the fact. Michelle's is bubbly and fun, Judy's is a bit too squeaky for my taste, and Francis... well I feel his VA wasn't even trying with him.

Laura's plot is starting to get interesting, and I'm grateful my copy of the game still had the manual in it because it actually delves into a lot of background lore that made the cutscene actually more powerful than it would be otherwise. Manual fails to explain how to play the game, but gives you important plot details considering the significance of the festival the whole game revolves around. We're now on a quest to return to Henri's fallen kingdom and figure out what's up with this fancy dagger he's carrying around. We also picked up a new character in the form of Francis who compliments Michelle's design of both of them looking like ninjas.

I then did a small quest involving a local custom from a forgotten tribe near the islands that involves exploring a cove and finding two alters to receive a blessing. By blessing I mean it sucks away all your HP, takes one LP from my whole party, and then has me face off with a trio of powerful monsters. To make matters more hectic, I'm only allowed three party members on the field at a time. My first attempt was a success after battling some annoying mermen but the panel selection I got from the missions was hardly ideal so I reset and tried again. This time I got stuck fighting some really beefy whale monsters and learned the hard way that if a character fall in battle, I can't switch them out with a living party member unless I use an action called Rescue which takes up a turn to remove the fallen comrade, still prevents me from bringing in a new character that round, and can fail based on factors like the character weight and who is trying to do the rescuing. Suffice to say that Judy can't rescue anyone. My second attempt still had me fighting the whale monsters, but I managed to get through the fight with most of my team's LP intact, the second fight was tough as the whales do massive damage and Francis bleeds LP despite having the most on my team. He was taking 3 LP per attack from some of the attacks. The fight ended with a standoff between the last Whale monster and Laura who had 4 LP left when the fight was over and only Judy was left alive because I couldn't drag her out since both Henri and Francis were dead. I still managed to complete the mission and got a much better panel selection this time around, allowing me to finally give Michelle some much needed strength/skill boosts, scored a Lv. 3 Familiar for Henri that allows him to use magic without a medium, and scored another one for Judy that finally gives her a permanent offensive fire spell to use.

Afterwards, I hit up all the shops for new materials and managed to forge two more Damascus items. One is an accessory I gave to Laura and I'm really hoping it will have Life Protection on it, the other item is a sword for her as well which I'm going to hold off on until closer to the end game.

Laura - Is still doing pretty awesome and sparking more moves. She even managed to spark a new move for fists and she has at least one move for most of the weapon types I have her using. I am still on the lookout for certain panels for her build but I'm okay with her current setup outside of her low Fire affinity.

Henri - Has finally come into his own. He's bad at sparking new moves but he's pretty damn good at parrying moves so I've moved him to point for a lot of fights. His new Familiar also give him some more utility with magic that won't cost me weapons or accessories. I really hope his story mission improves his unbreakable dagger because I have a lot of good moves for it, but it's low stats are starting to show.

Judy - Is a beast of a character to be honest. Her spells are powerful, she has some great crowd control moves with her bow and giving her a staff that has block has improved her survivabilty. I am debating about switching her tablets after I learn my next spell for it because the spell growth of the Forbidden tablet is really slow compared to more conventional ones and I would like to expand her spell repertoire.

Michelle - Has been way more useful than she looks. I mastered her Earth Magic tablet so she has some good spells, managed to get her good weapon panel in a decent spot that finally raised her two attack stats to something respectable. I just need to find her a good sword with deflect as a secondary ability to improve her survival rate. She's honestly better with melee than weapons though...

Francis - Ah the new guy. He's a bit of the opposite of Michelle who looks unimpressive on her stat sheet but manages to work. Francis looks great on his sheet, but me thinks he's padded his resume. He's got 19 LP which is great and he even starts with a shield panel and a bunch of strength panels. He sparks moves okay but I'm starting to think he may be using the wrong weapon with spears and I should move him to axes instead. His biggest problem is that since I don;t have much gear with Life Protection (it's an armor skill that lowers the chance of taking LP damage from attacks) and the few I have is on Laura, he is not as tanky as he looks. His HP is pretty bad, but the rest of my team has a few missions under their belt compared to him so I'm sure that will change. I just need him to tank damage better so his high LP pool doesn't got to waste. I'm starting to think shields are useless in this game even with a panel.

I'm currently attempting the Abandoned Castle one more team and it's been going a bit smoother than normal, helped that I'm ignoring treasure chest to conserve time, and one of the scripted fights net me a Magic Tablet, so I have a bigger incentive to actually complete this mission. We'll see if I finally succeed.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

I feel for the first time now, I've reached this personal point with Unlimited Saga:
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So yeah, I feel I've passed the learning curve, figured out the rules more of less, and I'm finally enjoying my overall experience with the game. I feel my biggest issue was just trying to rush things, and do everything as it unlocks as I usually do, when it is apparent I really should be advancing the plot to gather my team so I can use these hard missions to build up their levels.

It also helps I finally conquered the Abandoned Castle mission, so my OCD is finally feeling better. Having an extra party member has been nice, and Francis and Michelle have both obtained some Life Protection skills for their armor so I don't have to worry as much about them losing LP every time an enemy just looks in their general direction.

I only progressed the story a bit, we have reached Henri's (fun fact, it's pronounced Anri) homeland so we can investigate his mysterious family heirloom and trouble is already brewing with the party as Laura aught Francis sending a message to his lord sine he's technically on loan to Henri. So she thinks he's a spy whereas he believes she's only helping Henri for some material award considering she's a pirate, though oddly enough this has not come up yet in the plot so I'm not even sure if Henri actually knows Laura's background. Anyway, I'm simply tickled this game has a bit more of a plot structure than usual for this series.

The rest of my evening was spent playing around with the blacksmith system and traveling back to former towns to pick up any new good items I can use. Blacksmithing is weird because on the one hand, it's not nearly as complicated as say... Legend of Mana's system, but on the other hand, it does have some serious RNG shenanigans if you want the actual good stuff. Basically the only way to get certain materials for weapons is to either buy it in a shop, find it, or for some craft it in a blacksmith shop by combining certain materials that only have a 15% chance of actually becoming that material. So save scumming and soft resets are a big deal. Damascus is probably the most annoying to get likely due to being the best material. First, you have to get your hand on a cheap but rare material called Mullock which stops appearing in shops after a certain point I've been told. You merge it with a gem that grants a Magic Art to a weapon and make a dagger. This part is relatively easy as long as you have the materials. The tricky part is the second material. Turns out a lot of materials in this game have two versions of them. Mullock is one, which is why you have to merge it with a gem to gain it's 2nd tier form. It's not a pain since you have a 100% chance of gaining the second tier by doing this. Steel is the other one, and that's the tricky one. Steel is not common, you pretty much have to make it by combining Iron and Wood, but it's second tier is deceptive and only has a 15% chance of occurring when you merge them. The only tell you have done it right is the weapons attack power. Since you have to make a Steel Dagger (for some silly reason the steel base items for Damascus have to be Daggers) which normally has an attack power of 39, you need it to be 38 in order to know it's the secondary tier. Once that's done, just find a blacksmith who will make the item you want and merge the two to get their Damascus equivalent which generally has attack power in the 70 range and durability to match. Sadly, you can't make armor with a blacksmith, so I'll have to be lucky to acquire some. It looks like Damascus armor and armlets have a high tendency of having Life Protection so that's a boon.

So last night I manged to make a Damascus Spear for someone, and a Platinum Sword for Laura, while also amassing quite a few good items for future investments.

Laura - Is still doing good, her panel board is shaping up nicely and she managed to learn Sharpeye which is a great skill for treasure chests because it tells you what kind of traps are on one. This is mostly important because it will tell me if a chest is a mimic. Mimics are not as bad as they seem in this entry because they are one of the rare enemy types that have a high chance of dropping Magic Tablets in the game. So knowing a chest is a mimic beforehand means it's more beneficial to trigger the trap and fight the mimic than diffusing all of the traps. My one gripe for Laura at the moment is that I want to drop Lockpicking from her panel for something more useful, but its a Lv. 4 Panel (Panels only go up to Lv. 5) so losing it without an equivalent ranked panel will cost her some serious stats. She's been doign a great job sparking moves for her weapon types, and Sharpeye finally made her magic a bit more viable for battle since her Fire affinity was mostly trapped at it's starting level.

Henri - Is not doing bad, he's not sparking moves like I want him to and while he now has a Familiar for magic, he's not setup well for it. I'm mainly trying to get him to get him to acquire most of the skills Laura seems to keep getting. He's been well rounded for the most part, but he's not excelling anywhere either.

Judy - Is still going strong and getting better Familiars. It is so nice to have access to magic without worrying about item durability. I just need her to get a high tier Water Familiar so I can have access to Purify all the time. I have really three Panels I'm looking out for. I need a Bow panel because staffs are useless and she's much better with her bow. I need Fortunteller since it's a great elemental boosting panel and a useful skill in dungeons. Of course I also need to find the Holy Grail of magic panels in this game, Magic Blender which is super rare (I believe it is only a Lv. 5 Panel) and is the only means of accessing the other half of the magic system. Besides that, I'm trying to master her Forbidden Tablet, but it looks like I may have to try to master some of the other spells first because the particular spell (Degenerate - Lowers enemy's Attack Power and Endurance) I'm trying to master only levels up occasionally. Her other two spell choices are not part of the Forbidden spell line, so they tend to get more XP when I choose to level them, so I may try to master them first. I still haven't had time to hit up the other Magic Tablet on her panel.

Michelle - Has been doing really good, and I learned she's one of the better characters for melee options, so I'm thinking of trying to build her with more light armor so I can haves access to Light Martial Arts which are apparently a better version of most of the melee options. This means I may have to drop her gun, which is fine because guns are not terribly useful in this game. They can't be upgraded, only have their number of uses increased, they always seem to be heavy iron so they weigh a character down, and they can't learn arts because they are sort of built in already. So it's been kind of silly to keep her equipped with it. I am gambling with one area. I made her a Topaz Sword with Earth Arts, but this cost the weapon the use of the Deflect skill which she sort of needs, but now I have access to an item that can allow her access to cast Earth Magic she's mastered and it has a huge durability so I don't have to worry about having to use the fix-it skill in dungeons to keep her previous armlet that did this from breaking. We'll see how well this build goes. I did manage to get her a great Lv. 3 melee panel which boosted her stats considerably. if the sword doesn't work out, I may switch her to a dagger with parry skill and focus on making her a melee specialist.

Francis - Now that he has some gear with Life Protection and a better shield, he's starting to move into the position I want him to be in as a tank. He has four more LP than the next highest character so I want to utilize that. He did piss me off because he keeps getting panels I want for other characters. He managed to roll Fortuneteller for example but he's not really built for magic. This skill is useful because it will tell you what is in a treasure chest before you open it, except if you succeed in the roll, it actually upgrades the item into something better whereas a fail will just tell you what it is, and a critical failure will lower it's value. I opted to give him a higher tier Fix-it panel so I can eventually drop the one Laura has on her chart. He's doing okay with spears, but I'm really starting to toy with the idea of switching him to axes since they seem to be a the most recommended weapon type in this game besides daggers.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Got a lot to cover. I advanced the story and ended up unlocking like five story missions that ended up removing all of the side missions. I also did not realize how many party members Laura gets in her quest because every mission has gained her a party member. When the party returns to Henri's home of Escata they found out his little dagger is some secret powerful weapon when combined with five elemental gears the royal family gave away to the various tribes of the world for safe keeping. If you're the type of person who hates non-human characters, well this is the point in the plot most of you would be checking out of unless you gave up hours ago. What is super nice about this is that I proved my theory right, and collecting these items does in fact improve Henri's blade with each item I gain. The Elemental Gears themselves turn out to be various pieces of armor that all have Life Protection as a starting ability. So super neat here, and I'm already going to assume this shit is going to be stolen from me because SaGa is many things, but generous is not one of them.

I went after the Earth artifact first which is being safeguarded by the Petra tribe, a race oif sentient rock creatures. I gain Anzan from the tribe as a party member as he guides us through the Mural Caves. Of the dungeons I've tackled on this quest, this one was easily the hardest. The cave is filled with tanky and hard hitting enemies. The gimmick of the dungeon besides making use of the Swimming mechanic I had fortunately not taken from Francis is that the cave walls have murals of monsters on them. Touching them causes them to come to life and you have to fight them, but on several occasions, the mural is hiding a crevice you need to use to progress further through the caves. The Beast ones involve an annoying common beast creature already swarming the cave, the firebird one has you fight a boss like creature that is thankfully not too bad since it;s a solo fight, and heaven help you if you touch the fish one. That thing will kick your ass and so far fish enemies have proven to be one of the nastiest enemy types to run into in this game. The boss of the dungeon was surprisingly easy after the BS of the rest of it. My team got badly beaten up even with Anzan's help.

The second challenge was going after the Wood artifact which is protected by the Lilean tribe, which you guessed it, is a tribe of sentient plant people. My new party member isPlatyphyllum who has a pretty surreal but cool voice that is two voices dubbed over each other. As a major contrast from Anzan's quest, this one ended up being the easiest of the bunch. You take a road to a forest that the artifact is hidden from and then it turns into a lost wood scenarios except I'm pretty sure the item pops up after so many turns including the ones on the path to even get to the forest entrance. The boss was this cool looking if underwhelming tree monster that may be the easiest boss fight I've had this entire game. It's biggest attack which hits my whole party pretty hard also hurts him and I've seen him kill himself on accident with it. This scenario was so short and easy I ended up redoing it like four times just so my party could have more ideal panel selections from beating it.

Next up was the Metal Gear, which was not a walking nuclear equipped battle tank, it was hidden in an old mine shaft by the Anubito Tribe, which is a race of Anubis looking dog people who consequently turn out to be the same race as the guy who torched Henri's homeland. We're joined byMusol Yanii who assures Laura's concern that his tribe is not related to the same one as the bad guys. This dungeon has a slight puzzle aspect to it. Basically the entrance to the treasure room is blocked by a cave in, I need to find some Bomb Ore which used to be mined in the area and usually attracts a special type of monster the miners used to help get to the ore. Two of hem are still in the mine, one is cranky and likes to sleep a lot so you have to kind of play a bit of red light, green light as you dig in his cave area for the ore while trying not to wake him up. The second beast likes to play with the ore and so I had to crawl to a bottom lair to try to get to one that creature was kicking around. Once both are obtained, I can clear the cave in and fought a pathetically easy boss who was taken down in a single round. The big twist here is that the artifact has already been stolen by the big bad. I was however able to get the Fire Gear from Henri's vassal who may or may not be spying on me.

The final one I'll talk about later because I haven't finished the scenario yet. You get Armic, the squirrel looking character that is also one of the leads. All I will say is that this scenario is filled with fish monsters...

As for my party...

Laura - Is still going strong, though I really wish I could get a third Axe panel for the bonus. She's been the most frustrating at the moment because I only need a few more select panels to get her in ideal shape. I've mostly been updating her gear to tweak her more.

Henri - Has been doing good as well, he's finally starting to amass all those thief skills I need, I just need to arrange them better on his panel for the bonus. The boost to his dagger has also made him quite nasty in fights.

Francis - Is doing alright, but I'm going to drop his Shield for a sword instead. Shields are just not worth the trouble it seems. He has not improved too much since I ended up benching him so I could try out the other new characters.

Michelle - Light Martial Arts do live up to their reputation, they are pretty brutal. The hard part was just getting her outfitted enough to utilize them, and I think she; still too heavy to use the alternate Throw move. I am thinking of giving her a dagger for the parry skill but I may have to strip her of some more gear to maintain the weight. She has also been benched at the moment for the new characters since her LP does make her a liability.

Judy - Until the last mission she was waffling a bit, she kept pulling heavy melee panels for some reason or if not that, she would pull Familiars of a lower rank the ones she currently has equipped. I managed to grab a Lv. 4 Magic tablet for her though, and I replaced the Lv.2 earth one I gave her way back in the game because I know I'm not going to get to it, and earth magic is not covered for my team. I am one spell away from finishing her Forbidden Tome tablet, but I'm a little upset to learn I can't access the unique spells it teaches until I find an item that I can use with a blacksmith to place the Forbidden Arts skill on something she can equip. I am also thinking of stripping her of her Bow because she's honestly been sticking to magic purely for my team.

Anzan - Is a bit weird because he is simultaneously useful an useless at the same time. He's the meat shield I've been wanting for this team that Francis failed to live up to. His HP is high, he has 22 LP, and he starts with a better shield panel that sort of works sometimes. He also has most of the Earth Magic line memorized and even came with a powerful armlet that had high durability that allowed him easy access to these spells. His biggest weakness is that he's not terribly good at fighting. Both his Strength and Skill stats are low, and they're positioned in a weird way that makes it difficult to actually get both of them good. This is a bit of a problem because despite what one may thing, the endurance stat (his best stat next to earth affinity) doesn't affect his defense. Strength and Skill stats do instead based on what the enemy is using. Endurance apparently just affects how much HP he can regenerate in dungeons, and possibly his status magic resistance. So giving him LP and a means to block attacks is paramount. Where he's really useful is surprisingly from his other weakness, he's the slowest character in the game. This is actually a boon for a few reasons. If you place him first on your team position, he tends to attract most of the enemy aggression despite starting with a skill that makes enemies ignore him. So he's meant to be a meat shield with all that LP. The real bonus here is that since he's so slow, enemies tend to take most of their turns before or directly after him and he takes the punishment, allowing for your four other party members to successfully combo together their attack for some huge damage. Part of the reason why a lot of these bosses went down with little trouble was because my teal was hitting them with a four hit combo using mid-tier arts. His earth magic is also useful because he has the Animal Detect spell that debuff like half of the enemy types in the game, and since magic casting is also slow... you get the picture. The only thing I'm thinking of doing for him is giving him Michelle's gun. It's heavy as hell but shouldn't affect him, and while guns are a bit boring, they are apparently a great means of doing direct LP damage to enemies. I still have him with a shield, but for some reason he's better at using it than Francis.

Platyphyllum - She's been a bit weird, not sure what I'm going to do with her. She's light weight like Michelle and she's really taken to using swords despite not being her ideal weapon apparently. Like Anzan she comes with most of the Wood spell line, but Wood magic is pretty useless since it's largely situational and plant enemies are one of the easiest to deal with. It would be a different story if she started with Thunderstrike, which is conveniently the only non blended Wood spell she lacks. I've got her working with spears mostly while using a sword for defense. Not sure what else I will do for her. She may become Michelle's replacement because she;s alight build as well do Light Martial Arts, but unlike Michelle, she comes with 20 LP making her pretty decent for front line fighting. If I can ever manage to get a Water Magic Tablet, I may invest in that for her. I've also heard she's good with staffs which I've neglected for most of the game.

Musol Yanii - Is a pretty good power house, he comes with some good melee and axe panels making him pretty strong out the gate, I just need to get him to spark higher tier arts for his attack reels. Unlike his other two companions, he doesn't come onto the team with a repertoire of Metal skills, which is okay since Metal Magic is also situational and largely deals with Mimics only. He's a bruiser though, and I'm happy I gave him a dagger as a secondary item for the parry skills. He's likely going to be built into a powerhouse like Laura and Michelle. We'll see.

Once Chapa's sequence is done, I'm probably going to hit up side quest hell to build up my party. My main goal is to find an item made of Demonite so I can access Forbidden Magic in battle, while also continue to build Damascus gear and Dragon scale if I can ever find it. The greatest boon for my team has been finding a decent blacksmith guide to outfit my team better.

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[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Finished the Water Gear scenario with Armic. It only seems fitting these story quests would be bookend with the nastiest of the bunch. Armic's quest is a bit weird. You're given an orb that changes color based on the temperature. It begins green which is neutral, will turn blue if you dip it in a cold spring, and will turn red if you hold it for too long or find a hot spring to dip it in. When it's red, it starts emitting an annoying noise that attracts monsters to you, and the cave has certain enemies just standing around that you have the option of avoiding by staying hidden and letting them leave on their own,. but of course the orbs makes that hard. You have to find three statues to place the orbs in and they all require it to be one of the colors. The rob will making a ding noise if you're close to one of the statues and the correct color, so the game does at least try to help you out. There are also some fake statues that placing the orb in will summons a boss like anemone type monster that gets a ridiculous amount of turns, hits hard, and is ranked too low to spark anything useful. With the exception of him, the mission doesn't actually have a real boss which is nice. What made this mission tough was that the place was crawling with the whale shark enemies I faced off with in an earlier mission. I've been a bit too battle happy so my Monster Lv. is pretty high and nastier boss like enemies are more common. These guys are just a pain because their Big Bite attack has a high chance to do multiple LP damage to a character and when they get multiple turns, well even poor Anzan will bleed through his hefty LP rather quickly. I did find a Dragonscale Dagger which has stats comparable to Damascus, which was really nice.

From here, the party realizes they need to go after the Metal Gear held by the big bad, but in a rare moment of foresight, Henri doesn't want to bring the gears and the blade with them to do it, cause that is just silly to take the very thing the bad guys want to their home base. Unfortunately, Francis convinces Henri to take them to his master for safe keeping and Laura and I both don't trust this guy. I mean he seems to be the only retainer of the Escata royal line that is still around, just seems fishy to me. So I'm suppose to head to his castle to drop of all this loot I've been gathering, but instead I'm using this time to actually do all of the side missions to build up my team while scouring all of the shops between missions for rare items for crafting. I'm still on the lookout for Demonite because I really don;t want prioritizing all these Forbidden spells to be for nothing. The first mission I completed was a silly one where I collected herbs for the Chapa tribe. Pretty easy quest overall. The second quest had me protecting the fields from an invasive monster, and even though I finished it, I got such a lackluster panel selection for my team I decided to reset and do it over again.

