This is not a review and I'm going to tell you straignt out the gate this game is fiucking awesome! I have have been playing Romancing SaGa for a few weeks and have been hooked by its design and its challenge but how advanced it is to other SNES/GEN RPG's. Truly ahead of its time. When just compared to the SNES FINAL FANTASY's, game design wise, it a more than a few steps above them. At heart Romancing SaGA is a spiritual successor to FF2, its FINAL FANTASY, so you have about 70% of what to expect, but its the last 30% that makes this game shine. and I want to point out what they are.
PROGRESSION:
- You will begin the game by choosing a main character out of 8. 5 of them form the Shinon mercenary group and the last 3 are from the Loanne Royal family who employed the shinon group. You will then get to customize your character alittle by choosing a profession and a best weapon. This is important because it decides you base stats, which are static and never change (more on this later) and the learning type of your character (later)
- After a 2 part introduction, the real game begins and the most immediate difference to Final Fantasy and the main reason this series never made it overseas is its "Free Scenario" structure. There are about 30 quest and you are free to complete them mostly in any order you choose. The reason I say mostly is because the only sense of a structure is the fact that some quest will not be available untill the game deems you powerful enough to tackle them. It uses your main characters stats to to decided this. It's not known how exactly it does this, so all walkthroughs will use HP as a gauge if your ready or not. The other reason is some quest will be locked untill another quest involved with that one is completed.
- Alternatively,you dont have to complete all of the quest if you dont want to. It's possible just to focus on quest related to getting to the final place. So the game can be as long as you want it to be .. kind of.
- Your world map begins empty, but because of the FS system it is entirely possible to open up every town in the game in like 10 minutes, wheter it be by catching a ship to that location or having the various NPCs in the world tell you the location of them. So that means all the merchant bought weapon/armor/magic are available. You will not have to money or the JP(MP) to buy/use them but you can start preparing.
Party building /powering up
- After the intro stuff the Shinon group get famous and go their own ways. At this point its time to start making a party. Some might want to go recollect the Shinion group/Royal family, which you can, or you can choose from the 23 other characters scattered arond the world . In total there are 31 playable characters.
Supporting Characters
 Fullbright |
 Herman |
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 Poet |
 Robin |
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 Undine |
 Wood |
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 Zo |
- Your party can hold 6 characters, one on reserve. If you want to switch characters you can at the pub by kicking em out. Dont worry though, if you want them back just go back to where you recruited them, or in some cases a few characters appear in multple places, and get them back. A few charcaters cannot be kicked out untill certain events happen. Ultimately you arent forced to keep or get anybody.
- Getting stronger is similiar to FINAL FANTASY ll, the more you do something the better you get at it. Few diffrences though.
- Each character comes with base stats: Str,Dex,SD,Def,Int,will,charm, and LP. THESE NEVER INCREASE. They only get improved by equipping weapons/armor/accessories or temp through magic/skills.
- Each character also comes with different levels in weapon catogries: Blade( sword/great sword), Bow, Martial arts, Pierce( lance/rapier), blunt(mace/staff) and magic (sun/moon, earth fire wind water) if they have it.RS3 is about freedom so you can do what you want with your party but things to consider: characters learn skills, weapon levels at different rates. Just because Pual came with bow as his highest leveled weapon doesnt mean he is best with that weapon and wont kick ass with a great sword. Also if a character has low dex, which is used in bow formula, do you want him/her using a bow? If you have 2 characters and both have a level 30 in bows but one has 16 in dex and the other 21..though you can make a character do anything there is still better/worse pros/cons to each
- Magic works no different, but its kind of limited. You can only equip one character with Sun OR Moon and then a basic element. There are a few spells in each category but they get better effects the higher your level in that element.
BATTLE
- Game is challenging for 3 reasons. Money is hard to come by, as its not rewarded from battle but quest,chest or selling unneeded stuff, so keeping 6 party members up to date on equipment is tough. Enemies level with the player and I dont mean just gaining stats. I mean outright replaced with better, more powerful enemies that hit hard, can be alot of them, have lots of HP and group targeting spells. Cant tell you how many times I got wiped out because of an enemy upgrade and not knowing what to expect from them. The big bosses of the game are brutal.
- There is no revive spells in the game just cast a heal and that will wake a KOed member up but there is a another stat, LP or Life points. Each character has a certain amount, usually 10 but can be higher or lower and each time he/she is KOed one life point is. If a character is hit with a group spell or an enemy is being a dick (some monsters are programmed to target Koed members more frequently) and attacks a downed meember while KOed another point is lost. If all are lost the character is dead...permenently.
- Formation is important. Its more than just front/back row. Your party takes different formations on the battle and depending on thier placement in that formation decides: State buffs/debuffs, who the enemy is likely to target. and in commander mode, where you put your main in the reserve, and you control your unit as one, decides the combo techs/magic. These look awesome
- You can carry up to 4 different weapons in battle but you can only have 8 skills (not per weapon, TOTAL) and 8 magics, not including skills that come with certain weapons, at a time. Use of each skill uses WP/JP. Lose all your WP/JP and you dont have a restore for it? Better hope you have some free of charge skills because your not attacking.
- SPARKING!!!: Learning new skills mid battle. Using the basic attack command or certain skills will radomly have you learn new skills. Its so excting and addicting espescially when it kills a powerful enemy thats kicking your ass. When you learn a new skill it will appear as red in your tech list. If you remove it the character forgets it and you will have to learn it again, but if you master is first then you can remove it and share it with other members.
