Daniel Thompson's Seriously Unofficial Romancing Saga 3 Faq of Stuff v2.0 Well now, sence the English translation came out, this faq isn't really needed much anymore. But I'll keep it around for any help it may provide, and yes I'll still take questions (no stupid or ovious questions please) about the game if you really need help. -General Blood (GenrlBlood@yahoo.com) ******TABLE OF CONTENTS****** I. About the FAQ II. Updates III. List of Playable Characters IV A. Frequently Asked Questions (No Spoilers) IV B. Frequently Asked Questions (Some Spoilers) V. How to Get This Character to Join Your Party VI. Walkthrough for the beginning VII. Guide to the Four Gate Guardians VIII. Guide to the Final Boss IX. Formations Guide X. Army Battles XI. Wrap Up ===================================================================== I. *** ABOUT THE FAQ *** This faq was written by me because I figured the wasn't enough information on the game. I feel that through all my playing and a bit of work, this faq is getting very good. But, I'd like help from anyone willing to help. Donating information, asking questions which I can stick in the faq, all that good stuff is much apreciated. Alright, the faq is divided into many sections. For those who wish to enjoy the game without knowing any spoilers, you will want to just read the non spoiler Q and A section. You'll get lots of answers to your questions there. For those who are having troubles, you'll want to read the guides to the various boss and the Some Spoilers Q and A. I am trying to make sure I don't give anything important away just in the questions place, so people who are looking for something and don't want to be spoiled in other places won't find out something they didn't want to. As for the newer Formations Guide, this is also a good read if you would like to know the ups and downs for the formations. If you remember the older version with the Mega Newbie guide, that has been relocated into the end of the Non-spoilers Q and A section. I feel this is for the best, what do YOU think? I also put in bigger gaps so the faq is easier to read. Well, I hope that covers it. Thanks for all the help. ========================================================================== II. ***UPDATES*** Update v2.0 - Well it was bound to happen... RS3 has been translated nearly [09/04/00] completly to english. If you have one of those illegal rom things and you want to play it in english, pick it up at www.zophar.net. I am updating the FAQ with a little bit of new information, too. Update v1.6 - This update is because people have been bugging me to do so. [04/17/00] It contains some new information in the FAQ sections to answer those questions EVERYONE seems to have. Plus now there is a section on how to get specific characters to join your party. Yes it has been over a year. I know. I've been doing other faqs and playing other games. I'll be happy to help out anyone who still needs help with the game. I may update the faq again if it needs to be. Until then... Update v1.51 BETA 2 - The great Email chase continues! If you have Emailed me sence 1/30/98, you must resend your emails to me, but at my NEW email adress GenrlBlood@yahoo.com . Update v1.51 BETA - I had to up this because I changed my Email adress. It's no longer Grasscrab@geocities.com, I am now reachable at GenBlood@operamail.com. I hope this will stick, but if not, CHECK THE WEB SITE! If you have emailed me sence 1/30/99 at that Email adress, resend it to my new one. Update v1.5 - Updated 1/5/99 - I never stop do I? I moved things around a bit, changed some stuff, and HOPEFULLY made it all better. Update v1.41 - Ooops, I just discovered something BIG I had missed before. It's the final spells for each of the 4 aligned spell classes (Which I call Black, Green, White and Red). I had found the final spells for Solar and Moon, but these are much cooler. A description is below in the Q and A section! And thanks to DShort AGAIN for the help. :) Update v1.4- Update 12/31/98 - A big update just before the year ends. This time, due to constant hounding by Emails (you know who you are ;) I've put up a guide to the formations. Hope you all enjoy it. Remember, keep those questions coming in. Oh... and Happy 1999. Update v1.351- Updated 12/13/98 - a few new questions answered, just in time for christmas. Yahoo. Update v1.35- More updating. Added questions to the actual FAQ section. I have been getting lots of Emails from people who are asking me Questions. That's good, I like Email and helping people out. Soo... keep asking those questions and I'll keep helping and updating the FAQ. Hope it doesn't get too big. :) Update v1.31- Thanks to DShort@ST1.wou.edu for the corrections to my FAQ. Remeber, if any of you have corrections to my FAQ, don't feel bad about sending em in! :) Update v1.3- Woah! I didn't expect this to happen! My FAQ just got Absolutely HUGE! 37K up from the 7K it was at v1.1! I hope all the new info about the Gate Guards and the Final boss come in real handy to all of you. Update v1.2- A hello goes to Dimetric Houston for his letter... and, uh... Well, his letter is the basis for the new section I added after the Q/A. It's called the Mega-Newbie section. It is for people who know literaly nothing about the game. Read it if you are one of those people. Oh.. and uh... should I just start calling this a FAQ? It's gotten pretty darn big. What do you guys think? Update v1.11- I added a question or two to the bottom. Also, thanks go to Hassan and his FAQ for giving me a few names for my list. Update v1.1- I figured out a few new things... as I am now playing as Sarah. This ought to be interesting. =========================================================================== III. ***CHARACTER LIST*** This is a list of all the characters in the game I know about that can be put into your party. Some names may be wrong due to my lack of interest in updating them from the Jap version. Julian The Grean haired Guy. Main Character Str: 18 Dex: 17 Spd: 17 Con: 15 Int: 16 Wil: 22 Char: 14 LP: 10 Thomas The guy in an orange cape. Main Character Str: 17 Dex: 15 Spd: 18 Con: 19 Int: 20 Wil: 13 Char: 19 LP: 10 Harid The only black character. Main Character Str: 21 Dex: 12 Spd: 20 Con: 17 Int: 15 Wil: 19 Char: 20 LP: 10 Michael Wears big purpleish armor. Main Character Str: 16 Dex: 17 Spd: 19 Con: 15 Int: 18 Wil: 21 Char: 21 LP: 10 Elen Big Pony-Tail, blue pants. Main Character Str: 21 Dex: 14 Spd: 18 Con: 15 Int: 15 Wil: 18 Char: 20 LP: 10 Sarah BIG poofy hair. Wears yellow. Main Character Str: 17 Dex: 19 Spd: 21 Con: 13 Int: 20 Wil: 11 Char: 21 LP: 10 Katarina Messy White Hair. Purple-Blue-Green Outfit. Main Character Str: 17 Dex: 21 Spd: 23 Con: 18 Int: 10 Wil: 16 Char: 17 LP: 10 Monica Wears Pink and a short lil skirt. Main Character Str: 14 Dex: 19 Spd: 20 Con: 14 Int: 16 Wil: 17 Char: 24 LP: 10 Bard Wears a green and yellow outfit Str: 20 Dex: 18 Spd: 17 Con: 16 Int: 13 Wil: 14 Char: 22 LP: 10 Tatyana Big pink hair, all her stats start at 0! Str: 18 Dex: 16 Spd: 15 Con: 19 Int: 17 Wil: 13 Char: 20 LP: 10 Nora Blacksmith found in Pidonea Str: 23 Dex: 24 Spd: 16 Con: 12 Int: 14 Wil: 13 Char: 13 LP: 14 Herman The Pirate who hangs around the Great Arch Str: 14 Dex: 20 Spd: 10 Con: 11 Int: 16 Wil: 24 Char: 12 LP: 4 Black Herman changes into this guy after you beat the Water Guard Str: 19 Dex: 20 Spd: 15 Con: 16 Int: 16 Wil: 24 Char: 14 LP: 12 Robin The Superhero, a very good character. Str: 21 Dex: 17 Spd: 20 Con: 14 Int: 17 Wil: 12 Char: 17 LP: 12 Fat Robin The Fake Superhero Str: 15 Dex: 17 Spd: 22 Con: 17 Int: 14 Wil: 15 Char: 19 LP: 9 Boston He's a lobster.... Get over it. Str: 16 Dex: 13 Spd: 20 Con: 19 Int: 21 Wil: 17 Char: 9 LP: 17 *Snowman Not a good character... but pretty funny looking Str: 11 Dex: 17 Spd: 8 Con: 24 Int: 14 Wil: 23 Char: 18 LP: 8 *Fairy You'll have to rescue her from the cages at the sideshow Str: 21 Dex: 22 Spd: 25 Con: 10 Int: 12 Wil: 11 Char: 20 LP: 7 Zo The Elephant Str: 19 Dex: 14 Spd: 7 Con: 26 Int: 18 Wil: 20 Char: 13 LP: 36 *Jap Girl Old Jap. Lady put her in your party to go do a task Str: 14 Dex: 24 Spd: 15 Con: 18 Int: 10 Wil: 20 Char: 16 LP: 12 Bai Mei Niang She causes a lot of commotion in the ending Str: 17 Dex: 16 Spd: 14 Con: 17 Int: 23 Wil: 18 Char: 8 LP: 13 Yung Fan Japanese guy near the very end of the game. Str: 10 Dex: 15 Spd: 21 Con: 10 Int: 23 Wil: 21 Char: 19 LP: 12 Wood Big red cowboy outfit, powerful but slow. Str: 22 Dex: 16 Spd: 10 Con: 23 Int: 12 Wil: 18 Char: 13 LP: 15 Leonid The vampire, 0 LP! Can't permenantly die. Str: 19 Dex: 13 Spd: 21 Con: 17 Int: 25 Wil: 13 Char: 27 LP: 0 Shonen The VERY important child, tought to get Str: 23 Dex: 14 Spd: 16 Con: 16 Int: 17 Wil: 13 Char: 17 LP: 10 Paul Man who is being looked for by his girlfriend Str: 18 Dex: 19 Spd: 17 Con: 19 Int: 13 Wil: 15 Char: 16 LP: 11 Sharl Guy with spear in Pidonea. Str: 5 Dex: 3 Spd: 16 Con: 21 Int: 19 Wil: 16 Char: 18 LP: 9 Sharl with Silver hand: Str: 21 Dex: 19 Muse Sharl's Wife, all skills start at 0. Str: 16 Dex: 20 Spd: 15 Con: 10 Int: 19 Wil: 18 Char: 