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The SaGa Thread

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I may not be the biggest fan of the series on TT (I try, though) but then I found out that all the GB games are getting released as The Collection of Saga in December and realized that Talking Time needed to be told.
 
It would have been nicer if they'd localized the DS remakes instead, but I'm fine having these available on a new system.
 

Lokii

(He/Him)
Staff member
Moderator
This is really neat. Very curious about the QoL stuff they're teasing. I wonder if they'll be including some cheats/hacks that will make the games more palatable to a modern general audience, stuff like no weapon degradation or the ability to bump up stats and stuff.
 

Beowulf

Son of The Answer Man
(He/Him)
I'm cautiously intrigued. Interesting that they're releasing the Game Boy originals (possibly because they're already localized and therefore an easy port?), and I wonder if the sales numbers will dictate if we see a re-release of the Wonderswan SaGa 1 or the DS remakes of 2 and 3.

I hope that whatever "quality of life" they add, they don't remove all the brokenness I loved.
 

Lokii

(He/Him)
Staff member
Moderator
Watch as the options are for stereo/mono sound and stretching the video out to an ugly full screen.
 
1 and 2 are pretty much what made me a fan of RPGs as a kid, absolutely love those weird games though at the time I kept wishing for one that played more like Final Fantasy 1/2. When I got that in Legend 3 it was a pretty major disappointment (the remake of 3 is the only way to play it for me).
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
FFL3 is one of my favourite games of all time and I can't wait for this collection.

This is really neat. Very curious about the QoL stuff they're teasing. I wonder if they'll be including some cheats/hacks that will make the games more palatable to a modern general audience, stuff like no weapon degradation or the ability to bump up stats and stuff.
I can't see them removing degradation. It's too core to the experience. I think it would have a lot of bad knock-on effects.

At the very least a Transformation chart
This seems way more likely. Just a bunch of useful supplementary charts/guides at your fingertips for transformations, equipment, monster attacks, pills, etc.
 
Watch as the options are for stereo/mono sound and stretching the video out to an ugly full screen.

The Japanese PR text about this says "convenient options like a high speed mode, as well as the ability to adjust the screen size and wallpaper." So, whatever they're alluding to in addition to a high speed mode will not just be that, it seems. (Sometimes PR text is not accurate, but . . . assuming it is accurate.)

Mostly I'm just hoping for wallpaper options without a button layout on top of it.
 
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This is really neat. Very curious about the QoL stuff they're teasing. I wonder if they'll be including some cheats/hacks that will make the games more palatable to a modern general audience, stuff like no weapon degradation or the ability to bump up stats and stuff.

There were some abilities in FFL that straight out did nothing (but did in the wonderswan versoin) would love to see those fixed up.
 

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
Well that's a pleasant surprise. I'll likely pick it up just out of nostalgia, and some pretty rad tunes.

Also gives me hope that we just might see a NES and SNES collection of the Final Fantasy games released on it.

And I see you Monkey's Paw, I do NOT mean the Steam releases of 5 and 6 so don't get any ideas!
 
I'm glad this exists for SaGa 1 (no DS remake) and 2 (a pretty good DS remake) but yeah if I'm going to play SaGa 3 it's always going to be the DS version where Kawazu completely reworked the game since he wasn't involved in it originally. The remake might as well be a completely new game, a very modernized experience that is the missing link between PS2 era SaGa games and Scarlet Grace. It really deserves a localization so it can be played by a wider audience.

There were some abilities in FFL that straight out did nothing (but did in the wonderswan versoin) would love to see those fixed up.

My assumption based on the language being used to describe this project (完全移植 ) would be that there will be no targeted bug fixes like that. The original game should be intact as is. (Again, PR text is not always accurate, but . . . assuming it is.)
 
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spines

cyber true color
(she/her, or something)
absolutely getting this, since the gameboy games are totally on my list (tm) and the only one we have a cart of around here is iii.

i'm at the sidequests-before-the-last-dungeon part of my judy file in unlimited saga. compared to my last couple playthroughs it hasn't been very noteworthy, and pretty much all of the story parts have been short and pretty easy. which is unfortunate, because it means in all this time judy has only learned about three or four spells...also, you don't have access to any of the shops which sell items with innate spells. i'll see if anything exciting happens when i go through most of the sidequests, i assume i could pretty much win the game but i have to see if the game lets me have something cool.

it's kind of weird how by now the game feels a bit small and easy for me, but also some elements (specifically magic and monster rank) develop so slowly that it feels like there's just no chance to actually enjoy them.
 
