It's Your Journey in Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song Remastered

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > It's Your Journey in Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song Remastered

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Man, I fuckin' love the SaGa franchise, glad to see more of it getting LPed. It's great that Tokita was able to pressure SE into dipping into their back catalog of actually interesting games to remaster/remake stuff like SaGa or Live A Live (and now Super Mario RPG).

Shitenshi posted:

Whether it's the extreme take on non-linearity that usually leaves you wandering without a single clue on where you're supposed to go

Wanted to chime in and say that while I understand how this sort of thing can be an acquired taste for some, it's one of my favorite parts of the franchise. It feels like a sort of fusion between JRPG mechanics, and the conventions of a western, open-world CRPG like The Elder Scrolls (particularly Daggerfall, where the game gives you basically nothing to go on without you having to hunt the information down yourself). I don't want to get too deep into the mechanics just yet, to avoid potentially spoiling future updates, but I very much enjoy it. And, weak as Aisha is, SaGa is the kind of game where pretty much anyone can end up useful with some work, so while you're gonna be leaning on your party members a fair bit more than with most of the MCs, Aisha isn't strictly useless.

Also, Kenji Ito is a drat good composer, the soundtrack for Minstrel Song is truly excellent. And on the topic of sound, the voice cast here is a real who's-who of anime/video game VAs, but before most of them had really become well-known.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2023 01:08

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 14:28

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

5-Headed Snake God posted:

Along with a bunch of names that I still don't recognize, and playing Spot the Voice Actor is a hobby of mine. But yeah, I recognize a lot of the voices in Minstrel Song, which is why I'm trying to credit them in the characters post.

Patrick Seitz (Neidhart's VA) is the English voice of Franky in One Piece, as just one example of his many roles. Neidhart is, in fact, only his second major role in a video game, after Garrosh Hellscream in World of Warcraft, and he wouldn't really break out until a year after Minstrel Song was released, when he landed the roles of Kenpachi Zaraki and Isshin Kurosaki in Bleach.

Based on the timing and what works coincide with Minstrel Song, it seems like they might have straight-up approached Geneon for introductions, as the series that most of the cast have in common are Read or Die the TV and DearS (both were localized by Geneon and released the same year as Minstrel Song).

# ¿ Aug 28, 2023 04:11

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

jkq posted:

Would it be possible to list some of their more famous roles too?

You might know Yuri Lowenthal as Ben Tennyson from the Ben 10 franchise, Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Suzaku Kururugi from Code Geass, Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto (a role that makes him easily the biggest get in the cast for a game made in 2005), Haseo from .hack//G.U., and many, many other roles. Hell, he's probably the most prolific and successful VA among Minstrel Song's cast to this day.

Carrie Savage is a career supporting actress, so it's hard to say "you definitely know her from this", but if you've watched any significant amount of dubbed anime, there's a very good chance you've heard her voice a lot, as she's been in a ton of stuff that aired on Adult Swim, she's been in One Piece, she even landed a leading role as the title character of Solty Rei (which I happened to borrow from Netflix about ~~fifteen years ago~~ an amount of time ago I refuse to acknowledge, when I was basically just checking out random anime series as a teenager and young adult; I remember it being alright).

Michelle Ruff is one of the few cast members to have been working since the nineties, having lent her voice to Speed Racer X back in 1997. You might know her as Fujiko from Lupin III, Yoko from Gurren Lagann, Rukia Kuchiki from Bleach, or Crimson Viper from Street Fighter, to name a few roles.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2023 08:02

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

5-Headed Snake God posted:

Classes
There are a ton of classes in Minstrel Song, and it's not really worth the time to go over each and every one of them.

I'll be happy to do class breakdowns, but it'll be a couple updates, since the classes we've already seen interact with mechanics you haven't shown off, and I'd hate to get ahead of the LP.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2023 20:26

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

5-Headed Snake God posted:

If anyone can find me the names of the voice actors for Galahad and Myriam, you'd be my hero of the week. I don't recognize them and the information doesn't seem to be available.

It's entirely possible that their VAs weren't anyone well-known, or voiced other characters as well. Since the entire English cast went uncredited, it's impossible to fully know who voiced who, beyond what information has been gathered already. That said, given that the cast seems to be comprised entirely of people who did work for Geneon around 2004/2005, I did find it odd that Taliesin Jaffe (who also fell into that group) isn't in the cast, so who knows, maybe he voiced Galahad (though I imagine at this point, he might've said something about it if he had; he's pretty much at his absolute most famous these days, thanks to Critical Role, where he works with two guys who absolutely were in the game, so one would think it might at least go on his personal website or something).

EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 02:18 on Sep 5, 2023

# ¿ Sep 5, 2023 02:16

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Gilgamesh255 posted:

Wait, how does the Swordsman class not have the relevant skill for a katana?