25 LP: 6 Fullbright Cool green hat, fairly tricky to find Str: 15 Dex: 20 Spd: 16 Con: 13 Int: 19 Wil: 21 Char: 14 LP: 9 Undine You have to fight her... but there is a way around this. Str: 10 Dex: 20 Spd: 16 Con: 15 Int: 24 Wil: 17 Char: 13 LP: 7 Tiberious Powerful magic user... that's all I know. Str: 14 Dex: 13 Spd: 14 Con: 15 Int: 23 Wil: 20 Char: 14 LP: 8 Creating your character at the beginning of the game: When you start a new game, you will be asked to choose a number of things. First, you choose your sex, then one of four main characters of that sex. After that you will be able to name your character if you like. Then, you will be asked what class you would like to be. What your character is supposed to be will already be selected, and you can change it if you want. Hunter: Focuses on Speed, Dex, and a little on strength. Scholar: Focuses on thinking and a little on speed/dex. Royalty: Very good Charisma and Wil, bad speed and dex. Fighter: Focuses on fighting skill and constitution. Merchant: Has good speed/dex, not great magic or strength. I'm betting there are other effects that these classes have in the game, such as possible prices or money. After this you will be asked what type of weapon you would like to specialize in. Whatever you pick will recieve a +1 bonus to skill to start with, and probably makes you just generaly better in that weapon. Setting up your character in the beginning is one of the more important things you can do. Pick a weak setup and you might find your character just isn't turning out very good. =========================================================================== IV A. ***Q/A SECTION (No Spoilers) *** Q. What's that little crown thing next to my characters AP/WP level? A. This means he is a master of Fighting skills, I suppose. What it really does is that all AP using techs will cost 1 less AP to use. Mages can get this too, but they will need to have a very high AP level over their MP level. Q. Is there a limit to the number of Techs or Magic spells that I can have equiped at once? A. Yes, you can only have 8 Techs and 8 Spells equiped at once. Also, you can only have 1 magic type equiped unless they are Moon/Solar, in which case you can equip another type. Q. How do you get new Formations? A. Certain characters when they join will give you formations for your party. For example, when you let the Lobster join your party, you get the formation necicary to cast Armageadon. Odd isn't it... that a lobster would bring upon armageadon... er... These people I know give you formations: Sharl, Fairy, Boston, Herman, Robin. Q. I found a sword in a doungeon, but when I equiped it, it became cursed! Now what am I gonna do? [Name of Sword needed] A. This sword has a special ability. It will use up all your AP and will destroy the sword in the process, and do a lot of damage to all your enemies. If you equip this sword and don't want it, go ahead and use this special attack. Go back to the inn to get your AP back afterwards though. Q. So, I beat the intro. Now what? A. Now you are free to explore the surounding lands. Just talk to everyone in town (even if you don't know what they are saying) so you can find new places to go to. However, I know that certain characters have extended intros... which go on after the main game has started. Monica and Julian have these, I know. They aren't very hard usualy, just get through them and you'll be off to do what you want. Anyway... First, find a route to Pidonia, which is a town near the center of the map where Thomas, Sarah, Sharl, his wife, the Blacksmith, and Tatyana can all be gotten. Not only can you get lots of characters here, but go to the boat. A huge list of towns is there, and I hope to be able to tell you which choice takes you where. That shall be later. Q. Do you know where I can get the RS3 rom?? A. Sorry, giving out roms is illegal, and I wont be apart of any illegal distribution of such a great game. Go to www.buyrite1.com and you may be able to get yourself a copy of Romancing Saga 3 for the real Super Famicom. Q. I have some serious questions that I need to ask of you. The questions you put in your Mini-FAQ brought up some facets of the game I've never heard of. What is this "group-tech" you are talking about? Also, I never knew anything about the formations. What are the "techs" that you keep mentioning (singletech, tripletech)? A. Er... this is a bit complicated... What I refer to as "Techs" are special attacks your character will some times learn during combat. You'll know you've learned one when a little light bulb apears above one of your characters heads and he does something rather different. These can range from Giantic Meteorite Smash attacks to Healing Attacks (er... I think you understand). Now, you must realize there are TWO kinds of battle systems in Romancing Saga 3. The Single-Tech Battle System, and the Multi-Tech Battle System. The Single-Tech Battle System (STBS) is the kind used in final fantasy and such. This is when you issue each of your characters a seperate attack or command, and they go do it. It's rather simple. Now, the Multi-Tech Battle System (MTBS) is unique, as far as I know. You can get into this mode when you have 6 people in your party. Now, you can only ever have 5 people on screen fighting... so if you have 6 people in your party, one always has to sit out. Now, if you make that person the main character you selected at the beggining of the game, you will get into the MTBS. In this mode, basicly you issue a set of general commands to the other 5 people who are on screen. You can do such things as tell everyone to defend, tell everyone to attack, or tell everyone to do their most powerful special attacks. There are lots of choises... many of which are unimportant. Also what you choose is the specific attack command. This specific attack command makes two or more characters forget the general commands and do a special Multi-Tech. (Multi-Tech of course meaning, Techniques that require more than one person to do. Anywhere from 2 to 5 people in this game). Now, these Specific commands are learned randomly over time, just like normal Techs are. And, depending on your formation, you can use different specific commands. NOW, Formations. There are about... 12 or 14 formations in the game. You start with 4, I belive. There are different formations depending on how many characters you have in your party (going from 1 to 6 people of course). These formations are used to allow you to put your big attacking guys in front and keep the weaker Bow using characters and Mages in the back. You can move your characters about in the possitions of the formations to put them where they need to be. In the MTBS, the formations allow you to do different kinds of Multi-Techs. In one formation, you might be able to have all 5 of the on-screen characters shoot massive amounts of arrows at the enemies (like what they did in the intro...). Or, in another, you could cause a stream of comets to hit the enemies for lots of damage. Whew... Also, check my FAQ about how to get new formations. As for Group-Techs... thats just another name for Multi-Techs. Q. Can you explain how the controls work? A. Okay, the controls... the A button is usual the Do button. Like, click A to talk, or click A to select a command or menu item... the B button is usual the Cancel button. When selected a wrong menu and you want to exit it... push the B button to get out.... stuff like that. :) the Y and X buttons are special buttons. when just walking around like in Final Fantasy, Holding the Y button makes you run. The X button is used to Quickly exit a building or town. This sends you out of the town or building without haveing to walk out. (handy). This only works in friendly places though, hostile areas like doungeons and such don't let you use that button. When in Combat, the X button, when held, will pop up all the HP and LP levels of your characters. This is nice, because there is no menu at the bottom like the Final Fantasy games where you can just look down at your life. In Combat, if you are using the STBS, Y... as far as I dang well can remember, won't do anything. In the MTBS, Y will bring up the list of General attack commands... like, attack at will, or defence, or do max power attacks... I already told you about those. ALSO, if you push the B button in combat before you have issued any commands in the current turn (if you didn't know, it's a turn based combat engine. You issues all your characters commands first, then they do all their stuff, and you issue the next set of commands), AND you are in the MTBS, you get a list of the formations you know. You can choose one, and poof, your guys change formation Mid-battle. This is a GREAT tool to use. :) Oh yeah... in the STBS, you can push L to tell that particular person to defend. in both the STBS and the MTBS, you can push R to run away. oops... two more... On the normal walking around screen, you can push start to pause the game, and select to bring up the menu. Q. What do the menu screens look like and what