What to take over

[Power_Bert]

After finishing the first run with mido the game recommended to my surprise that I should take over all of my items and everything.
Somehow that feels like cheating to me. What’s your opinion on this?
Won’t I completely ruin my game by retaining all my high level stuff and materials?

[puppetgeneral39]

It's common for SaGa games. Numerous installments in the series are made to be beaten multiple times. So to cut down on grind and let the player enjoy the story, they're very generous with New Game+ carry overs.

[ChickenStrip]

Originally posted by puppetgeneral39:

It's common for SaGa games. Numerous installments in the series are made to be beaten multiple times. So to cut down on grind and let the player enjoy the story, they're very generous with New Game+ carry overs.

This is not common in SaGa games. Only the Remasters added Item carry over for a first iteration of NG+. Romancing SaGa had an elaborate NG+ system that did not carry over actual strength.

Here, you can do it either way. I am doing NG+ like it was in SSG, which is very interesting. Quests evolve and change, Battle Rank seems to increase faster, the trading system opens up new possibilities.

It is your choice. I think that the developers made a bad decision in encouraging item/stat/HP carry over on a first run, but how information is stored "Highest Value" via a system save rather than loading save to save to save through NG+ cycles works way better than it did in SSG.

Every other SaGa game is wildly more repetitive than EB, because you see much of the same content in each run. EB evolves a ton and has multiple potential final boss fights either per zone, per character, or per "version" of the zone. It is insanely replayable and if you like SaGa early game, turn OFF for HP/items/skills/ranks. Battle Rank either increases faster for NG+ regardless, OR the dynamic system is really strong where playing the game well will surge you ahead in BR on repeat plays. My highest weapon skill of 12 after 4 worlds on this second run is as high as my highest skill on my completed ~8 world run of NG.

[Power_Bert]

Originally posted by ChickenStrip:

Originally posted by puppetgeneral39:

It's common for SaGa games. Numerous installments in the series are made to be beaten multiple times. So to cut down on grind and let the player enjoy the story, they're very generous with New Game+ carry overs.

This is not common in SaGa games. Only the Remasters added Item carry over for a first iteration of NG+. Romancing SaGa had an elaborate NG+ system that did not carry over actual strength.

Here, you can do it either way. I am doing NG+ like it was in SSG, which is very interesting. Quests evolve and change, Battle Rank seems to increase faster, the trading system opens up new possibilities.

It is your choice. I think that the developers made a bad decision in encouraging item/stat/HP carry over on a first run, but how information is stored "Highest Value" via a system save rather than loading save to save to save through NG+ cycles works way better than it did in SSG.

Every other SaGa game is wildly more repetitive than EB, because you see much of the same content in each run. EB evolves a ton and has multiple potential final boss fights either per zone, per character, or per "version" of the zone. It is insanely replayable and if you like SaGa early game, turn OFF for HP/items/skills/ranks. Battle Rank either increases faster for NG+ regardless, OR the dynamic system is really strong where playing the game well will surge you ahead in BR on repeat plays. My highest weapon skill of 12 after 4 worlds on this second run is as high as my highest skill on my completed ~8 world run of NG.

But then what if there are quests that require you to grind multiple playtroughs of concepts and enhanced items to beat them? Maaan...
I really hate that the whole New Game plus is so vague. It affects your whole run...maybe all following runs as well and the game doesnt tell you anything.

[ChickenStrip]

Originally posted by Power_Bert:

Originally posted by ChickenStrip:

This is not common in SaGa games. Only the Remasters added Item carry over for a first iteration of NG+. Romancing SaGa had an elaborate NG+ system that did not carry over actual strength.

Here, you can do it either way. I am doing NG+ like it was in SSG, which is very interesting. Quests evolve and change, Battle Rank seems to increase faster, the trading system opens up new possibilities.

It is your choice. I think that the developers made a bad decision in encouraging item/stat/HP carry over on a first run, but how information is stored "Highest Value" via a system save rather than loading save to save to save through NG+ cycles works way better than it did in SSG.

Every other SaGa game is wildly more repetitive than EB, because you see much of the same content in each run. EB evolves a ton and has multiple potential final boss fights either per zone, per character, or per "version" of the zone. It is insanely replayable and if you like SaGa early game, turn OFF for HP/items/skills/ranks. Battle Rank either increases faster for NG+ regardless, OR the dynamic system is really strong where playing the game well will surge you ahead in BR on repeat plays. My highest weapon skill of 12 after 4 worlds on this second run is as high as my highest skill on my completed ~8 world run of NG.

