Premise and Overview
Mechanics
Advancement Systems
Characters
World
Story
Conclusion

1. Premise and Overview

NotSaGa is a 16- or 32-bit-era-style JRPG, presented in a non-linear chapter-based format. The player explores nine distinct chapters, similar to SaGa Frontier or Live-a-Live. The emphasis is on exploration, character development, and knowledge of game systems.

Elevator Pitch

NotSaGa is a game for true JRPG sickos, combining elements from SaGa Frontier, Suikoden, Dragon Quest IV, and Chrono Trigger. The surface will appeal to any JRPG fan, but dedicated players who explore the game’s depths will find the more they sink their teeth in, the more there is to chew on.

Genre and Subgenre

NotSaGa is a retro-style turn-based anthology JRPG.

The game deliberately avoids many modern JRPG stylings. The narrative, while non-linear, is fixed and character-driven. The challenges are knowledge- and decision-based, with no timing or reflex elements. The game rewards both mastery of its systems and thorough exploration of its locations.

Grinding is possible, acceptable, and encouraged. However, NotSaGa heavily rewards a form of “focused grinding.” The player will be empowered to set short- and long-term development goals for their characters, and be able to intuit and then implement strategies for achieving those goals. Randomness and busywork are downplayed in favor of applying detailed knowledge of the world and its systems.

In this game, the player will not run around fighting slimes to make levels go up. Instead, they will identify the sword they want, figure out where to get it, know which of their characters can best put it to use, then set to work on a personalized build which makes that sword shine.

Flow and Structure

From power on, the player is faced with a Chapter Select screen. Each chapter tells the story of one of the game’s primary Heroes, and how that Hero eventually makes their way to the Endgame area, Bastion. One of the Heroes is secretly the game’s primary antagonist, which the player discovers over the course of their chapter. After certain requirements are met, the Endgame chapter will become available. In the Endgame, the player has access to all assembled Heroes who have completed their personal storylines.

Each chapter has a slightly different feel to it:

Rook. Explores and re-visits locations in one region which changes over the course of his story.
Lenathé. Most similar to a classic JRPG, strongly event-driven with clearly-defined character roles.
Junior. A wide open-world adventure with loosely-defined goals.
Saka Saka. A sequence of problem-solving setpieces.
Alphonse. An episodic series of missions, misadventures, and heists.
Mildred. A checklist of high-level boss challenges and the prep time in-between.
Ren. A non-linear urban exploration collect-a-thon.
Denemede. A hub-and-spokes supernatural mystery with a unique travel mechanic.
The Endgame. The full open-world experience with no restrictions or guardrails, followed by a massive dungeon challenge intended for multiple excursions.

It’s possible to reach the Endgame without completing all character chapters, but the player can go back anytime to complete content they skipped. In NotSaGa, there is no such thing as a permanently-missable character or resource. If the player isn’t strong enough, knowledgeable enough, or thorough enough, they can always back off their current challenge to gather resources or re-evaluate their build.

2. Mechanics

The mechanics of NotSaGa are designed to be transparent, understandable, deterministic, and above all, intentionally overwhelming. Nothing about the game is streamlined, it is big and bulky on purpose to appeal to a particular class of JRPG player. In addition, the game features several different advancement systems that sometimes overlap and sometimes are mutually exclusive.

Glancing at a unit’s status screen should be headache-inducing. But actually digging in and internalizing the information should be enlightening and rewarding. All the numbers are at the player’s fingertips for good reason.

Stats & Experience

Each unit’s capabilities are governed by their stats, and most units raise stats by gaining experience (EXP). Each stat has its own EXP bar, which goes up as the unit performs relevant actions in combat. How much EXP is gained per action is determined by the stat’s current level, the power level of the enemy, and the unit’s personal affinity for that stat. In general:

low stats gain more EXP than high stats,
strong enemies grant more EXP than weak ones,
high affinities gain EXP faster than low ones.

The player decides where, when, and how their accumulated experience gets spent.

Affinities

Each unit has a fixed affinity for each stat, weapon skill, and magic school. Affinities are letter grades ranging from E to A, then AA and AAA, then ☆. The higher a unit’s affinity in a stat, the more EXP they gain for that stat’s associated actions.

For example, a unit attacking with a sword will gain EXP in both its Strength stat and in their Blades weapon skill. If that unit has a C-rank in both, they gain an average amount of EXP each time they attack with a sword. If the unit instead has an E-rank in both, they gain very little EXP for each attack. If the unit has a D in Strength but an AAA in Sword, the unit will gain a little EXP in Strength but a lot in Blades skill.

Note that affinities do not impose caps on a unit’s growth. A unit with an E in Strength can still train the stat as high as they like, it will just take much longer than units with better Strength affinity. This is an element of focused grinding; the player can train anyone they want for as long as they want, but they are better rewarded for identifying a unit’s best affinities and training them appropriately.

Affinities are generally fixed, but there are rare exceptions where a unit’s affinities might change for story-related reasons.

Experience Bars

Each stat, weapon skill, and magic school has its own EXP bar. As the unit gains EXP in that stat, skill, or school, the bar fills up. When the bar is full, it changes color. EXP bars go from empty, to green, to yellow, to red. At any time the player can spend the experience to raise the stat, skill, or school. The color of the bar when the player spends the experience determines what happens.

When a bar is empty, or only partially-filled, the player can’t do anything with the experience. It’s just a record of how much experience the unit has in that stat, skill, or school.

When a bar fills completely once, it turns green. While green, further EXP gains on that bar are slowed slightly. A player can spend a full green bar to raise a stat by 1. The unit retains any partial EXP it has when a green bar is spent. A unit needs at least a green bar in a weapon skill to devise new techs, and at least a green bar in a magic school to devise new spells.

When a bar fills completely twice, it turns yellow. While yellow, the EXP gain slows a little more. When a player spends a yellow bar to raise a stat by 1, an associated stat also raises by 1. In this way, a unit can indirectly raise low-affinity stats by strategically spending yellow bars with higher-affinity associations. A unit retains any partial EXP it has when a yellow bar is spent.

When a bar fills completely three times, it turns red, and the unit stops gaining EXP in that bar. Any further EXP credited to that bar instead spills over and is split equally into any associated stats, and into Aptitude (described below). When a player spends a red bar to raise a stat by 1, an associated stat also raises by 1, and the unit is credited with half of a bar in Aptitude. Spending a red bar always resets the bar to being completely empty.

For example: a unit has a green bar of Strength EXP. They can spend the bar at any time to raise Strength by 1. Once the bar turns yellow, they also raise either their Speed or Vitality (Strength’s associated stats). When the bar turns red, any EXP the player gains in Strength is instead credited to Speed, Vitality, and Aptitude. When they spend their red Strength bar, they gain +1 Strength, +1 Speed or Vitality, and half a bar of Aptitude.

Sometimes it will be best to spend green bars as soon as they arrive, in order to gain EXP at the highest possible rate. Sometimes it will be best to keep a green bar in reserve, in order to devise techs and skills. Sometimes it will be preferable to wait until red, to stockpile Aptitude. And once a unit’s stat is at the desired level, it may be desirable to stop spending EXP entirely, and instead let the EXP cascade into stats that still need training.

A unit’s stat screen will also have a “spend all EXP” button which does exactly that. If there’s a choice between two potential stat gains, the auto-button will allocate to stats based on the unit’s affinity: higher affinity stats are raised first, choosing the lower stat in case of a tie. This is not intended to be the optimal choice in all situations; it’s for players who want to develop units quickly without min-maxing every decision.

Aptitude

Aptitude is universal experience. A unit has an Aptitude bar, but not an affinity. The number next to the unit’s Aptitude bar is not a stat, but simply the amount of full Aptitude bars they have banked. All units who gain experience gain Aptitude at the same very slow rate. Aptitude is awarded at the end of each combat a unit survives, by spending red bars, or by letting EXP spill over from red bars.

A player spends one full bar of Aptitude to grant a unit +1 in any stat, weapon skill, or magic school. When a player uses the “spend all EXP” button, all bars of Aptitude are allocated, using the same logic as above. In this way, a player who isn’t concerned about min-maxing can quickly train for the unit’s authored build.

Base Stats

There are ten base stats in NotSaGa, which are increased by the mechanics outlined above. A units stats might also be affected in other ways, depending on their archetype or equipment set. Each stat has one or more associated stats. This determines what happens to spillover EXP. Note that these associations are not necessarily bi-directional; Health EXP will spill over into Strength, but Strength EXP doesn’t spill over into Health.

Health. A unit’s Health decreases as they sustain damage, and increases as they receive healing. When a unit’s Health reaches zero, they die. Health EXP increases each time a unit sustains damage, but isn’t killed. Health’s associated stats are Strength, Speed, and Vitality.
Energy. A unit’s resource for using weapon skills and physical monster specials. Energy EXP increases when a unit spends Energy or is hit by an Energy-draining attack. Energy’s associated stats are Strength and Technique.
Chrysm. A unit’s resource for using magic spells and magical monster specials. Chrysm EXP increases when a unit spends Chrysm or is hit by a Chrysm-draining attack. Chrysm’s associated stats are Intelligence and Focus.
Strength. Influences the effectiveness of physical weapons and Energy-powered abilities. Strength EXP increases when a unit connects with any of the above. Strength’s associated stats are Speed and Vitality.
Technique. Influences the effectiveness of Energy-powered abilities, how often a unit triggers a counterattack or critical hit, and how likely the unit is to perform a Weapon Combo. Technique EXP increases when a unit connects with an Energy-powered ability. Technique’s associated stat is Speed.
Intelligence. Influences the effectiveness of Chrysm-powered abilities and attacks with magical weapons. Intelligence EXP increases when a unit lands a Chrysm-powered ability or connects with a magical weapon. Intelligence’s associated stat is Focus.
Speed. Influences how early in a combat round a unit acts, and whether the unit participates in EX Turns. Speed EXP increases when a unit acts after an enemy in a combat round, or when a unit doesn’t get to act because combat ended before the unit’s queued action occurred. Speed’s associated stats are Technique and Focus.
Focus. Reduces the casting time and Chrysm cost of magic spells. Focus EXP increases when a unit participates in a Magic Chain, or when a unit’s Magic Chain is interrupted. Focus’s associated stats are Chrysm and Intelligence.
Vitality. Influences a unit’s damage mitigation from physical attacks, the chance a debuff will stick, and how quickly debuffs wear off. Vitality EXP increases when a unit sustains damage from a physical attack or suffers a debuff. Vitality’s associated stat is Health.
Luck. Influences all events that require a dice roll, including chance to critical hit, shrug off debuffs, or flee from combat. Also influences the Depth of q’avvach draws. Luck EXP increases randomly and infrequently, and has no associated stats.

Weapon Skills & Magic Schools

There are five weapon skills and nine magic schools. Like stats, units have varying affinities for skills and schools, and gain EXP in them by using them in combat. Higher ranks in weapon skills mean more effective Energy-powered abilities, greater chance to perform Weapon Combos, and cheaper Energy costs. Higher ranks in magic schools mean more effective Chrysm-powered abilities, quicker casting time, more effective Magic Chains, and cheaper Chrysm costs.

Weapon skills do not have associations the way stats do, and are trained individually. The nine magic schools are arranged in a 9-pointed star, which is a recurring motif throughout the game. Each school neighbors two other schools, and is directly opposed by two other schools. Magic schools are associated with their neighbors, allowing for EXP spillover. Skills and schools are described in detail in a later section.

Combat

Combat is the primary gameplay of NotSaGa. Encounters play out in a turn-based, menu-driven interface. Up to five combatants can be on each side of the field. The player inputs commands at the start of each round, and then watches the round play out. Combat ends when one side has eliminated the other, resulting in either a rewards screen or a game over.

Most of the challenges of the game are combat encounters, and most of the game systems exist to make units more effective or more efficient in those encounters.

Combat is intended to be fast, punchy, and pleasantly repetitive. While many modern JRPGs focus on having fewer combat encounters with complicated setup mechanics, NotSaGa deliberately goes the opposite direction: many swift encounters with small, incremental rewards.

User Interface

The main battlefield display shows the combatants and their animations. The top of the screen displays the order in which various combatants will act in a given round, and the bottom is split into five tabs displaying the player’s party. In one corner is a depiction of the 9-pointed star, showing the player which Magic Chains are currently active, if any.

At the start of a combat round, the player’s tabs are replaced with each unit’s command window or q’avvach draw. A confirm button in the start of the screen begins the round. The player can input each unit’s commands in whatever order they like. Each time a unit’s command is finalized, the cursor will automatically jump to the next un-addressed unit, allowing a player to quickly input commands from muscle memory. Any unit without a command when the player hits confirm will automatically pick their action based on some criteria, possibly customizable from the main menu.

As the player inputs commands, the UI will change in real-time. The turn order will update, the 9-pointed star will show which Magic Chains are possible, and units on the field will be connected to their targets by arced lines. This will allow the player to make informed decisions based on all available feedback.

Rounds, Turns, & EX Turns

A combat round starts when the player clicks confirm, and ends when all units on the field are finished acting. During a round, each unit will take one turn, and have the opportunity to take EX Turns.

First, all units act as per the turn order. Once the slowest unit has acted, that unit’s Speed stat is checked. That number becomes the anchor. All units that have a Speed at least twice as high as the anchor get an EX Turn. The player inputs commands only for units who qualify. Enemy units who qualify also get an EX Turn. It doesn’t matter if the anchor is a player unit or an enemy unit.

After all units have taken their EX Turn, the slowest participating unit’s Speed is checked, and becomes the new anchor. Any units with a Speed at least twice as high then proceed to another EX Turn. This process repeats until no units are twice as fast as the anchor.

Example: Combat begins with these combatants and Speed values:

Rook, 40 Speed.
Nighthound, 25 Speed.
Junior, 20 Speed.
Guardsman, 18 Speed.
Ren, 10 Speed.

The round opens, and all five units take their turns. After Ren’s turn, he is chosen as the anchor, because he has the lowest Speed. Since Ren’s Speed is 10, all units with 20 or greater Speed enjoy an EX Turn:

Rook, 40 Speed.
Nighthound, 25 Speed.
Junior, 20 Speed.

Ren doesn’t advance because he’s the anchor, and the guardsman doesn’t advance because he’s not fast enough. This time, after Junior acts, he becomes the new anchor. His speed is 20, so any units with 40 or greater Speed proceed to EX +1 Turn.

Rook, 40 Speed.

The nighthound isn’t fast enough for EX +1, but Rook is. After Rook acts, he becomes the new anchor. There aren’t any other units left, but if there were, they would need a Speed of 80 or greater to proceed to EX +2 Turn.

In this example, Rook’s Speed advantage allows him to get three turns to Ren’s one. There is strategy involved in fielding both high-Speed units with valuable attacks, and low-Speed units with good defenses.

After all the EX Turns are over, the round formally ends. This is the moment that buffs, debuffs, and other effects that last until “the end of the round” expire.

Position & Targeting

Units move around the battlefield as they perform their actions, but this is largely aesthetic. Actions are never restricted by a unit’s position, and a unit will never lose their action because their target changed position. Units will simply run or leap to the position they need to be for the animation of their selected action to make sense. E.g., a sword-user will run next to their target before swinging, a bow-user will step back and turn to face the target they’re firing at.

Player units always queue an action by selecting their action from a menu, or playing a q’avvach card, and then selecting a target. There are several targeting types, and while a unit will always be able to hit their primary target, secondary targets may be influenced by where units ended up on the battlefield.

Single. The action targets a single unit only. This is the most basic type.
Sweep. The action targets a single unit but also hits to either side in a wide sweep. Good for targets standing close to each other.
Burst. The action targets a single unit, and then hits additional units in a radius. The size of the burst can vary from action to action.
Circle. Same as Burst, except the user targets themselves. Functionally a circle around the unit.
Line. The unit doesn’t move, but fires in a line ahead of them, hitting all units in that line.
Charge. Same as Line, except the unit moves along the line, ending up at the target. The action still hits all units on the line.
All. The action targets all legal units.

In general, units ignore targets on their own team with attacks and debuffs, and ignores enemy units with healing and buffs. It is safe to use a Burst attack against a cluster of enemies even if a friendly unit is standing there because they ran forward to attack.

Rewards

After each battle, the player earns a rewards screen. This screen shows coins and items earned from the fight, reports any units who reached a green/yellow/red EXP threshold, and applies changes to beastkin who absorbed or consumed enemy units.

While enemies do drop loot, NotSaGa eschews the practice of extremely rare item drops. A 1% or 2% drop chance for a desirable piece of equipment incentivizes luck-based behavior that goes against the “focus grinding” philosophy. Loot drops are primarily there to make sure players passively build up a stock of consumable items, q’avvach cards, and elemental gems. A player seeking a specific item from an enemy’s loot table should be able to get it on the order of minutes, rather than tens of minutes or hours.

The Bestiary

One of the main menu options tracks enemies the player has fought in a Bestiary. The Bestiary automatically populates with information as the player learns it. For example, when an enemy uses an attack, that attack is listed in its Bestiary entry. When an enemy drops an item, that item is listed in the Bestiary’s drop table section.

Certain abilities have an Observe effect. Enemy units targeted with such an effect will have a few pieces of currently-unknown information filled in. Stronger Observe effects will give more information. After a few fights with an enemy, its Bestiary should be complete.

The Bestiary contains this information:

Name, family, and type.
Region and location where the enemy can be found.
Stats such as Health, Strength, etc.
Body composition, including specific body parts beastkin can absorb.
Items, equipment, q’avvach cards, and elemental gems dropped.
A short lore entry, attributed to the guild of monster hunters.

An enemy’s family is determined by its appearance. E.g., all enemies that use the lizard model belong to the Lizard family. Individual enemies in the same family are distinguished by having different palettes or small changes to the model. The player may encounter a Pony enemy early in the game, then later a more powerful Warhorse, then a Unicorn, and finally a Nightmare with flaming hooves — but all belong to the Horse family.

Type is one of: Human, Animal, Monster, Beastkin, or Construct. Beastkin units cannot consume or absorb parts from enemies of the Human or Construct type. Rook’s Befriend mechanics only function on enemies of the Animal type. Certain abilities only hit or ignore enemies of the Construct type. Otherwise, an enemy’s type has no effect on its capabilities.

Since combat is the primary engine for training and resources, the player’s Bestiary becomes an invaluable resource. All Bestiary information persists across chapters, so anything the player learns while playing Rook’s chapter can be put to use later when they play Saka Saka’s chapter.

Character Archetypes

Each unit falls into one of four archetypes. Each archetype interacts differently with the equipment and advancement systems. A unit’s archetype determines what abilities appear in its combat window, how they learn and access those abilities, and how they raise their stats.

Humans

Humans are primarily equipment- and magic-focused. They gain experience using the mechanics outlined above, and learn new skills and spells by using the mechanics outlined below. They form the backbone of the main cast. There are no restrictions on what equipment they can use or what weapons and magic they can develop, however, each human unit has a set of affinities that determines their growth rate. Humans have access to all eleven of their equipment slots, although some specific units have permanently-attached equipment that defines their function.

Humans are the only units that can change their archetype by equipping a q’avvach. A q’avvachist is functionally a human that interacts with different ability and advancement systems. Q’avvachist mechanics are detailed below.

The term “human” is used very loosely in the world of NotSaGa, and generally refers to any humanoid creature that isn’t a beastkin or a construct. Some characters who are not strictly human — such as Princess Denemede and the rest of the sea people — still share the archetype. The breadth of physical features possible in humans is much wider in NotSaGa than in our world. The player may meet humans who have whiskers, pointed ears, eerie or unnatural coloration, or mushroom caps upon their heads.

Beastkin & Animals

Beastkin units do not have affinities and do not develop techs and spells the way humans do. They only gain experience in Aptitude, Health, Energy, and Chrysm. The rest of their stats are altered by consuming or absorbing monsters. Beastkin have access to monster abilities — both physical and magical — that humans cannot obtain.

Beastkin cannot equip armor, and they cannot equip weapons if the associated arm slot has a monster part. They still get their four accessories and their provision slot. Beastkin get special bonuses that other archetypes don’t get when they equip a fetish to one of their accessory slots.

Animals are a subtype of beastkin with some restrictions. They can’t consume or absorb opponents, they can’t equip weapons, they can’t change their body parts, and they have their own method of increasing stats, outlined in Rook’s Befriend mechanic, below.

Constructs

Construct units are configured rather than trained. They are artificial life-forms which never gain experience and never devise skills or spells. Everything a construct can do is determined by the elemental gems socketed to their Spirit Board. Constructs do not have Aptitude, Energy, or Chrysm. Instead, these stats are replaced with Core, Capacity, and Essenta. The mechanics of these stats are described below in the advancement section.

Like beastkin, constructs have access to abilities humans can’t learn. Some of these abilities only target other constructs, and others ignore constructs entirely. This gives constructs strengths and weaknesses which set them apart from other forms of life.

Constructs have potential access to all eleven of their equipment slots, although their methods for accessing weapon techs and magic spells is different from humans or beastkin.

Q’avvachists

The q’avvach is a mystical deck of cards capable of producing magical effects. A q’avvachist is a human who turns the cards to their advantage rather than using standard weapons and magic. Any human can become a q’avvachist simply by equipping a q’avvach, which takes up both of their hand slots. They retain all of their other equipment slots, although they cannot actually use the item in their provision slot because they lack a command window.

