/vr/ - Retro Games

>>919885
It is one of the best jrpgs of all time and its not even a complete game. So many story lines cut short or completely cut. I would suggest starting as Blue though. He is a strong character teaches you the main non linear progression you will be doing on most the other characters (magic quests) and is a pretty strong character overall.

This game has shit tons of mechanics hidden that would literally take hours to explain but let me send you some of the more important ones.

>The type of enemies you face are determined by your battle rank. Higher battle rank the stronger monsters you face.
>Your battle rank only increases by leveling up humans
>Before you complete any characters storyline always get yourself to max battle rank, you can check by going to york and go to the swamps. If you fight devil squids you are max battle rank. You do this because once you save the character data after you beat a story line the next character you play on that data will be stronger based on your battle rank when you ended your last character.
>Riki has the hardest final boss and most annoying sections in the game
>Mec are the easiest to get op but cost the most money since their stats scale off gear.
>Some skills combo with themselves which allows you to form super easy level 5 combos with all human parties
>Monsters transform based off their current health and move pool. So even if somehow you got all the moves for black dragon form but only have 100 health form you would not transform into it. So see a monster you wanna become? Learn all the moves it has and have a higher health form. You can actually get an end boss form.

>>919908
How is comboing chance determined in this game? Is it fixed or is there a way to influence it?

>>919885
Who did you pick? Red, Asellus, and the robot are very good starting characters.

>>919908
Is there any way to get a hold of the complete storyline? It's a shame how they completely cut out Lute's story.

>>920039
Certain moves combo well with each other, while others don't. For example, you can combo 5 Bound Shots at once.

thanks for telling my about this game. downloading right now. looks interesting. I'll play SaGa Frontier 2 as well and see how that is.

>>920565
That one has the best music of the series, but it's very different from SF1.

>>920597
I don't mind. after seeing some reviews I know it's not THE top notch RPG.

Stick to it. Did you do Emelia's story line because I remember she starts off in the Despair prison, or did you take up a rune quest on someone else? That prison can be a bit tough because of everything you have to navigate and also the laser trip wire maze later on if you are doing it with someone who isn't Emelia.

Yes you should stick with it, it is in my top two JRPG's trailing the Romancing SaGa remake. The races and how unique they are from one another, how combos work, learning skills during battle, the way you can go almost anywhere from the git go with no hand holding, and excellent music.

>>920039
There are a bunch of factors I believe, like moves that are labeled a certain sort of move and you need another skill that is labeled something else but can combo well to the previous skill to get a combo. I also find that speed is important as well so an enemy doesn't cut into a combo. Obviously this is something you HAVE to experiment, or if you want to get anal you can use a FAQ, but then that is defeating the purpose of a SaGa game.

>>920524
>Is there any way to get a hold of the complete storyline?
I don't know if the Essence is translated or not, and where to get it.

>>920597
>That one has the best music of the series
I personally like Kenji Ito much more, especially when it came to battle music because it gave a true sense of urgency. Listening to his pieces in SaGa 2, Romancing SaGa 1, 2, and 3, and SaGa Frontier just shows that he is excellent in making battle compositions.

>>920607
The funny thing about SaGa Frontier 2 is that usually if a person isn't a SaGa fan it is probably their favorite or one of their favorites in the series (either SF2 or Final Fantasy Legend III).

>>920859
Though I will admit one thing about the series, it isn't a series of standard JRPG's thus it won't appeal to everyone, in fact chances are it only appeals to a niche amount of people at best. Though it has to be my favorite JRPG series easily because of what it does with the genre and constantly goes against the thoughts that JRPG's are about levels, or grinding, or heavy on cut scenes, story, and being lead from one end of the hallway to the other.

>>920859
>>920524
Yup I think it was Emelia. There was a scene at the start where she was arguing with a husband/bf?
I might just start over with a different character. I didn't think it would matter so much.

>>920916
Actually I believe Emelia is the best starting character because it has the right difficulty, guidance, and introduces you to magic right away (rune magic quest line).

Beware on what you pick, the difficulty and guidance on a lot of the routes are all over the place.

>There was a scene at the start where she was arguing with a husband/bf?
Yeah that is her, I liked her story a lot and I am still wondering what happened at the end of the story after the final boss.

If you were going to use another character you might want to try out Blue since humans are easy to understand mechanically and that all you do is gather magic. You might want to save Riki for last or second to last due to how monsters work and magma slimes.

I just started playing the first one. It's fucking weird and it's true what they say: unfocused. I don't mind nonlinearity but honestly this game stands in its own way. often you can't progress as you don't know where to fucking go. I started with Blue. will see what else it holds for me. I ended up on that weird chinese planted with lots of Neon stuff around it. Kongoroo or something and had to battle until he had no JP left.

>>919885
>dat sunset town music

DO DO DO DO DO DO DO DO DO DODO DODO DO DO DO DO

>>921651
It is very normal to be lost in a SaGa game, it is always to be expected so if heard that it is non-linear and didn't hold your hand you now know we weren't kidding. Some people are turned off that it is that non-linear along with not giving as many hints as how to progress. I found it fun because I liked exploring the worlds and talking to people and uncovering their stories.

It is also fun team building as well, explore around much more and you will find some recruit-able characters easily.

>>921657
I liked this music a lot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTXDvQwMbH0

I only ever beat this game as Red. I was shocked with how cool his story was compared to how lame his design is. I couldn't believe it when he transformed into motherfucking Kamen Rider.

>>921713
Not much of a spoiler when it happens the first ten minutes of the game and you pretty much fight your first battle as ALKAISER.

>>920039
There is a system of gives and receives for each move. Like hot move give to cold moves and cold moves receive hot moves basically. The moves that combo with themselves are ones that give and receive in the same category.

Combos are also determined by speed so if you set up 4 bound shots and a normal slash attack but the slash attack is on your third fastest character you will get 2 level 2 combos instead of 1 level 4 combo because the slash ends up between the 2 groups of 2 bound shots.

Is it wrong that I dislike Asellus' story the most? The ending reminds me of freaken Twilight before Twilight was written. I rather have them finish FUSE story than that vampire.

>>921713
>>921735
Alkaiser is easily my favorite character of any JRPG for that. He even has his own theme song.

>>922865
sure ... if twilight was gay and spent more money on clothes instead of stupid CG

Trying to emulate this one with epsxe but the sound is all messed up, anyone got any tips?

Saga Frontier is a complete mess of a game. Nothing is balanced, nothing works right, no dialogue makes any sense, and no graphics look like they're even in the right place. It's like something some Japanese student would make for his college programming final.

But still, it had some interesting features, such as different hero routes, fun combos, good OST and imaginative settings.

I feel sorry for the people who bought this back in the day thinking it was going to be as good as FF7 or Xenogears.

>>922894
I am talking about that stupid human girl that end up being Asellu's lover out of no where. In the canon ending, it got some bullshit crap where all the mystic praise this human girl for no reason and that girl talk about how she love Asellus.

>>922960
Well she was enchanted with Asellus from the start of the game. I really don't care for what is or isn't canon though.

>>922949
I don't know what you are talking about. When SaGa became more open it became less text driven. Most of those features aren't new to the series as well, such as the settings being existent from the first game of the series to different hero routes from Romancing SaGa.

There are some glitches, though I have personally never encountered (or abused them) like the junk yard one. I don't see how things don't work right, all the races develop the way they should and depending upon the route the dialogue does make sense. I mean in Blue's route it tells you from the start to learn all of the magic. How is that hard to comprehend?

I played Final Fantasy VII years before SaGa Frontier and thought it was dull. It wasn't until I got a PS1 in 2005 that I got SaGa Frontier from a friend. Easily became one of my favorite JRPG's. I don't even see how you can even compare Xenogears to SaGa Frontier. Xenogears has too much of an emphasis on story, to the point that it becomes a tedious trudge to go through the game because all it is is text dumps and cut scenes. Yes I am talking about the first disk. All the other JRPG's I've played before had to the point text that let me play my game and Xenogears didn't fulfill that which made it for one of the more disappointing JRPG's I've played.

>>919885
There's combat in that game? Jesus all i remember about the game was running around aimlessly forever and never encountering any enemies. Just talking to people and never figuring out where to go.
I have never seen how combat even works.

>>925094
Should have explored more. Some worlds don't have enemies at all like Devin, others have some slightly obscure passage ways to find areas with enemies. It took me a few play throughs to find the mansion in the Magic Kingdom.

Oh man, as a kid my family was way too poor for video games but I'd save up and buy game manuals on clearance so I could read them and pretend I was playing. This was my favorite one and I'd forgotten about it until now, I really want to actually play it.

>>926002
>Oh man, as a kid my family was way too poor for video games but I'd save up and buy game manuals on clearance so I could read them and pretend I was playing.
Damn, that actually sounds pretty sad. Feel sorry for ya brah.

>>926002
Should check it out then. It is fairly fun if you are into a-typical mechanics for a JRPG.

