/Sa·Ga/ Thread

[Anonymous No.2165587]

Legend of Hannibal Edition

>What is SaGa?
It's a Jrpg series produced by Akitoshi Kawazu back in the early Final Fantasy days, however it differs from most other Jrpg series by being more Wrpg oriented, it's non-linear, with multiple main characters, multiple endings and very unusual mechanics based on classic Tabletop RPGs
>What are the games?
The first SaGa games are known in the west as Final Fantasy Legends, so chances are you played those in your childhood on ye olde brick GB, then there is the Romancing SaGa trilogy on the SNES, the two SaGa Frontier titles on the PS One and Minstrel Song(a remake of the first Romancing SaGa) and Unlimited: Saga on the PS2.
>What are the games I can play in English
All the FFL titles were localized, same with the PS One and PS2 titles, there is also an english patch for Romancing SaGa 3 but unfortunately the first two titles are still in Japanese only, though there are already translation projects in the works.
>Gimme some links dammit!
http://pastebin.com/EkhdyL8p
Romancing SaGa 3 Patch FAQ
http://pastebin.com/QeD1BR5q
FAQ for people new to the series
http://pastebin.com/kRbSg6PG

[Anonymous No.2166672]

Here's a bump. Also, after i finish Grandia 2 I'll probably play a SaGa Frontier game, since I own them and never played them. Should I start with 1 or 2? From what I read on last thread 2 was more streamlined.

[Anonymous No.2166820]

>>2166672

SF1 is amazing but unfortunately it was obviously rushed. A few of the quests seem incomplete, and we straight up lost one of the quests entirely. I wouldn't recommend 100% completing it since it would involve replaying so much rehashed content (again, possibly a product of the obvious rush job it got), finish Red / Asellus / Emelia / Blue / T260 and call it a day, IMO

[Anonymous No.2166883]

I really wish the SNES games were translated. Just another thing to play once I learn moon, right? I always loved SF1 but never played it too deeply, and I was enjoying what I played of RS on the PS2, but again never got to beat it with any of the characters.

While they're pretty overwhelming at first, I find them to be an excellent breath of fresh air. They really stand out as being different, even if their settings aren't super crazy.

[Anonymous No.2166941]

>>2166883
Well, RS3 was fan translated last I checked, and RS1 at least saw its PS2 remake localized rather than having it left overseas again, the way the SNES original was. Unfortunately, while RS2 does have a fan translation in the works, progress was pretty slow last I checked (especially since Aeon Genesis has over 30 "active" projects they're doing) and they've been having some technical issues with it, or something.

Still a shame the SNES originals weren't brought west to begin with though.

[Anonymous No.2166981]

>>2166672
what I hate from sagafro 2 is how linear it is and how short-lived a lot of the characters are.

[Anonymous No.2167009]

>>2166941
>>2166883
http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,18590.0.html
RS1's current translation project is close enough to completion that you could play through it without any issues.

[Anonymous No.2167528]

>>2166672
Start with SaGaFro and then go to SaGaFro 2, they're very different games but SaGaFro is best suited for beginners and trains you well enough to the typical SaGa pace and gameplay.
>>2166883
As long as you know some basic Jap and have a good dictionary you can play those just fine, the first Romancing SaGa has a bit more dialogue than the second one but it's still easy to understand.

By the way, I remind you guys that Retranslation Bro is working on RomaSaGa 3 so you'll have something good to wait for.
>>2166981
Wait till you see the Ultimania book and see how much content was cut and how bizarre the translation was.
There were tons of cities that never made it in the game, character chapters and lore too.

[Anonymous No.2167934]

Shameless Rocbumpquet.

[Anonymous No.2167961]

>>2166981
>how short-lived a lot of the characters are
literally
I also hate that thing, though maybe for a different reason. I liked to train characters (getting them skills, gaining stats), so SaGaFro 2 really pulls my boots in how easily they take away my efforts.

[Anonymous No.2168453]

http://kotaku.com/its-2015-and-theres-a-new-psp-game-coming-out-next-week-1678303723?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

[Anonymous No.2168460]

>SaGaFro
>RomaSaGa

Stop that.

[Anonymous No.2168660]

>>2166820
>>2167528
Which character should I start with in Frontier 1? I've never played a SaGa game before.

[Anonymous No.2168714]

>>2168660
IIRC, Emelia, Red and T260 are good.

Not great are Lute, Riki, and Asellus (who has some very strange plot progression triggers)

[Anonymous No.2169256]

>>2168460
No
>>2168660
Emelia is very nice for starters as you get a really good starting pool of characters and nothing really out of the ordinary.
Red is nice too but some mechanics of his quest can be a little tricky to exploit properly and he has a few parts of his quest that are harder than Emelia's.
T260G is focused on mechs and you'll have to understand how they work and some of the quests bosses can be tricky.
Blue is also very good for beginners as his quest is really simple and he's a real good main character in the sense that he's the only one who can use all magic schools, he'll also let you learn how magic works so you'll be able to make mad exploits later.
Asellus, as>>2168714 says has weird plot triggers that might caught you unprepared and due to being a quest focused on Mystics you'll need to learn to use them and magic well even though she's another member of the SaGaFro Monster trio.
Riki's quest focuses on monsters and monsters are really hard to use well so leave that for last.
Lute quest is utter crap but it's very easy except for the fact that you can be locked in the final dungeon after literally 5 minutes if you don't know what you're doing and that WILL force you to reset his game.

[Anonymous No.2169263]

>>2169256
>SaGa 2 getting way more votes compared to their brethren (1 and 3)
What's the deal with that one? I've only played SaGa 3 (gameboy version as FFL3).

[Anonymous No.2169268]

>>2169263
Most people consider it the best of the GB trilogy because it is more polished than 1 and SaGa 3 kinda made a few steps back in the FF direction regarding mechanics.

Truth to be told I too think it's the overall best title in the series even though I preferred SaGa 1 bosses and SaGa 3 polish, SaGa 2 also has a fucking awesome soundtrack.

[Anonymous No.2169280]

>>2168660
Blue because you're forced to learn how the magic quests work and you get the best party members. Red is also okay because his scenario is really linear. Also, disregard the person that said not to play everyone, but definitely play Lute's story somewhere in between the good ones since his is really short and basically just do side-quests and dungeons to be able to beat the final boss. Riki's is the other weak one, but his is nowhere near as bad as Lute's, plus that Ring Master fight is pretty cool if you know how the game works. Might want to leave his scenario for second to last.

[Anonymous No.2169292]

>>2169256
Let me add onto this guy's post. Each scenario gives each main character their own gimmick.

Blue: Life Magic plus opposing schools

Asellus: Unique Half-Mystic race that combines Human tech learning with Mystic Weapons through her Mystic Transformation

Riki: The Rings of Power

Red: ALKAISER

T260G: She gets multiple chassis that she can change into, plus a type that no other mech character has. Plus you can make an all mech team, which is pretty damn rad.

Emelia: Each costume that you unlock after the mission in which it debuts changes her likelihood of learning certain techs and spells, like her Pink Tiger costume being great for learning Fist Techs.

Lute: Even though he is the main character, he can be moved out of the main party lol. Also, his stat growths are pretty bad, but he does learn techs, especially sword techs, decently.

Keep in mind that each character does have party members unique to their scenarios, especially Red and T260G.

[Anonymous No.2169309]

>>2169292
difficulty scale:
1.Riki
2.Asellus
3.Red
4.T260G
5:Emelia
6.Blue
?.Lute

Lute's quest is basically intro>open world>go to the last dungeon so the difficulty is variable based on how much you prepare.

[Anonymous No.2169737]

Slow thread

Post Cat

[Anonymous No.2170438]

In Romancing SaGa Minsrel Song, what the heck do I do as Albert after finishing his intro? It's the first character I picked, so I don't know what I should really do in this game besides avoid battles and do quests, but I don't want to just wander around until things happen. Is that really all I'm supposed to do? Also, who are the best character in Minstrel Song?

[Anonymous No.2170443]

>>2170438

[Anonymous No.2170494]

>>2170438
This is going to be a shock since most people always encourage players to "skip battles" in MS...

But if you actually fight battles, you probably won't have to wait around for things to trigger.

Sure, you might MISS some quests through lock-out windows, but the game doesn't really require you to power-game that much anyway.

