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Thread: SaGa Franchise

  1. #151
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    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.


  2. #152
    Radical Dreamer Fynn's Avatar
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    Fynnek Zoryasch (Twintania)
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    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.

  3. #153
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fynn View Post

    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.

  4. #154

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    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. . _.

  5. #155
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    I am knee deep into Death Stranding, but I did pick up Romancing SaGa 3 for my birthday. Will likely start before Christmas.

  6. #156

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    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.

  7. #157
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    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.

    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.

  8. #158
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    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.

  9. #159
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    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.

  10. #160
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    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.

  11. #161
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    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 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 trout 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.

  12. #162
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    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.

  13. #163
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    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.

  14. #164
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    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.

  15. #165
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    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 trout 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.

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