Francis and Michelle have both been added back into the playable roster, and I'm dropping plant girl and dog boy for the moment because they are in pretty decent shape with a few Lv. 4 panels under their wings. Dog boy is starting to work on melee skills, and plant girl is finishing up catching up to Laura and Henri with sword and spear weapons. Francis is goign to be working on raising his axe skills and getting Reverse Delta, while I am happy I was able to outfit Michelle with a dagger for parry skills whi;e still maintaing her light weight status for the martial arts boost.

Laura - Hit the jackpot during the herb quest, and managed to spark Reverse Delta, one of the strongest skills in the game. I also got her a Fire Familiar to utilize her Fire magic for the moment. As usual, I'm really just trying to get her panel setup where I want it.

Henri - Has honestly not being much action unless I wish to give Anzan a break. He needs to start sparking higher tier arts for her dagger and spears, but he's always had trouble sparking moves it seems. He is fortunately not far from the ideal panel set-up I want for him, and I gave him Fortuneteller since Judy refuses to get it.

Judy - Finally mastered her Lv. 2 Forbidden Magic tablet, I now have her working on a Lv. 4 one that may be associated with one of her relatives since it was named after a person. The real boon for me it that it appears to be a water themed tablet so I may finally get Purify and Ice Needles. Familiars are nice, but I really need to get her panel setup a little better and start weaning her off of using them since they won;t be able to access all the spells available.

Anzan - Has been doing what I need. I got him a super useful panel that allows him to take less damage in battle which improves his tanking even more. He's sparked a few moves but sadly he's just not built for melee combat, instead I've turned him into a tank mage using his Earth spells and Metal spell Familiar to deal with the various mobs of the game by either debuffing them or buffing the team. I really wish I could get him access to the Weapon/Armor buff spells from the Metal class. Giving him guns didn't work out as well as I had hoped because much like Shields, guns are a weapon that is only useful if you have a gun proficiency panel and a high level one at that. That's what actually determines what appear son the slots for it. So unless I manage to draw one during his level up period, that idea is on the back burner.

Armic is the new kid on the block and sadly he doesn't start with a whole lot. He uses bows and swords for combat and has a surprisingly high LP for a character about the same build as Judy the mage at 14 LP. I imagine he's light enough to use Light Martial Arts but for now I'm building him into an archer since Judy became a full-time mage. Most of his other skills are ones for getign around a map like obstacle climbing and swimming, so I may have to drop them. I'll likely drop his sword for a dagger instead since both the dagger and bow are skilled based weapons, he looks like someone I'm going to have to specialize in a specific field to make him useful. Right now his big issue is playing catch up with the rest of the team due to having only starting lv. panels and ridiculously low HP. So he may be staying on the roster for a bit.

For now, I'll be focusing on side missions of which there is a healthy chunk of them. I hope to start seeing Lv. 5 panels for people soon, and I hve my fingers crossed that Magic Blender may pop up eventually, preferably for Judy. Also, just for fun, I started a new game of Final Fantasy Legend 1, using the same team build (2 humans, 1 espers, and 1 monster) but this game will likely be me screwing around a bit. I've already leveled my monster to a tier 13 beast, and I'm using the King's gear to amass money for stat potions. My Esper is ding the same nonsense as last time, even has the same spell list, but I may ignore their abilities and just see where it goes from there.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

So I splurged on myself recently and picked up FFL3 and SaGa Frontier 1 which should be coming into the mail soonish. FFL3 has already arrived and is now my mobile game I'm playing between finishing up Terra Battle's story mode.

FFL3 is the true black sheep entry of the franchise. I'm starting to see why SaGa fans don't talk about it much. What's funny about this is that its the black sheep simply because it's the most conventional entry in the franchise. The team that had worked on the first two entries were green lit to make a console entry, so they were busy working on Romancing SaGa for the Super Famicom, and a new team was created to make the third installment. This team would go on to make Final Fantasy USA/Mystic Quest and it shows. The quirky character development system is gone and replaced with a normal XP/Lvl system. Magic is bought in shops, weapons don't break, and most surprising of all, the party are all named characters with backstories. It does keep some SaGa elements such as the ability to have monsters and robots on your team, but the mechanics are radically different from the last games and is much more user-friendly and even reversible. The music is pretty good, though I'm not as wild about some of the new arrangements of the classic themes.

The plot has you playing as three orphans from a bad future where a great evil has destroyed the world and is starting to move it's influence into the past. One man sent Arthur, Curtis and Gloria into the past in hopes they could grow strong enough to fix things. They are trying to rebuild a ship called the Talon, which has the power to time travel so they can try to change their bad future. At the moment, I'm looking for pieces to get the poor thing mobile.

I find it amusing how the game sort of nudges you with the monster/robot mechanics because Curtis and Sharon, the daughter of the old man who helped raise the four orphans has tagged along, are both terrible characters that levels don't help. After upgrading them by turning Sharon into a monster and Curtis into a Robot, my team is far more competent. Course maybe I shouldn't really bother because this game is really easy so far. Not helped that enemies must be made of money because they practically explode with it and I'm not even in the second town and I've already accumulated over 10,000 GP. The most expensive things in a shop are only 400GP. I'm not even grinding, it just happened. I do like the fact there is a jump function. I always love when RPGs try to be more interactive with the environment by implementing platforming. Anyway, this is going to be a weird ride for sure...

As for Unlimited SaGa, I tackled my first of the Seven Wonders which are kind of a big deal in the plot, just not Laura's so most of them are optional. I did the Star Anchor dungeon which was pretty neat. It had mini-bosses and some actual puzzle mechanics involving a star chart that has to be traversed in the correct way to proceed. The mini-boss were two Wyverns that protected one of the constellation charts a piece. The final boss had some actual dialogue, being a guardian of the wonder who transformed into a Lich from his knowledge gained from the place. He was a handful because he uses Forbidden Magic which likes to paralyze whoever it hits, and his physical attack does no HP damage and instead targets your LP directly. Sounds mean, but my team is better equipped than I thought and we took him down no problem.

This dungeon ended up being a serious boon for me though. I acquired three Magic Tablets, sparked a crap ton of Lv4 and 5 weapon arts including a third character who can use Reverse Delta, and even learned that the Magic Tablet I have Judy mastering has the incredibly rare Thunderstrike spell on it, which makes getting Magic Blender for her even more important since that spell is one of the main ingredients to access all the good spells. Even my panel selection at the end was pretty good for everyone except maybe Laura. Overall, it was a pretty good evening tackling this dungeon and I've finished all of the quests from Chapa village. Moving onto Escata where one of the missions has a boss with one of the highest monster levels in the game, meaning I should have no problem sparking all of the other Lv. 3-5 arts for my team weapons. I'm also still amassing some good materials for weapons, and managed to find some more Mullock to build Damascus weapons. I've also learned why Damascus is considered the best material in the game despite Diamond and Dragonscale technically making better weapons, and that's simply because you can make Damascus, whereas the other two materials can only be found and even then, are extremely rare and expensive when you do. I'm still having a lot of fun with this game, and I feel I've really hit a good stride with it. definitely one of those games that has a bad rep, but is really just misunderstood.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Never got around to Unlimited SaGa today but I advanced a bit on FFL3. This has really been a weird game, and while I usually will go to bat for Ted Woosely, I'll admit this has not been one of his better works but I'm chocking this up to the GB being even more limited than the SNES. I did some stuff in the past and apparently saved some girl from that time and then brought her back to the present so she can be useful for some future endeavor. The game is not terribly clear about this. Also one of the big bad's evil fortresses is rising from the ocean depths, but Cronos (who looks like an 8-bit Jesus Christ) wants me to ignore it for the time being and go to a southern tower to grab the Talon device that will finally let me travel to the future timelines. It is also amusing how the game re-uses sprites. It seems like the time travel is jumping me anywhere from 20 to 50 years and yet the sprites for the Elder and Granny are the same in both the past and present. Meanwhile, Cronos is a kid in the past, but becomes 8-bit Jesus in the Present. I can already tell this is going to be one of those games where the plot is interesting, but is going to be held back by the hardware.

I'll give this game props, the proper bosses in it all seem to be based off or at least inspired by creatures from Lovecraft, and the actual threat of the game seems to be coming from the ocean. The Seahag boss was clearly based off of a servant of Dagon, and the seond boss was some weird worm with wings or tentacles I couldn't quite tell as I was distracted by its henchmen which were rabbit people in witch clothing. Also, Maitreya is apparently a minion of the big bad, which amuses me considering the namesakes actual origin in Hindu Mythology. Sadly, I can't say the monster designs of this game have been great, not that other two GBA entries had great designs themselves, but there is something bit more hokey about the ones in this game, probably has to do with the visual distortions since this game is taking cliff notes from FFIII and likes to have you fight five to eight monsters per battle. The fact I'm starting to see ones that like to multiply has been concerning.

I have also decided that Monster and Robots are a bit too much trouble than they are worth. Monsters work like they do in classic SMT, and so their stats and skills are set and there is no way to change them without changing the monster. Great if you happen to get a strong monster, but not so great if you get a bad one. Robots are again a money sink but whereas they were broken as hell in FFL2, they require way more love to get them going well as they need special stat boosting items to make them not suck. I had poor Curtis go full robot and he went from having over 200hp down to 35hp, with crappy stats to boot. Granted, the intermediary forms are not so bad outside of having limited Talents to rely on. Cyborg Curtis was pretty awesome and Sharon's Beast form was okay until her full monster form blew it out of the water until it eventually started to get out classed. I'll experiment with these mechanics later as I'm sure I'm missing something here.

Overall it's been weird, like if SaGa 2, Mystic Quest, and FFI had a baby.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Only played a little of both titles today.

SaGa 3 - I went to the South Tower like I was told, and it turned out to be a bit of a waste of time. The component I was looking for has already been taken by the villains and is currently in the rising fortress near the underground town. Course the place is apparently locked as I got a key from the boss of this dungeon. Speaking of the boss, oh how the mighty has fallen. Ashura just seems to get demoted with every installment of the GB entries. He was the front man for the true villain in SaGa1, was the starter villain for SaGa 2, and here he's now just a flunky for the real villains. He's still a bitch to fight though as he does hit hard and all of the bosses in this game have lots of HP. I am reconsidering the Monster/Robot though I may stick to their transitional forms for a while as Cyborgs and Beast have a little more to offer since they get the best of both worlds. My main issue being poor Curtis, who can't seem to keep himself a alive, but I don;t want to get rid of his useful magic, so this might be a good compromise. I am also learning to really hate Petrify status because I have no means of curing the status at this time. A large part opf Curtis issue is he keeps getting hit with this status and loses XP making him a level behind the rest of the team. I may need to grind a bit, but I have surprisingly gotten a few good item drops from enemies including a Dragon Helm for Arthur and a Cure 2 Spell for Sharon. My next stop is the ocean base.

Unlimited SaGa - Mostly toyed around with a mission called the Titan's Flute. It involves going into a tower that has a device on the top floor that emits a sound that drives away monsters.The real trick to this dungeon is that there are two ways to finish it after you successfully hit the right switches on the top floor. The first involves going back the way you came, only to discover this big scary statue of a Titan is actually a monster who found the distorted sound like a lullaby and was napping in the dungeon. He wakes up cranky and will chase you. The other method is finding a hidden switch that let's you take a back route that let's you explore the other half of the tower, but this area is swarming with demons and undead, though it does have a lot of Lv. 99 chests. I failed my third attempt at this dungeon. The first time, I didn't do the switches correctly and didn't even wake up the Titan. The second time, I woke him up and whooped his ass, but again, I didn't do the switches quite right since it was still at the wrong frequency. The third attempt involved trying out the back route but I got hit with so many monster encounters and failed treasure chest spot checks, I eventually ran out of turns and failed the mission. Thankfully, this is one of the few missions where failure doesn't make the missions inaccessible, I simply get booted out and have to try again, so I've been getting a lot of Weapon Arts learned, unlocking skills for my gear, got a magic tablet for my trouble, and have learning a lot of magic with Tablets. Both Dog and Beaver boy have mastered their Lv. 1 Tablets. I have learned that Judy has sort of hit the mother load with this Lv. 4 Tablet I found because in addition to Thunderstrike, this Tablet also teaches a ton of Water Magic such as Bubbleblast, Ice Needle, and Purify. I seriously hope I can get her a Magic Blender Panel to turn her into a real force to be reckoned with. I am also going to need to rework her equipment setup because in addition to Forbidden Arts, I'm going to need gear with both Wood and Water Arts now as well. Laura sparked a really good fist art, and Armic of all people sparked a really good sword one. The rest of the team could be doing better in terms of sparking arts, but I'm slowly getting them to earn all of the low ranking ones. So despite failing the mission so many times, I've been getting a lot of good stuff out of it.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

SaGa 3 - Tried to take on the underwater fortress and noticed I was kind of getting smacked around too much by the random encounters. After getting pelted with the Stone status too much, I left to do a bit of grinding before it occurred to me that I didn't bother really exploring the map after gaining the Dive spell. Sure enough, found a few treasure spots and the town of Muu which I've been hearing about because the town is under a curse turning the inhabitants into Dagon followers. I obtained an item that could help them, but I need to go to the past to plant it so it will be available in the present or possibly future. The place did have a shop and some better armor and softs, so now I feel a bit better about tackling the fortress. I plan on exploring the past version of the ocean floor before returning to the present to get back to the plot proper.

Unlimited SaGa - I think the biggest gripe I have with the whole "board game" aspect of the dungeons is that it significantly slows down doing anything. These side missions are a bit long winded when you have to deal with multi-floor dungeons. I attempted the Hanging Gardens and ended up getting stuck because I couldn't quite figure out how the seasons affect things and I kept running into dead ends that required a Climbing skill no one on my team has. Instead I tackled the lone quest from the starting town that involves climbing a tower made by a powerful wizard who defeated and sealed away five magical beasts. The place is a maze and uses magic teleporting switches to move around it. The enemy types in the place were surprisingly weak, including the special assassin enemies guarding the switches. There is a treasure chest on the first floor protected by a seal of the five beasts, so when I went up to the top floor the first time, I only took down the first one which was a bird enemy and didn't realize the trick to facing the other four. So I marched back down to the first floor and realized my mistake, but by then I had used up most of my turns, so I purposely failed it. On the bright side, this opened up some new stuff in the shops and I was able to acquire some more Mullok for Damascus gear. My second attempt went slightly smoother since the game will remember maps you've been through. Didn't take as long to reach the top this time, and I finally realized the trick to facing the other beasts. Basically the top floor has a pillar in the center with five paths leading to it. Depending on which path you take, you find a different colored seal. My mistake was taking the first path and calling it done. I decided to check out the last path before the stairs to the roof and found myself facing my first dragon.

Dragons, in SaGa, are no pushovers. They are one of the strongest and most well rounded monster races in the GB entry, and they are close to being optional super bosses in the Romancing trilogy on the rare times you encounter them. These things are going to make you work for it, and Unlimited is no different. This boss is tanky and probably has more LP than anything else I've ever encountered. Most of its attacks are strong enough to do LP damage, and this boss was one of the first ones to have a ton of group hitting attacks, making it extremely dangerous and forcing me to sometimes sacrifice a character by leaving them alone on the battle field, just so the rest of the team didn't get too beat up. Fight was a major uphill battle, but I managed to spark several techs including a cool high level Kick Art that looks like Sol Badguy's special kick move where he ricochets off the wall and goes into a flying kick. I also managed to have plant girl learn Bopeep, which is one of the best Sword arts in the game because in addition to looking cool since it's basically Omnislash with teleportation portals, it has a high chance of inflicting Darkness, which is the name of this game's version of Instant Death magic. Even some bosses are susceptible to it. Laura managed to learn the highest of the starting axe weapons and even got a another sword art as well.

After that struggle, I opted to fight the bird boss I had beaten before as my next target. Boss is pretty easy, mostly single target attacks, he's just speedy. My second boss ended up being the second hardest of the group, an Eastern style dragon with group hitting lightning magic. Thankfully it has about 3 less LP, so I did manage to kill it before I started losing party members. Once three of the bosses are taken down, you get returned to the first floor here the treasure chest is now accessible. Unfortunately, it was booby trapped with an explosion trap, which will destroy the content of the treasure if you trip it, and being a Lv. 99 chest, meant that even having a high Difuse skill meant I had a slim chance of success. To make a long story short, I botched it and never got the treasure contents, but ended up finishing the missions anyway because I sparked a ton of great Weapon Arts and my two forays through the tower earned me enough battles to master a ton of magic on my tablets. I'm actually going to reconfigure Judy and drop her Bow weapon so I can give her a fourth item with a a magic art on it. Laura's tablet is a water themed one which has also been teaching her a few Wood and Earth skills, while Plant Girl's was purely Earth elemental which is easily one of the best support magic groups. I also managed to pick up a spear someone made from one of the game's rarest metals. I also got mostly garbage in terms of panels, but again, I sparked too many good skills to not keep moving forward. I'm now going to tackle the Hanging Gardens a second time.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

SaGa 3 - Finished the Underwater Fortress and defeated Chaos, the first of the four minions of the big bad. The fortress was actually pretty swanky for a GB game and it had some neat tricks like one way floor panels, holes you need to use to reach hidden treasure and hidden pathways. I only got stuck once because I didn't realize that the door I needed to reach the next section was actually a door. Hard to tell since I'm playing this on a first gen GBA with no back light. What is really cool was how the top three floors are all futuristic and high tech, but once I used the Chaos Key to reach the lower floors, it turns into an actual old style temple. I'm really digging the Lovecraftian imagery of this game. Chaos himself was not what I was expecting. In true FF tradition, he's an earth elemental who looks like the love child between Titan and Golem. Basically Titan's design, but with stone for skin. He hit hard and has Quake, but after being stuck wandering in his dungeon for awhile and getting all the better spells and gear at Mu, I trounced him pretty easily. I now have the Talon pieces that allow me go Back to the Future! which Arthur even said to Chaos when asked why he wants the component. I'm going to check to see if the seeds I planted have formed a cure yet for some of the townsfolk turning into fish people first before I dive into the next section.

Unlimited SaGa - Tackled the Hanging Gardens, which ended up being a bit simpler than I thought. Turns out the only season that matters is winter since it forms ice bridges. I also put Armic the Beaver/squirrel boy on my team and completely forgot he was the character I had placed all of the mobility panels on, so I could sneak past some of the places with obstacles to get their treasure. The dungeon is more annoying than anything as there are spots where plants attack you and you have to roll to see if you evade them, if you don't, then these statue monsters appear and change the season on you. There are also special points where one of them will appear and ask you which wing it should use to fix the broken pieces of themselves. You get four choices and they are each based on one of the seasons. This puzzle turns out to be really simple because the answer is always the following season it currently is, so if it's Spring, you choose the wing for Summer and it makes it happy and they'll change the season to that one. This is the other way to change seasons. I did encounter some seriously powerful monsters by the end, but I didn't exactly spark as many good arts as I would like. Anzan did manage to spark a really cool Kick art that seems to be loosely based off of Tifa's Dolphin Blow though. The boss of this dungeon was a real pain in the ass. It was a giant humanoid wasp creature that got something like eight turns per round and loves to both poison your team mates with it's group hitting attack, but also had a lot of pierce style moves which means it did direct LP damage a lot. Took out Judy and nearly wiped out Henri, Anzan, and Laura since it occasionally did 3 LP with some of its combos.

I didn't get very many good panels from this victory, not sparked a lot of good arts, but I have managed to learn a few more spells and I'm trying to stop myself from redoing missions so I can get on with things. I am a bit disappointed I gave Judy the other high end Magic Tablet because it turned out it also had Thunderbringer and Purify on it which Plant Girl could have used instead. Course it had Holy Seal on it which is a powerful group hitting fire spell. Laura's panel also has a lot of water and earth spells on it. I was mostly happy to get Missile Guard since that spell reduces the chance of taking direct LP damage and is super useful for her since her death means an automatic game over. Plant Girl is mostly finished with her Earth Tablet, but I think the next few tablets I acquire are going to her since I feel she would make a better mage and Judy needs some backup. I did manage to find some more Mullock from the shops, so I'll be making more Damascus gear. I really wish Henri had managed to unlock some Weapon Arts off the spear he has equipped, but I'm grateful my Dog Boy managed to do one for the Black Dagger which will likely be Henri's replacement for the Blade of Escata when I go do the final boss fights. I'm also happy I keep finding Stone Helmets, because they seem to be the type of gear that has Null Darkness as a common skill to them, and apparently Laura's final boss likes to inflict that status a lot.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

SaGa 3 - Not a whole lot, discovered the seeds I sowed in the past simply give birth to a talking tree in the present and future who gives me clues on what to do. The future is... interesting. Mainly because it's a but dystopian, just not in a way you would imagine. Basically the big bad has created some magic urn that is flooding the world, so the past has the largest land mass, but by the time you reach the future, most of the world is underwater except for something called the Purelands. I met up with the resistance and learned the future is actually just fifteen years from the present. Two kids my party played with are now adults running the resistance movement and the Dagon virus has transformed Mu into it's very own monster infested Zozo. My goal at the moment is to rescue one of the former kids I grew up who has been captured by the next minion Maetriya. I started dabbling with meat and robot parts again. Decided my main issue was I gave the wrong things to my characters, so Curtis the Esper has been transformed into an Osiris Beast which means he use his magic but loses some of his bonuses in exchange for access to Talents. The best part was the massive HP boost he got. Sharon became a Cyborg Dullahan which has not been quite as much of a boon because Humans are surprisingly OP in this game (they do 2x damage with weapons) but the HP gains and access to some Talents haven't been too bad for her either.

