SaGa Emerald Beyond |OT| Beyond this door, a weird new Frontier

[Saito Hikari]

Also now that I've finished all 5 characters.

Once again, it is VERY WEIRD that only a single MC has a piece of clear art? This makes no sense.

Spoiler

I can't believe that somehow I true end cleared Siugnas so I get that art, but not any of the other scenarios. It's just really weird.

Maybe even the devs think Siugnas is the only MC that matters in this lol

Click to shrink...

I'm halfway through my Sigunas run, and it feels like compared to Diva and B+F, they clearly put WAY more work into Sigunas' story. His party members actually get character arcs, and he actually stops to say goodbye to a lot of random NPCs before leaving a world.

Also, my Sigunas party just near effortlessly dumpsters most Brutal level fights now (and a showcase of the sheer strength of the Speculation formation). Still can't tackle any of the Mr. S challenges yet though.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3_CYT1sxnA

(I switched my Sigunas to Sword/Rapier in an effort to get him to be a dual wielder, and my Warrior to Gun/Dagger to be a gun + sword wielder. Not much luck in learning the required techs for those roles yet, but still wrecking things at least.)

 

[Bebpo]

...and he actually stops to say goodbye to a lot of random NPCs before leaving a world.

Click to shrink...

If you haven't noticed, just fyi but that's him stealing a piece of their lifeforce and you get LP+1 for each one you talk to :)

 

[Saito Hikari]

If you haven't noticed, just fyi but that's him stealing a piece of their lifeforce and you get LP+1 for each one you talk to :)

Click to shrink...

That, uh... That explains a lot.

I've avoided using his Sanguine skill due to the high BP cost so far, but maybe it's time I change that since Speculation reduces it to 2 BP anyway.

 

[Bebpo]

One thing that I kind of dislike about Emerald compared to previous SaGa games is the way recruitable NPCs work.

In past games, you would know every run where and how to pick up the characters you want. So you could go and assemble your team you want for the run. But in here, not only do you need to get the same world they are from (which may not be available on a later NG+ with the same MC), but you may get a different version of the world where that NPC isn't recruitable.

This makes it tough when you spend a lot of time building up a party members that you recruited with good stats and glimmer techs. Because now when you do NG+ your starting MC(s) will be all buffed up for NG+ stats and techs, but any party members you made part of your main team in the previous run will just be gone and a hole in your party setup.

Instead these NPCs you've built up are more likely to appear in some other MCs run and help fill out there party.

But the randomness of it, considering the time and effort spent building up stats and techs with party members, is a little disappointing for replays. I noticed when I pulled over BR into a Diva NG+ 2nd run it was really tough because I hadn't used most of the starting team so they are all at NG techs/stats and I didn't have any of my party members I wanted and didn't necessarily have access to pick them back up.

I think maybe on 2nd runs you should be able to start with any NPCs you had at the end of the previous run. I guess the door you unlock to go to any world may help.

I've basically just focused on using any of the 5 MCs if I can recruit them in another MC's story, since I'll always know how to access them in a NG run. Like I leveled up Mido pretty well in Sigunas and Ameya pretty well in my B+F run.

That, uh... That explains a lot.

I've avoided using his Sanguine skill due to the high BP cost so far, but maybe it's time I change that since Speculation reduces it to 2 BP anyway.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, you get so much max LP and his refreshes LP after every battle so you're definitely supposed to use the Sanguine skills regularly like normal battle techs.

 

[Encephalon]

I'm apparently at the final boss for B & F (which I failed to beat). When I do finally beat it, would I be crazy to not bring anything over to my next playthrough in order to experience it at its base difficulty (such as items)?

 

[Saito Hikari]

I'm apparently at the final boss for B & F (which I failed to beat). When I do finally beat it, would I be crazy to not bring anything over to my next playthrough in order to experience it at its base difficulty (such as items)?

Click to shrink...

Carry everything over except for battle rank. You'll start with an entirely new party anyway, and you're meant to grind up your overall inventory over multiple playthroughs. You're probably going to really regret it in the long term if you choose not to carry anything over. You can just simply not use any of the gear you carry over or use any characters from a previous playthrough if you want to experience things at base difficulty.

 

[Encephalon]

I beat Bonnie & Formina's game, which was the first one I played. I have mixed feelings

What I liked:
・I thought the battle scenes looked really good for the budget title that this was and it was a notable improvement over Scarlet Grace. I'm not a huge fan of the look of some of the characters, but it was a good implementation for what it was. Bonnie's motion capture actor seemed like they must have had a lot of fun. It should be said that I'm playing on a pretty small screen though. There were some hiccups at the start of some battles even on PS5, however.
・The new battle system took some getting used to after Scarlet Grace, but I'm glad they didn't go the route of just replicating that game's focus on taking out enemies. It's worthwhile having something new.
・The music was pretty fun as usual

Criticisms:
・The pop-up book style didn't really work for this title, and it often looked fairly amateurish. It worked for Scarlet Grace because the game had a fairy tale/folklore focus to it, the art itself seemed to look better (not the character models), and it seemed to suit the flat map that had you often traveling around wide expanses where many, many different locations were often open to you at once. It was a more traditional world map. The "worlds" in this game are actually just tiny maps that might as well be "regions" in a single world. It struck me coming to this directly from Eiyuden that that game's basic 3D maps would much better fit EB's world. The maps in that game are extremely simple, but they work, and each one of them is essentially the size of an EB world (as far as I have seen). It would probably also do a lot to make the game more presentable, which I would imagine would make it somewhat more marketable. How much of the Romancing Saga RS audience S-E has built up saw this and thought it was a little too budget?
・I didn't see the point of the scanning/blue lines system. Most of the time there are actually very few options open to you, with literally only one line visible to the character. From the commentary in this thread, it doesn't really sound like there is that much variety. And sometimes that variety is found by different selections in dialogue. I think it would have been better if they cut it all together and just had icons hovering over the next location to go to, with a mini-map visible to give you an idea where you could head to next.