This is really neat. Very curious about the QoL stuff they're teasing. I wonder if they'll be including some cheats/hacks that will make the games more palatable to a modern general audience, stuff like no weapon degradation or the ability to bump up stats and stuff.

I thought the kids today were all about the weapon degradation, what with their Soulslikes and Animal Crossings and Wild Breaths and what have you.
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
I'm wondering if the executive level is finally making decisions about the SaGa series looking at its potential for non-Japanese sales? I noticed the Collection is gonna have both English and Japanese options, and AFAIK this collection wasn't announced for the Japanese market before today's direct.

I don't know how well Re; univerSe is doing in the phone gacha market, but I'm still playing it (it's been out just over 2 months). But also I don't think Scarlet Grace Ambitions sold terribly well outside of Japan... so what do I know.
 

Mogri

Round and round I go
(he)
Staff member
Moderator
That's not even an exploit. Now, the karate robot trick...
 

spines

cyber true color
(she/her, or something)
i assume i could pretty much win the game but i have to see if the game lets me have something cool.
well i got a bunch of stupid level 2 panels from a quest which i don't feel is that easy and i did pretty much everything within it, just kind of fast (but not super rushed, it's only 100 turn limit so i feel my pace was reasonable by comparison), so i guess my options on this file are "grind up the monster rank a bunch in a really counterintuitive way" or "decide my goal for this playthrough was silly and not really that important or likely, and make preparations to go to the end soonish". i kind went with the second one but got lazy, then i didn't know how the dungeon worked. so i didn't save and the last boss isn't that much of a pushover. i guess i'll try a little harder, but this party doesn't really have more magic inclined characters than normal and is kind of boring to use, so i feel like i'd rather fish for rare stuff on a future playthrough...judy joins early in laura's quest, josef joins kurt early enough to actually do stuff with (i know i said i hated kurt's quest, but there was a lot more going on than this one at least, haha. just some of it was really bad.), and i know ventus gets access to most of the world and can keep doing stuff that actually gives progression kind of indefinitely? (mythe doesn't have any advantages quite that big, but silver girl does seem to be one of the higher potential mages in the game, it's very worth taking the time to get strong due to the over-the-top final boss sequence, and his quest was super fun so it's high on the list of ones i'd do again.)

i do like that the core of the party is just literally a family, and the story setup for that, but even aside from the fat jokes around roy (blugh) the other characters aren't especially novel or exciting compared to some of the ones i've had on the other playthroughs. rebecca and thomas have good designs.

i still like kurt despite everything, and nuage is funny. it kind of just feels like i'm suffering because i know too many of the wrong things. like if i knew less about how to just play this'd be a soft introduction to the game, or if i was more committed to just annihilating it, i'd be done by now, but i kinda want to have it both ways and so i get nothing instead
 
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Destil

DestilG
(he/him)
Staff member
Wait, what? They're putting out the GB games and not including the DS versions?

I mean I'll be getting it either way, but still...
 

Shadax

The Chimera Brain
(He/Him)
I am very excited to play through the first one in roughly two sittings and bounce off the other two. Again.
I hope that whatever "quality of life" they add, they don't remove all the brokenness I loved.

I strongly agree. Fix some of the abilities that don't do anything, give us a transformation chart, let the user toggle the palettes and game speed while keeping music playing at normal speed and just let people savor the inscrutable magic.
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
How well did the SaGa DS remakes do in Japan? Everyone here is clamoring for them to be part of the collection, but I'm wondering if that's true of Japanese fans as well?
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Wait, what? They're putting out the GB games and not including the DS versions?

I mean I'll be getting it either way, but still...

I'm assuming that one collection would be a heck of a smaller investment than the other, as badly as I want to see them both.
 
I'm assuming that one collection would be a heck of a smaller investment than the other, as badly as I want to see them both.

Kawazu was interacting with people on Twitter after the announcement and yeah he sad that he would like to re-release the DS versions someday but that would be much bigger project because of how much dual screen integration there is. You'd have to redesign the games in a substantial way.

This looks like a very low budget project, but bad looking borders with tacky button overlays framing presumably fine Game Boy emulation is much less of a sacrifice to the quality of the game than a sloppy approach to dual screens. (You could just do something quick and dirty like Wii U virtual console emulation for the DS, but presumably he doesn't want to do that...)
 