does each thing do? A. Okay, for the Menu screen, when you push select to bring up the menu, you'll see all your guys to the left, and a list of menu items to choose on the right. I hope I have these all right... or you'll be in some deep stuff.... :) First- Equip Weapons and Armor onto your characters. Basicly, pick a character and it'll bring up a list of the slots he can equip to and what he has equiped. The first four are Weapons/Shields/Items/Scrolls. (You only need to worry about the Weapons and Shields, sence the others are pretty worthless to equip.) The second four slots are for armor... which come in these varieties: Light Body Armor, Heavy Body Armor, Gauntlets, Boots, Helmets, Shirts, and Necklaces. Necklaces are special kinds of armor that can give you special protections, like from Water attacks or Fire attacks... The other ones are pretty ovius what they do. Now, when you look at a Weapon or Armor, it will have either 1 number (shown in the description box) for weapons, or 2 for armor. the number for the weapons is the power level of that weapon. basicly, the higher the better. (I've seen as high as 40 with the secret weapons). With armor, you get two numbers. I have no idea the difference between them... All I know is that, the higher, the better. Although, if you use really heavy stuff like the Heavy Body armor, you slow down a lot... and your attacks become less acurate and weaker... NOT a good idea. Okay, the second choice on the Menu is Equip of Techs. You see, when you learn Techs randomly in battle (these are single techs only, you don't have to worry about managing multi-techs), they are put in your list of currently equpied techs. You can have quite a few, trust me. Now, if a tech is in Red, that means that specific character can use it himself. However, if you use that Tech enough, it may become mastered, and it will turn black. this means, ANY character you have can use this tech if they equip it. On this tech equip screen to the right is a list of all the different catagories of Techs (I'll explain later). Basicly, you pick a catagory, and select a tech, and it's equiped. you can now use that tech in battle, as long as you have a weapon of the right type equiped, of course. Third menu choice is the Equip Magic. This is a menu that is completely unimportant. Don't even bother waisting your time on it. Fourth one is your inventory list. You can drop items, use them.. move em around, all that. Fifth is a list of the Goals you need to acomplish, but this is irrelevant to you and me both... don't worry about it. Sixth is the formations window. You can use it to change your formation and move characters around in it. This is also (if you have 6 characters in your party) where you can move your main character out of group of 5 onscreen characters and thus getting you into the MTBS. Seventh is the options menu. there isn't anything important in here. the last one is the save menu. Use this to save your game. (You can at any time.) That's it for the menu. Q. How do I learn "Techs"? A. As I said earlier, you randomly learn them in battle when you just do a normal attack. (There are some exceptions to this. One sword Tech can only be learned if you randomly get it while using another Tech... er.. maybe I confused you more... if so, ignore this part.) This goes for normal Multi-Techs as well. Q. What is AP cost? A. Okay... this is important to know. There are 4 point numbers in Romancing Saga 3. HP- Hit points. A characters current life. That character dies if this hits 0. LP- Life points. When a person's life hit's 0, he looses one of these. When he looses one of these, that's bad. If that person completely runs out of LP, that character is DEAD. Not just dead, but dead and gone. there is NO WAY to get a character back if his LP hits 0. If your main character hits 0 LP, the game is OVER! AP- Ability Points. Most Techs require at least 1 of these. When you do a Tech, you amount of these goes down by however many points the Tech needed. JP- Job Points... I think. This is basicly the same as MP is in other games. You need it to cast Magic. Simple enough. All of these Points can be easily brought back up to maximum by going to an inn and sleeping. Even your LP goes back up to max. Q. What factors make up the power of my character? Your character's abilitys with a certain kind of weapon goes in a range from 0 up to... 40 I belive. When your character uses a certain weapon in battle, he has a possibility to gain a point in his ability to use that weapon. These take a long time to raise! Just keep at it! If you ever manage to hit 40, that character will just be DANG good that weapon type! Theres is also the "Hard Set" Stats, which are more like AD+D stats than standard Final Fantasy stats. These are near the center of the screen. All of these things together make up how powerful your character is. Q. What are the different kinds of weapons? A. The different kinds of weapons are: Blade, Pole, Bashing, Arrow, Fist. These are what you gain skill in. HOWEVER, you don't gain Tech in these catagories... there are sub catagories which you gain the Techs in. Here are the lists of different sub catagories of Techs: Short Sword - Blade - Includes short swords and curved blades. Long Sword - Blade - Includes long swords and the Katana sword. Spear - Pole - Incudes just spear weapons. Lance - Pole - Incudes just lance weapons. (Don't use these. Use Spears instead) Hammer - Bashing - Includes just hammers Axe - Bashing - Includes just Axe type weapons. Bow - Arrow - Just bows. There is only one catagory for these. Fist - Fist - Same as the bow. Don't underestimate these. Dodge Techs - Special - These are a different kind all together. Dodge Techs are rather odd. Sometimes, when one of your characters is attack, a light bulb will apear over his head, and he will spin out of the way of the attack. This is a dodge tech. If your character uses it enough, it gets mastered, just like other dodge techs. I Generaly just find which ones are usful and never un-equip them. Q. In Final Fantasy, there are the usual Fight, Magic, Items options. What's with all the choises in Romacing Saga 3? A. Okay, another note on the STBL battle system for all you... When you are issuing commands, you will have a list of choices. The first on the list is always the basic attack. The later ones on the list (if any) are the Techs, and usualy require AP to use. If you push left and right, you can switch between other weapons you have equiped! Which means you can have a Spear and a Sword equiped and use either one during battle. Also, by pushing left and right, you can find magic spells, if any, and and items you may have equiped. This includes healing potions and one shot magic scrolls. Q. Okay, what exactly am I supposed to be doing in the game? A. Okay. The first part of the game, you need to close up the 4 Gates. Information on where they are is later in the faq. If you've already beaten them, read in the Soilers section about How to get to the final area. Q. How do I get to the ice galaxy/Snow town? A. This is fairly well hidden. First you need to talk to a girl in Lance. It's a very snowy town where Elan can be gotten at. If you head left in this town is a strange castle (you saw it in the intro). Ignore this castle for now. Anyway, in Lance, go to the house in the very upper- right part. Talk to the girl about everything on the list she has. Then, you'll need about 500HP with your main character, maybe more, maybe less. Anyway, go to your full map (go to your area-map and hit the map button again and you'll get to the full map). Now wait here until night time comes, and you should see a pretty design appear in the sky. Now, go down to the area map where Lance is, and you should see, in the north, a new area. Go here, and you'll end up in the snow town with it now on your map. Q. Muse keeps trying to kill me! WHY? A. Dunno, she does that to me too. My only suggestions might be that you need to have Sharl with you. Or better yet, just leave her behind. Q. I found a fish statue, what's it for? A. You'll need it to get to the water guardian. Q. What does the Poet's song thing do? A. Honestly I don't know, and I don't know anyone who does. Q. Do different formations allow my party to learn different single techs? A. No. However, if you use the Multi-Tech system, your characters have a much lower chance to find new single techs because they will most likely be doing multi-techs or magic or that like. What does determine what you get is what weapon you use and how powerful the mosters you are fighting are. Q. Who the heck are you anyway? A. Don't ask. ============================================================================= IV B. *** Q/A SECTION (Some Spoilers) *** Q. Okay, how am I suppose to get to the final area? A. After you have beaten the four guardians, you'll get a scene. Afterwards, head to the desert in the south east. Then, head right for a few screens and you'll end up in a new area. Keep proceeding through these series of areas until you to a place where you