N/A:
・The trading system wasn't as bad as I expected it to be given the commentary in this thread. It doesn't seem like you're really meant to trade after every battle; it's just a means of getting rid of the massive amounts of a single type of item you might have for the chance of having something better. However, I didn't think the way that items were handled felt satisfying.

Given the sales of the game, I suppose might be the last SaGa game we see, but I hope that we at least get a remaster of Frontier 2. I'd also really just prefer they produce a new 2D game visually similar to the remasters of RS2 and 3.

Carry everything over except for battle rank. You'll start with an entirely new party anyway, and you're meant to grind up your overall inventory over multiple playthroughs. You're probably going to really regret it in the long term if you choose not to carry anything over. You can just simply not use any of the gear you carry over or use any characters from a previous playthrough if you want to experience things at base difficulty.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the advice. I'm tempted to play through everyone once, then start carrying things over from my last character played, but I can see how it does intend for you to bring certain things to the next playthrough.

It's a tough decision. Hearing that Diva takes forever is making me think I'll just go ahead and carry over , though.

 

[robotzombie]

So you don't want to carry over battle rank at first?

 

[Encephalon]

So you don't want to carry over battle rank at first?

Click to shrink...

You want to wait until you are playing the same character for the second time, with all the stats you left off with last. This is because it should give you the opportunity to build up your inventory with better item drops.

Though this has just made me realize that I've probably made a mistake by not carrying over my parameters and HP from my B and F run. If I cancel carrying them over with Mido, I guess by the time I get back to my second B and F run, it won't remember their stats. 😕 (Not sure about this.)

Did everyone just go with the default settings?

 

[Astral]

By the time I picked a new character, I had beaten Ameya's story four times and carried over BR every time. I've been mostly fine on my B+F run even though they're fresh characters. Their stats caught up really fast.

 

[cozyduck]

You want to wait until you are playing the same character for the second time, with all the stats you left off with last. This is because it should give you the opportunity to build up your inventory with better item drops.

Click to shrink...

I want to push back on this a bit. I have always carried over my BR on fresh characters and it's been hard but doable. Comparable to Scarlet grace on strong if that gives you any indication.
But be aware that some people seem to have run into a bug on B&F's story doing this, where on a fresh run their starting stats didn't adapt to the current BR.
Personally I went B&F -> Ameya -> Ameya -> Siugnas -> Mido -> Mido so far and whenever I started a fresh character they always had appropriate stats. Obviously they had no moves initially, but they'll glimmer the first few very quickly

 

[Bebpo]

I beat Bonnie & Formina's game, which was the first one I played. I have mixed feelings

Criticisms:
・The pop-up book style didn't really work for this title, and it often looked fairly amateurish. It worked for Scarlet Grace because the game had a fairy tale/folklore focus to it, the art itself seemed to look better (not the character models), and it seemed to suit the flat map that had you often traveling around wide expanses where many, many different locations were often open to you at once. It was a more traditional world map. The "worlds" in this game are actually just tiny maps that might as well be "regions" in a single world. It struck me coming to this directly from Eiyuden that that game's basic 3D maps would much better fit EB's world. The maps in that game are extremely simple, but they work, and each one of them is essentially the size of an EB world (as far as I have seen). It would probably also do a lot to make the game more presentable, which I would imagine would make it somewhat more marketable. How much of the Romancing Saga RS audience S-E has built up saw this and thought it was a little too budget?
・I didn't see the point of the scanning/blue lines system. Most of the time there are actually very few options open to you, with literally only one line visible to the character. From the commentary in this thread, it doesn't really sound like there is that much variety. And sometimes that variety is found by different selections in dialogue. I think it would have been better if they cut it all together and just had icons hovering over the next location to go to, with a mini-map visible to give you an idea where you could head to next.

Click to shrink...

The pop up worlds is pretty subjective. I actually liked it a lot more here than what I played of Scarlet Grace (just chapter 1). I like how it lets them do lots of really interesting looking locations like Mare Nostrum or Avalon or Miyako (you can ride the trains!) or Kamala or Grelon; the variety really helps and I grew to like the world map style a lot.

I agree the lines are bad and make it feel more linear than it should, but also I can't imagine how tedious this game would be without the lines having to figure out where to go next after every cutscene event in a world. Would just add a ton of busywork.

N/A:
・The trading system wasn't as bad as I expected it to be given the commentary in this thread. It doesn't seem like you're really meant to trade after every battle; it's just a means of getting rid of the massive amounts of a single type of item you might have for the chance of having something better. However, I didn't think the way that items were handled felt satisfying.

Click to shrink...

The issue with trading is that in your first run or two it's the main way to get ironstones and magic stones to get your gear to +1 or +2 which goes a long way towards the final boss depending on what BR you reach it at. Diva5's final boss after 20+ hours is really hard if you haven't gotten any magic stones and don't have +1 level of gear.

