Posted August 16, 2022
I've been thinking of SaGa 3 lately, and I remember one quirk of the remake (which also happens to be true of SaGa 2): Melee attacks, specifically those that depend on the strength stat, aren't that great. This is despite the fact that:
* Of the 10 weapon skills, 5 are for strength based weapons, while agility based weapons get only 2, the other 3 being fixed damage weapons.
* Furthermore, if we exclude monsters, we find that 2 of the races are focused on strength based attacks; agility, magic, and fixed damage get only 1 race each.
* Later in the game, you find some legendary weapons. There are 4 of them, all of them use strength, and all of them do extra damage to endgame bosses.
Yet, despite all that, strength based weapons aren't even that good in this game, as both martial arts (which use agility) and magic end up doing more damage in practice, and are easier to get to that level. (Fixed damage attacks, unfortunately, aren't that good in SaGa 3 remake, which is a shame because of how they were such a nice option in SaGa 2.)
There's some other games where we see this sort of thing. For example, in the Pathfinder games, from what I understand, if you want a character with a high AC, the closest the games have to a proper defense stat, the best option is to *not* wear armor, but instead be a robe wearing monk with the help of mage armor or bracers. Or Final Fantasy 2, where armor has such a severe drawback that you're better off not wearing any.
One odd case is SaGa Frontier 2. Physical attacks aren't worthless, as they can outdamage spells, but you need to conserve physical attacks, whereas you don;t need to conserve spells. (Notice that this is the opposite to what you'd normally expect.)
So, what do you think of games that are like this? Also, any other examples?
* Of the 10 weapon skills, 5 are for strength based weapons, while agility based weapons get only 2, the other 3 being fixed damage weapons.
* Furthermore, if we exclude monsters, we find that 2 of the races are focused on strength based attacks; agility, magic, and fixed damage get only 1 race each.
* Later in the game, you find some legendary weapons. There are 4 of them, all of them use strength, and all of them do extra damage to endgame bosses.
Yet, despite all that, strength based weapons aren't even that good in this game, as both martial arts (which use agility) and magic end up doing more damage in practice, and are easier to get to that level. (Fixed damage attacks, unfortunately, aren't that good in SaGa 3 remake, which is a shame because of how they were such a nice option in SaGa 2.)
There's some other games where we see this sort of thing. For example, in the Pathfinder games, from what I understand, if you want a character with a high AC, the closest the games have to a proper defense stat, the best option is to *not* wear armor, but instead be a robe wearing monk with the help of mage armor or bracers. Or Final Fantasy 2, where armor has such a severe drawback that you're better off not wearing any.
One odd case is SaGa Frontier 2. Physical attacks aren't worthless, as they can outdamage spells, but you need to conserve physical attacks, whereas you don;t need to conserve spells. (Notice that this is the opposite to what you'd normally expect.)
So, what do you think of games that are like this? Also, any other examples?