Romancing SaGa 2 (HP)

If you follow my playthrough exactly, it should net you both Other Legend and Self-Aware Automaton - as well as various recruitment achievements. You will want to do this on your second playthrough after importing your data from the first playthrough.

Other Legend is achieved by beating the game without triggering a generation shift to your Final Emperor. Your Final Emperor is always triggered when you kill your 5th "hero" and a black screen event (hereafter referred to as a cutscene) occurs. Hero is referring to the heroes of legend in the storyline, not your player characters. There are 7 of them total, and to beat the game you have to defeat all 7. In order to avoid the shift to your Final Emperor, you have to be sure that you don't have any cutscenes occur after killing heroes #5, #6 and #7.

4 of them always trigger a cutscene no matter when you kill them, and 3 of them only trigger a cutscene in certain circumstances - so you'll have to tackle them carefully to avoid the generation shift.

My recommended order is as follows:

1) Kzinnsie (Guaranteed cutscene)
2) Bokouhn (Guaranteed cutscene)
3) Rocbouqet (Guaranteed cutscene)
4) Wagnas (Guaranteed cutscene)
5) Subier (Can appear in the haunted Ship if you kill the Narwhal prior to that scenario. Will not trigger a cutscene if you do not speak to the Diver in Toba after killing him.)
6) Noel (Never triggers a cutscene)
7) Dantarg (Can appear during the Child & Mu scenario. Will not trigger a cutscene if you do not speak to the child after killing him.)

There are other quests and scenarios that will trigger generation shifts and new Emperors - not only killing the above heroes. Thankfully, though, the only thing that can trigger your Final Emperor is killing the 5th hero. When a generation shift occurs many years will pass - the amount of years is directly related to the amount of battles that you fought with the current generation. The more battles, the more years pass. This is important for Coppelia and, I think, accessing Subier.

Now, you can probably speedrun through this while following my guide if you're not also going for Coppelia, but Coppelia is (in a roundabout sort of way) tied to the amount of battles that you've fought. So, we'll be fighting a lot of battles that we could have ran past until we secure her as a party member.

As far as my run goes - it ended in Year 1818 at about 13 hours of playtime. I fought roughly 1050 battles throughout it.

Some tips before you begin the run:

- Keep backup saves!!! If your generation shifts aren't happening when mine are, check your battle count and try to align it. You may be reloading saves and repeating parts to experiment.

- Import your save. End-game equipment and skills make the vast majority of the game trivial.

- Get a Armed Merchant Emperor ASAP. Their formation allows your entire party to act before the enemy. Throw Mirage Blade and other AoE skills on your group and you can rush through every fight.

- I stick to male Emperors with female party members. This is because you need a male Emperor to trigger and early fight with Rocbouqet, and to trigger the Mermaid Quest. More males can also use the Windmaker that Hiraga builds to access Wagnas. Female party members make the Rocbouqet fight a lot easier. I never knew which generation I would be doing these things - so I just stuck with that every generation to be safe.

- You can cheese every single boss fight with Hasten Time, the 5th hydrology spell. Learn it on 4 members (I like to keep one fire mage with Revive.) I'm also a fan of Galactic Rift, which is the 5th level Cosmology spell. It's an AoE attack that does massive damage at high levels.

I kept an excel spreadsheet open on a second monitor and took notes during my run. This is a record of my playthrough that you can try and mimic.