After the first few runs when you start to have tons of magic stones and iron stones and all your stuff is at +2, it's less of an issue. I mean it helps for getting the next mats like obsidian, but idk I'm 6 runs in trade level 6 and I've never gotten a single oak or obsidian or anything from it yet, so I pretty much ignore it outside grabbing extra magic stones/magical beast fangs/bone/claws for getting more gear to +2 level.

Given the sales of the game, I suppose might be the last SaGa game we see, but I hope that we at least get a remaster of Frontier 2. I'd also really just prefer they produce a new 2D game visually similar to the remasters of RS2 and 3.

Click to shrink...

I'm sure the sales are fine. SaGa is a niche series and is budgeted appropriately. Game would have to be a complete disaster to lose money on this budget. Plus SaGa games have long sales tails as people get into the series.

Also Kawazu is one of the few remaining really high ups at SE. SaGa is his personal hobby. Unless Kawazu dies or retires, we're still going to get a new SaGa game every bunch of years. Also the mobile entry apparently made them a ton of money so the franchise is safe.

But yeah, I think a nice 2d SaGa or HD2D SaGa would be pretty awesome at some point.

 

[Bebpo]

I really feel from the posts here that either I am the worst SaGa player or I just have terrible fucking luck, because every time I try to carry over BR I get fucked fast.
I mean it doesn't help that it carries over BR from your highest BR, which was my first Diva5 run at 20+ hours really high BR.

But when I tried it with a fresh B+F run, I literally could not beat the second enemy encounter no matter what and had to reset. None of these characters had any good techs glimmered and 3 were monsters that couldn't wear the gear I carried and it was just impossible.

When I tried it just last night with a 2nd run Mido, the first few normal enemy battles were like FINAL BOSS battles. They took me really long times with party members dead at the end of each fight, but I barely made it through. This was because Mido, while having a good HP and full tech list glimmered from using him in other runs, had been a martial artist, meaning I couldn't use any of my +2 weapons to give him any advantages in damage output. Meanwhile his puppets had basically no techs and were all pretty useless. Meanwhile the enemies were all extremely high BR enemies doing 50%+ HP damage each hit and having tons of HP/Def.

I got to a fight midway through the first world that again, is impossible with this group. Now I'm kind of bummed because I don't really want to reset and not carry BR since I'm a few hours in, but my party is just not strong enough.

Now if you were carrying over a low BR each time from Ameya or Mido's endgame, probably less a big deal. But I just can't carryover BR with where my highest BR is at and these starting no-tech parties.

 

[Encephalon]

I would really like to know whether if I decide not to carry over parameters and HP now going from B and F to Mido whether that will "delete" that data if, say, I start another B and F run after his or if it still stores that data for later if you want it. If anyone knows, I would really appreciate it.

I'm thinking of carrying over items, skills, etc, but starting fresh with character "strength" until I start round 2 with everyone.

I want to push back on this a bit. I have always carried over my BR on fresh characters and it's been hard but doable. Comparable to Scarlet grace on strong if that gives you any indication.
But be aware that some people seem to have run into a bug on B&F's story doing this, where on a fresh run their starting stats didn't adapt to the current BR.
Personally I went B&F -> Ameya -> Ameya -> Siugnas -> Mido -> Mido so far and whenever I started a fresh character they always had appropriate stats. Obviously they had no moves initially, but they'll glimmer the first few very quickly

Click to shrink...

I'm saying this as opposed to never carrying it over.

 

[cozyduck]

Maybe we're underselling how hard it is tbh. I compared a fresh BR carryover casually to scarlet grace on strong, but I can barely think of any other jrpg at this difficulty level. Maybe Etrian on Expert or the early trails games on nightmare. I really feel like I need to exploit every little intricacy of the systems I can, and some of the Brutal tier fights are now complete rng fests, even with good strats. I think a lot of us just have a high tolerance for bullshit tbh.

I would really like to know whether if I decide not to carry over parameters and HP now going from B and F to Mido whether that will "delete" that data if, say, I start another B and F run after his or if it still stores that data for later if you want it. If anyone knows, I would really appreciate it.

Click to shrink...

I read on other places that your highest ever achieved BR gets saved and that's the one that's used whenever you carry over. But I have not confirmed this myself.

 

[Encephalon]

I have at least a few characters die in essentially every boss fight and end up barely scraping by with a showstopper.

 

[Jakenbakin]

I haven't bothered with BR carryover and it's not like the games systems don't work in reverse - you will catch up to the BR, or the BR will catch up to you. Frankly the "best" thing to do is just use recommended settings and don't access your high level equipment on a new party. Personally I don't plan to ever run the same teams, I switch people around a lot. Just do recommended settings and experiment with playstyles, you're trying to build everyone to high BR status across cumulative playthroughs and the game does a surprisingly competent job at balancing that (with the caveat that - and I know nobody is saying this but I can't help thinking it's true - the game is on the whole much easier than SSG). There's still tons of engaging challenges even if some of them have to be sought out. The only full playthrough I had that felt fully outright easy was Ameya's first run and I don't even know if that's to do with my choices made as much as the fact she had 0 available brutal challenges in EITHER of my runs as her, and it's such a short run but unlike Mido's one that feels very very down tuned. At least her second run introduced stuff like the petrification encounter.

