Unlimited SaGa: My Impressions

Yes, this is much more positive than what X said first of all =P. I ended up getting the game today and have been playing for a while as Kurt.

So far, the difficulty is much higher than any of the other SaGa games I’ve played (all of 'em except RS1&2). LP goes down pretty quickly, and if you’re not paying much attention to it, you’ll end up with 0 HP and almost dead.

The towns are entirely menu based which has it’s pros and cons. It makes everything a lot easier to see, but there’s no real sense of exploration in it.

Dungeons- here’s one of the major things. As everyone knows, the dungeons are boards. The whole thing is like a huge board game which is an interesting concept. You have to actually examine each board to find anything hidden (using such skills as Road Guide etc). Some maps have a time limit, but I either haven’t run into one with a time limit yet, or I just haven’t taken too long. Monster appear on some slots and actually will follow you if you don’t go ahead and deal with them. If they don’t outright attack you, you can start the battle and seem to have a much larger chance of getting a pre-emptive attack.

Growth in USaGa is done through the growth panel- after every little scenario, you can increase what you want to on each character by one slot. I’m not overly sure about how everything on it works just yet, but I’ll post again when I know more about it.

Durability has returned to weapons so you can’t just keep using your trusty Copper Sword over and over again. However, unlike in SaGa Frontier 2, you can go back to town any time so you can repair you precious swords, axes, and bows.

I’m really enjoying the game so far- I can’t comment much on the story or anything since I’ve really only seen the beginning of Kurt’s. I’d recommend it to pretty much anyone who likes SaGa really.

I personally didn’t find it that hard; then again, I’ve lately switched my persona from “rush and get any XP along the way” to “take it slow, lv. up and become invincible”. So maybe I just leveled up too much.

Mmm perhaps. It’s easier now since I’m taking things slower. I ended up getting my LP drained real fast since I was trying to rush things.

Well, I can promise you you won’t like the Mines. Especially the Spider Mines. (Get it? Spider…Mine…Mines…I’m sorry.)

Yeah, I probably won’t. And yes, you’re sorry =P

I’m currently in the middle of Ruby’s story I’m definitely enjoying the game as well. I started with Judy, but since I got stuck in her quest I switched to Ruby.

Even when I got past that part, I decided to stay with Ruby. I like her a lot personally. Heck I’d play the game just for her quest in the end.

The game gives me the feeling I need to be involved. Which just adds to the excitement for me. Of course the board does get boring sometimes, but not as often as I thought it would.

St.Ajora

I bought it today, but I haven’t tried it yet. :stuck_out_tongue: I had to go to a little get-together right after I bought it, and left it in my bro’s car…and he went today to Yuma (about 80 miles from here) to Barnes and Noble’s Premiere of the new Harry Potter book…so I’ll have to wait.

Sounds good so far, I assume fighting is similar to all the recent SaGa games?

When I play, I’ll probly start with Laura. Hers and Mythe’s sound very interesting to me.

Well, I started up Laura’s quest.

I admit, it took me a while to figure it all out, I got stuck for 5 minutes on my first dungeon cos it didn’t occur to me to try the analog stick. :stuck_out_tongue: It also took me a while to figure out how to restore HP. The fighting is tough, and it’s tempting to try and do combos even when it’s a bad idea. When you could normally kill an enemy in one shot, sometimes trying combos could serve as a vehicle for them to get in that last shot before they die. It’s totally hard, but I’ve got it now. Now it’s just a matter of being patient.

As far as I can see, there’s no way to gain experience except for at the end of adventures, right? And I assume that the stuff you can get at the end of them is determined by how much you fought? I guess maybe no one here would know for sure, but uh just in case :stuck_out_tongue:

Does anyone know how magic works, yet?

I think you’re right on not getting exp til the end of the adventure SG, but I’m not positive. I noticed Kurt’s strength went from 7 to 11 in my game before I finished it but that could be because his Gauntlet went from level 1 to 3. I’m just not sure.

I have no clue about Magic. Kurt learned Metal Arts on a Copper Sword I synthesized, but he can’t use it battle so I’m stumped. I think it has to appear as one of the choices for an ability after battle.

Yeah…some people have arts but can’t use them fort some reason. I think it has to do with Familiars (You can set them as skills sometimes after Adventures), since Familiars correspond to certain elements.