Unlimited SaGa - Finished all the side quests in Iskandaria which leaves me about four side quests before I have nothing left. Most of these quests involved exploring a desert setting and dealing with some nasty sandstorms. I managed to acquire a low level Water tablet which I've given to my plant lady and have already managed to teach her Purity. I'm having mixed feelings about teaching Laura magic at this point because it's been causing her to pull some really useless Panels when quests are completed. If Henri wasn't so damn useful since he has all of the treasure chest panels, I'd start leaving him behind on missions to help other characters catch up. I managed to get a jackpot of Mullock so I'm getting close to a point where I've got more Damascus stuff than other material types which is not a bad thing. I'm actually starting to use them more since I have plenty to spare and I still need to unlock their Weapon Arts. Oddly enough, I feel kind of confident enough now where I'm sure I could hit end game. I've been seeing more Lv 5 Panels and I've gained a good assortment of Arts for my team. I do still wish I could get Magic Blender but knowing my luck, either Anzan or Armic will get it before Judy or Laura do. I also wish I could get some Ax panels for Laura again, and I wish Anzan could get a Shield Panel higher than Lv. 2. I've already dropped the shield for Francis. Anyway, I'm getting close to the end.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

SaGa 3 - I'm going to level with you. This has been one of the hardest games to get into. Mainly because it's kind of blah in terms of gameplay. Like there are some interesting ideas for sure, but not a whole lot of reason to bother either. The game tries to keep the idea of weapons being based on stats, but it doesn't really work very well because the party is static in level ups so agility based weapons are often not as useful as others. Monsters and Robots are neat, but they have so many drawbacks and not enough positives to make it a hard argument to bother with them instead of just rolling with your party normally. More damning is how bad this game has already started re-using enemy sprites. I'm already on my fourth tier of all of the starting enemies and I've only beaten four bosses. So my issue is that I find the narrative interesting, but the gameplay is so stale that playing has been hard.

Unlimited SaGa - Finally finished Side-Quest Hell. The only sidequest left is the Secret Quest, which is basically a randomized quest designed to give players a chance to level up more once all the normal quests are done. I've managed to gain a lot of new techs for my party, transformed Armic into a one squirrel/beaver boy swimming /climbing expert, and I have been making a lot of Damascus gear and finally crafting them with elemental arts so my team can start making use of all of these spells I've been teaching them. My only real regret is how Judy can't seem to gain any panels I really want for her, and Michelle refuses to spark third and fourth tier melee moves for some inexplicable reason. The last few missions were interesting. One involved chasing a bunch of monsters through a scary garden because they stole a love letter my client had left there. The final wonder I did involved hitting switches on a series of floating islands to bring up and elevator that takes me to the Blue Dragon that is lord of the place. I went searching for a wealthy man hiding out in his treasure vault because his wife hasn't seen him in awhile and she needs access to the vault to sell off his collections, and finally I went to a Knight's Mausoleum that has a Heaven/Hell aspect with the floors and the top and bottom floor are guarded by a really nasty set of bosses that actually stalk the floor, so you don't really know when you'll actually encounter them. Pretty neat overall. Part of me wants to try a few secret missions to see if I can luck out and gain the panels I really want, and the other part of me is frankly ready to move on with the plot and try to finish the game soon. I have maybe two more story missions left from my understanding. I may write up some valuable info for anyone crazy enough to try this game out in the future, but I get a feeling most people here are likely not interested. It's an incredibly quirky game.

[Wolf Kanno]

Due to RL, I have not had much time to work on either game. Mostly been sticking to mobile gaming and mostly trying to finish up Terra Battle or doing some Pokemon Go. That changed around last night because I had initially signed up for the beta testing on Romancing SaGa re:Universe but missed the beta due to RL once again. The game officially came out in the West two days ago. Curiosity got the better of me and I checked it out last night and I'm already hooked.

The easiest way to describe it is that the game is basically FF Record Keeper just with the SaGa IP and game mechanics. It does feature a real plot and have a central cast, but a big part of the plot is the arrival of mysterious towers that summon heroes and villains from other SaGa titles. The main plot is set 300 years after Romancing SaGa 3 and follows a man named Polka, who is a former acrobat who traveled with a circus with his sister Liz. She was kidnapped by a dark figure and has now roamed the lands looking for her. He has joined the Graves Knights, an order of warriors based in Vanguard who explore the mysterious Graves that have begun to pop up across the globe. As mentioned earlier, the Graves serve as a portal to alternate worlds and exploring them will sometimes have Polka re-enact famous moments from the games.

You can build a party of up to five characters and can use gems or tickets to draw characters from the whole franchise to make up our team. Characters are bit unique, because they are sorted by rank from A to SS and it's possible to get the same character just with different ranks. The ranks deal with a characters "Style" which is a fancy way of saying how they develop and what skills they can spark. Each character can only spark up to three moves and their style alters what stats will likely be raised when you finish a mission. It's pretty straight forward and it's possible to switch styles on a character if you own different ranks of them. Mages are also a bit unique as they only gain magic after a mission is completed but some characters can do both magic and weapon arts.

There is a crafting system, but I'm way too early in the game to make use of it. There are also formations, but again, I'm still too early to make use of it. You can also send characters on expeditions so you level up large swaths of them at once. Expeditions remove them from play for a set amount of real world time, but you can also acquire special tickets that make expeditions end instantly for the bonus. Party members will get stat gains and style points for going on these missions, but they won't unlock weapon or magic arts so you'll still need to use everyone if you want them to be good.

I'm currently rolling a party with Polka, Faerie, Gerad, Laura, and Sif.

[Wolf Kanno]

I must say, I think Re:Universe might be one of the better mobile games SE has released. Helps that it was designed not to be pay-to-win seeing how the game hands out all of the materials for summoning and crafting. Hell the easiest way to level is to do expeditions (which I've learned doesn't actually remove characters from being used on story missions) since you can get great stat gains from them and they mainly use real world time to do. The even missions also prove this point as there is one that lets you face off against Subier from RS2 and he owned my team, until I realized I was bringing the wrong team and built a team with high natural ice/water defense that let me shrug off his more devastating attacks. The game really tries to focus more on strategy than grinding stats and gear levels which is really nice.

The plot is also been pretty interesting, though you'll get more out of it if you've played the series, especially Romancing SaGa 3. Most surprising is that the game is actually very story/character driven for a SaGa entry. Even more quirky is how unlike Record Keeper, this game makes it a plot point that you're recruiting characters from the franchise, so they've been having their own story lines and interactions, which has been really nice. The most amusing moment is when the party tried to grill Ellen about what happened 300 years ago seeing how she's one of the Eight Legendary Heroes. Unfortunately for the team, the Ellen with us is one from before her adventure started. Reading some of the character descriptions has also been interesting because the one for Leon, the original king of Avalon in RS2 is apparently one from after his death in the original, as he acknowledges that Gerad has taken his being into him. I'm hoping that may become a plot element later.

I am also surprised how attached I am to the characters from these games. Like I've been surprised which characters make me feel super happy to obtain like Sif and Hawke from RS1, Gustave and Ginny from SF2, and Ellen and Robin from RS3.

It's been a really nice diversion for me.

[Wolf Kanno]

Well this is a first for me when it comes to mobile gaming. I've actually reached the end of the available story content it seems, unless there is a trick I don't know about. Left on a real cliffhanger too.

I've collected a good chunk of characters so far, and I've been mostly grinding this one story mission to try and obtain a super rare drop in the form of an SS rank version of Rouge from SaGa Frontier. I've been upgrading equipment and working on side content which got me the Christmas themed Flurry (who is awesome btw) and I recruited Subier as well. While grinding this mission is tedious, it has allowed me to spark a good chunk of my playable characters weapon/magic arts.

My best team so far is:

Gerad (RS2) SS Rank - High HP, access to a group hitting sword skill, access to the best sword skill and great skills overall. I have his S Rank form as well and as soon as I figure out how to inherit skills, I may give him access to Wildfire so he'll have a Fire spell. His two innate abilities I've unlocked increase his defense and attack power at full HP. He's not even at maxed style level yet.

Santa Flurry (RS3) S Rank - High defense against melee, fire, and water damage, he also comes with a low cost healing spell, decent LP to use it, and his most powerful attack does dual strike and water damage. His innate abilities are what make him really BS. His third skill increases the effect of healing magic, he can randomly cure the status of any living party member at the start of a turn, and if he is killed in battle, he does a group heal spell to all surviving party members. He is proof that event characters are BS in these types of games.

Ellen (RS3) SS Rank - Is largely how she is in RS3, a damage beast. Her SS rank gives her access to the awesome Time Lapse and Dynamic Chop ax arts. All of her innate abilities crank up her regular and critical hit damage. As an SS rank, she gets very high stats and stat gains. She's almost as tanky as Gerad and Gustave. She also has higher strike defense than most characters.

Sophia (RS2) SS rank - Sophia is my second healer, with a low cost healing spell, higher LP than Flurry. She also gains Bonecrusher which is a great hammer skill that lowers an enemies strength. Her innate abilities cause her regular blows to raise her Love stat which increases healing effect. She also has Flurry's skill to restore the team when killed, and her final skill increases her healing ability anyway which is already better than Flurry's skill level. She also just has better stats overall and high natural defense against the two most common damage types.

Gustave XIII (SF2) S Rank - Despite only being S rank, his stats are on par with SS rank characters with the exception of HP. Gustave gets access to the overpowered Bull Crush greatsword skill which does way more damage than it should to enemies and he is the only character I've obtained who has access to Wheel Swing, which is a rare group hitting greatsword skill. Where he really shines is his innate abilities. He has one skill that works like Cover from FF but with the bonus of doing reduced damage, he can potentially restore some of his own health at the start of a round and it's a generous amount I might add. Finally, he has a form of One More Chance, allowing him to survive a fatal blow once per mission. He is a beast, and I can't wait until I can acquire one of his two SS rank incarnations to see what they can do.

Editga: Okay figured out how to inherit skills. What's neat is that not only can you switch which skills you want at no cost, if you have the character in multiple teams, you can still specialize which skills they inherit by team. This game is surprisingly user-friendly for this franchise.

[Wolf Kanno]

Okay, so I have a real update today:

SaGa 3 - I've reached a sky world in the future which may be the base of operations for the Big Bad. I'm looking for one of the kids from the starting village, who is now fully grown and a member of the resistance. She disappeared on a mission and I've teamed up with her playmate to go rescue her. Got some new gear in the town and reorganized my magic. Still playing with Beasts and Cyborgs, but not ready to venture into Robots or Monsters since both seem to be something that works better for the player if you wait until endgame. I explored a weird cave with water paths that drag you in specific directions and lots of hidden rooms. The other was a tower where my team is looking for the component that may finally let my time machine fly. Unfortunately Maitreya is there waiting for us and he may have mortally injured my guest companion. I whooped their ass but now I'm stuck as it's been so long since my last game time that I've forgotten where I'm suppose to use the radio or remote to get off this sky rock. We learned the missing friend is on the floating island where Sol, the creator god is sleeping. I laugh a bit from this seeing as how I named me MC in SaGa 1 by that name. Anyway, we may be able to save our other friend but first I need to leave.

Unlimited SaGa - I decided to get on with it and jumped the plot ahead. Henri talks with his former vassal and has him guard all the Elemental Gears and the Blade of Escata while we storm the castle of the guy who killed Henri's parents and stole the Metal Gear. My team is certainly well leveled for this part of the game, but his castle was pretty long winded with me needing to go into the basement to reach the other side of his castle that has the stairs leading to his throne. I will give the game props though, the boss fight was interesting because I was restricted to one party member per round. I could switch out to any available party member of course, but only one person at a time to make this into a duel. Guy had like 20+ LP too, so this fight was pretty interesting. I ended up actually beating him, meaning I get to do the hard version of Laura's endgame. Apparently I learned after the fact that I can actually lose this boss fight and all it did was make this guy the final villain. By beating him, I get the more difficult true villain, the vassal that Laura and I felt was too sketchy. So Now I just need to go after him in the final dungeon and I'll complete at least character for Unlimited SaGa.

Re:Universe - Since I hit the end of the available story missions, I'm spending time doing side missions for materials and better gear while also going through the Hard mode version of Story Mode which offers new loot and potential party members. My core team have all hit the Lv. 30 soft cap for their style levels and I'm using the character pieces I've obtained to to boost most of them to Lv. 40. I've also thrown them into an Expedition party since it's the fastest way to get lots of stat boosts. Been playing with upgrading gear as well. My biggest haul was finally acquiring the SS Rank Rouge and drawing an S Rank Undine, Laura, and Henri. I also managed to get another of the holiday themed characters which is a Harpy from RS2. I only wish I could pull one of the other Gustave's, as having more than one style of a character tends to be better for them stat-wise since even lower tier styles can sometimes specialize in stats growth the higher tier ones are missing. Getting access to a transfer skill for him would be great as well. I also wish I could draw more archer characters as it's the weapon type I have the lowest level for. So far the most amusing thing about the game is some of the questionable weapon choices for characters. Unlike the main series, characters are assigned specific weapon types to use. The obvious funny ones are where a character uses a weapon type counter to their artwork. Some of the military units from RS2 tend to fall into this with one guy being a Greatsword expert despite having a spear in their artwork. The weirdest one so far has been Laura from US. In all of her official artwork, she's seen with a sword. The game has her as a spear specialist. This is doubly humorous for me because in US, spears are a skill based weapon type, and Laura has the worst skill stat of the main characters, meaning she would be awful using spears. Not sure why they didn't make her an ax or melee user since those weapon types are her best ones. Henri also gets rapiers as his weapon choice in this game despite not being a weapon type in his game. But that one is slightly less bothersome since Rapiers are skilled based weapons (which Henri is a great skill based user in his original game) and Henri's artwork often has him using light swords and rapiers. My hope is that maybe the later chapters are hidden behind Hard Mode and by completing the story mode in the higher difficulty, I can unlock the next set.

[Wolf Kanno]

Unlimited Saga is complete with Laura at least. I dabbled in another character story, but wasn't sure I was ready to dive back in like I was for PS2 and 3. Overall, I feel the game suffers from a bad rep , but is surprisingly better than people make it out to be. It's core design is certainly out there and requires approaching the game in a very different light, but it works out for the most part. It is surprisingly more story heavy than other entries I've played so far.

So when I last left off, we discovered the one dude had been able to conquer Escata because the retainer had betrayed the royal family. Sadly, we handed over all the elemental gears and the blade and he ran off to a place called the Nanke Lines I believe? It's based on the Nanzca Lines in South America and the theme of the dungeon is to uncover every room that creates one of the pictures made from it. Most of it was easy until the Giant room, because that one involved invisible walls, and while the first one is hinted to you, the others weren't making matters worse, this area was crawling with high level undead. In a rare act of mercy, the dungeon actually had a save point and restored all of the party's health, including LP. So that was neat.

The final battle starts with a rematch with the retainer dude, who is pulling off his best Golbez impression by having a wicked cool skeleton dragon wrap around him and fight with him. His signature attack is Shadow Breath even, and it's a pain in the ass. Not because it does a lot of damage, mostly because it inflicts an annoying status effect called Blackout, which is kind of like Paralyze except in this game, it's terrible. Basically, if a party member gets killed or nailed with a debilitating status effect that prevents them from taking action, the game still counts them as on the field, so they use up a turn and the only way to stop this is to remove them from the field by having another character waste their action to do so. Weight is also a factor, which is where Anzan becomes a double edged sword, because he weighs so much no character can rescue him if he were to be killed or hit with blackout.

The retainer isn't so bad though, I made sure to equip most of my team with a helmet that resists blackout. With him taken out, he goes on about how the royal family squandered the power they had and uses it to summon Chaos, a primordial force used by the gods to create the world. You need to read the Ultimania to get this info though... Anyway, this boss is a bit weird. He has four phases and as I mentioned in an earlier post, he acquires the signature attack of each character's main villain. So in my case, Shadow Breath. His design is interesting, sort of like a weird flower, skeleton, Gilgamesh, Safer Sephiroth looking abomination. You face him on the blue moon of the planet, until his final form, where you take him on in the second red moon. Man Square loves that imagery. This is at least the third game to use this visual. His first two phases are jokes, where he mainly uses the various weapons on its back to smack you around. In fact, with the exception of two attacks, overall its attacks look more impressive than they really are. The two attacks that are a big threat come during the last two phases. The first is Overkill which is a group hitting attack with a good chance to do LP damage. Raven's Edge on the other hand is the real threat. Ironically, it's the least impressive attack since it's basically a basic overhead sword attack but it does massive LP damage. Course the real reason why the final phase is actually a challenge is because it's turns practically triple, so watching it take a character with 19 LP get hit with a four hit combo of Raven't Edge and walk away with 5 LP left afterwards is really scary. Thankfully for me, I brought three Axe specialists and Henri managed to spark a really impressive spear art during the first encounter with the Retainer. It was incredibly close though by the end, and Henri was actually killed while the rest of my team had maybe 3 LP a piece. So it still stands that SaGa has nastier final bosses than most RPGs I've played, though of the SaGa games I've played, Chaos might be the easiest. Laura gets a slightly bittersweet ending, though fairly uplifting. I'm glad I started with her.

Best characters: Laura, Henri, Michelle, Judy, and Musol Yanii
Least Favorite: Platyphyllum, who is not a bad character per se, I just could never find a good niche on my team for them.
Best Voice Acting: Michelle and Platyphyllum
Worst: Francis, Armic, and retainer
Best Weapon Arts: Axe, Swords, Daggers, and Light Martial Arts
Worst Weapon Arts: Throw, Staffs, and Spears
Best Magic: Water, Earth, and Fire
Worst magic: Wood and Metal
Best Panels: Haggle, Defuse, Locksmith, Sharpeye, and Iron Body
Favorite Boss: The Tree Monster or Phoenix
Least Favorite: Dragons...
Scrappiest SaGa game?: Oh yeah...
Still worth playing?: Oh yeah!

If I could improve this game I'd do the following:

Drop the Arts consume HP mechanic: It's only a major problem in the early game. By then end, you'll forget it was even there, but it doesn't really serve any function outside of making the early game unnecessarily difficult until your characters start unlocking Life Protection.

Make Tablets re-usable: Magic suffers the most in terms of scrappy elements being attached to it. Most players I've seen tend to ignore it mainly because it's more work than it's worth. Magic isn't bad per se, but the mechanical gymnastic you have to climb through to make due with it. I feel one easy remedy would be to make Tablets reusable so if you luck out with RNG and manage to get a good one, you can at least teach it to a few characters instead of sticking to just one of them.

A better UI: I'm still baffled by the fact that a normal menu screen is only availble during missions. Like there are ways to view your inventory on the map, but you can't do things like organize it from there. Likewise, it's annoying the game often thrusts you into the map mode first without giving you a clear idea of what panels a character starts with or even what their stat spread looks like. It just feels weird that certain information is only accessible at certain points in the game. It doesn't hurt the game, but it shows why standard menu screens are often taken for granted.

Allow the player to rearrange panels at the level up screen: Oh holy hell this could resolve so many issues. Not that managing stats is hard the way the game works, but due to the nature of the game, you sort of need to go in knowing the optimal panel build for a character, and then pray that the game actually let's the RNG have your way. Some of this frustration could be easily resolved if the game could allow you to rearrange your panels because you'll need to start working on double bonuses in the early game for better stat boosts, but it often leaves you with a setup that makes going for the lofty goal of a triple bonus difficult to pull off without gimping a character for a mission or two, and praying the RNG will be merciful with panel options. Again, this is not a major problem except for players like myself who tend to play optimally. You can easily get by with double bonuses and a mish-mash of panel abilities, and in fact, the game is pretty much built that way, but my OCD would be so much happier...

Better pacing: I feel the biggest criticism I have against the game is that the board game mechanics, while fun and interesting, slow the game's pacing down to a crawl. The side quest hell at the end, really sapped a lot of my enthusiasm to finish the game among other RL issues getting in the way. It's not even that the missions are not fun, they just take forever, especially if there are puzzles and lots of locked chests. That's the largest issue with the heavier emphasis on Table Top gaming and dice rolls that the Wheel represents. It's fun in that you won't find other games that play like this outside of a real table top experience, but the game also shows why most video game RPGs tend relegate all this stuff to the background because they slow the whole gaming process down. I started avoiding chests after awhile just because they consumed too many turns and real time to usually be worth the effort. Especially since the game decided that 98% of all chests should be locked and booby trapped.


Now for some tips for anyone who wants to play this game that I wish I had known.

Magic 101
There are three ways to use magic in this game, but only one "correct way".

1. You equip a character with an enchanted item that comes with a spell attached.
2. The character has a Familiar Panel that lets them cast the element and level of magic.
3. The character learns spells from a tome they have equipped on them.

As you can see, option 3 is how the game would prefer how you learn magic. The issue with option 3, is that you need to use the two first options to even learn magic. Basically, learning magic works like this. You need to acquire a Magic Tome through a treasure chest or a rare enemy drop. At the Panel screen at the end of a mission, you need to opt out of using one of the four random panels the game gives you for the level up and choose to equip a magic tome instead. When you go on another mission, you need to go to the character's status screen and choose to learn from the tablet. This last step is important because the game has a bad habit of switching this option off, especially if you have more than one tablet equipped. When your character is in battle, you need to have access to magic through either an enchanted item, or a familiar, and then use that spell in battle. Preferably, you want to land on the element reel of the spell you cast to gain more XP. When the battle is over, the character who has followed all of these steps will get an extra screen where the tablet appears with three spells it teaches and you can choose to put the XP into one of them. Once a spell is learned, the tablet will grab three other spells from the list it has, though you will have to learn every spell on the tablet to master it. Once you've filled the spells XP bar, the spell is permanently learned.