I've never even looked at the other settings though. The games obtuse enough as it is, when it pops up with a box saying "RECOMMENDED or FUCK WITH SHIT" I'm going to trust the developer.

 

[Bebpo]

BR is definitely carried from the highest point you've reached with any character. The benefit of high BR is basically much faster stat and glimmer growth and starting stats for new characters or character you benched and never used.

I would really like to know whether if I decide not to carry over parameters and HP now going from B and F to Mido whether that will "delete" that data if, say, I start another B and F run after his or if it still stores that data for later if you want it. If anyone knows, I would really appreciate it.

I'm thinking of carrying over items, skills, etc, but starting fresh with character "strength" until I start round 2 with everyone.


I'm saying this as opposed to never carrying it over.

Click to shrink...

I'm pretty sure the way it works is the highest of everything is saved internally on a clear.

So if you use Ameya and get her HP to 400, then next run don't carryover HP and get her HP to 350, then when you do run 3 and carryover HP she starts with 400. Same with all other stats and skill points and techs.

That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if even at low BR on NG+ runs things are tuned higher expecting that you carried some things over.

 

[SpoonyGundam]

BR self corrects fairly quickly even if you do use the transferred gear/characters.

I was feeling kind of done with the game on my B&F run and just used all my best gear from the start and grabbed some of my stronger characters to rush through it, and my BR was significantly higher by the end than in my Diva or Siugnas runs despite having half the playtime. That run ended up being the first time the final boss felt like it put up any resistance.

 

[robotzombie]

I'm stuck on a puzzle in Mido's story.

I have to put colored triangles, one for each element I guess for the alien jizo statue. Anyone know the order?

 

[Jakenbakin]

I'm stuck on a puzzle in Mido's story.

I have to put colored triangles, one for each element I guess for the alien jizo statue. Anyone know the order?

Click to shrink...

Quit and they tell you.

 

[Bebpo]

Damn, I think I just hit something that annoyed me so much I'm done with the game until the guides are out and can finish Ameya's.

I spent all morning doing Avalon with Mido. Since on my first Avalon trip I didn't see the true ending, I kept redoing all the rounds until I got a perfect run of all the high value items + special items. I was doing the investigation route with triangles as special items.

I got to the 3rd round and got to the hospital to go to the graveyard and it didn't let me go even though I'd collected all the triangles. Because I wasn't at full LP. And so I restarted the entire world from scratch and did another 2 hour run through all three rounds and got excellent diamond scores, all the triangle items, Mido at full LP with first aid role (the puppets don't have first aid role and have no way to restore LP) and I get there again and...still blocked from the graveyard because the puppets don't have full LP as well. So basically there is no way to finish this route besides restarting the entire run from scratch and never letting a puppet character die. I have no recruitable NPCs in this run besides the robot minstrel from Avalon. Also this is my carryover BR run I'm slowly getting through so not having a puppet die once is pretty much impossible.

That hospital -> graveyard route basically seems only doable if you have a party of characters with first aid so you can keep redoing rounds while doing combat events to get everyone's LP back to full before round 3.

Pretty frustrating. There's only a couple of worlds where I haven't seen the true end for the story and Avalon's one of them.

Going to take a break from the game for a while.

*edit*
actually characters heal LP when not in the party, so I guess I can load round 2 and just keep re-running the loop with one puppet not in the party at a time until all the puppets have full LP and then clear round 2. What a pain in the ass. Doubt whatever conclusion you get is worth it. That requirement of all special items + party at full LP to continue the investigation in round 3 is really bs.

 

[Jakenbakin]

Damn, I think I just hit something that annoyed me so much I'm done with the game until the guides are out and can finish Ameya's.

I spent all morning doing Avalon with Mido. Since on my first Avalon trip I didn't see the true ending, I kept redoing all the rounds until I got a perfect run of all the high value items + special items. I was doing the investigation route with triangles as special items.

I got to the 3rd round and got to the hospital to go to the graveyard and it didn't let me go even though I'd collected all the triangles. Because I wasn't at full LP. And so I restarted the entire world from scratch and did another 2 hour run through all three rounds and got excellent diamond scores, all the triangle items, Mido at full LP with first aid role (the puppets don't have first aid role and have no way to restore LP) and I get there again and...still blocked from the graveyard because the puppets don't have full LP as well. So basically there is no way to finish this route besides restarting the entire run from scratch and never letting a puppet character die. I have no recruitable NPCs in this run besides the robot minstrel from Avalon. Also this is my carryover BR run I'm slowly getting through so not having a puppet die once is pretty much impossible.

That hospital -> graveyard route basically seems only doable if you have a party of characters with first aid so you can keep redoing rounds while doing combat events to get everyone's LP back to full before round 3.

Pretty frustrating. There's only a couple of worlds where I haven't seen the true end for the story and Avalon's one of them.

Going to take a break from the game for a while.

*edit*
actually characters heal LP when not in the party, so I can I can load round 2 and just keep re-running the loop with one puppet not in the party at a time until all the puppets have full LP and then clear round 2. What a pain in the ass. Doubt whatever conclusion you get is worth it. That requirement of all special items + party at full LP to continue the investigation in round 3 is really bs.

Click to shrink...

You're really not going to like this answer but Kugutsu absolutely have first aid. Only their first role has their variable roles, you're not just looking at their soul slots are you?