The only other thing I could think of is that certain materials correspond with different elements. You might or might not have noticed that sometimes you can get two of the exact same weapons with different innate skills, like some weapons have more attacks to choose from or have Fire Arts built in, while the exact same weapon of another kind doesn’t. I’m pretty certain this has to do with the type of material the weapon is made of. …I wish I had a clue. :stuck_out_tongue:

Also, I’ve pretty much confirmed that only sidequests have actual time limits on turns. Of course, sometimes they’re cleverly created by the story behind the sidequest (Like “Oooh-The-Crazy-Beast-Is-Coming-For-Ya” or something), but sometimes they just have a limit, and don’t give any such notice.

Also, has anyone figured out Arts? Like, if I go into the super duper menu while I’m on the map (The one to change formations, sort combos and such), I can see a whole bunch of techs that my peoples have, but I don’t know how to equip or use them at all. I don’t know what the hell it means. :open_mouth:

I think I’ve figured it out. I got a Magical Tablet for Fire Arts- you have to choose to study it, and I believe you’ll learn spells eventually when they finish studying. I’m not totally sure on this though.

Hmm, I’m not sure how to choose tablets to study. I tried to do that once, and every time I did, it said “Pick Tablet to Study.” What the hell? I’m on the tablets screen after all :stuck_out_tongue: How do you choose a tablet to study?

And also, I’m not quite sure what a tablet does overall…like, I have Judy in my group, and she seemed to already be studying one. Every time I used a spell, I’d get the opportunity to raise some silly ability like Detect Wildlings, Detect Monster, and Detect Vegeplasts, some things like that. And after I got the meter on one all the way up, it gave me three totally new options to raise. Suffice to say, I’m confused. :stuck_out_tongue:

Well, with Ventus, I just selected Fire Arts, and it asked if I wanted to study it so I said yes. I haven’t done anything since then though. I haven’t seen any crazy meters or anything yet so I have no clue =P

  1. Find a tablet and place it on your grid at the end of a scenario

  2. During a scenario press circle. Go to the menu of the character with the tablet by pressing left or right.

  3. Choose study magic tablet. It should now let you choose one from one of your panels. Obviously choose the panel names Magic Tablet Level #.

  4. Say yes to studying the tablet by pressing X. I think you can only study one panel at a time per character.

  5. Fight a battle and use magic. Make sure the magic is used during the battle.

  6. Win the battle and now you have a chance to decode a spell partially.

  7. How much probably depends on the spell you used, where you hit the reel and the spell you want to learn.

  8. Sometimes on rare occasions the bar barely moves at all.

That’s how I learn spells. I’m pressed for time so this is all for now.

St.Ajora

A little bit of info I found at gamefaqs :stuck_out_tongue: It was translated from a japanese site, and it’s a bit hard toread, but it works. :stuck_out_tongue:

-how do you open chest or climb up ladder?
go into “Skill” -> select the item to interact with -> select “Action”

-will LP go up after clearing a scenario?
no, LP is fixed, but HP MAY go up.

-i got poisoned!!
if you got hurt press the right analog stick to rest. hp recovery rate depends on character and ill status will recover after certain turns.

-what’s the meaning of the location’s color?
for places you are moving to, red word means “dangerous”, blue means “safe”, and yellow is in between.

-can you pass/standby/rest in battle?
no only on the map.

-how do you open magically locked chest?
instead of selecting what skill to use, scroll down and select an item with “(blah) Spell” ability, select it and scroll down on its list to select an attack spell, then you can reel to try to unlock the chest.

-how do you find out how many turns are left?
triangle button. (main quests dont have turn limits)

-can you do mass attack?
in the early stage of the game try to get the “Detarame Ya” (strife arrow?) bow skill, spells like gold spell’s “Shock” can also attack all enemies.

-any demerit for pass/standby/rest?
you get kicked back to the town when the turn expires.

-how do you increase a weapon’s life/energy?
unequip it, merge it with other materials or use the “Simple Fix” skill.

-can you run away from battle?
no.

-do ways of positioning the skill panels mean anything?
yes, you get bonus for placing them next to each other (joint), 3 in a row (line), or in a form of triangle (triangle).