The other factor for magic is that it works with the same rules as SaGa Frontier 2 with a few extra steps. In order to cast a spell with the magic your character has actually learned, they will need either a weapon or armlet that has the elemental arts ability of the spells they know as one of it's attached abilities. This can be accomplished by either acquiring one of the enchanted weapons I mentioned since they'll always have these spell arts attached to them, or you can attach them to said gear through blacksmithing. Casting magic consumes the items durability, so be careful.

Also, two other things to note: Enchanted weapons will have a specific spell attached to them which you can see on the info screen of the item. Enchanted weapons tend to have low durability because the game doesn't intend for you to use them a lot outside of learning magic. To punctuate that feeling, trying to increase the durability of an enchanted item through blacksmithing will cause the weapon to be disenchanted. It will still retain the Magic Arts ability, but the spell will be lost forever. A pain in the ass in the early game when magic is limited, not a big deal by end game when all you need is the Magic Art skill hassle free.

Familiars are panels you gain that do a number of cool things. They give you access to one of the map discovery skills which helps you find treasure or puzzle elements on the field, and allow a character to cast magic based on the familiars level and element. Magic is ranked in tiers, so having a Lv. 1 Water Familiar will allow that character to cast Detect Undead, whereas a Level 4. Familiar will allow them to cast Detect Undead, Rainbringer, Water Aura, and Purify. So if you're going to go for one, make usre it's high level, and even if your character isn't set up for magic, a Lv. 4 or 5 Water Familiar is always a boon to your party for the extra healing. With all that said, Familiars are a trap for optimization. They give you lots of benefits, but they offer the worst stat bonuses for magic builds out of the bunch. You actually want the Map Guides if you're going for a triple bonus, or special skill panels like Fortuneteller and Magic Blender. Use Familiars in the early game to learn magic, and then try to steadily phase them out.

As for which magic to use:

Water is top priority because it has Purify, which not only heals but restores the status of a character. It also has Detect Undead which lowers the LP protection of Undead, and two pretty powerful offensive spells.

Earth is my second choice because Detect Animal is super useful and lowers the LP protection of the most common enemy type you'll encounter. Boulder is an okay offensive spell, and Build-Up is a decent buff skill.

Fire is tied with earth. Detect Aura is useful for slimes, it has lots of good offensive magic, and Power Surge is a great Buff.

Metal is okay and mostly situational. It has a few offensive spells that target groups, but low LP damage potential. Most of it's debuff spells are for Mimics, but they are pretty easy to deal with without them. The Armor Buff spell is probably the only real great skill here.

Wood is probably the most situational. Most of it's buff/debuff skills have issues like Missile Guard which would be a great skill (it lowers Pierce damage) but can only be cast on the caster meaning you would have to teach it to everyone to get any use out of it. Thunderbringer is probably the strongest single target spell in the game, but it's rare and not worth building a Wood focus Mage for.

Forbidden is the one I spent the longest time learning, and the least amount of time using. The spells are pretty potent, especially it's detect spell that works on bosses, but Demonite is rare to come across, which is what you need to gain the Forbidden Art ability on your gear. It quickly fell into the "too awesome to use" category for me.

Blacksmith 101
The first rule of Blacksmithing in this game is to save before you do anything. One of the biggest secrets of the game is that certain materials like Steel and Platinum can only be acquired by merging specific materials and even then, you only have a 15% chance of the final product giving you the desired results. This is especially important with the creation of Damascus, because it involves creating specific tiers of two materials.

To replenish the durability of an item like a weapon, you'll need to merge the item with a raw material or another weapon or armlet. Merging specific materials will sometimes give you access to better materials like merging Iron and Wood to create Steel, or Silver and Iron to make Platinum. Another thing the game doesn't tell you is that merging heavier materials or lighter ones onto a weapon will sometimes change the weapons weight class. This is very important because weapons like Staffs, Daggers, and Swords will have skills like Block, Deflect, and Parry as their secondary skill when they are a lighter weight item. Ceratin weapon arts can only be obtained on a weapon based on their weight class.

For example:

A Heavy Sword will have Slash as their secondary skill and likely Cross Slash as their third skill. Whereas a Light weight sword will have Deflect as their secondary skill, and Rear Slash as their third tier skill. This is really important if you want to build weapons with great weapon arts attached to them. Rule of thumb is that weapons with damage negating secondary skills like the ones mentioned above should always be built for lightweight unless you already have a different weapon choice for their second hand item. Weapons like Axes, Bows, and Spears tend to work better the heavier they are. This is all really important when you're building higher grade weapons.

Likewise, if you want to equip a Magic Art to a weapon or armlet, you need to choose one of the stones as the secondary item to be merged with the item. Even then, there is only a 15% chance the Art will attach itself to the item, so again, save before you attempt and reset if it doesn't work out.

Damascus is technically the best material in the game. Technically Dragonsteel and Shiva Metal are better, but both of these materials are rare and unlike Damascus, they can't be produced with the right material. You need to find something made of the material to make anything. Damascus on the other hand can be mass produced with the right ingredients and has comparable stats to the other two materials. The biggest issue with making Damascus is obtaining Mullock. This is a cheap and brittle material that is plentiful in the early game but will start to become scarce by end game when your shop level gets too high. Even then, I find you can usually obtain the material at trading posts. and due to its low value, it's easy to acquire. Just make sure if you find it, it's either a weapon, armlet, or raw material so you can actually use it at the blacksmith. I also highly recommend making Damascus Armlets first for your whole team. Black Armlets and Cross Bones are guaranteed to have Life Protection as an unlockable skill for them.

Shopping 101
Ugh, Like SaGa Frontier 2, Unlimited SaGa uses a shop level system. What this means is that the products available at shops change based on how much you've collectively spent throughout the game.Hence, why materials like Mullock start to disappear after awhile. This is also the point of Maharaja skill, which increases the value of items so you pay more. Likewise, Haggling will slow down the process of raising your level. It's a balancing act, because you want to keep the shop level low to obtain hard to find materials like Mullock and Feather that are super useful for crafting, but on the other hand, a high shop level means you can obtain hard to acquire armor and materials like Diamond, Damascus Armor (which you can't make), and Dragonsteel.

Likewise, one of the easy to overlook skills a character can have is Fashion. This skill allows you to charm a shopkeeper into showing off their rare goods, which is pretty much the only way you're going to see certain materials in the game. Don't drop this skill lightly, once I dropped it, I never saw it again in the playthrough.

Panels 101
Like stat gains in earlier entries, there is a method to obtaining certain panels though not a 100% guaranteed. Rule of thumb is that whatever actions you take between level up screens will factor in what panels will be drawn for the level up process. Use Haggle a lot in towns or been defusing chests in dungeons? Chances are you'll see more of those panels at level up. Same deal goes with weapon panels and even Map and Familiar ones. I used Familiars so often with Judy, she mainly pulled those during level ups, hence why you shouldn't rely on them too much. This is also why you should be careful about dropping specific panels when they appear. I dropped Michelle's Fashion panel before I really understood what it actually did and I never saw it again because of it. Same thing happened to Francis when I dropped his shield panel.

You should also make sure someone on your team has one of the following skills:
Haggle - To conserve money and get better stuff.
Locksmith - For opening chests and doors.
Defuse - For disarming traps
Sharpeye - For seeing what traps are on a chests and the type of lock.
Obstacle Crossing - For getting past blocked terrain.
Swimming - To cross Rivers
Fix-It-All - For repairing weapons and armlets on the field up to 20 durability.
Aura - For increasing the chance of being able to sneak by certain enemies on the map.

All these skills will make dungeon crawling so much easier...

Also, for weapon panels, higher level is better, not just for the stat boosts, but because they also increase the likelihood of sparking new weapon arts.

Speaking of stat boosts...

Melee characters: Axes and Fist panels specifically Punch.
Magic Characters: Magic Blender, Fortunteller, and Map Panels
Skill Characters: Key Panels like Locksmith, Diffuse, and Sharpeye.

These are the panels you want when optimizing a characters build. Also in the case of magic users, do not worry about their Magic stat. It doesn't really work the way it should. Instead focus on raising the element of the magic type you are teaching them. Also, Shield and Gun panels are only necessary if you plan on using them, in fact, if you plan on using a gun or shield without the panel, you're better off not bothering because the gun reel will be so stacked against you it will be worthless while the shield will have an abysmal chance of activating without a panel. So don't use these unless your character has the corresponding panel.

Defense 101
Throw out everything you know about RPGs. Defense stat, HP, and elemental defense don;t really mean much in this game. The only skill that matters is Life Protection. It raises the likelihood of taking LP damage from an attack, and if you have enough of it, your character can be standing at 0HP for several rounds and still taking damage like a tanking champ. That's not to say the other stats don't factor in here as well, but LP protection makes a bigger difference than having Ice Barrier or Strike defense. Unlike other RPGs, once a character's HP reaches zero, they don't fall, instead they have a higher chance of taking LP damage, so you do still want to go into fights with full HP, but it's possible to have a character at 0 HP for several rounds and see them take no LP damage. So yeah, Life Protection is the only defensive skill that matters in terms of armor abilities.

The more important defensive skills are ones attached to weapons like Parry, Deflect, and Block. Any skill that negates damage altogether is better than having a higher defense number. The other important thing to note is that in order to use these skills, the weapon with the skill must be in the second weapon slot or off-hand in order to activate. Don't know why it's set up like this, but that's how it is. Shields can be super useful, especially if you get high lv. panels for them, but don't rely on them over weapon ones since you need a panel to activate a shield one on a regular basis whereas just having a high strength/skill stat will activate the other more often.

With Unlimited Saga out of the way. I may start up SaGa Frontier 1 next. Any suggestion on who I should start with?

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

With Unlimited done, I figured I should refocus on FFL3 before starting SaGa Frontier. I've also been plugging away at the mobile entry because the next chapters got released.

FFL3: Interesting what long session can do. I was finally able to use the Radio and Remote to escape the sky island and get Dion fixed up. With the parts we found, we are finally able to enter the Purelands, where the villains are from. Dion splits up from our party to look for Fray, I believe her name is. We discover she's being held by another minion named Fenrir and we have to get some catnip from a village he attacked so we can put his cat mummy ninja guards asleep to get around the place. He actually had a pretty eerie design since he was a werewolf with no eyes and a skull necklace. With Fray in the team, we take a boat east and climb a mountain where we face off with the first of the Masters, who keeps up the Lovecraftian theme of the game. The guy he was talking to turns out to be the first member of the original Talon crew, he sells items I don't need on the ship. We find the second guy, who is a snazzy Red Mage that can finally take all these elemental crystals I've been hoarding all game and turn them into spells. He won't join without a Tablet so we go to the shrine where it is and face a giant salamander type creature. After a nasty battle, we win, but the monster is sealed in its' place because of the Masters, so our Talon member uses his sage powers to break the curse and release it. It gives us a hint about the puzzle needed to clear the water separating the lands from the Desert of Death. I should note that the Talon is incapable of crossing water for some reason at this time. The sewer section with the water puzzle was actually pretty nice. With the desert freed and the Tablet handed over to the Red Mage, we head to Talonsburg but the ship gets caught in a terrible sandstorm and we have to face Jorgumand who ends up destroying the Talon. We collect the pieces we can get and take it to Talonsburg where we meet one of the scientist who built the original Talon and was working on an upgrade. Cannabilizing the old ship, we now have the much improved Talon 2 which can cross water, and use missiles and lasers in battle. Now, I have the freedom to really explore the map, and I recruit a Cid looking blacksmith Talon crew member who is trying to find Metal to craft a special item to fight the masters, and I track down Masa, the weapons builder for the Talon who is looking for Excalibur. With Fray in my team, she draws Excalibur for me, and Masa joins, this also allows me to meet with the King of Cirrus to gain the Pass needed to reach the Underworld of the Purelands and access the area that our mentor disappeared to. My favorite moment was running into a family that is actually a shout out to the the PC family from SaGa 2 who are still on the search for the three artifact they talked about in SaGa 2's ending.

I feel my two biggest hauls of this run, was finally getting access to a Life and Group Cure spell. Random encounters are a joke, but bosses are starting to up their game. I also now have access to two of the four Mystic Swords, which are potent weapons that are both plot important, and have the ability to do damage to the Masters. My team is doing okay, Curtis has turned into a bit of an MVP as a White Monk. Learning how Beasts get a bonus with Martial Arts and finally getting access to some powerful ones have made him the best damage dealer on my team. Sharon, my cyborg, was having other issues. Unlike Beasts who evolve if you level up enough, Cyborgs stick to their class until you change them, so I had to restore her human form and then transform her back into a Cyborg to finally give her one that wasn't five levels behind everyone. She also gained my first Mystic Sword Durandal which was a huge boost to her because Cyborg's have questionable offensive capabilities unless you luck out and get a very useful Talent for them. So overall, I've made some great strides in the game.

Re:Universe: As I mentioned, new chapters have opened up, but I'm still trying to make my way through the earlier chapters on Hard Mode. Mainly so I can get some access to better ranked gear for my team. This has been a pretty well thought out game, and I appreciate that just bringing the right team, with the right gear, can often make the difference between success and failure. The game was designed not to be "pay to win" and the devs have said they've watched Japanese players reach the current story content end point just using starting rank characters and I can believe that now after playing around a bit.

I'm debating about fixing my current "dream team" by dropping one of my healers and replacing them with a pierce type (probably SS-ranked Barbara or Monika) or maybe keep a second healer but replace them with Undine who has access to Water of Life and a host of great magic spells. I really hope I can pull the Christmas event version of Ginny or Cat so I can boost them further. I also really want the SS Rank Gustave because at this point in time, he's considered top tier of the playable characters. I also really want Aesllus from SF1 and Cordelia from SF2.

On eof the coolest things is that tthey are doing a story event about Ellen from RS3 and it has brought up some interesting plot changes to the overall story. I've been impressed with the story of this game so far, because it's fairly prominent in the game and not buried under a bunch of BS missions like KHUX. I don't typically care for crossover storylines, but this one has had some interesting ideas attached to it that make it more interesting than usual.

[Wolf Kanno]

SE just announced a Final Fantasy Legend Collection for Switch coming out in December (https://www.siliconera.com/collection-of-saga-final-fantasy-legend-will-arrive-in-december/). Which I feel is pretty neat.

[Wolf Kanno]

They just dropped a trailer for the collection.

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Looks fairly faithful. I feel the only thing this collection missed the mark on was finally porting over the remakes. I mean even the Wonderswan remake of SaGa 1 should have been pretty easy. Still, I tend to prefer playing games in their original form and SE is notorious for skipping over originals for remakes so I feel this is pretty nice.

[Del Murder]

Wow, looks like a direct port of the Game Boy games, which is a bit outside the norm for them. Man I loved that trilogy. I do wish they also included the remakes.

[Wolf Kanno]

I know I haven't updated this in ages. I more or less abandoned Legend III because I got stuck and wasn't invested enough to look up the answer. I have been playing the mobile game during this whole time and have enjoyed it immensely. But unfortunately, it suffers from several of the issues I have with a lot of SE's mobile titles. Mainyl the game overloads you with events distracting you from the main narrative, and secondly the game has become a bit too bloated in terms of memory storage thanks to the constant huge updates. I've had to delete most of my apps just to keep the damn thing on my phone. It's a great game, but too big for its own good.

Narratively, it's one of the more interesting games in the franchise and I love the fact they learned their lessons from Dissidia and went all in with really playing with party dynamics and playing up each characters story. There is a wicked cool moment where Sophia (a Crusader class character from RS2) gets to give Kzinssie a reason you suck speech after revealing she knows the power to dodge his Soul Steal move thanks to her time with the Emperor from her own world. There is also a cool event where Undine opens a magic school for all the kid characters and one guy decided that Gustave XIII of all people should be their body guard to some mixed trauma.

Basically, the game allows the new story characters to summon heroes from other worlds, but they are from different points in time from said world, explaining why you can have multiples of the same character in the world. This leads to some really dark moments, especially in some of the tower sequences, where you're dealing with characters who meet untimely ends interacting with heroes from their own game knowing their fate. Likewise, the game has an ongoing subplot about the eight heroes from RS3 discovering that one of them is missing in this new world, to the point the memory of them has also been sealed away. There is also some political intrigue going on as well, made amusing by the descendant of Monika and Mikhail asking them for leadership advice. Overall, the story is actually one of the highlights of the game.

The gameplay is also great. but eventually slows to a crawl when it becomes an equipment grind. Thankfully, equipment is not part of the draw system like it was in Record Keeper so obtaining it isn't usually too difficult, just grinding materials can be tiresome and gaining S rank stuff is hard since it's locked behind higher difficulty levels. It's been a fun game, it's just hard getting past the mobile genres gatcha elements. I still feel like I spend too much time doing side stuff instead of playing the main quest which is annoying. Still, once I reach another update that it too big for my phone, I'm likely going to drop the game.

[Wolf Kanno]

Just to let you know. Square-Enix is putting Romancing SaGa 3 on sale for it's 25th anniversary this year. You can get it on steam for less than $13 USD (https://store.steampowered.com/app/952540/Romancing_SaGa_3/), so if you have been interested in this old classic, you should check it out. Likewise, they are doing some cool events in Re; Universe as well.

[Wolf Kanno]

Apparently the remasters have been a good business decision by SE because they just announced a remaster of SaGa Frontier (https://www.siliconera.com/saga-frontier-remastered-coming-to-ps4-switch-pc-and-smartphones-in-summer-2021/)for next summer! Even better, they are not just going to spruce up the graghics either. They are adding back in all of the missing content including the eight character Fuse and several of the cut sequences in Asellus' storyline. Looks like it's getting a better translation as well. So this is pretty neat and I hope it's success means we may see the same thing happen to SaGa Frontier 2!

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[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

This is really exciting.

I have fond memories of playing on ps1 back in the day, and I remember reading about people finding a missing 8th playable character in the data, so it's awesome to see he'll be officially put in the game.

Asellus has been my favorite for a while, so I'm glad to see more attention brought to her story.

So stoked. Imagine if one of your favorite books growing up was released now and you found out they included entire missing chapters.

[krissy]

honestly pretty cool
should I play the original first or wait for this-

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

honestly pretty cool
should I play the original first or wait for this-

It's just the original game + more things, so unless you want to play the original to see what's different the second go around, there's really no need to search it out.

[Wolf Kanno]

I would wait for the remaster.

For me though, I did pick up the original, so I may jump into that for my New Year's gaming.

[Fynn]

Definitely looking forward to this, even if my track record with SaGa isn’t the greatest lol. I’ve yet to finish Romancing SaGa 2 despite loving it immensely, and I’d still like to get 3 (though even with that last sale I was too broke to get it). So I’ll hopefully pick this up once it comes out. At the very least the SaGa remakes have been coming out on systems I own so I imagine this’ll be the case here too.

Also, I can’t help but notice a certain gap here. I think SaGa I-III are available through their original gameboy versions on some system, probably the Switch, right? Well now we’re missing Romancing SaGa 1. I know it had a remake first but that was back on the PS2, which is ancient at this point. So it’d be nice if at least we could get that version ported to newer systems.

[Wolf Kanno]

SaGa 3 is done. Finally used a guide on gamefaqs that I think may have been written by a former member of this forum, and finished the game. I wasn't actually too far from the end anyway. Explored the Underworld, found the device that was blocking the Talon from reaching the mountain base of the big bad. Dion sacrificed himself to destroy it and we were reunited with the man who brought us to the past.

Finished some sidequests to gain the last two Mystic Swords as well as the Aegis Shield and the final upgrades for the Talon 2. Reached the mountain where the Talon 2 blew part of it up to reveal the enemy stronghold. Fought who we thought was the main villain who turned out to be a servant who reveals all of the water flooding the world is actually their master Xygar who really hits the Lovecraftian vibes hard. Discover it's devouring Sol, the man who stopped it before in hopes of preventing itself from being sealed again. Sol uses his power to contain the creature and asks us to murder him. Unfortunately, Xygar takes over and is given a true form which my party largely curbstomped into the ground since he only had one move that was an atual threat to my overleveled and well equipped party. The coolest part was having the Talon 2 come to help us in the final battle, especially when it's revealed the ship is controlled by the brain of the main hero's father. Xygar is destroyed and Sol uses the last of his power to destroy the Purelands once and for all. We lose the Talon 2 but out mentor figure saves a piece of him and returns us to their base where we learn the resident stuffy scientist can grow people back from small tissue remains. In fact, it's almost implied Dion, who is resurrected along with the hero's dad, has had to be restored a few times before. The party decided to return to the present where they grew up, instead of sticking around in their true timeline but have to kill time until a new time machine can be made for them.

Overall, I feel SaGa 3 is my least favorite entry and the true black sheep of the franchise. Though I feel playing the DS remake would likely resolve all of my issues with the game. The big thing to take away here is that SaGa 3 is the first game developed by the team that would go on to make Final Fantasy Mystic Quest and it really shows. The cartoony monster designs, the frequent overpowered helper characters, the more traditional FF elements, the sheer easiness of the entire game. After getting my ass handed to me in the first two GB entries, SaGa 3 is almost insultingly easy. It's almost intriguing how the game resorting to a more conventional gameplay structure actually hurts it since the game is just a bit too easy and bland for it. Boss battles can be a bit challenging but random encounters are a chore. The worst part of it is the slow as molasses text scroll for battles which is in the first two entries as well. But whereas those games had you fighting maybe three or four really tough enemies at a time, the average in this game is closer to six. Said enemies are also rarely a threat but have more hp than they deserve. That slow text with five to eight tanky enemies made random encounters a nightmare and by the final dungeon I was running from every battle just to get through it faster. Battles are just painfully slow in this game and because you don't have the serious resource management or difficulty of the earlier installments involved, they're boring as well.

