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' wonderfully meta motivation in the Japanese version of the gamehe'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.

Quote Originally Posted by 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)
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.