are out of the desert and into a planes area. Head north and you'll come to an area with water and grass. Once you have reached this, head east to a town. Talk to the old lady in charge, and you will get a quest and a temporary character. Defeat the boss in this area (it's a little complicated, but just fight everything and talk to all the weird things). After this, leave and go back to the town. Then, I'm not sure, but I belive once back in the town you head right into a new japanese town. From here, you'll get arrested and be set free. Then talk to everyone, and head back to the planes area (you might be able to access your map view now, can't remember). Then, head north and eventualy you end up in a cave. Head to the end (it's pretty hard) and you'll fight a dead king's spirit. It's not hard, but it keeps summoning tough creatures to defend it, so come equiped with long range weaponry or abilities. After that, go back to the japanese town and talk to everyone again. Go and visit the new japanese castle to the south, then go back and talk to the leaded and old lady again. Now try accessing the new castle again, and you should be able to get in. That's it, fight the battle, then your inside. Be careful, it's pretty tough in there. You'll fight a series of extreamly difficult enemies, and at the end you'll have to fight a tough boss dragon. After this, you'll be at the last gate. However, you'll have to go inside it to seal it up. If you have 6 characters, you'll have to kick one out. This means no multitech system for the final boss (unless your Sarah, where you will get a special one for the final boss). Read below in the Final Boss area for more info on what to do. Q. How the heck do I get into the Fire palace? A. First, wander the forest until you find the fairy village. Then, talk to every one of the fairies in the village. Now, go back into the forest, and follow all the black colored butterflys. This should get you into the fire palace. Q. What's this about those "final" spells for each spell type? A. The final spells are just that. They are the last and most MP hungry spells in each of the 6 catagories, which I now call Moon, Solar, White, Black, Green, and Red. Moon and Solar are non-alligned magics. These are needed by all of the special Multi-Magic-Techs. You can always have a second type of magic with Moon or Solar magic because they are unalligned. The other four are alligned, you can't have two alligned magics equiped at once. I belive this is how they are alligned: Black is to Air, Green is to Water, Red is to fire, White is to Earth. Sound odd? It is, but these are the colors of the magics needed for the special Multi-Magic-Techs. Alright, now where do you get the final spells? Well, Anna in Lance has them. (This is the town where you can get Ellen and Harrid) She can only teach them to you AFTER you have beaten the corisponding gate guardian. Black - Summon Dragon Spirit - Causes all of the casters AP and MP using skills to cost ZERO. This means all those cool attacks that use some 20AP now cost NOTHING. This amaising power comes at a cost, however. Until the battle ends, the person this was cast on, when ever damaged, will loose an LP, instead of HP. This is good for a last ditch effort against a boss when you AP has hit 0. Red - Pheonix - This one is great. As soon as any person who has had this cast on them dies, they automaticly regain life back up to max. This spell works amaising things on the final boss, along with Quick Time. Green - Quick Time - I belive this cause your party to always be able to get the first attack off. That's all I've been able to see it do so far. But hey, use this on the final boss!! White - Gravity Orb - This attack crushes the enemy REALLY nicely. It does around 1000 damage when your magic power of that color is 1, not bad. Moon - Multi Attack - This sets the caster up with a special multi ability. If the caster attacks, casts magic, or does a tech, it's doubled automaticly and therefor does 2x damage for the cost of 1. You can do this for you big attacks too, so those 3000 damage dealing techs can now be doubled to deal 6000 damage. The down side is that if the caster is physicaly hit, the double will absorb all the damage and die. Solar - Mirror - Randomly absorbs attacks dealt to the caster. Q. What's with the castle you can get Harrid in? Theres all these ladies that block my path. A. You can come to this place later. I'm not sure what triggers it, but I know I've beaten the gate guardians, beaten the wierd earth boss in the cave next to the goblin cave, and after all that I went to the man who gave me the ring to the 1st gate guardian, and talked to him. Then I was let in... Inside the castle, there appears to be only places to visit. On the right are three ladies who'll let you into this nice long area with lots of enemies. At the end, you can get a helmet. On the left side is this room where you get attacked by this guy in black. He says something to you, and after two rounds, he just shoots some arrows at you and the battle ends, you loosing. To defeat these guys (there are 3), you need a decent bow skill, around 21 is fine, higher is better. Just shoot an arrow at the guy, and if it hits, you win! After the 3, you get the best bow in the game. Also, in the center is an altar or something. Stand to the sound of it, look north and hit activate, it will slide and you may enter the basement. At the end of this is a pair of shoes. Don't know much about em yet. Does anyone know if there are more treasures in here? LIKE WEAPONS?? :) Q. Do I have to read the scrolls for the Multi-Magic-Techs before I can cast them? A. Indeed you do have to. This is Square's way of keeping you from getting too powerful too early on in the game. Q. I've got a few scrolls telling me how to do the Multi-Magic-Techs, but I don't know what formation to use or what magics to use! A. Okay, first, take a look at the way the words are written on the scroll describing the Multi-Magic-Tech. That's the formation you need. Flip through the formations till you find the one that fits the Multi-Magic-Tech you want to use. To aquire all the ones you need, you'll need to have these people join you at least once: Sharl, Boston the Lobster, Fairy (or Shonen). This should handle all of them. Now, each Multi-Magic-Tech needs both Solar magic and Moon magic. The Solar magic looks like a sun in the magic window, and the Moon magic looks like a white orb and a white cresent moon around it. Now, for other magic techs, look at the third magic needed for the Multi-Magic-Tech, and write it down. Talk to the magic selling Women in towns and find the same one. Give it to one of your characters (not the main character). Also, go and buy Moon and Solar magic if you havent already (don't give these to your main character either). Now, you have your three guys with the proper magic and the right formation. Follow the steps elsewhere in this faq about how to use the Multi-Tech Battle System and the Multi-Magic-Techs. Q. There's this big (and long) Castle (in Pidonea) where at the bottom there are lots of harpies and a big door that's locked. How do I get through this? A. To open this, you need the Royal Ring. To get this, you must go to the town of Lance (where Ellen and Harrid are) and to the house in the very top left. In there, there are lots of people with purple hair. Talk to the one on the top floor, and you will get the ring you need. To get it though, you must have tried to open the door first. Afterall, Square doesn't want your job to be too easy. Q. Can anyone tell me the ABSOLUTE BEST single attack to use on the final boss? A. A little bit of recomendation from DShort@ST1.wou.edu as to the best attacks... Split-body sword (7 WP regular sword), Continuos Shot (7 WP bow), and yo-yo (5 WP axe) are probably the best tech because their damage increases with your weapon skill, they're cheap, and because they randomly do critical damage quite often sometimes as much as 5000. there is a staff tech called draw sword swallow return (7 WP) which does exceptional damage but can only be used once per battle. million dollar is a bow tech (10 WP) which is the best for damaging multiple enemies as it does about 3000. orbit borer (11 WP axe) is also very powerful but is extremely, extremely difficult to learn. Q. What are the special Magical attacks and how do I get them? A. The Special Magic attacks, which I call Triple-Magi-Techs (because three magic users are needed), are "secret" spells which are generaly concidered the most powerful in the game. That's true... and for the most part, they are the most powerful single attacks in the whole game. Armageadon, for example, requires only 3 Group AP and does 6000 damage to everything on the screen, and is not counter-attackable. Pretty cool eh? Anyway, to use these spells.... 