The class system is just not as worthwhile as it was in the previous entries and I think having the power to backtrack from your choices hurts it even further since it makes the classes nothing more than a diversion than something practical. Not helped by the fact that the starting Human/Esper classes fall heavily into 'boring but practical' territory. I stuck to having a bast and cyborg character in my party just for the novelty sake, but I would have had an even easier time with the final boss if I kept the party in their default states in order to capitalize on their bonuses to using weapons and magic.

Dungeon design is the one lone area where I'll commend the game for. SaGa tends to have endurance style dungeons, but these ones had some interesting puzzle elements to them that made it interesting. The time travel concept was also neat, if criminally underutilized.

The plot was interesting but largely nonsensical in a lot of places. The usual issues of translating back in the day, combined with the even smaller storage base, means this game had to cut out a lot from it's narrative. The plot is interesting, but definitely falls into old early 90s RPG logic at times.

Overall, I find it interesting how much I think back to a friend of mine from high school who was playing this game while I was playing SaGa 2. He really upselled this game to me and I certainly went in with higher expectations than I should have. Kind of sad I find the most conventional entry to be the weakest, but it was developed by a different team than the ones that did the first two games. It would be interesting to play the DS remake which had it's gameplay revamped to be the same as the first two entries, but also had more space to actually give it's narrative justice.

So I guess whenever I decide to pick this marathon up next, I'll be tackling the most famous entry, SaGa Frontier.

[Del Murder]

I recall a member who wrote a lot of FAQs. What was the name?

[Wolf Kanno]

Spatvark. I'm sure I've seen that name on some old threads before.

[Del Murder]

Wow, that name takes me back to my very early EoFF days. Pretty cool that some of that old stuff still lives on.

[WarZidane]

Well, since this is a SaGa thread, I guess I can make a post about Romancing SaGa Re Universe here ;)

Started playing it just a few days ago, and it's been an interesting experience. At first I had absolutely no clue how things worked with the styles, stat-ups, what i should be looking for in terms of good characters etc, very different from the usual gacha game.

Anyway, fast-forward a few days and I've gotten a better grasp on things. I was a bit late to the multiple events currently going on (Anniversary which has now ended, Christmas, New Year and the Forneus conquest thing) but still able to profit from them quite a bit.

I've got an army of characters in my roster but for the sake of not getting completely overwhelmed I simply put 5 of them together and went on my merry way, which honestly worked fairly well. The team I'm running for now is a Desert Lance formation, which has one character in the front with some upped stats as tank, and 4 in the back with lowered agility:
SS Julian [I Am Pumped!] in the front, acting as my tank and slash damage dealer (sword)
SS Undine [The Joys of Teaching], a caster with ice spells
SS Princess White Rose [Here, This is for You], a healer
SS Ginny [I'm Ginny Knights], a physical blunt damage dealer (hammer)
SS Faerie [Spear of Punishment], a physical piercing damage dealer (spear)

Unlocked awakening skills but only awakened one skill so far since I haven't done many hard mode stages, and using a mix of christmas weapons, random A rank weapons and one SS rank staff which i have no idea where i got it.
All of them at style level 35 at this point, though i think i might want to start leveling some other styles for those characters as well (except princess white rose, i only have the one style for her :p )
Story-wise i've beaten 5 chapters(?) now, but before starting 6-1-1 i'm now just going through the conquest map since that's a limited time event. Also of course doing the dailies whenever i can, as well as the christmas event and now the new year's event. Lots of stuff to do, at least I have about 4500 stamina potions that expire in February so I don't have to worry about my stamina :p

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah, you'll want play with other styles of a character as much as you can. Each style has unique modifiers that raise the chance of getting certain stats more often with rank ups, so it's a good way to round out their stats by leveling them since stat gains are shared between styles. Higher ranks have better stats overall, but usually have poor modifiers. Their real strength besides being a champ right out the gate, is their access to better skills though even A and S rank classes can learn some useful skills. Make sure you check the skill information to see which ones have better damage grades.

I finally got the Final Emperor in a pull this night, with his New Years variant, which is really nice. I just wish I could get one of the other Gustave pulls.

My main team is

SS Gerad [a Successors Resolve] His main strength besides strong endurance and finally getting an S rank move in the form of Vacuum Slash. He has an auto-abilitiy that gives him a defensive counter that reduces damage he takes before countering. Another ability that raises the damage of his counter moves, and another move that gives him the taunt status to take aggro. All of which are great moves for a front rank fighter. I also have a few styles for him which has helped me build him into a better all rounder, and helped me get a few choice skills.

S Gustave XIII [Gustave the Steel] Despite never acquiring a secondary style to boost his stats, this style has great modifiers with strength, endurance, agility, and dexterity all have bonus modifiers. His skills are pretty great too with the A rank Bull Crush and the group hitting Wheel Swing. His best attributes is his high health combined with both his ability to cover weak allies, and to survive a killing blow with 1hp. His third skill allows him to restore a 150hp at the start of the round with a decent success rate. I may lack his top tier SS rank style, but this style is no slouch.

SS Ellen [You Stay Quiet!] Ellen is my main DPS on this team with one of the rare SSS ranks skills Dynamic Chop which can do high damage even against enemies resistant to slash damage. She is also very popular as a character, so I've managed to gain a few other styles with her that also have some great skills like a group hitting attack and an SS rank move as well from her Valentines Day style. Two of her abilities greatly increase her damage and her third skill raises her crit rate, so even with her two other crummy skills, she manages to deal some serious damage.

SS Sophia [May My Prayers Reach You] My main healer and both tanky and a great arsenal of hammer moves. She's a healing machine with three auto-abilities that make her one of the best healers in the game for me. One raises her Love stat when she lands a regular move that helps with healing magic, another raises the effectiveness of her healing spells which is how a D rank spell like Healing Light can heal more than a better healing spell like Water of Life. Her third skill has her heal the whole party by a large amount if she is knocked out in battle, which has saved my hide a number of time. I've also acquired a few other styles for her, so I have access to some better hammer skills like Seismic strike, but more importantly, I have access to some useful offensive magic like Light Ball and Wildfire. Red Mage style classes are a bit wonky in this game, but she's definitely one of the good ones.

SS Rocbouquet [Watch Over Me Brother] Another fan favorite character, and as far as mage characters go, she's pretty brutal with her skill set. While her stat boosts could be better with only a single boost towards INT, her auto abilities include a move to increase her normal attack damage which is okay, physical strength isn't her strong point, but it does help. She has a move that increases her INT when she lands a blow which is great for buffing her in the first few rounds of a fight before a tough boss battle. Her final skill allows her to randomly charm and enemy at the start of a round, effectively giving you a sixth member and reducing the enemy by one. It takes forever to go away as well. Her spells are interesting because she's a rare dual elemental mage with a focus on Water and Dark Magic. This style comes with Water of Life, giving me a second healer on the team. Righteous Thunder, which is a very powerful group hitting lightning attack that gets boosted with water affinity weapons. Finally she has a good group hitting dark spell called Energy Storm. Though the main thing I've given her is Dark Wash, which is a powerful S ranks dark spell for single targets, and great for bosses. My only beef with her is that her dual elemental affinity means I have to choose one to boost, which is usually water.

My formation is Speculation, which boosts the STR and AGI of the front three fighters (Gerad, Gustave, and Ellen) while reducing the AGI of the back two members (Sophia and Rocbouquet). The formation enforces my love of blitzkrieg style tactics in battle. I'm also running a Christmas themed party with several of the themed styles from the recent event. I also have a SaGa Frontier 1 and 2 team, and I'm thinking of making a RS2 team as well.

I advise you to try your hand at the Tower and Attack Events. Both will reward you with a free character, including all Seven Heroes from RS2 and several fan favorite characters like Claudia, Asellus, and Coppelia. While the attack events are straight up boss battles, the Tower ones have some story elements to them. You should also do the shrine event since they play into the main plot a little. Though I should warn you that they become very difficult the further in.

Another thing to do is to replay older missions on higher difficulties. On Hard Mode, you can acquire S rank weapons and gear, and these items will often have a random bonus to a specific stat, making them great gear for going after the top tier stuff. There are also a few SS characters you can acquire as extremely rare drops from a few missions as well such as Rouge, Fake Robin, and one of the Lizardfolk. The other thing to gain here is items used for decreasing ability costs in the Dojo.

You should also do Zweig Coliseum and Spiral Tower Challenges whenever they come up. Zweig will get you tokens to acquire some rare S ranks weapons of every type while the Spiral Tower awards you with tickets you can use for the Spiral Character Summoning. The best part of these, is that as long as you replay them when they reappear to as high as you can, when the event reappears, it will only make you have to redo a handful of round when you start up again, but still reward you for the earlier rounds. the Spiral tower tends to reward me twenty summoning tickets and a ton of gems and gold every time it comes back. Likewise the Zweig event will reward you almost half of the tokens needed to purchase one of the weapons in the exchange, and you'll easily get the other half replaying the few battles you have to do.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Can't get enough of this "Alone" remix.

Sage Frontier is a great OST to pull from. Hopefully with the remaster we'll see a new surge of remixes.

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[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

New screenshot. I have fond memories of this area so it's nice to see it with a new coat of paint.

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[Wolf Kanno]

New and likely the final trailer for the HD Remaster of SaGa Frontier since it comes out next week.

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[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Would be interested to hear what platform people want to play it on, and if the choice was made outside of "whatever system I own".

The PS version preorder comes with a custom console theme, and it seems like a nice homage to play it on a Sony console like the original. But on the other hand the graphic style fits well and looks nice with a Switch library.

[Wolf Kanno]

I've largely been playing the older entries on the PS4, so I'm likely going to stick to that, but I may hold off for just a minute because I do own the original, I just haven't played it yet. Was debating about starting it up soon, I just need to figure out who I want to start with as a character because unlike the other entries with multiple main characters, this one has a few that really stand out for me and will make this decision harder. Right now I'm debating between Red, Blue, and Asellus.

[Wolf Kanno]

Welp, instead of starting SaGa Frontier 1, due to needing to either hook up my PS3 in lieu of my PS4 or deleting some space on a memory card so I can use my dying PS2; I've opted instead to just try out NG+ on both Romancing SaGa 2 and 3.

Some fun observations include:

RS2

Finally discovered what happens if you don't bother with the succession crisis in Cumberland and I was pleasantly surprised by the results. Especially since I was worried I screwed myself out of the Crusader class though it only sems to screw you out of the Male variants which is fine because the female variants are way better.
I think I came closer to mastering everything in RS2 than I did in 3. It looks like I'm only missing stuff in Martial Arts, Bows, and Swords.
The Epee/Rapier class swords are way better in RS2 than 3. They have a better skill set and less situational nonsense.
I'm still baffled that Formations are the one thing that don't carry over into NG+. Skills, Gear, and Global Levels do but it looks like Formations, kingdom upgrades, and classes all have to be re-earned. Which is not a bad thing necessarily but a completionist is going to be pissed that it's impossible to do a complete run in this game.
The Pirate class is a beast of a class in this game. I don't know what it is about the SaGa team but they smurfing love pirates and make them a badass whenever they show up.
I was happy to use the human slave route to beat Bokhohn. Of anything the replay value here has been really interesting.
My current goal is to try and unlock the Desert Guard earlier so I can waza more Greatsword moves. Sadly, I think I screwed myself out of the Amazon class this playthrough. Regardless, my other goal here is to tackle Noel before Rocbouquet.
My main goals for this round is to unlock the final two classes I missed (Salamander and Samurai) in the my first playthrough and actually finish the Maze of Memory secret dungeon. I think it's too late for me to think about trying for the biggest achievement challenge which is beating the game before reaching the Final Ruler but I'm fine with that because I went with The Empress this round and want to see her in action.


RS3

Chose Katarina as my starting character since she's the only playable hero unavailable in all the other quests lines. I also just grew to love her while playing RS RE:U. I chose Warrior and Greatsword as her starting attributes.
My final party is going to be based on a fan pic I found. Ultimately the theme is: People screwed over by Maximus, so my planned final team will be Katarina, Black, Muse, Charl, Nora, and Tiberius. We'll see if I stick with them.
I think I like how RS3 handles NG+ a little better here. It seems like they take an average instead of your party strength and base part of it also on who you are using so when I recruit characters I used a lot in the previous playthrough, they are pretty powerful but characters I don't use only get a slight power boost. I still retain most gear except for story significant stuff like the Archfiend/Matriarch gear. I retain all skills and formations as well. To give people an idea, my team is still not strong enough to tackle the Zweig Tournament despite my gear and skills. My HP is too low. Come to thin of it, I think RS2 also resets the party hp.
Despite how utterly simple it is, I find Theodore's Merchant Mini-game to be incredibly addictive. More fun than the war battles for sure.
Also mad props to Katarina's opening segment, some cool game design right there.
I am happy I managed to acquire Herman this time. He's average at best but Ellen sparked so many good Axe skills in my previous playthrough that I feel it would be a shame to not have one axe specialist on the team.


I'm not sure if I'll finish these playthroughs or if the call for new SaGa will overtake me but I'm having a blast going through both of them again.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Took this picture the other night before release. Felt satisfying to see the timer go down.

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It looks like future remasters, including SaGa Frontier 2, could be happening.

https://screenrant.com/square-enix-new-game-saga-remaster-other-titles/


According to Famitsu, SaGa series creator Akitoshi Kawazu confirmed that more remasters were on the way, along with a new game in the series. Kawazu specifically named the original Romancing SaGa, SaGa Frontier 2, and Unlimited SaGa as games that will be remastered, although he didn't give any time frame for their release, nor did he mention any platforms that they would be released on.

[Wolf Kanno]

Honestly I am super down for all three games to get the remaster treatment. SaGa Frontier 2 just needs a better translation and Unlimited SaGa needed better VA if they're going that route. RS1 is towards the bottom of the series for me since a lot of it's scrappy mechanics punish me for the way I like to play games but I'm down with trying to play through it again. I'm kind of hoping they add some QoL mechanics like letting your gold be converted into jewels automatically when you hit 10,000 or have a bank system that sends excess money to it like in the sequels. Also, not losing all the skills you earned with a weapon if you unequip it. US will need a more comprehensive guide you can access to figure out how half the mechanics in the game work, but overall I just hope they clean up the menu screens and make them accessible universally and not just have some menu items available only during missions. Maybe making fewer treasure chests have locks would also be an added QoL for US.

I am still praying that one day, Kawazu's team will finally give us a comprehensive equipment table that explains all the stats on gear. SF2 really needs this for the remaster, but it's been a lingering issue in every entry I've played all the way back to the GB entries.

Overall, I'm really excited the series is doing well and I am stoked to know SF2 will get a remaster because that entry has really stuck with me of all the entries I've played so far.

775557755677557

[Wolf Kanno]

In replay news. Mostly stuck to RS2 last night since I'm much farther along in RS3. I managed to liberate the Meru desert and I've taken down two more of the Seven Heroes, leaving three left. Did the Child and Mu scenario to find and defeat Dantarg who was a cakewalk since it was still fairly early in the game and I found the desert Oasis and talked Noel out of being a prick to the locals. That's right, didn't fight him, I talked him down. Knew there was a reason he was my favorite of the bunch. That allowed me to acquire the Desert Guard as a class. I also took down the Narwhal that wrecked my suspension bridge and opened up the questline to track down Subier. I also ventured into the optional Maze of Memory and acquired the Ninja class. I'll likely go in this new generation to get the Onmyoji class next since it's likely my only means of getting any Dark Magic. I did spend the cash to create the awesome Imperial Guard class.

My last Empress was a Mercenary and the game almost screwed me over by mostly rolling me a another set of the class along with Thief, but the Formation Thief teaches is not exactly game breaking so reloaded and got my Desert Guard as a class which teaches the same formation Khalid teaches in RS3. I've got a lot of stuff going on in this generation though. My mines have shut down because of a terrible illness. Despite thinking we got past this, my pirate class has rebelled and I now need to head back to their base of operations to hand down a royal whoop ass on them, and the Camroom Island volcano is acting up again, except I'm going to actually save those poor Salamanders this time. Likewise the quests I've been ignoring have been the termite quest in the Savannah because smurf the termite queen. Dealing with Rocbouquet in the Amazon since I plan on doing that with an Empress to make my own life easier. Finally venturing to Romancing Nihon to not smurf up and lose the Samurai class while also laying the smack down on Wagnas.

Looking at my techs, I did a fantastic job in my first play through and acquired a good chunk of them. I'm mainly missing stuff from 1h Swords since their spark potential is spread across four different classes. Melee is also missing some high end stuff but two of them are support/counter type stuff and that's notoriously difficult to spark even with the right class. Apparently there is a trick to the last two I need and I may need to have a emperor/empress be a melee specialist to get it to work since I need more well rounded stats. Here's hoping my next leap will get me a Ninja as a choice. Other than that I'm just missing two skills from Great-swords and Bows and I have everything else barring defensive skills which are notoriously difficult to spark in their own right. I have also determined that magic is just way more potent and unbalanced in RS2 than it was in the other RS entries. The best balance the game can give is the sheer fact that Elixir and Revivar can't be given to the same character due to the Fire/Water issue. I've also had fun last round with one of my Martial Artist characters because there is a Fusion Spell that gives a character a souped up martial arts ability that adds fire to your attacks. Not so useful on a mage, pretty damn potent on a specialist so I'm going to repeat that with my ninja.

I'll jump back to RS3 soon, I may need to tackle Forneus quickly because I want Black before tackling the Divine Tower/Maximus quest. I initially wanted to buy out everybody before completing the second Merchant mini game segment, but I may just dash that idea and take solace I have like 85% monopoly on everything after I buy out the Dophore Group. I just failed to take into account that certain questlines are frozen until I finish this mini-game. I have to raise Charl and Muse up as well. I'm sticking to Thomas in my party until Tiberius comes along.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

Romancing SaGa 2
77558
I am way farther along than I thought in this game. I whooped the scalawag who usurped my beloved Imperial Pirat...er Merchants and I cleaned the mine and gained a dark crystal for my efforts. I freed the Savannah of the terror of the Termites setting myself up for one of the toughest fights in the final era. I saved Camroom Island and gained my Salamanders. I battled my way through the shogun's manor and dueled his retainer who uses the damn Disarm tech that you won't be able to use until RS3 and thus gained the Samurai class. I've gotten far enough into the Mermaid side quest to purify the lake and gain the Nerid class. I've also finished most of the Rocbouquet quest outside of the final showdown with her. I've also earned a bunch new gear from my blacksmiths since I've been much better about checking back in on them. I also sparked one of the melee skills I need, one of the Bow skills I needed, and unlocked the special skills for a ton of weapons I never used in my first playthrough.

My options right now are to either finish the Mermaid quest since I have a male emperor currently, finish the Rocbouquet quest and see if that ends his era as well, or I can screw both of them and simply go after Wagnas in his flying fortress of doom so I can save Romancing Nihon. I'm kind of hoping I can do Rocbouquet and the mermaid quest in one go. I may also venture back into the Maze of Memory and unlock the Onmiyoji class.

Romancing SaGa 3
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I attempted to fight Forneus who simply scoffed at my arrogance for bringing in a mid-tier developed team and promptly handed me my ass. So I'm going to grind a few more quests and maybe stop avoiding so much combat since it's a hell of a lot easier to do so in this game than RS2 or 1. I did finish the Dophore Merchant minigame sequence, so I won't be able to access the third one until I open up a few more areas. I could start the Maximus quest but I'm holding off until I beat Forneus because I want Black for that segment. Though maybe I should just go for it because apparently Black doesn't retain any of his stats between NG+ only Herman does.

I did fight off the killer rats and managed to kill them without the poison. Finished the Zweig tournament so I could unlock Leonid but I'm going to avoid his quest for a moment because I'm still having 'Nam flashbacks from my last venture through his RS version of Castlevania and that Yama fight. I also unlocked my favorite fight in the game against the Professor's Road Rage machine. I may also head east and unlock Romancing China, especially since that's a fairly long trek and should get me some good stat boosts. I may drop Thomas fairly soon so I can use his slot to recruit a few characters I didn't get last time in order to get their achievements. I may drop Muse as well since she's kind of one of those ''I don;t specialize really in anything so build me how you want'' and I don't have time for that since I'm doing this playthrough at a fairly fast clip. I really wish the endgame shenanigans with The Boy didn't screw up party building mechanics. Hard to party plan when you know you have to ditch someone if you build a full roster.

[Del Murder]

WK, I'm enjoying your SaGa recaps. It makes me want to play the old SaGa games.

The original Gameboy series was one of my favorites ever and were essentially the first RPGs I ever played. I'm itching for some of that old school RPG feels. Would SaGa Frontier (the remaster) give me that nostalgia?

[Wolf Kanno]

Yes and no. I haven't played this particular entry yet, but I have read up on a few things about it. It's core design is an advancement over Romancing SaGa 3 where you get to pick one of eight characters to start the game with. The core differences here is that SF1 keeps the plot focused on that character's personal story whereas in RS3, the opening plot of the character is basically a nice get to know them experience before the character swan dives into the overarching plot that all eight protagonists will finish at. So in SF1 every character has their own unique final boss that is connected to their starting story. The in-between portions has all the character exploring the same world and meeting many of the same characters you can recruit so that stays as well.

Where is it like the GB entries is that it brings back Robots and Monsters in a big way and the Esper race gets a major retool if we want to count Asellus as one. They also bring back multiple development mechanics back. So like Robots can trade in their bodies for stronger ones, Monsters can absorb defeated enemies to morph into stronger forms, and most of the cast have some little gimmick to their playstyle or scenario to make them all feel unique from each other. The graphics, music and interface also give the game a funky FFVII/SO2 vibe, but that's just a personal observation.