As long as you don't spend like 2 hours just randomly battling stuff without completing any quests, the game won't scale beyond you or anything.

[Anonymous No.2171897]

Anyone have a manual or a good guide for SaGa Frontier 1? I found the manual for Saga 2.

http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.1193

[Anonymous No.2172087]

>>2170438
Guella Ha due to the fact he's a talking lizard.

[Anonymous No.2174068]

Bump

[Anonymous No.2174882]

>>2170438
By finishing his intro I suppose you're already with Sif.
In that case you can go meet Neidhart and continue his main quest a bit though I would personally suggest you do other quests so you can get some good money, items and characters.
There are various links for good FAQs in the Pastebin, look it up.
>Also, who are the best character in Minstrel Song?
Hard to say but there are a few that shine in some way.
Barbara is probably the most balanced protagonist, good LP, great growth and Spark rate, she's also fairly easy to get, Hawke and Sif are solid fighters with great physical ratings, Guella Ha is really good with lances and martial arts, plus he's a fucking kung fu lizard, Galahad is pretty solid, Miriam is probably the only pure Mage you can get easily.
For advanced character, well, most of them are very good but require a bit of skill to use, Captain Silver is probably the best physical attacker in the game, her class is extremely good but she has the lowest LP in the game, making her risky to use against some powerful bosses and she comes late in the game, Darque/Aldora is very good all around but he/she is only available in new game+, Neidhart is very solid all around but locks you out of 10 fatestone Saruin if you're looking for a challenge.

All in all, it's hard to say who's best, the most important thing should be building a party that works harmoniously, it's totally possible to beat the game with third rate character like Herman or Patrick too so don't worry too much.

[Anonymous No.2175414]

>>2169309
Asellus is pretty easy since you can level her like normal and have monsters give her bonus stats. Only really hard if you dick yourself into one of her last random bosses while still being weak.

>>2170438
Sif and Guella Ha are always good. You can work with pretty much anyone though, but the other main characters tend to be solid choices.

[Anonymous No.2177138]

One post a day keeps the 404 away.

[Anonymous No.2177251]

>>2165587
i have FFL 2 and 3, i just can't get into them though and i love the SaGa series which started with RS3 and SF1.

[Anonymous No.2178734]

>>2177251
I don't blame you, they're very archaic, if you haven't played them as a child it's very difficult to get into them, actually most of my friends couldn't get into them either when we were kids.
You can try the DS remakes though, while they add new mechanics from the latest titles they still keep the core features of the original games, the music is fucking awesome though the remade soundtrack has some highs and lows, I still think the original was better.

[Anonymous No.2180478]

Late night bump before thread LP reaches 0

[Anonymous No.2180663]

Looks like there aren't many SaGa players around lately, a shame.

[Anonymous No.2181905]

Honestly you don't need to skip battles in SaGa games, you just have to avoid grinding which would be staying in one area to continually kill enemies over and over again. The battle rank system isn't that punishing.

[Anonymous No.2181947]

>>2174882
I think you can get neidhart for 10 FS saruin if you give the aquamarine to a party member and kick them out before you recruit him or something

I might be wrong

[Anonymous No.2181973]

>>2181905
In early MinSon you should stay the hell away from monsters if you're not Barbara and want to get the low EP missions, but yes, there's no need to skip battles in the rest of the games.
>>2181947
Neidhart can only be recruited if you have the Aquamarine with you once you go to see him, he gets it in the cutscene you trigger once you enter the hall and there's no way to get it back.

[Anonymous No.2182012]

>>2181973
whatever dragon knight's better than him anyway

he's such a cunt

[Anonymous No.2182039]

Translation of the famitsu interview http://www.siliconera.com/2014/12/22/saga-2015-playstation-vita-will-multiple-protagonists/

[Anonymous No.2182046]

>>2182039
>The world setting is close to Romancing SaGa, so if you look at it that way, you could say that it’s like Romancing SaGa 4

It's confirmed, Kawazu will die after they realease this.

[Anonymous No.2182048]

>>2182039
http://www.siliconera.com/2015/01/05/saga-2015s-battle-system-will-different-past-saga-games/
Forgot to link this too. hopefully the new mechanics won't cause a flop like unlimited

[Anonymous No.2182056]

>>2182048
>hopefully the new mechanics won't cause a flop like unlimited

> “SaGa 2015 will have all kinds of battle elements. I believe that elements that were used in SaGa such as ‘battle formation,’ ‘cooperation,’ and ‘flash’ will not be a point of focus this time around.”

This doesn't bode well, but let's see what happens.

[Anonymous No.2183323]

Is it just me or do techs spark much easier in SaGa Frontier 1 compared to SaGa Frontier 2?

I don't even mind losing the duel system as an easy way to get new skills.

[Anonymous No.2184874]

>>2183323
Yeah it is.

[Anonymous No.2185287]

>>2183323
I haven't played SaGa Frontier 2, but characters in SaGa Frontier have a hidden stat where if they have a talent in learning a specific tech which raises their chance in learning, and some characters have talent in alot of techs and are better at learning than others.

[Anonymous No.2186862]

>>2183323
never played SF2. i'm turned off by the artstyle and linear plot. but what >>2185287 said.
e.g. blogue has lots of talent in swords and fighting techs, while annie has very limited sword talent(her talent tree is in all the smash related sword techs, and some throwing fighting techs).

for magic and gun techs though, all humans and mystics have a relatively high chance of learning a new spell even without talent because of the way magic/gun techs are learnt in the code. and yet again blogue is the best in magic talent

[Anonymous No.2187036]

>>2186862
>blogue
Who? You mean Blue?

[Anonymous No.2187056]

>>2187036
Blue and Rouge have the same stats, so it's easier to combine the names.

[Anonymous No.2187067]

>>2187036
Blue/Rouge
This is probably common knowledge but you can throw the fight against Rouge in Blue's game to become Rouge

[Anonymous No.2187092]

>>2187056
>That bigass Gerard.
Based

[Anonymous No.2187102]

The picture's great but the original's file size was too big to upload http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=47703349

[Anonymous No.2187131]

>>2187102
Kinda surprised about Firebringer being there, he has a balling design though.

I'm very curious about how the new SaGa is going to play, since Sparking and formations aren't gonna be part of the main focus it can only mean Kawazu is cooking something brand new this time.

I'm also following the Legend of Legacy news, those FuRyu guys seems really cool, not to mention a lot of them were part of the Teams that worked on the SaGa series and the game shows. I hate to say this but it really seems to be a very promising SaGa clone, there's even Hamauzu and Kobayashi working on the game so I don't even know if one can call it anything else than that.

[Anonymous No.2187253]

>>2187131
Legend of Legacy does seem interesting with it's focus on formation and awakenings. Although I prefer it if there was a larger cast of playable characters other than seven characters and more towns other than Initium. Hopefully I'm wrong and there's more and/or that the setting and characters are really in-depth and complex.

[Anonymous No.2187324]

>>2187253
As far as I'm concerned, as long as the battle system is good it's already ok.
Anyway, it will be out in a few days so we'll know whether it will be worth playing.

[Anonymous No.2189086]

>Thread almost on bottom page

I can't accept this, so I'll post a criminally underrated SaGa girl

[Anonymous No.2189171]

Huh, so I noticed this thread for a while and its come to my attention that I have FFL 1-3 in my collection, I thought there was somthing odd about them since they were the only final fantasy games I didn't fucking hate, go figure.

[Anonymous No.2190639]

>>2189171
SaGa is Final Fantasy done right

[Anonymous No.2190664]

>>2189171
>I have FFL 1-3 in my collection, I thought there was somthing odd about them since they were the only final fantasy games I didn't fucking hate, go figure.

I have the same sentiment. In my case, I think it has something to do with the down-to-earth character and weapon designs, customization, minimal melodrama, and plots that aren't over-dramatic.

[Anonymous No.2190686]

>>2190664
>down-to-earth character and weapon designs
>minimal melodrama
>plots that aren't over-dramatic


SaGa 3 alone starts off with three orphaned teenagers (who can transform into cartoon monster-men and robots, as well as being loaded with an arsenal of swords, firearms, and eventually nuclear weapons) on a quest to use a time-traveling space bomber to save the multiverse from a giant water jug and defeat the Lovecraftian horrors who live inside it.

