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| Makondo99 292th Post
 
Copper Customer
    
|  "Re(1):Romancing Saga US release" , posted Thu 3 Nov 19:19
quote:
Today I finally realized that RS actually was released already.(I was expecting near Xmas times)
Can anyone post any thoughts of the game that can lead me to buy/stay away from the game?
Thank you
This is my first SaGa experience and so far I'm enjoying a lot.
What can I say... Let's see, you can pick the character you want to play with from around 7. Characters are a bit on the SD side.
The game (so far) is about exploring and exploring. The character I picked (Grey) is an adventurer and starts in an island full of dinosaurs. You can recruit people to join your party mostly at pubs. The Minstrel also joins your party sometimes (when you have free slots)
It's fun to try diferent weapons and fight styles to see each character learn new fighting techniques (specially when everything seems lost and a character learns an awesome attack that saves the day). You MUST save often, this is the first game that makes me afraid of entering towns or sleeping at inns without certain preparations. Don't make the same mistake that I did an feel confident about your strengh, I had defeated a boss-esque dragon and then a normal enemy kicked my ass up to the moon.
You have to keep an eye on all the information about your character, all the time, so if you hate numbers, stay away from this game. Besides the "normal" HP info, you have LP (Life Points, that do not reset to normal after each battle -you have to go to an inn for that) and DP (Durability Points, your weapons wear out and may break, and again, to recover from this you have to visit a blacksmith or an inn).
In each town there's a kid who tells you important info on various aspects of the gameplay and also gives you a map of the town. This is priceless for a noob in this franchise (as is my case)
Last but no least, you can check your notes, and see with rumors may turn into quests, with quests are you involved in and which quests you failed at. Use it if you want more of a story-telling like experience RPG or go the ramdom exploring way. That's up to you.
Hope this can help you.
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| CHAZumaru 280th Post
Copper Customer
| "Started last night" , posted Mon 7 Nov 22:50
(Note: I don't know how 'proficiencies' were originally called in japanese so, for those who played the japanese version, it's those abilities you can use while in a dungeon to find treasures or to avoid being surprised by an enemy)
I picked Barbara, since Iggy told me it was the best character to start with - and indeed as of now the game has been pretty fair with me. The game is really trying to help, with tons of explanations for the unconventional game system. For instance I completely forgot to equip proficiencies before running in the first dungeon, yet it's my own fault since the game had told me at least four times to check that I got them ready.
Still, there's one thing I don't understand. Now that I am back in the first dungeon (Yassi cave, where a child was kidnapped) for a bit of leveling, I do have the proficiencies equipped. Yet, I don't understand why, the game tells me I am not on a high enough 'search level' to find treasures when I see an exclamation mark. What did I do wrong ? Am I supposed to have a search level depending on my class, or am I supposed ot learn new search levels some way ? The kids tell me there is no 'level' implication for proficiencies, though. So must I change class in Weston (the first town Barb goes in) to become a better searcher, then ?
Speaking of class - is it better to go up in a same class or to switch them often ? I am trying to get enough jewels so Barb becomes a Lv.3 Entertainer right now, but I don't know if it is such a good idea.
Also, what am I supposed to do with people such as Herman (the lame kid that travels with Barb) or the magician that joined me after I found him in a pub ? Must I upgrade them often (buying new weapons and such), or is it a waste of time and should I focus on Barb for now ?
Finally, there's apparently a quest involving a mysterious crimson-clothed girl that is annoyed by drunk bullies. Am I missing an opportunity to fulfill her quest if I leave town ? Or can I proceed to other places for now ? I just found Saoki on the world map (and the minstrel told me a tale involving Saruin, Death and Jacques Chirac, which explained a lot of things on the way my country has been ruled lately) so I'd like to move on.
NOW IS TIME TO THE 68000 Z80 AND SH-2 HEART ON FIRE !!
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| Iggy 7389th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
     
     
     