In combat, the q’avvachist is dealt a hand of cards. When addressing a q’avvachist unit in combat, the player selects one card from the hand to play. These cards can mimic weapon techs, trigger Magic Chains, or produce unique effects that target the battlefield or the q’avvach itself.

Q’avvachists retain their Aptitude, Health, Speed, Vitality, and Luck stats. Luck in particular has a greater impact on the q’avvachist than on other archetypes. Their other stats are all replaced by new ones which describe the deck itself, rather than the person wielding it. The unit still retains its stats, skills, and spells — they are merely suppressed while equipped with a q’avvach.

Equipment

Units can have up to eleven equipment slots: two weapon slots, four armor slots, four accessory slots, and one provision slot. Humans use all eleven slots, q’avvachists functionally have nine because they lack weapons, beastkin do not have armor slots, animals lack weapon or armor slots, and constructs only have one accessory slot and one provision slot, unless they are granted more slots by their spirit board. Equipment can raise stats, skills, schools, or have other effects.

Equipment is acquired in shops, found in treasure hoards, or dropped by defeated enemies. There is no crafting system in NotSaGa. Outside of a few pieces of truly exceptional gear, a player should be able to find a given piece of equipment they need to complete or enhance a build with a little bit of focused grinding. In very rare cases, a character may have a piece of equipment they cannot remove for storyline reasons.

Materials

Each piece of equipment is made from a specific material, which is provided in its description (and often its name). Shops in NotSaGa tend to specialize in one or two different materials only. A standard shop will sell all of the common types of weapon and armor in the materials they have.

Material correlates with value, power level, weight, and magical alignment. There are no hard and fast rules, but in general, heavier equipment will provide greater power but inhibit spellcasting.

Weapon Slots

Each unit that can equip weapons has two weapon slots: their main hand and their off-hand. While a unit can equip a weapon to each slot, the off-hand only supplies stats and access to weapon techs; their Attack command always uses their main hand. (Except for bowguns, see below.) Some weapons are two-handed, and so is the q’avvach.

Shields are a special type of weapon specifically designed for the off-hand. They tend to grant excellent defensive stats, but a unit cannot Attack with them. Shields nonetheless have associated weapon techs, described below.

To fight unarmed, a unit must have both weapon slots empty.

Armor Slots

Each unit that can equip armor has four armor slots. These further augment the unit’s stats, each in a different way. Units are not restricted by what type of armor they can equip; if they have access to a slot, they can equip anything that would go in that slot.

Body. This is the unit’s primary source of defense. Real armor is quite heavy; spellcasters may prefer cloth weaves, and to seek their survivability elsewhere.
Head. Hats and helmets provide further defense, also frequently impacting Intelligence and Focus. Several classes of hats also offer protection against debuffs.
Hands. Gloves and gauntlets impact Technique or Focus, but in a mutually-exclusive way. What a unit wears on their hands will tend to decide whether that unit is a weapons expert or a spellcaster.
Feet. Shoes, boots, and sandals impact a unit’s Speed, or some other stat at the expense of Speed.

These four slots sometimes come as a set, offering more or better bonuses for each piece of the set the unit is wearing.

Accessories

Each unit has four accessory slots. Constructs begin with one accessory slot unlocked, with the others becoming available from socketing elemental gems into their Spirit Board. Accessories provide a wide variety of uses and effects, including granting weapon techs and spells. A unit can equip as many accessories as they have open slots, but they may only equip one accessory of each type (e.g. one ring, one cloak, one q’avvach card, etc.). Here is a partial list of accessory types:

Rings. Provide buffs at the beginning of combat, such as “gain Haste for 1 round”.
Cloaks. Provide bonuses to stats.
Bracers. Provide bonuses to weapon skills.
Glasses. Provide bonuses to magic schools.
Ribbons. Provide protection against debuffs.
Headbands. Grant weapon techs.
Crystals. Grant magic spells.
Quivers. Change the properties of an equipped bow.
Fetishes. Grant techs or spells, while providing additional benefits to beastkin.
Circuits. Expand a construct’s Spirit Board.
Cards. Fix a matching card to a q’avvachist’s opening hand.

Provisions

The final slot is the provision slot. All units have access to one provision slot, even animals and constructs with empty Spirit Boards. In combat, a unit can use the consumable item in their provision slot. Or, if the slot is empty, they can choose a new item to place there. This takes up their turn.

If a unit uses their provision in combat, and then wins the combat, they will automatically equip another copy of the same item to their provision slot, if any remain in the inventory.

Q’avvachists can’t use their provision directly, but they may have cards in their deck that reference it.

Constructs have elemental gems that turn accessory slots into provision slots, allowing them to equip more than one kind of consumable (see below).

Transmogrification

Players may find themselves in possession of a wealth of archetype-specific items for character types they’re not fielding in their active party. Fetishes and elemental gems are of no use to them if they’re trying to build a killer q’avvach deck. In order to turn what they have into what they need, they can visit a transmogrifier. There are five kinds of transmogrification, and each NPC specializes in one:

beastkin parts → fetishes
fetishes → elemental gems
fetishes → q’avvach cards
elemental gems → q’avvach cards
q’avvach cards → elemental gems

And, of course, a player can always turn their resources into coins by selling them to a shop.

Transmogrification is intentionally not a one-to-one trade. The intent is to allow players to turn what they don’t need into something they can potentially use. The process attempts to create related items and correlate power levels. For example, an elemental gem with a high boost to Speed may result in a q’avvach card that boosts Speed when played. A fetish that grants Fae spells may result in an elemental gem that grants those same spells. The results should be deterministic through some process, and the player should be able to back out if they don’t like the results.

Gems and cards cannot be transmogrified into fetishes, because if a player desires a specific fetish, they need only hunt down the monster that has the appropriate part.

It is possible, and perhaps desirable, that the player can discover infinite money loops via this process. Perhaps they discover a particular set of monster eyes turns into a fetish which transmogs into a card which transmogs into a gem that is worth a lot more than the original fetish. This kind of behavior is what exploring the labyrinthine sub-systems of NotSaGa is all about.

Some unique items are not able to be transmogrified.

Treasure Hoards

No location in NotSaGa is ever truly empty. While most dungeon locations are not visited in the Endgame, they become populated with powerful monsters and piles of loot. Each dungeon area has a mini-boss that respawns in an infrequent but deterministic way. Behind each mini-boss is a treasure hoard. The boss’s loot table and the hoard itself are both learnable and repeatable. A dedicated player can exploit this system to routinely clear out the bosses and hoards they need to get the equipment and upgrades they most want.

Each time a mini-boss is defeated and a hoard is reached, the player receives at least the following:

a decent amount of coins,
their choice between two weapons made from the boss’s materials,
their choice between two pieces of armor made from the boss’s materials,
their choice between two accessories made from the boss’s materials,
their choice of a q’avvach card or elemental gem related to the boss.

Beastkin fetishes are not available in treasure hoards because the boss itself provides parts for them.

Respawning bosses and hoards mean the player will never have to resort to naked grinding. They can always be moving in some direction and toward some purpose. Even casual players will enjoy exploring a few old areas to see what’s new.

Chapter Completion & Secret-Complete

The ultimate goal of the game is to get the Heroes to the Endgame, where they travel to Bastion and join forces to defeat the villain and save the world. In order to do that, the player must complete each Hero’s story and also accomplish a secondary task to some specification.

When the Hero’s story is over — usually as the result of defeating the chapter’s end boss — their world opens up to allow the player to re-visit and re-explore any location from the chapter. Relevant barriers are removed and new resources may become available. The Hero usually isn’t allowed to travel anywhere new; some Heroes are restricted to just one or two regions, while others have most of the world map to explore.

Upon completing their secondary task, the chapter becomes “secret-complete”. At this point the Hero learns why they are needed in Bastion and makes arrangements to travel there. The player can no longer boot into that Hero’s chapter, but the Hero and all their companions and resources will become available when the player reaches the Endgame.

As a general rule, all Heroes should be able to reach all or most of their secret-complete requirements during their actual story. The requirements are never hidden, obtuse, unclear, or spikier in difficulty than what the Hero has already completed. For most players, reaching secret-complete status should comprise a short victory lap for the Hero, rather than account for a significant portion of their chapter.

Crucially, nothing in a Hero’s chapter becomes lost or unattainable upon reaching secret-complete. The player can always go back to those areas in the Endgame to find what they skipped.

3. Advancement Systems

Each archetype has its own gameplay system for raising stats and accessing new abilities; humans have two. These systems sometimes overlap, but usually are mutually-exclusive. A well-formed party of NotSaGa characters will require the player to engage with all of the systems, and to identify those points where they touch each other. The game is designed to support diverse parties and specialized ones. Some players may prefer the novelty of running “one of everything” in their main group, while others will enjoy the challenge of fielding five dedicated q’avvachists, and others yet will unravel the min/maxer’s puzzle of finding broken interactions that emerge from specific unit and party builds.

Weapons, Techs, & Combos

The most basic form of dealing damage in NotSaGa is the Attack command, where a unit attacks an enemy with their equipped weapon, or with their fists if they have no weapon equipped. Every archetype except the q’avvachist has access to this basic command. There are five different weapon types, each with their own general properties.

When a human uses the Attack command, they have a chance (derived from the relevant weapon skill and their Technique and Luck stats) to devise a Weapon Tech. These are physical abilities that use Energy. Each type of weapon has several different Styles, and each Style has its own line of five Techs, each more powerful than the last. A unit’s chance of learning a Tech is increased dramatically if another unit (ally or enemy) has used that Tech during this combat. A unit’s chance of devising a new Tech in a particular Style is increased when they use a known Tech in that Style.

Units who can equip weapons have two hand slots. In combat, they have access to all Techs they know for each of their equipped weapons. Some individual weapons are two-handed, taking up both slots and restricting what Techs the unit has access to.

When any unit who knows a Weapon Tech, they have a chance (derived from weapon skill, Technique, and Luck) to automatically go into a Weapon Combo. When this happens, the unit picks a second Weapon Skill at least two tiers lower than the previous one. The selection is random, with the only restriction being two Techs of the same Style can’t appear in the same Combo. A player can toggle individual Techs on or off if they don’t want them to appear in Combos.

This system produces the following structures:

No combo. A single Tech is usually stronger than the Attack command, or produces some desirable effect.
3 → 1. A Tier-3 Tech automatically combos into a Tier-1 Tech of a different Style.
4 → 2. A Tier-4 Tech automatically combos into a Tier-2 Tech of a different Style.
5 → 3 → 1. A powerful Tier-5 Tech automatically combos into a Tier-3 Tech, then a Tier-1 Tech, each of a different Style. This is the best outcome for a standard weapon-user.

Example: Junior is equipped with a sword and bowgun. He knows five Techs in Blade Style A and one in Sword Style B. He also knows four techs in Bow Style C. On his turn he selects his only Tier-5 Tech in Style A. He combos, stepping down to Tier-3 in Bow Style C. Then he combos again, finishing with his only Tier-1 Tech in Style B.

Each type of weapon interacts with the Weapon Combo system a little differently. The challenge for the player is to find the Combos that produce the best results, then train their units to trigger them as often as they can.

Blades

Blades are melee weapons designed to poke, stab, slash, and parry. They encompass knives, swords, and two-handed greatswords. To engage with a blade, the unit typically runs to the target’s position before attacking.

Blades typically key off Strength, but some knives key off of Technique or Speed, and there are mystic versions that key off Intelligence. There are four Blade Styles, each with five Techs. They are:

Stab. High single-target damage.
Slash. Attacks in an arc, producing Sweep and Circle attacks.
Lunge. Attacks straight ahead, producing Charge attacks.
Riposte. Deals no damage and does not cause the unit to move, but rather puts them into a defensive state. If attacked, the unit will automatically counter with a powerful single-target blow, and then go into the longest possible Combo they have available.

Some Blade Techs cause the target to Bleed, which is a debuff that causes damage each time the unit acts.

Bows

Bows are ranged weapons which fire ammunition. They encompass one-handed bowguns and two-handed longbows. Usually, a unit with two weapons equipped only attacks with the one in their main hand when they select the Attack command. However, a unit with two bowguns equipped fires two shots, instead. An archer will typically retreat to a safe position before turning and firing at their target.

Longbows typically key off Strength and Technique, while bowguns only key off Technique. Longbows also tend to have higher attack power. There are three Bow Styles, each with five Techs. They are:

Pierce. High single-target damage which produces Line attacks.
Volley. Area damage which fires multiple arrows to produce a Burst.
Ricochet. Single-target damage that bounces from one target to another, damaging several in a single shot, regardless of enemy positioning.

Bows are strongly associated with debuffs, and are the weapon type most likely to add Poison, Confuse, or stat-reducing effects.

Staves

Staves are melee weapons strongly associated with martial arts and spellcasting. They are usually two-handed. A unit who attacks with a staff will generally close the distance to their target for attacking, but their reach may allow them to stay further away, depending on their selected Tech. One of the Staff Styles is special, and fires a ranged attack, instead.

Staves typically key off Strength and Technique, although the magically-associated croziers key off of Intelligence. Staves which factor Technique are capable of launching opponents into the air, which causes extra damage when they inevitably fall to the ground again.

There are four Staff Styles, one of which is not eligible for Weapon Combos. They are:

Thrust. Straight-forward pokes that allow the unit to remain at middle distance. They can produce Line attacks.
Swing. Swooping or arcing attacks capable of repositioning enemies. They can produce Sweep attacks.
Launch. Always launch an enemy into the air. Other Weapon Techs may have slightly different properties when they hit airborne enemies. At the end of the Combo, the enemy falls to the ground, taking an additional hit of damage.
Channel. Ranged magical attacks which key off Intelligence. Channel Techs spend Energy and cannot combo with any other Techs. However, they do contribute to Magic Chains. Which school the Channel Tech provides is determined by which crozier is equipped.

Staves often grant large bonuses to Technique or Focus, depending on whether they are a martial bō or a magical crozier. Dedicated spellcasters tend to use croziers exclusively.

Shields

While not strictly weapons, shields frequently provide decent boosts to defensive stats, making them a good choice for a unit’s off-hand. Sword/shield and bowgun/shield are both common and viable builds. Shield Techs instead focus on defending and buffing the party. Shields are always one-handed.

Shield Techs can never be chosen in the middle of a Weapon Combo, but they can start or finish them. A player can begin with a high-tier Shield Tech, gain the benefits thereof, and then proceed into a normal Weapon Combo. Or, a player can begin a Combo with their other equipped weapon, and then end with a lower-tier Shield Tech. A Combo never contains more than one Shield Tech.

There are three Shield Styles. They are:

Buff. The unit buffs one or more of their own stats. May also apply buffs in a Circle.
Guard. The unit’s defense improves dramatically. Some Guard Techs may also allow for counterattacks.
Interpose. The unit readies itself to take damage instead of an ally, protecting squishier units.

Dual-shield equipment setups are legal, though the unit loses access to the Attack command and only has their Shield Techs available. The build may still be desirable for some spellcasting setups or for a low-Speed anchor unit.

Unarmed

When a unit has no weapons equipped (and no monster parts in their arm slots, if they’re a Beastkin), they are Unarmed. Unarmed units attack with their fists. Because they gain no stats from equipped weapons, Unarmed attacks key off of Strength, Technique, and Speed. They also have the widest variety of Techs, with five full Styles to choose from.

When building Weapon Combos, Unarmed Techs only step down one tier instead of two. This means devastating 5 → 4 → 3 → 2 → 1 routes are possible. In addition, Unarmed Techs can combo with other Techs of the same Style. This means an Unarmed unit will reach fuller combo potential more quickly than units relying on weapons.

The five Unarmed Styles are:

Punch. Single-target strikes focusing on high damage.
Kick. Powerful strikes which can produce Sweeps.
Grapple. Grabbing attacks which restrict an enemy’s movement, inflicting debuffs such as Slow, Stun, or Sleep.
Throw. Attacks which fling an enemy at a second target, damaging them. Can produce Burst attacks. Alternately, the thrown enemy might target an ally instead, who knows at least one Unarmed Tech. That ally uses that Tech without interrupting the main unit’s Combo.
Rush. Attacks using distance and momentum, producing Charge attacks.

The highest single-target novas in the game are probably high-Strength, high-Technique martial artists spamming Unarmed Combos on their multiple EX Turns.

Magic Spells, Cantrips, and Chains

The nine schools of magic are arranged in the shape of a star. Each school neighbors two other schools, and sits opposed to two schools on the opposite side of the star. Each school contains a Cantrip and three Spells, and each Spell can be advanced to three Ranks. All magic spends a unit’s Chrysm.

Any human can learn the Cantrip from any magic school by finding one of that school’s trainers and paying the fee. Cantrips are usually basic damaging or healing abilities, being low on Chrysm cost and giving the unit an alternative to their basic Attack.

When a unit uses one of their Cantrips, they have a chance (derived from their level in the magic school, and their Focus and Luck stats) to learn one of the school’s Spells. Casting one of their Spells has a similar chance to advance the Spell by one Rank. Seeing another unit use a Spell increases this chance, just like with Weapon Techs.

While Techs focus on a single character performing several attacks in sequence, Spells focus on multiple casters working in tandem to produce Magic Chains. While a player inputs their commands for a combat round, the on-screen 9-pointed star will reflect what Chain is being constructed, and which units are participating. Cantrips and Spells are both capable of forming chains, and so are some monster attacks, q’avvach cards, and Channel Techs from staves.

When a Magic Chain is queued, the participating units don’t act at their usual spot in the combat round. (The turn order at the top of the screen will reflect this.) Instead, they all wait for the slowest unit participating in the Chain to begin. Then, they all cast their own contributions in the order in which their commands were entered. Then, a Magic Finale is triggered, based on the school of the final caster’s ability. If any unit on either side uses a magic ability that opposes any ability in the Magic Chain, it fails. The units still get to use their individual abilities, but the Magic Finale doesn’t trigger.

Example: Rook casts a World Spell, Denemede casts a Shadow Spell, and Alphonse plays a q’avvach card with a Pillar effect. This creates a World → Pillar → Shadow magic chain. The player decides they want the Pillar Finale, so they make sure to play Alphonse’s card last while inputting commands. Denemede is the slowest unit, so all three hold their turns until Denemede would get her turn. Provided no enemies use abilities of opposed magic schools (in this case Doors, Architect, Fae, and Bright), the Magic Chain ignites, all three units use their abilities, and then Alphonse triggers the desired Magic Finale. Even though they acted late in the round, Rook and Alphonse may still qualify for EX Turns.

Magical abilities can chain with other abilities in their own school, or with neighboring schools. The power level of the Finale is determined by how many Ranks are invested in the Chain. (E.g., Chains with Rank-III Spells will be more powerful than Chains built with Cantrips or Rank-I Spells.) The different types of Chains are:

Twin Chain. Two abilities of the same magic school. It’s possible to fire two Twin Chains in the same round. Triggers a Basic Finale.
Quick Chain. Two abilities from neighboring schools (e.g. Fae → Bright). It’s possible to fire two Quick Chains in the same round, or a Twin Chain and a Quick Chain. Triggers a Basic Finale.
Arc Chain. Three or four abilities from neighboring schools (e.g. Fae → Bright → Chaos → World). Because three units are involved, it’s never possible to trigger two Arc Chains in the same round. Triggers an Arc Finale.
Antipode Chain. Five abilities from neighboring schools (e.g. Fae → Bright → Chaos → World → Pillar). Because two schools five steps away from each other on the star are always opposed, any magic used by the opposition from the remaining four schools will break the chain. Triggers a powerful Antipode Finale fueled by the innate paradox of the chain itself. Antipode Finales are possibly the most extreme abilities in the entire game.

Finales have all kinds of effects, but they always target the entire battlefield, damaging all enemies or healing/buffing all allies.

The nine schools of magic are, in order:

Fae Magic

The magic of spectacle, illusion, and good cheer.

Cantrip. Deals a little damage and attempts to Confuse a target.
Neighbors. Doors and Bright.
Opposition. Shadow and Pillar.

Fae spells focus on disorienting the enemy rather than directly damaging them. One important Fae spell ties into the game’s fast travel system, transporting the party between fae crossings.

Bright Magic

The magic of sunlight, radiance, and the heavens.

Cantrip. Restores a little Health to a target.
Neighbors. Fae and Chaos.
Opposition. Infernal and Shadow.

Bright spells focus on healing, removing debuffs, and dealing holy damage.

Chaos Magic

Bizarre magic from beyond the cosmos. Can be unpredictable.

Cantrip. Produces a randomly-chosen minor effect from a pre-determined list.
Neighbors. Bright and World.
Opposition. Architect and Infernal.

Chaos spells tend to produce random effects or target random units. A higher Luck stat produces better and more consistent results. Contains a spell which returns some number of spent cards back to a q’avvachist’s deck.

World Magic

Magic seeping forth from the world itself, binding stone and soil and all things green.

Cantrip. Deals a little damage in a Line.
Neighbors. Chaos and Pillar.
Opposition. Doors and Architect.

World spells are associated with nature and the elements, particularly mountains, forests, and the sea.

Pillar Magic

Magic used by humans to build walls, fortresses, and complex structures.

Cantrip. Places a buff that absorbs some physical damage.
Neighbors. World and Shadow.
Opposition. Fae and Doors.

Pillar spells focus on defense and protection. Many of the world’s most fantastic and most ancient structures were built using Pillar magic.