>>926002
>reading guides for games you were too broke to actually play
Those were the days

>>926002
you give some feels, man.

>>926002
Hahaha, I'd read walkthroughs on Gamefaqs.

>>919885
Play Red's scenario first OP, its the easiest one to get into and you get to be a super sentai hero.

>>920565
>SaGa Frontier 2
I hope you like convoluted (yet great) magic systems. That said, its my favorite jRPG ever so do give it a try.

>>927057
Personally I thought Emelia was the easiest since I personally thought there was a ton of guidance.

T260 is still my favorite route though.

SaGa Frontier is quite possibly the worst game ever made.

>>928391
How so?

>>928391
Impossible, since the Final Fantasy exists.

>>928408
SaGa isn't for everyone. It was different and unorthodox when it was on the gameboy, and the formula established in SaGa 2 (Better known as Final Fantasy Legend 2) persisted in Romancing SaGa and SaGa Frontier.

But there's no denying that Frontier is unfinished, unbalanced, and messy.

Related to this topic, I played SF2 and thought it was shit. The game was unfun enough already, but at one point it gave me a new party of people and threw me into a scenario where the enemies could wipe the party in one move. I ragequit and decided it was a shitty game forever.

>>928554
>unbalanced

Pretty funny, since we're talking about JRPGs.

>>925573
I explored every possibility.There was no where to go, i searched every nook and cranny. I played that wizard and red. Wizard all i remember was something with mirrors. Red was the one that I got stuck and couldn't go anywhere.

>>928643
Losing is fun.

>>928554
Well I don't know many JRPG's that are actually balanced, there is usually a combination that will make you fairly over powered in most JRPG's.

>messy
What do you mean by this?

>unfinished
I won't deny that, but it makes me wonder what is up with other games in the genre when I derive the most amount of my fun from an unfinished game.

>>928932
>Wizard all i remember was something with mirrors.
Possibly the Luminous light castle puzzles. When you complete that it gives you the gift the light magic. I wouldn't know what magics you already have. You really do have to go EVERYWHERE and talk to EVERYONE. Though yes you were actually doing something to progress your quest.

>Red was the one that I got stuck and couldn't go anywhere.
I usually found his easier to go around because the starting parts you are limited to one world and you have to constantly go to the Cygnus and do something else in another world. After that I believe you do get a hint in where the four leaders of Black X reside (each one in a different world). Or at least I personally didn't have much trouble finding them again recently.

>>922940
Try mednafen on retroarch or pcsxr.

Asellus' quest was my favorite. Great game. Shame it was rushed.

Is the game enjoyable even if you haven't played any of the previous installments?

>>929408
None of the SaGa games are connected in any way other than the general universe.

>>929415
Thanks.

>>929408
>>929420
Only thing I have to say about it is that you have to learn about all of the different ways to develop your characters, you will have that piled along with trying to find out how to progress in the game. Some people find that overwhelming since they haven't played the first two Gameboy games first that introduce very similar growth mechanics.

Though you can play it first since each entry is a standalone one, though in the Romancing SaGa remake you do see a reference to the first game (the chainsaw).

>>929270
It was a long time ago, the wizard one i think i just got stuck on a puzzle maybe or didn't get the reward or something, but red it was the first area.
I liked frontier 2 though, didn't beat it however.

I don't know how ANYONE could get lost or stumped with this game. I remember playing this for the first time as a child. I completely wrecked this game like no tomorrow.
Understanding the differences in the game just by simply reading the booklet. Which is even easier now with google. You can simply just look up images of the booklet itself if you really wanted.

i beat every single character and got the super secret ending where you can fight every end boss.

People who suck at logic and strategy should never touch jrpgs. Stick to platformers you derps

>>930561
To be fair the SaGa games are very different from other JRPG's so it really catches people off guard and they can't do similar things that they could do in other JRPG's to progress as easily. That is probably why I love the series so much.

>>930561
That's a pretty angry post man. That's not the /vr/ way. Spread the love of retro games.

>save points inserted before a major boss fight
>those save points are trapped in a place in which you can't backtrack in case you're too weak for that boss

>>931985
>SaGa Frontier
>save points

>>931985
>>save points inserted before a major boss fight
What? You can save almost ANYWHERE. There are very, VERY few instances you aren't allowed to save. Not only that but you have many slots on your memory card that you can save on.

It must be your first SaGa game if you aren't using two save files for a single game since it gives you the resources to play smart.

>>931952
im an angry dude.
i just get so mad that my favorite games get such guff because people are too dumb to understand how simple it actually is and thus my favorite type of games. gameplay wise and so forth dont get much love, leaving me with not to many similar games in the so called future we live in.

where are my smarties making games?! I WANT MY SMARTY GAMES!

>>919885
It's an unusual type of game for its time. I'd stick with it, and maybe try a different character to start with, like Blue, Emelia, or T260. I personally owned the game for years and never really got into it until I picked it up one day, started a new game, and it all just kind of "clicked" and made sense. I've been a fan ever since, but it was hard to get used to for a long time.

>>934561
>It's an unusual type of game for its time.
How so?

>>934551
It might be "simple", but it's tedious. It took me about 2-3 hours to even get out of Asellus' introductory part, purely because the game expects you to visit almost every single available area three times over just to be able to move on.

>>934908
Maybe you should take your ADHD pills. A normal player can wade through a lot shit to get to a diamond.

>>934914
Why would anybody do that instead of just playing games where you wade through diamonds all the time?

>>934942

go back to playing infiniti bioshock kiddie

>>935715
But Bioshock Infinite is a linear stream of shit

>>935715
Stop acting superior over games.

>>935715
Back to /v/.

>>935715
You have to realize SaGa isn't for everyone.
>GameSpy: I would also say that the gameplay is a little different and more complex than FF. What separates the SaGa series from other RPGs?
>Kawazu: I put myself in the design team, and we pride ourselves on the very advance level of gameplay. We're hardcore gamers making games for hardcore gamers. That's probably the greatest gameplay difference between the SaGa series and the Final Fantasy series.

>>934908
and to add.
im the person who wrote the bioshock insult.

That was the point of her story in the start. to feel just as stuck and lost as she does when she first arrives.
just because your dumbass took forever to figure out what to do don't mean shit. Those of us who escaped in ample time, rocked Omni, and started exploring. we laugh our balls off at you.

and im sorry and forgot this is /vr/
go back to playing -Earthbound-, "adult:

>>935795
Elitist holier than thou fucks like you give the SaGa series a bad name

>>935795
There isn't a need to be so abrasive about it. I know some fans of the series are a bit frustrated because people ask for various things in a JRPG and SaGa happens to meet the criteria a lot of the time and that series is hated by people who don't understand it or just overlooked or just unknown of in the west. I know that is a bit irritating, but no reason to belittle many because of this.

>>935715
leave.

>>935819
oh dang everyone. im being callied a holier than thou.

come back when your not being a little bitch

Saga Frontier.
don't let the scrubs push you away from this true JRPG that will kick your ass if you don't go about it the right way. So if you enjoy choosing nightmare mode in games. This is a perfect game for you.
i will talk about the character choices a bit.


Lute : this is the staple character. He may be considered the weakest, but his story is straight exploration off the bat. Enjoyable playthrough to leave for last.

Red: A super hero who can only use his powers when humans are not in his group. Very enjoyable character to start the game off with. He gets unique teamates and the super hero powers are top notch.

blue: probably the best story to start off with. He ends up with all the magic in the game and is all around a bad ass. Like lute, he starts off with exploration right away.

riki: a animal class character. my specific least favorite character. Apparantly it has the toughest boss battles and you will be gathering a ton of other animal teamates. very unique story

emelia: a super model turned hero after her boyfriend got murked on. her story is pretty straight forward and enjoyable, but like lute. she is a bit weak and will need to be trained quite a bit before the final boss fight.

asellus: the most unique story in the game. a mystic who is also part human. she is up there with red with awesome powers. She will gather up the most mystic characters and its filled with goth for all those goth lovers.

T260G: the robot character. He will get the most robot teamates and in my opnion, one of the best characters to play and feel like a overpowered god. Tons of mech battles and transformations.

Saga Frontier.
don't let the scrubs push you away from this true JRPG that will kick your ass if you go about it the right way. So if you enjoy choosing nightmare mode in games. This is a perfect game for you.
i will talk about the character choices a bit.


Lute : this is the staple character. He may be considered the weakest, but his story is straight exploration off the bat. Enjoyable playthrough to leave for last.

Red: A super hero who can only use his powers when humans are not in his group. Very enjoyable character to start the game off with. He gets unique teamates and the super hero powers are top notch.

blue: probably the best story to start off with. He ends up with all the magic in the game and is all around a bad ass. Like lute, he starts off with exploration right away.

riki: a animal class character. my specific least favorite character. Apparantly it has the toughest boss battles and you will be gathering a ton of other animal teamates. very unique story

emelia: a super model turned hero after her boyfriend got murked on. her story is pretty straight forward and enjoyable, but like lute. she is a bit weak and will need to be trained quite a bit before the final boss fight.

asellus: the most unique story in the game. a mystic who is also part human. she is up there with red with awesome powers. She will gather up the most mystic characters and its filled with goth for all those goth lovers.