MetManMas

Me and My Bestie
(He, him)
Kawazu was interacting with people on Twitter after the announcement and yeah he sad that he would like to re-release the DS versions someday but that would be much bigger project because of how much dual screen integration there is. You'd have to redesign the games in a substantial way.
I didn't even think about the dual screen integration, I just figured that the SaGa 2 and 3 remakes were more the kinda thing that Square Enix would want to sell on multiple platforms instead of just some Switch compilation.

This looks like a very low budget project, but bad looking borders with tacky button overlays framing presumably fine Game Boy emulation is much less of a sacrifice to the quality of the game than a sloppy approach to dual screens. (You could just do something quick and dirty like Wii U virtual console emulation for the DS, but presumably he doesn't want to do that...)
That overlay seriously has me wondering when/if we'll see news that the SaGa collection is also coming to mobile devices. Like, I know the Switch has a touch screen, but they probably wouldn't have gone to the trouble of supporting it if they weren't already planning to make iOS/Android versions.
 

Aeana

(She/Her)
I'm a bit underwhelmed about the collection being just the originals, but I'll certainly buy them. The DS remakes would be wonderful to have officially in English.

Kawazu also seems to be putting some thought into how he would reissue Minstrel Song based on a tweet he made the other day, but it doesn't sound like it'd be coming any time soon regardless.
 

spines

cyber true color
(she/her, or something)
i'm playing rs2 again

i thought about not doing it, i poked at 3 just a little bit on my switch instead, i put it off a while longer...but gosh, the game just left me with so much of an "i want another go at that" feeling. it was inevitable

New game Empress again, I imagine when I come to a third playthrough (which may be a little further away than this second one) I might choose emperor and go new game + for something a little more...shenaningan-y, but I wanted to try and feel out the natural progression a bit more for this time, focusing more on my use of some resources and being able to take more advantage of understanding how stuff works over the long term to get stronger faster (while also not constantly running into stuff that's way too hard). I did make sure to choose a new name. I definitely think that matters to me.

Leon...spam Light Ball. Gerard...spam Light Ball more. I guess you're not allowed to really do anything except the goblin cave till you beat Kzinssie? I built the Magic Lab as soon as possible afterward, then tried to exhaust most of the other stuff that there's semi-obvious leads on before finishing his generation with the fort quest you're obviously "supposed" to do. I heard you can actually go almost anywhere in the world with Gerard if you do all the stuff that lets you reach Nazelle, but that's more in the shenanigans category and I forgot exactly how it worked until I was doing it again afterward anyway.

It's funny because I feel like I have a lot more thoughts about most events as I'm doing most of them again, rather than fewer. Having more context for the game and other outcomes does that, I guess, and it's certainly a reason I wanted so much to go again. (Obviously, my Frontier posts mostly got longer and longer on subsequent playthroughs, too.) I had Cat do the fort thing again though, since I felt like I already fought tons as Gerard (I cleaned out the mountain cave and fought the brawler leader, and made one my emperor at the start of the third generation; it was a formation I barely tried on my first playthrough but it's feeling really strong this time), and then Beaver was the next leader. I've had a few main priorities this time, mostly things I want to make sure I get to much earlier this file since I got them so late on my first playthrough that (in most cases) I barely used them. In particular: actually finding Subier, since he was the one waiting in the cave at the end of the game last time; recruiting the Iris, Ninja, and Diviner classes much earlier (I got all of them during the final generation); getting the Salamanders at all; and doing Cumberland before they're all ghosts. That made by targets for the second generation pretty clear, starting up the Armed Merchant stuff first and blundering to Maze of Memories level 5 to get Azami (who mostly steamrolled the rest of the generation with her Katana being the strongest weapon I had at the time and a level 14 Greatsword skill to boot), then heading up to Cumberland to make sure I took care of that. Even if the context and sequence are a bit different since the princes aren't ghosts yet, I guess the things you do are basically the same. I felt like the cave under the wall was in the opposite direction last file, though...hahaha. More importantly, there's some enemies there in the later generations who can wipe you super easily, who either didn't exist or have directions to avoid them more clearly on this first go. (Although I feel like the cue for the secret passage in Douglass is maybe a bit more obvious later.)