Shadow Magic

The magic of darkness and all things unseen.

Cantrip. Deals a little damage and attempts to Blind a target.
Neighbors. Pillar and Infernal.
Opposition. Fae and Bright.

Shadow is one of the more damage-oriented schools. One of the Shadow spells ties into the game’s fast travel network, transporting the party between a pre-determined set of dark and hidden areas.

Infernal Magic

The magic of the infinite hells. Themed as striking contracts with demons.

Cantrip. Deals a little fire damage in a Sweep.
Neighbors. Shadow and Architect.
Opposition. Bright and Chaos.

Infernal is another damage-oriented school, focusing on dealing fire damage in a variety of shapes and ranges.

Architect Magic

The magic of understanding, founded in scientific and mathematical principles. Modern practices of alchemy are derived from Architect Magic.

Cantrip. Observes a target, adding some information to its Bestiary entry.
Neighbors. Infernal and Doors.
Opposition. Chaos and World.

Architect spells have fixed, deterministic effects, including one spell which reduces enemy Health by a fixed percentage. Another spell restores a large, fixed amount of Health, but only to Constructs.

Doors Magic

The tradition of opening magical doors to allow things through, or to push things into.

Cantrip. Summons a small pest that deals a little damage to a target.
Neighbors. Fae and Architect.
Opposition. World and Pillar.

Each of the Doors spells opens a different kind of door. One lets in a monster to attack foes and deal damage. Another opens beneath a target, and attempts to pull them in (killing them). The third ties into the game’s fast travel network. Any unit can cast the spell to place a warp point. A unit’s warp point is remembered, and displayed on their status screen. Careful use of individual Doors casters can dramatically cut down the time a player spends traveling.

Trainers

NPCs throughout the world act as trainers, teaching Techs and Cantrips for a price. Tech trainers are expensive, live in remote locations, and train only one specific Weapon Tech. Cantrip trainers are reasonably priced and tend to live in cities. The city of Chrysmata contains trainers from all nine schools.

The asymmetry is intentional. Since units can learn Techs by using their basic attack, Tech trainers serve primarily to patch holes in a specific combo the player is aiming for. Cantrips, on the other hand, are the only way to develop later spells, and organized trainers imply a long tradition of magical study. Paying a Tech trainer should feel like a shortcut. Paying a Cantrip trainer should feel like an entrance fee.

Trainers will not teach beastkin or constructs.

Beastkin Absorption & Consumption

When a beastkin lands the killing blow on a target that isn’t a human or a construct, they are given a choice to consume the target, or to absorb one of its parts. Consuming a target destroys it utterly, and awards the beastkin some Aptitude, along with EXP in the consumed monster’s highest stats. Which stats gain EXP, how many, and how much, can all be checked on the monster’s Bestiary entry.

If the beastkin unit instead chooses to absorb, they choose between the target monster’s body parts. At the end of combat, the chosen part is added to the beastkin, replacing whatever part was already there. The old part is gone forever, but if the player wants it back, they can always check the Bestiary to see which monsters possess it.

Observe & Mark

Many monster attacks and abilities which beastkin inherit are able to observe or mark opponents. These features are there to assist beastkin in identifying the parts they need for their build.

When a target is observed, some amount of information about the target is revealed in its Bestiary entry. How much information is determined by the observer’s Intelligence stat.

When a marked target is killed, the beastkin who placed the mark may choose to consume or absorb, even if they didn’t land the killing blow. If a target is already marked, and then another beastkin marks it, the second mark overrides the first, and the second beastkin gets the EXP or body part.

Body Parts

Each beastkin has nine slots for body parts, which are separate from their equipment. Body parts grant stat bonuses and abilities, including potential weapon skills and magic spells. Certain parts have synergy bonuses which make them more powerful when paired with other similar parts. Checking an enemy’s Bestiary entry will list all of its parts which the player knows about.

Changing parts does not actually alter a beastkin’s physical appearance. The system is themed as the beastkin taking in the target’s essence, not literally grafting new parts onto their body. Monster attacks may momentarily manifest as ghostly extensions of the beastkin’s body, e.g. Tail Swipe lashes out with a powerful plated tail, even if the beastkin in question doesn’t have one.

Not every enemy has every part. If an enemy is a legal absorption target, it will have at minimum a Heart and one other body part. The nine body part slots are:

Heart. The most important part of a beastkin’s kit. The heart frequently contributes the greatest bonus to a beastkin’s stats, particularly to Health. The heart also commonly contains a monster family’s signature attack or ability, which is found nowhere else in the game.
Head. Grants bonuses to the beastkin’s Intelligence and Chrysm stats. Heads commonly grant beastkin access to magic spells from the nine schools, allowing them to participate in magic chains.
Eyes. Grants bonuses to the beastkin’s Technique and Focus stats.
Left Arm/Right Arm. The two arm slots are independent from each other. Arms grant bonuses to the beastkin’s Strength stat, and sometimes grant access to weapon techs. When a beastkin has an arm part, the corresponding slot on their equipment screen becomes unavailable. A beastkin can have two arm parts, or two weapons, or one of each.
Hide. Grants bonuses to the beastkin’s Strength, Health, and Vitality. The hide often grants passive bonuses, such as flight, status immunity, or contact damage.
Left Leg/Right Leg. The two leg slots are independent from each other. Legs grant bonuses to Energy and Speed, and almost always have a synergy bonus with each other. Matching a beastkin’s legs is a good way to ensure they reach EX Turns.
Tail. A wildcard slot. Frequently grants bonuses to Strength and Speed.

Fetishes

A fetish is a special type of accessory that perfectly mimics a monster’s body part. Beastkin can visit a special shop where one of their parts can be removed and transmogrified into an accessory. This way the beastkin can make use of a part’s stats and abilities without actually taking up the body part slot. Fetishes still count for purposes of synergy bonuses, presenting synergies that might otherwise be impossible. As with all types of accessories, a unit can only equip one fetish at a time.

Other archetypes can equip a fetish, but they only gain active abilities. Stat bonuses and passive abilities only apply to beastkin.

No heart can ever be transferred into a fetish. They are too powerful and unique to be contained in such a way.

Weapon/Magic Interaction

When a beastkin is granted weapon techs or magic spells from their body parts or accessories, they use them as normal, spending Energy or Chrysm. They don’t gain skill or school EXP the way humans do, but they can be granted skill and school levels from body parts and accessories, or by spending their Aptitude. Weapon combos and magic chains work exactly the same for them, although building a beastkin to make use of a full 5 → 3 → 1 weapon combo means a significant investment in specific parts.

It is deliberately difficult for beastkin to gain access to unarmed techs. The physical attacks in the monster ability set are instead based on fangs, claws, and tails. Energy-consuming monster attacks of this nature do count for purposes of another character using a Throw Style tech, however, giving the beastkin the opportunity to participate in another unit’s unarmed combo.

Constructs

Constructs never gain EXP or Aptitude, and do not have Energy or Chrysm stats. Their combat capabilities are entirely determined by their Spirit Board and the elemental gems socketed into them. A construct with nothing socketed to their board is nothing more than an empty chassis, unable to equip anything except a single accessory and one provision. Such a creature is capable of nothing but a basic Attack with no stats to back it up.

Core, Capacity, & Essenta

Instead of Aptitude, Energy, and Chrysm, each construct unit has Core, Capacity, and Essenta stats.

Core determines the size of a construct’s Spirit Board. It ranges in dimension from 1×1 to 9×9. The alchemical words obth and exth refer to the core’s height and width, respectively. A construct’s obth and exth can be increased independently and permanently by paying a special alchemist NPC. Core size can also be modified by equipping a circuit, a special kind of accessory.

Capacity is the number of individual elemental gems which can be socketed to a board. A 2×2 gem still counts as one, even though it takes up four sockets. The alchemical word for Capacity is ijth, and can be thought of as the board’s depth. Like Core, Capacity can be increased by upgrading via alchemy, or by equipping a circuit. The maximum Capacity is 81.

Essenta is what constructs spend to fuel their abilities instead of Energy or Chrysm. It doesn’t matter whether the construct is using a bespoke construct ability, a weapon tech, or a magic spell — the cost is always paid in Essenta. Items and abilities that restore Energy or Chrysm do not work for Essenta. A construct’s maximum Essenta can be increased by upgrading via alchemy, equipping a circuit, or by certain elemental gem configurations.

Spirit Boards

The Spirit Board is the heart and soul of a construct, and determines everything the construct can do. The Spirit Board is rectangular in shape, with its obth and exth being determined by the construct’s Core stat. Each space on a Spirit Board is a socket; a construct with a 3×3 board has nine sockets.

The center socket of a Spirit Board is special, and any elemental gem socketed there has its attributes amplified. Up and left are favored for deciding the position of the center socket in cases where the board has an even obth or exth.

Early on, a construct will probably need a circuit to grant enough space on the spirit board to socket gems. A circuit is a special accessory that says something like “increase Core by 1×2, and Capacity by 3.” In this case, assuming a brand new construct chassis with a 1×1 Core and 0 Capacity, the bonuses are applied additively. With the circuit equipped, the construct has a 2×3 Core and 3 Capacity, which is enough room to socket a few gems.

Later, after the construct has received some alchemical upgrades, they will have enough space to socket the gems they need, freeing up the accessory slot for other purposes.

Elemental Gems

Constructs increase their capability by socketing elemental gems into their Spirit Board. Elemental gems can’t increase a construct’s Core or Capacity, but can alter just about everything else.

An elemental gem is made up of 1×1 tiles. They range in size from single tiles to 5-tile pentominoes in every configuration. In addition to size and shape, elemental gems also have color and texture. When placing gems onto the board, they can be rotated but not reflected.

Gems can influence every aspect of a construct. Some gems unlock equipment and accessory slots, others increase stats, others grant techs or spells. These can all be awarded individually or as a set. Larger gems tend to grant more benefits.

Gems often have conditionals that further increase their effectiveness. The most basic way to do this is to socket a gem into the center socket on the Spirit Board. Other conditionals include, but are not limited to:

Socket a gem next to a gem of the same color.
Socket a gem next to a gem of the same texture.
Give a small bonus for each of the gem’s tiles in a completed row on the board.
Give a small bonus for each of the gem’s tiles in a completed column on the board.
Give a small bonus for each like color or texture in the sockets surrounding the gem.
Give a small bonus for each empty socket surrounding the gem.

Gems are acquired from shops, as common loot in dungeons and from combat, or from transmogrification (see above). By acquiring and experimenting with many different gems in different configurations, a dedicated player may discover constructs to be the most customizable units in the game.

Weapon/Magic Interaction

When a construct is granted a weapon tech or magic spell, either from their Spirit Board or from an accessory, they use them as normal, spending Essenta. They don’t gain skill or school EXP the way humans do, but they can be granted skill and school levels by their elemental gems.

To use a weapon tech, the construct needs to be equipped with the proper weapon — or be unequipped, in the case of unarmed techs. This means, at minimum, they will need an elemental gem which unlocks their weapon slots, and another which unlocks the desired techs. (Or one gem which does both.)

Weapon combos and magic chains work exactly the same for constructs as they do for humans and beastkin.

Extra Pockets

Some elemental gems have a special effect: converting accessory slots into provision slots. By using these, a construct is able to equip up to four provisions. This increases the scope of what consumables the construct can use in combat. If paired with other gems that increase consumable effectiveness or similar buffs, this creates the opportunity of a new type of build not available to other archetypes: a dedicated item-user.

The Q’avvach

The q’avvach is a mystical deck of cards which replaces a human’s command menu in combat with a card draw. Where humans, beastkin, and constructs have mechanics to develop individual units, q’avvach decks develop themselves instead. It’s possible to build and develop a q’avvach deck on one unit, then equip it onto another unit, who gains all the benefits. A unit equipped with a q’avvach cannot Attack, cannot use the item in their provision slot, and does not manage Energy or Chrysm. Their only responsibility each turn is to play a card from their hand.

Q’avvach Rules

The q’avvach is not a full deckbuilding experience. While players do decide what cards go into their deck, and while those cards do interact with other actions on the battlefield, it is not a second game bolted onto the first. The q’avvachist’s actions are still focused on damage, healing, buffs, and debuffs, not setting up card combos or infinite loops.

These are the simple rules which govern a q’avvach:

At the start of each Turn and EX Turn, the q’avvachist draws between 1 and 7 cards.
The q’avvachist chooses exactly one card to play.
The card triggers at the appropriate time, governed by the q’avvachist’s Speed.
The card’s effects may be eligible for Magic Chains.
Unplayed cards get discarded.
By default, a card can only be drawn once per combat.
If a q’avvachist has drawn all the cards in their deck, the deck is Exhausted, and the q’avvachist can no longer act.

Deck Stats & Experience

The q’avvachist retains their Health, Aptitude, Speed, Vitality, and Luck. These stats continue to gain EXP just like any other human. The rest of their stats (like Energy and Strength) are replaced by stats from their q’avvach deck. The stats aren’t gone; as soon as they unequip the q’avvach, their old stats revert to their usual values.

A deck’s stats have EXP, but EXP isn’t awarded by taking actions or playing cards. Instead, EXP is awarded by burning cards. When a card is burned, its associated EXP is awarded immediately, and the card is gone forever. This is the primary way decks become stronger over time.

Each q’avvach deck has the following stats:

Count. Not truly a stat, but simply a count of how many cards are in the deck. Cannot gain EXP. It is for the player’s reference. Decks with a low Count are lean, and make specific card draws more consistent earlier in combat, but risk quick Exhaustion. Decks with a high count provide more variety and are guarded against Exhaustion, but also much more random in their draws.
Case. Determines how many cards are allowed in the deck. Case determines both the lower bound and higher bound. A deck with a Case of 10↔20 may have as few as 10 cards, or as many as 20. When Case levels up, the lower bound is decreased and the upper bound is increased at the same time.
Draw. Determines how many cards are drawn each turn. The q’avvachist can draw up to 7 cards. Raising this state beyond 7 grants the q’avvachist a number of Trades equal one Trade per Draw point above 7. When a q’avvachist trades a card, the chosen card is discarded, and a new card is drawn from the deck. Trading helps the q’avvachist get to a desired card, but also pushes a deck closer to Exhaustion.
Depth. A value from 1 to 8. Each q’avvach card has a power value, and a q’avvachist can only play cards with a power equal to or lower than their Depth. The higher this value is, the more powerful cards can be played. If a draw produces only cards with higher power than the q’avvachist’s Depth, they don’t play a card that turn.
Shuffle. Determines how many times the q’avvachist can shuffle their deck each battle. The deck shuffles automatically if there are no remaining cards to draw, and the number of remaining shuffles is reduced by one. If a q’avvachist has no shuffles remaining and no cards to draw, their deck is Exhausted. They start each battle with their maximum number of available shuffles.
Copies. Determines how many copies of a card the deck can hold. At a Copies of 1, the whole deck must be singleton. Raising this stat allows the q’avvachist to play multiples of the same card in each combat.

These stats are associated with a particular q’avvach deck, not with the q’avvachist. If the deck is later equipped to a different unit, that unit inherits all of the deck’s stats.

Deck Management

The player can have any number of q’avvach decks in their inventory. Q’avvach cards that aren’t in a deck are sorted to the bottom of the Accessories list. Equipping a q’avvach card as an Accessory ensures that card is drawn in the first turn of combat, if a copy of it appears in the deck. With the exception of certain special cards in Alphonse’s deck, cards can be moved between the inventory and a q’avvach deck freely.

Once a card is in a deck, the player can decide to burn it. A burnt card disappears forever, but applies its stat EXP to the deck it’s in. In this way, unwanted cards can be recycled to improve a deck’s capabilities.

Starter decks and individual cards can be bought from special q’avvach vendors. Some NPCs will also trade rare or important cards for a specific card they want. Cards are also obtained from enemy drops, in treasure hoards, and can be transmogrified from fetishes and elemental gems.

Each q’avvach deck generates its name based on its properties and the cards it contains. For example, “The Annoying Sting VI” might describe a deck with many copies of low-damaging cards. “The Severe Eruption IX” might describe a deck with lots of Infernal cards dealing fire damage.

Weapon/Magic Interaction

Q’avvach cards can mimic weapon techs, magic spells, and monster attacks. There are also many bespoke q’avvach effects found in no other ability set. The card’s Depth and the q’avvachist’s Luck determine how powerful the attack is.

Q’avvach cards may also trigger an entire weapon combo. 3 → 1 and 4 → 2 combos are most common. The card specifies what the combo will be — it doesn’t matter what weapon techs the q’avvachist actually knows, and the q’avvachist doesn’t need to have the appropriate weapon equipped. (The q’avvach takes up both weapon slots.)

Cards triggering cantrips and magic spells can participate in Magic Chains. The card specifies which spell and what Rank. Some q’avvach cards count as multiple different schools. This type of flexibility is not achievable by any other Archetype.

Exhaustion

Exhaustion is a status effect unique to q’avvachists. A q’avvachist is Exhausted when their deck has nothing to draw, and they have no shuffles remaining. In this case, a q’avvachist simply doesn’t do anything on their turn. They can still be damaged and targeted by enemies.

Exhaustion is a game over state. The player loses if their last remaining unit is an Exhausted q’avvachist.

Balancing a deck against Exhaustion is part of the strategy of q’avvach management. A fast q’avvachist with a lean deck risks Exhaustion after their EX Turn, while a deck stuffed with cards to prevent Exhaustion risks being too random to be very useful. A talented q’avvachist knows to walk the line in between.

Some rare abilities may return cards to a q’avvachist’s hand, or grant them shuffles. This will end the condition, but an Exhausted q’avvachist is powerless to help themselves.

4. Characters

The player is able to recruit up to 48 characters in NotSaGa. All of these characters fall into one of the archetypes discussed above. Most of them will congregate at a hostel in Bastion, which becomes the Heroes’ base of operations for the Endgame. Others will be cared for in the Wild Paradise, a lush space between the mortal world and the faerie realm.

From these units, a player will build their party of five characters to run Endgame missions, clear treasure hoards, or mount excursions into the Blood Palace. Some are stalwart fighters, some are magic-users, some are blank slates for the player to mold as they will. None are missable. The only restriction is that the player must have at least one of the Heroes in the party at all times.

Archetype & Pronouns

On their status screen and in this document, characters are defined by their archetype (e.g. human, beastkin, animal, q’avvachist, or construct) and a gender symbol:

♀ for characters with she/her pronouns,
♂ for characters with he/him pronouns,
× for characters with they/them pronouns.

A character’s gender has no mechanical impact on the game, but in some cases is relevant to the story.

The Golden Rule

All characters are confined to one of the existing archetypes, but the main Heroes each break the rules of their archetype in some way. However, they are the only characters who are allowed to do so. On paper, this means all non-Hero characters are theoretically interchangeable, whether through training, swapping monster parts or elemental gems, or constructing identical q’avvach decks. But it isn’t possible to re-create one of the eight Heroes using the game systems.

Often, a Hero’s method of breaking the archetype rules is related to their secret-complete requirement. None of the Heroes bend the rules to the point their archetype is no longer recognizable. Their special circumstances are intended to set them apart from the pack and honor their important place within the story.

The Heroes

The eight Heroes are the characters available from the initial chapter select screen. Each character is the Hero of their own tale. Seven of them will come together in Bastion to stand against evil. One of them will betray the world and shower it in blood.

Rook (Human ♂) A reclusive woodsman who long ago gave up on people. Rook is excellent with a bow and refuses to equip any other kind of weapon. He alone has access to a special subsystem to befriend woodland creatures and add them to his traveling party. Rook’s story is about defending one’s land against evil, even if it means letting someone else within arm’s reach.
Lenathé (Human ♀) An amnesiac woman who awakens at the bottom of a mineshaft. Lenathé’s skill with magic is unparalleled — she begins with a ☆ affinity in every magic school. Along her travels to discover the secrets of her past, Lenathé becomes close with a small band of supportive misfits… but what if she can’t have both?
Junior (Human ♂) A fat, slovenly young man who finds himself disinherited. Junior has a D affinity in every stat, and his prospects are few. After taking up work reconstructing a burned library, Junior gets wrapped up in a kingdom-spanning adventure to seek out and collect rare books. Each one raises one of his affinities by one step, proving that even the greatest heroes can come from the unlikeliest of places.
Saka Saka (Beastkin ♀) An energetic and fearless young beastkin, Saka Saka loses everything when her village is burned and her body is turned over to alchemical experiments. Unlike other beastkin, who may only absorb one monster heart at a time, Saka Saka remembers every heart she’s ever touched. Hers is a tale of seeking bloody revenge, and maybe stopping to listen.
Alphonse (Q’avvachist ♂) Con-man, womanizer, and grifter, Alphonse also carries a terrible curse: a q’avvach he cannot unequip or be rid of, no matter how he tries. The ill fate of the cards long ago ruined his life, and now he drifts around, laughing at the world. His is a story of misadventures, failed heists, and entanglements with women he’d really rather forget.
Mildred (Human ♀) Sworn paladin to House Clearstone, Dame Mildred has ridden her trusty steed to many battles in her life. But the old knight is mourning now; her niece is dead, and she is named protector over her grand-niece, whom she cannot bring herself to love. Nonetheless, when the infant is kidnapped by dragon cultists, Mildred must ride forth to keep her vows.
Ren (Construct ♂) A young boy is gored by a boar while hunting with his father. Ren awakens to find himself changed — an alchemist has replaced the broken parts of his body with clockwork and a spirit board. Ren has the ability to reflect elemental gems, something no other automaton can do. When he no longer fits in at home, Ren sets out for the city of Bastion, hoping to accomplish some good.
Denemede (Human ♀) Youngest daughter of the fabled sea king. Like all her brothers and sisters, Denemede receives visions of the future. Unlike her siblings, hers show only death and destruction. When the sea king vanishes, Denemede inherits his magical trident, and sets out on the quest to listen to the waters of the world, hoping to calm her visions of calamity.