T260G: the robot character. He will get the most robot teamates and in my opnion, one of the best characters to play and feel like a overpowered god. Tons of mech battles and transformations.

>>936002
>and feel like a overpowered god
That is Blue.
>Apparantly it has the toughest boss battles
The magma slimes were something else until I used one of the rings which casts hide so I got an advantage with that. For Master Ring you can't kill all of the monsters. If you keep one or two alive it won't spam its most powerful attack, and in a SaGa game that is usually about 250~350 damage and max HP is 999, but most people won't even get into the 900's.

Though some of the most fun things is how different races grow since none of the characters are based on experience points and levels, how they learn skills (especially humans and their sparking/glimmering), the fact you can equip more than one weapon, and other options as well that the game(s) give you.

SaGa Frontier is great, has to be my second favorite JRPG, right behind Romancing SaGa.

>>938147
nice to see someone with a good memory of the game the same as I.
Im doing the full on complete character domination of the game once again. I will remember the hide ring trick when i get around to Riki's story.

SaGa games are always so fucking weird. I always want to get into them, but they always have a couple of dull features that just kill any enthusiasm I have. Every single fucking time.

Why must SaGa games be so fucking tedious and disjointed? I want to experience them properly, but I'm still yet to.

>>938147
here is another picture for you. high five*

Some of the posts i've seen on here are utterly disgraceful (you know who you are) and as a previous poster said, really do give true SaGa fans a bad name. You have a seperate board for your cocknobbery, so please use it.

Personally i will always give SaGa Frontier 1 a swing every year or so and try my darndest to get into it. I suppose a lot of the problem is trying to accumulate foreknowledge. The most recent playthrough, i started with Asellus, got my booty handed to me when assassins came for her randomly while traversing some towns. The first time was ok, but half an hour later, in another town, some sort of aquatic creature Toblerowned me.
So yeah that made me feel pretty stupid and i quit again. Work brain, work!

As may be a recurring theme for someone who doesnt get 1, i happen to love SaGa Frontier 2 and am confident that i can make a party that could rival even the most thorough Japanese shut-in

>>938187
Well with that spell, the instant you take an action you negate your invisibility. I found it easy to just constantly recast it on Riki with someone who know the rune magic hide, and the fact that robots have the highest LP counts in the entire game.

>>938194
Well could you give an example of the game you tried to play and what turned you off? With the series it is best to read the game manual then after that just let things happen. Don't bother trying to understand why something is happening when it first happens, just go with the flow and then eventually after MANY times you will catch onto it. Certain things you won't but that is fine.

I have gotten through most of the games like that (even Unlimited Saga). You have to realize the person who is creating these games really liked/likes to create board games, and what makes board games unique from one another are different mechanics. With that in mind you can see why the SaGa series has many different mechanics from other games in the genre. One of the most striking ones is character growth since generally the series lacks experience points and character levels. It is also because of these changed up mechanics to even mechanics usually not seen in other JRPG's is why the series draws a niche fan base in the west. I personally would love to see more JRPG's to take a wild stab and introduce interesting mechanics during battles, for character customization for skills and items they can carry, field skills, how characters grow, and so many other things.

>>938235
im one guy. and im always angry
get over it

>>938239
Oh well that's ok then isn't it! I like to impale kittens stomachs with my penis, but it's ok because i always do it, it's part of what makes me, me!

That aint sufficient excuse for being an asshole brah. Let the peace flow through you.

>>938248
i will be peaceful when i get some more unique difficult rpgs for my modern day.
i don't give a fuck if my words make your emotions feel funny.
i stand by my love of this game and the words i use.
i would never post on /v/. its filled with an over amount of dumb fucks who need to be humored like children 24/7. grow a tough skin because in reality. lots of individuals in the world who make me look like a god damn saint.

he is a another picture for the fans

>>938235
There are a few areas that can give people who are new to Frontier a problem. One you just mentioned with the assassins coming after you, then there is Tanzar's belly (I think I might have fell into that one or two times without having a party capable of beating the slimes guarding the rune), entering Lute's final dungeon WAY too early (you can enter it within at least ten minutes into his route), and in general over grinding, especially in the start of Red's scenario which could make the battle on the Cygnus nigh impossible.

Though what is a SaGa game without it beating you a bit, like the entire ruined city in Final Fantasy Legend while having to constantly run away from a flaming bird that is always in pursuit of you, or just the final boss in Final Fantasy Legend II in general.

>>938248
Look at Mr. "I'm gonna be 18 in 3 months"

>>938251
>i get some more unique difficult rpgs for my modern day.
The last one you might get is The Last Remnant, that or the two SaGa games on the PS2, though those aren't "modern".

>>938257
yea. i rocked the last remnant quite some time ago.
and have the saga games you speak of on emulator also.

its a sad day for us specific type of individuals.

i feel so "blue" because of this fact of life.

>>938250
Nice "tu quoque" there. Also you realize you have just saged a thread in /vr/?

>>938251
It's not about having thick skin Mr Strawman, it's that your elitism puts other people off from playing the game, which is really bad. Why are you even posting in a thread? Go play your game in the comfortable knowledge that you are a clever, albeit angry chappy. It would be a better investment of your time.

>>938268
>it's that your elitism puts other people off from playing the game

im not here for them. you can use /vr/ however YOU want though.

>>938236
>Well could you give an example of the game you tried to play and what turned you off?
I'd get into a dungeon, and I don't even know why I'm there, and it goes on and on, and the enemies respawn, and I neither lsoe nor win, and I quit.

>>938306
Sounds like Frontier then. A lot of the dungeons are for magic quests or for certain characters in which they have to go into them to progress the story. Of course you can go into a lot of them without being under either condition. Though that is one of things about the game, you have to keep on exploring and that you will be lost as in you don't know where to go. It is very common in the series. I suggest trying to pick up some magic quests or figure out your main quest. You can go to Devin and get the rune or arcane magic quest line and try to attain the gift for that magic which will allow you to get higher tier spells that cannot be bought in stores.

>>938310
Yeah, I'm playing Frontier right now, but it also happened to me in Romancing SaGa.

Yeah, I'm going to push on. Just started playing because of this thread, loved the exploration and all the different cities, hated the dungeons, but we'll see.

>>938332
In Romancing SaGa it is best to check every single town and talk to everyone before you start exploring dungeons. There are things to find and quests to start in some dungeons, but in general you'll find most things in town. Discovering how to complete the quests and actually progressing was possibly the most rewarding thing in Romancing SaGa. It was probably the only instance in a video game in which I felt like I was on an adventure.

>>938335
I so wish these games werne't jsut brilliant in their own way, but actually objectively brilliant.

Someone needs to give the director a good producer or something, who'll say "but that's ridiculous" at least every once in a while.

>>938339
Well he does have the other games he has worked on like Legend of Mana and the Crystal Barer series.

>>938354
Legend of Mana was some of the worst experiences I ever had with video games. The world, characters, art and music were brilliant, but gameplay had no saving graces at all. Unlike SaGa games, I played quite a bit of LoM and I know what's what, and I know from personal experience that it never, ever gets good.

I'm expecting a better game out of SaGa, because LoM was simply the worst, period.

>>938359
Hah. Reading this thread has inspired me to pick up SF 1 just as a curio, and I'm kind of looking forward to it, but I'm not sure I'd have even taken that step if I'd known it was connected to Legend of Mana. Seriously, that has to be the most gorgeous completely awful RPG ever. Apparently there were various hidden systems somewhere, but christ knows I never needed to actually use them.

Is Saga Frontier the first game with a lesbian main character?

>>938792
Outside of some obscure japanese eroge, probably yes.

>>938792
>>938798
Didn't Eien no Filena do that first?

>>938810
Yeah, but it's an adaption of pre-existing media.

>>938359
>>938457
I wouldn't know how Legend of Mana plays, some people really like it, I haven't played it because I am not interested in the Mana series personally.

>>938792
Isn't she kind of an accidental lesbian? Inheriting the charm lord's blood and all?

>>939337
Well she does attract the other women to her, but that doesn't mean she herself wasn't one before but just suppressing it because of what society viewed it as.

whats with everyone needing to add sexual orientation to everything. People need to lay off those EA games.

>>939752
Well in SaGa Frontier's case it was actually interesting, especially since it didn't come up until later on in her route.

>>939337
Doubt it. She and White Rose follow the typical pattern of lesbian pairings. One being a cute long-haired sweetie, the other having short hair and being fairly handsome or androgynous.

>>938792
Sorry, Lightning Warrior Raidy. Dyking it up since 1994.

