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.