Construct Chassis

Four of the Heroes have the opportunity to add a construct to their party. Unlike Ren, these chassis are mere automatons without any personality. However, each one has a unique aesthetic that appeals to the Hero who finds them. These four constructs are mechanically identical, although their starting Spirit Board configuration may differ slightly. Their primary purpose is to give the player an opportunity to field a 5-construct party, if desired.

Each chassis requires the Hero to pay a fee for the chassis, and chooses between one of three names for their new construct. All four are still available in the Endgame, still tied to a particular Hero as a small sidequest.

The Valet (Construct ×) Junior discovers a housekeeping construct in the Bastion construct shop. The chassis resembles a lord’s valet, complete with thin moustache and bowtie. Junior negotiates the purchase, and names his construct Titus, Antonio, or Jeeves.
The Punk (Construct ×) Saka Saka is angry upon her first visit to the Bastion construct shop, until the proprietor assures her the construction process doesn’t involve harming beastkin. Then Saka Saka finds one she likes, with wild green hair. She names them Grassplosion, Leafhopper, or Frogface.
The Armor (Construct ×) A curious suit of armor stands in the keep at Fort Clearstone. When Mildred visits the construct shop in Bastion, she learns the armor may be an old construct in need of refurbishing. After she invests, she names the construct Prometheus, Damascus, or Alexandrius.
The Abyssal (Construct ×) Denemede discovers a wrecked construct resembling a sea monster in the Broken Axe. She can pay a company in Port Redmond to salvage it for her. Like all eerie things from the deep, Denemede thinks the chassis is beautiful. She names them Thassalune, Syllorath, or Eulyndrea.

Lenathé’s Found Family

Lenathé becomes very close to the people she travels with in her chapter. Each of them has a recruitment sidequest in the Endgame. Completing these sidequests is instrumental in determining which ending the player sees. These characters are designed to offer a complete known and balanced party composition available to all players in the Endgame, even if they have only a few resources.

McAlister (Human ♂) The bearded laborer who first discovers Lenathé in the Puffincup Mine. He has decent affinities for a physical sword, shield, or staff build. He feels protective of Lenathé, almost like a big brother figure.
Rittson (Human ♂) McAlister’s drinking bro and wandering monster hunter. He has low weapon and magic affinities, but excellent unarmed affinity. He appreciates Lenathé’s sense of adventure, and treats her like an old war buddy.
Voz (Human ♀) A hapless and bumbling young witch. She hopes to become Lenathé’s apprentice and learn all she can from her. Voz’s magic affinities are decent in Lenathé’s chapter, and much improved in the Endgame, reflecting how much she’s learned.
Colorling (Beastkin ×) A beastkin child Lenathé rescues from human hunters. They become fiercely loyal to Lenathé, dedicated to preventing any harm from coming to her. Colorling’s name and appearance are determined pseudo-randomly; these mechanics are described below.

Saka Saka’s Companions

While Saka Saka’s reckless nature and burning desire for revenge are both understandable, what she most needs in her own chapter are tempering influences. By exploring a path forward which doesn’t involve giving in to her basest instincts, Saka Saka can prove that beastkin aren’t the violent monsters some humans paint them as.

Ana Cristina (Human ♀) A healer employed by Gruggins & Long, Inc., and the niece of the Lord Purveyor of G&L. She earnestly believes her magic was helping beastkin, and is determined to prove G&L can become a force for good in the world — if she can keep Saka Saka from burning it all down.
Grendel (Beastkin ♂) A wise beastkin chief with draconic parts and features. He sees a peaceful path for beastkin to walk, but is not blind to the realities of a frictionless co-existence. He uses his strength in measured, practiced ways, even when fighting is the only option.

Alphonse’s Rival

Alphonse’s chapter is designed to force the player to engage with a game system they might otherwise write off: the q’avvach. His rival is initially presented as being cool, calm, and collected — a counterpart to Alphonse’s raggedy, shiftless nature. However, by the end the player will realize they’re each just as comically hopeless as the other.

Note the rival is listed as “human” and not “q’avvachist”. This is because the rival’s deck can be replaced with any weapon, and the player may train her as a fighter or mage if they so desire.

De la Cruz (Human ♀) A professional thief and Alphonse’s former lover. Their relationship is whimsically toxic, and both believe the other is at fault. De la Cruz has low-to-middling affinities, but a decently-high Luck. Her main draw is that she comes equipped with a fairly strong q’avvach.

Mildred’s Servants

Mildred’s starting party is structured as a holy knight’s entourage: her trusty steed and her loyal squire. Together, they function as a coherent military unit. Because Mildred’s chapter is functionally a series of boss fights, it’s important her core party feels truly capable. Together, they have a strong identity that doesn’t require much work or experimentation.

Tansa (Animal ♀) Mildred’s warhorse, and the only animal unit outside of Rook’s orbit. Tansa is swift and powerful on her own, but Mildred possesses the unique ability to mount her steed. This functionally limits the party size to four, but gives the player access to a truly terrifying combined unit.
Prue (Human ♀) A preteen girl who serves as Mildred’s squire. Her starting kit of an equipped staff and some buffing magic tell the tale of her role as a support character who backs up Mildred and Tansa’s mounted form. Savvy players might discover Prue’s ☆ blade affinity, and her potential to be an incredible Endgame contender.

Ren’s Friends

Ren’s story is about finding a place to belong when you no longer fit in the world you once knew. While much of his chapter is in the city of Bastion, it should feel like an expansive and exciting space to explore, rather than confinement. Ren’s friends are kids his own age who are struggling to find their own place in the world.

Abel (Human ♂) An orphaned boy taken in by the Bastion alchemists. Abel is proficient in Architect magic and has aspirations to be an alchemist’s apprentice. He is initially assigned as caretaker of Ren’s mechanical parts, but the boys quickly bond and form a lifelong friendship.
King Lepidus (Beastkin ♂) A beastkin boy with rat-like features who lives in the Bastion sewers. He begins with a Doors-aligned fetish that summons rat swarms, which he uses to cause all kinds of mischief. (He isn’t really “king” of anything.)

Denemede’s Retinue

When Denemede sets out on her quest, she is not a globe-trotting adventurer; she is a sheltered princess with a precarious mission. Her retinue is there to protect her, keep her on task, and ensure the royal household is represented with grace and dignity. Unlike other Heroes, who generally travel where they will, Denemede’s bodyguards explicitly control where she is allowed to explore.

Coralmere (Human ♀) Denemede’s stoic personal bodyguard and staff-fighting trainer. It’s Coralmere’s job to defend her princess in times of danger. She is primarily a weapons-focused fighter with some skill in Pillar magic.
Krakello (Human ♂) The sea king’s vizier. He is sent with the princess to offer guidance and counsel on all things magical. He is primarily a damage-dealing magician who also dabbles with a bow.
Xal-xal (Beastkin ×) An enigmatic tentacled creature who lives in the sea king’s gardens. Despite being unable to speak (because they have an octopus’s beak rather than a mouth), Xal-xal nonetheless displays great intelligence, and has been the princess’s companion since she was a little girl.

The Fae Princess

While most characters are either mandatory or recruitable in the initial eight chapters, two are only available in the Endgame. The first is the fae princess, who initially appears as an NPC foil to Rook (with a minor role in Denemede’s story). After completing a certain Endgame sidequest, the princess decides to step up and join the party permanently.

Naephetes (Human ♀) The appointed guardian of the fae crossing at Wild Glade, and caretaker of the animals in Wild Paradise. Her combat skills lie in her bow and fae magic affinities, but the real draw is the unique magical sword she comes equipped with — which a savvy player will immediately yoink and give to a dedicated swordsman.

Wanderers & Hirelings

The remaining characters are found out in the game world, to be recruited or hired into one of the Heroes’ adventuring parties. Once a wanderer is recruited, they become unavailable to all other Heroes — but they show up in Bastion at the Endgame once that Hero’s chapter is secret-complete.

Not every Hero can take on wanderers. Rook, Ren, Lenathé, and Denemede explicitly aren’t given the opportunity. Other Heroes may be restricted in which wanderers they can recruit, either by regional availability, empty party slots remaining, or (in Mildred’s case) personality mismatch. In any case, all un-recruited wanderers are available in the Endgame.

Junior’s chapter is designed to be solo-capable. His construct and wanderers are his only options for party members.

Robin (Human ×) Assassin-for-hire. Their skill with blades and bows makes them competitive, but their real defining trait is being the only human with a ☆ affinity in Speed.
Natalia (Human ♀) A cursed Infernal mage. A ritual gone wrong accidentally bound her to the demon Scarlamagus. She and Scarlamagus join together, requiring two open party slots.
Scarlamagus (Beastkin ♂) A demonic beastkin whose parts provide access to Infernal magic and various fire attacks. He and Natalia join as a pair. Their ability to trigger quick Infernal Twin Chains might be the easiest off-the-shelf big burst attack in the game.
Mara (Human ♀) A cartographer who managed to trap herself in a cave-in. Her affinity for Doors and Architect magic gives her a good spread on the magic wheel. She is the only character who comes with the teleportation Doors spell already learned — that she neglected to place a warp point is how she ended up trapped in the first place.
Brother Cairn (Human ♂) A towering, soft-spoken monk made of pure muscle. His primary affinities are in Unarmed skill and World magic. His Speed is naturally terrible, which seems bad, but advanced players will recognize his use as an anchor to trigger easy EX Turns.
Vesper (Human ♀) A fallen knight. She and Mildred don’t trust each other, but the details of their shared past remain unspoken. Her primary affinities are Shield skill and Shadow magic.
Spindle (Human ♂) A traveling jester and stage performer. He specializes in Chaos magic, and has the Luck affinity to back it up. Probably the only person who owes Alphonse money, rather than the other way around.
Mrs. Pelle (Human ♀) A caravan guard who sends all her coin home to her husband and two children. After the player helps protect her employer’s caravan from bandits, she decides there’s more money in adventuring than guard work. She is positioned to be Junior’s likely first recruit, and has a modest specialty in bowguns and shields.
Mallow-the-Lantern (Beastkin ×) A beastkin healer who travels the lands, always somehow knowing just where their skills are needed. None of their parts are unique or particularly powerful, but they have good synergy despite being mismatched. Their role is to serve as an example of a thoughtful and useful beastkin build.
Oxbell (Human ♂) A monster hunter with middling affinities. He begins equipped with a powerful fetish, representing a beastkin part that isn’t available until Endgame treasure bosses. A canny player will recognize the fetish is better equipped on a beastkin who can make use of its excellent stat bonuses.

Rook’s Animal Friends

Rook has the unique ability to recruit animal companions to fill party slots. If Rook is in the party and the only enemy standing is an animal, the two automatically become friends. If there is party space and Rook has not befriended an animal of that type before, the animal joins the party immediately. Animals tend to flee from combat if there are monsters present. To counter this, characters can equip food items into their provision slot. While animals are distracted by eating the food the player can defeat the monsters.

The first time Rook befriends an animal, he (e.g. the player) gives it a name. Naephetes insists the animals always like their given names.

If the befriended animal is the first of its family but there is no party space — a required event in Rook’s chapter — the animal is taken in at the Wild Paradise instead. If it’s not the first animal of its family, the fae princess still takes the animal in, and uses her magic to make Rook’s companion in that family a little stronger. (If Rook does this repeatedly, she begins teasing him about it.)

Rook can have one animal of each family. Three are candidates for his starting animal, eleven are available to find in his own chapter, and one is a mystical animal only available in the Endgame. While “horse” is a valid enemy family, and Rook does befriend a horse as part of his own chapter, he is not able to recruit a horse companion. Instead, the horses he sends to Wild Paradise increase Tansa’s stats, which indirectly makes her ability to merge with Mildred even better.

The first time Rook befriends an animal, its gender is chosen randomly. There is no mechanical difference between male and female animals. The player can reject an animal recruit if they want a specific gender for some reason.

The Wolf (Animal ♀/♂) A balanced physical attacker that works well with Rook’s ranged supremacy. Capable of inflicting Bleed effects. One of Rook’s potential starters.
The Owl (Animal ♀/♂) A flying striker capable of using Observe effects. One of Rook’s potential starters.
The Serpent (Animal ♀/♂) A debuff-focused controller capable of Line attacks. One of Rook’s potential starters.
The Lizard (Animal ♀/♂) An adaptable generalist. Has natural regeneration, tail attacks, and elemental defense.
The Porcupine (Animal ♀/♂) A slow defensive bruiser. Deals contact damage and can inflict Bleed.
The Bat (Animal ♀/♂) A flying disruptor. Capable of inflicting Blind and using ranged sound-based attacks.
The Ape (Animal ♀/♂) Mimics an Unarmed specialist with Grapple and Throw styles. Counts as a valid target for a thrown enemy during another unit’s Unarmed weapon combo.
The Boar (Animal ♀/♂) A creature in this family is responsible for goring Ren. Combines high Health with powerful Charge attacks.
The Tortoise (Animal ♀/♂) Combines extremely low Speed with extremely high Vitality, and uses abilities which mimic a human’s Pillar magic or Shield techs.
The Toad (Animal ♀/♂) Slow and bulky. Specializes in ranged tongue attacks that grapple and debuff enemies.
The Panther (Animal ♀/♂) Fast physical assassin with a crossover into Shadow abilities. Easily capable of gaining EX Turns.
The Moonmoth (Animal ♀/♂) Available only in the Endgame. A flying creature with Fae abilities. One of its parts grants the extremely rare ability to restore Chrysm to a unit.

The Colorling

The Colorling is a special beastkin unit. Their mechanics are identical to other beastkin units, but their on-screen appearance, name, and starting configuration of parts are pseudo-randomly determined during Lenathé’s chapter. There is one set of attributes for each of the nine magic schools. These aspects should appear random to a casual player, but the mechanics are actually deterministic. A careful player can manipulate the game into delivering exactly the version they want.

Early on, the game silently tracks Lenathé’s magic use in order to pick her “favorite” magic school. When Lenathé first enters the screen where she rescues the Colorling, the game checks the minutes unit on the menu clock. If that number is even, the Colorling is assigned the school to the left of Lenathé’s favorite. If it’s odd, they’re assigned the school to the right. In this way, the game guarantees Lenathé has access to at least one Quick Chain in her party make-up. (And make it very easy for the player to quickly give Voz the tools she needs to set up an Arc Chain.)

The basic Colorling silhouette is a furry creature with a short muzzle, big expressive eyes and ears, and a long prehensile tail. The nine possible versions:

Roseling. Fae variant. Has rose-pink fur, bright eyes, and a cute expression. Starts with high Speed and the ability to inflict Confuse.
Goldling. Bright variant. Has warm yellow-gold fur, pale blue eyes, and a serene expression. Starts with healing and buff abilities.
Prismaling. Chaos variant. Has multi-colored fur resembling patchwork motley and a cheeky expression. Starts with high Luck. Potentially the “strongest” pick for min/maxers, given the rarity of Luck-increasing opportunities for beastkin.
Greenling. World variant. Has shaggy moss-green fur, half-lidded eyes, and a sleepy expression. Starts with good Health and Vitality, and a rare part that grants passive regeneration.
Sandling. Pillar variant. Has slate-grey fur with geometric markings, striking blue eyes, and a stoic expression. Starts with high Vitality and parts which mimic Shield Techs.
Greyling. Shadow variant. Has charcoal fur, silver eyes, and a sly expression. Starts with good Speed and Focus, as well as a Burst attack.
Redling. Infernal variant. Has shiny red fur, pointed features, and a playfully angry expression. Starts with high Strength and Energy, as well as a fire-breathing Line attack.
Bleuling. Architect variant. Has cobalt-blue fur, white eyes, perfectly symmetrical markings, and a haughty expression. Starts with high Technique and Focus, and an Observe ability.
Purpling. Doors variant. Has violet fur and hauntingly dark eyes that almost resemble bottomless pools. They have a faraway expression. Their starting attack teleports an enemy high into the air, dropping it.

5. World

The world of NotSaGa is one of high fantasy and steam-powered machinery. Magical realms and infinite folded realities are implied by the setting, though never directly observed or visited by the player. Most of the action takes place on a large continent with several distinct biomes, surrounded by ocean and containing a vast inner sea. The people are diverse, not only reflecting the range found in our world, but spreading out into the fantastical. Magic is a part of everyday life, the vibes are exciting and hopeful, and no one is quite sure what lies off the edge of the map.

The NotSaGa world is:

humans who routinely feature non-human characteristics;
faeries, dragons, and mermaids;
loud clockwork machines;
Lovecraftian sea monsters;
larger-than-life wuxia martial arts;
heartfelt stories about people struggling with themselves.

The NotSaGa world is not:

elves, dwarves, or goblins;
laser blasters, spaceships, or giant mechs;
guns (except bowguns);
grimdark, nihilistic, or cynical;
tongue-in-cheek or farcical;
didactic allegory for real-world politics.

NotSaGa is ultimately a place where hopeful people explore, have adventures, and find treasure… and where these goals all have a clear purpose.

Regions & Locations

The game world is presented as eight distinct regions, each with multiple locations. Region maps are zoomed out, displaying the player as a tiny, fast-moving sprite. These region maps contain random encounters and many things to examine, but their primary purpose is to give a sense of scale as the player zips back and forth between locations. Depending on what chapter the player is in and how much progress they’ve made, some regions may be closed off or restricted. Once the world state is in its final stage of openness, it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to run from any spot on any region map to any other spot.

Location maps are where most of the moment-to-moment gameplay takes place. Locations are cities, settlements, paths, dungeons, mini-dungeons, or other sites of interest. Locations sometimes connect to each other in logical or not-so-logical ways, and each location can contain sub-locations and side-areas. There’s no limit to how many locations can be inside a region.

Fast Travel Networks

While running across the region maps is swift, NotSaGa is a game where the player may have cause to visit many disparate locations in quick sequence. Rather than one fast travel mechanic, the world is connected through several overlapping networks. There are several locations that are only reachable via one of these networks.

Wagons. The player can hire a wagon to travel from one settlement to another. If two locations are connected by roads, there is probably wagon access.
Boats. The player can hire a boat to take them to various locations along the water, whether it’s up and down the Spinal Coast, along an inland river, or back and forth across the Inner Sea.
Fae Magic. One of the Fae spells serves as teleportation magic, transporting the player to any fae crossing they’ve visited in the current chapter. One location is only accessible by recruiting Naephetes.
Shadow Magic. One of the Shadow spells serves as teleportation magic, transporting the player to any shadow crossing they’ve visited in the current chapter.
Doors Magic. One of the Doors spells works as a mark/recall mechanic. When a unit casts the spell, the screen they’re on becomes their marked location. When they cast the spell later, they have the option to set a new mark, or transport to the marked location. Each unit can have its own marked location, allowing a dedicated player to build their own travel network. Marks remember the point where the player enters a screen, not necessarily the exact coordinates where the spell was cast. Players cannot strategically place marks next to treasure piles to skip mini-boss fights.

In general, no region has more than one fae crossing or shadow crossing, and if a region has both, they are nowhere near each other.

The Map

The player can reference the world map from their menu, cleanly displaying all eight regions and marking the major locations in each one. This provides a quick way to check what features are in which cities, what materials are represented in which shops, and what treasure hoards are currently active. Once a player learns information about a location, it should appear on the world map. Knowledge about the world via the map carries over between chapters.

Fast travel locations are marked with icons, including Doors locations accessible by the current party.

If a Hero has specific leads to chase down for their non-linear goals (e.g. Mildred’s dragons or Junior’s books) they appear on the map as icons as well.

The Great Green

A vast wilderness, rugged and impossible to tame. Many beastkin tribes make their homes here. Rook’s chapter takes place entirely within the Great Green. Saka Saka’s chapter begins here, as well.

Rook’s Cabin. A tiny cabin built near a high cliff which overlooks two rivers. Rook picked this spot because it’s as far away from other people as he can get without literally living in a cave.
Muckville. A small village attached to a logging camp, owned and operated by Gruggins & Long, Inc. The logging operation here was responsible for burning Saka Saka’s village.
The Wild Glade. A beautiful forest spring, filled with grass and flowers. To most, it is only a beautiful sight. To the initiated, it is a fae crossing that grants access to the Wild Paradise.
Tor Nebdis. The ruins of Saka Saka’s village, and the remains of the recently-leveled adjoining forest.
Grob Nebdis. A beastkin village, where Grendel presides as chief.

Mt. Rouebach

The tallest mountain in all the land, and its surrounding canyons and valleys. Caverns, mines, and breathtaking peaks dominate the landscape. Lenathé’s adventure begins here.

Puffincup Mine. An active mine with many deep, exhausted shafts. The laborers in the mining camp toil night and day for gemstones and valuable ore.
Edgewere. The largest town in the region, connecting the roads leading to the two major mining settlements.
Tansy Terrace. A dark forest, presumed haunted. A major road runs through the forest, connecting to the Heartlands, although it does get flooded out by mudslides from time to time.
Teardrop Mine. A mining operation owned by Gruggins & Long, Inc. Currently said to be dealing with mysterious hauntings.