>>934703
It's nominally a JRPG, but the storyline is totally decentralized, and there's little in the way of direction or explanation. It rewards patience and experimentation, but it was very off-putting for me when I first bought it, because I was expecting more like a handful of short "typical" JRPGs that would cross over with each other in surprising ways, and less like a "here's your ultimate objective, now hit the streets" approach.

>>940068
I see. Yeah it wasn't typical for the western console market, though by that time it wasn't too far off since it already had three games that had that sort of progression on the SNES, though they never left Japan.

>>940007
>especially since it didn't come up until later on in her route.
i guess i need to finish up her story again.

Yo, I'm here to fuck shit up and to make you really sas

I just started playing, picked the woman in prison route.

I can sympathise with the OP in that the prison's weirdly designed. After several screens worth of wandering my jailbreak buddy stopped at a door and said "It's this way". I followed. It just looped me back to a couple of screens ago. The conversation after leaving was bizarre - half immersive, half obtuse.

Loving the aesthetics, and how I could immediately go and wander around several towns just because they were there. Game needs a FF7 style exit-arrows toggle though.

I reloaded after the martial arts tournie because i didn't want to lose a life point. When I came back there was a new round one enemy which oneshotted me. Later I got held up because of an invisible lever to open a door in some room. Back in town I tried another trip to the sewers and got one of my ladies killed. Reload. Oddly compelling, but I can see why this game isn't super popular.

>>939302
In a nutshell, and apart the retarded hit detection and clinky controls, action gameplay in it is you struggling against infinitely respawning enemies in mazes. Insult to injury: if you die, you're immediately resurrected with no consequences, so it's all entirely pointless. I wish I was kidding.

>>940031
I though Raidy fucked everyone.

>>919908
Started with blue, first time playing. Got the light magic I guess? Did hte light maze thing. bought an aoe spell and a heal. Went to the fortune teller town, got lost, went to..some sort of slum. Tried to save, game locked up

I guess it wasn't meant to be.

It's interesting but this game is far far far too vague. It feels sort of schizophrenic already.

>>941673
Blue's scenario is the second most non-linear scenario in the game, with Lute's being completely non-linear with only one real unique event in the game set up for him that throws him into the final dungeon of his scenario.

Blue's main deal is just gathering up all the magic in the game, and lets you wander around freely in until you get all the basic schools you can and then introduces the schools only blue has access to, and after getting one of them you are wisked off to the final parts of his playthrough. Really he ends up being one of the strongest characters because of it, and in the meantime it allows you to experiment and explore much easier than any other character simply because he has the magic map that no one else has. The SaGa games just don't like to tell you what's going on and to find out yourself, and SaGa frontier is one of the most forgiving games in the series, since it's much harder to fuck yourself over.

>>941673
>>941439

When i first started playing as a child. What i found enjoyable is hunting characters to join my team and upgrading my teammates to be more strong.
exploring towns. Especially since the first one was devin and luminous as the character blu. it was the first towns i explored and figured out that it was blu's to get the magic. in Devin it has 2 mission starters. I don't know how you even missed that.
I guess you just did not want to choose the choice to learn more about magic?
Why.


I don't what games you are used to playing, but i suggest not needing to rush all the time while playing. Also pick the character Red instead.
I'm not saying his is easier, but you will have more of a story intro you into the game

>>941797
Ah. Maybe that'd explain it. I'll try again later once I figure out why the game locked up when I tried to save, I guess, but that was a rather disappointing start. aside from the art there's nothing really holding my attention at this point, I guess.

What would be the most linear character? or the one with the most structure, till I get my bearings for this sort of thing?

>>941673
>>941439

When i first started playing this game as a child. What i found most enjoyable is hunting characters to join my team and fighting monsters to learn new spells and abilities.
exploring towns came next.

With Blu, when you start the game off. you have the choice to teleport to 2 places.
it was the first towns i exploredand found missions right away. in Devin it has 2 mission starters. I don't know how you even missed that.
I guess you did not want to choose the choice to learn more about magic?
Why.


I don't know what games you are used to playing, but i suggest not needing to rush all the time while playing RPGs.
Also pick the character Red instead.
I'm not saying his is easier, but you will have more of a intro to the game with him.

>>941823
Red

>>941797
>with Lute's being completely non-linear with only one real unique event in the game set up for him that throws him into the final dungeon of his scenario
Fuck, so I'm NOT going to find any signs I'm making progress with his until it's final dungeon?

a awesome feature for this game is that whenever you beat the story of one character. you can put the save data into the special block so that when you start the next story. The team you were using start off stronger.
if you are able to find them again with another story that is. Some characters cant use certain teammates and others can
if you find rouge in luminous and make him super buff and beat the game. the next story you choose, rouge will start off stronger the second time around.

they also learn abilities faster the second time around.

>>941834
Lute is all about exploring and getting buff. he is a explorer

>>941823
Well Red or Asellus are probably the most story driven ones, with emilia a close second since her story pushes forward whenever you talk to a specific NPC each time.

Red has a big intro and is locked to certain areas for each story beat, but it also means his beginning is alot harder than some other characters since you can't go out and get some equipment veteran players usually gravitate towards early on, and he has a unique skill set which can only really be activated when he is alone (or the rest of the party is dead).

Asellus is set to an area early on that can be difficult if you aren't careful, and then she is allowed to free roam with the plot advancement being based upon battles with bosses who you will encounter after so many fights between each one. Which means you have to plan out what your doing so these bosses that pop out of the woodwork don't wipe you out.

>>941828
I talked to everyone in devin, all I got was a bunch of fortune telling stuff. I learned a bit about arcane/rune and light/dark, but other than that I havent seen shit to talk about any sort of mission. I'm not "needing to rush" so much as the game gives me absolutely nothing to go on, even after talking to all the npcs I've found. I have absolutely no idea what i'm doing, or if what i'm doing is even important.

>>941841
But is anything supposed to happen while I travel?

You know, give me a very broad hint: as Lute, do I walk and talk or do I get into dungeons?

>>941424
>I reloaded after the martial arts tournie because i didn't want to lose a life point
I wouldn't worry about losing a single life point, especially since you can recover them easily in an inn. One of the few times you will be worried about life points would be in Riki's route.

> Game needs a FF7 style exit-arrows toggle though.
I can agree with that.

>Oddly compelling, but I can see why this game isn't super popular.
Well it isn't popular in the west, though that game has a bigger fan base in Japan, and hell there is tons of art of Asellus.

>>941673
Shouldn't be too hard with Blue. I mean it told you right at the start you need to gather all of the magic, then you got a gift from one school and now you are on a quest for another and you just have to go to the places that have that gift. Keep exploring and talking to people, it is the only way to make it through a SaGa game.

>It's interesting but this game is far far far too vague.
It is one of the draws of the series, that you have to go out and find everything yourself and use every bit of information you get in game.

>>941823
>What would be the most linear character?
You aren't playing the right game to be honest. If you want to be eased into the series I suggest starting with Final Fantasy Legend II since that is a linear game, and short to boot while still having races that are unique.

>>941834
Yep. I actually find it fun though, you don't know what is a quest or a side quest so you don't know if you are making progress or not. It was very rewarding in the Romancing SaGa remake.

>>941834
I'll lend you a hint, don't hang around Omi unless you feel your ready to fight the final boss.

That's it, the rest is just fucking around with the game's myriad sidequests with him.

>>941854
The mansion is a great place to explore. I think it has jet boots and such inside there, none-the-less one of the tentacle freaks. If some of the people playing right now haven't experienced Devil Fish yet I won't spoil and surprises.

>>941851
>You aren't playing the right game to be honest

Kind of hard to know how to play a game "right" when it gives you piss all to work with. Just saying.

>>941850
go to luminous and pick up rouge teamate. white hair dude. do either of the 2 magic missions in this town if you want or save for later.
go to devin. you get to choose to start a long mission if you go into either magic house and ask how you can learn about the magic.
tarot card mission or rune mission.
you will have to go around the world and gather these items.
you get boss fights and dungeons you are lead to do.

rogue is a magic guy and you want him to be top notch with magic.
if you dont have him in your team when you start these magic missions. he wont be able to "master" these magic and learn the super spells.

>>941854
>That's it, the rest is just fucking around with the game's myriad sidequests with him.
I haven't seen even a single one yet. Shit, nig. Guess I'll go play some more.

>>941862
Yeah, the mansion has some decent items and depending on who your playing you can get a party member there.

But the boss there has a gimmick for anyone new, figure it out on your own, your most likely not going to brute force it.

>>941830
>>941846
Thanks.

>>941869
shrike has 2 side quests.
there is no "journal" option like other games for you to feel as if you have a "side quest".
but in shrike there is one at the top right where you do a small puzzel and fight a boss. you get a reward after you beat him.
another bottom right. you just fight your way to a super boss and again get a reward for killing him.
lots of side quests are just a dungeon with a very hard boss fight. make sure your ready because these boss fights dont fuck around.

