Progression normal vs slow

[Aksamitny Grzmot]

Hi. I've just failed my first playthrough with Grey. I've never played any SaGa game before and to be honest I'm confused about so many things here that it would take forever to count them all.
After around 10 hours of game time, I can't beat any of the bosses from the quests. I tried to fight them multiple times (Guardian in Underwater Temple and this bird Avi) and I failed miserably. I tried to do other quest like getting rid of these monsters in Aurefront but there was another boss (Dragon) that wiped 4 of 5 characters with one hit. Right now, the game seems almost impossible to play.
However, as far as I understand from various comments around the net, this may be due to the fact that I raised this "world level" (I think people call it ER?) too high before getting more powerful. I've started new playthrough with Grey, but this time I've selected slow progression. Is there any downside to selecting this? It seems that it gives you more time before monster become stronger. Does it actually make the game at least a little bit easier?

[Storm Reaver]

The first play-through will be the hardest because ER totally messes with you. The ER ( Event Rank ) essentially effects story progress and encounter difficulty. You basically want to avoid as many battles as possible so you don't get screwed over. Choose Slow Progress.

You want to focus on getting Jewels and Gold efficiently somehow.

With level 0 Covert you can farm Jewels with Move Silently and Lurk. Use this to upgrade classes to level three and unlock some legendary classes. You want to focus primarily on classes that you are going to use and classes that you will start with next play-through.

The main character can choose a class they unlocked and get jewel discounts on abilities the starting class has. That way they can upgrade easier with less jewels and makes things much easier in the long run.

The money can be gotten with Gold farming at Mines, Dinosaur Eggs and a bunch of easy quests. You can use a walk-through to find out what order quests you want to take to make the best of your time.

Give "Covert" to non-story characters. Get them to leave the party and use the jewel trick before you invite them back to the party again. The Minstrel would be a good choice because you have access to him with everyone at any town. You could also choose Barbara, as she already starts with Covert anyways.

Focus on Armour before Weapons. You don't want to be squishy.

[the_atolm]

I don't understand how one can raise Event Rank (doesn't it directly progress based on the number of battles fought? And isn't it independent of Battle Rank?) without getting comparably stronger. I'm no Minstrel Song expert, though. I wonder if there might be issues with your party's load-out or your general approach towards battles. Boss encounters are supposed to be very much a "skin of your teeth" sort of thing in the Saga series generally. You also probably have other options you haven't explored (other quests without bosses or significantly weaker bosses, etc.) that will allow you to learn skills and raise stats before returning to challenge the bosses again. I might be wrong, but bosses in the Saga series tend to have static stats (although HP sometimes scales with BR), so raising BR won't make the run-of-the-mill bosses harder.

[Storm Reaver]

Having ER progress too fast can cause you to miss quests. Therefore you miss Jewels and Gold, which screws you over by not being equipped properly. Which makes your life much harder, because you have to find ways to FIX that without the quests.

On the first play-through this can make or break your experience. Especially when the game gives you no real direction and you can easily miss things. After you start to gain decent enough armour and abilities to survive, then you should be fine.

The ER inside your menu increases with battles.

[Aksamitny Grzmot]

Originally posted by Storm Reaver:

The first play-through will be the hardest because ER totally messes with you. The ER ( Event Rank ) essentially effects story progress and encounter difficulty. You basically want to avoid as many battles as possible so you don't get screwed over. Choose Slow Progress.

You want to focus on getting Jewels and Gold efficiently somehow.

With level 0 Covert you can farm Jewels with Move Silently and Lurk. Use this to upgrade classes to level three and unlock some legendary classes. You want to focus primarily on classes that you are going to use and classes that you will start with next play-through.

The main character can choose a class they unlocked and get jewel discounts on abilities the starting class has. That way they can upgrade easier with less jewels and makes things much easier in the long run.

The money can be gotten with Gold farming at Mines, Dinosaur Eggs and a bunch of easy quests. You can use a walk-through to find out what order quests you want to take to make the best of your time.

Give "Covert" to non-story characters. Get them to leave the party and use the jewel trick before you invite them back to the party again. The Minstrel would be a good choice because you have access to him with everyone at any town. You could also choose Barbara, as she already starts with Covert anyways.

Focus on Armour before Weapons. You don't want to be squishy.

Thanks for the tips. I'm right now on my second playthrough with progression set to 'Slow'. It's kinda weird, because now, random mobs are extremely easy, even without better equipment. However, I seem to have a new problem, as I acquire new skills incredibly slower than on my first playthrough. I dunno if it is tied to the selected progression or if I'm doing something wrong now. I'm three hours in and I have only three skills available for the Grey's falcata (Sunder, Blunt Strike and Bonecrasher). With random enemies, it is not a big deal, but right now I cannot even take on bosses that I was able to beat before (like this octopus in Crystal Lake). Do I have to do sth specific to get new skills, like fighting certain enemies/bosses or using particular skills?

[Storm Reaver]

Your characters weapon level and the weapon mode determine whether you can spark new techniques. You need at least level 4 to unlock ALL your techniques, but random chance will determine when you unlock those skills.

Also, certain skills are necessary to unlock other skills. Google : Minstrel Song Tech List.

You can save-scum encounters to make sure you gain techniques or attributes. That's only when you don't want to raise ER higher, but want to unlock something. You can actually load save files during battle to make things easier too.

PS : Castle Knight + Defence Mode + Decent Armour = Easy Mode