keep in mind that the game is almost entirely combat
The pace is most similar to King’s Bounty, the single-character variant of Heroes of Might & Magic – you run around evaluating potential fights and deciding which one you’re going to get in
Even the goofy storytelling, when it comes in doses like these, reminds me of the 1C King’s Bounty and its zombie wife stories and the like
But if that’s what you want, dive right in
its nothing but combat with often barebones story telling but its also got really intelligent quest design offering constant choices and consequences without ever signposting that shit in a biowarey “These choices will have consequences, you know, so please consider your options carefully before you choose.” way that makes AAA RPGs so often unplayable.
Yeah, this is partly where I’m disappointed in the game (but let me go ahead and say I love the game due to its other qualities). If you’re removing bespoke villages and NPCs and dungeons, whether it’s because you’re trying to distill the JRPG experience or because you’re actually also trying to manage a small budget, you need to develop other ways to convey the world to make up for the lack of minutia. The architecture and layout of of a town, the incidental dialogue of the NPCs, the structure of a dungeon- all of these things that develop the personality and identity of particular places are removed.
But I don’t think Scarlet Grace really makes up for it. It’s hard for me to say concretely because maybe some of these regions I’ve bungled the side quests (like I did in Jusitania), or maybe some stuff isn’t available because I’m playing Urpina and not a different campaign, or maybe some stuff becomes available once I get later in my campaign, but for all of the named nodes with unique names and icons you pass by and visit in Scarlet Grace’s world map more often than not they’re ultimately just “fiend dens”. There’s a death of non-battle related activity and dialogue. The game can certainly do more adventure-like elements, because I’ve seen them do it in a couple of regions, but the regions aren’t consistent on whether a town NPC will provide some sort of world-building information for the region or just talk about Urpina’s next objective. Too many nodes are just a singular battle with no influence or connection to another node to create an over-arching flow or cohesive identity.
And every region has the same field theme!
Again, I’ve heard once Urpina hits Chapter 2 and her campaign becomes more free form then she starts doing much more in the way of non-battle related quests and activities. But having heard Scarlet Grace was removing towns and dungeons and focusing more on narrative, I just don’t find that to be the case. But luckily I find the combat system to be probably one of the best turn based JRPG-style battle systems I’ve played in a long time, albeit one that’s probably too involved to really work in a regular RPG structure.
you know i think i would recommend rs3 hd as a first saga now, was never keen on the sfc release and that dodgy fan translation but the rerelease is good
On the flip side
(The dragon was Adamas’ friend introduced earlier in the story.)
The stories of the gods are some real petty nonsense that do a fantastic job of evoking real like myth and folklore.
oldest trick in the book
I guess this was always what people said, but RS3 is probably most representative of what people imagine when they think of the franchise, even with how unique ever entry can be. I feel like Unlimited SaGa and Scarlet Grace are a new breed, more interested in exploring how to make the most of a small but specific set of mechanics. Ignoring Minstrel Song because it was a remake, the two games before Unlimited SaGa were SaGa Frontier 1 and 2 and maybe you could see the shift starting from there. SF1 featured an open world while SF2 clamped down in favor of trying to make a dual linear narrative that was primarily dungeon crawling and combat, although it featured involved story scenes typical of that era of JRPGs. I still have not ever finished SF2 and have no idea what The Egg is but I remember really liking it.
But the reason I keep hee hawing on Scarlet Grace’s world building, always saying “maybe it gets better”, is because as Tulpa said often times you are making choices without ever knowing it. That’s why I never knew Provinica Jusitania has a whole thing going on with the pirates, because I killed them before they could do anything. There are enough times where I discover I’m onto something that there’s always this feeling that there is more to the world than I can see and rather than the world being as disconnected as I complained in my last post there’s this possibility that I just made the wrong choices or never figured out what to do. Because your primary interactions are choosing to interacts with nodes or choosing to fight (with occasional dialogue options here and there). The order you visit nodes can affect questlines, and battles progress time which affect questlines as well.
So any time I’m told a fable or hearsay I can never be sure if it’s just worldbuilding lore or if it’s a hint that there’s A Thing in this region you can do. Like that one region with The Labyrinth. The Minstrel tells you his typical tales of the region, talking about how a God built the labyrinth and invited the other gods to check it out. It goes bad and ultimately that God escapes but realized he lost his own shadow inside. Can I find that shadow? Can I fight it? Or save it? I have no idea! I sure never found it, but there’s this feeling that it’s possible. And that feeling happens everywhere. And that feeling is kind of great? I just need the game to give me assurance enough times to know that I’m not just making it up.
Maybe games haven’t really explored underselling in the way literature has; like so many things, the literalness of game mechanics, and the confusion between the player needing to understand the rules and the rules being intentionally foggy forces a flattening effect.
Although, interestingly, we’ve seen more success in obscure rulesets (like Stardew Valley Starseed Pilgrim) than obscure choices (obscure branching paths or the storytelling in this game).
I’ve come to believe the Minstrel is always discussing a local activity that can be performed. The Labyrinth, for example, does house a boss inside – I ran it three times as I was working to expel the ghost curse and hit a boss on the third go. And I got a treasure! …a level 2 sword
saga is the best argument for opacity. this game is rlly good. i just wish the treasure was better, it’s always a significantly worse wep than what i currently have
saga has always had garbage treasure, the good rewards are always new characters or abilities
Wow, TWELVE beast hides for the low price of the lives of all the innocent people on that trade ship
wow did I write Stardew Valley when I meant Starseed Pilgrim?
I was actually wondering what the hell was up with Stardew Valley for like ten minutes
You can use them to forge onto a different weapon path. If you want to learn some new techs but don’t have any weapons of a different type, you can use the extra weapons to try forging up a different path and get something of equivalent strength but different type (standard, technical, etc.) As you level up the smithy lower level upgrades become extremely cheap so this isn’t as expensive an endeavor as it sounds.
They’re also useful for when you want someone to level up in a new weapon to unlock more roles without needing to steal a weapon off someone in your retinue, making that character non-viable in combat at the same time.
rs2 leans in to Good Treasure, got the permanently missable ‘nullifies all neg status’ ring hidden behind a fireplace in the first dungeon and the game breaking character clone axe sat in a chest
I got one very strong axe right away in Scarlet Grace
I think Saga can have good item rewards but just doesn’t want to give them at predictable intervals
Yeah, I got a tier 5 bow in the second area (Urpina), and the same tier 7 demon bow in the faerie area as Drem
The game constantly drops loading screen tips that make me go “Oh really? this changes everything!” I wonder how much of this is doled out randomly vs restricted based on game progress, to estimate how familiar you’ve gotten with the game system before revealing some more layers to the combat.
https://www.rpgsite.net/feature/9304-rpg-site-best-of-2019-awards-our-picks-for-the-best-of-the-year
Wait is Monster Hunter actually considered an RPG?
Edit: Let me ask Kawazu:
Would choosing a weapon and what to eat at the cat restaurant be considered a character role-playing element?