Year 1000
1st Emperor (Male Leon)

- Cleared Sealed Cave (Defeated every enemy)
- Cleared Watchman Nest (Defeated every enemy)
- Cleared Somon (Defeated every enemy in the town, then I entered the mansion and defeated all enemies inside - including the Doppleganger chests)
Battle Count: 68

Year 1000
2nd Emperor (Male, Gerard)

- Cleared Avalon (Defeated every enemy)
- Chose "Go to Somon"
- Cleared Somon Again (Defeated every enemy in the town, then I entered the mansion and defeated all enemies inside - including the Doppleganger chests)
Battle Count: 114

Year 1001
2nd Emperor (Male, Gerard)

- Began Construction: Magic Research Facility
- Began Construction: Orchard
- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up scenarios for Victor Canal, Ludon Mine and the Avalon Thief Guild
- Cleared Victor Canal via the Thief route (Defeated every enemy in the Avalon sewers. Then, at first, I followed Cat's floorplan in the Victor Canal to avoid encounters - but this only led to a couple of years passing and no generation change. I re-did it and cleared all of the enemies in the main Canal path, not any of the side rooms, and this led to a whopping ~133 year change.)
South Varennes added to the Empire
Battle Count: 163

Year 1134
3rd Emperor (Male, Louis)

- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up scenarios for Ludon Mine, Armed Merchants and Cumberland
- Finished Construction: Magic Research Facility
- Finished Construction: Orchard
- Cleared Armed Merchant Conflict (Used hostile takeover method. Travel to Mobelm via Miramar Ferry. Board the boat at the west dock, tell the Captain to work for you, defeat him and take the helm. In the Waterway Maze stick to the left paths until you see a brightly lit cave. This will get you through while avoiding all fights. Confront the captain and accept his surrender.)
North Longit added to the Empire
Battle Count: 164

Year 1135
3rd Emperor (Male, Louis)

- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up scenarios for Ludon Mine and Cumberland
- Travel to Nibel to learn about the monks and monster attacks. Travel to Dragon's Lair and offer to help the monks.
- Cleared Fiend's Cloister (Defeated every enemy through the slime boss. Returned to the monks and informed them allowing them to finish off the monsters past that point.)
- Returned to Fiend's Cloister to watch them retain their honor and befriend them.
- Travel to Nibel and speak with the old man in the bar to open up Tefal. Speak with the townspeople in Tefal to open up Gemstone Mines.
- Cleared the Gemstone Mines (Defeated every enemy. The first time I beat the boss it didn't trigger a generation change. I reloaded and fought more battles and then I beat the boss again. This time it triggered a 64 year lapse. I cleared the entirety of both floors once, plus roughly 5 more fights. Total battle count would have been 242 before the boss - with roughly 78 of them this generation.)
Ludon added to the Empire
Battle Count: 243

Year 1199-1200
4th Emperor (Male, Fritz)

- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up the scenario for Cumberland
- Visit Hiraga the 9th in Somon to have him begin the bridge in Miramar. Visit Miramar to view his handiwork. This changes the year to 1200, but no transition.
- Visit the grandmother in Tefal to open up the Ludon Highlands
- Ran through Ludon Highlands to south exit. Triggered 2 fights. Spoke with townspeople in Saigo Village to open East Oubliette.
- Ran through first floor of East Oubliette to check boss on second floor. It's Dantarg, oh shit. Not good. Exited to experiment with despawning him.
- Returned to Ludon Highlands and killed some more enemies. Checked for Dantarg again. Still there. Well, shit. We can't kill him yet. Fight count probably doesn't alter it. Also tried without speaking to Hiraga - he still spawns in 1199 and 1200.
- Head to Douglass via Somon to begin Cumberland Scenario. Hoping finishing this causes Dantarg to despawn. Bumping into the soldiers in Douglass triggers a fight. I fought a few. Speak with the bartender to open Hofah.
- Head to Hofah. Again, bumping into soldiers causes a fight. I fought a couple. Enter fireplace in first building and speak with Sophia.
- Cleared Great Wall East. (Fought a couple fights above ground and every fight below ground.)
- Return to Hofah and speak with Sophia.
- Head to Douglass Castle. (Fought a couple enemies on the way to the dungeon, and everyone in the dungeon. Spoke with Thomas. Speak with the people in the pub to trigger Castle Nerak.)
- Speak with Georg in Castle Nerak to unlock Fort Cyfreet.
- Cleared Great Wall East. (Fought a couple fights above ground and every fight below ground.)
- Cleared Fort Cyfreet. (Fought everything. Cleared floor 2 twice. Was experimenting trying to get pushed into a new generation due to kill count, but couldn't get further than year 1202. At this point I'm assuming each Emperor gets two "acts" before a new one is forced upon you.)
Cumberland added to the Empire
Battle Count: 312