I didn't actually want to play a Brawler emperor, because...magic. Magic! So the new new leader was Libra. It occurs to me I used Court Mage (though Topaz, instead) on one of my earliest and longest generations on the first playthrough as well, though I'm not sure if it was after the first or second timeskip. It'd probably help me to remember if I could read the post right now, but oh well, it's not a big deal. Anyway, I wanted to queue up a lot of long-term stuff in this generation, opening up some of the most important parts of the world for convenience, travel, and class purposes, as well as accelerating the early magic-boosting phase. Since I'd decided to commit to the opposite magic schools that my Empress had last time, I wanted to make sure my other mages had a pretty solid complement, so I picked up both Mages For Hire, the new Ninja (Tsubaki), and Medea (because I'm a dumbass who loves Medea in both Euripedes and Type-Moon).

Tsubaki's starting weapon skills were terrible though (Greatsword somewhere between 2 and 4, I think melee at 7 or 8?), so I had a bit of a janky phase early on, although not quite as bad as trying to run across Cape Chalier with Beaver and two mages, since their starting MP at the very beginning of the game is terrible and doesn't improve much when you teach them like Level 1 Cosmology or whatever they get from it. First priority was the Volcano quest, then opening up more of the Nazelle areas. I did some dungeons, then ended up straight up grinding a bit for a little more cash the University, and then went to Teretuva. "Maybe this will give me a time skip!"

Well, it was easy, but it didn't. At this point I was starting to find myself at a loss again. Not because I couldn't think of things to try, more that I specifically didn't want to have to kill the emperor to remake the party for some of them (most obviously, that Libra cannot get kidnapped by the "Know anybody strong?" guy). I decided I'd try the termite hole anyway, which was one of the many places I really struggled with on my first playthrough.

Needless to say, it was pretty easy. I've been a lot less worried about avoiding encounters (a lot of it was resource management, which I learned later on is much easier than I thought due to the amassing of restores in the Storage over the game), and on the contrary it's obvious how much fighting, leveling up, getting the money, and all that stuff helps. And given my understanding of what I can blind, Flame Whip, etc. from the first playthrough it's really been a lot easier to just stay chill and keep farming anything that shows up. I stunned the queen most turns and nobody died, although it did lead me to discover a great cheese strat for hard battles in the midgame (Mist Covering some character like Sophia and then using them to heal everyone else), which let me finish some stuff like the Pyrohydra in the savannah that seemed almost impossible otherwise. Of course I was fighting that because the Mermaid quest was one of the things I thought of to do, but it slowly reached the point where...I didn't want to use one of the best timeskips in the game on a generation where I'd already done so much and was surely so close to advancing the time.

So then I recruited the Nereids, and I went to Yuyan and started the Wagnas stuff, fighting through the first castle...but that got annoying enough to keep everyone together at the end (despite that, I managed to defeat Sekishuhai this time, haha) that rather than trying to get a timeskip (I'm not sure if finishing the first half of the castle can even do that, so it's probably best I put it off for now), I finally gave in, reset the party, took the savannah hunter guy as my Emperor, and went to the Landship. I guess I pretty much always defeat Heroes with Emperors who don't do anything else.

The Grim Reaper bow is really silly, there's not a ton of fights in that dungeon this way but the skill on it really just crushed almost all the minor battles. I didn't use bows much on my first playthrough, by the time I really thought about it I had so much powerful AOE magic I didn't care, but they're pretty good for that since they get better damage earlier if you can spark a big tech for them.) Of course, to justify doing the boss almost the same way I had to choose the other dialogue option (where you believe him when he says he was just pretending to be one of the Heroes). Still an easy fight, even with my emperor being entirely mismatched for a boss fight with terrible skill levels in his weapons, no good bow single-target attacks, and almost worthless magic, and a kind of slapdash party in general.

Sometime I'll do the hard one. Maybe some playthrough I'll try not even going to the ship.

Saigo didn't come up in the succession list. Neither did Levante Guard. (I don't know if they have a formation anyway.)

Nereid did. Of course not having to walk to the lake sweetens the deal, but obviously, I had to choose Lysianassa as the new empress. And that's the point where I've gotta stop for the night, because there's so much on the table now, with the merchant rebellion and volcano part 2 as obvious priorities, a lot of decisions about party reformation, where I'm investing my next chunks of cash (probably fusion spells, I'm really trying to get Diamond Dust soon especially, and have finished Saint Fire but can't use it), and all that stuff coming up. It's so exciting.

 
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