Duchy of Whiterings

A land of rolling fields and widespread agriculture. Some of the duchy’s many rivers are lazy and winding, others are mighty and dangerous. Junior’s adventure begins here.

Muppson Estate. The Muppson manor house, and the surrounding ancestral lands, where Junior lives with his step-father, Rodger Muppson.
Splendour. The capital city of the duchy, where Duke Kristof has his seat. A fire has recently damaged part of the city, including the Great Library. Gruggins & Long, Inc. is headquartered here.
The Hinterlands Marsh. A treacherous floodplain where rivers converge and safe passage is often hidden from view.
Whitecaps Ridge. A majestic river rapids which tumbles down, along, and through white-capped cliffs.

The Spinal Coast

The long coastline of the Outer Sea, curved to resemble a human spine. Mostly comprised of high cliffs and rocky shallows. Alphonse and Denemede begin their adventures here.

Port Redmond. A large port city and important trade hub, with a seedy underbelly. Home to the brothel where Alphonse attempts to lay low.
Kingdom of Cordellis. The undersea kingdom, home of the Sea King and his many children. Magic whirlpools link the kingdom to water sources all over the world.
Smuggler’s Cove. A hidden seaside cave. Favorite spot of smugglers, pirates, and other ne’er-do-wells.
The Lady Goldenrod. An ostentatious pleasure boat that travels up and down the coast, providing transport and entertainment to patrons with too much money.
The Broken Axe. A famous wreck just barely visible from Port Redmond on clear nights. A war galley which ran aground on a sandbar split in half.

The Heartlands

A wide central region, and most populated by humans, which has known peace for a century. Grand, high roads connect neighboring regions through mountain passes at the east and west borders. Mildred begins her adventure here.

Fort Clearstone. The fort at the western road. Mildred’s family has held the fort for generations, and Mildred’s sword is sworn to its protection.
Nestarine Vineyards. The largest of the Heartlands’ many vineyards, owned by Gruggins & Long, Inc.
Chrysmata. The capital of magic, built in the shape of the 9-pointed star. Contains a small shrine dedicated to each of the magical schools. Magus Tower sits at the center, where the Council Arcanum devises exams for promising wizards.
Issel Village. A tiny, remote, idyllic village with no particular amenities or shops the player would care about. Ren grew up here.
Fort Vostloo. The fort at the eastern road, built in the foothills of mighty mountains. Lord Vostloo is a hunter of considerable renown.
Mt. Vostloo. A forested mountain known for good hunting and rare monster sightings.

Bastion Isle

A grand city sitting upon an isle in the Inner Sea. The city prospers because it sits upon a vast ruin, currently being excavated by the alchemists and entrepreneurs of Bastion. Ren’s adventure takes place here.

Shops & Neighborhoods. Rather than being a location unto itself, the city of Bastion comprises the whole region map. Individual shops and neighborhoods are accessible directly from the region map.
Dungeons & Ruins. Likewise, the city is peppered with many entrances into its labyrinthine underworld.
The Sewers. Bastion’s water system connects to many of the island’s natural cave systems, as well as to the ruined palace beneath.
Schtectein Labs. The home of modern alchemy, where Bastion’s many constructs are manufactured. Ren lives and works here.
The Old Bridge. The remnants of a colossal bridge which once spanned the Inner Sea, connecting Bastion to the mainland. Now all that remains is a precarious ruin of ledges and shaky footholds.
The Blood Palace. Sitting amidst the underground ruins is the long-lost seat of the Blood Empress. This is the entry point to the game’s final dungeon.

The Moonlands

A snowy region that is inexplicably bathed in eternal night. Bright auroras stretch across the sky, seemingly close enough to reach for.

Vütnervault. An eerily beautiful snowy town. Home to two feuding thieves’ guilds.
Gemlington. The city of eternal night, where it seems some noble house or another is always throwing a ball.
The Spiral Tower. An ancient ruined structure of glimmering stone, built in a twisting, impossible spiral.
Scaelene Castle. A fortress built of solid ice and pitch black stone. Currently home to the dreaded dragon cult.

Southstrond

A vast southern desert, stretching away farther across the horizon than anyone has ever traveled. Legends say a wondrous empire once stood here.

Nasahl. An oasis marketplace. Wondrous and mysterious things have a habit of turning up here.
The Skylord’s Tomb. The wind-scoured remnants of an ancient tomb, all that remains of the mythical empire of eons past.
Runic Processing Plant. A Gruggins & Long, Inc. facility where desert crystals are mined, their magic extracted, and then processed into magi-mechanical runes.

5. Story

The story of NotSaGa is told across nine chapters. In the first eight chapters, the player will be introduced to one of the Heroes, their unique gameplay systems, and their companions. In the ninth chapter, up to seven of these Heroes come together to battle the eighth, who has ascended as the Blood Empress.

Each chapter is a contained story unto itself, as well as part of the greater whole. The player can experience them in any order. Completing the Endgame chapter finishes the game, offering a good or bad ending depending on how thorough the player’s explorations were.

Rook

A woman in a nightgown flees through the woods with her two young children. A soldier on horseback rides by, striking the woman with the butt of his sword. She collapses, huddled around her children. The rider circles back as three more soldiers approach on foot. The woman pleads for her life, but just as the rider raises his sword, an arrow bursts through his neck, and he falls down dead. The horse nickers and flees. The other soldiers draw their weapons, but they each take an arrow in turn. The woman stands, seemingly rescued, only to be met by a rugged man in a wide-brimmed hat training his bow on her.

For a long, tense moment it seems as though he might shoot her too. But he doesn’t. He just turns to walk away. The woman and her children follow. She tells him her name is Yvonne, and that her children are Nelly and Harry Jr. She explains soldiers came to her village, ransacked it, and killed her husband. The rugged man doesn’t respond.

In this sequence, the player has limited control over Yvonne. She is not a combatant, so when random encounters trigger, the player controls the unnamed man instead. Behind the scenes, the game tracks invisible but deterministic variables correlating to Yvonne’s movements and the man’s actions in combat. This will determine the starting animal later. A veteran player is able to precisely control what animal they get.

The man enters his cabin on the overlook, with Yvonne and the children following nervously behind. He pours three cups of tea from a steaming kettle, then hangs up his hat and cloak, and kicks back in a chair to go to sleep. Yvonne is only able to get one word out of him: “Rook.”

The next morning, one of the children wakes Yvonne up, asking for breakfast. Rook overhears, wordlessly gets up, dons his hat and cloak, and heads outside. The player now gets control of Rook. Upon entering the woods, Rook immediately encounters a wolf, an owl, or a serpent, depending on which actions were taken while playing as Yvonne. The game prompts the player to name Rook’s first animal companion.

Rook’s chapter is confined to the Great Green. His immediate mission is finding something for Yvonne and the kids to have for breakfast. We go through several domestic scenes like this: Yvonne needs water for washing, or wood for a fire, or some other material comfort, and Rook simply goes out into the woods to retrieve it. Each errand is an opportunity to explore the Great Green and befriend more animals.

If Rook approaches the soldiers’ encampment, he is chased away.

When Rook befriends his fifth animal friend (e.g. the first one he doesn’t have party space to accommodate) a special scene is triggered: the animal runs off in pursuit of a glittering trail, leading Rook to the Wild Glade. There, the fae princess Naephetes appears. She admonishes Rook for his cold treatment of the widow and her children, but expresses gratitude for his watchful protection of forest creatures. She worries that the encroaching army will find the Glade. From now on, speaking with Naephetes will allow Rook to swap animals from his active party with the ones the princess is caring for in a place she calls “the Wild Paradise”.

In his travels, Rook will learn three key pieces of information:

The soldiers are on the lookout for the “Night-Eye Sniper”, a marksman who has felled several of their number. Rook has clearly made his impression on them.
A trade caravan is blockaded on the road near some beastkin villages. The caravan leader won’t travel south because a run-in with the soldiers could prove disastrous. The caravan has already taken in refugees, and is currently being guarded by friendly beastkin. Rook realizes if the caravan can move, they might be able to take Yvonne and her children to safety in the logging camp of Muckville. One of the NPCs stuck with the caravan is a q’avvachist.
Various NPCs know of a magical spring that cures any illness. No one seems to know where it is, but the soldiers are actively searching for it. It would be very bad if the soldiers were to capture the Wild Glade.

Once Rook learns the information above, completes Yvonne’s errands, and has met Naephetes, a new scene becomes available at the cabin. He overhears Yvonne mention to Nelly that they’ll have to break little Harry’s “birthday promise”. Harry’s father had acquired a q’avvach card for his son’s birthday, but it was lost when their village was burned.

When Rook attempts to visit the q’avvachist at the caravan, a commotion interrupts them: the warhorse who fled the night Rook rescued Yvonne is going berserk. A pair of soldiers are trying to wrangle it with whips. Rook defeats the soldiers and calms the horse down, but it’s injured and corrupted by magic. He turns the horse over to Naephetes for care, and the impressed q’avvachist gives him the card free of charge. Rook slips the card under Harry’s sleeping mat. The boy is overjoyed when he discovers the surprise.

Naephetes relentlessly teases Rook for his act of kindness. However, the soldiers and their magi-mechanical devices are starting to become a real problem. She gifts Rook a magic cloak that will hide him from sight, so he can sneak into the soldiers’ encampment. (This is an actual accessory Rook must equip.)

Rook is now able to infiltrate the camp. He can systematically take out the soldiers and loot their possessions, or he can head directly to the captain’s tent and defeat him. Either way, he uncovers a bizarre metal hatch inside the captain’s tent. This opens to the final dungeon of his chapter: an underground river filled with corrupted energy the soldiers have been tapping into. Something truly evil lurks below.

Rook destroys the abomination, but at great cost. The poison down here is too thick. He succumbs, blacking out, but at least he knows the Wild Glade will be safe.

Rook’s animal companions manage to get his body back to the Wild Glade, where Naephetes nurses him with the healing waters. When Rook opens his eyes, he is somewhat changed: the spring’s waters work on him, as they did the warhorse. Naephetes says that to save his life, she had to bind him to the fae realm – an act which violates the ancient laws she’s supposed to uphold. As a mechanical benefit, Rook’s Bow and World affinities increase to ☆, and he can now enter the Wild Paradise himself.

All that’s left is to bring Yvonne and her children to the caravan, who can now safely undertake the journey to Muckville. She and other various NPCs offer their thanks, and then he returns to his cabin, hangs up his hat and cloak, and kicks back in his chair to sleep.

Secret-complete

With the soldiers gone and the corruption healed, the Great Green is safe. Yvonne and the kids have a new place to live in the village of Muckville. Nelly and Naephetes both think it would be a very, very good idea for Rook to continue befriending animals.

There are 12 unique animals in the Great Green, counting the warhorse. After befriending 10 of them, Naephetes reveals a new problem she’s been keeping her eye on: a terrible evil awakening at Bastion Isle. She doesn’t specifically offer this task to Rook, but she’s not that surprised when he takes up his bow and turns his boots for Bastion.

Lenathé

We open on a faraway shot of Mt. Rouebach against a clear blue sky. Powerful red and green magic erupt around the summit. The final green flash is bright and triumphant, sending a fading red-and-black streak to disappear into the clouds below. The screen fades out.

“An age later…”

Workers in the Puffincup Mine break through the wall of a deep shaft, where they discover a naked, terrified woman with no memory. McAlister, the shift leader, covers her up and helps her to her feet. One of the other miners is suddenly snagged by an unseen monster. During the ensuing battle, the woman demonstrates powerful magic which saves the miner and scares the monster off. McAlister is thankful, but the woman appears unsettled by her own power.

While asleep, the woman has a dark and hallucinatory dream filled with unclear visions. This motif continues throughout the chapter. The dreams never impart direct information to the player, but contain recurring themes: a man with luminous green eyes, a black throne standing empty, and imagery related to the nine schools of magic.

While the woman rests in the mining barracks, McAlister and his friend Rittson discuss their options. They decide to take her to a doctor in Edgewere. She wakes up, eerily calm and composed, and remembers that her name is Lenathé.

The doctor in Edgewere is unable to discern anything about Lenathé’s amnesia. While in town, they pass a magical exhibition, where a young witch named Voz showcases some spellwork. She accidentally reveals her spells to be stagecraft, and is humiliated. Lenathé spins some magic to salvage the show, which mesmerizes the crowd and saves Voz’s reputation. Dazzled, Voz practically begs Lenathé to accompany her to Chrysmata, the magical capital, to meet the Council Arcanum. Lenathé agrees, hoping to learn something more about her past.

The party must pass through Tansy Terrace to reach Chrysmata. A mudslide has blocked the main road, so they must pass through the haunted woods. They come across a group of poachers harassing a beastkin child. Lenathé intervenes, and the beastkin child gloms onto her. She gives the child a name derived from its color, which is determined pseudo-randomly by certain player actions. Lenathé’s party is now complete, with McAlister, Rittson, Voz, and the Colorling.

Lenathé learns many useful things in Chrysmata. The Council Arcanum is interested in Lenathé’s awakening, because Mt. Rouebach is thought to be a place of great healing, being the location on earth closest to the sky. They are impressed by Lenathé’s potential and counsel her to continue honing her rare gift.

In libraries at the city’s magical shrines, Lenathé learns that magical amnesia is a documented historical event. A benevolent southern kingdom came to its end when its ruler, the Emerald Skylord, was stricken with amnesia and no longer able to protect his people. Thus the player has two clear goals:

travel to the Skylord’s Tomb to search for clues, and
fulfill the requirements of the Council Arcanum, so that Lenathé may be recognized as a master magician. (This is defined as knowing at least ten unique spells, five of which are advanced to Rank II, and one of which is advanced to Rank III.)

In the Skylord’s Tomb, Lenathé gradually uncovers the history of the Skylord’s lost kingdom. He was granted his crown after saving the lands from a cosmic threat, and ruled benevolently while continuing to concentrate his magical power. It was only decades later when the Skylord understood that other kingdoms viewed him as a tyrant. The revelation broke him, and he raised armies up against his opposers. Unleashing powerful magic against his foes left him an empty husk, unable to recall even his own name, which is now lost forever to time.

Each of Lenathé’s friends interprets the story a little differently:

McAlister doesn’t think the myth is true. It’s industry and cooperative work that cause kingdoms to rise and fall, not wizards going berserk. He thinks Lenathé’s gift is wonderful but expects she is far from unique.
Rittson suggests the Skylord lost his mind because he came to trust magic over people. He observes that Lenathé has already consciously made the opposite decision.
Voz sees the danger in a purely unchecked magus coming to power once again, but notes that the Council Arcanum exists specifically to check that sort of power.
The Colorling thinks it’s sad that other people thought the Skylord was bad, when he was only trying to keep his people safe. They wonder whether the Skylord’s enemies misunderstood his intentions.

The door to the boss at the end of the tomb is emblazoned with the 9-point star. Doors like this are a recurring motif throughout the chapter.

Once she meets the prerequisites, Lenathé is admitted into the examinations at Magus Tower in Chrysmata. Upon completion, the Council Arcanum there are impressed with her natural aptitude. They induct her into their order, but there is one central chamber she cannot yet open, sealed with an imprint of the 9-pointed star. The Council advises her the door will remain closed until she learns to “internalize the star as a whole, and not as an assemblage of points.”

After completing the Tomb and the Tower, Lenathé’s next dream takes on more substance. She finds herself alone in a dreamscape version of the Magus Tower, with the same closed door. A stranger with luminous green eyes is there to guide her. The central chamber adjoins to nine side-rooms, each containing a small puzzle or combat challenge reflecting one of the nine schools. The stranger recites a koan related to each school as its challenge is completed. After the ninth, the stranger begins to explain more, but the dream is interrupted when Lenathé awakens. Any magic cantrips Lenathé has not learned yet are given to her upon awakening.

Lenathé is now able to open the door in Magus Tower. Inside is a monstrous horror with luminous green eyes. At first the creature seems sleepy and docile, but when Lenathé approaches it awakens in all its fury. Her friends are trapped in electric fields, and Lenathé must face the creature alone. The boss has five parts and can never be damaged. Each turn it queues up a magical Antipode Chain, and Lenathé must break the chain by correctly casting a spell from an opposing school. Each time she does this, the creature’s spells backfire and harm it greatly. Upon its defeat the creature’s body appears to die, but its magical essence escapes, crashing through the ceiling and flying away north — toward Mt. Rouebach.

Lenathé returns to the mountain, but this time she and her friends take the snowy pass towards the summit. There she meets the green-eyed stranger from her dream. He claims that he and Lenathé fought here long ago. His grotesque body reforms around him. This time it is a standard boss fight and the whole party participates. The party hears his cryptic dying words, which imply the creature they just defeated was the final remnant of the Emerald Skylord himself.

Lenathé absorbs the creature’s essence, which grants her the ability to fly, and which fills her with startling conviction. She declares her intent to seek her remaining lost memories at Bastion Isle, then flies off toward the Inner Sea.

The player then assumes control of McAlister as party leader. The party is hurt by Lenathé’s sudden departure, and they reason the evil creature they defeated must have placed some curse on her. They travel to Bastion via conventional means, and the player is free to explore the city to gather information about where Lenathé might have gone. In particular, there is talk of a sealed door emblazoned with the 9-pointed star in a recently-excavated underground ruin.

They find Lenathé there, seemingly lost and directionless. She apologizes for leaving so abruptly, and describes the intense pull she felt towards Bastion after absorbing the green-eyed creature’s essence. She doesn’t know what’s on the other side or how to open it. Her friends re-affirm their loyalty and assure her that whatever lies ahead, the five of them will face it together. Lenathé thanks them and assumes her role as party leader once again.

The ruins contain four separate seals, each of which is opened by one of Lenathé’s companions:

McAlister acquires an alchemical charge in the city, dislodging the first.
Rittson hits the second “harder than he’s ever hit anything in his life”, opening it.
Voz activates the third by demonstrating true magical talent she has learned from Lenathé.
The Colorling shatters the fourth with a primal beastkin howl.

Once the four seals are removed and they return to the sealed door, McAlister asks Lenathé if she really wants to know what’s on the other side. Her options are “Yes, it’s time” and “No… no, not yet.” The latter lets the player back off and continue exploration. The former brings the chapter to a close.

The Blood Empress: Interlude I

This interlude plays automatically once two conditions are met:

Lenathé’s chapter is complete, and
at least one other Hero’s chapter is secret-complete.

Some players will see this interlude immediately after Lenathé opens the door. Others will trigger it after another Hero reaches their resolution and heads for Bastion.

Beyond the door sits an ominous throne. Strewn around the room are ruined constructs, each inscribed with runes reflecting one of the schools of magic. Neither Lenathé nor Voz is able to identify the runes on the throne itself. Lenathé posits the throne may represent a tenth, all-powerful school of magic. Voz suggests it’s impossible; no human or beastkin could physically withstand the paradoxes inherent in mastering all nine schools, let alone combine them into a tenth. McAlister wonders: if a human or a beastkin couldn’t do it, could a construct?

The constructs suddenly come to life when Lenathé attempts to study the throne more closely. They attack the party three at a time: Fae + Bright + Chaos, followed by World + Pillar + Shadow, then Infernal + Architect + Doors. With the constructs defeated, nothing stands between Lenathé and the throne.

When she reaches it, the screen smash-cuts to the same room at a different point in time. The throne room appears polished, ominous, and eerily beautiful. The nine constructs stand at attention, each an immaculate work of art. The player now controls a party of mysterious heroes: a green-eyed swordsman, a master magician, a powerful beastkin, a fearless q’avvachist with an eyepatch, and a titanium construct. The party’s power level is well beyond Endgame-capable, but their names on menus or in combat are replaced with unreadable flickering glyphs.

The mysterious heroes approach the throne of the Blood Empress, and a fierce boss fight ensues. The player controls the heroes as they attempt to destroy the Blood Empress’s runic constructs and disrupt her powerful Antipode Chains. Upon her defeat, she begins to undergo some horrific metamorphosis as quakes bring the palace down all around her. Before the transformation is complete, she flies through a newly-opened crack in the wall behind the throne. The heroes are broken and utterly spent.

Before they are buried in rubble, the screen smash-cuts back to the present, where Lenathé’s friends have been trying to “snap her out of it”. She pulls away from the throne, declaring the tenth school to be real, but admitting not even she is powerful enough to safely contain it. However, she also says she is formulating a plan…

(If conditions are met for the second interlude, we see it here. Otherwise, we imply a time skip and go to the next scene.)

After some time passes, the bustling city of Bastion is attacked by a terrifying magi-mechanical dragon. Soldiers from the city rally at the ruins to confront the construct, but they are met by an injured man limping across the bridge. It is Rittson, and he’s alone. He tells them, “The Blood Empress has awakened—” before collapsing.

Lenathé’s spot on the Chapter Select screen is replaced with: “The Endgame”.

The Blood Empress: Interlude II

This interlude plays automatically once two conditions are met:

the player has seen the first interlude, and
Renneld’s chapter is secret-complete.

Some players will see this interlude as an epilogue to Ren’s chapter becoming secret-complete. Others will see it as a natural part of Interlude I.