>>941864
>Kind of hard to know how to play a game "right"
I am not saying you aren't playing it right, what I am saying is that you aren't playing the right game if you wanted to be eased in with a route that is much more linear because the routes may have linearity for about an hour at most, then you are out fighting on your own trying to figure out where to go and exploring everything.

There is nothing wrong with putting the game off to play a game in the series to ease you into some of the other mechanics more.

>>941878
>because the routes may have linearity for about an hour at most, then you are out fighting on your own trying to figure out where to go and exploring everything.

You see, I dont mind this. That's what I -want-, in fact. An hour or two of at least some sort of structure, rather than this vague free-for-all where I'm not particularly sure what i'm doing or supposed to be doing at the very beginning of a game. It's offputting.

>>941883
Well you can try Red's scenario since he is bound to the Cygnus for awhile. Though once he gets off the Cygnus you will find that his progression structure is the same as Blue's in which you have various objectives that you can go to in any order you want. It is just that Blue's quest starts off like that. I thought Emilia was easy to understand personally since most of it was missions from the leader and the rune quest line and more quests if you desired to.

>>941883
>That's what I -want-, in fact. An hour or two of at least some sort of structure
what do you want us to tell you? We cant make this game magically for you, son.

Quick tip for the new players in the thread, Light/Shadow magic is the easiest magic to get early on in the game, light probably being the best overall, some healing spells along with some really powerful attack spells and the ultimate spell of the light school being summoning a new weapon whose strength is based upon your magic stats
Shadow however deals with some debuff and attack spells, and possibly it's best spell is the ability to create a shadow double that can take hits for the caster and it also mimics the caster's attacks.

Also the stores don't sell all the spells in a school, getting the "Gift" for a magic school means you will be able to start learning the spells of that school as you use them.

>>938187

>>941424
Damn is this game random. In places it has that Fighting Fantasy book feel. "You chose to chase Joker to the left, you must fight the deathfurby of doom". Which is OK thanks to save anywhere, just requires a different mentality.

What's a bit less OK is the encounter system. I fought this tiny gunship boss. The first time it came with four allies, two of whom used a combination attack which killed half my party immediately. Reload. The boss is alone and goes down on round 3. Now I just need to get out of this dungeon.

>>943703
Some encounters are like that. It all depends on you set up if you can survive them or not. Sometimes it isn't forgiving at all and you will get wiped in one or two turns. Though you can save anywhere so it isn't like you'd lose too much progress.

My older brother picked up Saga Frontier 2 at a yard sale the other day. We both fondly remember playing the first game, mainly as the T260G the robot, because he was a pretty ballin' 'bot.

Aesthetically, the game looks very different (less sci fi and grit, more whimsical color), but since it's been roughly over a decade since we've been acquainted with SaGa Frontier, are there major differences between the two? Is the first "better"?

>>944181
>>943703
Yep. Learning the rhythm of quicksave and permasave in and out of missions seems to be the big thing.

My previous attempt at sidequesting saw me find some locked doors, a frog which ate me, several shops with gear I couldn't afford, a swamp full of unkillable monsters and people babbling about a time wizard who would kick my ass. My latest spree involved a tomb where I actually found some decent gear and had an awesome fight against a chest mimic. White Rose and Annie turned up the heat with some vicious combos, otherwise I would have gone down. Gonna go back to the missions now..

>>944303
>brother picked up Saga Frontier 2 at a yard sale the other day. We both fondly remember playing the first game, mainly as the T260G the robot, because he was a pretty ballin' 'bot.
Depends what you think would better would constitute. The Romancing SaGa trilogy for the SNES only had one growth system and you mostly only got humans as well, but they are great games especially the Romancing SaGa remake.

I personally like SaGa Frontier 1 much more than the second one because there is just more freedom in exploring and creating your party, and it isn't as story heavy which means I can play the game more rather than getting bogged down by a bunch of text.

>>944335
Well "better" in the sense of giving a polished experience that captures what the SaGa Frontier games are all about. I don't know anything about the Romancing SaGa games myself.

Again, I like the water-color world, though I had fond memories of the dirty slum-worlds in the first SaGa Frontier (then again, my brother only played as the Robot, meaning we saw that path the most). I always thought it was pretty neat how many different paths you could take, but we both haven't seen the game since we were much, much younger.

OT, but he picked up PS1 RPGs for the PS1 at this yardsale, all for 2 bucks a pop - Threads of Fate, SaGa Frontier 2, and Alundra 2 all for $6. So that was pretty neato.

>>944335
Well "better" in the sense of giving a polished experience that captures what the SaGa Frontier games are all about. I don't know anything about the Romancing SaGa games myself.

Again, I like the water-color world, though I had fond memories of the dirty slum-worlds in the first SaGa Frontier (then again, my brother only played as the Robot, meaning we saw that path the most). I always thought it was pretty neat how many different paths you could take, but we both haven't seen the game since we were much, much younger.

OT, but he picked up PS1 RPGs at this yardsale, all for 2 bucks a pop - Threads of Fate, SaGa Frontier 2, and Alundra 2 all for $6 plus some others. So that was pretty neato. The guy must have been a big Square fan back in the day.

>>941823
>I'll try again later once I figure out why the game locked up when I tried to save

Are you playing on an emulator? Some PSX emulators lock up on the save/load screen in SaGa Frontier if you have a memory card in slot 1, but you can save and load normally if the card is in slot 2.

>>944696
Well SaGa Frontier II is one of the more limiting games in the sense that in the first two games (Final Fantasy Legend I and II for the Gameboy) you can choose who you want in your party, and the fact that there were races and they did have their differences by developing differently you can pick and choose if you want a mix of the races or sticking to a single race and leave out the ones you dislike.

Once Romancing SaGa came along you can pick among a roster of characters to be in your party and you can go out and explore the world since the games were non-linear.

SaGa Frontier 1 was a mix of both games. Then going onto SaGa Frontier 2 it just feels much more limiting to being rail roaded to a story point or three, and that you have to have these characters in your party or forced to have others.

It isn't a bad game, but it is radically different in that sense even if it has the growth system from other games and the sparking system as well.

Jacked this from /jrpgg/. Thought it was a neat page.

>>944321
Right, so Emilia's quest is short and makes little sense. Back on a mission (but without my party!) I dodged all the enemies, walked around the boss, and just talked to some guy. After that Roufus offered me the endgame.

Pretty sure that I was underlevelled I skipped around all the encounters in the dungeon, barely survived a miniboss and ran into possibly the most bizarrely written climactic moment imaginable. Joker nowhere, Cube [?] nowhere, wearing a wedding dress and, of course, fighting god. Lost, obviously, but I now how much I have to do to win [100 HP each, more JP potions, better mystic spells]. Game's going to clock in around the ten hour mark, a fair share of which was aimless wandering.

Unless I'm wrong a lot of the dungeons are going to be basically repeated for every character, given that gaining gear and skills more or less requires me to wander into plot-irrelevant mysterious locales. If so I'll probably wrap things up then take a break before the next quest.

>>946479
Some amount of the dungeons will repeat, but a lot of the characters have their own dungeons that aren't a final dungeon or can access other areas in dungeons as well.

So far through Emilia's quest you have been framed for murder of your fiancee who is a cop. Made sure you were put into jail by Ren's friend who is Fuse. Escaped from Despair through the prisons "joke" contest. Joined up with Roufus and the girls since they helped you and are after the Joker which you want to meet up against, possibly even kill. You go off on a bunch of missions in which the Joker is always off obtaining something until he gets the cube. For one of the routes remember how Mondo treated Emilia, you will see him again, and you actually do see what Ren looks like in one of the routes as well. Then the ending confused me slightly and I was leaning on the fact that the Joker is Ren and it happened to be right.

All of the routes are fairly short, which I think is a good thing personally. You may think a lot of places could be irrelevant, but a lot of areas deal with magic quests or someone else's quest line.

Try out some magic quest lines. Did you finish off all of the Rune magic ones? Did you explore some of the other worlds and find other magics you like? There is a powerful magic which has a REALLY good self healing spell which is helpful for final bosses. Also check up on your gear and see if you have accessories that can resist certain boss attacks. How much of Shrike have you explored? The Research Lab is one place that everyone should always visit in every route.

>>919885
that title always looked like 'Salsa Frontier' to me... bad font

>>946767
Who said there wasn't any salsa?

>>946658
Yeah, I'm coming round to the shortness thing right now. It certainly makes me more likely to play another route.

The plot makes sense in a sort of broad brush way, just in none of the particulars. What is a cube? What do Trinity do and why does Roufus care? If they don't want him to have the cube, why tell him where it is? And why did Asellus join me? I imagine some of this is filled in elsewhere, but it kind of feels like Emelia is having a bunch of key conversations off screen. To be fair I mainly coast by on mood. Nelson is particularly great.