-how do you fix weapon’s life/energy?
go to “Item”, select the item and select fix. wood spell’s fix magic can be used even in battle, and this spell can even fix 0 life/energy weapon.

-when do you use the “Diplomacy” skill?
when you meet monsters, of course IF it’s not going to attack you on sight (undead, devil and the like are hostile monsters which will attack you immediately) if succeed then the monster will disappear.

-can you always use “Fix Weapon” skill?
not when the life/energy of the weapon is 0 or too high (like above 20).

-how do you trade item?
in stores where you can only trade to get the item, select the item and you will see a list of YOUR items, highlight ones you want to trade and press triangle button. on the bottom of the screen you will then see the “Trade Rate” goes up. the trade is ok if the “Trade Rate” reaches 100 (so sometimes you have to give more than 1 item), then press ok to finalize the trade.

-how do you learn magic?
first you need to equip Magic Slate, then while in dungeon press square and go set up the Magic Slate you want to decode, then during battle use any magic at least once and after the battle you can select which spell to decode. when the bar under the spell’s full you successfully decoded the spell.
for casting magic, you need items with the proper “(blah) Magic” ability in order to be able to cast spells of that category. familiars have their own spells and since they can be used infinite times they are the best to use when learning magic.

-fotune telling only tells you what’s inside the chest?
fortune telling will increase the quality of the item in the chest. but watch out if you roll a “bomb” then the quality of the item will descrease instead.

-how do you flash (the lightbulb) out skills in battle?
it’s random, but it’s easier to flash out skills on tough enemies or bosses.

what to do when enemies always mess up my chain?
one way for getting out 4-chain combo is to have a person casts spells first, then the enemies will usually finish all their attacks (cause the spell is the slowest to act) and after that you can chain the rest 4 attacks without interruption.

-for example, will you get “Dagger Lv5” if you put “Dagger Lv3” and “Dagger Lv2” together?
no, if you put them next to each other you get a joint bonus, if you put one on top of the other it will only erase the other skill panel.

-can you do soft-reset?
it’s in the instruction manual…L1+R1+start+select, note do NOT press L2 and R2.

-which character is the easiest?
Loura.

-is the member dead when his/her/its LP reaches 0?
no LP will fully recover after the scenario.

-i died at the boss after all these hours…
for games which erase the interruption data it’s good to use the “copy trick” to copy the system file onto another memory card, thus you dont have to do everything again.

-what are those “Road Guide” skills for?
you can search the surronding and find chest or monster when you are in the proper environment. (Road/outside, Cave, Building…)

-how good are the martial arts? (punch kick throw)
GOOD. for one thing they dont require fixing!
but how good can you get with martial arts heavily depends on your equipment, your character’s natural speed, and you having the proper skill panel or not.
each martial art skill has THREE categories:
if you are heavy and without panel -> 1
if you are heavy but have panel -> 2
if you are light and without panel -> 2
if you are light and have panel -> 3
character’s weight is determined by the sum of the natural weight and the equipment, greater than 15 will be considered “heavy”. modified equipments are all 0 so that’s a good news…
light main characters (basic weight is small) are Judy (4) and Armic (5). Judy is 11. Cash is 18 so forget him.
light sub characters are Roy (0!!), the Silver Girl (7), Joseph (7), Anri (8).

-what’s after message “(blah)'s (boo) received!” means?
this means the item’s hidden power has being drawn out. if you do a good merge in merge store then some of these powers will be out to begin with, save you some times trying to draw them out in battle.

-what’s the “Maharaja” skill for?
you can sell items for better price with this skill equipped.

-what are some of the most important skills?
disarm trap, unlock, fortune telling, fix weapon. (this is why laura is easy to start)

-is there any merit for skills like “Weapon Seal”?
it’s a negative skill, it MAY raise more stats than other panels but your panel slots are better for other skills.

-why do you have to clear sub events?
because the main events can get very hard…

-what are “Good Ear”, “Good Reflex”, and “Boring” skills for? (really sorry about these translations, i know they r not perfect)
Good Ear: can listen well, can understand where the enemies are on the map.
Good Reflex: agile body, dodge rate for things like trap is higher (more circles in the reel).
Bring: plain. monsters will be likely to attack you, pretty obvious when in high level.

-you can not get more than 7 members?
you CAN but, you can only bring 7 into dungeons.