1) You must find a special treasure chest that contains a scroll with the proper formation and spell positioning of the particular spell you are trying to cast. Most of the time you'll just stumble upon it and wont have any idea which spell it is. It's doesn't matter... just write down all the possitions and stuff... blah blah. 2) Aquire the correct formation. For Armegeadon, it's a formation that looks like the mass-arrow formation... but the top and botton characters are squished in a little. The Lobster has this formation. To do the strange Pyramid Raise-your-group-AP-to-9 spell, you'll need the formation Robin gives you (You can also cast Comet with this!) The other two Triple-Magi-Techs use the same formation... and you should either start with this one, or get it in the Sharl Subquest. I'm not sure which. 3) Put the proper characters (with the proper magic types) into the formation posisions for whatever spell you want to cast. Make sure your using Multi-Tech battle mode, of course! :) 4) You'll have to not use any Group AP in battle for 2 or 3 turns inorder to save up enough to be able to cast the spell. Once you do, watch out. KABOOM! Q. That big fire boss is really hard! He just kills me every time I try to attack him! A. This boss is the Fire gate guardian, or the Fire demon, later in the game. Remember this little tip from meto beat them: You can't counter attack a Multi-Tech. Therefor, switch to the multi-tech battle system before the fight, and use Armageadon, and other powerful attacks you have! The Forth Gate Guard can be a real hassle if your HP isn't at least 650, but the Forth Demon can be real hard stuff even if your up to 999HP! Just watch out, the Forth Demon is probably harder than the final boss. Beat it, and the final boss shouldn't be any trouble (assuming you have everyone with a powerful Singletech. ;) Also you can use Indirect damaging Single Techs to hurt him (such as some Bow Skills or just anything ranged). Q. Whats with the weapons and armor they show in the intro movie? A. Thanks again to DShort@ST1.wou.edu for the info... those are the divine kings weapons and the devil kings weapons. glove: found in muse's dream armor: found after defeating devil king's armor shield: found in the well of the dead in moses big sword: found in the ice galaxy helmet/boots/bow: all 3 found at Divine King's Tomb in Lance ring: given to you in Lance staff/sword/axe/spear/small sword: found in Divine King's Tower Q. Infinite money? A. Er... this is a little cheat someone found. Go to the town you met Robin in, after you have beaten the first gate guard. Go to the store that sells rings. Sell your Ancient ring for 2500 gold. Now, go buy a Pretty ring for 10 gold (it's the last ring on the list). The ring turns into the Ancient Ring, and you can sell it for 2500 gold again. I've never used this trick, and you shouldn't either! :) Q. How do I get to the Ice Galaxy/Ice Sword? A. In the ice town, you will see lots of snowmen. You will have to talk to a certain one a few times, and he'll jump and then the snowmen will all talk to you. Go into the area to the right, and you'll find yourself in the Ice Galaxy. A short way through this you'll find a boss, then a statue. Beat the boss (easy) and take the ring from the statue. Take this to the snowman will allow him to live outside of the cold (the ring keeps him cold, or more importantly, protection from fire). If you want the Ice Sword, keep going through the Ice galaxy, and at the end you will find a dragon and the sword. Fight the dragon, get the sword, ect. Q. In several of the intros, I go to a creepy castle near a snowy village. What's with this place and the enemies in it? A. This is Leonid's Castle. She's a vampire... but a nice one, don't worry. The Dungeon inside the castle contains some DANG nasty enemies in it! You wont be able to beat this until you have a good 500-600 HP. Just go and fight the monsters if you CAN... but don't go to deep. To get Leonid to take you to back to Micheal's castle and thus end the intro, just keep sleeping in the bedroom and talking to Leonid. Sooner or later, it's time to head off. Good job, intro over. :) Q. I'm in the Ice Galaxy and there's this REALLY nasty dragon guarding the ice sword. How am I gonna beat him? A. Power up for a long long time. This is (unfortunatly) the easiest of all the dragon rulers... But hang in there, use your best attacks, whip out any Multi-Magic-Techs you can, and work QUICKLY! But more than all that, just keep building up your stats, and sooner or later you will be able to beat down that dragon. Whew! Q. How do I get Harrid's most powerful Kamesheen? A. In the town of Liberof (south of Pidonea), in the pub there is a guy in red who knows harrid and will tell him of the princess in the Kings Capital. Well this is a place south of the desert, south of the large tower. Go there and clear out some enemys, and guarded by a really nasty enemy is harrid's best sword. No I don't know if the princess is in there somewhere or not, sorry. ============================================================================= V. ***HOW TO GET THIS CHARACTER TO JOIN YOU*** I did this section to organize the questions about how to get specific characters that are not simple to get. - Tatyana - This very annoying girl with pink hair will join you if you bump into her a few times. I belive Mike cannot get her, however I have not tried. The more important thing is how to get rid of her, however. South of Pidonea is a town (next to the desert), that if you go to, she should automaticly leave your party. Try not to run into her if you don't want her. - Boston the Lobster - He's in the Lobster village. If you haven't been there yet, you don't need to know. Check the houses at the very bottom, he's in one of the two houses. - Zo the Elephant - I belive you simply need to visit the sleeping elephant in the vilage (you'll know it when you get there) of elephants, with Sarah and/or Shonen in your party. - The Snowman - In the ice town, you will see lots of snowmen. You will have to talk to a certain one a few times, and he'll jump and then the snowmen will all talk to you. Go into the area to the right, and you'll find yourself in the Ice Galaxy. A short way through this you'll find a boss, then a statue. Beat the boss (easy) and take the ring from the statue. Take this to the snowman will allow him to live outside of the cold (the ring keeps him cold, or more importantly, protection from fire). - Shonen - Yes it is possible to get him before the end of the game. I belive the only way is if you are playing as Sarah, however I could be wrong. You can find Shonen in most any town, he's wearing a purple outfit. - Leonid - Inorder for Leonid to allow you to get him, you have to first finish the tourniment in the nearby castle. Then head to Leonids castle and go through the basement. It's long and hard but he can be a useful character. - Black - ONCE AGAIN we have another way to get Black. Inorder to get Black, you must get Herman BEFORE you defeat the Water guardian. I hope that this way really DOES work... First, you can't have gotten the Dolphin statue yet. You must get the quest for it during the whole Vanguard thing. Then, you should talk to the bar owner in vanguard, and ask him a bunch of times till he tells you. Then, go to the city of Yamas, it's to the north and east of Vanguard just a little bit. Talk to the Armor shop owner there, and buy something, then he'll tell you a bit. Now, go talk to Herman, and he should join up with you if you have room. Take Herman with you and beat the water guardian (you don't have to have him in your imediate party, you can keep him in the 6th position. - Full Bright - You need to have Thomas in your party, and 1 open slot of course. Some time into the game, go to Thomas's house and talk to the guy at the table, he will say that Thomas has a visitor. Now, go to the right room and talk with fullbright, he'll ask you if you want to help him. If you agree, you'll have access to a cool new toy. It's a bit tricky to explain really... but the main point of this thing is to buy up companies so you get more income. Play around with it a bit and I'm sure you can get the hang of it... Your objective is, I belive, to get 1000m. Afterwards, Fullbright will thank you, give you 10000$ in spending money, then go home. You can visit him when you want to get him in your party, and also get access to the buying thing back, and you'll have a new challenge... to beat one of the top firms. It's not easy, belive me. - Undine - To get Undine, go to Moses (The twin city south of the Vanguard) and talk with Undine, she will hire you to go kill Volcano, a mage in south Moses. Go to Volcano's building, and do NOT agree to kill Undine. Follow Volcano, and kill him. After this, ask Undine to get you the mages for the Vanguard (if your at this point) and after that you can ask her to join you. - Robin - In a certain town, you will see some evens where Robin, a super-hero will save people and such. After Fat Robin comes and gets caught, you can go to the port and enter the storage room where Robin fought off some criminals. He will appear to join your party here. - Fat Robin - Same as above, but if Robin asks to join, just say no and come back in again. If that doesn't