What are you playing?

Talk about the life consuming, celibacy inducing hobby that is all the rage these days.
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Old Black Man
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by Old Black Man » Sat May 08, 2021 3:29 am

rabidtictac wrote:
Tue May 04, 2021 10:37 am
It looks cheap, for sure. But it's a saga game. In combat, it looks about as good as Minstrel Song. Maybe a bit worse since it doesn't have quite the godlike use of colors. It's definitely no Romancing Saga 3 though.

Image
I’ve seen the newer ports of the Romancing Saga games and thought they looked neat. What sets it apart from other JRPGs of the time and where do I start with the series?

Also I snagged a cheap copy of Viewitful Joe for the PS2. It’s such an easy remaster, Capcom be lazy bitches.
I’m getting too old for this shitposting.

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rabidtictac
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by rabidtictac » Sat May 08, 2021 4:39 am

Old Black Man wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 3:29 am

I’ve seen the newer ports of the Romancing Saga games and thought they looked neat. What sets it apart from other JRPGs of the time and where do I start with the series?

Also I snagged a cheap copy of Viewitful Joe for the PS2. It’s such an easy remaster, Capcom be lazy bitches.
Romancing Saga 3 is probably the best entry point. Its difficulty is mild for a Saga game unless you're fighting an Archfiend. You can engage NG+ mode at any time in your playthrough and carry over all skills and items into a second run, so it's easy to get overpowered that way if you find your run has stalled and you can't get past a boss. But you'll get a lot more benefit from NG+ the longer you wait to do it.

Overleveling/raising your battle rank too high is hard to do and takes a long time. The benefit you get from leveling far outstrips the benefit enemies get from raising battle rank. This is NOT true of all saga games imo.

It's easy to play the early game taking almost no fights and just going place to place, recruiting a strong team. You can get early money and items by accepting quests but not completing them. Pidona has a few early game quests that are super smooth at introducing you to the game and providing good rewards for minimal effort. The only real newbie trap is the stock market quest. Do not accept that one (at Thomas' house) until you are ready, because it will lock you out of many sidequests until you finish it. But it's easy enough to avoid taking since you have to agree to do it when Fullbright asks. Avoid fullbright until ready.

Romancing Saga 3 is just weird enough to introduce you to all the Saga elements, without being so overbearing as to feel incomprehensible or like the game is cheating. I struggle to think of an easier Saga game overall. Boston, Meiniang, Undine, Black, even the main character with Archfiend gear... It's easy as hell to get overpowered. Most non-boss enemies in my current run deal 0-50 damage at most and I regen 50-100 every turn. I'm not even really OP yet. That's the power of Genbu stance and some decent gear.

Romancing Saga 2 is NOT a great entry because enemies can outlevel you and it's hard to avoid combat. Bosses are hard as fuck and dungeons are brutal. If you die, you lose your party permanently and progress to the next in line for the throne, aka it's basically a new run with inherited skills and items. Dying to a boss is devastating and loses a ton of time.

Minstrel Song is probably ok if you have a game guide to tell you where to go to finish quests.

Saga 1 and 2 are probably ok if you're fine with gameboy visuals.

Saga Frontier might be ok, haven't played it yet but I will. Some scenarios are mega unfinished and jank. Game overall is programmed poorly (not even kidding.)

Scarlet Grace Ambitions is NOT a good entry to start with. It's arguably the hardest Saga game based on what I've read. I can see why too. You're given little guidance, yet some main character quests railroad you hard into story paths that put you up against very difficult challenges. The game has a beautiful, storybook look in motion and combat is great, but you will hate yourself if you start here.
RAPEMAN wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:42 pm
>liberal: ban x
>trump: yeah ban x
>liberal: no bro x is awesome

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VoiceOfReasonPast
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by VoiceOfReasonPast » Sat May 08, 2021 7:22 am

rabidtictac wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 4:39 am
Romancing Saga 3 is probably the best entry point. Its difficulty is mild for a Saga game unless you're fighting an Archfiend. You can engage NG+ mode at any time in your playthrough and carry over all skills and items into a second run, so it's easy to get overpowered that way if you find your run has stalled and you can't get past a boss. But you'll get a lot more benefit from NG+ the longer you wait to do it.