The Bastion alchemists are about to unveil a massive new construct intended to assist with the ruins excavation. Ren and his friends are particularly excited because a lot of their own work has gone into the project. The scene turns from triumphant to dangerous when the construct suddenly begins moving on its own, even though the power source has not yet been connected. The construct — a magi-mechanical dragon — destroys the walls by unfurling its powerful wings and takes to the sky.

A frantic Lenathé arrives, flying in through the new hole in the building. She seems stunned by the devastation. The crowd calls out to her, some people identifying her as a fabled “Blood Empress”. She tries to implore the crowd to get to safety, and becomes furious when the alchemists and soldiers are too busy training their weapons on her to organize an evacuation. She flies off, insisting she will get control of the automaton which is “hers by rights”.

Ren and his friends begin helping injured people get to safety as the Blood Empress and the stolen dragon construct cast long shadows across the city. By sundown, everyone in Bastion has borne witness to the Blood Empress seizing the dragon with her fel magic, settling deep into the ruins.

Muppson, Jr.

Edderick Muppson, Jr. lives on a country estate with his step-father, Rodger Muppson, a gruff knight who married his mother before her death. Rodger assumed guardianship of the Muppson lands until Junior — the Muppson heir by blood — comes of age. As that day fast approaches, Junior notices that Bertha Cramble, a venomous socialite, has been paying his step-father frequent visits. One day Junior notices one of the estate hands is building a bassinet, and he realizes Rodger means to push him out by making Bertha the new Lady Muppson and naming her first child as heir.

Things come to a head the day of the wedding announcement feast. Junior overhears Bertha quipping to one guest how Rodger plans to celebrate by taking Junior on a hunt, and to another about how boys go missing on hunts all the time. Feeling sullen and friendless, Junior mopes about the party, lamenting his fate. However, he overhears another guest talking about a recent fire in the city of Splendour, home to the Great Library. That night, against his step-father’s wishes, Junior sneaks out of the house and heads for Splendour.

Junior journeys to Splendour by caravan, paying his way by selling some of Bertha’s silverware. He shares a tender moment with the motherly Mrs. Pelle, who wishes Junior luck in his new life.

The librarians put Junior to work, and he spends his days running errands and sleeping in a closet. It isn’t what he expected, but people mostly leave him alone and he spends hours every day poring over old tomes.

One day, Junior is organizing shelves in a dusty corner of the library damaged in the recent fire, when one of the books suddenly emits a flash of magic, knocking him to the floor. The book contains a scrivener’s mark Junior has never seen before. The flash raises one of Junior’s affinities — which all start at D — by one step. The librarians identify the mark as the Codex of Cabliopes, a collection of arcane knowledge split into the Upper Cablio (9 volumes) and the Lower Cablio (87 volumes). The book Junior found belongs to the Upper Cablio, and there’s no record of the library owning it.

Junior inexplicably knows that another volume of the Upper Cablio is in the city of Bastion, across the Inner Sea. The librarians thank him for his help, and arrange to send more capable acolytes out to retrieve it. But no matter what they do, the magic book keeps finding its way back into Junior’s possession. So, after a few humorous false starts, they put the expedition on his shoulders. They charge him with recovering as much of the Lower Cablio as he can, while he’s at it.

Junior’s chapter is structured like this: he travels far and wide, searching for volumes of the Codex. The only region he cannot enter is the Great Green. Each time he obtains a copy of the Upper Cablio, the next one is identified and marked on his map. Additionally, any time Junior finds a clue to the location of one of the Lower Cablio, it’s marked as well. Each book he recovers increases one of his affinities by one step. There are 96 books in total, enough to raise all his affinities from their starting D-rank all the way to AA-rank.

Six of the Upper Cablio are in fixed locations. At the start of his chapter he only has the Bastion lead. Upon collecting that book, the other five Upper Cablio become marked. Each of these six is attached to a mini-adventure:

On his journey across the Inner Sea to Bastion, Junior’s ship is attacked by hostile fish-monsters, and he has to help fight them off.
One is kept by the shadow guilds of Vütnervault. Junior has to figure out which one, and trick both guilds into thinking the other has it.
The landlord at Nestarine Vineyards offers one as payment if Junior will agree to help with their crop failures by destroying a carnivorous vampiric plant.
One is on the shelf of a Port Redmond bookstore. The owner is unaware of its value. Junior refuses to cheat the owner, insisting on paying the full amount. Completing a side objective at nearby Smuggler’s Cove yields just enough to cover the balance.
One is in the possession of a recently-married noblewoman from Splendour, but she and her groom vanished on their honeymoon to Mt. Rouebach. The couple were unfortunately lost in an avalanche, but Junior can retrieve the book and bring the sad news back to their families.
One is owned by the Duke of Vostloo. He refuses to part with it until Junior proves his mettle on a hunt, which chills Junior’s bones. However, Junior rises to the occassion and saves the old man from a monster.

The remaining two Upper Cablio are found by chasing down random leads. The sixth and thirteenth Lower Cablio that Junior finds happen to be Upper Cablio, instead.

When Junior first arrives on the world map outside of Splendour, Mrs. Pelle is nearby with the caravan. This provides Junior an excellent low-level adventure opportunity, resulting in Mrs. Pelle joining his party. Upon reaching Bastion, he will also have the option of investing in his butler-themed construct. Junior will fill the rest of his party slots with other wanderers he meets on his adventures.

Once the nine Upper Cablio are assembled in the Great Library, the bookshelf suddenly slides away, revealing a heretofore unknown dungeon beneath the city. Inside, a long-slumbering monster of the ancient world is awakened. Junior discovers that the creature was originally summoned to aid in the war against the mythical Blood Empress. Unfortunately the creature has forgotten its original mission, so Junior and his companions mount an effort to defeat it before it can bring harm to the people of Splendour.

Junior is uncomfortable being recognized as a hero in Splendour after his victory. He knows he had no choice, and that the Blood Empress is probably just an old faerie tale… but something tells him that losing an ancient safeguard is probably not a good thing.

Secret-complete

When Junior recovers his nineteenth Lower Cablio, he begins getting snippets of history about the Blood Empress and her reign of terror in ancient times. By the time he finds 25 volumes of the Lower Cablio he becomes convinced the Blood Empress’s return isn’t just possible — it’s inevitable. He identifies the location of her ancient seat to be the modern-day site of the city of Bastion, then packs his things to head there and further his research.

Saka Saka

Much to the chagrin of the elders, Saka Saka has completed her rite of passage and been confirmed as a guardian of the beastkin village of Tor Nebdis. She manages to sit still long enough to meditate before the village’s blood chalice, registering her starting parts. The elders challenge her to experiment with many different kinds of beastkin parts, and meditate before chalices often to contribute to the spiritual memory of her people.

Beastkin blood chalices are peppered throughout the game world. These are not separate locations, but rather semi-common features in wilderness and dungeon areas. Other characters may come across them also, but only Saka Saka can use them. Each time Saka Saka approaches one, the chalice fills by a small amount for each new part she currently has.

On her first day as guardian, mercenaries attack the village and set fire to it. Saka Saka fights bravely, but she is unable to save the village, and she is captured. Before she blacks out, she learns the mercenaries were hired by a logging concern owned by Gruggins & Long, Inc. Saka Saka drifts in and out of a semi-lucid state as G&L alchemists experiment on her. The process causes her to retain memory of every heart she absorbs.

She awakens one morning to find a careless alchemist hasn’t secured her cage properly. She waits for Ana Cristina, the G&L doctor, to arrive before attempting her escape. The two women quickly find themselves at an impasse: Saka Saka wants to kill Ana Cristina, but if she does, her escape attempt is probably doomed since she has no idea where she is or how to get out. Ana Cristina doesn’t want to help Saka Saka escape, but if she doesn’t, the violent beastkin has no reason to let her live. When Ana Cristina denies Saka Saka’s accusation of the G&L attack, the two strike a deal: the doctor agrees to get Saka Saka safely outside if the beastkin agrees to show proof of her claims. They leave the alchemy lab, emerging on the streets of Splendour near G&L headquarters.

Saka Saka and Ana Cristina travel from place to place in a G&L covered wagon. The wagon serves as an area select screen, where the two women sit and glare at each other while the player makes their selection on a map. At first the only destinations are back to Splendour, or to Muckville, the base of G&L operations in the Great Green.

Traveling to Muckville, and then on to the ruins at Tor Nebdis, Ana Cristina can’t believe what she’s seen. She’s outraged at the crimes committed here, and blames the G&L Teamster in charge of the logging operation. The culprit lives in a log cabin near a ravine. The only way across is via a rope bridge that is guarded around the clock by G&L goons. They turn Ana Cristina away, so Saka Saka thinks of another solution: by absorbing powerful leg parts, she can leap across the ravine. The player has to find a local monster with the appropriate parts, after which Saka Saka can confront the G&L Teamster and defeat him.

Grendel, the wise village chief of nearby Grob Nebdis, arrives while Saka Saka is celebrating her victory. He is not convinced a campaign of violence is the only answer, and is concerned that Saka Saka’s actions will only cause G&L to escalate their activities against beastkin. Nonetheless, he brings the women back to Grob Nebdis to rest and recuperate.

After experiencing beastkin hospitality and waking up with a terrible hangover, Ana Cristina implores Saka Saka to accompany her to other G&L sites. She wants to find out how deep the corruption goes in the company, and cut it out if possible. Saka Saka is suspicious as to why Ana Cristina is so loyal to an obviously-awful company, but she agrees. There are three more sites Ana Cristina thinks are worth checking out:

Teardrop Mine in Mt. Rouebach, where a G&L Overseer is experimenting with ghostly beastkin. Saka Saka needs to absorb ghost eyes in order to navigate a maze of phantom walls to reach him.
Nestarine Vineyards in the Heartlands, where a G&L Vintner is exploiting beastkin physiology in the grape fermentation process. Saka Saka needs to absorb a fungal hide in order to safely breathe in the poisonous tunnel leading to the fermentation vats.
The Runic Processing Plant in Southstrond, where a G&L Captain is attempting to imbue captured beastkin with runes to amplify their power. This is the exact process Saka Saka underwent. Saka Saka needs to absorb a wing part for each arm in order to reach the control room.

Ana Cristina receives a parcel of supplies from G&L and the delivery boy lets slip that she is Seymour Gruggins’s niece. Saka Saka is incensed, but Ana Cristina insists she didn’t mean to lie. It didn’t seem relevant at first, and then after traveling together for a while and seeing the harm G&L was causing to beastkin, Ana Cristina was ashamed to reveal her familial connection. She insists that once her uncle sees the evidence they’ve gathered, he’ll be able to affect real change in the company.

Confronting Seymour Gruggins doesn’t go the way Ana Cristina planned. Her uncle is planning to put the data collected from beastkin experimentation to use at a conference in Bastion, where he expects to advance the alchemical sciences by leaps and bounds — and make a mint while doing it. Saka Saka goes berserk and attacks, and Seymour calls in some mind-controlled beastkin to defend him. Saka Saka beats them up, but Ana Cristina prevents her from killing Seymour, giving him time to escape.

Saka Saka nearly attacks Ana Cristina next, but the doctor pleads her case: killing Seymour won’t do anything to stop the cycle, and someone worse might end up in his place. While they’re arguing, the subdued beastkin shake off their mind-control. They’re scouts from Grob Nebdis, which makes Saka Saka believe Grendel will finally agree to help her burn G&L to the ground.

Grendel agrees he needs to become involved now that his own villagers have been affected, but has a much better idea than bloodshed: his scheme involves ruining Seymour’s conference so thoroughly that no one will want to do business with G&L ever again. He accompanies the women to Bastion.

The party isn’t allowed into the venue where the alchemy conference is being held. Saka Saka must absorb a head with an acid-spitting attack in order to melt some iron bars and grant access via the sewers.

The Bastion alchemists seem split by Seymour’s presentation. Some are unsettled by G&L’s cold-hearted approach to exploiting beastkin, while others can’t deny the promising results. The party breaks in, interrupting proceedings. Grendel gives an impassioned speech about how much more beastkin have to offer than simply being fodder for experiments, and Ana Cristina presents the evidence of her uncle’s crimes throughout the realm.

Seeing the tide of public opinion turn against him, Seymour tries to salvage things by way of demonstration. He calls in the chapter’s final boss as an example of the alchemical creatures his methods are able to produce. Saka Saka and her companions win the fight, and Saka Saka absorbs the giant monster’s unique heart. When Seymour tries to slink away, Saka Saka pounces on him, and for a moment it looks like she’s going to claw his throat out. Instead she drops him, and lets Bastion guards clap him in irons and drag him away.

In the days to come, Ana Cristina finds herself busy with her campaign to be selected as G&L’s next Lord Purveyor, planning to implement sweeping reforms. Grendel returns to his peaceful village in the Great Green. Saka Saka erects a memorial for her lost people at Tor Nebdis, then sets out on a journey to fulfill her original charge: to continue filling her chalice and honoring the spiritual memory of all beastkin.

Secret-complete

Saka Saka’s chapter opens up to all regions at this point, allowing her to go anywhere she likes, potentially recruiting wanderers or building a Construct. However, Ana Cristina and Grendel are too busy with their jobs to go adventuring with her. Her goal now is to continue to absorb parts and add their record to the blood chalice.

Once the chalice is overfilled, an ancient beastkin spirit materializes and challenges Saka Saka. This is a one-on-one fight. Upon defeat, Saka Saka gains another unique heart for her collection, and the spirit implores her to return to Bastion to stand against the evil that is rising there. When she approaches the ferry that crosses the Inner Sea, Grendel is waiting for her, having been visited by the same spirit. He has been uneasy about the evil seeping beneath Bastion for some time, and believes Saka Saka is capable of meeting it now that she has matured into a fine guardian. Just before they step on the boat, Ana Cristina arrives, her arms filled with luggage.

Alphonse

Alphonse’s story is self-narrated, as he speaks to his cursed q’avvach. It’s unclear whether the q’avvach speaks back to him, or he’s just going mad, or if he even cares anymore. He breaks his misadventures up into chapters, each one accompanied by a title card in fancy lettering and sultry artwork of the woman causing him trouble.

Prologue

The opening title card is accompanied by a nameless fortune-teller. The fortune-teller asks a series of questions, each with two answers. She explains the answers are reflective of what’s in his heart, then proceeds to be put off as the answers all seem to be things like “cross my fingers and hope nobody sees me slinking away” or “trip the other guy so the gator gets him and not me”. Mechanically, Alphonse’s selections here decide what cards go in his starting q’avvach.

Chapter One: Greta

Greta runs a dingy gambling den in Port Redmond. Various drunks and ne’er-do-wells abound, including several men around a table playing cards. Suddenly, one leaps to his feet, puts his bowgun into the face of the man next to him, and loudly and violently accuses him of cheating. The man, Alphonse, defends himself using his cursed q’avvach. After the fight, Greta kicks Alphonse out. When Alphonse tries to refuse, several other men pull their bowguns on him. He gives up and slowly backs out the door, lamenting that his luck is so bad that even when he wins, he loses.

Chapter Two: Diana

Alphonse makes his way to a brothel he knows to hire a pillow-girl for the night. The madame (who is far past fed up with Alphonse but still has a soft spot for him) insists what he needs is a good night’s sleep, not more drink and certainly not a woman. After a brief spat about whether Alphonse is “working for Galadriel again”, the madame locks him in a supply closet, where he collapses into a cot and dozes off.

A scream wakes him up, and one of the other girls unlocks the closet door. She says that Diana’s client has broken the house’s very strict “no magic” rule. Alphonse grabs his q’avvach and heads upstairs, where a drunken, half-naked man is using Doors magic to terrorize the girls with summoned creepies. Alphonse mops them up and kicks the man out, rescuing Diana. While the madame still thinks Alphonse is hopeless, the other girls fawn over him, and it’s decided it might be good to have someone like him around for a while.

Chapter Three: Ophelia

Alphonse awakens one morning to find the madame in terse negotiation with a rugged pirate. His boss has requested Ophelia for his birthday, and while the pirates usually pay well and treat the girls like queens, this particular boss can’t step foot in Port Redmond. Instead, he wants Ophelia to come visit him at a smuggler’s den. The madame hates the idea, but Ophelia wants to pocket the coins, so Alphonse is deputized to get her there and back safely.

While Ophelia performs for the pirates, Alphonse stumbles over an unconscious pirate outside their treasure room. He peeks inside, and is almost caught in the blast as an Infernal q’avvach card is thrown against the back wall, blowing open a smoky crack. A button breaks away from the burglar’s coat as they escape. Alphonse picks it up and says to himself, “God damn it. Not her again. Not now.”

The pirate boss is unhappy about the robbery, but his boys note that the only thing missing is an old tattered q’avvach that wasn’t worth much anyway. The pirates seem relieved, but Alphonse is unnerved by the news. He gets Ophelia home safely.

Chapter Four: Henrietta

While the madame has been banned from The Lady Goldenrod for decades, she has managed to arrange for one of her girls to escort a local nobleman during his cruise. Alphonse’s task is to slip aboard as Henrietta’s bodyguard, sneak below deck, and find a particular gemstone brooch the madame insists was stolen from her years before. (Alphonse never confirms this claim.)

Aboard the Lady Goldenrod, Alphonse is just about to begin his mission when monsters break free from the fighting pit. Alphonse fights his way to Henrietta to ensure she’s safe. Henrietta’s beau angrily mentions a cloaked figure who used a q’avvach card to disable the wards on the monster cages, setting them loose. Then all the lighting fixtures on the ship go out.

Alphonse slips down to the work deck to search for the brooch amidst the chaos. He finds it, only to be accosted by a cloaked q’avvachist. They duel, but no matter what Alphonse draws, his opponent always seems to have the perfect counter. After losing this un-winnable boss fight, the stranger frames Alphonse for knocking out the lights, then vanishes. Alphonse quickly finds himself, Henrietta, and her client put out to sea on a dinghy, with Alphonse angrily rowing them back to shore.

Chapter Five: Jenny

Jenny, a fiery-tempered pillow-girl, kicks Alphonse awake. She’s angry because the madame won’t let her attend her sister’s wedding. Alphonse tries to appeal on Jenny’s behalf, and learns Jenny’s goal isn’t to attend the wedding, but to crash and ruin it, and the madame doesn’t want the headache. Jenny changes the madame’s mind by insisting she can arrange several bolts of moonsilk from her former family’s business.

Alphonse and Jenny (who is not a combatant) head for Gemlington, the City of Eternal Night. This is Alphonse’s only real chance to explore in his own chapter, though only the regions between the Spinal Coast and the Moonlands are available to him. He may be able to recruit some wanderers to his party at this time, but his storyline is reasonably winnable as a solo character as well.

On the way, Alphonse catches up with an old hermit he recognizes: an artist who devoted his life to painting q’avvach cards. The hermit has come down to civilization in his final years in search of a collection of cards that have personal meaning to him. He tells Alphonse if he completes the collection, he’ll give him “a wagon full of treasure.”

At the wedding, Jenny and Alphonse try to enact Jenny’s scheme to put sleeping medicine into the groom’s wine, ruining the ceremony. Instead they find the groom in utter despair and panic. Jenny’s sister has been treating him terribly, and the thought of going forward with the arranged marriage has completely broken his spirit. Jenny takes pity on the poor boy, and the plan becomes to sneak him out before the feast, instead. The groom agrees, and as payment for his transit, offers some valuables from his family’s manse, including an old-fashioned q’avvach. (He neglects to mention the vineyard guardians, so Alphonse has to fight them upon their arrival.) When Alphonse goes to retrieve it, he finds the doors already broken. A single golden hair remains on the scene. Alphonse groans and retreats without any treasure.

Hereafter, the old hermit’s wagon is parked near the Port Redmond town gate, so Alphonse can easily turn in q’avvach cards.

Chapter Six: Viv

All the girls are buzzing about the fancy wedding they’re about to throw for Jenny and the former groom, who have fallen madly in love. Alphonse leaps at the opportunity to get away from the brothel when the madame sends him to escort Viv to her next job.

Alphonse brings Viv to a manor house overlooking the sea, but it turns out to not be a booty call: Viv is placed in a criminal gang, and her boss is planning to rob the Grand Glass Bank and steal a pallet of silver bars. Apparently Viv has been so impressed with Alphonse’s cool magic cards that she thought he would fit right in on the crew. Alphonse is relieved to finally get some real work.

Alphonse does his part to break into the bank and get out with the silver. Upon returning to the warehouse, though, the gang is in an uproar. There was a break-in while most of the gang were out on their heist, and the thief is trapped in a cellar while the gang argues how best to deal with her.

Alphonse volunteers, hoping to prevent a woman from coming to much harm. He immediately regrets his decision when he sees the thief is his ex-lover, De la Cruz, a q’avvachist with long gold hair. Alphonse demands to know why she’s been running around snapping up old q’avvach decks, and insists she deserves what she gets if she’s “working for Galadriel again”. Before they can fight, Viv runs in, terrified. She reports the gang leader only needed the silver bars to perform a fel ritual, and now the warehouse is overrun by monsters.

Alphonse and De la Cruz have to team up to get out safely, but after defeating the gang and their monsters, they find the warehouse is surrounded by the harbor guard. They resolve to escape together, and De la Cruz even leans in for a kiss – only to reveal she’s tied Alphonse’s wrists to a bannister. She slips away, and the harbor guard arrests Alphonse and Viv.

