SaGa Franchise

[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.

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...

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

just in case you're curious, there are some videos below---
(SPOILER)
The original trailer...


I even found a little tidbit of the stage production teasing the hell out of me:


And some of the main actors being interviewed in their frickin GORGEOUS costumes...
(SPOILER)> Here's Monica Ausbach, the princess of Loanne


> And her brother Mikhail, the Marquis of Loanne looking dramatic as ever lmao


> Katarina, Monica's bodyguard and the one with the weird blue hair


> Sarah Carson, a settler and probably the most influential in the game (don't quote me on that)


> Elen Carson, Sarah's sister


> Thomas, a merchant and I think??? Sarah's love interest? Maybe? The actor is so lively lmao


> Julian Nohl, another settler that grew up with Sarah, Elen, and Thomas


> Harid, my mans-- I mean, a warrior prince from a foreign country



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...

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.
Gustaf_Roberto.jpg

[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!

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!

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" 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.