Overleveling/raising your battle rank too high is hard to do and takes a long time. The benefit you get from leveling far outstrips the benefit enemies get from raising battle rank. This is NOT true of all saga games imo.
The remaster also introduces the Phantom Maze you can access after your first Archfiend. It offers more conventional grinding.

The way the game usually handles grinding is that defeating creature types often enough (like say ghost, insect or plant) will cause that creature type to effectively level up, causing the game to use the next strongest creature of that type to fill its normal battles with.
It's really nothing to worry too much about. In fact avoiding every normal fight will probably get your teeth kicked in beause bosses have fixed stats.

However, the Phantom Maze is different in that all encounters there come with a fixed selection of creatures, so you can grind like a mofo there.

Speaking of RS3, I managed to kill my first dragon ruler in my Commander Mode run and got that ice sword aka the Everfrost Blade, the strongest greatsword in the game afaik. I'm contemplating to ditch my two main mages (Muse & Undine) for a while and go full physical/hybrid, at least until I've unlocked all formation techs for the Dragon Formation (2 of those involve all characters in the formation, and I'm paranoid that my mage waifus could accidentally lose their MP Crowns by having those techs spark on accident and learning Martial Arts in the process; though I think these techs will just never spark with them in the party since their Commander Mode AI prevents them from ever using physical attacks in the first place).

Scarlet Grace afaik has a system where every battle makes enemies ever so slightly stronger, although not nearly as much if you keep repeating battles you've already fought.
No idea if enemies in this can get stronger indefinitely, which would probably suck in end-game.
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by rabidtictac » Sat May 08, 2021 11:25 am

VoiceOfReasonPast wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 7:22 am
rabidtictac wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 4:39 am
Romancing Saga 3 is probably the best entry point. Its difficulty is mild for a Saga game unless you're fighting an Archfiend. You can engage NG+ mode at any time in your playthrough and carry over all skills and items into a second run, so it's easy to get overpowered that way if you find your run has stalled and you can't get past a boss. But you'll get a lot more benefit from NG+ the longer you wait to do it.

Overleveling/raising your battle rank too high is hard to do and takes a long time. The benefit you get from leveling far outstrips the benefit enemies get from raising battle rank. This is NOT true of all saga games imo.
The remaster also introduces the Phantom Maze you can access after your first Archfiend. It offers more conventional grinding.

The way the game usually handles grinding is that defeating creature types often enough (like say ghost, insect or plant) will cause that creature type to effectively level up, causing the game to use the next strongest creature of that type to fill its normal battles with.
It's really nothing to worry too much about. In fact avoiding every normal fight will probably get your teeth kicked in beause bosses have fixed stats.

However, the Phantom Maze is different in that all encounters there come with a fixed selection of creatures, so you can grind like a mofo there.

Speaking of RS3, I managed to kill my first dragon ruler in my Commander Mode run and got that ice sword aka the Everfrost Blade, the strongest greatsword in the game afaik. I'm contemplating to ditch my two main mages (Muse & Undine) for a while and go full physical/hybrid, at least until I've unlocked all formation techs for the Dragon Formation (2 of those involve all characters in the formation, and I'm paranoid that my mage waifus could accidentally lose their MP Crowns by having those techs spark on accident and learning Martial Arts in the process; though I think these techs will just never spark with them in the party since their Commander Mode AI prevents them from ever using physical attacks in the first place).

Scarlet Grace afaik has a system where every battle makes enemies ever so slightly stronger, although not nearly as much if you keep repeating battles you've already fought.
No idea if enemies in this can get stronger indefinitely, which would probably suck in end-game.
>commander mode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QxIIz1yEsA

I forgot about the phantom maze. I think fights there happen outside of the battle rank formula so it doesn't matter. But it already doesn't matter because enemies don't level fast enough and the power jump you get from a good mage and strong formation far outstrips the entire game until you start fighting Archfiends.

I definitely don't recommend being without a mage btw. You need at least one. Best one without effort is Bai Meiniang imo. Undine would be my second choice because you don't have to train her either. Muse is good if you've trained her. Might as well keep Muse if she has good magic and an MP crown.