 

[Bebpo]

You're really not going to like this answer but Kugutsu absolutely have first aid. Only their first role has their variable roles, you're not just looking at their soul slots are you?

Click to shrink...

Hmmm, that's possible. I thought I was looking at the first slot and it wasn't there but you're right I might've been clicking on the soul slots...

I found a solution though. When you visit the hospital and fail the mission your party gets fully healed. So when you get to the palace at the end you can say you want to redo the loop and you start with everyone full LP and the event triggers next go around. Got the real ending and

Spoiler

Lancelot

Joined. I don't think diamond count really matters as long as you get enough to meet the king and queen so the event can trigger.

One thing that's tough with Mido's party on high BR run is some of the puppets can be pretty useless if you don't use a weapon they can mimic off of and the enemy soul abilities don't give abilities for that weapon. In my party the martial arts puppet mimicked the entire martial arts chain off Mido so he's pretty good. My 2H sword puppet has enough enemy abilities from soul slots to hit hard and he came with deflect to cover. One of the puppets I just focused on spells using gear that comes with spells so that took care of that puppet.

But my 1H Gun puppet Boh has like the same 4 abilities from the start of NG because so far I have dozens of enemy soul slots abilities, but not a single 1H gun tech soul slot and my Mido doesn't use guns so Boh has no one to mimic and learn from. Makes it tough in situations like this since the puppets don't glimmer techs.

Now that I've finished Avalon and have my first two recruits with Minstrel and Spoiler above, might swap Boh out for one of them. Or I basically need to turn Mido into a 1H gunner and learn all the techs to share with Boh.

 

[Jakenbakin]

Yeah I wanted to build my Kugutsu last time around but ended my run with only Musashi, humans are just so much more fun haha. I ended up training Lita on 2H gun and she learned like a million techs in one world, so I switched Boh to that + I had a bunch of 2H gun soul techs to round him out. Luckily at higher BR you'll have a much easier time leveling up and glimmering new techs so I'm kind of switching everyone's specialty pretty frequently. But then I forgot to put my Kugutsu back into the party and copy those new techs so only Boh and Musashi are built very well right now.

I do like how they have higher weapon proficiencies due to only having one weapon on at a time and so are always investing in it, and soul techs are pretty fun to play around with, but I tend to focus them all onto whatever has relevant soul techs so can't take advantage of like increased slash power or whatever.

 

[Bebpo]

Yeah I wanted to build my Kugutsu last time around but ended my run with only Musashi, humans are just so much more fun haha. I ended up training Lita on 2H gun and she learned like a million techs in one world, so I switched Boh to that + I had a bunch of 2H gun soul techs to round him out. Luckily at higher BR you'll have a much easier time leveling up and glimmering new techs so I'm kind of switching everyone's specialty pretty frequently. But then I forgot to put my Kugutsu back into the party and copy those new techs so only Boh and Musashi are built very well right now.

I do like how they have higher weapon proficiencies due to only having one weapon on at a time and so are always investing in it, and soul techs are pretty fun to play around with, but I tend to focus them all onto whatever has relevant soul techs so can't take advantage of like increased slash power or whatever.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, my first run with Mido I switched out on of the puppets for Lita and then another one of the puppets for Blob from Digestica. So I only kept a single puppet and leveled them in run 1. Which is making run 2 tougher, but I'm also somewhat enjoying the challenge of every single battle being a real challenge and rewarding when getting through.

That being said, some of the status effect bosses/mid-bosses are not cool if you don't have formations that have resistance. The Avalon boss red dragon wiped me a couple of times before I barely cleared with a showstopper and then a confused puppet doing the final hit by themselves the next round because the howl did confusion on everyone and I don't have a confusion resistance formation. Had to swap in souls with resistance and use my one accessory with 100% resistance and put it on a character with holy water, but my party still got totally wiped from a howl cast mid-battle.

I feel like I have formations for most stuff but not that. Also the formation people were talking about earlier with high BP and high attack, I don't have that. My only high BP formation comes with low atk/def. Not sure what NPC that comes from. I think formations being attached to NPCs which you may miss is not the best design.

 

[Bebpo]

Like, seriously, this is one of those "I'm fucked" situations:

:____;

 

[Saito Hikari]

So we're starting to sort out trading mechanics.

I'm back, and making a guide? - SaGa Emerald Beyond

For SaGa Emerald Beyond on the Nintendo Switch, a GameFAQs message board topic titled "I'm back, and making a guide?".

gamefaqs.gamespot.com

50 spirit stones = 1 magic stone

80 spirit stones = 1 obsidian

Not sure how much trades for a meteorite, if possible.

 

[Bebpo]

So we're starting to sort out trading mechanics.

I'm back, and making a guide? - SaGa Emerald Beyond

For SaGa Emerald Beyond on the Nintendo Switch, a GameFAQs message board topic titled "I'm back, and making a guide?".

gamefaqs.gamespot.com

50 spirit stones = 1 magic stone

80 spirit stones = 1 obsidian

Not sure how much trades for a meteorite, if possible.

Click to shrink...

I'm assuming you need your trade rank at 7 or 8 to get obsidian. Because I've never seen an obsidian for sale.

 

[Astral]

Beat B+F's story. Felt nice getting an actual final boss. Fuck you Ameya. jk I love you.

Don't know who to pick next. I know Tsunanori's story is short but does anyone know if his Pulchra works the same way as the others? Can I complete the side stories needed for Ameya's story with him?