The madame pays Viv’s bail, convincing the guard that Alphonse was the belligerent. When he tries to protest, the madame points out that he always finds his own way out of these kinds of predicaments. Eventually he does, through a stroke of uncharacteristic luck. He tells himself he’s at least lucky he’ll never have to see De la Cruz again.

Chapter Seven: De la Cruz

Alphonse is laying low in a shanty underneath a boardwalk, biding his time until he can skip town. He muses that his cursed q’avvach deck only seems to kick in for him when he’s doing something “a good guy would do”, like rescuing people from monsters.

During a stormy night, his shanty door kicks open. A wet, injured, and thoroughly miserable De la Cruz stumbles in. She is shocked to find Alphonse in one of their hide-outs; she thought it would be empty after his arrest. They argue for a bit, before De la Cruz lets slip who she’s trying to hide from: Galadriel Four-Fingers, a ruthless criminal boss both of them swore never to work with again. Alphonse realizes that if De la Cruz has been sucked back in, something really, really nasty must be going down. De la Cruz breaks down and reveals that after she botched the warehouse job, Galadriel put a Death Mark in her deck. She can’t burn the card, and if she ever draws it, she will immediately die.

Alphonse offers to trade her for it. No q’avvach deck can resist an honest trade, not even for a cursed card. De la Cruz doesn’t understand why he’s doing it, but doesn’t hesitate; the player selects one of the common cards of Alphonse’s deck to trade for the Death Mark. (If Alphonse ever draws this card, it is played automatically, leaving him at 1 Health while instantly destroying a random enemy.)

De la Cruz doesn’t know what to do now that she’s in Alphonse’s debt. She knows Galadriel is doing something with all the q’avvach decks she’s been accumulating, but isn’t sure what. Alphonse decides they ought to find out. Because Galadriel thinks De la Cruz has the death mark, they have the element of surprise.

Chapter Eight: Galadriel Four-Fingers

Alphonse and De la Cruz infiltrate the den of Galadriel Four-Fingers. They discover her plan: she’s transmogrifying old, powerful q’avvach cards into elemental gems. Alchemists in the far-off city of Bastion are using constructs to excavate some vast magical ruins, and Galadriel is imbuing the cards with trace amounts of control magic, ensuring her goons can take control of any constructs using the resulting gems.

Galadriel overplays her hand when she challenges De la Cruz to a q’avvach duel, believing De la Cruz still has the Death Mark. While De la Cruz defeats her, Alphonse sneaks into the alchemy workshop where the transmogrification happens. He gets into a fight with some goons, causing the machinery to go haywire. Just as De la Cruz enters to report her victory, a massive monster congeals out of the gem machine, and the two must fight together to put it down.

Epilogue… For Now

Things have cooled off. The shanty is filled with barrels of elemental gems Alphonse can’t move on the black market in Port Redmond. De la Cruz arrives, revealing that, at least for now, the two are on good terms and shacking up together. They pontificate they could move the gems quickly, if only they could get them to Bastion.

Secret-complete

After this point, Alphonse can freely move about all the locations he can reach in his own chapter, including the Moonlands and Gemlington. Once he returns all the q’avvach art, the hermit unlocks his wagon revealing a portal to Bastion. Somehow, the old hermit knew that’s the place Alphonse most needed to go. Alphonse agrees, eager to turn his windfall of elemental gems into a payday.

Dame Mildred

House Clearstone is storied to have an ancestral tradition of dragon-riding, and has long stood as stewards of Fort Clearstone in the Heartlands. But now they are in mourning. Lady Clearstone’s daughter and heir has died after giving birth. Dame Mildred, who had been the young lady’s aunt and guardian, stands vigil outside her grand-niece’s door. But she has difficulty finding love in her heart for her new charge.

Around the time of the child’s first birthday Fort Clearstone is attacked by dragon-riding cultists. Several children from the village are taken away on dragonback, including the infant heir. Mildred fights to the last of her strength against the Dragon General himself, but having been caught unawares, is not able to withstand dragonfire. Lady Clearstone sends for healers to repair her sister’s broken body, then charges her with bringing the heir home safely. Dame Mildred reaffirms her oath of guardianship, dons her armor, and gathers her loyal squire and trusty warhorse to her side.

Mildred’s adventure is open-ended, and structured as a series of epic boss fights. She begins her chapter at a power level equivalent to other Heroes reaching the Endgame, with excellent stats and equipment, and many weapon techs already mastered. Lady Clearstone collects reports of dragon-sightings throughout the land. Three at first, then an additional four after the first three are vanquished.

The player doesn’t travel to the location or explore any dungeons. Instead, Mildred remains at camp, doting upon her warhorse Tansa and resting up for the battle ahead. The player takes control of her squire, Prue, as she gathers information in the immediate area and formulates a plan of action. After preparations are done and Prue makes her recommendations, we are treated to an exciting cinematic of Mildred charging into battle. Each dragon slain grants access to the treasure hoard it was guarding, and returns one of the stolen children home.

The first three dragons are:

the Frost Dragon, perched in an icy cave atop Mt. Vostloo,
the Bog Dragon, hidden in the floodplains of the Hinterland Marsh, and
the Twilight Dragon, nesting high atop the Spiral Tower.

After vanquishing two of them, Lady Clearstone receives a letter from the Dragon General, claiming the children are to be trained as dragon-riders, in accordance to ancient blood pact between his people and hers. He demands Mildred be called off. This of course only redoubles Lady Clearstone’s conviction. The next batch of dragons becomes available, granting Mildred access to Bastion (and her construct party member, if desired). The dragons are:

the Cloud Dragon, spotted by the denizens of Bastion upon the ruins of the Old Bridge,
the Sea Dragon, curled inside the wreck of the Broken Axe,
the Moss Dragon, dwelling within the shadowed forests of Tansy Terrace, and
the Solar Dragon, shimmering atop the Skylord’s Tomb.

After vanquishing three more dragons, Lady Clearstone receives another letter from the Dragon General. He has ordered his guard at Scaelene Castle to stand down so Mildred can come and settle things with personal combat. Prue believes the invitation to be a trap, and Mildred agrees, but she has no choice but to spring it.

Scaelene Castle is the only proper dungeon in the chapter, and it’s a doozy. At the end, Mildred confronts the Dragon General. He calls the mighty Ancient Dragon to his side, whose blue-and-silver coloration strongly resembles the House Clearstone coat-of-arms. He offers Mildred the opportunity to reclaim her family’s ancestral role, but Mildred of course refuses. Once the Dragon General and the Ancient Dragon are slain, Mildred finds the remaining children huddled together in a nursery. Her grand-niece sleeps peacefully in a cradle next to an unhatched dragon egg. Prue offers to carry the baby, but Mildred reaches for her instead.

Secret-complete

Though the heir is safely home, and the egg carefully recovered, Mildred knows her oath is not fulfilled as long as the other dragons live. Each dragon she slays drops a scale which can be offered in prayer at the Clearstone family crypts. Upon offering the seventh scale, Mildred receives a vision of a terrible smoke-and-clockwork dragon screaming over the Bastion skyline. Lady Clearstone grants her leave to take Tansa and Prue to Bastion to finish the fight.

Renneld

We open with three days in Issel Village with a precocious 10-year-old boy named Renneld — “Ren” to his friends. Ren has distinctive black, spiky hair and brightly-colored eyes. For now, he is a human with low stats and affinities and no equipment to speak of. His equipped weapon is “Just a Stick”, which is described as: “Ren treats this like a legendary sword, but it’s just a stick.” The village has no shops and no one to teach magic.

On day one, the player explores what is presented as a normal day in Ren’s life. He does chores, greets neighbors, finds himself constantly underfoot. Eventually there is nothing for the player to do except leave the village, but the first random encounter is likely to result in a loss.

Ren wakes up back home, shaken and bruised but otherwise okay. Oppeline, the taciturn village heroine, is the one who defeated the monsters and carried him home. She demands payment from Ren’s family for her services as a monster hunter, which they agree to pay. They borrow the payment from some neighbors, who are disappointed with Ren for his recklessness. Ren is told to bring the payment to Oppeline’s shack at the edge of town and then come straight home.

Ren finds Oppeline drinking at her home along with a traveling alchemist who is passing through. (The presentation here is that Ren is too young to understand their relationship.) Ren begs Oppeline to train him how to be a monster hunter, but the heroine dismisses him. She says dumb kids with sticks don’t grow up to be monster hunters. Only people who are “real messed up” take up the profession. She then kicks Ren out so she can be alone with the alchemist.

On day two, Ren’s father approaches to reconcile. He hadn’t realized Ren was old enough to want to seek out adventure. He offers to take Ren out with the village menfolk so he can learn to hunt. Ren works hard to help set up their camp. At night, a blighted boar arrives, charging through the hunters’ fire pit and setting Dad’s tent alight. As the other men fight off the boar, Ren climbs through the flames to pull his father to safety. He manages to drag his father out, only to find himself face-to-face with the boar. Before anyone can act, the boar gores Ren through the chest, injuring him fatally.

Ren experiences the next few days in bits and fragments. Oppeline arrived to kill the boar, then her alchemist friend performed magical surgery to save Ren’s life. When he finally awakens he finds himself changed. The most visible change is his face: his hair is now wavy and almost white, and his eyes are pale, with a faint ghostly glow. The alchemist explains that his damaged organs were replaced with a Spirit Board. Ren is now a construct. Despite all the changes, though, he still feels the same. He’s still Ren.

On day three, Ren experiences distance from the villagers. People avoid eye contact, curtains pull shut as he passes, and the other children don’t want to play. Even his parents seem to treat him differently. Unable to cope, he writes a farewell letter for his parents to find, then sneaks out of his house at night. He chances upon Oppeline and the alchemist packing up their mule. The alchemist apologizes to Ren; he was only trying to help. He offers to bring Ren to Schtectein Labs so he can learn more about his new form.

Ren fits in surprisingly well at Schtectein Labs, and the city of Bastion is filled with mechanical and magical marvels. An orphan boy named Abel is assigned as Ren’s caretaker, and the two become fast friends. Ren accompanies Abel on his errands and they explore Bastion together. (Abel knows all the best puppet shows and candy carts.) Eventually they stumble upon a rumor about an evil rat-king who lives in the city sewers.

While most of Bastion’s dungeon areas deny access to the boys, they manage to find a passage into the sewers to investigate the rat-king. The rumors turn out to be half-true: they encounter a beastkin boy calling himself King Lepidus who picks a fight with the boys. It’s up to Ren whether to befriend the kid afterwards or chase him off so he stops bothering people. (If Ren doesn’t recruit him now, King Lepidus shows up in the Endgame anyway, boasting that his “hopeless subjects” won’t be able to defeat the Blood Empress without his help.)

On their way out of the sewer, the boys are accosted by a rogue construct. Ren is able to defeat the construct, and Abel salvages its burnt Spirit Board. They return it to the alchemists, who see a golden opportunity: they need salvaged boards to rebuild a recently-unearthed construct they hope will help with ruins excavations. The alchemists give Ren and Abel permission to go into danger zones and bring back as many burnt boards as they can, but caution them not to put themselves at unnecessary risk.

Dungeon areas are no longer closed off. When the players enter one, Abel whips out an alchemical gizmo to report the area’s “danger level”. He compares this to Ren’s approximate “power level.” As they explore and find more elemental gems to experiment with on Ren’s board, they can venture into deeper and more dangerous areas. (And of course, the player is free to try their luck wherever they like.)

When Ren’s power level equals or exceeds the toughest danger level in the chapter, a new scene becomes available in the Bastion marketplace: Oppeline is packing up again, intending to move on. At first Ren wants to go with her, and Oppeline acknowledges that he’s probably tough enough to handle her profession. But she asks whether he really wants to leave a place where he fits in, has friends, and is productive. Ren has a change of heart when he realizes Bastion is his home. Oppeline concludes that’s why he doesn’t have what it takes to be a monster hunter: the real qualification is not having anywhere else to belong. As she leaves, Ren tells her he hopes she finds that place for herself, someday.

That night, Ren writes a letter home to his family, expressing how he’s managed to find a place where he is wanted, content, and useful. He has managed to find his own sort of adventure.

Secret-complete

Ren and Abel (and King Lepidus, if he’s with them) continue their work salvaging boards from rogue constructs for the alchemists. Once all the dungeon areas have been cleared at least once, Ren and Abel receive an accolade for their hard work. The alchemists invite them to the great unveiling of the massive new construct. The boys are so excited they can’t sleep that night.

If both conditions have been met for Blood Empress Interlude II, play that scene now.

Princess Denemede

The Sea King of Cordellis serves two roles to his people: monarch and soothsayer. While this dual role wears heavily upon him, he is blessed with six dutiful children, three sons and three daughters, each born with his gift of astral vision. The youngest, Princess Denemede, receives the strongest visions of all. Her formal training as royal soothsayer begins on her sixteenth birthday.

The chapter opens with Denemede excited on the fated day. Her father is bursting with pride and her siblings each have a gift for her (her starting equipment and consumables). The royal master-at-arms, Coralmere, and the king’s vizier, Krakello, both have words of wisdom for her. Her lifelong friend, Xal-xal the sea monster, accompanies her to the ceremony. However, Denemede doesn’t receive visions of peace and plenty, but rather an unspeakable and horrific event. Seeking solace, she retreats to the Whirling Grotto.

The Whirling Grotto is a magical room in the Sea King’s palace where six whirlpool conduits connect to disparate and far-off bodies of water. The south-eastern conduit is covered by rubble and inaccessible to all; it connects to the forbidden Inner Sea, whose waters (it is said) bring only death to the Sea King’s people. The remaining conduits are locked with Coral Keys, each one entrusted to one of Denemede’s brothers or sisters.

Denemede’s own key connects to the healing spring in the Wild Glade, a place she has been visiting since she was a girl. It’s the only spot where the voices and visions are silent. The princess manages to relax only a little before corrupted beasts arrive. The spring’s guardian Naephetes admonishes Denemede for the intrusion. Apparently the fae princess is dealing with her own problems and doesn’t need Denemede around making things worse.

Returning to Cordellis, Denemede finds things in an uproar. The Sea King is missing, his throne is a shattered ruin, and the dais upon which it stood is cracked open, issuing forth streams of superheated bubbles. Most alarmingly, none of the siblings retain their prophetic ability. Denemede’s brothers work with Coralmere to seal the chamber while her sisters work with Krakello to figure out what happened. The working theory is some magical cataclysm must have occured in the lands above, which rippled through the world’s waters to Cordellis.

When her siblings realize Denemede retains her visions, they surrender their Coral Keys to her and task her with exploring the lands above to seek clues wherever she may. She is granted her father’s trident — the only weapon Denemede may equip — and both Coralmere and Krakello pledge their service. Denemede is told that exploring the world’s waters will help to clear her visions, though she is forbidden to touch the waters of the deadly Inner Sea.

Denemede’s handlers don’t allow her to undertake long overland journeys. Her chapter is structured around using the conduits in the Whirling Grotto, each of which gives her limited access to the game world’s outlying regions:

The Wild Glade, giving her access to some areas of the Great Green, although Naephetes is never happy to see her.
Nasahl, a desert oasis, which Coralmere and Krakello will complain endlessly about visiting.
Vüntervault, emerging amidst a snowmelt fountain, allowing Denemede to also reach Gemlington.
The Broken Axe, a flooded wreck off the shore of Port Redmond. (Denemede may hire a salvage boat in town to dredge up and repair her construct, granting a fifth party member.)
Whitecaps Ridge, a wild river, granting access to the Duchy of Whiterings.

Within these outlying regions, every body of water Denemede can reach improves her trident by a small amount. This includes not only geographic features (lakes, springs, rivers) but manmade features also (wells, cisterns, fountains). Each time Denemede visits a new water source there is a random chance of receiving a new vision. This chance increases slightly for each source she visits without seeing a vision, and increases dramatically in locations she has never visited before. There are eight visions in all, received in this order:

Coralmere holds a piece of parchment in her hand signed by “Alda Vestis”.
Coins clatter into a register as a maritime bell is heard ringing nearby.
The sweep of a lighthouse across rocky waters.
An excited child stands on an unfamiliar dock crying happily, “Alda is coming!”
A shadowy figure flies above the skyline of a city larger than Denemede has ever seen.
A tapestry bearing the sigil of House Vestis, displaying an anchor and open sails.
A glamorous noblewoman in a gown offering Krakello warm greetings.
The exhausted Sea King holding his ground in an underwater magma chamber.

When Denemede next returns home, Cordellis is under siege by sea monsters. The palace itself becomes a dungeon she must fight through, rescuing each of her siblings in turn. Once her people are safe, Denemede decides the visions aren’t helping, and forgoes her search for the mysterious Alda Vestis to brave the volcanic vents. At the bottom is the magma chamber, where the Sea King is trapped, beyond the last of his strength. He tells Denemede his own visions of disaster have been of things stirring up the magical balance of the world that can only end in great catastrophe.

Denemede and her companions attempt to free the Sea King, but while they’re working, Xal-xal senses something truly evil approaching. Tentacles of black fire lash upward from the center of the world, mere appendages of the primal horrors which might be unleashed if the balance is disrupted. Denemede damages the monstrous thing enough to push it back into the magma, and then the Sea King spends the last of his life to replenish the seal. The magma cools, and the immediate danger passes.

Secret-complete

Denemede’s eldest brother solemnly accepts his father’s crown, and Denemede is formally recognized as soothsayer. Her search for the mysterious Alda Vestis continues.

Normally, Denemede isn’t allowed to visit any locations near the Inner Sea. If she tries, one of her companions forces the party to turn around. The player has several means of lifting this restriction:

A ninth vision clearly shows a ship sailing upon the Inner Sea. This vision is much rarer than the others; a player must be truly diligent in exploring water sources and powering up the trident to see it.
If she takes passage on the Lady Goldenrod, Denemede can visit a hall displaying the sigils of all the great maritime houses. Goldenrod is one, Vestis is another.
A diary in a flooded portion of the Broken Axe reveals the ship is named not for a weapon, but was the captain’s disparaging name for his wife, whom he hated.
A penniless gambler in Port Redmond is trying to earn enough coin to buy a fishing boat so he can turn over a new leaf. If Denemede helps him win enough at dice, he repays her by naming the vessel after her. He insists it’s lucky to name a craft after a beautiful woman.

Each of these clues result in Denemede having a “Hmm…” moment.

If the player has seen any of the clues, Denemede will stand up to whichever of her companions try to turn her away from the Inner Sea. She has the epiphany that Alda Vestis must be a ship. This turns out to be the case, and Denemede and her companions become the first of the Sea King’s people to cross the Inner Sea in centuries.

Endgame

Lenathé’s portrait on the Chapter Select screen changes to “The Endgame” after the player sees The Blood Empress: Interlude I.

In the Endgame, the player has access to all Heroes, inventory, and recruited characters from secret-complete chapters. The base of operations is a hostel in Bastion, which the Heroes commandeer and fill with all their equipment and friends. The player can customize their party here however they like, but at least one of the seven Heroes must be in the party at all times. An NPC in the hostel will allow the player to return to the Chapter Select screen in order to secret-complete chapters they haven’t finished.

While the primary goal is to descend into the dungeons beneath Bastion to challenge the Blood Empress, the entire world becomes open and available. Any skipped content from earlier chapters remains available to complete. All dungeon areas repopulate with Endgame-scaled monsters and respawnable mini-bosses who guard treasure hoards. In addition, a new batch of sidequests open up.

The hostel itself does not introduce any base-building mechanics; no unique amenities exist there, and the player does not unlock new rooms and features. However, the more characters who take up residence, the livelier the place will seem. A player should feel encouraged to stop and re-explore the hostel every so often.

Each time the player rests during the Endgame, they see a small scene of their characters interacting. This gives the Heroes and their parties a chance to cross-pollinate. Sometimes these scenes result in small rewards. The scenes are weighted in such a way that the most “important” ones are shown first (e.g. a scene between two major Heroes revealing a sidequest hint is more important than a banter scene between wanderers).

All told, the Endgame probably comprises about half the content in the game.

Arrivals

Each time the player loads their Endgame save they are treated to a short sequence of any new Heroes arriving at the Bastion hostel, in this order of preference:

Ren and Abel, along with a couple of alchemists, join the Bastion guards who have established the hostel as the base of the makeshift coalition forming to protect the citizens from the Blood Empress. The boys introduce themselves to any Heroes already here, thanking them for the help.
King Lepidus enters with Ren if Ren recruited him during his chapter. If not, he storms in now, insisting his “hopeless subjects” will need his help to defeat the Blood Empress.
Denemede arrives in good spirits, although her retinue is still on edge from the deadly Inner Sea crossing. Xal-xal is already carrying a stack of parcels from the princess’s shopping spree. While Denemede unpacks, Coralmere and Krakello convey to the others what cosmic horror awaits if the Blood Empress tips the scales too far.
Mildred and Prue arrive, and Prue pays one of the hostel employees to tend to Tansa in the stables. The Bastion guard is elated to have an accomplished dragon-slayer in their midst. Prue is apprehensive because the Final Dragon (as they have dubbed it) is larger and more menacing than the ones they’ve fought so far. She wonders if one knight is enough. Mildred thinks on this, then commands Prue to kneel. She praises Prue’s courage and knights her, saying “Now we are two.” (From this point on, throughout Bastion, mentions of the Blood Empress’s construct refer explicitly to “the Final Dragon”.)
Rook simply enters the hostel, hangs up his hat and cloak, and kicks back in a nearby chair.
Alphonse and De la Cruz arrive. De la Cruz is upset because Alphonse somehow lost the elemental gems they were planning to sell, and is even more upset that Alphonse seems blasé about the situation. Alphonse insists there are many ways to turn a coin in a city such as Bastion. He figures they are already owed a debt, since Bastion’s efforts to marshal constructs to combat the Blood Empress will no longer be undermined by the schemes of Galadriel Four-Fingers.
Junior takes over one corner of the hostel commons, unpacking trunks of books, scrolls, and supplies. He shares what he knows about the creatures once tasked with combating the Blood Empress, and suggests it would be too dangerous to rely on them. He is convinced knowledge will win this war, not forgotten gifts from the ancients, and he volunteers for any expeditions into the Blood Palace.
Saka Saka enters with Ana Cristina and Grendel. They are pleased to report that as powerful as the Blood Empress’s giant construct is, it’s not operating at full power — they’ve already ensured the Bastion alchemists wouldn’t implement advancements resulting from G&L’s criminal exploits. Ana Cristina immediately sets to work tending to the coalition’s wounded. Saka Saka demands to be pointed to the “toughest and freakiest” of the Blood Empress’s monster horde.

