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.