-do you really need shooter and spell caster?
they make the game easier, because of the possible mass attack skill/spell.

-how do you get the store to take out “digged items”?
use the “Sharp Eyes” skill.

-which one is better? bow or gun?
BOW. (but gun is actually not bad for spell casters, because of its fixed power)

-does weapon skill panels have effect on the reel?
definately. for example, with lv4 panel i can get 2 lv4 skills together on the reel, thus i can almost roll out a lv4 attack everytime!

-enemies’s rank depends on dungeon’s level? or time?
both, so try not to clear scenarios with too many tries, because you will only stats up when you finish the scenario and…time will make the monsters stronger.

-can you tell is the chest a mimic?
use the “Exaime” skill.

-which is better? “Combat Mastery” or “Punch”?
uh the logical choice is of couse “Combat Mastery” (good at punch kick and throw all together)

-enemies’ LP are so tough to decrease…
try to incrase the “Skill” attribute, then you can deal more LP damage in your attack.

-what’s the meaning of battle?
this time…well…probably just for trying to learn skills and spells…
but fight more will get you better panel at the end of the scenario.

-i cant take out negative skills!
for “Weapon Seal”, overwrite it with the specific weapon you are sealing.

-how do you recover LP?
IF you passed certain sub event and get the herb, then you can, otherwise, again wait til you finish the scenario. (or time’s up)

-what’s being carried over in second play and beyond?
item flow rate, chain list, and monster names.
some says skills that came out will be more easily to come out again in future plays.

-which panel bonus is the best?
line bonus.

-how do I view the potentials of magics and attributes?
press square (or go into Status and select detailed view)and select to view the potentials.

-will store’s list refresh when you exit the scenario after time’s up?
No. (thus again try not do linger on one scenario too many times)

-how come you can equip items to the wrong position?
this…i have no idea…but we can abuse this feature and use one of the craziest trick of the game…if you want you can put armor on all parts then…you have a perfect meat shield (defense will be like 60+ of course he then cant really do anything else).

-what are some of the rare materials?
Lordstar, Dragonheart, Siva’s Queen…

-how do you use the “Forbidden Spell”?
you need the “Forbidden Spell” of course. items with “Magic Stone” base have such abililty.

-if enemy’s hp is 0 then we can deal more LP damage?
Yes.

-can you overwrite the Magic Slate panel after you have decoded all the spells on it?
yes, although leave them on will get you bonus, but if it’s just a low level slate then it doesnt really matter.

-where can i get items with “(blah) Spell” ability?
magic shop sells dagger, wand, and accessory with these ability on it.

-what’s the meaning of reeling for spell?
the result will vary depends on which element you roll out.

-how can i get “Regeneration” skill on the item?
use the Dragonheart material.

-what is “Spell Merge”?
it’s another family of skill panels, where you can merge spells to get the ultimate series of spells. sadly this is extremely rare to get these panels…darn.

-what are “Deflect” and “Knife Guard”?
these supportive abilities can block attacks for you. just like having a shield.

Guh, I’m doing all that with the magic, and Ventus still can’t use Fire magic -_-;; I don’t know if I’ve missde something or what.

Woo, figured it out. Also, do tablets level up by themselves, or do they come at a certain level? (I’ve noticed Laura’s magic tablet I found is level 1, and Judy’s is level 2.)

And still no comment on Hamauzu’s great score :wink:

Since I don’t have a PS2, I can’t play it, but one of my best friends is getting it soon :smiley:

That’s cos it wasn’t that great, DG. :stuck_out_tongue: It’s random. Some songs are good, more often than not they’re bad though. I even found out why upon reading the soundtrack review at RPGFan:

“The technical crafsmanship of the orchestral writing and lucidity of compositional thought is impeccable, but the disc lacks Hamauzu’s customary inventiveness and searching originality. Turns out a number of tracks on this disc were written several years ago and rescued from the bottom of the drawer, which creates the illusion of a minor regression of style, with many of Hamauzu’s characteristic phrases and progressions on display in incipient form.”

All I can say is: It’s obvious :stuck_out_tongue:

Gah ! Hamauzu-san… How COULD you ?! :open_mouth: Wow… still… I’ll still appreaciate the OST anyways :stuck_out_tongue: Personally, I don’t see what’s so bad about it <.< >.>