[SOLVED] Q: Is grinding for experience punished?

[Spacehamster]

I tried RS2 some time ago and went grinding for XP first to get a good start. But then I read the game only gets harder if you kill too many mobs while not progressing in the story.
Is this the case in all of the SaGa games, grinding being punished?

[AH-1 Cobra]

The only other "Saga" game worse than this one for grinding would be Scarlet Grace or maybe RS2. Grinding is also a really bad idea in The Last Remnant (it's pretty much a saga game). If you like grinding and sparking attacks and powering up, Saga Frontier 1 & 2, and Romancing Saga 3 are all good for that.

You'll be locked out of some quests if your BR is too high! Yes, you can miss quests if you win too many battles, it's a dumb mechanic, and one of the reasons why I don't like this particular game. Also, good gear is extremely expensive in this game compared to some of the others, and you need good defense armor to survive attacks from high tier enemies, or you get ripped in 1-2 hits, regardless of how much your HP and other stats are, it could be the difference in getting hit for 800 vs 100. This is another reason why it's a terrible idea to raise BR too much too early, because you won't have the gear.

[Cernel Joson]

The big problem with this game is that you need to know everything ahead of time to really make sense of anything and to enjoy your playthrough. There are so many mechanics to keep track of. Battle Rank, Event Rank, Favor, learning techs, this and that quest, what unlocks what on other playthroughs... it's far more deep and complicated than any Final Fantasy. Want to trade with monsters? Too bad, we made it unintuitive and it penalizes you in battle. Want that rare weapon? Too bad, even though we put it in the game we don't feel like letting you have it. Want to max your stats? Too bad, you can only do that by fighting the strongest monsters in each family, which we made virtually impossible to do. Want to learn all weapon techs? Too bad, we put a hard penalty to your learning rate that happens when you have X many techniques. Want to use the most powerful techniques and spells in battle? Too bad, they take away your LP and permakill your character. That'll teach you to enjoy this product, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!
Why? Why would you punish people for enjoying your product? It feels spiteful on the part of the developer.

And it uses tropes common to other games, except they don't work like other games at all. Job classes are vital in most RPGs that have them, but in this game job classes are merely supplemental to everything else. Some jobs are good, most are worthless. And this being a SaGa game, no information is given to you. I'm surprised they included an ER indicator in this version, I can just imagine the Square team agonizing over that. "Should we let the play know about a vital mechanic on which everything in the game depends? No! Must...not...give...player...information!!! Must...make...player...SUFFER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Even as a returning player with over 500 hours in the PS2 version, I haven't played in about 7 or 8 years and I've forgotten a lot of details. What I'd really like is a cheat/hack for this one that lets me mod my party, skills, rank, and inventory, just to avoid putting up with the game's layer upon layer of nonsense.

[Fanta]

This thread is proof why JRPG's ended up being barebones dating sims with generic combat and plot.

[raditzaceme2]

Publicado originalmente por Cernel Joson:

Why? Why would you punish people for enjoying your product? It feels spiteful on the part of the developer.
I can just imagine the FromSoft team agonizing over that. "Should we let the play know about a vital mechanic on which everything in the game depends? No! Must...not...give...player...information!!! Must...make...player...SUFFER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Fixed your post for you. (that community is practically against hand holding instructions)

Most of your points have counter arguements, but BR and ER not being explained would leave a bad taste in anyones mouth.

Monster trades: capable of removing a fight so it doesnt raise Battle Rank, very useful for crowds if you dont use covert skills.
Rare Weapon: Most rare weapons are either from a quest or chest in end game areas. Also not neccessary as you can complete the game with atk ratings of 20-30. Heck, i think i used a hunting bow against the final boss before.
Max Stats: not needed. Can coast by most fights with good equipment and understanding of what you are fighting.
Weapon Techs: easiest way to explain why you need to raise weapon ranks is this; compare a noble who never touched a sword against a gladiator who has known only combat his life. One will learn how to fight with the weapon rather quickly while the other will struggle to learn new fighting stances. Thats why its important to raise the weapon rank. And since some weapon techs cross over into other weapons, it wouldnt hurt to learn other weapon skills if you are going melee with that character.
Most powerful skill/spell: again, you want to raise your rank with that skill/spell. A flamethrower will burn you if you dont know how to aim it properly. Weapons that cost LP are meant for characters who have a very high rank in that class (+4 at bare minimum). Weapons and LP are recoverable whenever visiting a town, so unless you are spamming the attack every single encounter, you should be relatively fine.
Classes: Classes are very helpful. Some will make it easier to find chests, some will make trading easier, some lowers the costs of spells/skills, and some have versatility in fusing spells. All of that can be seen when viewing from change class.

Most information is given by either the kids that give maps in each town, or by looking at help when in menu. They are very information dumps, but you can use that to help you figure out which path is best.

[Joerpg84]

This is my personal experience with the SaGa games and I know each of them are very different(especially Romancing). I managed to finish SaGa Frontier 2 without a guide but never 1.

As a kid, SaGa Frontier 1 was very difficult and never understood it. However it felt like it was a game of discovery and I would not be able to complete a run as a character and decide to try another.

I finished most JRPGs I play except for a certain few (lunar dragon song lol).

When I got stuck I used to grind mobs back in the day lol. Eventually I got to the end of 1 character even with grinding but was never able to finish the final boss lol. It still gave me a lot of enjoyment and gameplay though and I did beat one characters game.

When the remaster came out, I followed a guide to the T and I have to say the game was much easier in the sense, the final boss for 1 character (Emilia) was easy but it still required some resetting on some battles to perfect things and get the right characters as I was purposely avoiding “meaningless battles” and grinding too.

I didn’t actually find the remaster as fun with a guide. It’s odd and I think the experience I got was not knowing and how grinding doesn’t save you.

It’s hard to play these games the same as a kid as we tend to have too many games out and never enough time to play 1 game. Plus the game needs to be fun. Unlimited SaGa I didn’t seem to click with and SaGa Frontier 2 I finished.

Now, everything I said may not directly apply to Romancing SaGa as mechanics vastly vary but there is a core principle that the games are unique and you don’t need to avoid battles completely.

The Last Remnant on 360 was so fun and I didn’t know anything about BR in that and somehow did the optional boss grinding xD. It was much much easier replaying it optimally.

[The Ultimate Despair]

Publicado originalmente por Darkling:

Publicado originalmente por Chris:

Well I went ahead and grinded anyway because I figured there's no where in seven hells that the game would punish you that much to a point where it actually soft locks you out of progressing.. How wrong was I, mobs are now 2 or 3 shotting me. What in actual ♥♥♥♥ is this crap? How the hell are you supposed to farm items for blacksmith, make money, get jewels for the trainer, freakin gain stats, when you can't even grind? Who thought this was a good idea for a game mechanic?

Just cheat. Wait for a Cheat Engine table to drop that limits the BR to something reasonable, then grind to your heart's content.

Leave it to Square Enix to make a wonderful battle system and punish you for enjoying it. Truly the dumbest people on the planet.

What? My man, this series was developed by a specific team at Square. Square-Enix has a bajillion games that does not do this kind of dumb decisions.
Final Fantasy games all have great battle systems. Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Rudra no Hihou, Dragon Quest we can go on and on and on.
The SaGa games are the absolute outliers here.