I plan on checking it out once I finish one of my two RS playthroughs.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update:

Mostly played RS3 the previous night. I tried to do my road rage battle and discovered my team is just not there yet. I've been avoiding too much combat so my HP is fairly and doesn't lend itself well to drawn out battles. I went through the three fake Black Sparrow treasure caves, unlocked the optional Maze of Memory dungeon I didn't do in my first playthrough. I watched the Aurora so I could reach Frostburg and unlock the Evershard Sword for Katarina but reached the end to only discover I couldn't get the sword without Flurry in my team for some reason. So I had to leave and drop Thomas finally and recruit Flurry who is in worse shape than I remember. I'm thinking your recruited characters HP and stats are averaged with your party's stats so you don't just recruit some end game powerhouses from a previous playthrough. The real issue is that the boss of this zone respawns if you don't take the sword and he was a bitch even with Thomas.

I also did the Hunter trial and earned the Fairy Bow that belonged to the Matriarch. Got my ass handed to me in the other trial, so now I'm just going to grind some levels in the Archfiend Palace and maybe take down Alloces since he's the weakest of the Four Sinistrals. Mainly I just need to start fighting more. My team at the moment:

Katarina - Pretty good fighter focused on Greatswords as her main weapon. I plan on giving her the Evershard Blade but have her using a weaker Flamberge because I'm trying to spark Disarm with her and the sword's ice counter move makes that very difficult. I could use the Archfioend Shield to mitigate that but it's double SP handicap is not something I want to deal with yet. She's getting pretty powerful though so no complaints.

Nora - She needs some better armor for the most part. Her stats are better than Katarina and yet something about her equipment load out is hindering her. I do have her focused on Hammers/Clubs as her main weapon since she has the best affinity with it and that is why her power output isn't great but something about her defenses is off because she seems to take more punishment than I feel she should. Not helped that armor in this game seems to alter based on the character. Katarina has a robe on that gives crap defense to anyone that is not her. I'll play around but I do need her to spark more techs since I was bad about sparking ones for this weapon type.

Herman - Is surprisingly good despite playing with the knife edge that is his lousy four LP. His HP has been steadily growing and he's great with axes. I have him currently trying to spark a move associated with the Falconwind axe he's equipped with. I mainly just want to get his curse lifted and see if he's as much of a powerhouse as Ellen was. I also screwed up and forgot that characters can only use one of the four elemental magics, so I lost access to his better Wind magic for water. I need to fix this but I'm having a hell of time finding a teacher. I did give him some Moon magic so he wouldn't lose healing power but I've been slow to raise his magic because I want to earn him a crown for TP.

Charl - Much better than I remember. Helps that he's a bit like Robin and comes with some nice levels in Fire magic. Spears are also just a nice weapon class but I need him to spark the last few as he's still stuck on mid-tier stuff. Overall, he's been one of my main DPS behind Katarina.

Muse - I slowly getting somewhere. She starts out as a complete blank slate so you can take her anywhere. I have her using Lunar Magic but I plan on giving her Water as well so I can maker her a dedicated healer. At first I was going to make her an epee wielder but I'm now starting to change my mind and switching her over to bows which is a weapon class I ignored a bit too much in the last playthrough. Her biggest drawback is that she starts at 0 with everything and her low HP makes it hard to keep her alive long enough to gain levels.

Flurry - Its not like I remember him being great in my last playthrough but I do feel like he's a bit weak here. Great water magic but he starts with points only in melee damage and while I have me some mean melee skills, he's not strong enough to do the job. I need to research it but I'm pretty sure his weapon proficiency lies elsewhere. I'll probably keep him around to face Aunus and then ditch him for Leonid, the Fairy, or one of the Romancing China characters.

Overall, my big issue is that I just need to sit down and do a grind-a-thon to develop the team. Muse needs more focus, Herman needs higher stats, Charl and Nora need better techs for their weapons and everyone needs some love in the magic department even if it means getting a crown is going to be much harder. So I may make that the focus of my night if RS2 doesn't draw me away.

[Wolf Kanno]

Just a quick trailer for SaGa Froniter Remaster introducing the characters.

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I'm not far from the end of RS2, so I may be starting the PS1 version of this game soonish.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

RS2 - Beating Rocbouquet did end the era so I reset and opted to go through the Maze of Memory and unlock the Onmiyoji class which is my only means of using dark magic though I'm limited to whatever they start with. I also grinded a bit in Wynaga Lake to try and spark a few more techs. I finally have all the Bow skills. Afterwards, I decided to go the Mermaid route because it is such a cool quest. I did have to save scum a bit to get a better draw of choices for successor though. I'm doing a Female Nomad who specializes in Bows and Axes. My team will be a Martial Artist so I can try to spark the last few Melee moves, a Samurai to check them out and hopefully spark the remaining Sword/Greatsword moves I'm missing, a Salamander to check them out, and finally a Nerid to give them a second opportunity to impress me. I'll likely tackle Rocbouquet first since I have enough Charm protection accessories to protect my three male party members. Afterwards, I plan on taking down a souped up Subier since I opted to let him take the Narwhal Princess and I'll finally unlock the Diver class. Sadly, I think I screwed myself out of the Victor optional boss fight since I think one of the prerequisites is earning the Amazon class and I accidentally screwed that up.

RS3 - Well I put my sweatbands on, through in my favorite 80s montage music and trained in this game, effectively doubled my party's HP and Katarina finally earned a Crown for her Tech attacks. No magic for her it seems. I reached the sealed dorr in the Archfiend's Lair and returned to Lance to recieve the Royal Ring from the Matriarch's descendant. I traveled to the east and found Romancing China, did the quests and got the Archfiend's Armor. Came back to the west and tackled Forneus again. Managed to squeak out a victory but it was close. Would not recommend starting with him. Having Black over Herman though is a nice boon and my team's been doing better ever since. I completed the Maximus quest which was fairly entertaining and cool. Like the Sinistrals are kind of just chaotic evil in this game, but it was nice to have a serious antagonist you could really love to hate. Maximus is a real bastard in this game, and for those who may have started the mobile entry, he's a bastard in that game too. Of course completing this quest unlocks a crap ton of gear belonging to both the Archfiend and Matriarch, so I'm swimming in good gear now. I also won back the Masquerade which started Katarina's quest in the first place so now I was able to return to Loanne which also meant I could finish the Merchant Trade minigame.

I love how the final mission of this quest involves you ''saving capitalism'' by trying to stop an evil monopoly from taking over all business... by forming your own monopoly. I don't know if the devs were making a joke about this or they didn't realize the delicious and sadly real world irony of it all. This ended up being a bitch though because while I bought out like 95% of all the businesses in the second part, it turns out I failed to get a particular business to go to market so I could buy them up and that was the last one the Abyss Co. had. So I spent a good chunk of my time just trying to raise the prestige of two lowly companies to get this missing one to go to market. It took awhile but I got it done and saved capitalism by cornering the market on everything.

I also took down the Road Machine for the Professor and ventured into Leonid's castle to receive the Holy Grail. Surprisingly I took down Yama with little problem unlike my first playthrough. Helped that I had more experience this time and actually went in prepared with Blunt and Lightning defense. I did have to reset here because I accidentally let my inventory fill up and couldn't get the Holy Grail of which Leonid ridiculed me for. So resetting and emptying out some junk I didn't need, I got my grail and Leonid. I did have Tiberius for the Maximus quest but opted to drop him because I didn't feel like trying to build another mage on my team and frankly, he's a bit of a dick anyway to Khalid and his people. I did like his Scottish brogue he talks in. I recruited the Fairy temporarily to earn the trophy, but for now I'm sticking to Leonid to get his trophy and to play around with his kooky design. I will say I am having a hell of time trying to spark techs. I even ran into an Asura doing the Thieves Monster hideout and that ended disastrously because my team was ill prepared for the fight, and since he's a boss of the mission, it wouldn't let me run when I did spark something. I guess I am lying when I say I'm not sparking anything, I did earn a few weapon skills for weapons, and I've been sparking a lot of defensive techs just not the ones I would want. I also managed to finally spark the awful Disarm tech for Greatswords. Ugh this move has been a pain. Ward had sparked it towards the end of my first playthrough but never mastered it and the move is a costly counter that doesn't have nearly as high of a success rate as I would like. I'm also having issues getting Nora to master a high end Club move she sparked during the Forneus fight. I hate mastering moves in this game, it slows down the process of earning new moves since I now have to dedicate so much time spamming the moves to keep them permanently.

My next move is to take on the wind Sinistral and not fight her with an awesome dragon this time to earn the other trophy. I'll likely take on the Earth Sinistral next and leave the fire one for last. After that, it's just exploring the Ruins near Romancing India, tackling the Ancient Cave, and then grinding in the Remaster only Phantom Maze to build a killer team for the final stretch. I need to give Muse another magical element to make her more versatile for instance. I don't know how I feel about tackling Oblivion's True form. The final boss continues on CoD's whole ''defeat my servants first to weaken me, or fight me at full power'' nonsense. There is an achievement attached to it though.

[Wolf Kanno]

RS2 Update only:

My Nomad Empress was very short lived. She took down Rocbouquet with little issue. Since I failed to slay Noel, I still fought her basic easy form with the spirits and not the one where she starts sprouting wings. I then went to the Sunken Ship of Garon and fought my way through all the ghosts only to be greeted by the souped up Subier for my troubles. Thankfully I took him down with little issue but this ended up finishing her era and shot me straight into the Final Empress. The Final Ruler gets a unique sword, for the Male it's the Daybreak sword which casts heat based Sun magic spells only enemies get to use. For the Empress I get the Moonlight which has a healing spell and a group hitting offensive spell to boot. What's really nice about her sword is that it's treated as both a Greatsword and 1-handed sword so I can keep her lightweight with sticking to one sword. I also discovered that beating Rocbouquet is the only per-requisite to earn the Amazons so I did successfully gain all of the classes this round. Well almost, I have one last class to unlock. For my final team, I'm using a very unlucky Samurai who seems to always be the main target of the enemies, an Amazon, the awesome Pirate class, and because I've apparently been thinking this game was too easy this time through, I recruited Coppelia as my final party member. You may remember her from my last playthrough, she's a rude automaton created by the local scientist who has a whopping 99 LP. You can even make her an Empress if you play your cards right. the reason I'm implying this is a bad thing is that I completely forgot that when she's not the empress, she's a berserker type character who plays by her own rules and won't take orders from you, playing into her rude and powerful ego. You can't dismiss characters in your team either, you have to let them die instead. She has 99 LP, so that ain't going to happen. So I effectively have a team of four and one guest character. Thankfully you can still control her move set so you can sort of control what she does in battle but she won;t use magic, so I may need to shuffle my team around to get all the support magic I need.

With the final empress, I stormed Wagnas' lair, which I forgot was an obnoxious two part dungeon with small rooms and loads of enemies. Wagnas is also a bitch to fight and he managed to party wipe my team thanks to all his Confusion based attacks making my own team buff him to invincibility and kick their own asses. I got him on the second attempt but it was much closer than I would have cared for. Unfortunately for me, beating the last of the Seven Heroes and completing a certain other quest unlocks the invasion mission. So my return back home was greeted by the place being run over by enemies. I had no patience to fight through them and probably made this fight harder on myself but just before I reached the boss of this section, my samurai got perma-killed since he was taking way too many deaths in Wagnas' fungeon dungeons so I reset, but that may have shot me back to fighting Wagnas again. I figured it was time to call it a night.

The one great thing about this playthrough is that I've sparked a number of great techs. My monk from my Nomad empress sparked the most powerful melee tech, my Samurai has managed to spark both Victor's signature attack the Flowing Sword tech and the powerful Dark Blade move as well. My Final Empress also sparked Prism Blade. This leaves only four non-weapon specific techs left to speak, two melee which ain't going to happen now, and one move left for 1-handed swords and Greatswords.

Once the invasion is over, I think I only have two missions left before the final dungeon. The Bard quest and then reaching the lost city of the Ancients. Interestingly enough, I got even more backstory on the Seven Heroes this playthrough as Subier decides to be fairly chatty before throwing down, so that was neat.

[Wolf Kanno]

RS2 Update again:

I finally fought off my invaders, which was a tough bout that involved me needing to save scum my way out of issues. My big problem is that my Samurai is a bit of a glass cannon and easily killed. He's been hovering at 2LP for awhile thanks to all the frequent deaths. Normally I would just let him die and replace him but he's sparked a few moves I can't transfer to the Dojo until I beat the game, so... going to have to dip into my Anima Draught collection to keep him alive.

With the invasion over, I headed back to Romancing Nihon so I could cross the mountains, befriend the Irises which is the final race/class to recruit. I reached the forgotten village and got the backstory on the Seven Heroes. Have we discussed how often precursor races are total assholes in media? Like if they could find a way to get their revenge without fucking over the world and the dominant races, I would be fine with letting the Seven Heroes get their revenge. The issue is that I'm sure world domination is right after revenge on their to-do list. In fact thinking about how their powers actually work and thinking about their final form, RS2 goes into some serious eldritch territory not seen again until the PS1 entries.

I also unlocked the final expansion to the capital that isn't the Orchard. The new neighborhood where all my foreign based classes get to live. Which frankly I feel this should carry over into NG+. I mean you would still have to do the missions to unlock them but having them available in the capital afterwards would cut down on a lot of time in this game. I think I've also finished every possible weapon/armor idea I can make in the blacksmith shot that isn't the remaster exclusive Sevens gear. I made the armor in the first playthrough so I'm making the sword for this one, I just need to get the item from the Maze of Memory. Speaking of...

I've opted to do all the new side content this time around. I basically sacked the Maze of Memory for the loot but never bothered with the bosses. So I'm going to tackle them this playthrough. I already beat the Crimson Dragon of Sin who was surprisingly easy. He's tanky, but his over dangerous move is a very powerful physical charge attack that hits my whole team but can be mitigated with Earthen Shield magic. I'll tackle the other three soonish and unlock the game's ultimate optional boss. Speaking of optional bosses, collecting all of the classes unlocks an optional duel with the spirit of Victor, Gerad's older and more talented brother who dies in the prologue. It was a surprisingly tough fight even though I have a bunch of broken magic including one that no sells half of his attacks. The guy just hits like a truck. Beating him puts his soul to rest and earns you a special ring that is the closest thing this game has to a Ribbon so that's neat!

In tech world, my Empress managed to spark the best 1h sword move in the game, Still Blade. It looks pretty snazzy and the best thing is that it's damage goes up the more times she takes hits. I've seen this move do 4k damage so that's awesome. I've also sparked a bunch of weapon techs and I hope I can find the Soul Sabre as it has the most powerful tech in the game, Kzinssie's Soul Steal. Course the spark rate of that tech is abysmal. Apparently you can use it to one shot all of the Seven Heroes. I'm still missing the final techs from Epees and Greatswords, as well as the Berserk move from Martial arts. Also my Empress is a seriously broken Red Mage build. Offensive magic is usually nothing to talk about in SaGa games outside of maybe the Game Boy entries but my Empress can do mad damage with her magic. Helps her Light affinity is almost 40 but hot damn it's great to use her to thrash trash mobs with a quick spell.

So the game plan here is that I'm going to finish the Maze of Memory and face off with the game's ultimate boss Dread Queen. I also plan on finishing the Avalonian Orchard. This will help me obtain all but two trophy's from the game. One is the usual collect them all one, but the one I'll need for the next playthrough is beating the game before using the Final Successor. Yes, it's actually possible to unlock the final dungeon without reaching the last successor but it's a bit of a completionist nightmare as it involves screwing yourself out of a few classes and events since you're not allowed to complete them. I will also have to do my best not to fight too much which is why a third NG+ run will make it easier.

I did learn this playthrough that the Final Successor activates once you reach the 1900s on the calendar, so much like RS1, there is a reason to try and avoid battles early on since the amount of battles increases the amount of years that pass between successors. I'm pretty sure my first playthrough had three to four more successors not counting ones who died in battle. So that's good info to know. I may do a write up on some tips and tricks for this game while it's still fresh in my mind since I know a few people have wanted to play this entry.

I'll try to get back to RS3 soonish, but I am itching to start SF1. I'm thinking I'll start with Red.

[Wolf Kanno]

Got a bit done tonight. I finished taking down all four dragons in the Memory Maze and they were pretty much pushovers when it came down to it. My Samurai also sparked the final greatsword move and wouldn't you know, it was a total waste of my time. It's basically an instant death attack and loosely based off the Ianuki move by the Samurai class in FFV. Dark Blade is definitely the Greatsword's best attack, though I still love Scattered Petals as well. In addition to the Maze, I also finished one of the original optional dungeons that was dragon themed down to its bosses, and all the loot was the Dragon Gear and sword.

I am sadly about 400 fights away from getting the Orchard trophy, so that will be a bitch but I'm surprisingly not far from getting some characters to max HP which is nice. I may dive back into my Emperor's file and try to finish up some of this nonsense in the future as well, but that will likely happen whenever I opt to get the non-Final emperor trophy in a third playthrough.

The interesting thing about the Memory Dragons is that their dialogue ties into the backstory of the Seven Heroes and yet beating them has you face off with another antagonist from this game instead. The Dread Queen was certainly a handful. She hits hard, but the real challenge was all of her status magic. SaGa does not like to give you crap like Ribbons. I mean even its equivalent in this game, the Intalgio Ring is exclusive to the remaster version. Thankfully, I actually managed to spark the defensive moves for all three of her main status spells but I sort of forgot this until I had already lost to her.

My first bout ended fairly disastrously, she kept me on the defensive for too long and managed to perma-kill my Samurai and Pirate before I beat her, only for her to reveal she has a second form that proceeded to slaughter my battered survivors. So I regrouped and looked through my inventory to figure out a plan.

There are a couple of things that make her a real challenge. For one, she actually will stop Hasten Time from activating making it harder to control the fight. She has five different status spells she likes to use. One puts the team to sleep, one confuses everyone, one damages and poisons the party, one that paralyzes your team, and the worst one charms your team. Mind defense items are very rare in this game and I only have enough for my team because this is NG+ but two of the items are cursed so I'd rather not use them. That's why I was grateful I had already sparked all the defensive moves except for Paralyze and poison.

She gets two moves per round and her primary offensive attacks are blunt mace based based meaning that usual no sell magic like Sword Guard are useless and I have to rely on the less reliable Earthen Shield. I also managed to spark a defensive move against one of her blunt mace attacks so that helped my doll and empress avoid extra damage. Mitigating her status spell nonsense allowed me to control the fight better and so I beat it with little stress this time around and managed to keep the whole team alive.

Her second phase is the more offensive one. She trades most of her status spells for Dark Magic attacks and some fist based attacks like Hell Claw that does absurd damage. Thankfully Sword Guard does protect against this attack but a lot of her other moves has Stun as a secondary effect and like her first form, I can't get Hasten Time to work so she can seriously disrupt your rhythm. She also gets access to a powerful party hitting bug attack called Swarm but thankfully Earthen Shield is effective against it and my characters can actually dodge it even without it for the most part. This fight was a bit grueling especially since her dark poison spell hit way harder than I would have liked and I seriously needed a second character with the Elixir spell on them. Sadly, my Pirate was perma-killed in the fight, but outside of a sword defensive move he sparked, he didn't have anything terribly important on them like my Samurai. I ended up replacing him with his next counterpart, who is unfortunately not in a cool green garb like his predecessor but instead is in a boring Beige brown looking one. On the brightside, Mahan gets to take advantage of all the extra Global levels I earned since I started this generation and he starts off with much higher HP and weapon levels than his predecessor. I also decided that I was wasting my time by having him be a Water/Wind combo mage as Wind is the least useful element unless you're building a groups slaughtering mage since you can get access to Lightning and Diamond Dust. Pirates have abysmal magic stats so support is the only magic they're good for. So now he's a Water/Earth combo giving him access to Hasten Time, Elixir, Sword Guard, Earthen Shield, and Light Wall. So I'm feeling better about the final boss battle now.

My next goal is to finish the Avalonian Garden to earn the trophy, and I feel the best way to do that is just replay through the Maze of Memory. Unlike the main game, the Maze doesn't bother with Battle Level and instead has set levels for every floor. This will work out for me because the tree doesn't care how weak the enemy is, so I can beat up on early game mobs to fast track those 400 battles I need. Secondly, the Maze works a bit like the optional dungeons from The After Years and the treasure resets every time you go in and is randomized. The big draws here are Anima Draughts that restore LP and each Maze has the ''ultimate'' weapon lying in there for a few weapon classes. I've earned the Rapier one, in fact I got one in my first playthrough as well, but one has the best Axe, the best Bow, and the best spear in the game. So I have some incentive to go through them a few more times to try and earn those weapons. I also have an accessory that improves the drop rate of items in the game, and I can get a few more in one of the Blue Maze, so I'm finally able to get some of the rare enemy only drops in the game like some cool accessories and some unique weapons. So that will be fun. Overall, I'm fairy close to ending this playthrough as I really don't have much left to do but fight the Seven Heroes. I am curious to see if something plays out though. In my first playthrough O had Kzinssie guarding the entrance to the final dungeon but seeing how I never killed Noel, I'm curious to see if he'll be the one guarding the door this time.

Anyway, I'm getting excited at the idea of starting SaGa Frontier soon.

EDITGA: I forgot to mention this in my previous post but I was super nostalgic when I did the Minstrel quest in this game. I don't think I noticed this the first time around but the song you play to impress the Irises/Harpies is the main SaGa theme from the Game Boy entries. That was a super cool touch.

[Wolf Kanno]

Empress run of Romancing SaGa 2 is done.

