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corn in the bible
Jun 5, 2004

Oh no oh god it's all true!


The Saga games have always been fairly experimental. The early Gameboy games (which you may know as the "Final Fantasy Legend" series, in English) were notable for having strange, sci-fi heavy settings and a bunch of weird mechanics involving mutation. The Romancing SaGa games, while more standard RPG in setting, added non-linear exploration for a very open-ended experience. And SaGa Frontier, which I think is probably the most well-known here in the West, combined the two, allowing you to go on an adventure in New York City with your good buddies TIME LORD and ENGINEER CAR. But we're not here to talk about those, nor about the other games in the series, though I'm sure they will come up in the thread and you're free to discuss them. This is about Unlimited Saga, the one that everybody hates. Even if they do admit the music is very nice. Like so:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf85wIiDL04

Unlimited Saga is by far the most impenetrable and unkind RPG experience you will have on a console. It's a willful homage to old, old, old-school RPGs like Phantasie and to table-top gaming, both of which are interests of SaGa's main designer, Akitoshi Kawazu. It was panned for being confusing, frustrating, obscure, and also for not having the explorable environments or dungeons that people had come to expect from... well... all videogames, really. Maybe it would have done better on a handheld. However, while all of those things are essentially true, it's also gorgeous, has a very definite style, and is very cool once you get into it. The game, of course, will not help you with this, but I will!



Like a lot of Saga games, Unlimited has multiple protagonists to choose from. A lot of content is shared between them, so while you can replay it seven times I wouldn't really recommend that. But here's the seven heroes, and their descriptions. If you were to play this for yourself, I'd recommend starting with Ventus, who is easiest and can never be put in an unwinnable state no matter what. This LP will focus on Mythe and Armic, who are considered the hardest--albeit for two completely different reasons.



Unlimited Saga Heroes:



Judy is, as you can probably guess, the main magic-user of the game. More or less her entire potential party is either a magician or has good potential to be one. Magic is strange in this game, and this would be a good way to show it off, if you're into that sort of thing. Her plot involves trying to save her family from an evil wizard.



Ruby is a fortune-teller off for adventure. She doesn't really have any major gameplay gimmicks, but her quest does involve exploring all the Seven Wonders, which are the main final dungeons of the game. Note that everyone else can visit them too as sidequests, for the most part, so you'll still get to see them if you pick someone else. However, sometimes her versions are a bit different, so there's that. She gets some fun characters to work with, though. A good character for learning a bit about the setting of the adventure.



Laura is a pirate assassin schoolteacher widow, and a lot of guides will recommend that you play as her first because she gets a lot of very powerful characters and equipment as part of her story. Her plot's pretty good, though it is a bit short as with all Saga protagonists. However, there are some dick moves late in the game which will probably leave you stranded if you don't know how to build a character. The main downside is that I recently played through the game as Laura, so I don't really want to do it again right now, but I will if you guys really want to.



Kurt is a pretty nice guy, and has some very difficult encounters throughout his quest. His main gimmick is that he has a cursed gauntlet, which draws him into one-on-one battle every so often with illusory monsters; his storyline is partly about that, but is mostly about a bunch of knights? I don't know, it's weird. Anyway, if you don't know how to build a character, the gauntlet battles may present an insurmountable roadblock. If you do know what you're doing, it can be easily exploited to make Kurt very powerful, though it is still really annoying. I'll show off what I mean about that, of course, if you guys pick him.



Mythe is a blacksmith, and has a couple unique abilities related to that. He is on the hunt for a mysterious woman he saw in a photograph, and it ends up being larger than that, of course. His story is pretty neat, and I think it is the most involved of all the characters. On the other hand his quest is by far the hardest in the game even if you know what you're doing, and there's much less leeway in his storyline to do sidequests or show off that stuff. I know this from experience, since I tried playing as him my first time through and got completely demolished. Mythe has the hardest final boss in the game, and perhaps in any JRPG.



Ventus is a carrier, which is basically a fantasy mailman. This means he is the only person with a continual supply of both experience and money, and thus is very good for a first playthrough. Story is fine; he gets to fight some vampires and there's a dragon involved, stuff like that. Mostly Ventus is about the sidequests, since he can eventually get access to pretty much every city. Having lots of money would make it easy to break the game wide open, though I'll be doing that anyway.



Armic is a chapa, which is some kind of squirrel beaver thing. His storyline involves saving his tribe through collecting a bunch of rare items, which will require a lot of weird economic exploits and stuff that I probably would never bother doing for anyone else. I'm not sure that Armic's quest is even possible if you don't know what you're doing. It's madness! Armic's party is pretty weird also, though like Ventus a lot of his story is just doing sidequests. Armic has a ridiculous voice, and is basically Big the Cat.