Do not ever have your mages use anything except magic or defend once you get an MP crown on them. You absolutely can have Undine or Bai rank up in martial arts or clubs from attacking normally or using the restoration staff. Repeat, Undine CANNOT USE the restoration staff. It will fuck over her mp crown. I learned this the hard way.

I don't know how it works in Bitch Mode because I don't use it though. Don't you have to play Rachel to even unlock commander mode? Or did the remake change it? Either way, not using that lame shit.

I usually avoid almost every fight at the beginning of the game because your starting party is so weak. I try to take jobs that provide rewards or access to very easy dungeons until I can either spark some good skills or recruit a non-trash character. BTW this run I'm doing currently, I'm using the Minstrel and he's super fucking cool actually. He's probably one of the better Greatsword users. Better than Ward anyway.
RAPEMAN wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:42 pm
>liberal: ban x
>trump: yeah ban x
>liberal: no bro x is awesome

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VoiceOfReasonPast
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by VoiceOfReasonPast » Sat May 08, 2021 12:38 pm

Minstrel can be great with just about any weapon, so he's best at sparking regular sword techs. Plus it's good that he doesn't suck considering how hard it is to kick him out of the party.

I'm mainly focusing on Commander Mode because it's, like, different, you know?
Dunno if it's a new addition for the Remaster, but you can use Commander Mode with everyone. Just put your main character in the reserve slot and Commander Mode activates.
I'm doing this run with Sarah, who is one most recommended for a Commander Mode run since she's the only one that can use Commander Mode for the final boss.

It's a bit annoying since you can't really control what techs are used (aside from just giving characters the exact techs you want them to use), and they never really use any techs or spells that don't do damage, which probably makes some boss battles unnecessarily difficult.
Still, you get automatic HP regen and status recovery, and fusion techs allow you to keep using your mages even if they run out of MP.
Plus you don't have to worry too much about doing fancy character builds since characters have predetermined behavior in Commander Mode. They either spam their favorite magic type, only use weapons, or do both.

Equipping characters with multiple weapon in this mode doesn't really do much since they only attack and use techs with the top-most weapon (though they'll still dual-wield with the silver hand/glove/whatever). Except when you switch to the tiger formation where they suddenly use the second weapon for some reason.
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rabidtictac
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by rabidtictac » Sun May 09, 2021 7:40 am

It's not hard to kick out Minstrel. Just LP kill him. Put him in front of Desert Lance and have everyone else defend. I don't THINK Lp killing him removes him from your game, but if it does then so what? If you didn't want him in your party, you probably won't weep if he's gone for good. Same applies for Herman. I think I fucked up recruiting Black in my current run, but that's fine. Recruit Herman -> Trigger the stolen artifacts quest -> LP kill him.

I'm not a fan of commander mode. It makes Genbu Stance look underpowered by comparison and the game plays itself. Sarah is definitely built for commander mode (aka she sucks massive shlong) which is why I never pick her. I'm running Khalid right now. Probably the overall hardest start alongside Mikhael, since army battles a shit.

My favorite run is Katarina because her prologue takes like 5 minutes and then you're into the game with no BS. The speedrun uses Katarina. She has a cool sprite too.

I booted up Saga Frontier and this shit is cryptic as all hell. Guess I should have expected. But I'm talking, less guidance than Romancing Saga 2 levels cryptic. Even when I know where to go, it's hard to tell where the triggers are at or how to reach them.

I've also been playing Hard West. I think it's probably worth a buy if you get it cheap on a sale. Gameplay is discount x-com enemy unknown, but in the old west. Story is very similar to the manwha Priest. Cowboy gets killed and comes back as an immortal kill machine. The strategic gameplay isn't particularly complicated, but the luck system is kind of fun (removes some randomness) and it has a lot of style.
RAPEMAN wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:42 pm
>liberal: ban x
>trump: yeah ban x
>liberal: no bro x is awesome

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VoiceOfReasonPast
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by VoiceOfReasonPast » Sun May 09, 2021 8:23 am

I've never cared about Weird West à la Deadlands, so why should I now?

