SaGa Thread

Since some SaGabros are around let's have a thread about the most Romancing RPG series out there.
The Last Remnant stepbrothers and Legend of Legacy/Alliance Alive granchildren are welcome too, get in here bois.

So I'm the guy that's planning to give unlimited a shot. Is there a best starting character? I struggled with minstrel's the first time I played because I picked gray but I picked Albert this time and had a much easier time.

I'm here to be sold on this series.

>Is there a best starting character?
Sure, Ventus is your guy, he's literally tailored for beginners since he's the only MC that can do unlimited quests.
The order from easy to hard goes more or less like this

Ventus>Ruby>Judy>Mythe>Laura>Kurt>Armic

Did the /vr/ thread die or did it get deleted? Either way it's a shame because /saga/ was a really nice "general" thread.

Try making a new thread later, I think it's really nice to have a constant saga thread up so new players can drop in and ask questions without having to wait for the rare SaGa thread on Sup Forums (that usually gets ignored anyway).

the best

Do you like RPGs with micromanagement, multiple main characters, crazy ass mechanics and complexity and amazing music and settings?
If so, SaGa's your thing.

The games gets very weird though, and I mean really weird, but I'm sure you can handle those user, we can help you getting into the series, try SaGa Frontier or Romancing SaGa 3 and see how it goes from there.
Thread is on hiatus until we get more info on the Romancing SaGa 3 remaster, there's simply not enough traffic for the threads to survive at the moment, but I guess we'll have Sup Forums threads a little more often while we wait for some news.

See I probably would have picked Kurt or Laura. Glad I asked. You mentioned some games in the OP I wasn't familiar with. Are they spiritual successors?

>See I probably would have picked Kurt or Laura.
Laura isn't too hard in the sense that unlike Kurt, Armic or Ruby doesn't have any proper gimmicks, but some of her story bosses are pretty tough on a fresh file and it's best to leave her later, Kurt has his gauntlet gimmick which can be really hard, especially since his endings are tied to it, so if you want his better ones you should be able to beat all the Gauntlet challenges, which take some good knowledge of the system to do so, moreover he has a particularly tough main story quest that might be lock you into a game over state if you save at the wrong time.
>Are they spiritual successors?
Yep, they're made by a former SaGa designer and Squenix employess, LoL is pretty mediocre but Alliance Alive is a pretty good game as long as you like SNES SaGa games.

Why is it called "Romancing" anyway?

Is it one of the games where your system data makes a big difference? When I found out clout carried over I felt like a moron for trying to play a hard character first. I think I have a super rough idea of how the leveling system works.

The Romancing part comes from Raphael and Constance quest being the Romance, also because it looks cool.
Yep, in Unlimited you carry over your Market Rank, ecology and monster information, Market Rank makes a huge difference.

I'm pretty new to SaGa myself but the way I'd describe it is as a freeform adventure. You go around exploring the world, completing quests along the way, and you have a ton of freedom on which characters to use and how to modify each character's gameplay role. Every playthrough is different.

ro·mance
rōˈmans,ˈrōˌmans/
noun
noun: romance

1.
a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.
"in search of romance"
love, especially when sentimental or idealized.
"he asked her for a date and romance blossomed"
synonyms: love, passion, ardor, adoration, devotion; More
affection, fondness, attachment
"their romance blossomed"
an exciting, enjoyable love affair, especially one that is not serious or long-lasting.
plural noun: romances
"a summer romance"
synonyms: love affair, relationship, liaison, courtship, attachment; More
flirtation, dalliance
"he's had many romances"
a book or movie dealing with love in a sentimental or idealized way.
"light historical romances"
synonyms: love story, novel; More
romantic fiction;
informaltearjerker, bodice-ripper
"an author of historical romances"
a genre of fiction dealing with love in an idealized way.
"wartime passion from the master of romance"
2.
a quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life.
"the beauty and romance of the night"
synonyms: mystery, glamour, excitement, exoticism, mystique; More

Romance has a lesser used meaning as well. It's why we call idealistic people romantics.

Ok I'll play an easier character first. No shame with a system as unusual as Unlimited. It's like a one man DnD campaign from what I can tell.