Mythe's Adventure
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13: Finale

Armic's Adventure

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8: Finale

corn in the bible fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Apr 21, 2018

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sethimothy
Nov 1, 2006

Nyu for 1d4 points of damage
Remember in Discord when you were like "Man I hope everyone picks Armic" and I was like "I will hopefully on over and vote now? " Well here I am now... Voting for Ventus because I am not a good person. At all.

This is gonna be one hell of a ride.

Ometeotl
Feb 13, 2012



It's MISSEL! Or SISSLE!
I confused myself...



Well how could I go with anything but Mythe after that description.

HerpicleOmnicron5
May 31, 2013

How did this smug dummkopf ever make general?


Voting Kurt because you complained about him being bad. Is this a long game, or is it like the SaGa of JEB!?

serefin99
Apr 15, 2016

Mikoooon~
Your lovely shrine maiden fox wife, Tamamo no Mae, is here to help!

I know... basically nothing about the Saga series. Is it like Final Fantasy, where each game is more-or-less self-contained, or is there an actual ongoing plot through them all?

Also, gonna toss a vote for Judy since I'm a sucker for magic characters.

Solumin
Jan 11, 2013
I'm missing a huge chunk of context here, because I've never even heard of the saga games. So each character has a different story to follow, and they're all set in the same world? Is it like, I don't know, Fire Emblem Blazing Sword where different playthroughs present different perspectives on the same story?

I would normally pick Laura because she sounds awesome but I'm choosing Ventus instead.

Ratoslov
Feb 15, 2012

Now prepare yourselves! You're the guests of honor at the Greatest Kung Fu Cannibal BBQ Ever!

Hardest final boss in all RPGs, you say? Mythe, naturally.

NGDBSS
Dec 30, 2009






I know very little about the SaGa series beyond it being far more insular to Japan and having multiple storylines depending on your starting character, but I have heard about this game and its legendary sense of obscurantism. So let's roll up a d7 and go with Laura.

Twilkitri
Feb 23, 2013
Putting down a vote for Ruby because the character concept sounds interesting.

habituallyred
Feb 6, 2015
Armic with Laura as the second choice.

Insane economic exploits barely beat out ex-ex-pirate adventures as I want to see this LP get finished.

corn in the bible
Jun 5, 2004

Oh no oh god it's all true!

serefin99 posted:

I know... basically nothing about the Saga series. Is it like Final Fantasy, where each game is more-or-less self-contained, or is there an actual ongoing plot through them all?

Like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, it's a "series" in that there's a lot of shared systems and themes, and there's references for the fans, but the actual plots of the games are unrelated. There's parts of this game which any series veteran would immediately understand, but it also changes up a lot of things so I'll be explaining everything as we come to it.

Solumin posted:

I'm missing a huge chunk of context here, because I've never even heard of the saga games. So each character has a different story to follow, and they're all set in the same world? Is it like, I don't know, Fire Emblem Blazing Sword where different playthroughs present different perspectives on the same story?

Essentially, SaGa games are generally nonlinear and have lots of sidequests to discover out in the world. Like, think of a Bethesda game -- there's a main questline, sure, but most of the game is about doing other stuff. One of the traditions of the series is having multiple player characters with their own storylines and attributes, and sometimes even their own mechanics... but since they are exploring a shared world, there is a lot of overlap in the sidequests they can do. Does that make sense?

Eeepies
May 29, 2013

Bocchi-chan's... dead.
We'll have to find a new guitarist.
Armic because I want to see the economic side of this game before going to the other crazy systems.

Hankosha
Apr 1, 2008

SISTAS ARE DOIN' IT FOR THEMSELVES
Armic, because Squirrel.

Golden Battler
Sep 6, 2010

~Perfect and Elegant~
Mythe becuase I'm curious how that'll look.

Fat Samurai
Feb 16, 2011

To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.
Godspeed, you madman.

I beat this with heavy use of savestates to get the tiles I wanted, but one character was enough for me. Let's go Mythe.

Solumin
Jan 11, 2013

corn in the bible posted:

Like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, it's a "series" in that there's a lot of shared systems and themes, and there's references for the fans, but the actual plots of the games are unrelated. There's parts of this game which any series veteran would immediately understand, but it also changes up a lot of things so I'll be explaining everything as we come to it.


Essentially, SaGa games are generally nonlinear and have lots of sidequests to discover out in the world. Like, think of a Bethesda game -- there's a main questline, sure, but most of the game is about doing other stuff. One of the traditions of the series is having multiple player characters with their own storylines and attributes, and sometimes even their own mechanics... but since they are exploring a shared world, there is a lot of overlap in the sidequests they can do. Does that make sense?