I finished getting to 2000 battles needed to complete the Avalon Orchard and I save scummed my way to getting the best weapons from the Maze of Memory. The chest seems to be set once you enter the floor, but if you save on a previous floor and go in, it will shift around. The weapons spawn in chests on the last three floors, usually after the second event area. Check the chest, didn't get it, quit to title screen and try again. Didn't actually take too long but the Eros Bow in the Jungle zone was a bit of a pain since the treasure is fairly far from the starting point of the floor I chose to spawn at.

The final dungeon was a cakewalk to navigate compared to the optional dungeons but I did mange to get some HP boosts from my few fights I did get into. As I suspected, Noel was waiting for me at the entrance to the boss room, but he was a joke compared to our tussle in the first playthrough. Access to Sword Guard trivializes like 90% of his move set and I went into the fight with a better team.

The final boss fight was a bit tougher, mainly because I got wee bit too cocky and almost lost it towards the end when the boss showed off secondary effect of a move. Soul Steal is Kiznissie's signature move and usually it just works like an instant kill move taking out 1LP from whoever it hits who doesn't have the defense for it. If they use the move on an unconscious character though, it takes ALL OF THEIR LP. I suddenly found myself with one less healer than I intended and my second soon fell as well with no means to save without jeopardizing the rest of the team to a TPK. As usual, Subier's Tidal Wave is the game changer for the boss in terms of raw damage, though Wangas' Psycho Shot isn't any better. At least I had enough Mind protection accessories among my team to not have to worry about Rocbouquet's Charm move and Wagnas' confusion magic. In fact the fight was a joke up until the final phase when they change the background, the boss starts regenerating 999hp per round, and they get multiple turns per round. Thank god Still Blade does higher damage the more hits you take because that likely gave me an edge over the regen.

My final team was:

Empress Alma - She was my 1handed sword expert and touted the best gear in the game including the Sevens Armor, the Intalgio Ring, and Quicksilver boots. She was using the Sevens Sword and her unique weapon the Moonlight Sword. She had Light, Fire, and Wind magic with Revivar and Firestorm being her most useful spells and Still Life being her most useful Weapon Art.

Pirate - Mainly used axes but had Water, Earth, and Light magic. Elixir and Hasten Time are excellent spells. He was outfitted for physical defense wearing a full armor set but it made him the slowest party member. Reverse Delta is just as broken in RS2 as it is in Unlimited SaGa. Pirate might be my favorite class in this game as they are fairly brutal but also surprisingly durable.

Amazon - She was actually my main mage funny enough with Light, Earth, and Water magic. Her spell selection was the same as my Pirate but she has better speed. Shh used bows and spears for her weapons depending on the situation. Her best spear move has a secondary effect that lowered the enemies stats. Unfortunately, she was the one who got killed first in my battle. Overall though, I really did like the class. They are fairly well balanced in both use of weapon arts and magic and the spear/bow combo is actually a nice selection.

Samurai - These guys are a bit for a glass cannon, they have excellent strength and speed, so when you combine that with how strong greatsword techs are, these guys can often outdamage the Final Successor. Sadly they are fragile when it comes to defense and they don't gain HP as fast as other classes. I had mine with Light, Fire, and Earth magic giving me a second Revivar spell and access to the Earth boosting spells. Dark Blade was his strongest move. In hindsight, I should have given him Water instead of Fire magic since a speedier character with Elixir would have been useful.

Coppelia - Was surprisingly not as useless as I thought. You just need to set her up right. She gets HP and weapon proficiency boosts very quickly and I was able to take her starting martial art stat of 15 up to 45 in a few short hours which is something. She had the second highest HP on my team as well and with her 99LP she's built for taking damage despite her inability to wear armor. The trick with her is to just make her a specialist since she'll gain boosts in that particular weapon quickly, and then limit her move set to just a few powerful moves. Afterwards, just load her up on defensive moves to improve her survivability. I read that she'll actually give LP to your Final Successor if they are killed in battle, so that's pretty sweet.

The ending was still pretty awesome and I had a total of six rulers in this playthrough with their accomplishments spread out much better than my first playthrough.

I'll probably jump back into RS3 a bit, but will more than likely start SaGa Frontier 1 instead. I'm still debating about starting with Red or Asellus as my first character and this should be interesting since this is my first time through. Will be interesting to see the middle child between RS3 and SF2.

[Wolf Kanno]

Been wanting to write this up since starting my second playthrough of RS2. I know a few people around here have talked about wanting to play this entry, and I get that like any SaGa game, it can be fairly daunting at first since the game explains nothing. So here's my not-so-short guide to playing Romancing SaGa 2.

Gameflow
RS2 is a generational story about a kingdom trying to fight the legendary Seven Heroes who once saved the world a millennia ago and have returned as evil monsters themselves. At first you're part of a small kingdom, but by liberating other countries with your exploits and investing your resources carefully, you can transform you kingdom into a mighty empire and have warriors of great ability waiting to help your current ruler go kick ass and take names.

Gameflow basically takes the form of you exploring the available world and helping out various kingdoms and communities with their problems. The game is fairly open ended after the Gerad generation and several events actually have multiple ways to complete them depending on the order you take them on. For example, early in the game you're asked by the neighboring Cumberland kingdom to come and intervene in a succession crisis. You can either go do so to see the scenario play out, or you can do something else, watch a generational skip occur and come to the land to discover it is now under the iron rule of a despot and needs liberation. It's actually surprising how many scenarios have at least two ways they can play out and they do affect a few things later on.

Likewise, the player can commission and fund their empire to research various weapons or building projects to expand the empire's abilities. These are finished based on the number of battles you fight or generational skip. Money is generated by either finding it in treasure chests, having human enemies drop it after defeat, expanding the Royal Orchard, and mostly from taxation from your territories which are collected after a certain amount of battles are fought.

Avalon itself serves as a hub for your ruler where they can recruit certain warrior classes. It also has a Dojo where you can customize a characters Weapon Arts or learn Formations with certain classes. When you build a Magic Research Lab, you gain access to most of the elemental mage classes and can now teach spells to your party.

Building Stuff
To commision a great works project, you'll need to do a few things. The main thin is sit on the throne, if your character doesn't just sign for a moments rest then they'll likely call on their administrator to start a project. Projects unlock as you fulfill certain requirements. The main one to be concerned with is the Magic Research Lab, you'll need to raise your Successors magic level to like seven or ten I believe to get this opened up. You'll need the cash to get these projects started, but money from chests are ridicukously high. Most of the time, the expansion won't appear until after finishign a lot of events or instigating a generations jump.

the other building is the small building on the second floor of the courtyard of the castle. You'll find a blacksmith and his assistanct. The blacksmith makes weapons, the assistant makes armor. They can only research one at a time and it costs a bunch of money but in addiiton to the stuff being available ins hops, you get a freebie from them as well. The time is takes to finish an item is based on the number of battles you fight. It doesn't take than many so be sure to check back. If the generation skips then the item will be lsot and you'll have to wait until they have the idea for it. So be careful when making commisions if you know you've done a lot.

Stats
RS2 doesn't follow a conventional leveling system. It instead uses a streamlined version of FFII's system that focuses mainly on HP growth and proficiency with the various weapon and elemental magic classes. With that said, there are technically three types of stats to be aware of.

Raw Stats - This is a character's main stats and it's based on the character's class. These are the usual Strength., Defense, Magic type stats most people know from other RPGs. These stats will never grow and can only be modified by equipment. With that said, gaining a point of two in a stat does reflect a big difference so you shouldn't ignore them. The only stat you can technically manipulate is HP and to a lesser extent MP. HP rises as you survive battles with strong enemies while MP will slowly rise as you raise proficiency with various magics. No, the HP/MP trick from FFII does not work here and you can't target your own party anyway, so don't bother.

Proficiency Stats - This is the main stat you can alter by your actions and they are a huge part of the game. Whenever you use a certain weapon or spell, there is a possibility your character will increase their proficiency with that weapon or spell. The tech points you gain in battle will raise the likelihood of getting a stat to go up, similar to leveling up in Crisis Core.

Weapon proficiency will alter how much damage you do with the base weapon attack and also slightly alter the damage your Weapon Arts do as well. The other reason to raise these stats is that the higher their level, the more likely it is the character can Spark a new Weapon Art when fighting stronger enemies. This is very important because as mentioned, Weapon Arts don't get as much of a boost to damage with higher levels, so low level techs will leave you under-powered until you start gaining more powerful ones.

Magic works differently (of course) so magic is divided into the six elemental classes of Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, and Darkness. A character can equip up to three magic elements of non-opposing elements and they can increase their proficiency by using that particular elemental class. Raising magic is imperative to making this game less of a nightmare due to how powerful and broken magic can be in this game. So unlike weapon arts, raising your proficiency in a magic field will have a much more noticeable affect on the spells powers. Magic can only be learned by either using a class that starts with it or having a mage teach you spells from the Magic Research Lab. Raising Magic levels will allow the researchers to discover new spells for that element once you reach the correct Global level to unlock it.. Once you've raised two non-opposing elements to certain levels, the research institute will begin researching Fusion Magic. Every element has at least two spells with each non-opposing element.

Global Levels - This is the biggest stats to be concerned with and the one the game hides from you. Global Levels are basically a party average of all the various proficiency in weapons and magic you've earned between generations. The purpose of this stat is dictate the starting proficiency of new characters you recruit so that the player doesn't have to spend time grinding in case someone dies while on the field and also to make sure new generations start at a similar level as the previous one so there isn't any difficulty spikes. GL is gained from the points earned after battle which goes towards every weapon and magic type used in battle. Once the weapon/magic stat earns enough points, it goes up a Global Level permanently and the next generation will start with a higher proficiency with it. Global Levels are imperative to magic since new spells and fusion magic are tied to the Global Level instead of the character's personal proficiency. So if you get a mage with level 18 proficiency with Fire and Earth magic and wonder why the Fusion spell hasn't become available, it's likely because your global levels are not high enough. The biggest pain of Global Levels is that it's an unseen stat. The game will never directly tell you what they look like and instead you'll simply have to see what a new recruit's stats look like to garner a guess. It's annoying, but having played later SaGa entries that drop this and force you to grind new recruits, I honestly wish this mechanic remained in later installments.

Difference between HP and LP.
LP is a new mechanic introduced in this entry and would remain in all future installments. HP works pretty much like it does in all other RPGs, once it's depleted to 0, your character will lose consciousness and lose one LP. LP is pretty much what it says, it's the character's actual life. Once it's depleted to 0, the character is permanently killed and will need to be replaced. When a character is knocked out, they can be revived with a simple healing spell or item, no life spell needed. When their HP is depleted again, they will become unconscious and lose another LP. The biggest thing to understand though is that unconscious characters can still be targeted by enemy attacks, but since they have no HP they will lose LP every hit instead. So it is important to heal characters ASAP when they get knocked out unless you're purposely trying to kill them off to recruit someone else. If the Successor gets LP killed then Succession takes place, unless it is the Final Ruler, if they get LP killed, the game is over and you have to restart from the last save.

Generational Skips and Succession
The Ruler of Avalon uses a forbidden magic called Inheritance which allows them to pass on their power and abilities to a successor thus allowing the player to hold onto any progress they've made. Succession can occur one of two ways, either by Generational Skip or a direct Succession cause by letting your ruler die from LP death.

Generational Skips will automatically happen after your ruler accomplishes enough events. Each story event or quest in the game is worth a certain amount of points, and once enough has been completed the game will jump a number of years into the future and ask you to choose between four randomly selected successors. Liberating a territory or defeating one of the Seven Heroes are worth the most points, while doing smaller quests are worth less. So it's very possible you can have a successor who accomplishes ten things because they were all small quests before getting a generational skip, whereas another can liberate one region and take down one of the Seven and get the boot as well.

Succession occurs in one of two ways. If the current ruler is LP killed in battle, then a new successor will be chosen among the remaining party members. If the whole party gets knocked unconscious though, the game treats it like a generational skip, and isntead you'll have to choose between four randomly selected classes.

I advise players to save before and after every boss fight to ensure they can go back in case a generational skip occurs and you're handed a bad selection of successors. I say after as well because not all events end after a boss defeat so you can often save afterwards and either leave the area or talk to the right NPC to officially end the event as well and give you a stress free means of re-rolling your possible successors. I will say that any new classes you unlock in a generation often have a high chance of being one of the successors.

Time passage
Another factor at hand is time. Time passes in this game based on how many events you complete and how many battles you fought. Certain events, once activated must be completed in that generation or you may lose out on somethings but more likely you'll just miss the event and have to do a different one instead. Examples are Cumberland or the landship scenario. Other events won't activate until a later event happens like the Camroon Volcano events or the Narwhal quests. This system is much more forgiving than RS1's mechanics. This is most evident with combat and its role in time. Fighting a lot also makes time pass but it happens rather slowly during the Successor's tenure. It really kicks in when you have a generation skip as the amount of time between generations is directly proportionate to how many battles you fight. The important thing to remember here is that you do have a soft time limit in this game as reaching the year 1900 kick starts the final successor. So don't think you can grind in Gerad's time consequence free as it can potentially lock you out of some later quests that require a generational jump to activate.

Combat
Mostly works like typical RPGs where you select the weapon or spell you wish to use. A character can equip about four items to their hands, be it four weapons or items to use in battle. Bare Handed is always an option for battle regardless of class. Only equipped items can be used in battle and even then, only healing Balms are available. Because of this, your character is allowed to use multiple weapons in battle. All characters have three equipment slots but certain classes have access to a fourth slot where they can utilize a unique piece of equipment only their class can use and cannot be removed. The Crusader for instance always comes with a special Crusader Shield equipped so they can't equip other shields but they also get an extra equipment slot.

One unique element of the game is that your HP is restored to max between battles so you never have to use items of magic outside of combat except to restore MP. It is also possible to run from almost every battle in the game including bosses so you can regroup.

Weapons
There are Eight weapons in the game with three damage types. Certain weapons are classed together in the proficiency stats to make it easier to raise their power.


Rapiers/Epees - Lightweight weapons that do pierce damage and have access to buffing/debuffing Weapon Arts. They share a stat with Spears. Their damage is calculated by a characters Speed and Dexterity stat.
One-Handed Swords - These are medium weight all-rounders that have techs for dealing with anything. They do slash damage and share a stat with Greatrswords. Damage is calculated by strength. This is the hardest weapon class to spark all techs for because there are four types of sword sparking classes in the game.
Greatswords - These are two handed weapons that are very heavy but do greater damage than regular swords or epees. They do slash damage as well and their techs are primarily big damage against single targets. They calculate damage by Strength and share a stat with 1h swords.
Axes - Are very heavy slash dealing weapons. Their damage is calculated by strength and mainly targets a single opponent. They can do more damage than greatsword but their accuracy is poor so you may see more misses. They share a proficiency stat with Maces.
Maces - Are heavy weapons with average blunt damage. Their techs are kind of all-rounders like 1h-Swords but they trade raw damage for buffing/debuffing effects. Most of them have a unique weapon tech attached to them. They share their stat with Axes.
Spears - Are a heavy pierce damage type that focuses mainly on doing damage to a single target. Their skills do have some nice debuffing effects and they get a really great defensive one as well. They share a stat with rapiers and use DEX for damage calculations.
Bows - Long range piercing weapons that can hit the back row. They are medium weight but some bows can get pretty heavy. They do fairly good damage and their design is for crowd control over doing big damage to a single target. They also get a fair amount of debuff techs. They do damage based on DEX and have their own proficiency stat.
Unarmed - lightweight weapon that can do heavy blunt damage depending on the strength of the character and the class. Their techs are all-rounders but the game only has really one class dedicated to sparking new moves. Ki Meditation is a must have skill that is a free healing spell for the user. Their damage is based on several stats which is why only a few classes can do some serious damage with it despite being a weapon type all classes have access to. They have their own proficiency stat as well.


Magic
Magic is broken down to six elemental types as mentioned before. Each element will learn a total of five spells and their are two Fusion spells per non-opposing elements. That means there are thirty pure elemental spells total and twenty four fusion spells. You can only possess three elemental types and are not able to use others. So if your character has fire magic, they can't learn water magic unless you forget all of their fire magic. Thankfully, once a spell is unlocked its unlocked for good, so it's easy to swap around spells and doesn't require any grinding to get them back. All magic remains unlocked into NG+ with the exception of Dark Magic's availability. It has to be unlocked by its quest line every playthrough to gain access to.



Light - The first element you have access to. This is a great magic class and one of the few where almost every spell is useful. Sword Barrier is one of the best defensive spells in the game because it negates all edged and melee attacks on the caster. It has some very potent fusion spells for a battle mage and the Fusion spell Light Wall is one of the best group defensive spells in the game.
Fire - Fire is a pure damage element with one exception. Fireball actually remains a potent spell throughout the game due to the fact it can be powered up into a group hitting spell with enough Fire Proficiency. The elements best spell is Revivar which is the game's auto-life spell and the last spell you'll learn. The best thing about Revivar is that when it activates, the character doesn't lose LP. The majority of the Fusion spells it makes are offensive but Fire Wall is an excellent defensive group spell that no-sells Fire and Ice attacks for a turn.
Water - Mainly defensive and healing. It's the only spell class that has status removal magic as well so keep that in mind. It's best spell is Hasten Time that is basically Hastega. It's offensive magic only comes into play with Fusion magic the best fusion spell is Elixir, which is a single target spell that heals for max health and removes all status magic except petrification.
Wind - Is the weirdest magic type. It has a mix of spell types that do interesting effects. Wind Guard protect against all bow attacks and HP Suction is a drain spell that's good for causing damage and healing. Wind God Sabre allows a character to use swords without needing to equip one which is neat but not very practical. It gets some potent offensive magic with Fusion spells but this is honestly the least useful element.
Earth - Possibly the best element behind Light. This element gives you some great buff spells, a healing spell and one of the stronger group hitting spells in the game. It's fusion magic is also fairly strong since it's the other half of the Light Wall and Fire Wall spells. This is also the other half of the Dark Wraith spell which is the best offensive spell in the game since it doubles your characters attack. The biggest drawback is that you have to choose between other elements is it's impossible to get all of these spells onto one character.
Dark - Is mainly Debuffing and damage focused. Dark is actually optional and can only be earned by doing a certain event at Camroon Volcano. If you're hoping to build a powerful combat focused mage, Dark is definitely the way to go about it. It's best spell is Wraith Form which creates a doppleganger of your character that repeats any action the character makes every round. The rest of it's magic varies from powerful group hitting spells to devastating single target spells. Most Dark magic also has a secondary status affliction element to it as well so even if the enemy resists it, they can still get stuck with a devastating status effect.


Weapon Arts and Sparking
New to this entry and a standard of the franchise ever after is the concept of Waza/Sparking/Glimmer in relation to weapon arts. Weapon Art are basically powerful techniques associated with each weapon type. Sparking is when a light bulb pops over a character's head in combat and they create the technique. Once a move is sparked, it's permanently learned for that character. When a generational skip occurs, all sparked moves are added to the dojo, allowing future generations to use the techniques as well. Even if a character dies, any moves they spark will be in the Dojo the following generation. Sadly, sparked moves are not available to teach to other characters until the following generation, meaning that any moves sparked during the final successors era will not be available even in NG+.

Despite what people say Sparking is not entirely random. There are several factors that go into whether a character will spark a move. Their weapon proficiency level, the Enemy level, the spark type of the class, and the difficulty of the move are all factors that determine whether you'll actually spark a move or not. This is why skills will still often unlock in a specific order of weakest ability to strongest.

One more important thing to remember is that a character will never spark a new move if their move list is full. So always make sure you have an empty slot or two to encourage more sparking.

Spark Type
Every class in the game has a spark type. There are fifteen different spark types in the game. One type, the Stagnant Type which is relegated to Leon, Pre-Succession Gerad, and Coppelia is unable to learn any techs. For the most part, a classes spark type will be explained to the player when they are recruited into the party. Usually telling you what weapon type they're best in. Mages are their own class and can only spark low level techs with weapons. The one kicker here is that Spark type can sometimes be split between genders if the class has different genders. For instance the Crusader class varies between the character you recruit and their gender as males tend to specialize in Spears and women specialize in Maces. Occasionally a class can have an outlier such as the Amazons who are spear specialists but have one member of their group that is a Bow specialist. The problem is the game only uses the generic message about specialty so you'll never really know without a guide the biggest offenders are 1h swords and melee since both have a few specialty spark types that have a higher chance to spark specific moves. For the most part though, you only ever really need to know this info for some endgame techs. For the most part you can use the class and safely get all the techs you need from them. Low level techs can often be sparked by any class, but more powerful ones will require a specialist to earn.

One other factor at play with sparking is that certain moves are connected to each other. So using these weapon arts a lot gives you a higher probability of sparking their advanced form. Granted, not every art has a corresponding art associated with it, but some of the endgame weapons arts tend to be directly connected to mid or even low tier techs. An early one is how Double Cut can be used to learn Slice much earlier.

Weapon Arts
The big thing to understand about Weapon techs is that their power is connected to the Art itself rather than your stats. Granted having a stronger weapon, strength boosts, and high proficiency will give the move a significant boost compared to working with lower resources, but Prism Blade is going to average between 2k-3k of damage most of the time whereas the early Double Cut will rarely go over 1k without some end game stuff. So it is important to switch out weaker moves with stronger ones as you progress the game.

Specific Weapon Techs
Many of the game's weapons actually have special techniques attached to them. These moves need to be sparked like any other weapon art, but once they are sparked, they remain on the weapon forever. Even if you get rid of the weapon and acquire a new one, the new one should still have the Weapon Art activated. Many of these weapon specific arts are unique moves and the best part is they don't use up a Weapon Art slot. This is one of the reasons why you might want to forego using a strong weapon for one that has a more useful tech attached to it. The biggest advantage is with mages since they are terrible at physical damage and sparking, so saddling them up with less than powerful maces to use their special skills is often a better strategy. Also, the unique signature attack for most members of the Seven Heroes is available on a specific weapon.