    
| "Re(1):Started last night" , posted Mon 7 Nov 23:43
quote:
Yet, I don't understand why, the game tells me I am not on a high enough 'search level' to find treasures when I see an exclamation mark.
First of all, DON'T level up.
Killing low level slimes won't do ANYTHING good to you. You'll get a little bit stronger, but not as fast as the monsters, and you'll never learn any useful techniques (since the characters don't feel threaten by weak ennemies). Also, ennemies don't drop significant amount of money or jewels.
The best way to get money and / or jewels is to complete lots of quests. Remember the ennemies level up with the number of fights, so at worst you can only bump in a boss monster stronger than you (and if it's a guardian, he will sometimes let you go after he humiliated you). In the meantime, avoid as many fight as you can.
As for the search level :
First you have skill 'search' you buy with jewels. Let's imagine Barbara has search level 1, Ermann has search level 2, and Sif doesn't have search.
Then you have the... professiency ? well 'find treasures', 'find herbs', etc. You buy those with money. If everyone has 'find traps', then you will use 'find trap' at a level 2 (because Ermann is level 2). If on the other hand, Sif is the only one to have 'find treasures', you will use 'find treasure' at level 0 (and won't find anything). But it will add 1 to the number of times you can use an ability.
So, since you always have to use 'stealth' and 'shinobi ashi' (silent step ?), if you find a character that will stay with you until the end of the game, it might be good to have him learn those two abilities even if he doesn't know the skill (inmitsu, dissimulation ?), since it wil add 2 uses to your map ability counter. Just have one character with a level 3 or 4 inmitsu, and everything will be fine (I recommand Claudia with a job of Kujarat warrior, it's one of the best advance class and it has inmitsu in it).
As for class... you'd better stick to the normal or advanced class right now.
Some are very easy : Hawk being a pirate or Geraha being a lizard warrior is enough to have a usable character for the rest of the game.
But since Barbara is an extremely versatile character (she is as good as an archer, a sword user, a wizard or a close range fighter) you should wait a little until you are sure of what you want her to be.
Important thing : all of you characters should know at least one cure spell and be at least level 2 in the correspondant skill. If you don't plan to make them learn fire, then go with the first water spell (iyashi no mizu) and push them at least to level 2 in water magic.
The fire magic is very useful for fusion wizards (but you shouldn't bother with it right now) and if you want to create a very useful bug that can save your ass in several situations. But it's a bug, it's not very honnest.
For the characters, you should keep everyone in your party, and only ditch them when you find someone better to replace them. Don't bother buying them new weapons or armor, and most of all DON'T WASTE JEWELS ON THEM. Only buy skills for character you want to keep until the very end. Also, try to have a balanced team : don't give all the map abilities to Barbara for example. Try to find at least 2 or 3 characters you like; you will get the last members of your team soon enough, and they won't be too slow to reach the level of your party even if they join you around the last 3rd of the game.
Also, if you have to choose between weapons or armor, always upgrade the armors for your main characters.
As for the crimson-clothed girl, talk to her every time you see her, but it won't be of much importance for now : if you talk to her as often as you can, you will be able to trigger her events by the time you finish the game for the third time.
Hurrah Hurrah Apocalypse Extravaganza !
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| jiji
143th Post
Regular Customer
| "Re(1):In Estamir" , posted Thu 10 Nov 03:44
I am playing this! I didn't see you asking me about this in the Bumpy Trot thread, chazumaru, until this morning, so that's why I'm so late. But!
I'm playing Claudia. I'm about 8-9 hours in, at event rank 6 or 7 or so. Her animal friends just left the party and so I was free to choose who I wanted to put in the party, as well as the path to take with their classes. I'm using the US guide, but mostly only for information on which skills go with which classes, where to train for classes, and occasional quest scheduling.
I sort of stressed myself out when I started playing because I was too worried about event rank and all that - afraid that I'd miss important quests or whatever. It really seems to be pretty transparent about all that, and you can just play how you like and take quests as they come to you. I can understand sweating event rank if you're trying to stick to a very specific schedule for a very specific endgame party build, but I'm not worrying about that now.
I've been really surprised at just how well-made and how easy to get into this game is. I LOVE how polished the battle system is, how all the skills and character customization feel useful and important, and how cute and quick the character animations are. I'm starting to see the true meaning of "free scenario" too - SaGa doesn't seem to be intended to be a full nonlinear life-simulation like an Elder Scrolls or a Fallout; rather it really is a console RPG with some fixed story points and the scenario decided by the player to fill in what's in between.
It's been pretty easy for me so far, but I feel like I might finally be getting into some more difficult quests. I got pretty well pounded by the very first boss battle in the first or second quest available to Claudia, but I haven't had any trouble since. I had to run from some dinosaurs when I got too far into their burrows, though... 
I fully expected to hate the English voice acting, from some complaints on the GameFAQs board and because I'm usually very picky. But I've found myself not minding it much at all, and even enjoying a few characters. A couple of minor ones have been -bad-, though.
Catacombs - I took the sleazy guy down there, and he found a mummy and rewarded me. It sort of left me feeling sleazy myself for aiding him in his graverobbing. I have a feeling the quest could go a different way, but I'll leave that for another playthrough. If you help him get the mummy, he shows up in other towns later on, trying to sell it.
South Estamir kids - If you give them money, they give you hints about where the slave traders are keeping their prisoners. More money, better hints.
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