work, just keep trying. - Fairy - First, you must find the traveling carnival. It's around somewhere, but only at certain times, just keep looking. When you get to the carnival, go look in the center tent and the people will be watching something. After that, go to the inn in the town and sleep, you'll be awakened to some crying. Then go to the carnival and back to the fairy tent and rescue the fairy. She can now be found in the Fairy town near Ake. However, she wont join your party until after you have defeated the Fire guardian. ============================================================================== VI. ***Walkthrough for the beginning*** The beginning of the game is an interesting overlapping story. I will go through each of the characters intros here to help out. Julian: A. Start for Julian, Tom, Sarah, Ellen, Harrid, and Monica Julian starts along with Tom, Sarah, Ellen, Harrid, and Monica in an inn on a rainy night. You have to proceed through a short forest, at the end of which is a fairly easy boss. Here, you will meet up with Mike. However, Mike has things to attend to, so he sends Julian, Tom, Sarah, and Ellen off with Monica to go to Leonids castle. At this point, Julian, Tom, Sarah, Ellen and Monica go off to Leonid (E), while Harrid and Mike head off together to deal with some monsters. (B) B. Start for Mike Mike and Harrid have the task of dealing with some monsters in the army battle system. Do your best in the battles, but they can be fairly hard to win at. After these battles, Mike and Harrid head to the castle to defeat the leader of the invading monsters. (D) C. Start for Katarina Katarina starts in the castle with Monica. She helps Monica escape from the castle after overhearing a plan to capture her. Katarina hides a jail key into an empty cell, and is later thrown into it. She then waits for Mike to return to the castle and then breaks out and meats up with him. (D) D. Save the castle Mike and Harrid meet up with Katarina in the castle and take out the leader. After defeating them, the other 5 meet up at the castle. (F) E. Leonid's Castle Now, the crew of 5 goes through another forest, that's also pretty short. At the end is a fairly tough enemy that you don't HAVE to fight, but getting past him can be hard. You will then end up in a town where you can rest and such. After this, head north along the snowly cliffs to reach Leonids castle. When you are at the castle, rest and fight a bit in the dungeon if you want. There seems to be a timer or something, but after a while Leonid will take you back to Mike's castle, and that'll be that. (F) F. Get together All 8 of the characters meet up for the first and only time in the game. Afterwards, the intro ends and the 8 characters split up. Some characters have special things that happen after the intro, but many can just go about the game as they want from now on. The first order of buisness should be getting to Lance to find out about the Gates. However, the majority of the game is free for you to explore. Go about, look for quests, go them, but remember, the Abyss Gates are calling you! ========================================================================= VII. ***GUIDE TO THE GATE GUARDIANS*** The Gate Guardians in Romancing Saga 3 take up probably 3/4ths of the story line. This hard as heck bosses are guarding, what else, the chaos gates. These gates NEED to be closed to prevent death and destruction of all that is good and blah blah blah... You get the point. Anyway, there are 5 gates in the world that need sealing in order to win the game. The first four are guarded by the gate guardians. Now here is the fun part, the guide to where these suckers are and how to defeat them all. Guardian Numero Uno: The first guardian is the guardian of Earth. He is located in the Tomb of the Dead King, in the town of Pidonea (you'll find Thomas, Sarah, Sharl, and his wife in this town). To get to this guardian... it requires a bit of work, and a lot of level building. Here are the steps I usualy take to get to him: 1) Go to Pidonea and talk to Thomas and Sarah. Go to the Inn and the pub in the southern part of town, and you'll see Thomas heading to the west. Follow him. Then, in the house in the very lower left, you'll find Thomas with Sharl (and Sharl's wife of course). After a brief talk, a child will come in and say that another child (Sharl's been busy :) has gone to the Tomb of the Dead King. Well, it's YOUR job (of course) to rescue the child. It's no big task actuly, just go to the Tomb, head down the stairs on the Left, continue down the many stairs and check in all the doors for the child. One of the rooms near the beggining has the child in it. Get him, and return to Sharl. (By the way, if you have one or two open slots in your part, Sharl and his wife will join your party.) Extra note- if you are playing as Thomas, you oviously can't follow him. The house is in the very lower left on the left screen of Pidonea. I don't know exactly what to do (seeing as I haven't played as him) but if you cannot get Sharl's quest then just try going onto #2. If that still doesn't work... uhm... go deal with the fire guardian first, maybe you will discover something in the mean time. 2) Now, you'll have to return to the Tomb and head to the bottom of it. Near the bottom, there will be a large room with crystals, demons, and neked harpies. You will have 4 exits, north, south, east, and west. East and west head back to the surface. To the south is a group of 5 Lamias guardian a teleporter. Defeat these Lamias and you'll get an instant teleport between the top and bottom of the Tomb. VERY helpful. 3) Head north from the Lamia area. Eventualy, you'll be outside again, and then back inside. Keep heading north past the room with tons of crystals. You'll find a large door, but, darn it, it's locked! Now, head out of the Tomb and back to the surface. 4) Go to the town of Lance (it's where you can get Ellen). In one of the houses there (everyone has purple hair in it) there will be a man on the second floor who will give you a ring. This ring can be used to unlock the locked door in the Tomb. 5) Head back to bottom of the Tomb and to the door. You can now enter the door and get to the First Guardian Lair! This is a long and twisted doungeon... and it's pretty hard too! There are lots of Mini-bosses, like red dragons, giants, and other evil things. If you keep going, eventualy you'll get to a room where there are two ladders heading down, and an evil looking door. In this door is the first guardian. You'd best be prepared!! (Note- for a shortcut to the guardian, from when you first enter the Lair and see the big red crystal, enter the crystal. Then, head north through the door and you'll be right at the guardian. 6) The first gate guardian has no real trick to him. A few things to point out though... first, he always gets two attacks per turn. Second, he'll always kill someone who's trying to cure someone else. Third, using the Multi-Tech battle mode will work much better than the Single-Tech, do to the fact he can cause a lot of status effects, and the auto-heal helps a lot! Other than that, good luck. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Second Guardian is the guardian of air, and a bit of a googie. There are two ways to fight this guardian, depending on which character you are playing as. I will explain both below. 1)Go to vanguard and talk to the man in the pub (select the first and third things). Then, check around in the most upper left portion of the map (where Vanguard is) and you should be able to select the mountain. Head to the top of this mountain and head through the cave. At the end is a large dragon. Select the second thing on the list of things to say to the dragon. Two things will happen at this point... 2A) The Dragon will have your main character jump on his back. From there, your main character alone will have to fight the Second guardian, with the help of the dragon of course. It shouldn't be a very hard battle if you are powerful enough... just select your attack and then the dragons attack (the power spike attack is the best...) 2B) The Dragon will say something to you and nothing more. Now, you can either talk to him again and choose to fight him (BAD BAD BAD idea)... or leave. Just leave... trust me on this. :) Now, head over to Michael's castle and talk to him. The mountain to the south east of the castle will be your alternate path to the second guard guardian. Head to the top of the mountain and into the misty area. Just head north. If you end up still in the mist... you missed something. If you end up on another mountain... just keep heading onward. Eventualy you get into an area with a lot of pulsing walls and floor and icky stuff. Welcome to the second lair! 3B) Head through this lair, and avoid the fetus bosses as much as possible. If you keep heading through this place, you'll wind up at a mini boss... which is three wierd looking creatures... one has a tuba or some brass instrument... another is a big bird.. and one is a minotuar or something. Just beat em up and head through the door. One more door to the north and poof! Time to fight the second guardian! (Secret- Somewhere hidden in this Lair is the key to being able to cast Armageadon. Finding it makes this guardian a whole lot easier. KABOOM) 4B) This path can be much more difficult if you aren't strong enough. The guardian will start out easy, but as you do damage to it, the screen will flash and another head will form on the guardian. After you get all three other heads formed, you'll have a bit more to go, and then poof! No more guardian! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The third guardian, the guardian of water, can be either very hard.... or not quite as hard. Dealing with him can turn from looking life you have very good chance to being downright terminated. There is an alternate method which you might try, read up on how to get Black to read about how to do it. 1) If you haven't already, head to the beach town called the Great Arc. There, talk to the pirate (His name is Herman), and he'll show you to a cave. At the end of this cave is a dolphin statue. Grab it and go. 2) Now, head to Vanguard. If you haven't already delt with the Murder... go spend a night at the inn. Then, talk to the old man (he's in one of the houses). He'll open a staircase to a dungeon. Get through the dungeon ASAP, don't go after the treasure. At the end will be a wussy little boss. Hit the switch and head up the stair case. Now you'll be in the techno water place. Head back through the dungeon (it's empty of monsters now, grab the treasure) and talk to the old man. Now, head to the dual-village to the south of vanguard and enter the pub. Deal with the guards, and talk to the green haired mage lady. Now, head to the southern part of the town and deal with those guards in the pud. Head up the stair case in the pub (keep going) and you'll end up next to some guy in red. Talk to him and get ready to fight. Take care of that dope. Now, head to the northern part of town and talk to the green haired mage lady and fight her guards. 3) NOW, head into the inn in the northern part of town and talk to the lone mage. Head back to vanguard and talk to the old man again. Head back through the dungeon and into the techno-water place. Go to the middle orange sphere and place place the dolphin statue on it. Now, stand on the center dolphin platform and you'll make the Vanguard float. WHEW! 4) There are two selections when you step on the dolphin platform now. Select the first one. Now, head outside and onto the boat. You'll be taken to a lobster village. Talk to all the lobsters here (Boston is here), and one will tell you some coordinates to go to. Go back to the vanguard and select the new choice on the list of places to go. Now, select the same choice and down into the deep you go. Keep selecting the first choice till your in the dungeon. 5) Work your way through this place. It's annoying!! It would take a long long time to describe how to get through this place, so I wont. Once your at the end and at the Guardian... the REAL challenge starts. The trouble with this one is that he has a nasty shockwave attack that randomly damages or kills your characters. PAIN! Fight this and fight it quick! Heal, fight, do 9999 damage multitechs (there are some, trust me) and just hurt it quick! If you can read Japanese and can find an Item called "Fish Scales", buy them for everyone and equip them, as they will make your party nearly invincible against this boss. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Fourth guardian, the fire guardian: This guardian is hard. Not just hard, HARD. Getting here takes time, and powering up enough to be able to kill it takes more! 1) Head to the Great Arch. Go to the boat guy, and select the second thing on the list. This will take you to Ake. Head south and into the jungle. Now... there is a way to get through this easy, but I don't know it. Just randomly walk around until you happen to stumble into the fairy village. Once there, talk to ALL the fairies and grab all the treasure boxes. Then, leave. 2) Go wandering through the jungle again. If you keep at this for long enough, you'll end up at the fire palace. Whew. (Note- I think you have to just keep following black butterflys. Try it out.) 3) Inside the first palace are lots of monsters and treasures. Grab what you can, but keep moving. Near the end, you'll come to a room with lots of blue flames, and a big blue fire blocking you. Walk into the fire, and you'll fight a Dragon Banshee. It's not a big challenge sence they are normal enemies. Once your through it, you'll be at the fourth Gate Guard. 4) The problem is the majority of your single techs will be counter attacked when you use them. So... just remember my little tip: You can't counter a multi-tech. So, do nothing but multitechs, and PRAY you can kill that son of a $#!^% without anyone dieing. This battle can either be HARD HARD or just moderately hard. I advise you have at least 700HP to fight it. You can also use Single Techs that are ranged, such as Arrows, and not be counter attacked. You've done it! Thats the last of those bastards! Now you can go on to the last Gate and close it! =========================================================================== VIII. ***FINAL BOSS INFO*** Whew, she sure is a tough one! The Final boss of Romancing Saga 3 can be very hard. The first time I beat it was with a party with 999HP each. So you've gone to the final area and jumped into the final battle... then, poof, your dead. WELL, if you do it that way, you CAN'T win. I've tried, it doesn't work! The real trick is that before you enter the final chamber, there are 4 blue teleports around one of the orange teleports. Hold down the run button and jump into one of the teleporters and you'll get taken to a rather firmiliar place. At the end is one of the four Demons mentioned in the intro! These suckers are basicly mega-powered up versions of the four gate guardians. I generaly Concider the order of the Demon difficulty to be: Water, Fire, Air, Earth. You might want to do them hardest-first, because if you can take down the hardest, the rest shouldn't be nearly as hard. So... what does killing the demons have to do with the Final boss? WELL, after a bit of fighting with the final boss, It will randomly morph into one of four forms, corisponding to one of the demons. If you kill that demon, it can't morph into that form! So, kill all the demons, and you wont have as much of a challenge with the final boss. (Hey, if your strong enough to take out the demons, your strong enough to take out the final boss) In addition, here's a very cool thing. If you are playing as Sarah, you will not fight in the final battle, but the rest of your party will! You will get a GREAT battle system, the best one in the game. You can not only issue multi-techs (or use party items), but issue single techs and specific commands to people not involved in the multitech. Square! What the heck is wrong with you? Why didn't you have this as the STANDARD battle system??? Anyway... Here are the six forms of the final boss: The initial form. You'll see this as soon as the battle starts. She'll morph back into this after you take out of of her 4 random forms. This form starts out incredibly easy. The more damage she takes, however, the harder it gets. Later on, she generaly gets 3 or 4 attacks, including the Fire-ball, Ice-Ball, and 4-hit-lit attacks. Not to mention the mass-drain spells, and heaps of stuns and sleeps. This is the second hardest of all the forms. The Earth form. When she goes to transform, she'll use Black orbs. This one isn't as hard as most of the others. It does have a lot of life though, so be careful. Hit it enough and eventuly she'll morph back. The Air form. She'll use Blue Orbs to morph into this one. This one can be nasty... as it retains the air-guards tri-attack ability. Look out for this one! The Water form. Uses Gree Orbs I belive (correct me if I'm wrong). This one can be REALLY nasty.... which goes without saying when you get hit with the Mega-Shockwave hit (Random people die, others take around 300 damamge). The Fire form. She uses Red Orbs for this. This is the third hardest of all the forms. Every time you hit it, it hurts you back. Get someone invunerable to Fire to pound this thing. If you are strong enough though, you can take it out in 1 round. Thank goodness! The FINAL form. She looks a bit like the initial form, but does a special transformation, and looks REALLY pissed off at you. This one is the hardest of all of them! But, it can also be the shortest to kill, if you've done enough damage to it before it morphs into this sucker. Basicly, this is a combonation of all the other forms in one.. and she randomly picks a set of attacks to do on you. She also has a fifth attack, a large blue shockwave. This one is a SERIOUS pain! If you have a powerful enough attack and you have enough people alive and at good health when you get to this form, you might make it!! (Secret note: If you have beaten all 4 demons before