As for quests: a man in the slums said the blonde at the restaurant could tell me about runes. But the only restaurant I found is the one where Gradius live, and the blonde is, er, me. Anyway, I've been in some magic-y towns and a church full of statues coming to life, found ice caverns under the slum, got the gift of Light via puzzling, went down both tombs a while ago but backed off the BioLab after one fight. Just now I went back to the jungle ruins and beat a set of Giant Slimes. Guess I'll try the lab again then gear up and roll.

>>946778
Did you go through all of the ice caverns in the slums? The blonde one initially joins your party at the start of the game. When you find the boss of the area you will know it. You will attain the rune magic from that area as well.

>>946767
Where do you people get the second "s" from? No matter how I look at it, I never see it, I see an "I" at best.

>>946786
Ah, so the blonde is Annie? I guess there was some piece of dialogue I didn't get before recruiting her then. I fought a giant spider in the ice caverns. That was quite tough, and it seemed like the area boss so I hightailed it afterwards.

>>923474
Xenogears had an enormous amount of plot to cover, whereas the majority of JRPGs before it effectively had loose cardboard cut-outs for worlds with little to no depth and a ridiculously forgettable scenario.

Xenogears did have some pretty poorly localized teams, but the vast majority of people who played it were compelled by the plot, and not the gameplay itself.
The gameplay was pretty dull in comparison, and didn't offer any of the variety, customization, or challenge that a game like SaGa Frontier did.
I mean, I figure someone who isn't into the story would just quit Xenogears after a few hours, it never pretended to be pushing itself on the gameplay.

>>930561
In all fairness, the vast majority of JRPGs never test logic past a child's level, unless you're talking about a select few SRPGs.

SaGa games basically take understanding a few original concepts not featured in JRPGs, and then trying to manipulate the RNG, which is a mechanic that inherently goes against logic.

Still, I wouldn't ever tout the hordes of games like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, or Breath of Fire for their "strategic" merits, since there really isn't any.

>>946658
Also some of the characters have multiple endings, like asellus and emlia.

The thing that changes what ending you get with emilia is complete bullshit though (You have to do the HARD ROUTE of the casino mission)

>>947027
The best ending is not to chase the Joker, though.

Also, am I the only one that thought Roufas was an ex- patrolman for IRPO, considering that he hinted how incompetent the IRPO are when Emilia get framed or how he knew Fuse (who was visiting Roufas' room with Red) when the Swan ship was attack?

On and one thing about Emilia's story. You can literally lose if you did not level Emilia or the party up in the last two part of her quest (when Emilia goes commando and the church area).

>>947169
>Roufas
this is my go to awesome character after i pick up rogue.

the line he says when you recruit him just made me want him more.

fuck yea! i wish i could remember what he says though

>>947169
I get that feeling, or at least were buddies, or that since the law can only do so much that their relationship naturally flowered depending upon one another for action and information.

>>947602
Rouge is an great Spellcaster. I LOVE how in canon, he obtain the gift of Space Magic without killing Kylin or forcing the orphans that live there scatter all alone and all that bullshit.

I kill off Blue on purpose just to use Rouge as my main character.

So a SaGa Frontier "restoration patch" is something that will never happen, uh?

>>946832
Emelia cleared. Enjoyed prepping my party, and began to appreciate how I could have built a better team.

The Biolab boss was insanely intense, with Annie's deflections bailing me out over and over. The final battle was less panicky but a brutal resource drain, the way the changing stances of the enemy threw off turn order made combos hard, and LP were about to come into play when a JP/WP drained White Rose punched the fucker down.

The ending was kind of lame, but I'm moving on to the next route - just not sure which one! Blue has a cool premise at least. Do I get any bonuses for having cleared Emelia?

>>949379
>Do I get any bonuses for having cleared Emelia?

Other than every character you recruited in Emelia's scenario keeping their stats and equipment in the other scenarios? Not that I know.

>>949451
Ah shit! that's exactly the sort of thing! I recruited a bunch of people just in passing early on, took their gear and never used them, but thanks to shops not buying stuff I had loads of gear I could have put back on - including Riki and Lute's. Can't quite bring myself to refight that boss though. I gather Blue has some rough bosses, so I think I'll do Lute first.

>>948730
I have been replying the game. The first story i have finished is ROUGE! blu got murked. Right now im at the very end of Emelia's.

I agree about Rouge being much better.

>>949379
>Do I get any bonuses for having cleared Emelia?

Some of the character get a tiny boost or a new skill to use in a new game. I hope you use that save file where you they told you all those personal question.

>>950004
I remember replaying the game last year and I started out with Riki Story first because I consider it the most annoying one to do. Due to the experience, though, the play through was way easier (like getting DSC, make Rouge god-like in every spell, make Riki into a Black Dragon, etc). I kept Red story last because I love his story the most.

>>926002
Ladies and gentlemen please refer to this man right over here and feel sorry for yourselves as he has experienced a level of nostalgia none of you ever will. Second. hand. nostalgia

>>949379
>The ending was kind of lame
I kinda liked the ending. Also just wait until Blue. You will remember his ending, forever.

>>950827
I've had it spoiled. Thankfully. Less fortunately I've had the Rogue twist spoiled too. My vague plan is to keep one of Red, Asellus or the robot for last since they're apparently the most fleshed out plotlines.

>forcing yourself to like something

fuck, It's almost like I'm on /mu/

>>951347
I would argue that despite having 3 ending, Asellus kind of suck in story telling. I rather get that out of the way.

I finally started to play this game after only playing RS3 and I'm actually enjoying it even though I didn't expect to. I started off as Emelia since I found the whole prison break thing the most engaging from the get go. I'm guessing the futuristic setting is restricted to Emelia? Either way, the game has a certain charm to it that I like and in the first boss battle everyone suddenly started lashing out combos and I have to say it was pretty awesome since I wasn't expecting that.

I feel like the game has a certain charm to it, even though there are things that give me the impression that it was cheaply made. SF2's graphic style is a huge step up IMO.

>>953456
>I'm guessing the futuristic setting is restricted to Emelia?
Nope, SaGa Frontier is like the first SaGa games and Romancing SaGa combined. Different races that develop differently and the game doesn't have a defined setting while being very open.

I agree that the graphics are lacking compared to other SaGa games, especially compared to SaGa Frontier 2 and the battles in Unlimited Saga. Though I do like that later on in the series it goes for its own different styles.

>>919885
FUCK.
WHERE HAS THIS THREAD BEEN MY ENTIRE LIFE!?

Glad to see a thread up on this game. While I may only have beaten Red and Blue's stories I thought the game was really great especially allowing you to play different characters and stories.

I don't really like JRPG's but this one gets praises from me. It is threads like this on /vr/ that makes me hate /v/ more and more every day.

>>953456
Emilia's good for the prison dungeon because they actually give you a scope to see those laser wires. If you go in blind that room is ridiculous. The Gradius base is a nice feel too, and Emelia actually has a good reason to operate out of Koorong which makes it feel more natural as a transport hub.

>>953623
T260's story is pretty neat, going around and collecting data since your memory board was fried and you finally find out what your mission is. An actual spoiler about the final dungeon the final dungeon is a massive battle ship that was built by the program, so you can say the entire final dungeon takes place on the programs body, and you fight it in its core

Monsters in this game are tricky aren't they? Robots are easier to abuse early game for outrageous stats and with mystics you can just pick skills you want and stats you want, but with monsters skills combine weirdly to affect your physical form. Seems the best way to play is just to collect skills non stop and keep whichever good ones fit your build. But I really have no idea whether Fang or Scissors or Kick will result in the best bodies, and there's no point having them all.

>>953768
You will have to rotate them a ton and see what transformations you'll get. I found monsters decent mid game, but if you really don't know how to build them then they will be pretty bad late game without a good transformation.

Not retro but Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song on the PS2 is one of my favorite JRPGs. In retrospect, I like it more than any of the PS2 final fantasy games. I was interested in trying out SaGa Frontier for this reason. I only have an emulator with no manual and I ended up choosing Lute first because I liked his design. Minstrel Song was difficult but this game really kicked my ass, i need to give it another shot sometime

This is one of the most confusing RPGs that i've played, and that's coming from someone that did 6 full playtrhoughs of Romancing saga 3.

>>953785
SaGa Frontier is fairly easy when compared to Minstrel Song. Though you have more chances to save yourself into an unwinnable situation in SaGa Frontier.

Also Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song is easily my favorite JRPG. No other game actually had me experience adventure like that game did. The entire quest system was brilliant with quests coming and going depending upon the passage of time in the world.

>>953789
If you want to step it up you can play Unlimited Saga.

If you haven't played the old Gameboy SaGa games they are a good warm up for SaGa Frontier since it has VERY similar race growth as Final Fantasy Legend II.

>>953801
Minstrel song also has a god-tier soundtrack
>dat battle with death song
>mfw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tyuzYoIDUg

>>953801
I've played both of those games. To be honest i didn't liked unlimited saga, but it's interesting.
I'm aware of the differences of races, tech learning and magic system in SaGa frontier, what really confuses me is the story. At least in RS3 you have an intro telling you ths story of the death eclipse.

