So let me get this straight....

[pozertron]

This is a jRPG in which you are punished for grinding because the enemies grow in power depending on how many fights you've won? In a game where some enemies are impossible to avoid because they run too fast, or the controls are too janky? In a game where your characters get 2 shot and run out of LP almost right away?

[Xariot]

Originally posted by pozertron:

This is a jRPG in which you are punished for grinding because the enemies grow in power depending on how many fights you've won? In a game where some enemies are impossible to avoid because they run too fast, or the controls are too janky? In a game where your characters get 2 shot and run out of LP almost right away?

"Punished" is a rather silly word to use. If you're feeling punished by the increased difficulty and loss of characters as you fight monsters, you just aren't understanding the game flow. This game isn't like other RPGs your characters are expected to die and be replaced.

You can't come at this game like you would other RPGs. Also LP is going to be lost, obviously avoid it as much as you can but eventually someone is going to die permanently.

Grinding is perfectly acceptable, you just need to accept the inevitable deaths and replace those characters with new ones. The cycle of death and replacement is part of the game, even more so with the addition of the New Game+ feature, which can be used at any time mind you.

[Null]

It's about grinding smart than grinding mindlessly. Certain enemies are more likely to cause certain techs to spark, and there is an upper limit to the strength of the enemies. Also the maze of memories has enemies of all powerlevels if you somehow screw up that badly.

And if your characters are running out of LP quickly, you need to learn how to prioritize enemies to minimize loss of life. I'm on my 5th generation and not lost a single person, though a few have come one bad hit from death. Besides, death is an inconvenience at best, Dark Souls punishes your deaths harder than this and that's a dirty look compared to death in this.

[pozertron]

Man this is the Last Remnant all over again, should have picked my jRPG more carefully...

[Toph]

It's a pretty great game besides a few quirks.

Aside from what everyone else has already mentioned, I'll point out you can literally save at any time. It makes trial and error pretty painless and you can easily mitigate any bad luck you happen to run into.

[AH-1 Cobra]

Romancing Saga 3 is better than than 2, IMO. If they actually released 3 and not 2, I would have bought it. I don't remember much about Romancing Saga 2, other than that 3 was better.

In all these types of games, some areas got mobs and bosses that have a 'minimum' strength that can still be too strong for your party to beat at certain stages of the game. But if you manage to pull out a win somehow, you can use these OP mobs to spark techs. Risky, but it's possible you can beat some of these enemies by sparking higher level techs. I know in Romancing Saga 3, I found some OP undead enemies in the basement of a castle, and I was getting trashed hard. Ended up using 'random arrow' with a bow, and sparked 'million dollar' and OHKO'd the screen. Was like W.....T....F? Nice! I'll take it! Skipped sparking 'flash arrow' and went straight to 'million dollar'. The character that sparked the tech had like 2-3 HP left after getting nearly oneshotted. I think being at critical HP increases the chance to spark techs.

In most of these 'saga' games, the enemy strength is based purely off the average HP of your party. So it's possible to have 1 OP character carrying along a few weaker members and it should lower the enemies power. Of course, if your party gets stronger without a massive HP boost, like if you take a little time to spark some higher level techs off OP enemies, you can turn the difficulty curve in your favor.

Also, in every one of these games, certain weapons got cheap skills that have very good damage to cost ratio, and you want to learn and use these skills and sandbag your FP in larger dungeons. Certain skills penetrate enemy defenses, and hit certain enemy types for more damage.

I did the same thing in Saga Frontier 1. I remember an encounter in a cave with a black dragon guarding a bunch of loot, and I save scummed until I sparked some techs, and I was successful at sparking the best sword + spear tech in one battle against it. Ended up finishing the fight with 1 character surviving.

[MilkBeard]

I don't understand why people have a hard time grasping this concept. The game is nonlinear, and always presents several paths to go through. If one area is too difficult, you can try another that is at your level.

The scaling enemies is a means to always keep the game challenging no matter which path you take. If you learn to play the game, you won't need to grind; you will naturally get better with enemies you face along the paths you choose. If you come across a boss or enemies that are decimating you, it means you need to find an easier path first.

[pozertron]

The problem is not that enemies scale, the problem is that they scale off of your "random" stat increases. Final Fantasy 8 had scaling enemies, but unlike this here.... FF8 had you in control of your progression from leveling to stat redistribution. Not to mention that the game even had the decency to explain all of that to you. Here we have a game that starts you off in a dungeon where you get 3 shot and nothing is explained. There isn't even a manual present anywhere in the game

[Xariot]

Originally posted by crimsonedge11:

If they actually released 3 and not 2, I would have bought it.

So if they do release 3 you're not going to buy it because they released 2?

Originally posted by pozertron:

The problem is not that enemies scale, the problem is that they scale off of your "random" stat increases. Final Fantasy 8 had scaling enemies, but unlike this here.... FF8 had you in control of your progression from leveling to stat redistribution. Not to mention that the game even had the decency to explain all of that to you. Here we have a game that starts you off in a dungeon where you get 3 shot and nothing is explained. There isn't even a manual present anywhere in the game

Old school game. Original release December 10, 1993.

Things weren't explained a lot of the time back then, nobody really complained about it either. You used to have to figure a lot of things out yourself.

Remember this was back before https://lmgtfy.com/

Final fantasy 8 was February 11, 1999 by then some people needed things explained more I guess.

[pozertron]

Originally posted by Xariot:

Originally posted by crimsonedge11:

If they actually released 3 and not 2, I would have bought it.

So if they do release 3 you're not going to buy it because they released 2?

Originally posted by pozertron:

The problem is not that enemies scale, the problem is that they scale off of your "random" stat increases. Final Fantasy 8 had scaling enemies, but unlike this here.... FF8 had you in control of your progression from leveling to stat redistribution. Not to mention that the game even had the decency to explain all of that to you. Here we have a game that starts you off in a dungeon where you get 3 shot and nothing is explained. There isn't even a manual present anywhere in the game

Old school game. Original release December 10, 1993.

Things weren't explained a lot of the time back then, nobody really complained about it either. You used to have to figure a lot of things out yourself.

Remember this was back before https://lmgtfy.com/

Final fantasy 8 was February 11, 1999 by then some people needed things explained more I guess.

I have the original Romancing Saga 3 SNES cartrige in my drawer "japanese version" and it came with the manual that explained everything i needed to know to play the game (45 pages thick) https://imgur.com/a/G9k6a . This has nothing to do with oldschool.

[Null]

You own the SNES RS3 along with the manual and you weren't aware of battle rank?

[pozertron]

Originally posted by Fz Dynelight:

You own the SNES RS3 along with the manual and you weren't aware of battle rank?

The game is in japanese, what did you expect...

[Null]

I'd expect you to do Katarina's scenario and wonder why Goblins changed their enemy lineup on the way out of the ruined building.

[pozertron]

i played the game for an hour and never touched it again, probably because of the same reason i made this topic. Only this time there actually is no manual.

[Reptile Tom]

Once you learn how the different enemy types move around, they are pretty easy to avoid. You can do whole dungeons with only a few fights.
Fights are pretty easy too. Use up all your SP all the time and have a pile of the full party sp recovery items on you. Really the only tough fights are bosses, but you can save scum them pretty hard.

[DJukor]

Its only pu nishing if you grind at trash mobs in the begining of the game.
Best way to play it is to just play the game ond only get in to fights that impede your progress.
Only grinding a bit if you do encounter a boss you cant beat althou in that case its suauly better to find another boss.
Althou bosses also scale whit how many fights you whare in.