 

[Encephalon]

Am I correct to assume that if I already "have" a glimmer, I won't have it spontaneously glimmer for a different character? (For example, after carrying them over from a previous run.)

 

[Bebpo]

Don't know who to pick next. I know Tsunanori's story is short but does anyone know if his Pulchra works the same way as the others? Can I complete the side stories needed for Ameya's story with him?

Click to shrink...

Mido's first run starts with a fake Pulchra. You can't get the real Pulchra scenario on the 1st run.

Second run you can get it. I'm there now on my Mido 2nd run.

Am I correct to assume that if I already "have" a glimmer, I won't have it spontaneously glimmer for a different character? (For example, after carrying them over from a previous run.)

Click to shrink...

Not sure what you're asking. If a character doesn't have a tech and they are one of the types of characters that can glimmer, they'll always have a chance to glimmer for the weapon they are using.

 

[Encephalon]

Seems weird that Mido doesn't start with a gun like in his art.

Mido's first run starts with a fake Pulchra. You can't get the real Pulchra scenario on the 1st run.

Second run you can get it. I'm there now on my Mido 2nd run.



Not sure what you're asking. If a character doesn't have a tech and they are one of the types of characters that can glimmer, they'll always have a chance to glimmer for the weapon they are using.

Click to shrink...

Actually, nvm! Thank you for the response though.

 

[Astral]

Mido's first run starts with a fake Pulchra. You can't get the real Pulchra scenario on the 1st run.

Second run you can get it. I'm there now on my Mido 2nd run.

Click to shrink...

Damn that's kind of annoying. Might as well do Siugnas or Diva if I'm gonna have to do two Mido runs. Unless his story is as short as two worlds like Ameya's.

 

[PointlessEndeavor]

Damn that's kind of annoying. Might as well do Siugnas or Diva if I'm gonna have to do two Mido runs. Unless his story is as short as two worlds like Ameya's.

Click to shrink...

It's 4 worlds, one per spirit you need to get. I've heard some endings have some stuff happen when you get back to Miyako, but at least my first run it was a complete joke of a final boss then over after the 4.

 

[Saito Hikari]

I'm assuming you need your trade rank at 7 or 8 to get obsidian. Because I've never seen an obsidian for sale.

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Yeah.

I should also clarify, it doesn't seem like you're supposed to ship out the spirit stones yourself (I just tried that and have been getting pathetic offers for them), the things I listed randomly appear in the bidding section. I see a trade for 2 Magic Stones for 80 Spirit Stones.

 

[Bebpo]

Finished my 2nd Tsunanori Mido run. Ending was interesting, makes it seem like there's more of a story to his scenario than appears from the first run. I wonder how many times you have to beat his scenario to get the full story.

I'll be interested in the guide when it comes out to see what determines whether you get an easy/normal/hard/brutal spirit in worlds with Mido that don't have a choice as to what spirit you want to fight. Seems like getting the true end of each world is required to get the divine/brutal spirit. In Vermiglio for instance, I got the greater/hard spirit and I wonder if it just depends on how long it takes you to get all the triangle force fields under control.

Also I wonder how many variations Vermiglio has. It was 100% identical to my first run in the world until the ending where

Spoiler

Instead of fighting the evil sister back from the dead, the assistant director Fred kills and tries to kill everyone using the triangle power and you fight him and the sisters make up.

Wonder if there's any more to that world or if that's basically it.


In terms of Pulchra, with B+F I did the white path + sidequests and with Mido I did the Red path + sidequests and Yellow path + sidequests. So I guess with the remaining two characters I should do the Black and Blue paths and their sidequests.

Is there a

Spoiler

Grey/hooded person

path as well? Story seems like there should be.

 

[Bebpo]

Also I figured out my Boh issue. I guess Boh is supposed to be a 2H gunner and I accidently gave him a 1H gun? Because all the equippable enemy spirits slot attacks are divided into three weapon types: 1H sword, 2H sword, fist and 2H gun. So it seems like you're supposed to build your 4 puppets that way.

 

[Astral]

Is Diva supposed to be fucking awful? Are her equipment slots only unlocked after clearing worlds or something?

 

[Bebpo]

Is Diva supposed to be fucking awful? Are her equipment slots only unlocked after clearing worlds or something?

Click to shrink...

Yes, and sorta yes.
She gets one slot unlocked per required world clear. And on NG 2nd runs+ iirc she starts with everything locked again.

So basically any mech you pick up will be better because they have more slots until her endgame.

At least she gets tank first with quad missile which is basically her best inherent attack the whole game.

But everything about her scenario campaign just kinda sucks compared to the other characters.

 

[PointlessEndeavor]

Finished my 2nd Tsunanori Mido run. Ending was interesting, makes it seem like there's more of a story to his scenario than appears from the first run. I wonder how many times you have to beat his scenario to get the full story.

I'll be interested in the guide when it comes out to see what determines whether you get an easy/normal/hard/brutal spirit in worlds with Mido that don't have a choice as to what spirit you want to fight. Seems like getting the true end of each world is required to get the divine/brutal spirit. In Vermiglio for instance, I got the greater/hard spirit and I wonder if it just depends on how long it takes you to get all the triangle force fields under control.

Click to shrink...

That seems to be the case. In my second Mido run I started with Capitol City, and I was not able to get the true ending/passport stamp no matter how many times I tried/variations (maybe it's not possible on the first time there), and the 3 endings I did get all led to no-choice Hard spirit fights (or a hard boss that turned out to also be the spirit).