>>953808
Which route are you doing, or have tried attempting?

>>953806
I preffer wicked melody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xUfROU0Mt0
I think Most of the sountrack would have sound better without all those guitar riffs.

>>953814
I'm doing Lute's right now.

>>953816
Well you are doing Lute, that is the reason. You have the starting text, the text to leave Yorktown, then the text to initiate the final dungeon. He is the least story driven and most vague route of them all.

I also like Passionate Rhythm the most. You just can't escape the guitar riffs if it is Kenji Ito. It just goes well with his blood pumping music. Hell, even Four Noble Demons was redone by him and it uses tons of guitar.

>>953818
Wasn't he doing the soundtrack with some other guy? I still think that the the electric guitars sound kind of off. Ito has more of a melancholic style like in this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zug_ISVWXPw

>>953824
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zug_ISVWXPw
I think that is more due to the SNES sound chip. I mean listen to this from the Gameboy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSr9dOZ894E

It is very sharp and would be a nice rocking song. I'd even like to hear him redo Battle 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cUANeTM6FU

>>953828
The song from the last boss of FFL2 sounds really melancholic i don't know if it would sound good with guitars, however in battle 5 the music has a really aggresive drum line, it would fit perfectly. I really like that song.

What i really meant with the music RS:MS was that i like the original versions of the SNES songs better since i know the music of that game. It's a matter of opinion i think.

Since this is basically a SaGa general now, I hope I can discuss RS2 a bit here too. I've heard that despite the eagerness of translators, the main reason why it isn't in english yet is that it's coded in some fucked up way that the text codes somehow have influence on the gameplay portion. Wouldn't it be possible then to just include the english text as some sort of "subtitles" (additional code that'd superimpose an english text box over the japanese one) instead of plain rewriting the moonspeak?

>>953816
Who's your party for Lute? I just wrapped up the Rune Quest and am finding Engineer Car to be a godsend. Lute himself is pretty poor.

In terms of plot, I went back to York to see Thunder, talked to Fuse about Mondo in Manhattan and that's about it for unique dialogue so far. Even by SF standards it's a lot of nothing.

>>953632
Its worth mentioning that T260 is basically a giant ship AI of her own, trap in a mec body. She basically exist just to shut that battle ship down.

>>953927
I would LOVE to play that game if only the story line is translated.

>>953768
If you know what to absorb and what not, Monsters can be as strong as your other party member. I wouldn't say that mec are easily abuse. They are 2nd best race in term of power but the holder for the best race is the human race.

>>953974
I can definitely believe that humans are better, it's just that if I want Rogue to be great I have to build up skill proficiency and drag him around until his HP builds a bit. If I recruit T260 at the very start of the game all I have to do is throw gear on him (jackets on top of jackets, guns strapped to his guns, knives on his feet) and I've got an MVP for the next two hours.

Monsters don't have anything like Deflect do they? Deflect is so useful.

>>953837
Well the final boss was done by Nobuo Uematsu. He did the entire first SaGa games sound track and him and Kenji Ito did the second ones. After that it was another guy for SaGa 3 and then Kenji Ito was back for the Romancing SaGa games.

>>953951
Engineer Car is possibly the second best robot in the game behind T260. Dat plural slash.

>>954614
>Engineer Car is possibly the second best robot in the game behind T260. Dat plural slash.

my favorite robot is the one that tags along in Reds story.

>>956168
Its innate laser attack is pretty good. Also I was stuck on T260's route for the longest time because I had T260 in another robot body and the doctor wouldn't acknowledge me to progress the story.

Gentlemen, a general question.

I'm new to the series. Question: will I better enjoy the games if I read up on mechanics or should I slowly get an understanding myself through gameplay? I'm not interested in breezing through the game, but is SaGa kind of like Vagrant Story in that you can beat it and still have no idea about anything (which does impact enjoyability in VS), or is it ok to not quite understand a lot of what's going on in, say, Romancing SaGa 3?

>>956515
Read the instruction manual, but seeing how you are starting with Romancing SaGa 3 you don't get that luxury.

I ALWAYS read the game manual in a SaGa game because often times it does throw in new mechanics and it is worth reading what they say about it. Though things that they may intentionally leave out or are vague just leave it as is and experiment and learn on your own from there.

The games would be harder if you don't at least read the manual.

>>956515

>>956515
I'd do some googling, if only to find out about the most notorious pratfall opportunities available.

>>956515
No need for a manual or something, but make sure you have a walkthrough handy for a few of those annoying as fuck areas like the Asellus intro.

>>956893
What? A walkthrough?

>>956893
While somewhat annoying, I managed to get through it because you just eventually explore everything all the time.

>>956912
Yes, a walkthrough. So when you get stuck in one place for an hour wondering where the next quest progression trigger character is located, instead of quitting in frustration you can just look that shit up.

You know what this topic needs? MORE ROBOTS!

>>961341
I like ZEKE. It seem to be the only member of any RPG that is a speedie airplane.

>>961341
They have always been my favorite race.

So I got this yesterday (or two days ago being in eastern time zone)...

>>926089
Don't feel bad. We lived right on the edge of a collapsed industrial district, I was probably having better adventures than you. I'd read the guides and then spend time in the factory ruins pretending I was the game heroes and setting up 'levels'. N64 Zelda games were the best because there were puzzles with crates and holy shit did I have a lot of crates to play with. Which is now why I have a lot of scarring on my legs from falling through rotting wooden pallets while wearing shorts on multiple occasions. Those generic brown boots someone in your party is inevitably wearing in just about every game? Shin savers, I'm telling you.

>>926519
I went ahead and ordered it last week along with 2, and I'm eagerly anticipating the arrival. I hadn't thought about the game in years, I wonder how much will be familiar from the parts of the guide I can remember.

>>961917
Good luck. Which route do you think you'll tackle first?

>>962173
Hopefully some amount, but not all of it because trying to find your way through is one of the fun parts of the series. Though because of that it isn't for everyone because most people do like much more guidance (that isn't a bad thing).

>>962173
This is awesome. When I was little and not allowed a games machine I used to view kids who had them as the owners of arcane knowledge and later bought a playstation entirely on the strength of the FF7 guide (bought into school, handed around the desks) having looked like magic.

>>961341
Spriggan. Motherfucking Spriggan. The classic mecha unveiling (pan up, bursting restraints, lighting screens). The enormous guns. Buster beams. The way when you down it the bastard leans back and fires this enormous shot which you half think is going to end you until the brain registers that it's off target and you've won. Really glad I tried SF now.

>>962208
The one with a cute lesbian obviously.

>>962208
>people do like much more guidance.

These people who want to be guided don't know what they are missing out on. When playing video games, its trial and error or NOTHING!

>people do like much more guidance.

These people who want to be guided don't know what they are missing out on. When playing video games, its trial and error or NOTHING!

>>962721
That was a pretty awesome boss. I also like Red's boss because of how it opens up at the start of the fight. T260's fight constantly changes, well hell that is pretty much for every character as you saw with that Mondo cool Spriggan fight.

>>962748
Good luck with the assassins.

>>963012
Well when SaGa does a game without guidance it does so on the EXTREME end which I can see why it could turn people off. I personally love it.

>>961797
That chasis is fun, but I wish it was practical for T260. I can't get the AT rockets to hit and the stats are feeble, it's just so tempting to use on account of the sleek look and ability to alpha strike feeble mobs.

The multiple bodies is a great example of stuff that's awesome in this game, makes it stand out, and simultaneously much less necessary than excluded shit as well as potentially messing with player progression when you have to meet Leonard.

>>966784
Well the Omega body is fairly good, even though I like the original body much more. COSMIC RAVE.

>>953927
I wish they could do something like that. The premise of Romancing SaGa 2 is just great. Though it could be a bit more intrusive.

>>969761
The special laser on the Omega body is a godsend for the final dungeon, and of course it shares with the Zeke-type the vitally important asset of tilting on the move. That final boss though... the chapel mode is just insane.

I've moved on to Blue and quite like how his occasional unique dialogue makes him out to be a total prick. Kind of struggling with recruits though. I keep on picking up the same few characters early on and leaning on them. It's way to easy to just use Gen over and over,

>>966784
Its not everyday that you get to play as a superhero that has a theme of his own in an RPG.

>>972364
Yeah, I think it was intended that Blue is the evil brother considering he abandon the people when the monster ate the ship, didn't help Red when his ship is attack by pirates, and willing to make the orphans into homeless just to get the gift of Space Magic.

For me, I always get Lute, considering he seem to be in every story in the game.

>>961341
I'll scan this page better some day, Snowman the Killer deserves better.

>>972364
Blue's scenario is my favorite because I can get my favorite team in a manner of seconds, he has a lot of fun characters available right away.