But then what if there are quests that require you to grind multiple playtroughs of concepts and enhanced items to beat them? Maaan...
I really hate that the whole New Game plus is so vague. It affects your whole run...maybe all following runs as well and the game doesnt tell you anything.

The Battle Rank actually works as intended for once. It will be a while before the inner workings are deciphered, but if somebody actually encounters battles that don't scale with BR, we'd hear about it and also likely understand more about how BR works.

[Power_Bert]

As i see it right now, it would make sense to take over Trade Level, trial level and "concepts" and character values. Items seems wrong to me.

[ChickenStrip]

Originally posted by Power_Bert:

As i see it right now, it would make sense to take over Trade Level, trial level and "concepts" and character values. Items seems wrong to me.

Even character values is awkward, because it encourages using the same characters over and over and leads to giant power swings based on whether you manage to recruit characters you had previously used. Trade, Trial, and Concepts are all "neutral" power carry over.

The Battle Rank mechanics are going to scale regardless of what you do. If you bring the big stuff over, you're going to demolish fights and be regarded as more powerful, which is going to increase Battle Rank at a faster rate.

The game works for pretty much any sort of NG+ carry over. The defaults are just the sort of thing that the JRPG playerbase tends to like in NG+, but there's so many game mechanics that are subtly adjusting to account for whatever you want to do. Starting Battle Rank is awkward to carry over for a bunch of reasons-- It works well for Mido/Ameya and is less interesting/good for the other 3 protagonists.

[Power_Bert]

Originally posted by ChickenStrip:

Originally posted by Power_Bert:

As i see it right now, it would make sense to take over Trade Level, trial level and "concepts" and character values. Items seems wrong to me.

Even character values is awkward, because it encourages using the same characters over and over and leads to giant power swings based on whether you manage to recruit characters you had previously used. Trade, Trial, and Concepts are all "neutral" power carry over.

The Battle Rank mechanics are going to scale regardless of what you do. If you bring the big stuff over, you're going to demolish fights and be regarded as more powerful, which is going to increase Battle Rank at a faster rate.

The game works for pretty much any sort of NG+ carry over. The defaults are just the sort of thing that the JRPG playerbase tends to like in NG+, but there's so many game mechanics that are subtly adjusting to account for whatever you want to do. Starting Battle Rank is awkward to carry over for a bunch of reasons-- It works well for Mido/Ameya and is less interesting/good for the other 3 protagonists.

Yeah you are right. It just seemed to me that playing with Mido again, the new campaign seems more like a continuation of the same story than a fresh start. Hes going out on a new adventure as the thread to his city has risen again. So it would make sense to take over the power creep stuff.
Playing as the witch on another hand felt completely off when starting out with all the stuff Mido had at the end of his campaign.
Would have been way better if that whole carry over spiel was on a "per character" basis.

[Power_Bert]

I think i have to take back my negativity.
Started another run as mido and ... wow...
the game not only now changes the story to have a little bit more backround explanation, but theres way more combat encounters, old worlds are changed and the difficulty is pretty spot on in a quick way even though i tokk everything with me.
Second run with the same character and everything is even more engaging now.
As a fan of unlimited saga and Scarlet Grace this is quickly becoming my new favorite.
The combat system somehow manages to even be deeper than scarlet graces.
All around thumbs up.
That said the whole structure of the game is a HARD pill to swallow for everyone just looking for a casual jrpg experience or gaming journalists for that matter.
You pretty much HAVE to repeat playthroughs to engage with what makes this saga good.

[ChickenStrip]

Originally posted by Power_Bert:

I think i have to take back my negativity.
Started another run as mido and ... wow...
the game not only now changes the story to have a little bit more backround explanation, but theres way more combat encounters, old worlds are changed and the difficulty is pretty spot on in a quick way even though i tokk everything with me.
Second run with the same character and everything is even more engaging now.
As a fan of unlimited saga and Scarlet Grace this is quickly becoming my new favorite.
The combat system somehow manages to even be deeper than scarlet graces.
All around thumbs up.
That said the whole structure of the game is a HARD pill to swallow for everyone just looking for a casual jrpg experience or gaming journalists for that matter.
You pretty much HAVE to repeat playthroughs to engage with what makes this saga good.

Yeah, the different Free Quests in Scarlet Grace were a huge strength, and they incorporated that into the main worlds here. In SSG, each zone had its main set of towns and sidequests, then two distinct variations used for two out of the Phoenix/Shard/Sigfrei/Serpent quests. Here they took that concept to make at least two wildly branching configurations for each world.