I like Minstrel enough, and he's probably my 2nd MVP after best girl Ellen (no idea if her stats will carry over when I pick her has a main character next time around, but that won't stop me from trying), and Herman wasn't too much of a problem.
I might however contemplating LP-killing Tatyana, because she's a bit annoying with her wandering nearly every city in search of me, recruiting herself into my party without my consent if I have an empty slot.

I also won the Zweig tournament with dumb luck. Usually most of the enemy teams are total pushovers. Ellen can solo most of them herself, and if that fails Minstrel can generally finish the job.
Sadly I usually end up running into shit like The Dragons who then kick my teeth in.
This time, however? The other half of the tournament did include The Dragons, but somehow The Bugs made it to the finale - aka 4 large beetles and 1 imp, all of which get one-shotted without resistance.
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rabidtictac
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by rabidtictac » Sun May 09, 2021 8:29 am

Everything carries over when you ng+ and you can ng+ at any time... Except for stats like hp. Your "level" resets along with enemy level on ng+.

Just go to Ryghev or however you spell that town and Tatyana will leave.

Easiest way to win Zweig tournament imo is get Boston or any other martial artist (he's just the one that requires the least work and is therefore most optimal) and Counter every turn against enemies that use physical attacks. By the time Boston goes down, your mage can come in 2nd and sweep. Even better if Boston has the self-heal martial art skill so he can stay up forever.

Tatyiana is actually kinda ok from what I've heard. As a character, I mean. She can be a good alternative mage to Muse or Monica. She recruits much faster than both and thus can be trained sooner, which makes all the difference in RS3. The downside is new players usually don't have the money to buy a bunch of spells and even if they do, that cash is better spent on buying up the best purchasable gear. Items like Rondaches (I prefer deflect chance over defense buff shields), Silver Swords, Bujin Armor (if you can afford it) and helmets. Magic can easily cost over 10,000 dollars for a single character and it'll be a while before she's any good. Just another reason Undine and Bai are the best. Zero effort, free MP crowns and 1500 damage per character per turn.
RAPEMAN wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:42 pm
>liberal: ban x
>trump: yeah ban x
>liberal: no bro x is awesome

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Re: What are you playing?

Post by VoiceOfReasonPast » Sun May 09, 2021 9:45 am

I've kicked Tatyana out often enough. And Boston is really growing on me. He my not be able to get a TP Crown, but his basic punch deals double damage thanks to his pincers.

Oh, and Commander Mode doesn't make Genbu look underpowered. You still get higher HP regen in that formation.
Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by rabidtictac » Sun May 09, 2021 10:31 am

Boston is a monster. Not only has the best death sprite in all of Saga, but he learns a ton of amazing martial arts techs. I think I've already beat home the point that I like characters who start out strong rather than building them up. The reason for that is you already have to do a lot of grinding no matter what. So characters who don't need baby-sitting and can keep pace with your party whenever you recruit them are a godsend.

Charl is another. I don't normally use Charl because he's kind of generic, but I'm using him this run for a change of pace. He's a spear version of Boston, basically. Starts with Aim which already deals a ton of damage. Can't get an MP or SP crown but 2 SP per turn for Aim is very sustainable and self-immolation is damn near mandatory for some bosses. Birdsong is HILARIOUS in the Undine and Volcano fight. Whenever it procs, it bodies them.

Boston's main disadvantages are lack of crowns and fixed armor. The fixed armor becomes a problem in lategame for certain boss fights, because Boston has innate weaknesses to certain elements (fire and electric iirc) and you have to cover for these, which limits his equipment even further. But he deals amazing damage every turn, heals himself and counter spams enemies/bosses weak to it. Always worth a slot if you have one free. It does take a little bit of time to get him, which I suppose is another negative. You'll already have Undine at that point, so you might not want two Genbu users. Far as I'm concerned though, Boston is a bro. Since I don't recruit Undine in 95% of runs, he's useful in all respects. (I don't recruit Undine because I'd rather have Bai.)
RAPEMAN wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:42 pm
>liberal: ban x
>trump: yeah ban x
>liberal: no bro x is awesome

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