Scarlet Graces Guide

🔹 Gameplay Mechanics 🔹

One of the main reasons this game is my number 1 pick when recommending a SaGa game for newcomers to the series, is because it masterfully embodies Bushnell's Law for what makes the best games, and that is they are "Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master". It takes no time to learn the mechanics, in fact, in battle you only get to choose what Tech (skill) you want each character to use and that is it. There is no menus within menus, where you choose between "Attack, Magic, Skill, Item, Summon, Limit Break" and so on. But don't be fooled like I was the first time I played the game and had to drop it. Underneath this simple and almost mobile game like structure lies one of the best turn-based battle systems I have yet to experience.

~ Mechanical Terms ~

Here I will breakdown terms I will be using throughout the guide, this way you won't be confused when they come up:

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~ Overworld Map ~

The overworld map is made up of Nodes, they are usually divided into:

You see, unlike other games in the series, or most JRPG in general. The entire game of SaGa Scarlet Grace, takes place on the Overworld Map. Meaning that while there are cities and dungeons in the game. Your character doesn't physically enter them like most other JRPGs. Instead you interact with them through menus.

~ Weapon Ranks & Tech Ranks ~

Like most SaGa games, characters only learn new attacks (techs), by using weapons. The process goes something like this:

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So far so good right ? Here are where things get interesting. In this game, techs are not only tied to the type of weapon you are using (spear/axe/bow/staff/etc...), but also to which exact weapon are you using:

For example, let's say you are trying to upgrade your Axe, and you get 3 choices, like how it shows in this image: https://imgur.com/QOP0HYe

Of course once a Tech has been learned, you can use them at anytime regardless of which axe you are using.

Now Techs themselves also have Ranks. And when a Tech has been used enough times, it will rank up from 0 to 1, then 2 , then finally 3. Every time a Tech ranks up, it will:

~ Magic Spells ~

Now in this game, magic spells work a bit differently than usual. For one, you don't Glimmer them in battle, but instead, after each battle, if you have a mage using a staff, and they'll be able to choose one of the spells they know, and absorb Elemental Flux (Elemental power) into it. The more you gather the higher chance you have of learning a new spell in the element you have gathered, and also once you fill the bar of a spell then that spell will rank up just like a Tech would. However, in order to learn new spells in an element, you need to make sure you learned the first spell in that element school of magic. So in order to learn tier 2 Nature magic spell, you need to first have learned the tier 1 Nature magic spell.

That would be the natural order of things. But as always, SaGa is a bit more interesting. Because the type of staff you have will heavily effect how you learn spells. For example, you'll notice that even your mage characters start with only 1 or maybe 2 different elements learned, does that mean they can't learn spells from other element schools ? No, they can. It all comes down to what staff they are using:

1- Basic Staff:

Your starting staff, this staff will help you learn the tier 1 spell from any school. However there is a catch. In order to do this, you have to learn the order (pun not intended):

Natura > Ignis > Terra > Aes > Unda > Natura

This order shows that if you absorb flux into a first tier Ignis spell that you learned, then you'll have a chance to learn the first tier spell of the Terra school. Just know that you can't skip a school. So if you already absorb flux into a first tier Ignis spell, but you already know the first tier Terra spell, then there won't be any chance to Glimmer a spell from the Terra or the next element in the order (Aes).

Also know that while learning tier 1 spells for each elemental school is always available, to learn other higher tier spells, you need to first have reached high ranks in the element you want to learn from.

2- Standard Staff:

This type of staff will always help you to learn the next Tier of spells in the elemental school you absorb flux into. So if you absorb flux into a tier 3 Aes spell, then this staff will help you to make it possible to Glimmer the tier 4 spell of the same Aes element school. Granted that your Aes Rank is high enough.

3- Reverse Staff:

As the name implies, this staff works like the Standard Staff but in reverse, helping you learn the spells in the tier that is one level lower than the spell that absorbed the flux. So if you absorbed flux into a tier 4 Nature spell, then there is a chance to Glimmer the tier 3 Nature spell.

4- Elemental Staff

If you're wondering why would you ever need a Reverse Staff, when I already told you that you need spells from lower tiers to learn ones in higher tiers, it's this staff. This staff will give you a chance to Glimmer spells of it's Element if have it when you absorb Flux into a spell from a different Element. So if you have a Ignis Elemental staff, and you absorb Flux into a tier 3 Unda spell, you'll have a chance to Glimmer a tier 3 spell from the Ignis school (same as the staff's element). On the other hand, if the staff's element, and the spell you absorb Flux into are the same, then it will give you a chance to Glimmer the next tier of spells from that element (just like a normal Standard staff).

~ Character Selection ~

For first timers, I would always say go with Urpina, and stay away from Leonard.