All while this song plays every two seconds to denote some random tragedy of a twist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI2-atMBx_8

Christ, man, this wacky shit is why I fell in love with the games as a kid in the first place.

[Anonymous No.2190706]

>>2190664
as>>2190686 says, SaGa is not down to earth at all in terms of design, and it's not like there's not drama, it's just that the series as a whole doesn't waste time on pointless dialogue for hours like a lot of other games used to.
The truth behing most of the things in the games it's usually very dramatic, like the Talon in SaGa III, but it's not like making pages and pages of dialogues about it makes it more dramatic.
Not to mention the music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zICpWwRU6I

If anything, FF is the series that became too down to earth in terms of character and weapon design, from having David Bowie, a fucking almighty evil tree wizard clad in armor, aliens and clowns to super soldiers and generic wizards.

[Anonymous No.2192190]

So I've played both FFL1/2, however, I haven't really played anything else. Do I move on to FFL3, play the remake of FFL2, or do another game all together? I'm just curious since I really loved FFL1/2.

[Anonymous No.2192289]

>>2192190

FFL3 is great, though some people don't like it as much because it's a little different. The remake is one of my favorite remakes ever, though the character designs are a little too animu for me. I'd move onto three for now and save the remake for when you've forgotten stuff down the line.

[Anonymous No.2192474]

>>2192190
Play FFL3, it's more on the FF side instead of SaGa, but it's fun.

[Anonymous No.2192626]

I'm trying out Frontier 1, this is my first time playing a SaGa game. Starting with Red's story, is it just this character's story or is the english translation all over the place?

[Anonymous No.2192636]

>>2192626
The translation is pretty crappy sometimes, not Working Design level but still not that good.

What's wrong with it? Bear in mind that with a few exceptions there's not much text in SaGa to begin with and most of the flavour stuff is lost in translation.

[Anonymous No.2192639]

>>2192636
I can deal with it, it's just that it was immediately noticeable and I wanted to know if it's just the case with this one character's story or if it's the entire game.

[Anonymous No.2192807]

>>2192626
Good choice. How are you finding the game?

[Anonymous No.2192846]

>>2192289
>>2192474
Alright, the only thing is I'm going to be playing on my phone since it's really the only device I have at the moment that can play games. I most likely won't be able to hear the music unless I go out of my way, is the music in this game worth it friends?

[Anonymous No.2192881]

>>2192639
Red's story was sort of confusing but it was fun regardless. Don't worry too much about the story of this game because it's sort of all over the place but it's not that bad most of the time. You have to keep in mind that this game has a ton of cut content, so it's going to feel like stuff is missing because it probably is.

[Anonymous No.2193174]

>>2192639
*Just me being an idiot, it wasn't really anything to do with the translation and more me not bothering to adjust my emulator settings, text occasionally overlapped and I assumed it was just a bad translation thing

>>2192807
I've only played it a little, not entirely sure what I'm doing beyond "find BlackX" and the battle system I'm still trying to understand but it's interesting trying to figure everything out.

Visually the 2D/3D mix is weird-looking. Not bad, just weird.

[Anonymous No.2193306]

>>2190686
>>2190706
Well, that was my first impression of those games. I think the developers working within the limitations of the gameboy hardware played a role too.

My impression of the FF series is that they try to overdo everything, from the characters, the monsters, the bosses, and the story. This is most noticeable in the later games. What they ended with are fruity-looking characters that look like drag queens/kings from a pride parade screaming for attention with their flamboyant looks and outfits, nonsensical weapons that are bigger than the characters themselves, monsters/bosses with over 9000 limbs, heads, and eyes, lame plots about villains with issues (they almost always have issues) trying to destroy the world for one reason or the other. Though the world destruction theme isn't uncommon, in FF they overdramatize it. When something is overdone, it produces the opposite effect.

[Anonymous No.2194072]

>>2193306
>What they ended with are fruity-looking characters that look like drag queens/kings from a pride parade screaming for attention with their flamboyant looks and outfits

Eh, not that SaGa is any different, it's much more flamboyant most of the times

> nonsensical weapons that are bigger than the characters themselves

Come on, that only happened a few times.

> monsters/bosses with over 9000 limbs, heads, and eyes

This is pretty common too.

>lame plots about villains with issues (they almost always have issues) trying to destroy the world for one reason or the other.

But to be a villain you have to have issues, otherwise it would be hard to justify the heroes' reasons to fight them.
And the first SaGa aren't really that different except maybe FFL/SaGa where you fight The Creator, Apollo was a huge dick for petty reasons.

You seriously need to play the other SaGa, Frontier alone will probably radically change your impression of the series with Toku heroes mixed up with science mages, cops and interdimensional monster boys, it's a fun ride though.

[Anonymous No.2194150]

>>2192846
>So I've played both FFL1/2, however, I haven't really played anything else. Do I move on to FFL3, play the remake of FFL2, or do another game all together? I'm just curious since I really loved FFL1/2.
The Talons theme is bad ass, same with Dions theme. I also enjoy the final boss theme as well. Not as great and Umeatsu and Ito, but still enjoyable.

>>2189171
I was confused for the longest time why Final Fantasy 7 was nothing like Final Fantasy Legend 1-3. It didn't make sense until well over a decade later I got SaGa Frontier from a friend. Had to look up the games after that and then I knew why.

>>2192190
Up to you, though I suggest SaGa Frontier since it has races like FFL1 and 2 while having a more open world like the Romancing SaGa games.

>>2192626
Good luck with that, you might have trouble when the Cygnus comes under attack, and until then Red's story is railroaded. If you find it a bit tough just play Emelia to get a better grasp of the mechanics through experiencing her play through since she can get various races.

[Anonymous No.2195792]

boomp

[Anonymous No.2197645]

bump mk II

[Anonymous No.2197654]

>>2197645
>Arsenal launched the smasher.
No other move made me shrink in horror.

[Anonymous No.2197674]

>>2197645
What's the story of this one? Is it a tie-in with the second Saga game for GB?

[Anonymous No.2197724]

>>2197674
It's rs3 hack that adds some stuff from other saga games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEfa12qx8rw&index=53&list=PLlyjSLv9ootL_85-ShNmqi9OmF_gHferr

[Anonymous No.2199350]

>>2197654
Fucking Arsenal man.
It also gets a pretty cool buildup in the story, not to mention that fucking music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRgNyPzVS3w

[Anonymous No.2199751]

So, out of curiosity I decided to make a Final Boss rush in Frontier.

I can safely say that Master Ring is gameplay wise the most dangerous final boss with Genocide Heart and Hell Lord being close seconds, Spriggan is nice but nothing special, Orlouge would have had potential if he didn't have such low HP, BlackX and Diva are kinda meh.

Seriously though, it's pretty depressing to see your lifesprinkler barely hit the 2000 mark against MasterRing...

[Anonymous No.2200164]

>>2199751
What's Space Cobra Lupin trying to do?

[Anonymous No.2201867]

>>2200164
He's just doing what every good cop would do.

[Anonymous No.2203674]

[Anonymous No.2203675]

>>2203674

[Anonymous No.2203691]

>>2203674
Sif looks angry.
Why is she angry?

[Anonymous No.2203715]

>>2194072
>monster boy
Rikki is a dirty furry. or rather a monster cosplaying as a dirty humie
>Also LGBT vampires, Gundam X WH40K X The Matrix, Charlie's Angels, literally LotR , and Bodacious Femdom SPACE PIRATES!
>tvtropes overload

[Anonymous No.2203754]

>>2203715
>Gundam
>Not Layzner

You're not /m/an enough, Anon.

[Anonymous No.2203846]

>Eh, I guess I'll make a Red run in Frontier
>Rune quest
>Go to the room with the two mimics
>Dis gon b gud
>Suddenly, Mec God
>mfw
>Oh, alright he hits hard at this level but it shouldn't be...
>How many goddamn HP does this thing still have
>Run out of TP and JP
>Ded

It's been a while since I've been raped this hard in Frontier, but this is probably a reminder to NEVER GIVE UP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ-MD-cQD50

[Anonymous No.2203862]

Does anyone know where I can find concept/art for the original character designs in Romancing SaGa 1 SNES? (Not the PS2 remake's design)

I've seen a couple and it's weird how they're so different.

