Thread #3945497
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Since a Romancing thread went awhile, how about a general discussion of the assorted SaGa games?
The original gameboy series, known as Final Fantasy Legend in the west, the Romancing series on the SNES which the west didn't get until the mobile remasters and Minstrel Song remake, the Frontier series for the PlayStation... and the other stuff that has it's fans probably maybe.
A hodgepodge of divergent and experimental jrpgs, from the usual Squaresoft fare and even from it's own series or within each series, made by the annoying contrarians and heretics within Square who got given shoestring budgets and left to make what they want.
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>>3945497
>who got given shoestring budgets and left to make what they want.
It is interesting they managed to somehow hobble along.
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>>3945497
Explain the regions please? Is the world of SaGa like 1980s Flash Gordon?
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>>3945689
You know how planar travel works in D&D? It's kinda like that.
You've got all these separate worlds floating in a weird sort of astral sea that you can cross with special Region ships that work kinda like a spelljammer ship, alternatively you can also just open a dimensional door and jump from one world to another if you're a powerful enough mage like Blouge or Virgil.
SaGa 1, 2 and Emerald Beyond work on a system of doors built by either divine beings or some powerful civilizations.
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>>3945968
This is yet another myth about these games, outside of a couple of exceptions like Slime in SF1 that are largely comedic or adventurer types like Gray who're explicitly in it for the thrill of the trip every recruitable always has some story behind them even if a certain main character might not see it, most recruitable characters are usually locked behind questlines too.
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>>3946053
bruh, just boot up Saga Frontier, pick a character, get to the bar or whichever place they lumped a bunch of characters into, and have a bunch of people tag along after a short banter and then act like they're close comrades in events immediately.
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>>3945497
I've been enjoying the remake of Romancing SaGa 2, but for reasons different from what I typically enjoy in a SaGa game. Rather than making stuff work with what you have, you're encouraged to minmax your build and create the most optimal party composition. I enjoy this type of challenge, though this is not something that any RPG fan, let alone a SaGa fan, would also enjoy. It goes against the idea of roleplaying, and for some, that's a red flag in RPGs.
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>>3945497
SaGa 1 is still among my favorite olf rpgs. The leveling can be wonky and sometimes your mutants rock and sometimes they suck, but that always adds a different twist of challenge. I love that the story is both simple but feels poignant.
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>>3952569
In short, it copies so much of Saga 1 and 2, that it’s “originally “ is thrown out the window. The combat is balanced, but the overall story is almost lifted with no real grace. It’s a mockup of 2 more than anything.
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>>3954884
SaGa 1's about a bunch of nondescript gonzo fantasy murderhobos climbing a tower because legend says that if you get to the top you'll enter Heaven, meet the Big G himself and he'll grant you a wish, allegedly.
Said tower is not only a gruesome dungeon filled with monsters but it also has doors that lead to various worlds, the story is surprisingly good for a game so old and simple so I won't spoiler you the fine details, it's best to experience it for yourself so you see what all the fuss is about.
>it’s like Final Fantasy but if it stayed it’s classical self
It depends on what you mean by classical self because most people consider FF4-10 to be classical FF and SaGa has nothing to do with that.
Kawazu was the main designer for the first two Final Fantasy and SaGa branches off those two titles in particular, it polishes and greatly expands FF2's character building system while also keeping the focus on party building and non invasive main story of the first FF, there's a lot of other recurring elements and tropes from the first two FF games that Kawazu loves like pirates, fairies, emperors etc. but overall SaGa goes in a very different direction, FF focuses more and more on the spectacle, accessibility and grand narrative while SaGa keeps experimenting with complex systems, non linear world building and fuckhuge casts of characters.
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>>3954974
They had to cut a lot of content because Nintendo didn't give them a bigger cartridge, to some degree this was fixed in the Wonderswan remaster but Minstrel Song (remastered) is the definitive version of the game with all the intended content and more.
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>>3950533
How could rs3 and ff2 leveling be improved?
>>3954984
Not playing bobbly head. The modern saga games like emerald are unplayable for me. I doubt they will make the rs3 remake good. The rs2 remake is much worse than the source.
>>3948323
Am on my third rs3 run. Never beat all secret bosses nor the mikhail mini game. What's the reward for the latter? I think I need 800hp for the super bosses, where to get? Nothing to find online for this game.
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>>3955453
>none of them are memorable
Really? I thought a ton of them are memorable. Literally every protagonist in SaGa Frontier and it's sequel alone were memorable.
>has as much depth as FF characters
Not true if you aren't spoiled by voice-acted cutscenes and drama, the characters in SaGa Scarlet Grace are actually really dynamic and well written, same for SaGa Frontier 2... Hell there's even a lot of interesting stuff going on in the background of Minstrel Song.
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>>3956987
Frontier is an easy one to start with and many recommend it for your first Saga game.
Minstrel Song is the one I started with and it was incredible, but it could be a bit overwhelming for a first game.
Saga 1 is a lot of fun, it's very simple and easy to understand, just dont make something like a 4-Mutant party until you understand the game more. It was also ported to the Wonderswan if that interests you.
Honestly it depends on which one catches your eye more, these games are not very long and theyre extremely replayable so the time investment isnt big if you just intend to play each of them once.