> It's like a one man DnD campaign from what I can tell.
In some ways, yes.
Though In Unlimited there's a thing you have to consider, none of your stats bar HP grow in an orthodox way, you probably remember this.
Your stats are determined by panels, what many people tend do ignore is that what panels you get aren't simply determined by your current panel setups, actions or quest rank, but also by how many chests you open up and how many fights you get into, so it's always a good idea to try to loot and fight as much as possible.
Now, for Ventus this isn't a problem since he can do quests as much as you like since he's a Carrier, but all other characters have a finite amount of quests they can do, which is also why you should start with Ventus so you can carry over the Market Rank you got while playing as him so your subsequent playthroughs get easier and faster.

Anything I should know about Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song before starting it?
I was going to start with Gray but I think I saw someone recommend otherwise, what do you guys think?

Absolutely do not start with Grey since his own quest is infurianting for people with no knowledge of farming materials, and skipping his main quest kind of defeats playing as him in the first place, Barbara is a much better character for beginners and so are Sif or Albert.
Also, Grey is kind of a cunt as a characters so you might end up not liking his attitude when he's not shittalking the big bads, he can be a real asshole.

Jesus, so other characters can't grind at all? If you get fucked on panels or just mess up you're just boned for the end game?

Thanks.
Is Claudia a good player to start with? Otherwise I'll go with barbara.

I'm curious about this new game+ thing, in most games I start a completely fresh file when replaying because NG+ just makes you overpowered and makes gameplay less fun. Does NG+ work differently in SaGa?

He knows more than me. But you have "system data" which keeps track of how many characters you've beaten it with and carries over stuff like shop rank which is annoying to level up but not for the most part character stats.

>Jesus, so other characters can't grind at all?
Yep, once you finish all quests available it's over, so you have to make the best of each single quest, and you have to remember you don't get panels or HP growth until you actually finish a quest.

Ruby is a small exception to this since she can access the Tetraforce in the Seven wonders, which can be used up to 9 times, each of which counts as the end of a quest, meaning you receive panels and HP each time the Tetraforce accepts you.
There is another catch to that though, the Tetraforce will not accept you until you are worn enough to do so, each time you use a tetraforce the conditions for being accepted become more and more steeper to the point that you need to be on the verge of death to even use it.
Unlimited is on another level from even other SaGa games.
>Is Claudia a good player to start with?
Sure.
>Does NG+ work differently in SaGa?
It depends on the games really.
In Frontier you get marginal starting stat bonuses.
In Frontier 2 you retain your Chip Circulation Value, all scenarios are available at the start of the game and all the arts you learned are also available.
In Unlimited, Market Rank, Ecology and Monster information carry over, Market Rank is the ky here since you can get really good item easily but to really abuse it you must also know how the market works and most importantly, forging, so it's not really broken because you need to really know your shit to abuse it.
In Minstrel Song you can get all the classes you unlocked in the game as starting classes for your MC, you also unlock more quests on NG+ and more mechanics like crowned monster and the access to 10FS Saruin, nothing broken here either, if anything it's a must since some characters can only be recruited on NG+ files.
In Scarlet Grace NG+ keeps your monster info, monster event info and waza/jutsu tree, nothing really broken since it's really all mere information.

So is being able to finish the game a bit of a diceroll? Or do people redo quests until they get panels they like.

I almost missed a SaGa thread.

>So is being able to finish the game a bit of a diceroll?
Not at all, skilled players speedrun the game in less than two hours by blasting through the main quests with a few key sidequests, if you mess up it's totally your fault.
>Or do people redo quests until they get panels they like.
Panels aren't randomized to that extent.
Each action you take in the field counts as a toll for certain panels, use Axes a lot and you'll get Axe panels easily, use magic a lot and you'll get Familiars, use field abilities and you'll get panels related to those, if you pick locks or use daggers a lot you're guaranteed to get thief related panels and or Dagger panels, it all depends on how you make your characters behave.
Just like all SaGa games, your actions determine how you characters develop, Unlimited takes a big step forward in this since it play more like a tabletop game so you need to use other abilities, and to get those you have to make the character behave in a certain way.
Of course, there is a slight randomization factor to that, but it's absolutely minor, most panels are very easy to get and all ability panels are very easy to get too since you can infer how to get them fairly easily.
There's a few really powerful panels like Weapon Meister, Magic Blender and some other things that are fairly hard to acquire, but that's because they're extremely powerful, and even so, as long as you keep your mage cast spells you're bound to get Magic Blender sooner or later, your bigger worry should be actually getting tablets, which is a whole other story.
>>>

Are martial arts good? One thing I love about SaGa is how good the hand to hand fighting is. In what other rpg series can you suplex an enemy 6 consecutive times.