[Anonymous No.2203867]

>>2203862
You can find them in card form in one of the links in the Pastebin.
I don't think anyone has fully scanned the game's artbooks, you can find some stuff on the SaGa Wiki and around the web but I don't know if there's more than that.

Somebody uploaded the Romancing SaGa 2 artbook on Sadpanda though.

[Anonymous No.2204664]

Link to Romancing SaGa 3's english patch? Is it 100%?

[Anonymous No.2205437]

>>2204664
>Is it 100%?
It is, but the quality is very low, there's a retranslation project going on though but you'll have to wait for that.
http://theisozone.com/downloads/other-consoles/snes/romancing-saga-3-english-translated/

[Anonymous No.2205952]

Minstrel Song or Unlimited?

[Anonymous No.2206010]

>>2205952
Minstrel by far.

[Anonymous No.2207149]

>>2205952
Unlimited if you think you're gud enough to handle it.
MinSon if you prefer a more classic third gen SaGa.
Both are good.

[Anonymous No.2207821]

>>2207149
Explain further?

[Anonymous No.2208857]

>>2165587
I love the saga games.

Currently playing through Romancing SaGa 3. Good stuff (chose to start off with Harid). My progress might be stalled though, seeing as my copy of Legend of Legacy just arrived (3ds game made by some old Square members including the directory of Romancing SaGa)

[Anonymous No.2209369]

>>2208857
Let us know how it stacks up to SaGa

[Anonymous No.2209603]

>>2209369
Will do. Supposedly the game was made with SaGa fans in mind so I have pretty high hopes for it.

However, gone is the LP system. Formation/Tactics and weapons skills are still in place though. The graphics/asthetics are very much in place and its a joy to look at.

[Anonymous No.2209604]

>>2209603
err i meant to type "are very neat". kind of started with an idea and trailed off there...

[Anonymous No.2209659]

After playing some Unlimited, I can see why people hate it.

No tutorials combined with reels to do everything is pretty annoying.

[Anonymous No.2209760]

>>2209659
I actually like the game. From my understanding the US version of the game had a shitty manual that really didnt explain the game very well.

I have the Japanese version of the game and I found the manual to be pretty comprehensive.

A friend of mine from the PAL region told me that the manual that came it also explains the game well.

[Anonymous No.2209784]

>>2209760
I'm tempted to just start over. Not very far into Ruby's story and from what I've gathered its really easy to mess yourself up permanently.

[Anonymous No.2210930]

anyone got a screenshot of SaGa Frontier running on an emulator with scanlines? how would this game look I wonder.

[Anonymous No.2210956]

>>2199751
mastering is pretty easy if you kill all it's summons except for one that you leave alive

cause you know

otherwise it'll use last revolution every single round

[Anonymous No.2211012]

>>2210930
This is using epsxe with the scanline brightness set at 150. The brightness is adjustable to 255.

[Anonymous No.2211058]

Anyone know of easy ways to win Magic Tablets in Unlimited? I want to get some more magic for my team but they haven't been dropping or showing up anywhere.

[Anonymous No.2211080]

>>2211012

>using silence

mah nigga

[Anonymous No.2211082]

>>2210956

Interesting thing about Master Ring is that if you use your rings during the battle, the appropriate ring monster you're facing gets a significant HP and stat boost (assuming you're not already facing their maxed forms).

[Anonymous No.2211812]

>>2211012
so epsxe is recommended for this game? I tried retroarch but I was never satisfied with the CRT shaders, but then again I wasn't so sure of what I was doing. To what degree should one be satisfied with the picture on an LCD with emulator when I have a proper PVM to compare it to?

[Anonymous No.2211816]

>>2211080
isn't silence one of the shit-tier mystic mail mystics

[Anonymous No.2211961]

>>2211816
He is. Bonus shit points for locking out recruiting early Mesarthim through Dr Nusukan for the 2 quests where's that relevant (doesn't lock out her recruitment through using Asellus for the other 2)

In Silence (minor) defense, he starts with all his Mystic weapons pre-absorbed with pretty decent stats, some of which actually have different stats than what they should be.

He's kind of a decent Jeigan I suppose for people who don't know how to use Monsters.

[Anonymous No.2212613]

>>2207821
Unlimited is pretty damn hard to get into because of the sheer amount of mechanics unique to that game, not to mention that the game is really hard and it's by far the easiest SaGa game in which you can permanently mess up your playthrough, it also requires a lot of dedication due to how hard it is to get good enough to survive certain boss battles, and by that I mean not only building your characters but actually understanding what the fuck you're doing. It's very deep and as an anon said a few threads ago, it's very arcane, the mechanics are deep and nothing is explained, even the booklet gives you info that is actually the worst way to play the game.
>>2211058
Some quests, especially Seven Wonders quests have a few monsters that have high Magic Tablets drop rates, combined with the fact that most of the times there's a Tetraforce nearby they're the best spots for Magic grind, if I'm not mistaken the early quest about Cavern Glyphs also has monsters capable of dropping Magic Tablets.
>>2211816
He is, but I personally can't resist of making the full IRPO team when I play as Red, coupled with the fact that you get also the full Gradius team always make me go back to it, loadsa fun.

[Anonymous No.2212680]

>>2212613
I think I might just do all of the sidequests for training up my team before I continue on with Laura's quest. I already have every character.

Also, how are you supposed to use Quick Fix?

[Anonymous No.2212683]

>>2212680
That is a good idea, though be careful with a few of them, some of the bosses can be incredibly nasty.
> how are you supposed to use Quick Fix?
From the Field Menu, go into Skill and then Quick Fix, I believe you can modify the reel by upping your DEX but I'm not sure, you might want to check it out.
Also, you can't Quick Fix something broken and I suggest you leave everything at at least 2/3 point so you don't have to risk breaking it with a bad reel turn.
I might be mistaken but quick fix could also reduce the maximum DP of objects if it fails.

I gotta go back to Unlimited, since I lost my save files for the PS2 a few months ago I've been kinda dissing it.

[Anonymous No.2212685]

>>2212683
I tried going into the skill menu and using Quick Fix but for some reason it was all greyed out.

[Anonymous No.2212687]

>>2212685
Weird, you don't have any status effects on your character do you?

[Anonymous No.2212689]

>>2212687
No

[Anonymous No.2212692]

>>2212689
Uh, I don't think I have any saves with Quick Fix available right now so I can't check personally.

Maybe your piece of equipment isn't under 20 DP? You can't Quick Fix anything unless it goes under 20 DP iirc.

[Anonymous No.2212694]

Currently going through SaGa Frontier 1. Should I give weapons to "supposedly" pure magic users like Blue? If yes, then what weapon fits best for magic users?

[Anonymous No.2212697]

>>2212694
Blue/Rouge are good with weapons but imho it's kind of a waste due to the fact that they are the only characters that can have all magic and use it to its full potential, keep in mind that most "pure" magic users are actually the mystics, not human characters and even that its debatable at the end of the day.
Generally though, it's a good idea to give guns to magic users since they help rising magic related stats, guns are also very good until mid game because they pack quite a punch and can combo really well with almost anything, Bound Shot and Cross Shot will be very useful in any situation and Two Guns really gives you a huge offensive boost.

[Anonymous No.2212706]

Quick Fix can only repair items up to 20, and it uses up turns when you do so, and in some missions this is a problem, because you can run out and fail

Reels only improve based on how high the level of the associated panel is

[Anonymous No.2212743]

Is there a faster way to grind money/stats in SF1? Holy shit.

[Anonymous No.2212746]

>>2212743
>grind money
Scrap Trick until you have neough dosh for Gold Trick, Money is worthless in SaGaFro anyway, there's nothing good to buy except magic and magic is dirt cheap anyway.
>stats
Go to the Biolab in Shrike and fight until you're satisfied, this can however have lead to some problems if you're not careful.

[Anonymous No.2212865]

So what's the best way to get good panels in Unlimited?

[Anonymous No.2212884]

>>2212865
Depends on what you want and on how good you're at building.

Also, the end level panels are only available at high rank, don't think about getting lv 7 panels until the last quests.

[Anonymous No.2212906]

>>2212884
Stuff like magic tablets, magic blender and level 4 melee panels.

[Anonymous No.2212910]

>>2212906
For magic Tablets see my previous post here>>2212613
For Magic Blender your best bet is to keep on developing Magic, it should pop up after a while, try exploiting a late game Tetraforce for that, level 4 Panels should be pretty common after a while, I remember getting them pretty often at after my second Seven Wonder dungeon.