You can start the rune and tarot quests and grab Roufas at the ruins in Shrike right away. Likewise you can go to IRPO and kidnap Fuse by just leaving the mountains with your region map.

Dr. Nusakan is also instantly available by hearing about him and just chatting him up, no need to do the rune quest at that time either. I just top it off by uying Fuse/Roufas light magic and jumping into the shadow realm to recruit Silence. This way I have an entire team I'm ready to use for the rest of the game without sacrificing anyone's chance at getting a magic gift. Plus I just love all these characters so it's my favorite route.

>>974605
This is the thing about playing the game by touch - I have no idea who Nusakan is! I've been doing Arcane/Light, but I grabbed Roufas anyway. I'm nervous about porting out of the Shield quest (could I get back?) so I'm going to have to beat Suzaku to get Fuse, but by then he'll be well behind the team.

>>974591
Thanks for the robot images. I almost forgot about the snowman killa! Never again!

>>974605
I never knew Dr. Nusakan was a playable character, but I could have forgotten getting him in Asellus' route as well.

>>977256
I would say he is one of the best Mystic in the game, due to the fact he lack a mystic armor. I brought him in Riki's story to the very end.

>>977597
Right, so he's that guy in the creepy house! I just got him and solved the Suzaku problem in one Death spell. Problem is then I found Kylin, who has a styling house, but proceeded to destroy my entire party from full health in one move. The upside of knowing where to go is obvious, the downside is you don't wind up accidentally levelling up, and clearly my only way to win is grinding 100+ HP onto everyone.

>>978273
>Right, so he's that guy in the creepy house!
Yep.

>>977256
I think Nusakan is only recruitable with Blue and Riki. He pretty much freaks the fuck out of every other character so they don't even bother.

>>941878

>>978628

I also have the saga frontier strategy guide if anyone wants anything scanned,

>>978273
>Right, so he's that guy in the creepy house!
Pretty much. Lore has it that Nusakan could be a Mystic Noble, but he rather be a doctor, experimenting on people due to the fact that disease and illness fascinate him.

>>978628
>>978650
>>978853
Oh god, this is something my youth would fucking enjoy while playing this great game.

I started up a new game of Red. Still in the Cygnus intro but when its time to explore.
I'm going to use the robots BJ&k,and t260g with the Mystic Silence.
For the 5th member. I am not sure yet. I always liked the character Doll that you find in Red's storyline, but There are still so many good choices.
Than again i could always just switch out the 5th member for funs.

>>981782
I found that i can not recruit T260.

My new party team up is
~mechs; Bj&K, Engineer Car, Rabbit
~monster; Cotton
~mystic; Silence

For Humans. Right now i have Rogue training for guns and any other human will probably be switched out on a whim.

>>982079
I remember in my last gameplay with Red, I have him with all the IRPO members of the game. It turn out quite well, even with Cotton being a unicorn.

>>981782
I think T260G can only be recruited in three scenarios.

>>982568
Cotton is a fed? WTF are these irpos thinking? Live on a different planet to all the criminals, lock people up in funhouse prisons, hang out all day in Manhatten restaurants, acquire flowers, recruit hamsters.

>>983317
You cannot fathom how hard it is to get enough evidence to lock people up. That is where Cotton comes in.

>>982079
I played the game like a mad man yesterday and now at the last mission with Red.
I'm going in with my robots and its time to tear shit up.

I know im excited.
I set up the robot Rabbit with the sword Asura. just for the fun

>>985480
Yeah Red's scenario is pretty cool, especially when certain places blow up and you just see a massive crater in the middle of the map.

>>926002
*hugs*

>>978853
Nostalgia'd hard.

I love this game so much if only because of all the potential it had. Yes, it was aggravating in all the ways it was "unbalanced", but fuck did it have potential.

>>985705
I love the game even if its in the incompleted form that it is now. If the game was ever revisited, I just hope its the person that made those plan that finish the game and nobody else.

>>985861
Personally I'd play a remake by anyone decent. A bit of sanity here and there would be OK. I'm not sure the original designer could go back to the project without gratuitously adding in even more bugbears.

On my first Blue run I just snuck by Kylin and was caught off when the game teleported me straight to Rouge. Amazing fight. Fell well behind, tried a skill I'd never used before (light sword) and survived by the skin of my teeth. Really had that throwing everything at a problem feeling. The first time he Respira'd was a headfuck.

>>986627
I wouldn't want anyone but Kawazu behind such a remake, or a SaGa game in general. Anything that is "sane" means predictable, run of the mill, something that can be seen all over in all the other JRPG's. People who play/like the SaGa series play it because a lot of its game mechanics aren't the norm.

Kawazu also made my favorite JRPG and it also just happens to be a remake of a SNES game, Romancing SaGa. To remove him from a SaGa game is to remove the very essence of what the SaGa games are. It can easily be seen in Final Fantasy Legend III which is the only SaGa game not made by Kawazu.

>>978853
I jerked off to the art of Annie so many times.

>>985705
Now only if they had the time, and money. Final Fantasy brings in the money for the other projects so I can't complain too much. Even when SaGa Frontier is an incomplete game I have much more fun with it than many other games.

>>981782
im so sad that BJ&k has no real art for it. I'm thinking of doing some fanart of it myself. I will post when im done.
im going to do my best interpretation of what it looks like

>>978628
>>978650
>>978853

>>990309

A new image for the robot king!

A lot of people here seem to forget that most people used to rent a game before buying it. Sometimes you could play a friend's copy but do you think that was an option with saga frontier? Fuck no, all of 4 people owned this game and none of my friends were among them.

I rented it so of course there was no booklet. The internet wasn't a viable option because it was still the 90s.

I remember the game as a jumbled, unfinished mess that showed potential. It worked well as a concept but not a complete game.

>>991132
>Sometimes you could play a friend's copy but do you think that was an option with saga frontier?
That is how I played it. It was in the jewel case of Bushido Blade so you know there was no booklet for it.

How was it a jumbled unfinished mess, because I always find that amusing when people say that and I find this unfinished jumbled mess much better than the bulk of the JRPG's I've played.

I love SaGa Frontier.
Gonna plug my shitty lets play of it here:
http://youtu.be/ZV_DuJFYB8c


I fucking love SaGa Frontier.
I own both the data books, too.

People probably say the game is shitty/a mess is because it lacks a lot of direction. It doesn't teach its player much at all.

>>993169
I just realized that the Octopus is called 'Taco' as a joke off of the japanese 'Tako'.

Holy shit a SaGa Frontier thread. This was one of my favorite RPGs of all time.

>>953927
My understanding from the latest status of the RS2 project was that the actual coding portion was finished and they were just looking for script translators. I'm a moon interpreter myself and have wanted to offer up a translation for RS2, but whoever originally worked on the hack no longer seems to exist on the internet and the last status on the game was from eons ago. I have also considered doing a better translation of RS3, since the most popular one out there is pretty bad in a lot of places.

If anyone knows anyone involved with the original RS2 project or would be willing to start fresh, I'm willing to do a full script.

>>985480

Now im on Riki's storyline. I have t260 and engineer car by my side so i know everything will turn out well.
Rogue with guns and Gen on swords. This rune quest challenge won't even have a chance.

Is this the game where you start with two storylines and one of them you're stuck in a hidden room?
I remember playing a game that i described on playstation when i was a kid .
Us it thus one?

>>996347
Frontier has seven different starting characters.

>>996389
I was a kid when i played the game I'm talking about but i remember two.
One was a group of people going underground and you can pick up other people but there optional and the other was like a kid then you get stick in a castle.

>>996407
This sounds vaguely like SaGa Frontier 2. The game doesn't start out that way right off the bat, but the story does branch between multiple main characters pretty early.

>>996341
I hope you are liking the endings to some of the routes, either leaving things up to interpretation to just giving you a big fuck you.

It was refreshing to me, though of course T260 had a very heart warming end returning to his commander.

>>996341
At least make Riki useful and turn him into Dragon or a Unicorn. Remember to give him the hide ring when the time comes to hide from LP damaging.

>>997046
I'm also playing Riki and have been having fairly good luck with a Shrieker - tough enough for all his mini-quests and lots of killy. My default monster improving trick is just to go to the Biolab and wait till something gets good (Zeroworm/Chimera ahoy)

>>996341
Man, I hope you didn't make the mistake I did, which led to me losing my main brawler at the start of the final boss fight.

Oh my god, that fucking sucked.

>>997814
It isn't fun unless you make that mistake when the time comes.

>>997265
Yeah I tend to get the chimera transformation most of the time when I didn't know what skills transformed into what. I ended up with a Zenoworm monster for the end game though.

>>997046
>Riki
>Disguises himself as a real boy to blend in with the locals despite monsters already coexisting with others
>Transforms into some other monster within the first 5 minutes of the game, continues to be a monster until the end
What was the point to this?

>>1000501
The point was not having to create map sprites for every possible monster form.

>>1000601
But there were already sprites for his normal monster form.