Scarlet Grace English release w h e n

One other thing that is different from all SaGa games(and most games in general) is that in Unlimited, your whole game history influences your panels and reflects your characters' story, behaviour and even personal history, Phobia panels an Pacifist panels are an example, if your character gets killed or hurt a lot by certain monsters he/she might easily develop a Phobia panel about them, e.g. get hurt a lot by skellies and your character develops an Undead Phobia, conversely, if you kill a lot of undeads your character might feel bad about it and want to make an Undead Pacifist oath.
Now, Phobia Panels work in an interesting way, they give high stat bonuses, however, all your stats against that particular family of monsters are severly nerfed, you basically won't do much damage to skellies because your character will be too scared to perfom well, you'll also take more damage from them.
Once a Phobia panel is placed you can't take it out, but you can overwrite it with another Phobia panel, or make combos with it, so even Phobia panels might end up being very powerful in a way.

Oath panels are very similar, basically when your character takes an oath, they can't hurt certain family of mosters or use certain weapons, if you hurt a monster under oath you'll receive LP damage as a curse for breaking your oath, if you're under a weapon Oath you won't be able to use any waza for them, and much like Phobia panels, they also can't be removed, but you can make really powerful combos if you know how to set them up.
>Are martial arts good?
Sure, but they are far more complex to use since now character weight determines your martial art class, this is another can of worms that would require a long explanation.

One of the two Legend of Legacy grandchildren on Sup Forums reporting in. Awaiting The Alliance Alive eagerly, although I'm not sure it's coming.

Now, to explain Martial arts in Unlimited.
Contrary to previous games, character weight determines your MA style, there are three styles in the game, light, medium and heavy, all specialize in different things, Light is focused on LP damage, medium is best of both worlds, heavy specializes in HP damage but also has good LP damage and some really strong waza like Raksha that can also instakill.

Now, character weight is determined by two things, your character's own weight and the total equipment weight.
This means two things, that heavyweight characters either can't access the Light line or have to be basically naked to do so, while lightweight can switch between all three styles easily, there's one specific character who has an inside joke about it, but I won't spoiler the surprise.
Martial Arts, like all entries in the series are very good in the sense that they cost nothing in terms of equipment and you can use them whenever, however, due to the reel and panel systems it's pretty hard to use them if you're focusing on the heavy line, so I wouldn't recommend to try the Heavy line unless you have really good reflexes and knowledge of Reel patterns, and hopefully you're not colour blind like me.
Hello sonny, glad to have you onboard.
Alliance Alive has been received fairly well, so I guess they'll eventually localize it, or so I hope, it's a pretty good game, much better than LoL on the mechanical point of view.

Ok cool. I'll read a mechanics faq before playing I think. Martial arts are usually pretty sick in these games. I was recently doing twinmoon temple and my Gray's weapon dp got too low so I started having him punch stuff. By the time I was done his punches were better than his swording ever was.

Is he really dead, they never found a body

>Martial arts are usually pretty sick in these games
I know, Romancing SaGa 2/3 have 100 Hands Kannon(Which also inspired Netero's hatsu in HxH), Frontier has all those wrestling move and DSC, Scarlet Grace has a 1:1 Rider Kick that also doubles as a Gunbuster reference since it's called Inazuma Kick, if you like martial arts SaGa always delivers.
Unlimited even has Kawazu Throw and some very cool sprites and animations for martial arts waza.
>By the time I was done his punches were better than his swording ever was.
That's the fun part of SaGa games, your characters get better by doing things instead of hoarding EXP for level ups, Unlimited takes this further by even adding "negative" traits based on you character's personal game history, it's a great system since it's practical roleplay applied to a battle and growth system, how you behave in the game shapes your characters and story.

>Is he really dead
He is, but even in death he saves everyone's ass.

Bumping with some of Tomomi's art for Scarlet

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It's really hard to find this kind of stuff online

Cute.

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Hi Ace, saw you in the Guilty Gear thread the other day.

Can't really find much else outside of really low res.
Guess I'll have to give up and buy the illustration book someday.

Hello user.

So I hear, which I am excited for. Bigger world and more characters.

How you doing?
How come you like Elizabeth anyway?
It's big step forward from LoL, I'm sure you'll enjoy it if they'll localize it, they really polished the overall system a lot and actually have a proper cast now.

I doing pretty well user. Thanks.

>How come you like Elizabeth anyway?
Well. If it wasn't too obvious. I like how she looks. Then again. I like SaGa girls.