 

[PointlessEndeavor]

Also I figured out my Boh issue. I guess Boh is supposed to be a 2H gunner and I accidently gave him a 1H gun? Because all the equippable enemy spirits slot attacks are divided into three weapon types: 1H sword, 2H sword, fist and 2H gun. So it seems like you're supposed to build your 4 puppets that way.

Click to shrink...

There are 1H gun spirits too, but they're really rare I've noticed. I've only gotten a single one so far, which is lucky because I've been using him as a 1H gunner too.

Gave me... Delayed Shot I think. I'd have to check which spirit it was again.

Edit: Ah, it was the Yin Guardian from Cordyceps, gives 3% Pierce Power, 100% Petrification Resist and the Delayed Fire tech.

 

[Astral]

I hate my Diva party so much. This first world is taking fucking forever to get through. It's a far cry from the Overdrive machine that was my B+F party.

 

[robotzombie]

Please tell me bonnie and formina get a real party and I'm not stuck with these cats

 

[Astral]

Please tell me bonnie and formina get a real party and I'm not stuck with these cats

Click to shrink...

You get Guinevere and the Minstrel pretty fast into their story. After that it depends on the world. In most worlds you recruit someone new after completing it. I got rid of those fuckers asap.

 

[robotzombie]

You get Guinevere and the Minstrel pretty fast into their story. After that it depends on the world. In most worlds you recruit someone new after completing it. I got rid of those fuckers asap.

Click to shrink...

Thanks! Yeah, I got them both now.

Couple questions:

1. How do humans learn more magic, do you just have to cast spells in battle and then learn them after battle? Or is there a different method?
2. I'm in the plant world, and it sounds like I shouldn't fight battles if I can help it? Can I screw up this plant girl's quest?

 

[Jakenbakin]

Having now beaten all the protags my ranking would be Siugnas > Mido 2 > Mido 1 > Bonnie & Formina > Ameya 2 > Diva No 5 > Ameya 1. For the most part I really enjoyed all of the scenarios, but Ameya's first run kind of feels like "the fuck even happened" and Diva No. 5 is underbaked in that it seems to have aspirations of playing up party interactions like Siugnas', but just misses the mark by having those interactions being a couple lines in the junction after worlds instead of having anything to do with the worlds themselves.

7 runs in and I've been to most worlds 2+ times, though there's a couple I've only visited once. For the most part I enjoy how I'm still encountering new scenarios or dialogue on my third or even fourth or fifth visit to a world, even if the general layout and structure to some of them is becoming overly familiar. I'm also getting much quicker at the game due to that familiarity though, D#5 only took me 9 hours to blast through. If I were to put them into tiers:

Spoiler: Worlds Tier List

Top Tier:
Pulchra - lots of sidequests, some fun characters and scenarios. Red squire guys mission made me lol.
Providence - Funny and interesting lore to this one, had what has still been my most challenging fight in 100 hours here. My recent second scenario-visit here had quite a bit different from my first visit, so looking forward to seeing if there are more changes.
Mare Nostrum - only been here twice but it was two very different scenarios each of which felt like they had a ton of variation. I like how you can interact with the pirate ships.
Avalon - I've only been here for the scenario once so it might be ranked too high, but I get the impression there's a lot of variation, I love the game board presentation, it seems there's lots of recruitable characters, and I like the design of the world. Plus you drive around it that's so cute.
Yomi - not a ton of variation but I've still seen several different outcomes, including my favorite where I recruited Siugnas/Dolores and got to take Siugnas' incredible transportation.
Kamala - I loved my first visit so much! Then my second visit i was like :o Then my third visit I was like :O Definitely a top tier world from its scenario and characters even though there's not a ton to do and actually very little mechanical variation.

Mid Tier:
Capitol City - I've only been to the scenario here once, and it was probably my favorite time in the entire game because it was with Siugnas, and apparently I now ship Siugnas and Lita Caryx because their dynamic was amazing. The world itself and the scenario weren't particularly special, but Lita improves everything. I liked how in B&F your retinue get little scenes back in this world, it's a lot of fun to see Scarecrow being a bad tour guide and I'd love to see some of the other characters that can get a scene here (for example Administrator Gold was my last recruit so I didn't get to see him there).
Miyako City - Seems important to the lore and I've enjoyed the scenarios when I've visited, but it doesn't feel like the world itself has much going besides facilitating some story for each character. Idk don't have a good read on this one yet even though I've been a couple times.
Crowrealm - Cool concept but that the scenario feels very static is kind of boring. Get Scarecrow who is amazing, Professor who has an amazing retinue bonus, and Sarab who is a mech and therefore I've never used. Best visit is definitely with Warrior, not sure if it ever gives me anything as good as that.
World Tree - I like World Tree but I get the feeling it doesn't have more to offer than what it appears to be, which is kind of boring. Idk maybe a number of more visits could illuminate something about it, but so far it's just a very simple little puzzle world that's cute. I liked how Ameya named all the petrified beasts. If nothing else it's a very breezy world to play.
Brighthome - Only been here twice and like World Tree I'm not sure what if anything it has to offer. I tried letting chaos win (sorry Jack) but did not succeed there, maybe avoiding finding the treasure in that scenario could help make something happen. I like how each battleground has a unique NPC with it and it feels like there's bound to be some variation but I've visited it too little.
Delta Base - I was a big fan of it in the demo, it has a game board feel much like Avalon, and a ton of variation and several different scenarios. Unfortunately I've also been to it like 5 times and am kind of sick of it lol. I tried my best to find something new with it on my last visit but aside from the literal introduction being very different (due to Diva #5? Not sure) it was the same as ever. It bugs me that Cryosleep Quisstatium and Administrator AWOL both feel like they may stay unresolved.
Kosmos - Only been twice but I liked they were different scenarios and Byakku is a pretty hilarious character, especially when he's shushing the Dismal King. Mechanically kind of boring.