Year 1202
4th Emperor (Male, Fritz)

- Began Construction: University
- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up no scenarios.
- Checked East Oubliette again for Dantarg. He is, unfortunately, still there.
- Cleared Hive Queen Scenario (My hope is it will trigger generation shift without Dantarg in East Oubliette or South Oubliette. Take the boat from Somon to Miles. Head east to the Steppe and then southeast to reach Savannah. Finally, take the south exit for Ostro Village.
Sleep here to begin the attack. Go down the hole and squash every goddamned bug in sight. Make Johnny Rico proud.)
Savannah added to the Empire
Battle Count: 369

Year 1303
5th Emperor (Male, Gama)

- Finished Construction: University
- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up no scenarios.
- Speak with Hiraga the 12th in Somon to receive the Windmaker
- Speaking with someone in the Orchard brings up the idea of expanding it. (Unsure if this is a priority)
- Headed to East Oubliette with my fingers crossed. Noticed flying monsters on level 1 that weren't there before. Headed down to find a normal boss instead of Dantarg, yay! Dantarg can spawn in various dungeons throughout the game, it's important to clear certain dungeons when they appear without him so we can lock him into a specific one where killing him won't trigger a cutscene.
- Cleared East Oubliette. (I had two or three fights between the Ludon Highlands and floor 1. Once I noted that Dantarg wasn't present I totally cleared floor 2 of all enemies)
- Speak with the townspeople in Saigo Village to open up Mu Tundra. Speak with the Chieftan there to open up South Oubliette.
- Clear South Oubliette. (I fought a few fights on the first two floors, but didn't clear them all as I wasn't sure if Dantarg would be on Floor 3 or not. He wasn't, so I cleared Floor 3 entirely.)
- Speak with the Saigo Chief in Mu Tundra.
Nazelle added to the Empire
Battle Count: 405

Year 1305
5th Emperor (Male, Gama)

- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up no scenarios.
- Head to Miramar to see the bridge is destroyed. Speak to a few townsfolk.
- Head to Somon to learn Hiraga won't repair the bridge without learning what destroyed it.
- Head to Bihara, west of Ostro Village. Leave the north exit of Bihara to go to Lake Wyringa. Kill the Narwhal in his cave in the northwest. (Killed a few enemies here. Be sure you don't have the seashell from Saigo Village in your inventory or else you won't be able to fight him.)
- Head back to Somon and have the bridge rebuilt.
- Head to Moulie via the northwest exit of Salamat. (Ostro Village to Savannah, SW exit to Salamat.)
- Take the boat from Moulie to Comroon Island/Tsukijima. Speak with the Mayor and townspeople to put the volcano, Seer's Citadel and Zemio on the map.
- Speak with the benevolent Sorcerer in Seer's Citadel to get the quest to plug the volcano.
- Cleared Mt. Comroon and plugged the volcano. (I fought a lot of fights, but not all of them.)
- Before you return to Tsukijima and speak with the Mayor I wanted to elaborate on something that happened to me here. First time I cashed in on the reward I had a timejump of 67 years with nothing new from the Chancellor at that point. So, I reloaded and fought some additional battles. Now I wasn't getting a timejump, but my current emperor was being told my orchard upgrade was complete. This was no good. I reloaded the save again and went back to Avalon before talking to the mayor in Tsukijima. Saw my orchard expansion was complete, then I cashed in the quest. This time the time jump was 96 years and there was a new quest as well. So, the extra battles made a big impact on the amount of years that passed, but when I battled enough that it triggered my Orchard upgrade to finish it prevented the time shift from occurring until I cleared the notification about it.
Comroon Island added to the Empire
Battle Count: 489