Well yeah that's what I've heard on here, one user was showing me a ton of stuff about the game. I'm the only fan on Sup Forums that liked TLoL to the degree that I do though, since it's one of my favorites overall.

You have to look for the characters main quests. I literally nearly missed some of the Archer Girl's story because I didn't bother with Twinmoon Temple before I learned the Moonstone helps stop the Final bosses fucking infuriating Necromancy attack.

The sparking system and the leveling system are just fantastic.

>doing pretty well
Good to hear.
Boy if you like Aisha do I have news for you.
Liza is a pretty fun character too if you like that kind of sassy girls, not my favorite Scarlet girl but she's a great character.
>I'm the only fan on Sup Forums that liked TLoL to the degree that I do though, since it's one of my favorites overall.
Really?
You should play SaGa games then since LoL is heavily "inspired" by them, though well, it's more of a clone than anything.
>before I learned the Moonstone helps stop the Final bosses fucking infuriating Necromancy attack.
*Animates Dead your fallen party members*

So I hear, but I don't really have the motivation to get started on them. I know it's silly, but emulators heavily dampen enthusiam for playing stuff, and I don't have any of the systems that SaGa is released on. That and from what people have described, the only one that would appeal to me as much as TLoL did is Minstrel Song.

Well, since we're here I might as well dump a few pics from Scarlet.
IF any of you wants to ask questions about the game fire away, I have more than 500 hours on it, and I'm still not done.

How do you like it compare to other SaGa games?

>That and from what people have described, the only one that would appeal to me as much as TLoL did is Minstrel Song.
Why is that?
It's a pretty strange thing to say since LoL is basically a watered down SaGa game, what is it that you're looking for in particular?
That's a really hard question to answer right now, but I'd say it's very good, slightly below Unlimited and Minstrel Song in terms of overall complexity, but that's because Scarlet focuses more on event variation and cast size.
The game works radically differently from the previous games, as usual, so it's hard to make direct comparison because Kawazu always makes SaGa games to be some kind of standalone with their own unique appeal.
Scarlet has a very complex questline and possibly the richest writing, lore and characterization of the series while also having a completely new battle system that is unlike everything the series did until now, in a way it's very similar to Grandia, but a lot more polished and well executed in all aspects and obviously founded on SaGa's classic battle framework.

One thing that really stands out is how the game plot, world and progression is structured, the game definitely feels like a mix of Frontier, Unlimited and the GB SaGa games, another really important thing is that unlike most previous games there's a lot of potential cast in-fighting, you can fight and kill a lot of people who might end up being party members, this isn't really a thing in other games except Romancing SaGa 2.

I liked TLoL for a combination of factors of things that were in it and things that were not in it, which appears to be something that only appealed to me in particular. Minstrel Song, at least from what people have explained, is the one that reaches what I liked about TLoL the closest. I did try out one SaGa game long ago but the girl I picked didn't really end up leading anywhere and I abhor the usage of guides, so I dropped it. Can't remember which one it was, my friend lent me it.

Another thing that some veterans can notice is the huge amount of references to previous games, many weapons are from The Last Remnant, some monsters from Minstrel Song return, some waza and jutsu from Frontier also return, then there is a staggering amount of visual and other implied references to a ton of other games from Kawazu, like Pic Related, you really need to know your shit if you want to catch all the little hints and references in the game.
>I liked TLoL for a combination of factors of things that were in it and things that were not in it, which appears to be something that only appealed to me in particular.
What are those? The contract system and lack of story maybe?
>and I abhor the usage of guides
Looks like you'd fit in the family just right user, SaGa games are better enjoyed blind.
Was the girl Aisha or Claudia maybe?

Thanks user. Sounds pretty good. It's too bad it's well..in moon at the moment. But oh well.

don't ever go to rat cave

too many rat

Partly yes. I could launch into an explanation but it would take time that I don't have right now, I'll do so once I'm done with my task.
I honestly don't remember. I chose her because I generally just thought she was alright looking and out of force of habit due to choosing a female lead in most JRPGs I play.

My fear is that an eventual localization will remove a lot of the more subtle references, SaGa games have always been butchered to hell and back with Frontier 2 being the only game that wasn't hurt too much.
The writing is particularly important this time around too, for a large number of reasons, and I'm fairly certain that they would fuck it up a lot.
Well, at least you can look forward to the Romancing SaGa 3 remaster since it's been confirmed for getting a localization as well, Kawazu has been silent since a month or so right now so they're probably knee deep in development right now, it will probably take a while since they're remaking the game from the ground up unlike the RS2 remaster, but I'm sure it will end up well.