[Anonymous No.2213651]

So I was playing Laura's quest in US and then I realized that I forged out all of my stuff so I can't make good equipment.

Should I just soldier on or restart my game?

[Anonymous No.2213894]

>>2212694
Blue (and Rouge) isn't a pure magic user. In fact, he actually has some of the most stupidly good aptitude for every single form of combat style there is in SaGa Frontier.

That being said, use Guns for the reasons stated.

>>2212697
Rouge doesn't have that particular special property of being able to use all different magic realms at once except in one scenario though.

It's a bit of a debatable advantage anyway because most magic schools are very ho-hum. The best ones are Light and Time (if you can bother to quest all the way to get it)... which aren't mutually exclusive or anything.

[Anonymous No.2214149]

>>2213651
>Should I just soldier on or restart my game?
You can always hoard loot in dungeons without completing quests, no need to worry about it.
>>2213894
>Rouge doesn't have that particular special property of being able to use all different magic realms at once except in one scenario though.
You're right, I should have been more accurate.
Though Shadow magic is nice too if you're into doubles shenanigans, Light magic is still better in the long run though.

[Anonymous No.2214252]

>>2211812
Dunno, I use epsxe since its easy to use and not much settings to mess with to get to work. SaGa frontier works fine except for a few sounds sounding different(tech sparking) due to the emulator.

[Anonymous No.2215818]

>Playing Unlimited Saga
>Suddenly the urge to play Minstrel Song pops in my head
>But I know that if I stop playing it then I'll probably never play it again until April the earliest

Help, what do i do?

[Anonymous No.2215847]

>>2215818
Play what your heart desires.
I know you can't get enough of that HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAAAHAHAAAAAOUWOOOOOHOOOOWOOOHOOOOOOUUUUHAAHAAOOEEHALALALEIIIYAAAAHAHAAAOU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9gTOF726s8

[Anonymous No.2215860]

>>2215847
Minstrel Song waifus.

[Anonymous No.2215884]

>>2215847
Thanks.

So who do I pick for my main?

[Anonymous No.2215895]

>>2215884
For a first run I'd say you take Barbara, her quest is already over after the intro, no really, that's her quest, she's a great Main in growth and sparking rates and she has access to almost all the world regions earlier than other characters, she's also a pretty cool character all in all.
Hawke and Sif are also very good, gameplay wise, Claudia is okay, Albert is decent and he has a few cool things unique to him like an optional costume change, Gray has an annoying main quest that gives you one of the strongest swords in the game, but it's such a pain in the ass you should leave him last just for that, Aisha is pretty hard to play as because she starts pretty weak and doesn't really shine in anything compared to the others, Jamil is fine.

[Anonymous No.2215904]

>>2215895
How hard is it to get the other mains, particularly the ones that hover between multiple towns.

I was thinking about bringing along a dedicated mage or two but i recall them being really expensive to maintain.

[Anonymous No.2215909]

>>2215904
>How hard is it to get the other mains
Depends on who you play as, Barbara has the easiest time due to having access to almost everywhere from the get go.
You could have problems with getting Aisha due to her getting kidnapped, and Gray has kinda weird spawn rates, but everyone's really easy to get, also because they all tend to be more or less in the same places.

Actually, the one who's frustrating to get is Barbara because she spawns in so many towns you really have to chase her down.

And it's better to leave Hawke alone until you trigger the Captain Silver quest and the Twinmoon Temple quest.

[Anonymous No.2215915]

>>2215909
Well I figured as much considering that he gives the map for free.

Might as well just rush the unlock then do other quests like the one with the small availability.

[Anonymous No.2215917]

>>2215895
Sif is a pretty strong MC but her starting quest is terribly boring and slow that I think it's better to save her for future playthroughs where Darque is unlocked just to speed things up... which can be as early as the 2nd playthrough if you know how to trigger it.

>>2215904
>I was thinking about bringing along a dedicated mage or two but i recall them being really expensive to maintain.
Mages take a bit of cash to get going but it's not as expensive as trying to outfit a team with Field Plates.

Early game, having an attack spell (usually Blood Curdle or Water Blast) and utility healing is enough to pull you through. Maybe some good cheap support spells like Self-Immolation.

Imperial Scholars can synthesize Blood Curdle + Freeze Time for a nice spammable 2 BP attack for ~5k gold. They can move up to Snowstorm + Freeze Time to get a pretty hard hitting AOE for only 5 BP for ~8k gold. Pricey but it can pull you through the early game for a while.

For a really budget option, Synthesizing Water Blast + Summon Elemental only costs you around 1200 gold and is a solid attack option.

(Haven't really tried Rosalian Mage spell fusions)

>>2215909
Dismissing and recruiting Hawke is kind of annoying but at least he's an MC who only stays in one place.

There's a little bit of a trick where if you know where a character spawns, you can just exit and re-enter a Pub multiple times until they spawn... but it might take a while, I've done like an upwards of 30 times just trying to get some jerks to spawn.

[Anonymous No.2215928]

>>2215917
Rosalian Mages get Overdrive but casting that without lp loss is difficult on a first run.

Which reminds me, what are some jewel friendly classes for a first run?

[Anonymous No.2215931]

>>2215928
Geckling Knights, Castle Knights, Pirates and Rangers are some nice classes to have around in your first run imho.
You can also try to unlock Dragonite by recruiting Silver or Dragon Knight, it does cost quite a bit to upgrade but at least you can make your next MC a Dragonite, which is nice on characters like Sif.
Martial Artists are also pretty convenient now that I think about it.

[Anonymous No.2215939]

>>2215928
They also get Shockwave fusion for Randoms but that and Overdrive is the extent of my exploration with them.

Outside of those classes already listed, Rosalian Officers built for Defense are very nice (one of the few classes with the ability to barely survive the last boss's Deus Ex Machina attack which deals enough damage to insta-kill most characters)

Craftsman are a surprising nice Basic class too. As it turns out, when the class description says it "sometimes" saves DP/LP... it apparently means 99% of the time, so they feel like a budget Legendary class.

Barbara's starting class (Entertainer) doesn't feel terribly exciting but enemy combos are one of the things that can send even tanky characters from full to dead while losing oodles of LP so having passive protection against it is nice.

Swordsman is another "boring but cheap and fine" class on Grey.

[Anonymous No.2215961]

>>2215939
What about Pirate? I heard that one was really good..

[Anonymous No.2215964]

>>2215961
Pirate is nice for the huge speed boost you get and the fact that you can also heal with Water spells, very good for beginners.

[Anonymous No.2215968]

>>2215964
Pirate was mentioned in the post before.

And yes, being a class with a Speed Boost with access to Hydrology (a.k.a a Healing magic school) is extremely helpful and Hand Axes are pretty good weapons to boot.

[Anonymous No.2215972]

So
Main
Grey
Claudia
Hawke
Mage

Is a good beginner party right?

[Anonymous No.2215974]

>>2215972
Look Anon, this isn't RomaSaGa 3 where the stats are fixed and there's a more stern approach to Waza, the important thing is how you let them grow, you can make a party with Herman, Patrick, Dawd and Aisha and be just as strong as a party made of top tier characters.

Also, Claudia is already a pretty good potential mage if you ask me, you might want to consider getting Myriam though, she is one of the few characters that starts as pure mage.
Oh, Galahad is also a pretty solid choice for attack+magic support.

[Anonymous No.2215975]

Anyone have codes for infinite money for SaGa Frontier?

[Anonymous No.2215978]

>>2215974
Oh okay then. That was one of the things that I didn't like about 2 and 3 since you had to have certain people to get skills.

I'll just pick some easy to get people that I like and run around with them.

[Anonymous No.2215987]

>>2215978
>I'll just pick some easy to get people that I like and run around with them.

That's the spirit, have fun.

[Anonymous No.2216000]

>>2215974
While I guess Claudia -> Mage is a good build... I think on early playthroughs, Claudia's starting Ranger class Jewel discount to level 4 is nice and actually within range of being able to achieve it.

Incidentally, Myriam certainly looks like a mage and I think she comes with some preloaded spells but I don't think she's actually much better than her competitors.

Like, for some reason she doesn't even begin the game with a class IIRC, let alone a magic-using one.

