Will someone explain the time skipping to me and when it's safe to trigger?

[Cat]

So I'm new to this series, sort of, the whole succession thing is cool, but it also gives me extreme FOMO in a way that makes it a bit less enjoyable cause I'm stressing over it.

So I get that battles makes everything harder the more you do it, but it also makes your time skips last longer? Is there a consequence to this? Am I gonna hit a deadline if I don't manage my time better?

The other thing that gets me is the whole, quests can expire or needs generations to pass for things to change, should I be worried about this too? I get the game is meant to be replayed and you can't see everything, but it stresses me out a bit when I have several open quests from exploring thinking they will go away if I don't do them right now, but then they trigger a timeskip. Will I be punished for exploring the world instead of annexing one zone at a time?

I know about the final emperor, but is there is a time limit where I eventually stop being able to swap emperors or is it based on progress (seven heroes killed?)

Lastly if I have an emperor swap by giving up their position, does this also screw me over or can I game the system a bit by using it to gain formations or swap from an emperor I don't like if my options are limited to classes I don't want?

[LouisKM124]

You can battle as much as you want. Enemy max level won't go beyond 16 in original difficulty. Weak enemies are still weak and strong enemies really don't become much stronger so feel free to grind. Timeskip is NOT a punishment. You need it to trigger events. Some events will disappear after timeskip. You will be forced to become final emperor after you beat the fifth hero.

[Cat]

So I can keep swapping (or time skipping) so long as I don't beat the 5th hero boss? Obviously I'm not planning to go through like 100 emperors or anything, but that's a bit of a relief, I won't get time gated and end the game too soon by skipping time?

[LouisKM124]

Originally posted by Sunricer:

So I can keep swapping (or time skipping) so long as I don't beat the 5th hero boss? Obviously I'm not planning to go through like 100 emperors or anything, but that's a bit of a relief, I won't get time gated and end the game too soon by skipping time?

You can until everyone became emperor once at some point. There's no time limit. The time skip only affect which year you finish the game at which has no effect on the game.

[Cat]

So skipping time is not a penalty, but what about quests? For example I have two quests that both trigger a time skip, reporting back about the mine south of the capital and talking to the corsair leader, both trigger a time skip, but could I safely do them back to back without anything else getting locked out that I haven't seen?

I mean in the sense that there is a ticking clock for some quests in the background that I won't see because I didn't do them in the right order? Or am I free to just explore and annex regions as I see fit short of something major coming up like the invitation to a nearby kingdom at the start of gen 3?

[LouisKM124]

The following 2 quest will disappear after timeskip. So be careful.
1. Cumberland will fall if you don't deal with it as soon as possible. It doesn't actually "disappear" but it will turn into a different quest.
2. Mermaid quest will be gone forever if sunken ship event is triggered. It's also needed to be done by the same male character before another timeskip happens.
Otherwise, you don't really need to worry about timeskip.
However, Some events need timeskip to trigger following up events, You won't be able timeskip anymore once you became the final emperor so I recommend dealing with corsair quest and Volcano of Comroon Island in early game or mid game.
Keep these in mind and you can do missions in different orders.

[Cat]

I know of the mermaid one (honestly my biggest concern), but what triggers sunken ship? I'm still early on (3rd gen, only annexed cumberland via the "good" path.) so far been exploring and doing quests up to the time skips, which is stressing me out not knowing how badly I'll mess up if I keep letting time skip. (Hence this thread)

[LouisKM124]

corsair triggers garon's rebellion, then it triggers sunken ship. If you are worried, do mermaid quest before doing rebellion quest or soon after it.

[Cat]

So I can delay the trigger by delaying the rebellion? I wanted to do the corsairs to open the sea a bit. (they won't let me travel otherwise), but when I do it triggers a time skip, but if I then just don't touch the follow up quest, I will be fine to do the mermaid stuff?

[LouisKM124]

Originally posted by Sunricer:

So I can delay the trigger by delaying the rebellion? I wanted to do the corsairs to open the sea a bit. (they won't let me travel otherwise), but when I do it triggers a time skip, but if I then just don't touch the follow up quest, I will be fine to do the mermaid stuff?

Yes and timeskips are actually not guaranteed to happen after every events. There's a hidden mechanism about it. In short words, doing quests grant you some points and timeskip happens after gathering certain amount of points. You can check more details about it on guides. So, even after doing the rebellion quest, sunken ship won't happen right after that most of the time, that's why I said you are still able to do mermaid quest before doing rebellion quest or soon after doing it.

[Cat]

Thanks this makes me less stressed about the whole thing knowing there isn't an invisible doom timer on my head.

[Elegnaim]

Maybe this is more true for Minstrel Song than RS2 but, for what it's worth, I always got the impression you're supposed to miss quests in the Romancing Saga games -- it's very much intended that you replay them and try different things on the next go around and stumble into surprising new content. Some of the things you can do are functionally mutually exclusive too, and I don't think you can really softlock yourself by missing quests.

I guess what I'm saying is don't worry about missing things, unlike in other JRPGs that's the *right* way to play here.

[Talesin]

Timeskips may happen every time you capture a region, and there is 13 capturable regions.

In addition, the mermaid quest always causes a timeskip, and defeating Subier also might cause one.

So in total there is only 15 possible timeskips but usually you don't timeskip capturing your first region meaning its just 14.

And as mentioned in a post above, its only 2 quests that gets affected by the timeskips.