By the by, I hope you like PuyoPuyo if Scarlet ever gets a localization.
>Fighting Algernon without a full party
You brought this on yourself user.
Well, let's hope this thread is still around when you're up for an explanation then.

Will it basically be what minstrel's song is to RS1? I remember when I was younger I played mikhail and got stuck and gave up on the game. Might give it another go.

>Will it basically be what minstrel's song is to RS1?
Hardly, Kawazu said it's a remaster, not a remake, so they'll probably add a few characters, some new content and fix a lot of bugs while also ironing out the Commander Mode since he explicitly said he wanted to do more with it some time ago.
Chances are we get some of the cut storylines like Tatyana and more about the dark temple with Galatea, some stuff about Gwayne too maybe, so far the candidates for new playable characters are Volcano and the Professor since they're fan favorites, but maybe we'll get some extra stuff.
Basically, it will be the same game on a new engine with some extra content, extensive bugfix and some extra goodies.
I sure hope they don't remove the character cloning or swap glitches because they're amazing.

>Well, at least you can look forward to the Romancing SaGa 3 remaster since it's been confirmed for getting a localization as well, Kawazu has been silent since a month or so right now so they're probably knee deep in development right now, it will probably take a while since they're remaking the game from the ground up unlike the RS2 remaster, but I'm sure it will end up well.
Well hot damn. That's good news. I only played the SNES version of RS3 for a short while years ago. I liked what I played of it. But I never quite got around to beating it.

Too bad. I'll give it a shot regardless though.

>volcano isn't playable

Wait what? I just assumed I never got him because I sided with Undine, and that if I went the other way/made peace between them he would join.

Look forward to it, the Romancing SaGa 2 remaster was a great success so this one will be probably bigger and with more budget too.
Yep, Volcano isn't playable sadly, since he is a fan favorite and Imperial SaGa made him playable along many other characters people in Japan are speculating he might end up being actually playable in the remaster together with the Professor.
You can side with him but he doesn't join, he just gives you a reward and teach you fire magic, but only of the two magicians only Undine can join, it's especially tragic since the game's best fire caster is Sharl, and he's a hybrid character and not a proper caster.

Beat Lute's story earlier and still want to play. Should I reward myself with Asellus or pick someone else?

For someone that's never tried the series which one do you recommend starting with and how connected are each of the games to each other

In unlimited you'll be abusing quick saves in order to shuffle rng on your good quests. Especially if you want to do magic because magic tablets are a whole other mess of shit.

General guideline is:
>You like Utena and /u/? Pick Asellus
>You like Tokusatsu and BURNING JUSTICE? Pick Red
>You Like Layzner and /m/echa? Pick T260G
>You like Charlie's Angels and cosplaying? Pick Emilia
>You like LoTR and cheongsams? Pick Riki/Coon
>You like Harry Potter and family feuds? Pick Blue
>You like Fuse? HAHAHAHAHA FAGGOT! YOU GET LUTE INSTEAD!
SaGa Frontier, SaGa 2(Either the GB original or the DS remake) and Romancing SaGa 3 are widely considered the best entries for beginners, but playing the games in release order is the better choice if you have time for it.
>how connected are each of the games to each other
Zero connection whatsoever, they're all self contained, though there are cameos and references here and there, but mostly in the later games.

All SaGa games are standalone. Despite most of them having a number. As for which ones you should start off with. Well that's kinda hard. I got started with the gameboy titles. Although those may be kinda hard to get into.

Is SaGa Frontier considered a "open world" rpg considered you can literally go anywhere and discover anything without having to follow a main plotline?

How complete is it?

>the Romancing SaGa 2 remaster was a great success
Do you have numbers on that? I've heard the English version didn't do very well.

How is RS2? I heart it's sort of like frontier 2.

>General guideline is:

Oh I know Frontier inside and out. Which is why I'm asking who to play as. Asellus has a really fun story and cast availability. Humoring an all mystic party to see how it turns out.

Well it's kinda tricky to say. All of the characters stories in it still have a general plot to them. And you're kinda expected to finish them at some point. It is still a non-liner game though (Especially Riki's story).