But really, I think most characters with decent BP do fine as Mages as long as you class them into it.

(For some reason I had the idea that Aisha is actually a pretty good character once you get past the early hump and reclass her because her starting class is grade A shit, but an Archery/Fighty Aisha is surprisingly good. I had her as a Castle Knight for a couple games.)

[Anonymous No.2216007]

>>2216000
I think they meant for here to start as a Wizard but left her class empty.

[Anonymous No.2216018]

>>2216000
>Incidentally, Myriam certainly looks like a mage and I think she comes with some preloaded spells but I don't think she's actually much better than her competitors.

Well, as an all around mage she is and she comes in the game prety early, the other options you have are Patrick, but he's so so honestly, Friere/Frielei which is endgame only and Aldora which is NG+ material.
Also, there aren't any pure mages in MinSon unlike previous games so yeah, it's kind of silly to even talk about it.

Regarding Aisha, her only problem is that she starts really weak and her growth is kinda subpar compared to characters like Barbara, but she's all right, and due to how the game works similarly to the first SaGa trilogy and Frontier there's really no sense in making character Tiers like RomaSaGa 2 or 3, everyone can theoretically achieve everything depending on how long you want to grind, which is something I dislike, honestly.

[Anonymous No.2216050]

>>2216018
Is that supposed to be Myriam?

>everyone can theoretically achieve everything depending on how long you want to grind, which is something I dislike, honestly.
Oh, I would certainly like much stronger stat differentiation, but I think the current system isn't completely "meaningless", for the lack of a better phrase.

Character with good natural stat growth can raise them even without using actively using actions, which helps with hybriding

e.g Compassion is a really awkward stat to grind and nice to have on Hybrids who will be expected to do some Healing.

LP, starting BP and BP Regen are also things that can't be changed. I like Captain Silver a lot but her 7 LP is really scary at times.

[Anonymous No.2216060]

>>2216050
>Is that supposed to be Myriam?
Yeah, it's her old design, which I prefer to the new one, like Farah, her old design is much better.
This one's the original Gian.
>but I think the current system isn't completely "meaningless", for the lack of a better phrase.
Oh no, it's a nice system, I think they were a bit too generous with the growth though, it's really easy to get stats until you hit the 60/65 mark, same problem with Frontier.
It's too easy to get strong and there's also no real difference between characters in the long run.
I guess putting different stat caps on characters could be a way but even I think that's a bit irritating, I mean, why the fuck shouldn't I make Myriam a Castle Knight with Halberds if I want too, that's one of the fun things in SaGa.

I'm conflicted...

[Anonymous No.2216068]

>>2216060
There's always unlimited but start growth in that one is annoying to set up especially for magic oriented characters.

[Anonymous No.2216078]

>>2216068
Still, at the end of the day I think Unlimited had the most balanced and well thought out growth system, you can't abuse it too much and you need to really understand what you're doing if you want to build really good characters, the quest and battle difficulty is also pretty good for me.

There are a few things I don't like, the combo system is a bit shallow and obnoxious now that you don't have to chain specific attacks together and the classic map exploration that was replaced by a tabletop interface, while refreshing and intriguing, is really not my style.

I still think it's from a pure game mechanic point of view the best SaGa game

[Anonymous No.2216095]

>>2216078
I don't mind the combat but the exploration is really tedious at times.

I also don't like how difficult it is to make a mage compared to a melee character because of magic tablets being way harder to get than a half decent weapon.

[Anonymous No.2216101]

>>2216095
>but the exploration is really tedious at times.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention it, it's really slow and irritating sometimes, not being able to manually avoid battles is bad too.

Magic Tablets can be easily farmed if you know where to go, problem is those places aren't immediately available so your mages always are a few steps behind the rest of the team until late game, that's bad too, you're right about it.

[Anonymous No.2216109]

>>2216101
There are places to farm tablets?

My biggest deterrent to having more than one mage was always tablets and blender.

[Anonymous No.2216117]

>>2216109
Deity's Table is one of the best places to farm Tablets, you know those enemies in the flying crystal shards? They drop Tablets fairly often, and thanks to the Tetraforce there you can really farm them without problems.
There are also a few subquests with nice Tablet drops.

Magic Blender is still a bitch to get though.

[Anonymous No.2217004]

>>2215975
Just do the Scrap Trick and Gold Exchange for all the money you need.

[Anonymous No.2217139]

>>2215895
I know that Grey gets a really strong weapon in Demonbrand but question is, are Katanas any good?

I heard that it was a really weak weapon type.

[Anonymous No.2217289]

>>2203862
>original character art
I just scanned my over 20-year-old capture guides for the first Romancing SaGa. They've got all the original (read: waaaay better) character art, plus a bunch of item and equipment art as well as maps.

The event guides in the Complete Capture book are invaluable if you can read Japanese.

Basic Knowledge Guide:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/46jz6qjq5n37beg/RomaSaga-kisochishikihen.pdf

Complete Capture Guide:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/32ij2h6n6zfx626/RomaSaGa-tetteikouryakuhenpdf.pdf

Feel free to add these to the pastebin, whoever manages that

[Anonymous No.2217332]

>>2217139
It's not considered a good weapon type, no. I think the numbers that get thrown around says it's not very good unless it gets Surge/Reverses, which are luck-based so you can't really build around them.

Plus availability issues - there isn't really a good end-game Katana you can buy, unlike a bunch of other weapon types.

And additionally, for some reason it's one of the few weapons that can't Deflect attacks that doesn't logically make sense as to why it shouldn't (e.g Bow)

>>2217289
Holy shit, thanks.

[Anonymous No.2217476]

>>2217139
Katanas suffer the fate of most hybrid weapons such as daggers, they are a Great Sword expy with a kinda inferior moveset, they're very rare to find and they're so costly to upgrade it's not really worth your time to grind them, the best Katanas do pack some power though.
>>2217289
OP here, your contribution is much appreciated.
Putting it in the Pastebin asap.

[Anonymous No.2217572]

>>2217332
>>2217476
No problem, guys.
I've been monitoring these threads for a while, it's really nice to see people are still interested in this series. I haven't played the first Romancing SaGa in years but I was obsessed with it back in the day. 2 and 3 were also amazing, but for some reason I really loved the first one. Just wanted to share some fond memories with my /vr/ bros.

[Anonymous No.2217612]

>>2217572
>it's really nice to see people are still interested in this series

The community is small but it's very tight, it also helps that weirdly enough the games have received much more attention by the modding community than other popular games of their time.

You can even say that from a certain point of view it has left a mark in the pop culture that's stronger than FF, look at all the Tohou games that rip off SaGa's battle system, there are also a few cameos here and there on anime and other stuff, some FF mods are full of references from SaGa, but weirdly enough there's little instances of the contrary.

[Anonymous No.2218150]

Okay so I managed to narrow my choices to one of these two

So this is the hard part

[Anonymous No.2218392]

>>2218150
If you plan to actually use the Demonbrand, it probably shouldn't be Grey as main for a first playthrough.

Tempering the sword in like 7 steps is already quite the nightmare, but it's even worse when you don't have the shop rank to simply buy some of the materials instead of having to farm them. (Shop Rank carries over on New Game+)

But if you don't care about it then go ahead and use Grey if you want.

[Anonymous No.2218418]

>>2218392
I don't really plan on using Katanas so its not that big of a deal.

From my experience in the SaGa games, they tend to not be all that great.

[Anonymous No.2218742]

Why wasn't this game as good as the first one? I consider the first one to be one of the all time greatest JRPG's. It was also very underrated. But this game feels like such a disappointment to me.

What's your thoughts /vr/?

[Anonymous No.2218792]

>>2218742
Because they decided to make it more linear, I guess.

[Anonymous No.2218795]

>>2218742
>underrated = obscure
I miss the days when people knew what words meant before they used them.

[Anonymous No.2218905]

>>2218742
I never really got that far into 2 but it left a similar impression on me. Folks in these threads seem to like it though so I feel like I should give it another shot just to see if I was being too hasty.

[Anonymous No.2218920]

>>2218742
I haven't played SF1 yet but I agree with your opinion on SF2. I played for several hours and just couldn't get into the game. It didn't feel like an RPG at all. It was more like a visual novel, but with more interaction. I dropped the game at the place where the enemies got too tough and I wasn't able to grind. Couldn't go forward nor backward.