Defensive Arts
Easily the most useful and difficult moves to spark. Defensive Moves are basically a move that allows the equipped character to completely avoid the specific attack of the Defensive Art. The game will automatically give you one for plot reasons in the early game with Soul Steal, Kzinssie's signature instant death move. With this move equipped, Gerad is able to completely avoid the art. You can Spark a defensive move for almost every move in the game. The chances are rare but getting the defensive skill for moves like Terror Voice, Death's Scythe, Hypnosis, and Pheromone can make certain boss battles less of a nightmare. The one thing to know is that these skills do take up a weapon art slot, so choose carefully.

Armor and Accessories
Easily the biggest headache in the game is the terrible UI when it comes to what equipment does. The main stat you see only details protection from Slash damage, but there are three weapon damage types (Slash, Blunt, and Pierce) and six elemental types. So you can easily have a character sporting a 90 in defense that is still getting KOed in one hit because the enemy is using Blunt type attacks. Likewise, the armor descriptions give incredibly vague ideas of other things they can do, so you might bypass a piece of gear that has poor protection but offers a huge boost to your strength or magic stats which I might add, make a big difference.

Likewise, there are two main types of armor Basic, and Full Armor. Basic works like normal games, equipping them allows ou to also equip helms, gauntlets, and accessories. Meanwhile Full Armor offers better overall defense at the cost of restricting a character to only being able to use rings and usually being heavier.

Accessories mostly come in the form of Rings, they garner a single point in most defense areas, but make up for it by either giving a sizeable stat boost or protection from harmful status magic.

Speed
A character's speed is determined by both their speed stat and the weight of all their equipment including armor. While a character can equip up to four weapons at a time, it's not very sound to do so since each weapon weight will slow them down. There is a scale in the Storehouse in the castle that will tell you what your teams weight is.

Formations
This is the other unique element to this game and something that made the BoFIII fan in me smile. RS1 had a stuffy grid system not too dissimilar to the equally awful one from Persona 1 when it came to party formations. Getting attacked the side or behind would scramble the formation and make it impossible to attack with certain weapon types until the character spent a turn moving into place. RS2 thankfully drops this whole mechanic and instead offers a new formation system where the party can use pre-set formations to garner special benefits in battle.

There are a total of eighteen Formations in the game. Two are given to the player at the start being the Free for All that doesn't garner any benefits or penalties and the other is Leon's Imperial Cross which makes creates a meat-shield around the Emperor and protects whoever is in the back row. Formations can honestly make or break the game, so it's important to use them as effectively as possible as some formations boost counter rates, magic power, bow power, gives initiative to the whole team, or has the party auto-defend after finishing their turn.

Formations are earned by having the current Successor speak with the Dojo instructor who teaches formations to the troop. Every class not found within the castle ( so no Light or Heavy Infantry, Archers, Mages, or Mercenaries. Also non-human races and Coppelia will not teach a formation) will teach a new Formation. You can honestly go through the whole game and not see all of them and sadly the game makes you earn them again every playthrough even with NG+. The only way you'll likely My personal recommendations are:


Imperial Arrow - Learned from Imperial Guard - Good speed bonuses to the whole team, everyone auto-defends after turn. Great for Blitzkrieg strategies.
Desert Fox - Learned from Desert Guard - Great decoy formation with strong boosts for frontline melee fighters.
Amazon Strike - Learned from Amazon - Great damage focused formations with good speed and melee bonuses.
Whirlwind - Learned from Nomad - Good defensive formation that doesn't have a speed penalty.
Goblin Attack - Learned from Scroll found in Maze of Memory - Best offensive formation in the game.


Classes
At the start of every generation after Gerad's reign, you'll need to recruit a new party. You should choose wisely because once a character is recruited, they can't be removed until they are either LP killed or until a new generational skip. There are twenty five classes you can recruit in this game. Your five starting classes are: Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Court Mage, Ranger, and Mercenary.


Light Infantry - These are all-rounders with stats and their Spark Type is also all over the place so they can be useful for sparking lots of early techs for various weapons. The female variant are a bit better about sparking techs since they have better spark types within their ranks. They mostly specialize in swords of all types so experiment between all three.
Heavy Infantry - These guys are meat shields who come with a full suit of armor. Place them in the front row and let them soak up damage. They are mostly 1H-Sword Generalist in spark type so keep them with swords and shields.
Court Mage - Your starter Mage class. Most of them are not good at sparking anything excpet possibly clubs, but agin, don't expect much. Their real strength is in their magic with Males usually specializing in water magic and females specializing in fire magic.
Ranger - These are your main bow experts and you can easily just stick to one to spark all the bow techs in the game since all of them are bow specialists. There is not much difference between gender expewct females are slighlty better casters.
Mercenaries - These are your heavy hitters in the early game. They all have fairly good stats and most of them start with high proficiency with swords. Oddly enough though, their spark type is all over the place, especially the female variant. They are also not the best for sparking later weapon arts.



The recruitable classes include:



Mage for Hire - These are spell casters that often have sparking types that allow for more variety. They are not as powerful as a court mage but they are a bit more well rounded. They are acquired once the Magic Research Institute is built.
Vagabonds - The series version of the Thief class. Their high speed and dex makes them good for Bows, epees, and martial arts. Males have poor spark typing though while females are more consistent. Females get a unique footwear allowing for an extr a slot for armor and the it allows them to learn Stomp.
Brawler - Martial arts experts and the games version of monks. These guys will be your main source of melee moves. They are useless against slimes but they can spark several great techs any character can use like Ki Meditations. Keep an eye out for a monk named Liger, he's a rare spark type that can spark certain moves the others can't.
Crusader - These are your upgrade to the Heavy Infantry. They are meatshields that can also use magic rather proficently and they have better spark typing. Males specialize in spears, females specialize in clubs/maces and are far better with magic than their male counterpart. The class also comes with the Paladin Shield which is fairly awesome in the early to mid-game until R&D catches up. Their only downside is that they are slow.
Nomads - Better class than you would think, they specialize in Axes and Bows. Males will be your earliest access to axe specialists while the females are bow experts with good potential in magic.
Tactician - This class has some of the highest speed scores in the game and they are experts with magic usually starting with three elemental spells ight out the bat. There biggest flaw is their durability and the fact most of them are terrible at sparking anything. You acquire them once you complete the University and graduate from it.
Armed Merchants - These guys are basically pirates. They are also serious badasses with great defense, high speed scores and good strength that helps with their Axe proficiency You can never go wrong with this class.
Hunters - These people are your upgrade for the Ranger class usually sporting higher dex in echange for overspecialization.
Saigo Clansman - Another meatshield class, they can specialize in melee or clubs. If you're missing some techs in clubs this is your class.
Imperial Guard - These are an upgrade to the Crusader class just with their usefullness reversed. Females are kind of all over the place and while they have better magic ability, they have nothing on their crusader counterpart. Male members are the game's best spear users and sport some of the highest attack in the game.
Desert Guards - These guys are a cross between mercenaries and heavy infantry. They are good fighters with the ability to take a beating or two.. These guys are pretty good mid-tier to endgmae fighters.
Amazon - Amazons are fairly well rounded. Their stats say boy, but their spark type is spear. They make decent mages as well and have good speed. Sadly they can only be recruited by a female emperess until you build the city expansion.
Divers/Ocean Woman - One of the weirder classes. Depsite starting with two magic types, they are mediocre casters. Their main weapons are spears and they come with a rare Trident that only drops from a certain rare enemy in the game. I found them to be a bit too fragile.
Levante Guard - Call it like it is, this is your Samurai. These guys have high strength and speed making them great blitzkrieg options. They are the best greatsword specialists in the game and a usual pick for end game teams. they can be a bit on the fragile side though. They are surprisingly decent mages as well. Oddly enough, one member of the class who has the best stats also has only 1 LP.
Mole Men - The games best epee/rapier wielders, moles are earth experts and all can cast Earth Magic. Like all of the non-human races, they get a regen effect when earth magic has been used enough to change the environment to earth focus. They also come with the Iron Will helmet that makes them immune to mind status effects like charm and confusion. They are also excllent craftman and you'll need to rescue them if you want to get Nerids or acquire the Darkstone Ring.
Nerids - The mermaids are not as useful as I would like considering the headache you have to do to recruit them. They are magic users who get a regen effect aroudn water and when water magic is used a lot. They are not good at sparking, being the mage of the four non-human races. They do come with their unique Mellow Ring which makes them immune to cold and gives them a good defense against both status magic and Fire magic.
Salamanders - This class is pretty powerful. The y are Axe and Melee specialists who come with a strong unique armor called Red Heat Scalemail that makes them immune to fire magic. They also get a regen effect around fire magic or fire centric locations. They are fairly strong and very beefy, the only issue is that recruiting them negates your ability to get dark magic... Apparently the Salamanders are also all female so Rocboquet should be in trouble.
Irises - Though they primarily use bows, this harpie inspired race are actually better spell casters and they are also extrememly quick. They get a regen boost when wind magic is used a lot. Their unique equipment is the Kazanaha Scarf which makes them immune to cold/water magic and gives them a good boost to status magic. Like Nerids' they are all female. The only real drawback is that they will usually be the last class you will recruit, though the quest to do so is actually one of the most amusing.
Ninja - New to this entry is the Nija class which was added when the game got remade for cell phones. They are a female variant of the Battler class, being mainly Melee specialist. Despite that, they start with great proficieny with swords and have the stats to make them perfect with greatswords and on par with the Levante Guard. Their main weakness is their poor magic ability and their low defense. She's recruited in the optional Maze of Memory Dungeon in the Red Orb section. They come with a unique accessory the Dash Ring which gives them good status effect defense.
Diviner - Man I wish they had stuck with the Japanese title of Onmiyoji. This is another class exclusive to the post Super Famicom version. They are comparable to Tacticians in stats but their spark types run the gambit of Bows, Clubs, and Epees making them a bit more versatile. They're real unique trait is that they are a class that specializes in Dark Magic which was incredibly rare in the original game. So this class was created to make better use of the magic. Even if you opt not to get Dark Magic, they will usually start with it and will be you only means of using it on that playthrough. He is recruited in the optional Maze of Memory Dungeon, in the Black/Purple Orb area. They come with a unique accessory called the Demon Ring which gives them boosted defense against all of the elements.


Resources
It's hard to find great resources for everything, but these are the two I like.
RS2 Data Sheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1c2Q6-k4HodGskLaa4Byg0mnBqF_xwDCVg6U29QureCs/edit#gid=1160963450) - Pretty much a spreadsheet which is great for learning what armor and weapons do as well as a more manageable spark table.
SaGa Wiki (https://saga.fandom.com/wiki/Romancing_SaGa_2) - It still needs to be updated for the remake but this gives you a better breakdown of the classes and formations.

Misc Tips:

Emperor vs. Empress
You get to choose the gender of your final successor and there are some reasons you may want to choose one over the other. Each of them gets a unique greatsword that is also capable of using 1h sword techs as well. Neither is stronger than the other, nor even the best weapon of their categories but it does free up a potential weapon slot if speed is a factor. Both swords come with two unique abilities.

Dayblade (Male) - comes with some fire and holy based attacks that are great against enemies weak to fire or holy power.
Moonlight (Female) - Comes with a group hitting ice attack and the holy Moon Light healing spell.

The male emperor has far more LP than the empress. close to 20 compared to her measly 10. On the flip side, the Empress, being a female, is automatically immune to Rocboquet's Temptation skill giving her one free equipment slot for the final battle. This might not sound like that big of an advantage but it really is because Charm is the second worst status effect behind Petrification.

Dark Magic vs. Salamanders
You're going to have to decide which one you want. Salamanders are debatably the most useful non-human race in the game since their only real weakness is how slow they are and their inability to use Water Magic. Fire locations are also rare, so you won't see their regen bonus as often but the class is physically powerful, their special armor is pretty strong and frees them up to use an extra slot for equipment and their specialty for weapons are axes, which are the strongest weapons in the game. They are real power houses. Bonus points, Salamanders are all female so Rocboquet's Temptation spell has no effect on them.

Dark Magic is the best offensive magic in the game outside of a few Fusion spells and two single element spells. They also have the benefit of causing secondary status effects which can turn the tide of battle for you. Dark Magic also gives you some of the best offensive buffs in the game and are best used with the new Onmiyoji/Diviner class as well as certain members of the Samurai class. If you plan on having a powerful offensive mage this magic element is pretty much required.

Seven Sword vs. Seven Armor
Unique to the remaster is the ability to forge a specific weapon or armor with an ore from the Maze of Memory. You can only forge one per playthrough but at least it transfers into NG+. So the questions is which one?

Personally, go with the Armor first. the sword is great but there are several weapons close to it in power and Weapon Arts are still fairly potent without the extra points. Defense is more important by the late game and the Seven Armor gives you a great stat spread while also being criminally lightweight. It really is the best armor in the game overall.

Bejeweled Ring vs. Potency Ring
There is a shop in the Maze of Memories that offers these two items but it costs 10,000 Crowns which is your max amount of money you can carry on you. You can lower the price by asking him to lower them and then exiting the dungeon so you can get both, but if that's too much time wasting for you, I would choose the Bejeweled ring first.

The Bejeweled Ring raises the probability of enemies dropping items in battle. There are lots of weapons and armor that can only be obtained this way and they are far more valuable, especially if you sneak in and grab this item as early as possible.

The Potency Ring doubles the amount of Points you get per battle raising your Global levels and speeding up how often your character raises their proficiency. Great item in early game but becomes useless by NG+ since a regular playthrough should have you reach the cap on both Global and personal levels.

Empress Coppelia?
Yes, the foul mouthed automaton can actually be turned into a successor. You simply need for the current successor to die in combat while she is recruited as a party member. Coppelia on her own comes with some disadvantages but they mostly disappear once she's made the successor. For one thing, you can control her now and secondly, she can use magic finally. She has fairly good stats and while she can't equip armor, her Prima Tutu accessory is just as powerful as Full Armor so she's pretty tanky. Take advantage of her fast growth rate to raise your global levels.

Darkstone Ring/ Demon Crystal Ring
There is a quest midway through the game where you'll acquire a cursed dark crystal. If you take it to the mole men later on, they can crafy it into the Darkstone Ring. This ring will grant you immunity from mind status effects like charm and confusion as well as good defense against the elemental magics. But the item is cursed and won't be able to be removed. If you sleep anywhere that isn't the Successor's personal bed, then they user will drain an LP from each party member refillign their own even if they have full LP. Save this for the final battle.

Hopefully this will help some of you. I'm hoping to start SaGa Frontier 1 tonight.

[Wolf Kanno]

SaGa Frontier 1 has been started and holy hell is this a weird entry. It almost feels like Kawazu and his team decided to ignore the SNES entries and that last GB entry and went back to SaGa 2 (FFLII) as the main basis of the game. I'm not complaining though because it was a fave of mine.

Basically we're back to having characters broken up by Humans, Mystics/Espers, Monsters and Robots. Humans largely work like they did in SaGa 2 but now have the Romancing series spark/waza element to actually learn skills. Monsters absorb defeated enemies to learn new skills and possibly transform into a new form, and I haven't ran into the other two races yet to get an idea of how they work. It's interesting how the game feels both streamlined and more convoluted at the same time compared to RS3.

I opted to go with Red as my first character. His plot is based off a bunch of tropes from Tokusatsu genre, specifically Henshin Hero's like Kamen Rider. So his dad is killed by a mysterious organization called Black X and he himself was nearly killed until he was saved by a superhero who granted him his similar powers to save his life. Now Red is trying to find out more about the mysterious organization while fighting off their henchmen as his alter ego Alkaiser.

As a fan of Super Sentai shows like Power Rangers growing up, this has been a fun blast so far. My only real beef is that while he can spark techs in his Alkaiser form, including some cool exclusive moves he can only use in said form, he can't get stat boosts if he transforms. Granted his Alkaiser form like quadruples his stats but it makes it harder when the game kind of makes it a crutch mechanic in the early game.

I am currently trying to increase his levels and techs in the Bio Research Lab and was thrashed by the areas boss. I'll need to come back with a full team I feel because he one shot my whole party. I did recruit a monster named cotton and after a lot of trial and error, I mange to strike...metal? and got it to transform into a SaGa brand Liquid Metal slime with ridiculously high stats for this point in the game. With my mon on the team, I've finally been able to get Red's stats to go up, but since we're playing Henshin tropes to a tee, I've lost the ability to use the Alkaiser form because Red can't use it in front of other people and must keep his identity a secret, even to his own teammates apparently including a monster that can only say kyu kyu...

Music is good, graphics and setting remind me of FFVII, controls are a bit janky for my taste but I remember SaGa Frontier 2 was pretty similar in that regard. It's interesting how SF1 feels like a send up to the GB entries while SF2 feels like one for the SNES ones.

With the Golden Week sales going on, I may finally pick up SaGa Scarlet Graces and perhaps the SF1 Remaster. I really want that SF2 remaster and new SaGa game Kawazu hinted at.

[Del Murder]

Are you playing the original SF1 or the remaster?

[Wolf Kanno]

Broken ass original. Which means it's missing a bunch of stuff and Fuse doesn't have his chapter.

I will say that the game is more difficult than some other entries. While dying from a random encounter is not uncommon in any of the entries I've played except maybe FFLIII, I definitely feel like this game has already killed me more times than usual in the early game. I had to recruit Cotton the monster from the Bio Research Lab just so I wasn't spamming Alkaiser every round and never growing Red. I'm actually partially stuck at the point where Pirates take over the Cygnus because one particular fight against four monsters. The big issue is that the tankiest of the four is the one that likes to cast a massive buff on the rest of the group making them go first and hit ridiculously harder than I feel they should.

Shops are also rare and most of the equipment I've gained are from random drops. In fact the best drop I got was a shield in the Bio Research Lab which increased Red's poor survival rate significantly. I've had to go back to an old save to grind a bit. Cotton has been transformed into a Zeroworm which is some gnarly looking creature that looks a bit like the centipede boss fought in the Future in Chrono Trigger. I also find it hilarious that after how much SaGa 2 made monster evolution more convoluted, SF1 was like ''hold my beer''. It's interesting how they work but much more complicated, which is likely why they have such a bad rep among fans.

I've been using an old guide from a magazine as a helper and it's hilarious how much it trashes this game.

[Wolf Kanno]

Still stuck on the Cygnus, I fear my bout of grinding caused my Battle Lv. to get too high, but the enemies you encounter on the Cygnus are really scattershot. The first enemies you will likely encounter all feel like they are much higher than average. It includes some monsters that look like potential bosses in some story paths, and some deadly Robots that tear my team a new one if my my monster wasn't OP. The main set that kicked my ass are mid tier monsters I occasionally encounter but have been upgraded to boss caliber stats. This fight is what I was mainly leveling for, but I discovered too late there is a trick to this fight. The lookout monster can be sneaked past if you're observant, at which point you can find the other monsters from this fight in rooms and tackled them one at a time making this significantly easier. The last set are the respawning enemies you can grind against, and they are pathetic and closer to what I was actually fighting before this event, so maybe my BL. isn't as high as I think.

I was finally able to recruit a full party though, as I found Asellus, Princess White Rose, Fuse, some mercenary guy, and my first robot. So I finally have one of each race. My goal now is to take the dangerous route to get to the main bridge and retake the ship, but there seems to be a trick because I fell off and lost my progress during my first attempt. I'll do a team breakdown later after I spend a little more time building them up. Mystics are certainly weird and my robot suffered a huge downgrade due to losing my progress since I couldn't get certain weapons to drop from the fights again. Red is doing fine, but I really wish I could find a shop to upgrade his armor and weapons. I stole the Samurai Katana from the merc to give to him.

I also took advantage of the Golden Week sale and finally picked up SaGa Scarlet Graces Ambitions. I did check it out a bit but chose not to devle too far as I don't want to get distracted from SF1.

Game looks good and feels a bit like Unlimited SaGa in presentation minus the board game elements. They brought back formations after being absent for three games (almost twenty years real time) and strangely enough, brought back Roles from SF2. You can choose to lie to the game to unlock extra scenes by saying you completed the game before with certain characters, but I'm opting to go through cold turkey since replay value is the series main draw. You get to answer a fun questionaire at the very beginning which decided which of the four main heroes you get to start with. My understanding is that it's overwhelmingly rigged to make sure you start with either Leonard or Urpina since they are the most user friendly, but your answers also alter their stats a bit. You can technically bypass this and just choose a character but you lose the bonuses unfortunately if you do. I got Urpina for my choices, and I'm pretty content since she was my first choice anyway. SaGa tends to do justice to female leads in this series as they are usually either more interesting story wise or way more OP than they theoretically should be. Urpina sounds to be a bit of both. I watched the intro of her story which quickly shoved me into the game side and then stopped. I haven't even had a battle yet but she does start with a full team.

I like how the background of the game is a weird combination of the first two Romancing SaGa games with the main bad being some former evil god that rebelled against his brethren, but then it follows RS2 by the gods blessing a human to build a mighty empire to eventually slay said god each time he tried to return before finally finishing the task. Then the game takes on a darker version of the RS2 ending and now we're in the aftermath of that fallen kingdom. Urpina's father is one of the military noble houses who dreams of restoring the empire with his family as the head, so this should be interesting. Alas, I got SF1 to go through.

I did have some extra credit for another game, I was thinking of Trials of Mana but I didn't really want to a digital version of such a huge game and would prefer a physical copy instead, so I might just use it to pick up the SF1 remaster as well. Keep the SaGa love going. I am so happy after all these years, Squenix is finally trying to release all of these games.