Wouldn't say it's open world since there are transition screens, but yeah, starting from the SNES games and with the exception of Frontier 2 the games are all pretty sandboxy, you can really explore in whatever order and to your heart's content.
Looks fine to me, like all games they cut stuff during development but I don't really think they cut anything major this time outside of maybe one possible recruitable character, Rho Kai, which is a unique NPC that is strangely not recruitable, considering you have more than 70 characters.
Vita version alone sold more than 200K, there's no numbers available for the phone version but Kawazu and Ichikawa said they were very satisfied with the performance, which is the RS3 is getting a complete remaster.
Frontier 2 picks up some themes and elements from RS2, like generational gameplay and a more plot focused structure, but the games play nothing alike, Frontier 2 is also more focused on uniques, RS2 is basically all generics and is more focused on nonlinearity and event variations, it's also MUCH harder than Frontier 2, in fact it's possibly the hardest game in the series.

What would you consider the easiest? I've found Frontier 2 fairly simple so far. I'm not done but I'm fairly close I think.

>I've found Frontier 2 fairly simple so far.

Egg will teach you fear soon.

Is it one of those games where the whole thing is easy until the final boss?

>What would you consider the easiest?
I'd say the GB games, Frontier and Romancing SaGa 3 are the easier games.
Frontier 2 is safe outside of a few difficulty spikes here and there, South Moundtop and the last dungeon, especially if you want to fight the fully powered Egg.
Hardest games in the series are Romancing SaGa 2, Unlimited and Minstrel Song, Scarlet Grace has a steep learning curve and can be pretty brutal, but it's not as hard as those three unless you really fuck up for progression, in which case it becomes a fucking nightmare, especially if you lock yourself in the Full Power Firebringer route and don't know how to deal with him, he can tear your asshole apart in the first phase alone, Firebringer can really make you shit bricks, especially if you played all the other SaGa games and have even a slight hint of all the bullshit he keeps on pulling out of his ass, took me more than a hour to figure him out.

The last few scenarios are pretty rough, but the final boss in particular is extremely difficult. I dunno if you've experienced it yet but frontier 2 has something of an inheritance system. Characters you use later will have certain moves you learned with characters earlier. This is pretty crucial for being able to handle the end properly because the last party is bad.

Unless I'm mistaken every character can equip any tech anyone has learned. It seems that way right now anyway.

Correct, but certain earlier characters are the only ones who can learn specific good skills.

Ah. That's concerning.

>because the last party is bad.
>Ginny
>Primiera
>Roberto
>Fucking Gustaf
>Bad
Ginny is the most broken character in the game together with Gustave and Diana, you can easily spam 4000 damage Tornado Blades with her effortleslly, Gustaf is the best spellcaster in the game bar young Wil and Primiera is a hulking juggernaut if you build her right.
The only character that is "bad" is Wil because he's fucking 80 years old by that time and his stats get sapped by old age but he can still kick ass, unless you never sparked anything to teach to the last party you won't have problems because outside of Meithia and maybe Roberto being somewhat average if you don't nurture her, everyone else will steamroll anything.

So frontier 2 threw me off at first. All offense is based on you weapon and skill level right? There's no real strength stat or anything that I can see.

MODERN JRPG BTFO

>There's no real strength stat or anything that I can see.
Nope, there are character stats but you can't see them, try seeing how well Wil does with an Axe proficiency of 5 compared to Tyler with the same proficiency.
Offense is based on character stats, equipment power, proficiency and command strength against the target defense stats and armor values in case they're wearing one.

BTFO

Papyrus is that you ?

Oh ok. So characters just have inherent stats based on their age that I can never affect?

>tfw Sei, a fucking skeleton king from centuries ago, canonically gets wasted in a random bar with Fuse in the novel

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>So characters just have inherent stats based on their age that I can never affect?
Yep, SaGa works on two main systems.

The Proficiency system, which has weapon proficiency levels but fixed base stats.

The Variable Stat system, which has no proficiency levels but stat that grow depending on the actions you take in battle.

Then there's Unlimited, that as always does thing in its own way.

I get that for most games. But in Frontier 2 as far as I can tell you don't get stat ups other than wp jp and hp.

Yep, that's how the Proficiency system works, HP/WP/JPs or BPs are considered independent stats that grow in every game outside of the main character stats, outside of, again, Unlimited.
Scarlet also has only HP as a variable stat, there are no WP/JP or BP, as in Battle Points, BP as in Brave Points are a completely new concept unique to this entry.

All Mystics can be fun if you specialize them with different builds.

Different user here, but I'd suggest Red and building an all-IRPO team (Fuze, Doll, Red, Silence, Rabbit, and/or Cotton). There's some especially enjoyable dialogue if you rescue Cotton with several other IRPO members on your squad.