[Anonymous No.2219087]

>>2218742
Honestly while it does have nice looking visuals and music the problem with that side of the presentation is that it is way too calm. Gone are the fiery compositions from Kenji Ito for something much more soothing. Out of any other SaGa game it is the most limiting in where you can go, even when it comes to the Gameboy games as well. Not having as much control as you want with party building is a drag and a lot of the standard enemies are lame.

I mean it does have some bad ass characters and premise, but it is the only SaGa game which bored me enough that I never actually completed it (I only played all the English released SaGa games).

[Anonymous No.2219185]

>>2218742
>Why wasn't this game as good as the first one?

Because it's completely different.

They decided to make it more linear and more focused on a character driven story, which happens to be a quite good story by the way.

Frontier 2 is like Unlimited, it does its own thing in a series that already does its own thing, it is different from all the other SaGa titles but it's a wonderful game with a lot of atmosphere, incredible characters and charming music.

You might argue that the non linearity and limited exploration isn't SaGa territory, but everything else is quite frankly very pertinent to the series, the battle mechanics are there and they introduced stuff like DP, LP break and Duel mode which are a breath of fresh air in the genre and series.

If you ask me, Frontier 2 would have been much better if they added all the stuff that was cut out and put in the novels, it would have still been weird for the average SaGa fan but the story, characters and world are absolutely charming.

Gustav, Wil and Johan will always be some of the most unforgettable characters of the series for me, they managed to be really fleshed out and human without pointless walls of texts and drama queen cutscenes like all the other JRPGs from those times.

[Anonymous No.2219861]

>>2218905
Personally, I don't think it's a bad game. Just disappointing. The first one is way better.

[Anonymous No.2219946]

>>2219861
Frontier 2 was way more polished in the combat department and while it was significantly more linear than Frontier, it made use of it by developing the story which is definitely its strong point compared to the other games in the series.

[Anonymous No.2222261]

Don't you die on me, /SaGa/

If I were to start up a fresh Frontier 2 game, should I start with Gustave or should I go with Wil? I kinda like how Wil's game is cross-generational but I don't want to miss out on anything by doing Wil's route first

[Anonymous No.2222427]

>>2222261
You have to play everything. Just do the stages in the order Wil ->Gustave -> Wil. The story will make more sense that way.

[Anonymous No.2223501]

>>2218742
i liked it well enough of what i played of it. never beat it though, i always got a few chapters into wils campaign and just losing interest. gustave was a much better character with a better story imo.

[Anonymous No.2224378]

>>2222261
Gustav was born a few days before Wil iirc, if you want to be 100% true to the story you should therefore play like>>2222427 says, as you'll see two parallel lives and also two radically different views of the same world.

There are other two reasons why you should play like this, first of all Gustave's chapters are mainly cutscenes and end relatively quickly, I think the lengthier ones might last one or two minutes at best, they are very plot heavy and with a few exceptions there's little gameplay to speak of, Wil's chapters are the opposite, while there is of course story exposition for Wil's side there is much more gameplay, this is good for balancing out the game's pace so you don't have to watch 5 cutscenes in a row and then play in a dungeon.
The second reason is merely technical as there is one scenario in Gustave's story that might not trigger if you don't follow a certain chronological order, that is "Gustave and the pirates", which is a pretty little chapter and expands Gustave's character quite a bit.
Also, both sides are cross-generational as the story last for almost 100 years, Wil's side is more evident as it focuses on the Knights family whereas Gustave's side has many more actors involved, some of them, like Johan, won't appear more than a few chapters and are not really related in any way except being a fateful encounter in Gustave's life.

[Anonymous No.2224379]

>>2223501
I agree. Usually it is a person in an ordinary world and he has magic. Not this time, everyone else is a magic slinger but not Gustave XIII. Then he became a bad ass mother fucker with a large hunk of steel that was never seen before as a weapon.

[Anonymous No.2224395]

>>2224379
>Not this time, everyone else is a magic slinger but not Gustave XIII

And Flynn too, kinda curious how his son was able to use spells though, it seems that being born without Anima is something completely randomized without real factors involved.

[Anonymous No.2224402]

>>2224395
Well not being able to use magic is a pretty rare trait in FE.

[Anonymous No.2224614]

>>2224402
The problem isn't really being able to use magic per-se.

Actually, unless you've been trained you can't tap into Anima and therefore use magic in SFII, the problem with Gustave and Flynn is that even if they're trained they physically can't use it, not because a god chose to troll them or because of a curse, they're apparently born without the basic force that let them control "magic", at least if Johan and Cielmer are to be trusted in their judgement of Gustave, and considering one is someone who can become literally unperceivable by blending his Anima with the surroundings and the other is one of the most successful magicians of his time I wouldn't say they were completely wrong.

This is coupled with the fact that it's widely believed that Anima is effectively the soul of something and as Gustave XII says, even rocks have Anima.

Sure, if you're one of the unfortunate beings born without Anima you still have a few advantages, like being almost completely immune to spells lore wise, so even if you're reviled by everyone you can be glad you're a special snowflake in a world of water drops I guess.

There is a very in depth explanation regarding Anima in the SFII Ultimania volume but it was kinda hard for me to follow and I dropped it some time ago, I should pick it up again and try to translate it.

[Anonymous No.2224996]

So I'm about to start Saga Frontier 1 on PSX. However, I can't seem to find a manual for it anywhere. Can anyone give me some basic info on how to play the game so I'm not running around like a chocobo with its head cut off?

[Anonymous No.2225160]

>>2224996
There's some guides in the pastebin of you get stuck story wise. If you never played a SaGa game some battle stuff may seem confusing. HP is always replenished after battle so health potions are used only in battle. Items such as potions and stuff would have to be equipped to the character, there's also the backpack that lets you access your whole inventory but I think there's only one per scenario. There's also LP which goes down each time a character dies/gets hit while dead. If it reaches 0 theyre incapacitated until you go to an inn or use an item I forget the name of that's somewhat uncommon to get. Stats level up after battle and rely on the actions you did in battle like ff2. Skills spark In battle and the frequency depends on what attack you're using and how strong the enemy is. Magic and gun skills appear at the end of battle. Mec's stats depend on the equipment they have, on te upside they can equip multiple of anything like powered suits. They gain skills from beating other Mec's and can absorb their data after battle which either they replenish so or learn a skill. Skill depends on the enemy. How many skills they can have depends on int which is increased by memory boards. Monsters gain skills similar to Mec's but it's every enemy but mecs. They transform to other monsters which determine their stats, their form depends on the skills they have and how much health they have, they gain I think 5hp each time they transform. Mystics are sorta hybrid of monsters an humans. Their health wp and jp increase after battle like humans but their other stats are dependent on the monster they absorb in their mystic equipment. The monster they absorb also give them an ability which varies depending what type of equipment absorbed them. Some other stuff to keep in mind is that theirs more than one type of defense stats and the defense stat only shows slashing. Also get shields there really useful.

[Anonymous No.2225368]

>>2225160

Holy crap, I appreciate the zeal but you simply have to use paragraphs in future.

[Anonymous No.2225453]

>>2225368
Will remember that. I also forgot to mention that you can combination attacks depending on the skills chosen when attacking and the order of attack. More people in the combo means more total damage.

[Anonymous No.2226717]

So, what happened to the Anon who got Legend of Legacy?

[Anonymous No.2226752]

>>2226717
Anon who got legand of legacy here. I've been busy with some stuff so my play time has sort of been limited.

In any case, I'm enjoying the game so far, I chose to play as Meurs, a sort of spirit medium, for my first playthrough. I was tempted to play as Filmia, but perhaps thats for another play through.

I'm enjoying the game so far. The game rewards you for completing the map, which lends nicely to it's emphasis on exploration, and overall theme that the island your on is largely mysterious and unexplored. I'm hoping the later areas/dungeons are more expansive (maybe a maze of sorts), otherwise it would just be odd running around a flat. Thus far i've only been exploring a forest/ruins.

I was wrong about the LP system, sort of. While it doesn't explicitly have one, it has a system thats sort of like it. Actually I would say its more akin to a forgiving demon souls/dark souls, in that a character can only fully restore a fraction of their maximum HP after they are knocked unconcious. The only way to have your maximum HP available is if you rest up at an Inn or something. The nice thing is that you don't need any sort of special item/magic to restore a downed party member.