you get to the final boss, she'll morph into her Final form VERY quickly! However, a bit through, she'll do a Mega-Cure spells, which cures all your characters, and her, by 999HP. This helps you SOOOO much more than it helps her... trust me. After she casts this spell, she'll go back to her initial form. Just keep pounding her, and eventualy, you'll get her good!) Once you've finaly stomped down this final form... it's all over. Watch the ending and have fun. ============================================================================== IX. ***FORMATION GUIDE*** Here's a list of all the formations I have right now in my Sarah party. If I missed any, and god knows it's possible, clue me in. These are presented in a little odd of a fation, these are numbered to show where to place people with certain types of magic to be able to do the Triple-Magic-Attacks. They are in the same places for all the Triple-Magic-Attacks, but different people are needed for the different magic types, of course. X represents a person who doesn't take part in the Triple-Magic-Attacks 1 represents where the person with Solar magic stands 2 represents where the person with Moon magic stands 3 represents where the person with the third type of magic stands. As to the question of, what is the best, my oppinion is that Whirlwind is the best formation early on for multi tech use. Then switch to Tri-Anchor later. I have found it pays to get one character with extreamly high defence and very good shield skill, and then to use the Desert Lance format with that person up front. This works against a lot of bosses very well. First, sence they are usualy the most important, here are the starting formations for a 5 or 6 person party. "Free Fight" This formation below is always at the very top. You really can't do any Multi-Tech attacks with it besides the Dual-Magic attacks like Moogle Dance and all. All 5 positions in this formation get a boost to their speed. 2 X 1 X 3 "Whirlwind" The one below is a decent formations that I use quite a bit. It gets many powerful Multi-Tech attacks for it later. All members get a boost of speed, but the front 3 get attacked more. 2 X 1 X 3 "Hunter Shift" This formation, unfortunatly, doesn't get very powerful, and is only really good in the beginning of the game. The initial attack (the one at the very top) will have all bow users all do the mass arrow attack at once. They showed this off in the intro. Other attacks are useful, but still, not as good as other formations. The person in the back is very slow but gets a boost to attack, the people in front all get hit a lot more. 2 X 1 X 3 "Desert Lance" The last starter Formation is a good one when only one of your characters is really powerful, or when one has an awsome shield that can block most anything (I've found one or two before myself). Basicly, the person in front gets an extra defensive boost. I don't know about the multi-techs for this one, I don't belive I ever found any. 2 X 1 X 3 Alright, next are those 5 to 6 person formations that you get when other people join your party... "Speculation" Shonen and someone else (I need names here people) bring to you this formation, which while decent, doesn't really hold my interest long. The three in front get attacked more often, but get a bonus to attack. 2 X 1 X 2 "???" This next one can be gotten from Zo, the elephant. It's an okay formation, but I haven't found any really powerful attacks for it yet. The person in the middle get's the stuffing beat out of her a lot, so arm those shields. X 2 1 X 3 "???" The following formation can be gotten from Boston, the lobster. I don't know why, he just gives it to you. This is the one you need to cast Armageadon, or Apoc.. whatever it is. Either way, it does over 6000 damage to everything on the screen. Besides Arma/Apoc, this formation has few powerful attacks. One interesting one is where your party waits for the enemy to attack, and trys to counter everything they throw at you. Also, this formation slows everyone down a lot, but all your characters auto heal by 99 all the time. 2 X 1 X 3 "Power Raise" Gosh, I've no idea where I picked up this next formations. Bets are on Sharl or Muse though... This formation is much like the one that Shonen gives you, but backwards. This one can perform what I've been told is called Crimson Flare, which is the Multi-Magic-Attack of fire (I've used it before, it's pretty cool). The two people in front get a boost to their quickness and get attacked more often. X 2 1 3 X "Tri-Anchor" This formation is my favorite. You can get this formation from Robin, the superhero wannabe. There are lots and lots of nice attacks you can get. Also, placing ANY magic users in spots 1, 2 and 3 in this one will automaticly get you the Multi-Magic-Attack (all though, not one of the four special ones) of Comet. It's a great attack that you can use all the way up to the final boss. Think of it as a smaller, faster to get off version of Arma/Apoc. The special Multi Magic Tech for this one is a wierd pyramid thing. I don't know what it does besides raising your group AP level up to 9. Heh... that's not a bad thing though. X 1 2 3 X "???" This next one I'm not sure about. I had it in another party, but have sence forgotten about it. It's a very powerful formation for Fist skills though, so if you enjoy forgetting about weaponry, use this one. (Er, and I forgot where the 1, 2 and 3 go as well) X X X X X "???" This final formation doesn't look to swift, but I've seen it do a lot of good before. Aparently, all your HP damage is reduced in half, and your defence gets a boost. I'm not sure, I'll look into it furthor. (Again, I don't have it with Sarah, so I can't tell you the 1, 2 and 3 spots) X X X X X NEXT are the 4 person formations. Sence almost nobody uses these, and it never really matters anyway, here they are without comentary. X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Okay, now heres the 3 person formations. Again, not really well used, but here they are anyway. X X X X X X X X X Okay, and last, and of course least, the 2 person formations you use for 2 seconds in the beggining of the game. X X X X Well! There you have it. Any I'm missing I'd apreciate any help you can give me. ============================================================================ X. Army Battles The army battles in RS3 are, for most characters, few and far between. When you do get into them, you probably wont have much of an idea of what to do. Mike has a lot more difficult time with this, and Harrid has a few more than most people. You can figure a lot of the system out by just experimenting, but heres some info to help... Battle Setup: You'll start the battle by choosing your formation, these have various tacticle advantages, but most important is to protect your comanders (the guys with the flags) and kill the enemy commander. The Screen: You'll see the battle field, with your army on the left and the enemy on the right. At the bottom you'll see meter... this is sort of a power/morale meter. When you hit the A button, a list will come up with a bunch of choices, these are commands that you can issue to your army. Commands with a number by them have a limited number of uses, so be careful. It's a good idea to play around with these commands to see what they do. The Battle: Your armys will advance at eachother, and just sort of stick to eachother to show that they are fighting. You'll notice your power/morale meter starts lowering as you fight and loose troops. Some of the special things in your command menu will boost your moral and/or lower enemies and/or cause your troops to do certain things. You can also back off for a while to build power/moral back up, but don't go too far. Other things: If you kill the enemy commander, the enemy army is pretty much toast, they can't issue many commands and loose tons of power/morale. Likewise, if YOU loose your commander, your in deep crap. If your troops walk off the screen on the enemies side, they'll say "ok" and walk off, boosting your power/morale a big ammount. This is a lot of help. For people who do a lot of these battles, you can learn new skills and formations. Most characters don't have to worry about this. ========================================================================= XI. Wrap Up Thats about it for the Romancing Saga 3 faq. If you enjoyed this game, be sure to check out the rest of the Saga series, including Final Fantasy Legends 1-3, Romancing Saga 1-3, and Saga Frontier 1-2. Faqs done by me as of 1/30/2000- Romancing Saga 3 Last Blade 2 Wachenroder All of these can be gotten off Gamefaqs.com (except the Wachenroder faq, which I haven't released yet). Thanks go to: Kim Kaphwan for just being Kim Kaphwan Dshort for his help Shino2ke for his recent help in getting the Q and A finished. Shyuhe for lots of additional information. Anyone whom I didn't mention who helped out, it's been a while, sorry. Whoever those people are that made the english translation If you want anything added or fixed, Email me at genrlblood@yahoo.com. Thanks.