The SaGa Thread

[Beowulf]

*Beowulf. Thank you to Beowulf. It was two posts above this one, Kazin, jfc lol

You're welcome! I'm happy to have helped. You'll find that FFL2 is similar but more refined than 1; a number of the systems are smoother and less obtuse, but familiar. FFL3 is radically different (it was made by the same team that made Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, not the SaGa team), but I've always loved it.

 

[jpfriction]

My Mutant has had three abilities and one empty slot since the beginning of the game and two of the abilities are always esp, which is apparently broken. Good stuff, saga.

 

[Sprite]

I pushed through on FFL1 and am enjoying it. Such a strange mess of a game, like everything SaGa. Running two Humans and two Mutants. Do I need to raise my Humans much past 99 in their Strength and Agility to beat the game, or will that be sufficient?

 

[Kzinssie]

What a delightful, weird little game. I thought it went (ending spoilers) meta at the end when the Creator said the whole thing was a "game" - I was like omg is Kowazu the boss of the first SaGa game?!

IIRC this is far more explicit in the Japanese text, which is weird because it also obscures things in its own way by having him named Kami/God instead of the more ambiguous Creator

 

[Fyonn]

FFL1 is the roughest experience of the three, so if you got through it, you can do the other two.

 

[YangusKhan]

Do I need to raise my Humans much past 99 in their Strength and Agility to beat the game, or will that be sufficient?

I would also like to know this.

 

[Fyonn]

You should be fine at 99. Going above that is mostly a solo run strat.

 

[Sporophyte]

The Final boss of FFL1 has approximately 5000 health and and can heal itself. In my playthrough yesterday the breakpoint I needed to win was not increasing Strength or Agility but getting HP above 650 so that I could live through 3 attacks. I was playing 1 Human 1 Mutant 2 Monsters though so your math may vary.

 

[Kazin]

You should be fine at 99. Going above that is mostly a solo run strat.

Oh, dang. Once I learned you could go above 99 I pretty much maxed out strength, since MUSCLEs are pretty cheap at 300 each haha

I'm barely an hour into FFL2, and am thinking about dropping my monster. I have a human, a mutant, a robot, and the monster, and I just don't want to look up a table every time a monster drops some meat, neat as the concept is in theory. If I were to drop the monster, should I just grab another human?

 

[Mightyblue]

A second human won't get you much in a party with both a human and a robot; I'd just get a second mutant instead.

 

[Mogri]

The four races have four distinct niches.

Robot reasons: You want to kill things dead
Human reasons: You like the idea of killing things dead, but you're afraid of getting wiped by magic
Mystic reasons: You like the idea of playing a human, but it isn't SaGa enough for you
Monster reasons: You like the idea of playing a mystic, but it isn't nearly SaGa enough for you OR you like reading meat charts

Personally, I enjoyed reading meat charts and killing things dead

 

[Kazin]

I'm not SaGa enough to read meat charts, at least not yet. Maybe on a future playthrough lol. Also what is a mystic? Does that mean mutant?

 

[Mogri]

Oh yeah, they changed the name as of SaGa Frontier. My mystake.

 

[Kazin]

Mystic is probably better, I just was unclear haha

 

[Sarge]

A second human won't get you much in a party with both a human and a robot; I'd just get a second mutant instead.

Yep, that's what I'd do myself.

 

[Destil]

I think in the old games I really prefer Esper, given the all the psi swords flying around, ESP as an ability et cetera.

Mystic makes sense in Frontier where they're more weird otherworldly mages (as opposed to the thiserworldly mages of Blue and Rouge's country).

Second mutant is easily the way to go, best way to use a monster is just to get a good one and not eat any meat until they fall behind. Honestly Human/Mutant/Robot are so powerful having a monster isn't a big deal.

 

[Pajaro Pete]

in the japanese version of Frontier, they're Yoma, like the race from Shin Megami Tensei or the Monsters of the Day in season 1 of Sailor Moon. in the GB games they're Espers.

 

[estragon]

in the japanese version of Frontier, they're Yoma, like the race from Shin Megami Tensei or the Monsters of the Day in season 1 of Sailor Moon. in the GB games they're Espers.

And specifically 50s sci-fi ESPers, not magical monsters like FFVI Espers (=mystic beasts).

(Just adding this to clarify becuase the most well known example of a Square game in this general era using Espers is a translation of a different term entirey.)

 

[Kazin]

Switching the monster out for another mutant was the way to go. Had to start over though, because Mr. S wouldn't let me back into my hometown and there don't seem to be any guilds in FFL2 lol. My robot is a beast, though my mutants dole out plenty of AoE damage, so my human is by far my weakest member so far, though he's not dead weight like my monster had been.

Got all the MAGI in the first area so far, and yeah, FFL2 is a bit more polished than 1. These games are good!

 

[Mightyblue]

Humans are all-rounders in 2, rather than steroid addicts. Can't you even build a human's magic stat by using books with them now? It's been too long since I played it.

 

[Kazin]

Humans are all-rounders in 2, rather than steroid addicts. Can't you even build a human's magic stat by using books with them now? It's been too long since I played it.

Seems you can, yes - and you can increase mutant stats with books, too, since I increased MANA on one of mine.

 

[Mightyblue]

If you're interested in optimal play, you're probably going to want to do that a bit since your magical defense is of MANA too.

 

[estragon]

This is a really minor gripe but I don't like any of the backgrounds and also there's no option for no background. About half of them I even think are fine as background art if there was no giant rectangle in the middle of them, but there is going to be a giant rectangle in the middle of them 99% of the time. I wish there was just a little more thought put into creating these backgrounds as frames for a screen, rather than just as pieces of art.

I'm glad they let you turn off the controller UI, at least.

(Probably not actually starting this right away because I'm in the middle of Oblivion and will be for a while, but I went ahead and bought it because I noticed I had some Gold Points vanishing at the end of the month and spent a few minutes fiddling with the options...)

 

[Beowulf]

If you're interested in optimal play, you're probably going to want to do that a bit since your magical defense is of MANA too.

Or just wear Dragon armor. You can get it at the Racetrack (if I remember correctly), and it protects you from virtually all magic.

 

[falz]

Dove head first into Scarlet Grace today. I'm playing Urpina's story first. I've lost my fair share of battles but I finally made it to the second area of the world map. I had hit a wall where I couldn't seem to beat any of the hard engagements. I just got another princess on my team then saved a village from pirates? Overall the battle system seems really deep, but though there seem to be quite a few options on how to approach a battle, I've had trouble figuring out optimal strategies.

 

[Pajaro Pete]

a lot of scarlet grace is touch and go at the beginning until you start glimmering counter/reaction skills

 

[Tato]

I very much appreciate the fact that I'm tempted to take more optimal party paths, but think "how can I get the most SaGa experience?" and opt not to. What a weird ass series.

 

[Kazin]

These games are wild. In FFL2, I just Fantastic Voyaged into one of my former companions to get more MAGI and save her life, culminating in a fight against her own blood cells as a boss. This is an early 90s Gameboy game! Hahah these games rule

 

[Mogri]

These games are wild. In FFL2, I just Fantastic Voyaged into one of my former companions to get more MAGI and save her life, culminating in a fight against her own blood cells as a boss. This is an early 90s Gameboy game! Hahah these games rule

Best part about that dungeon is it's shaped like a body.

 

[Kazin]

Best part about that dungeon is it's shaped like a body.

Holy crap, you're right, it is. Hahaha man, these games are charming as hell