The battle system is pretty neat, and definitely shows it's SaGa influence. Formation (from what I played thus far) is fairly important in that you may assign a Gaurd strategy (one character in front, two in the back) which allows your "tank" character to take hits while your other characters take other actions. There's a no-gaurd formation that allows for an all out attack, and an all-retreat formation. I'm not sure if there are more formations availble, either through having a different set of characters or if you somehow learn them later on, but either way it's nice to see positional elements have a larger effect than "characters in the back row take less damage" sort of thing.

[Anonymous No.2226753]

>>2226752

Weapon mastery and weapon skills, work very much they same way it does in SaGa; the more you use the weapon/item/shield in battle the more effective they become, and eventually you will learn skills. It's pretty neat that, skills you learn may actually be usuable in the battle your currently in. Essentially during a fight there's a chance that instead of doing the attack you selected, the character will perform a new technique usually indicated by a flash and the word 覚醒 (awakening) appearing. After that it will appear as an option throughout the rest of the battle.

The game's story seems to revolve around the souls of the dead wandering the mysterious island of Avalon. The magic system revolves around the use of powers/techniques made available through these souls. Furthermore the efficiency of the magic sort of revolves on what a special indicator (think something like chrono cross). The indicator (霊秤) changes in real time depending on the terrain you wander into.

In short i'm enjoying the game so far and look foward to playing more.

[Anonymous No.2226760]

>>2226752
>>2226753
Nice feedback Anon, lots of interesting stuff.
I've been looking at the threads on 2ch but they're all mostly about the metagame, it was nice of you to give that summary.

Seems Japs like Bianca a lot...

[Anonymous No.2226806]

>>2226760
hah. i should prbably check out the threads as well... Not sure what the love for bianca is (she is unusually strong, thus far i guess).

I'm a little surprised they're not more into booby lady (eloise)

[Anonymous No.2226823]

>>2226806
>Not sure what the love for bianca is
As you said, it seems she is one of the top tier characters.

If you look up at parties being posted in the threads 90% there's Bianca.

[Anonymous No.2226824]

>>2226760
Oh also I forgot to mention. Character progression is not based on a usual level based system. Aside from the weapon stuff I mentioned earlier, there are two sets of skills you want to keep track of, defense levels (different types provided by different armors), and 3 key stats, each with it's own level, attack, defense and support. The former can be improved by getting different armor while the latter is improved with every battle.

Also not sure why I didn't notice this before, but as far as formations go, the three above I mentioned are preset. After the intro dungeon/quest you are able to create your own formations from the stat menu thing.

[Anonymous No.2226919]

Just finished World 4 in SaGa 1. It felt like there was a massive difficulty spike when I got to World 4, but it was a really good feeling when I finally finished it. Even with max STR/AGI and the best weapons and armor, it was pretty tough getting through the skyscraper.

I think one of the most difficult things about this game is the inventory management. There's very limited space, and the healing items available to me for a reasonable price aren't very effective for only being able to stack 3. It would be nice if the Cure spell was available without having to go all the way down to the bottom of the tower.

Overall, I think this is one of the most enjoyable and unique JRPGs of its time. Can't wait to play 2.

[Anonymous No.2226929]

>>2226919
It sure is pretty unique, the whole series is.

SaGa 2 is arguably the best of the trilogy, I'm sure you'll like it.

[Anonymous No.2227536]

>>2212613
>You will never get to have Fuse as a main char as intended

[Anonymous No.2228458]

>>2227536
Maybe we'll get him in a remake for the 30nth anniversary.

After all a lot of people voted for a remake during the last poll, I don't think a Frontier one is that impossible right now.

[Anonymous No.2228578]

>tfw playing through SaGa 1 and not sure if starting over with a not-broken team is worth it

I've been steamrolling the game with four mutants, at least one of whom always has flare or death or stone or something else that one-shots everything. I'm wondering if I'm missing out on something in the process though, so I'm considering restarting the game with two humans, a mutant, and a monster, or something balanced like that. Any suggestions? Should I bother? Is SaGa 1 really worth the effort?

[Anonymous No.2228579]

>>2226929
Does that statement also pit it against the remake of SaGa 3 on the DS?

[Anonymous No.2228649]

>>2228579
It's silly to even compare it to the remake.
Those games have expanded the originals to the point of making them almost different games, the original gameplay balance has been completely changed with just the introduction of combos, not to mention that they've upped the difficulty a lot in the remakes.

Even so, I still think even the remake of SaGa 2 is better than the remake of SaGa 3, the music, story and general design is much more endearing to me, and I don't deny that SaGa 3 is nothing short of a great game in those departments as well, as I've mentioned before in the thread, the Talon alone is an amazing part of the game, it just doesn't stand up against the whole lot of cool stuff SaGa 2 has to offer, The Goddesses, Apollo, Arsenal/Last Defense System...too much to count.

[Anonymous No.2228730]

>>2228649
I dunno, I just couldn't get into Saga 2. Maybe I should give it another try.

[Anonymous No.2228792]

>>2228649
Personally, I don't think SaGa 2 DS gains a lot being remade, since the original was already a pretty strong game, but SaGa 3 DS takes a huge flying leap over its original game.

Still, I recommend everyone play both.

[Anonymous No.2229082]

Is it just me or a mutants far better than humans?

[Anonymous No.2229623]

>>2229082
I'm >>2228578 and it sure seems like it, if you're talking about the first game.

They just get good spells and kill everything.

[Anonymous No.2230405]

>>2229082
They usually are.

[Anonymous No.2230483]

Reminder to pay respect to our Queen.

[Anonymous No.2230563]

>>2229082
Woah there Magneto

[Anonymous No.2231474]

>>2229623
I keep losing all of my attacking spells, and I almost never get a healing spell. Right now my mutant has immunity to fire and three separate Mirror spells. It's getting on my nerves. I want good spells.

[Anonymous No.2231619]

>>2231474
Just buy a bunch of Flare books to oneshot every random encounter. As long as you don't have an human, you should have more than enough money.

[Anonymous No.2231648]

>>2231619
Where do you get them? World 1 revisit? I'm climbing tower from W4 right now. I have two humans but still quite a bit of money, although I'll probably be spending a lot the next time I get to a shop.

Actually I'm doing fine with what I have atm, the mutant is just frustrating because he hasn't gotten good moves since I left W1. My humans and even my monster are better than the mutant in all aspects aside from HP, which is only because I haven't felt like sitting here forever buying HP 200s for a 1 increase since I'm past 600. I guess having 4 mutants, you would be much more likely to get good spells.

[Anonymous No.2231878]

>>2231648
Just beat the game. Never did find anywhere that sold Flare books, but I just made the one I had found last, as well as getting a monster who had it.

I'd always heard the final boss was really hard without the chainsaw, but he went down really fast on my first try. In fact, the whole endgame was a cakewalk compared to world 4. Still had a blast regardless. I'm glad I finally decided to play this.

[Anonymous No.2231981]

>>2231878
>I'd always heard the final boss was really hard without the chainsaw

He was when you were a kid, but yeah he's no Arsenal.

[Anonymous No.2232083]

>>2230483
Literally who?

[Anonymous No.2232092]

>>2232083
The Queen of SaGa threads and /vr/, Rocbouquet.
Now go play RomaSaGa 2 to make amends.

[Anonymous No.2232132]

>>2230483
I would explore her ancient ruins, if you know what I mean.

[Anonymous No.2232168]

>>2232132
I don't think Noel and Kujinshi would agree.

[Anonymous No.2233251]

SOMEBODY GET THIS FREAKIN DUCK AWAY FROM ME

[Anonymous No.2233497]

>>2190686
But that song only played like twice before killing Sol.
I wish it had only been used on Sol though.
It's sad as fuck to wail on the guardian of the world just so you can kill the sentient parasite taking over his body from completely emerging. All while he just kneels there and takes it, even urging you on because he's further weakening. That there is the saddest part about it to me.
Then you fail anyways and have to fight that cunt Xagor anyways. Yet, like a champ, Sol barely comes back, but still manages to destroy Xagor's stupid ass jug as his last act.
It was pretty surreal the first time around.

[Anonymous No.2233535]

Remind me again why Arthur wanted to leave behind this fine piece of ass.