That sounds very interesting and I'm looking forward to this LP. I'm kind of hoping you'll do multiple characters, but since that involves multiple playthroughs and there's a lot of overlap, I suppose you just be doing the one.

ETA: and if you already answered that in the op then just ignore me, I can't read.

RydogZeta
Feb 14, 2016
I bought this game when it first came out but never beat it so good luck with the LP.

I say we start with Ruby.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
First off, thanks for all the gameplay advice for Romancing SaGa 2! Definitely digging it and might have to check out the other SaGa games now.

That said, voting Mythe because I'm an rear end in a top hat.

Dance Officer
May 4, 2017

It would be awesome if we could dance!
You should consider switching to a different file format for your pictures and screenshots. I'm on a fairly fast internet connection and it still took more than a minute to load all of the images.

Dragonturtle
Feb 23, 2017

Godspeed on your LP of this you crazy bastard.

Voting for Armic so your run goes a bit smoother and you don't burn out due to the game throwing ridiculous bullshit at you.

Dragonturtle fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Dec 21, 2017

SystemLogoff
Feb 19, 2011

End Session?

sethimothy posted:

Remember in Discord when you were like "Man I hope everyone picks Armic" and I was like "I will hopefully on over and vote now? " Well here I am now... Voting for Ventus because I am not a good person. At all.

This is gonna be one hell of a ride.

Also voting for fantasy mailman.

AweStriker
Oct 6, 2014

I'm going to vote for Judy because I can not control my Mage bias.

savixeon
Oct 22, 2016
My vote goes for Ventus.

Shin Negro
Jan 20, 2009
Mythe , simply to see the tough final boss

Ubiquitous_
Nov 20, 2013

by Reene
If you're able to get through to the end, then you'll be my favorite LPer. I've been waiting for someone to tackle this game for ages.

I vote for Armie because his quest is weird and requires that you do stuff that you don't have to for the other mains.

Ubiquitous_ fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Dec 21, 2017

Explosionface
May 30, 2011

We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.


I picked this up for $2 under the assumption "it can't be that hard to play." I played for less than an hour before turning it off forever as completely unfathomable. Can't wait to see where this goes.

corn in the bible
Jun 5, 2004

Oh no oh god it's all true!

Dance Officer posted:

You should consider switching to a different file format for your pictures and screenshots. I'm on a fairly fast internet connection and it still took more than a minute to load all of the images.

You got it. The images in the OP should load faster now. Rightload was uploading everything as a low-compression PNG which looks nice, of course, but isn't really necessary.



Current vote:



Mythe 6
Armic 5
Ventus 4
Ruby 2
Judy 2
Kurt 1
Laura 1

Digamma-F-Wau
Mar 22, 2016

It is curious and wants to accept all kinds of challenges
gonna go with Ventus Changing my vote to Judy

Digamma-F-Wau fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Dec 22, 2017

placid saviour
Apr 6, 2009
In my very soul I want to vote Mythe, but it sounds like this is going to be quite the endeavour anyway, so I'll leave it up to LP'ers Choice.

Godspeed, you lunatic.

Jeabus Mahogany
Feb 13, 2011

I'm mad because of a thorn in my impenetrable hide
Voting Laura

Endorph
Jul 22, 2009
Armic

Wiffle
Jan 5, 2014
Mythe

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
I'm gonna leave it to LPer's Choice.

Getsuya
Oct 2, 2013
I watched the whole tutorial video series and still couldn’t understand combat. You’re doing gods work.

I vote for Judy because I seem to remember some guides saying she’s good for your first run.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Ground floor
mythe


This LP will be exquisite

titty_baby_
Nov 11, 2015

Armic

Scaly Haylie
Dec 25, 2004

Surprising no one, my vote goes to Armic.

Hemingway To Go!
Nov 10, 2008

im stupider then dog shit, i dont give a shit, and i dont give a fuck, and i will never shut the fuck up, and i'll always Respect my enemys.
- ernest hemingway
Laura because I read Pirate Schoolteacher or something, that sounds cool.

John Lee
Mar 2, 2013

A time traveling adventure everyone can enjoy

Judy. I got through a good portion of this game as her while completely baffled at the level-up/advancement system. I've played dozens of hours and don't understand more than the slightest thing about it, so if this LP is going to explain it even a little it'll be a mildly life-changing event.

Fun fact: The developer of these games says he makes them so obtuse because he wants to be able to play through them himself after they're done, and still not know how things are working.

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EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
Judy.

I'm a SaGa veteran who has never played this game, so I'm interested to see where this goes.

Not enough to play it for myself though.

Hellllll no.

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