None of the basic classes have Katana skill. It's only available to three advanced classes and one legendary class. A bunch of skills are only found in advanced or legendary classes.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2023 04:44

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

5-Headed Snake God posted:

Dowd is one of those characters who lacks the confidence of his close friend. In a proper narrative he'd probably grow and develop, but this is SaGa, so he'll always be that way no matter how powerful he actually gets.

This isn't entirely true, but that's probably best discussed later on.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2023 02:25

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

5-Headed Snake God posted:

Assuming it comes up in the LP at all, which is pretty unlikely.

Look, we both know who the frontrunners in the protag vote are gonna be, but let's at least pretend Jamil has a chance to take it. Also if he doesn't get picked, it won't be a spoiler anymore, so I'll probably bring it up at some point when it feels relevant (probably alongside the glitch that's also connected to this topic).

# ¿ Sep 26, 2023 03:13

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

FeyerbrandX posted:

Having no exposure to this besides the LP so far I had to sit and stare for a few seconds in awe of this absolute unit.

Also the awesomeness of those song names obviously took all the actual awesome so there was nothing left for the songs themselves.

I wouldn't want to listen to the full soundtrack versions of them, but the "Pirates" songs are still pretty good in the short bursts you usually hear them outside of cutscenes. Also there's a song much later that more than makes up for them and is also one of the best BGMs in all of video games. We're talking "Moon level from Ducktales" good.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2023 22:05

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

5-Headed Snake God posted:

It's a testament to the quality of the soundtrack that I can think of at least three songs that fit this description. Though I suspect I know which one you mean. It's the one referenced in my alternate thread title in the OP, isn't it?

It extremely is.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2023 00:21

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

I genuinely love Hawke, but there's Neat poo poo to Show Off, so, my vote goes to whoever ends up with the most votes out of Jamil, Gray, and Albert.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2023 19:53

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

5-Headed Snake God posted:

every character there save for Brau, Sylvan, and Barbara herself is an option, including the remaining seven protagonists.

Actually, Dowd is also not an option, assuming this is a fresh file, because the only way to unlock him for other protagonists to recruit is by playing Jamil's story. As this involves a quest that's open to everyone, I'll wait until that quest is in-progress before going into too much more detail, but fun coincidence, the sequence of events requires Barbara to be recruited.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2023 17:40

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

5-Headed Snake God posted:

This was apparently changed for the remaster! Dowd can now be recruited after finding Wuhan's secret room and freeing the women.

Huh, that's pretty cool. In that case, if the glitch is still present that allows you to bypass Dowd and Jamil's mutual exclusivity, I vote to show it off. I wouldn't use either in the permanent party, mind you, it's just fun to make end runs around a game's restrictions.

Anyway, the party should be:

Herman: He comes with Barbara and showing off how to make the most of an unimpressive character can be fun. Also he can easily be ditched temporarily because there's one point in the game where you definitely want to go in with an empty party slot.
Myriam: The best and most readily available spellcaster in the game.
Patrick: You want two spellcasters in the party in order to show off the two spellcasting classes that each have their own version of the coolest mechanic in the game, and Patrick is basically the only other easily-available spellcaster.
Galahad: An actually competent tank/heavy melee guy, and he has special quest relevance at one point in the game.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2023 18:26

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Barbara: Entertainer (If I were to change her class, it'd be to Ascetic into Martial Artist, personally)
Monica: Imperial Knight (no reason to downgrade her into a basic class)
Diana: Rosalian Lancer (Rangers aren't even the good archer, Diana's a much better choice for Castle Knight)
Guella Ha: Geckling Knight (2H Axes are extremely good and the Geckling Knight's class ability is better for Guella Ha than the Rebel's)
Patrick: Imperial Scholar (There's really no other choice)

# ¿ Oct 13, 2023 17:52

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Fun fact: There is a way to purchase the Ice Sword, but it requires a bit of luck or grinding. See, the minute you have enough money to purchase the Ice Sword, Galahad will buy it, even if you've not done the Ecology quest yet, to prevent you from bypassing the moral dilemma. However, this event can't happen if you happen to be inside the Altours weapon shop when you get the cash. In other words, if you bank enough dough to be just shy of affording the Ice Sword, then sell a couple things at the weapon shop, you can buy it immediately with no hassle, and Galahad won't even show up. There's one other method of obtaining the Ice Sword without dealing with Galahad, but it's a spoiler and there are other, equally spoiler-y things that make it complicated.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2024 01:54

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 14:28

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

taichara posted:

I've always wondered, given the vampire's dialogue, if they're just stereotypically hamming it up or if a good chunk of the minions really did volunteer. Upside you get to live forever, downside being a mind enslaved minion --

Well, the way I heard it, it was not by his hand that he was once again given flesh, but rather that he was called there by humans who wished to pay him tribute. And sure, some might argue that he steals men's souls and makes them his slaves, but, perhaps the same could be said about all religions.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2024 09:54

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > It's Your Journey in Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song Remastered