Is this game grindy? + some other questions

[Dharma]

from what i´ve seem this game appears to have a lot of depth and brutal bosses with seens pretty fun, don´t mind being destroyed by a boss for hours or even days(currently doing that in a mod for smt5v and its been a blast)

but i just want to be certain that grinding is not a necessity to progress on anything aside from superbosses and whatnot,that you can beat anything with clever usage of the tools you have alone.i dont mind side quests and stuff just dont make me kill some random bozos on the field for hours

also, is this game light on story with easy acess to saving?i would prefer so since i have very little time for gaming recetenly,due to job and personal projects(developing a game),i just want to theory craft a bit,be destroyed,and then (maybe) beat the boss in the next day or something,turn base games are perfect for this since they tend to be very chill even when they are brutal, i love that

btw i have zero experience with saga(or any square game for that matter),90% of the jrpgs i played are atlus slop,will the learning curve be very big?

[archmag]

If you don't know how scaling works the game will be grindy because you will scale enemies by accident and then will need to grind easy repeatable battles for your party to catch up. If you don't try all random battles on the map and just progress through the main story maybe you will be able to avoid overscaling the enemies and avoid having to stop to grind.

Enemies scale until a certain point so there is a limit to how far they can scale. Scaling happens faster when you complete new battles, scaling happens slower when you complete battles which you completed before. So the normal flow of the game is you progress normally exploring new stuff, when enemies scale too much you grind some repeatable battles until your party catches up in stats, craft new equipment with earned resources. Then you continue progressing. Grinding too much slows down your gains, progressing too quick makes battles more difficult so you need to switch those two around to progress and grind more comfortably.

There isn't much tactics you can change to solve the battles you can't pass, you usually stick with one weapon because damage difference between weapon you are experience with and weapon which you equipped for the first time is huge. You do unlock a large set of skills for each weapon so you can solve the battles using different skills. You also unlock a lot of formations which give unique effects and change battle flow, so you can try to switch them but they are also better suited to one set of weapons that you choose somewhere in the early game.

You can save everywhere on a map. You can't save between several battles which are run in a sequence. Battles are usually short so it's more of an issue with choosing which several battles you can complete in a row instead of an issue with dedicating a lot of time.

Battles are like a small tactical puzzle. You need to separate enemies on a timeline and finish them off to get access to cheap high level spells and extra attacks. So you use skills that delay enemies or move your own units on a timeline to create favorable situations and avoid bad situations generated by enemies. The game is certainly worth trying to at least learn how these battles work.

[Dharma]

Originally posted by archmag:

If you don't know how scaling works the game will be grindy because you will scale enemies by accident and then will need to grind easy repeatable battles for your party to catch up. If you don't try all random battles on the map and just progress through the main story maybe you will be able to avoid overscaling the enemies and avoid having to stop to grind.

Enemies scale until a certain point so there is a limit to how far they can scale. Scaling happens faster when you complete new battles, scaling happens slower when you complete battles which you completed before. So the normal flow of the game is you progress normally exploring new stuff, when enemies scale too much you grind some repeatable battles until your party catches up in stats, craft new equipment with earned resources. Then you continue progressing. Grinding too much slows down your gains, progressing too quick makes battles more difficult so you need to switch those two around to progress and grind more comfortably.

There isn't much tactics you can change to solve the battles you can't pass, you usually stick with one weapon because damage difference between weapon you are experience with and weapon which you equipped for the first time is huge. You do unlock a large set of skills for each weapon so you can solve the battles using different skills. You also unlock a lot of formations which give unique effects and change battle flow, so you can try to switch them but they are also better suited to one set of weapons that you choose somewhere in the early game.

You can save everywhere on a map. You can't save between several battles which are run in a sequence. Battles are usually short so it's more of an issue with choosing which several battles you can complete in a row instead of an issue with dedicating a lot of time.

Battles are like a small tactical puzzle. You need to separate enemies on a timeline and finish them off to get access to cheap high level spells and extra attacks. So you use skills that delay enemies or move your own units on a timeline to create favorable situations and avoid bad situations generated by enemies. The game is certainly worth trying to at least learn how these battles work.

pleayed the demo for emerald and bought scarlet,liking scarlet a lot more even if it´s not as deep as emerald,but it also seems to be harder and more punishing then emerald from what i´ve seem,so it´s bound to be more fun then it anyway

so far this game is exactily what i wanted,a mechanics based jrpg with very little story and a lot of customization/versatility, where any battle can be deadly,exactily what made me fell in love with the shin megami tensei series to begin with

but now it even has the insane freedom of western rpgs with is really cool,i feel that i may become a big fan of this,finally i found a jrpg series that isn´t made by ♥♥♥♥♥♥ atlus that i can enjoy

btw i have no problens anymore if this game makes you kill non boss foes frequently now since they are all event based anyway,no random encounters so far,with i much prefer. and even if you got stronger by killing lots of them,it seens that you would be bound to lose time based events from what i´ve seen

btw is there more games like it?from what i heard brevary defalt and octopatch traveller are also more on this hardcore side even if probably not as brutal