Bottom Tier:
Vermiglio - Hate this world and the dumb fucking triangle barriers with having to fight or trap the anti-triangles. I've only been twice and have been able to get two different ends to it, and I suspect there's at least a third, but I just don't like visiting this one. Last time I tried to help the hippie by not restoring barriers but nothing ever seemed to happen. Pretty much my most hated world.
Cordyceps - Only been once and it was "fine", but I haven't heard others speak of much variation besides the kind of monster you face at the end. I have actively avoided it when possible (ignore my profile pic)
Cinq - Been 3 times and haven't really enjoyed it besides my Siugnas run where I thought I was being actively evil by helping one faction win, but it seems like that's how all the protags resolve the world. I'll try to resolve it differently in the future but I get the feeling the only choice that matters here is who you help.
Grelon - Everyone knows this world sucks. Someone just give me a flowchart so I can recruit the final emperor. At least with Siugnas the ending was a little more interesting.

 

[Jakenbakin]

Thanks! Yeah, I got them both now.

Couple questions:

1. How do humans learn more magic, do you just have to cast spells in battle and then learn them after battle? Or is there a different method?
2. I'm in the plant world, and it sounds like I shouldn't fight battles if I can help it? Can I screw up this plant girl's quest?

Click to shrink...

1. You got it! You can get spells from equipment which will allow you to learn any school of magic, but you will be unable to learn whichever spell said equipment is giving you.
2. At the end of the scenario you have to fight like 2-4 fiends I think, so you don't want to destroy all the eggs. Though I'm kind of interested if anything could happen by doing so... Actually the world is pretty mechanically simple even if the first time it makes you feel pressured. I wouldn't worry about failing any state here, it's not like it could effect your game in any way and any failure would just be a unique outcome imo. But I'm not sure if you "can" screw it up or not tbh.

 

[Almyn]

I am so stuck at the final phase of B+F's final boss. Have had around 20 attempts so far. I just loaded the save before the boss and am going to grind out a little more HP. It's very annoying as I've spent 20hrs on this (3rd) character and I don't want it to go to waste because I can't beat a boss.

 

[Jakenbakin]

I am so stuck at the final phase of B+F's final boss. Have had around 20 attempts so far. I just loaded the save before the boss and am going to grind out a little more HP. It's very annoying as I've spent 20hrs on this (3rd) character and I don't want it to go to waste because I can't beat a boss.

Click to shrink...

It can be difficult to give advice in a game with so many variables but I'll give a few possible pointers, apologies if any of it feels obvious but it can be difficult to know what specific struggles others have. Also I might be too late lol

Spoiler: B&F last boss

Focus on taking out the masks asap, as much focus on one at a time and according to their spell strength that they're casting. Blaster is immediate no threat, spreadfire immediate moderate threat, any spell that takes 1 chanting turn is ideal for targeting since you might kill them before it gets off, but any 2 chanting turn spell needs to be immediate priority because even if you THINK you'll kill them in 1 turn you don't want to take the chance. On my B&F run I didn't have many stun moves or use them, but I've noticed in other encounters the masks seems super susceptible to stun? Having a pursuit and interrupt can be useful, but keep in mind if they're casting say sharp pain the spell itself is interruptible but I doubt the casting is even though you can select the interrupt? Either way make sure you try to prevent a 3-enemy united attack at all costs.

Be aware of boss AoEs. You kind of just have to ignore the boss while you deal with the masks, but if they're using mega quake, forward- or backward- attack, you have to prioritize defense that turn. Cleansing fire I usually just tanked, not sure if it's a less effective move, but it's also AoE. Forward will attack everything before it on the timeline, backwards everything after, so either get your characters on the other side or use deflect or guardian or parry. If you can deflect at least two of your party that's pretty good as you can still get two people to attack a mask and keep that up. After the masks are taken care of it's just a matter of damage output against the boss, trying to get either united attacks or Showstoppers out as much as possible. I've never seen emerald Union used but I imagine if it comes out you might be fucked haha. I think killing the boss quickly prevents you from seeing it because I've fought One World like 4 times now I think and never not killed the boss before they could use it.

I'm not sure grinding HP out is useful or not. Balance with Battle Rank bands can be confusing, but I certainly found the fight was doable with very bad stats, low HP, and terrible equipment. You can see at the start of this video I ran into it as unprepared as possible (including a badly optimized formation since the enemies couldn't even stun me) and while it was a tough fight it was easy to survive with a few characters left. Is this because my low value run kept BR lower and you're on a higher BR with comparatively worse equipment? Difficult to say, but by playing with starting equipment I tried to keep a semblence of the expected challenge I heard others were having.

Spoiler: Video of fight

View: https://youtu.be/RfOtCQH_vnE?si=66Nuxz3Bfb1SaM7t