Even without knowing this tip, that is something the game will recommend for you heavily through the intro quiz you answer after choosing new game. A fan tested all the answers combinations, and found that like out of the 4 main characters available for you to choose from at the start, 60% to 70% of the answers will give you Urpina (the girl with a flower on hear head) and the rest will be divided on the other 3.

In every SaGa game, there is always the story heavy character that is recommended for a newcomer, because they have a slow and more linear start where they don't get access to the open world right away, but instead it opens up bit by bit. Also most of their early fights are just a way to help the player learn the ropes. Urpina is that character in this game.

On the other hand, in almost every SaGa game, there is also a character that is meant for veterans of the series or hardcore players of that game. Where they have little to almost no story, and they get access to the open world in like the first 5 minutes, and get total freedom. They can usually get to the final boss in less than 5 hours if they want. Which in this game is Leonard. In fact with Leonard you can start the final battle in 1 hour of playtime if you want, that's how free he is, and that's why he is a bad choice for a newcomer.

~ Battle Rank ~

In every SaGa game, there something called Battle Rank (BR for short). It has many uses depending on which game you're playing in the series, but let's only focus on this one for now.

Because the game has no leveling system, and it's main purpose is to have a good balance to your battles. The game instead tracks how many battles you have fought, and through a certain equation, will increase you battle rank depending on that value. Just think of it as the more you win battles, the more exp the BR gets. BR levels up through that exp, and the higher it goes, newer and harder monsters will get introduced to the pool of monsters you can fight. While old monsters become stronger, and learn new and more deadlier moves. So fighting every encounter you meet will increase the speed of which your Battle Rank levels up, which in turn means you will get to fight the next tier of new and more powerful monsters.

Does that mean that fighting everyone encounter will turn the game impossible ? No, not at all. I am not the best tactical player out there, not even close. But still, in my first playthrough I fought every fight I found and even grinded a lot for crafting materials. So by hour 70, I was still in chapter 2, and already had about 4 or 5 of my characters HP at 999, so you can imagine how much fighting I have been doing. Yet still winning wasn't a problem as long as I played tactically and made smart choices.

Important Tip: While you get BR exp for the first time you finish a fight, any time you do that same fight again, you will only increase the BR exp by 1/3 of the original value. So if you got 15 exp added to your BR the first time you do a certain battle, every battle after that (on the same node) will only increase your BR by 5 or less.

Also remember that you can decrease the difficulty at any time if you find a fight that is too hard. Reducing the difficulty won't magically make it easy though. It reduces the stats and AI of the enemies, but they will still kick your ass if you don't know what you're doing.

🔹 Winning Battles 🔹

Winning battles is never about how weak or strong the enemy is stats wise. It simply comes down to mainly 3 things:

[A] Well thought out Party build:

Everything you choose in your party build should be there for a reason:

[B] Gear that compliments each character's build:

This doesn't mean just equipping the newest gear, but giving each character the equipment that best compliments their stats and role in the party. It also means Going through the upgrade/crafting tree that gives you the stats and techs you need; You can't just go and blindly upgrading and buying whatever gear you find just because it had better stats. Each piece of gear could mean the difference between a shitty or an amazing character. Because gear is the only way to increase a character's fixed stats, and not only that, but depending on the gear they will also increase their level with different weapons, which means more damage/hit rate/rank ups and so on with that weapon. Higher weapon level also gives you access to better techs and that's a huge bonus.

[C] Knowing your enemy, their weak points, attacks, what are they immune to or strong against:

This one is arguably the most important point for winning battles. Even against the really end game enemies that can wipe your party in one turn, if you know that they can be stunned/put to sleep/paralyzed/poisoned/etc..., then a fight will go from impossible to a cake walk. Learning about your enemies is as important (or even more) as learning about your characters. Fighting someone who has a move that counters Slash techs, and then doing a slash tech which triggers their counter, is just a bad idea. There is a reason that you can only use 5 characters in battle, even though you can easily recruit more than 20 characters even just by mid game, if not more. That's because the game wants you to make teams or at least characters that can tackle the different dangerous enemies in the game. Going against a Flying monsters with no archers or at least pierce weapons is just not a good idea.

The game expects you to get your ass kicked and your party wiped, that's why it let's you save anytime and anywhere, even between each battle in a dungeon. Even if you get wiped, you can retry the same fight right away without losing anything, and the game will even heal everyone too. You can even restart the battle at anytime during the battle and get access to the tips/help menu. Because the game knows winning is about learning from your mistakes, and from understanding how your enemies work, and has less to do with how high your HP or stats are (though they do help of course).

~ Gear & Gear Upgrades ~

Meaning that while a weapon having more techs gives you a better chance to Glimmer them, weapons with fewer techs will give you the chance to learn special techs that other weapons don't have.

🔹 Quick & Important Tips 🔹