Year 1401
6th Emperor (Male, Starling)

- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up a scenario for Ludon Mine.
- Cleared Ludon Mines (Defeated every enemy)
- Detoured to Yuyan through Teretuva to start Bard Quest from the bartender.
- Grabbed all of the bard items (except Nuono) and then cleared Bardic Grotto. (Dantarg can spawn here, but he wasn't present so I took the opportunity to clear to to prevent him from spawning here in the future. Wiped out all enemies on the boss level.)
- Cleared Towers of Teretuva. (Took the long path and killed a ton of crap. Experimented to try to get a big time jump. So far all emperors had two "acts". No different, still only a year passed.
Desert added to the Empire
Battle Count: 605

Year 1402
6th Emperor (Male, Starling)

- Began Construction: Elite Soldiers
- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up no scenarios.
- Head to Atlanticus via boat from Mobelm. Speak to everyone until it's dark and they are in the bar. Enter and watch the dancer. Do this 3 times.
- Head to Witch's Sanctum to get the quest for the Mermaid Potion. (Defeated every enemy)
- Head to Toba, exit east to climb the cliffs for the SeaSswallow nest. (Defeated every enemy)
- Head to Ostro Village and speak with the chieftain about the birds. He directs you to the trees east of town in the Savannah. Kill the boss and get the Eggshells.
- Head to the Ludon Highlands from Saigo Village and exit west to Lake Aqua. The mermaid sends you to the Mole village under the Termite Den in Ostro. Talk to the rightmost Mole.
He gives you a Jar.
- Head to Avalon and sleep in the inn 3 times to collect enough moonlight. Give it to the mole. He takes 10,000 gold and the moonlight. Gives you a comb.
- Head to your castle and speak with the aide to the left of your throne to refill your wallet.
- Now to Lake Aqua to give the comb to the mermaid for the fancy water.
- Back to the Witch's Sanctum for the Mermaid Potion. Get your Mermaid Potion from the Witch.(Defeated every enemy)
- Head to behind the bar in Atlanticus to use the potion. Get some strange three times to decide to abandon the throne and force a generation. Massive time jump from all of the fighting.
Nothing is added to the empire, other than a saucy story
Battle Count: 672

Year 1549
7th Emperor (Male, Thrush)

- Finished Construction: Elite Soldiers (I missed the notification, but noticed them in the castle after speaking with Hiraga)
- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up scenarios for the Armed Merchant Rebellion and Comroon Island Volcano
- Hiraga the 20th finished Coppelia. Added her to the party!
- Begin Armed Merchant Rebellion/Garon's Coup by speaking with the Captain in the house in Mobelm. I chose to take the land route through Beast Road.
- Cleared Beast Road and Nuono. (Fought a lot as I want another massive time jump whenever it happens. I'm not clear on how long after Garon's Coup it takes for Subier's
Haunted Ship scenario to show up. We NEED Subier's Haunted Ship to show up for the Other Legend achievement, so I'm aiming for big jumps in time. I've heard different theories, but in my case 182 years passed between them.)
Battle Count: 710

Year 1550
7th Emperor (Male, Thrush)

- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up a scenario for Comroon Island Volcano
- Note: I tried killing Rocbouqet to trigger a timejump, but it wasn't working. I fought about 100 battles in her dungeon, but only a year would pass. This didn't make sense to me because this is this Emperor's second "act". I saved after the fighting (right before Rocbouqet) and decided to just leave her dungeon and try the Comroon Volcano scenario first. You don't have to do this, but I'm noting it because of the large amount of fights that I did here.
- Cleared Comroon Volcano scenario by choosing to save both the villagers and the Salamanders while killing the Wizard. (I wiped out all of the enemies in the Volcano
as well as the Seer's Citadel, and brought the stone boat to Zemio. Talked to everyone and befriended the Salamanders afterwards.)
- Another note: On an alternate save I played around with the dark magic path so Thrush would abdicate hoping that I could pick Coppelia to replace him for the Self-Aware Automaton achievement. This did not work. Time has to pass naturally to be able to choose her.
- Chose to target Bokouhn instead of Rocbouqet. (Used the Strategist option via the university to board his ship. Still killed everything on it and killed him. At this point, due to all of the fighting, I had a huge time jump of about 190 years. I selected Coppelia as my new empress for the achievement - then I reloaded my save and killed Bokouhn again so I could pick someone else. I hate her sprite.)
Steppe added to the Empire
Battle Count: 898

Year 1731
8th Emperor (Male, Galdan)

- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up a scenario for South Longit (YES! This pretty much guarantees I'll get Other Legend. I'll kill Rocbouqet, Wagnas, Noel, Dantarg and Subier
at this point. If Rocbouqet or Wagnas trigger a generation shift - it isn't a big deal. And the latter three are guaranteed not to.)
- Note: I also no longer have to worry about my fight count at this point as everything related to it has been triggered - Notably Coppelia and the South Longit scenario
- Rocbouqet time! Head to Einrunep via Salamat Jungle (middle south exit) and head into the tower to fight Rocbouqet.
- Choose "I am helpless." when speaking to her to trigger a early fight without exploring the Sunken Tower.
Salamat added to the Empire
Battle Count: I forgot to log it, but I had maybe 20 more fights.

Year 1732
8th Emperor (Male, Galdan)

- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up a scenario for South Longit
- Start working towards Wagnas. Do the quests in Yuyan until you get Wagnas' floating castle to appear. Use the Windmaker to get to his lair and kill him.
Jauda added to the Empire
Battle Count: 1001

Year 1815
9th Emperor (Male, Orban)

- Note: This will be the last emperor that we have to use, so make sure to get all appropriate skills, magic and equipment on your crew. Mermaid Potion, Hasten Time, Revive, Soulsteal Guard, Still Blade, etc
- Speaking with the Chancellor brings up a scenario for South Longit
- I'm going to kill Subier, followed by Noel and Dantarg, but I'm going to be EXTREMELY careful not to trigger any cutscenes. Doing so will cause the game to switch you to the Final Emperor and void the Other Legend achievement. Keep some backup saves.
- Head to South Longit via the desert and enter Toba. Speak to the woman in the pub to learn the location of the ship.
- Head through the ship and defeat Garon, immediately followed by Subier. This will be his second form at around 30,000HP since we callously murdered Narwhal.
- Note: DO NOT speak to the Diver to finish the quest. We only care about killing Subier. Speaking to the Diver skips you to the next generation and voids the Other Legend achievement.
- Head to the Desert Oasis and kill Noel next. This should also be a buffed up form since we already killed his sister, Rocbouqet.
- DO NOT speak to the Desert Warrior. Truthfully, I don't know if this will boot you to the next generation, but I didn't risk it because it isn't needed.
- For Dantarg we have to trigger the Lost Child scenario. Head to Mu Tundra, see that all of the Saigo herders went south. Now cross the Nazelle Strait and head to Mu Habitat. Speak to everyone in the village, then use the map to warp to Saigo, then Mu Tundra again. Speak
with the chief for the quest to begin.
- Head to the newly marked cave and kill Dantarg.
- Note: DO NOT speak to the kid. Just straight up leave the cave, otherwise you'll trigger a generation change.
- Head to your throne to start the final quest.
- Note: If you need to grind out any attributes or spark any skills, do so before entering the next dungeon. It's the final thing that we'll be doing.
- Head straight to the final dungeon. So, Southern Nazelle across the Nazelle Strait again. Pick the Snowdrifts in the bottom right corner of the map.
- Clear the dungeon and pat yourself on the back.