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>>3945742
>>3945750
Dont listen to him. Saga Frontier is pure magic. Every single character experience. It's amazing. Just block the light take a week off and consume the magic. You might have to take breaks between 6-12 hr sessions I did it right after launch as a kid during a 3 month summer break from school.
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>>3956987
IMO the only two games you might not want to start with are Minstrel Song and Scarlet Grace, the former because it's very mechanically dense and sort of a collection of mechanics from nearly ever game that came out before that, the latter because it's a very different format compared to every previous game and doesn't do a great job at immediately showcasing the series' strong points like other entries, both are more oriented towards the hardcore side of the userbase, they also have a lot more cameos and throwbacks to older games than everything else on your list if that's a problem to you.
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I got the RS2 Remake on sale and started it as my first SaGa experience
Fantastic so far
I really enjoy the openness of it all, but the tutorialization they added is just enough to explain concepts which I believe translate somewhat to other titles
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>>3952373
I looked it up and quite like the idea, but wish they hadn't also tried to mimic the gameboy graphics style. Not to say I'd need it to be a full HD graphics fest, but the aesthetic of the old SaGa games are the least appealing thing about them for me and it feels a little lazy. Still, going to put it on my list of it ever comes to Switch or I eventually get a steam deck.
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>>3964859
Dragon Stance is worth using too if you're using shields. Otherwise, yeah, just stick to those formations. Amazon Raid can be obtained as early as the 1st or 2nd timeskip assuming you cleared the Canal Fortress and made any female emperor (Preferably City Thief/Vagabond F because they have the Wild flag which is necessary for the Armed Merchant quest), and then go to the Amazon Village in Salamat to recruit the Amazon.
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>>3964780
SaGa's recurring thing is innovation so there's that.
And let's be real here, if they actually had some fucking budget to spend in other areas of the games like they did in the past they'd do it, look at Romancing SaGa 2 or 3, the design of games like SSG or EB is a product of severe budget constraints rather than misguided focus.
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>>3965248
i get that games are more expensive to dev now and JRPGs peak popularity is joeover, but it still cost a ton of money to keep online mobage shit online and "live". also the mobage games are obviously focusing on nostalgia bucks rather than quality or graphix.
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>>3965347
Despite making ridiculous amounts of cash in its heyday RSRS always costed literal peanuts to maintain and develop for, it's partly why SE tried to push it even in the west for a whole three and a half years, that shit made crazy dosh at basically zero costs to the point GL servers piggybacked entirely on JP's profit until JP sizzled down.
The real outrage is that most of the money RSRS made went directly into SE coffers to fund unrelated trash and the games proper got fucking nothing to work with, and it stings even more to think this would happen when Kawazu is near retirement.
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>>3960022
Is there an English website like this for SaGa Frontier? I remember there was a detailed site with walkthroughs, overpowered magic and the like but I can't find it anymore
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>>3964932
I killed him fourth and he absolutely crushed me until I just gave up and just went hyper aggressive
Rosebouquet, third one, was so easy compared to this
I'm gonna get Subier next and it seems I powered him up by killing the narwhal boss
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>>3965644
>>3965652
https://fantasyanime.com/games
https://fantasyanime.com/saga/sagafront.htm
Fantasyanime RPG shrines have been online for ages, zoomzooms.
the "walkthroughs" link just goes to the Gfaqs page though. someone should archive those before Fandom kills that websight. read the "mechanics" FAQ for max autistism and optimisation.
>inb5 banned for deadnaming a ded websight.
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>>3965325
The time skip will trigger if you've gained enough battles and event points. You have to skip the Canal Fortress and go south. Then, make sure you don't have 240 battles or more, as that will trigger a time skip. Even with less than 240 battles, it will trigger a time skip if the remainder of your generational battles / 16 is less than the event points you've accumulated so far, excluding the event points you got from a quest you just completed.
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>>3965773
Some bug fixes, I belive Romancing SaGa 2 added in a scale to check weight and another one for logic. There's also an added optional dungeon for Romancing SaGa 2 and 3. I never touched them since they weren't part of the original releases, but those dungeons can contain stronger monsters to power level better, items, classes, or even expand upon certain characters stories.
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>>3965773
Faster animations, HD backgrounds, bug fixes, added content. Only reason to play the SFC version is if you want to see what the original backgrounds look like as well as knowing Japanese. Translation patches for the game are incomplete.
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>>3965652
So it is true, their “world” is like Mongo, kinda. An ethereal mass with “islands” orbiting a white dwarf. Cool!
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>>3965773
>New backgrounds
>More info in the UI when it comes to commands and formations
>More save slots
>A journal function
>Comprehensive bugfixes even though there's also a couple of new bugs
>NG+ function
>New content, and the option to play with or without it
To be more specific on the last point, RS2 adds two new classes and a dungeons+items that were originally cut in the SNES version but added in the old mobile port, the remaster adds a new small endgame questline on top.
RS3 adds a new dungeon with new items and some restored enemies that were originally cut and dummied out in the SNES release, this optional dungeon has content that also expands on some characters' stories.
Everything else is the exact same as the original releases including game balance outside of some bugfixes like RS2 Wind Cutter being bugged in the original and working as intended in the remaster, as the others already mentioned they make the original releases obsolete outside of the new backgrounds which are questionable but not terrible.