The Blood Palace

Deep within the ruins underneath Bastion sits the Blood Palace, a massive dungeon area with many entrances all throughout the city. The dungeon is non-linear and has many side-paths leading to powerful equipment, treasure hordes, and monster sets. (In particular, anything Lenathé was equipped with at the end of her chapter is recoverable here as treasure.) Many routes are possible leading to the final boss encounter, and the player opens shortcuts between areas as they explore.

When they first approach the main entrance to the Blood Palace, the Heroes are stopped by Voz. The witch, much increased in power, erects a magical barrier and throws the Heroes back. They will have to find some other way in. There are seven entry points available throughout Bastion, each opened by a different Hero. The player can gain clues about these entry points by speaking to the Hero at the hostel. Once an entry point is open, it remains traversable thereafter, whether or not that Hero is with the party. The entry points are:

Ren opens a maintenance hatch in the sewers, near to where he first met King Lepidus. The passage opens into an ancient Blood Palace cistern.
Saka Saka identifies the remnants of an old rope bridge that spans the ravine. By absorbing a catlike tail for speed and balance, she is able to dash across the rope and stabilize a path into the parapets.
Junior decodes the ancient text on a sealed door in the cliff face, revealing an entrance into the palace crypts.
Denemede identifies a flooded passage connecting the Inner Sea to the pool in a palace conservatory. (She has to convince her companions the water won’t actually kill them.)
Rook reports a strangely overgrown wall inside a noble’s garden. Upon clearing it, he gains access to a tunnel leading into the palace’s haunted hedge maze.
Mildred and Tansa enact a breathtaking leap across the dried moat — using the same visual language as her charge into battle against the dragons in her chapter — and lower a drawbridge from the other side. This enters into the palace armory.
Alphonse navigates a phantasmal cave system beneath the city by carefully listening to directions he insists are whispered to him by his q’avvach. Once through, he disables the illusions permanently. This adjoins to the palace dungeons.

All of these paths link back to the palace foyer, where Voz awaits them. Defeating her causes her barrier to fall, and forces her to retreat to her wizard’s tower. The Blood Palace is now accessible directly from the city entrance.

Advancing to the throne room triggers the final boss gauntlet against the Blood Empress. First the Heroes must defeat the Blood Empress and her antipode-triggering constructs — the same fight as in Interlude I. Then they defeat the Final Dragon directly. This causes the Blood Empress to undergo the transformation we first saw in Interlude I, but this time she halts it not by retreating, but by fusing with the fallen Final Dragon.

What happens next depends on whether or not the player has completed the sidequest “The Betrayed”. If they haven’t, the Blood Empress undergoes the same transformation we saw in Interlude I — except this time, instead of retreating to Mt. Rouebach to heal, she fuses with the fallen Final Dragon instead. Defeating this final transmogrified form ends the Blood Empress’s reign for good. The Heroes are triumphant, and they have every reason to celebrate — but the player will understand this to be the bad ending. (Proceed to Bad Ending, below.)

If the player has completed The Betrayed, the presence of the Blood Empress’s former companions gives her pause. Instead of undergoing her transformation, she retreats physically inside of the Final Dragon. The Heroes still have to fight the dragon itself, which collapses to the floor in a wreck, crushing the Blood Empress’s throne. Its gaping maw stands open, revealing another dungeon area inside.

When the Heroes reach the inner heart of the Final Dragon, they find the Blood Empress desperately trying to resist the transformation taking over her body — just as the Skylord did in Lenathé’s chapter. The Blood Empress is both trying to contain the infinite magic inside her body, and keep the magic from consuming her. She cries out, sending magical energy in all directions, causing pieces of the inner heart to break away and spontaneously animate. These generated constructs are super-charged versions of the ones Lenathé faced in her own chapter. Instead of fighting three waves of three, the Heroes face five at a time. During this combat, at the start of each round, damaged constructs are replaced by fresh ones, with a bias towards combinations that can create Arc Chains and Antipode Chains. The constructs don’t heal when they swap out, ensuring the player can make progress against them.

The Blood Empress falls to the ground, unconscious, in a widening pool of her own blood. Magic leaves her body in sparks and waves, as though the consuming force has no more need for its physical shell. The blood congeals and detaches, then soaks up all the magical energy, forming into an otherworldly entity that embodies the sigils seen on the throne: the tenth school. The Tenth Entity attacks the Heroes as the game’s true final boss.

After the fight, the Blood Empress’s body is unconscious, unmoving, and utterly empty of even the smallest trace of magic. (Proceed to Good Ending, below.)

Sidequests

Throughout the Endgame are a variety of sidequests the player can undertake in pursuit of powerful equipment, access to high-tier abilities, or storyline closure. Most of these take place out in the open world. The player can get hints about what sidequests are available by speaking with characters at the hostel, or by simply exploring the open world once they’re in an Endgame state. None of these sidequests are mandatory for completing the game, but one batch — The Betrayed — profoundly changes the game’s ending.

The Betrayed I

While exploring a natural cave system that intersects with the lowest levels of the Blood Palace, the Heroes hear a faint tapping from the other side of a wall. If they bring an alchemical charge (available for purchase in Bastion) or an exploding q’avvach card (of the kind De la Cruz used in the Smuggler’s Den) they can blow open the wall, revealing a strangely comfortable living space beyond. The space has a lounge area, a warm hearth, a skylight, and a path leading to a deep water fishing hole (which counts as a trident spot for Denemede). There they find the bearded miner, McAlister.

McAlister’s flashback shows him and Lenathé exploring the cave which will become his living space. Lenathé tells him she wants his expertise on surveying the space, but McAlister guesses the truth: she’s looking for a place to dungeon him up. McAlister has reasoned that Lenathé has figured out he’s not going to support her as the Blood Empress. Lenathé tells him if the people of Bastion insist on waging war against her, she just wants him to be safe. McAlister suggests it sounds like Lenathé wants to keep him as a pet, which greatly upsets her. She storms out of the room, sealing the wall behind her with magic.

(Note: Only in these flashback scenes is she styled as “Lenathé” in her dialogue tags. In Interlude II and elsewhere in the Endgame, she is styled consistently as “The Blood Empress”.)

In the present, McAlister affirms that Lenathé’s situation isn’t mind control or any such hogwash. Rather, when her memories were returned to her, she returned to her ancient obsession of pursuing the tenth school. He believes Lenathé sincerely wants to control this primal magic in order to do good works, but her vision has blinded her to the harm she is doing right now. He agrees to join the Bastion coalition in order to stop his friend from doing something truly terrible.

The Betrayed II

Deep in the Blood Palace is a fighting pit surrounded by open cages. As the Heroes enter they encounter Rittson, badly injured and swaying drunkenly. The Heroes have to step in to protect him from three waves of monsters before the coast is finally clear. Rittson passes out, and the Heroes bring him back to the hostel. When he sobers up, he tells his story.

Rittson’s flashback shows him and Lenathé entering the fighting pit. The cage doors are all tightly locked. Rittson peppers Lenathé with questions about her plan to release the monsters and make use of them. Though his qualms are reasonable (e.g. “How can you be sure none will escape into the city? How are we going to properly watch every possible exit? How do you even know we’ve found all the exits?”) Lenathé keeps deflecting. She clearly doesn’t like being questioned. Eventually she gets fed up and laments that she thought Rittson trusted people, and not magic — so why can’t he trust her anymore? Rittson responds sarcastically that with her, he can’t tell the difference anymore. Lenathé angrily makes a magical gesture, opening all the cages. The screen fades out as monsters begin creeping out into the open.

In the present, Rittson explains he’s been telling himself he’s been trying to keep the monster problem under control — but really, he might have just been looking for a place to die. But he’s done with that despair now. He hates what Lenathé has become, and if someone has to put her down, it ought to be someone she used to care for. He joins the Bastion coalition with great resolve.

The Betrayed III

Near the various treasure hoards throughout the Blood Palace, the player may notice a shadowy figure peering at them from the shadows. When the Heroes try to collect such treasure, The Colorling leaps out, declares them burglars, and attacks. After the fight, if the Heroes go for the treasure, the Colorling manages to limp away and escape. In that case, the event repeats at another treasure hoard elsewhere in the palace. (And like all treasure hoards, these respawn periodically.) However, if the Heroes instead tend the Colorling’s wounds, they regard them suspiciously. If these trespassers aren’t burglars, then who are they?

(Note: while the Colorling is a beastkin, it is not a valid target for beastkin consumption or absorption.)

The Colorling’s flashback shows Lenathé at a work station, performing ritualistic magic on some injured, monstrous creature. Throughout the scene she never looks up from her work. The Colorling enters and reports an uneventful patrol. Lenathé thanks them. The Colorling turns to leave, but stops, hesitates, then asks if the dragon construct is going to move again. Lenathé says she’s working on it. The Colorling asks if any of the city people were hurt when it moved the first time. Lenathé affirms that some people died, and some buildings were destroyed. The Colorling very cautiously asks, if the people were in trouble, why didn’t Lenathé save them? Lenathé simply says it isn’t possible to save everyone. Her answer shocks the Colorling, who slinks out of the room.

In the present, the Colorling recounts how Lenathé went out of her way to use her magic to rescue them — and that was way back when she only had a little bit of magic. Now that she has all the magic, they worry about why she isn’t trying to save everyone. The Colorling joins the Bastion coalition because they believe stopping Lenathé is the only way to save her. (The Heroes get to keep the treasure hoard.)

The Betrayed IV

After defeating Voz in the palace foyer, the Heroes are able to enter the wizard’s tower. At the top they find Voz in her chambers. She stands her ground and fights, but this second encounter is less harrowing than the first. Voz is exhausted and worn through. She acknowledges she isn’t powerful enough to protect her mistress from the coalition, and she frames this as a personal failing. The Heroes are unable to do anything to rouse her from her funk.

Bringing McAlister, Rittson, or the Colorling here triggers the next scene. They share some good memories about Lenathé. But to Voz, Lenathé wasn’t just a friend — she was everything Voz cared about, aspired to, or wanted to be. She insists that she owes Lenathé everything. Her friend responds that may be true, but Voz doesn’t owe the Blood Empress anything.

Voz’s flashback shows Lenathé guiding Voz in a magic training ritual. Voz takes the opportunity to share that she hates the title “Blood Empress”. Lenathé just laughs it off. She says it was a title that commanded majesty in a previous age of the world. Voz wrestles with the idea, asking Lenathé if that’s truly who she wants to be — and the spell she’s trying to hold suddenly fails. Lenathé tells her that Voz’s doubt is holding her back from being a true magus, and that doubt stems from asking the wrong questions. “Blood Empress” isn’t some slur the people of Bastion have foisted upon her — it’s her name. She was the Blood Empress long, long before she was Lenathé. Voz is unsure how to respond, and Lenathé directs her to continue the ritual, and not to report back until it’s completed successfully. She emphasizes: “No more doubt.”

In the present, Voz continues to struggle with the idea that the kind amnesiac who woke up at the bottom of that mine and the tyrannical magus who inhabits the Blood Palace are the same person. She comes to a decision: if Lenathé were here, she would want the Blood Empress defeated — and Voz owes Lenathé everything, so that’s what she’s going to do. She joins the Bastion coalition.

Voz enjoys a few upgrades from her appearance in Lenathé’s chapter. Her magic affinities are all increased to A; her Intelligence, Focus, and Chrysm stats are all increased to some proportion of Lenathé’s at the end of her chapter, and she is granted access to every spell and cantrip Lenathé knew in her chapter. The gameplay intent is for Voz to fill the role of “omni-mage” now that the player no longer has access to Lenathé herself.

Harry Jr.’s Birthday Card

This sidequest begins when the player visits Yvonne, Nelly, and Harry Jr. at their new home in Muckville while Rook is in the party. Harry is excited because his birthday is coming up. (So it’s been about a year since the events of Rook’s chapter.) Without saying anything, Rook reaches under his hat, pulls out a q’avvach card, and gives it to Harry. The boy bounces off the walls with excitement.

If Alphonse or De la Cruz are in the party (or present for a later visit) they will respond with utter disbelief. They recognize the card Rook just gave away to a little boy is a one-of-a-kind card that hasn’t been seen in over a century. Rook shrugs and walks off.

No matter how much they beg Harry for the card, he refuses to give it up. But he says he’ll trade for it. He specifies what card he wants, but when Alphonse or De la Cruz brings it to him, he suddenly changes his mind and demands a rarer one. After two iterations of this, he asks for a rare card that’s only accessible through transmogrification. If they bring him that final card, he’s finally satisfied, and trades away his birthday present.

The card is “The Depths Shall Return Thee”, a Rank VIII Infernal-coded q’avvach card that adds the Rebirth condition. When an ally with Rebirth is knocked to 0 Health, they immediately revive. This is the only source of Rebirth in the game. The card can be placed into any q’avvach deck, but it can’t be burnt, sold, or transmogrified.

The Fae Princess & The Moonmoth

In the gardens of the Blood Palace the player will discover a fae crossing they cannot reach, visible behind a gap or obstruction. Any characters they have who are proficient in Fae Magic can teleport between fae crossings they’ve visited, but no one has visited this one yet. Simply reaching this point triggers the next scene.

Should they return to the Wild Glade, they discover Naephetes in a new form: rather than a fluttering pixie, she is a full-grown human woman with a glimmering sword. She shows off her new dress, then declares her intent to join the Bastion coalition. She’s tired of sitting on the sidelines while real heroes like Rook do all the work. (Her sword is a unique piece of equipment, but Naephetes doesn’t have a very high Blades affinity. A savvy player will recognize the need to give the sword to someone who can make better use of it.)

Naephetes joins the party with all Fae spells already at Rank III, and her teleport list contains all fae crossings, including the one in the Blood Palace. Traveling there gives the player access to a new mini-boss and treasure hoard. Also, the back half of the palace gardens is the only location the player can encounter the moonmoth, which is Rook’s final animal companion (and the only one not available in his own chapter).

Edderick’s Date

This sidequest unlocks when all seven chapters are secret-complete. The generic NPC who runs the Bastion candy cart is replaced with a cute, bubbly teenage girl wearing big glasses.

If Junior is in the party when visiting the candy cart, instead of the usual shop interface, the player is presented with a dialogue tree while Junior tries to decide what to order. The candy cart girl flirts with him the entire time, but he is too dense to notice. Junior gets his candy (determined by the player’s choices in the dialogue tree) and turns to leave. Ren, Abel, and King Lepidus are nearby, lamenting how badly Junior just “struck out”. They pick on him for having “no game” and then demand Junior go back to the cart, introduce himself properly, and ask the girl out. The kids have a brief argument about what Junior’s name is. Junior tries to explain that he is his father Edderick’s namesake, but the kids interrupt him and drag him back to the candy cart. They introduce him as Edderick and set up the date.

The scene shifts to a boutique. Saka Saka, Alphonse, and De la Cruz are trying to find Junior an outfit to wear. The gag is that Alphonse and De la Cruz bicker about fashion while Saka Saka has very unconventional ideas about what clothes look “cool”. The player receives an expensive accessory at the end of the scene, determined by Junior’s dialogue tree.

The scene shifts again to a fancy bistro. Mildred, Prue, and Denemede are helping Junior prepare for his date. The gag is that none of them have dating experience. Mildred treats the situation as high courtly etiquette crossed with military command drill, while Denemede thinks Junior’s date will be impressed by the same ordinary human things that fascinate her. The player receives an expensive consumable food item, determined by Junior’s dialogue tree.

The scene shifts one final time to the Bastion gardens at night. Junior is on his date with the candy cart girl. The gag is that the dialogue tree presents only terrible options, highlighting Junior’s nerves and awkwardness. However, no matter how “badly” he performs, the girl thanks him for a nice time, kisses his cheek, and suggests where they should go on their next date.

After this scene, Junior’s name changes to “Edderick” on all in-game menus and dialogue. (Though this document will continue to refer to him as “Junior”.)

The Codex of Cabliopes

This sidequest becomes available after the player has recovered all 96 volumes of the Codex of Cabliopes. The player returns to the Great Library and fills up the Lower Cablio on a shelf across the stacks from where Junior encountered his end-of-chapter boss. The bookshelf slides away, revealing stairs leading down into a short dungeon area filled with powerful monsters. At the end is one of the game’s three superbosses. The superboss has uniquely-powerful monster parts, guards an outrageous treasure hoard, and rewards the player with a unique tome which, when used, increases three of a unit’s chosen affinities to AAA. This superboss follows all the same rules as treasure hoard bosses, and completionist players may commit to defeating it dozens of times to max out all of their characters.

The Dragon Whelp

This sidequest becomes available after Mildred and Saka Saka’s chapters are secret-complete. Visiting Fort Clearstone, the player learns the baby heir takes comfort from the dragon egg Mildred recovered, frequently curling up to sleep next to its warmth.

Visiting with Grendel in the party triggers a scene in which Grendel explains to Lady Clearstone that the egg could be hatched. He is practical about the dangers: true dragons are ferocious magical monsters, but the bond between a dragon and a human is unbreakable and enriching for both. Lady Clearstone gives leave for Grendel to make the preparations. After the ritual, the egg hatches to produce an adorable but clearly dangerous dragon whelp. The baby immediately falls in love with her new companion. Grendel comments that the whelp has an unusually strong Heart.

Saka Saka can return here at any time and absorb the whelp’s Heart without harming it. This part is unique, and found nowhere else in the game.

The Construct Battle Royale

This sidequest becomes available after Ren’s chapter is secret-complete.

Bastion has strict regulations against designing constructs for military purpose. However, with the threat of the Blood Empress looming, constructed warriors may become a necessary tool. Thus the Construct Battle Royale is announced: an arena in the city for talented alchemists and builders to design warrior constructs and pit them against each other.

Ren is initially excited by the prospect, but Abel is worried. Abel says it’s sad enough when a construct becomes broken, even if they’re not sapient. Ren could actually get really hurt or even die if he joined the competition. Ren agrees it’s dangerous, but fighting the Blood Empress is also dangerous, and she didn’t give anyone a choice. The boys reach an agreement to take the arena seriously and not treat it like a game.

There are several divisions to compete in, each with an increasing series of challenges and rewards. The primary rewards are elemental gems, and some of the gems won here can’t be found anywhere else. The divisions include:

One-on-one, where a single player construct faces off against a single enemy.
Two vs. two, where two player constructs fight a pair of enemies.
Battle Royale, where all five player constructs fight a swarm of enemies or one giant boss.
Protect VIP, where each side has one construct (which is automatically restored to max Health and Essenta each round) and one other unit. The player unit can be any human or beastkin from the coalition and acts as their VIP. Both VIPs are inflicted with an unresistable debuff that drops their Speed to 1. The player wins by defeating the enemy VIP.
Exhibition, where the player fields up to five constructs against an indestructible target, and given three combat rounds to rack up as much damage as possible.

Some divisions may be unavailable at first, e.g. the player cannot participate in Battle Royale if they don’t actually have five constructs to enter. Throughout the arena fights, the player will become familiar with teams of builders reveling in the competition. The whole thing should give strong Battlebots vibes.

Upon completing all fights in every division, a Grand Finale becomes available. The player’s construct team faces off against a gargantuan construct built by one of Bastion’s mad scientists. This is the game’s second superboss. Defeating it the first time awards a unique and over-powered omni-colored 2×2 elemental gem, which can’t be sold or transmogrified. Repeat wins award powerful elemental gems and circuit accessories as well as vast amounts of coins.

Path to the Inner Sea

A new scene in Cordellis becomes available after Denemede has visited every water source in the game and achieved maximum power with her trident.

In the Whirling Grotto, Denemede regards the rubble blocking the sixth whirlpool. By now she has crossed the Inner Sea and explored all the areas of Bastion and even the depths of the Blood Palace. She thinks it’s time to open the passage and put the old taboo to bed. Coralmere and Krakello are uneasy with the idea, but Xal-xal is supportive. Denemede makes a formal request to her brother, the new Sea King, who gives her leave to use the trident’s accumulated magic to destroy the rubble and open the pathway.

There is no immediate reward for this cutscene. However, NPC sea people begin showing up in Bastion, exploring the city and the Inner Sea for the first time. Shops in Cordellis begin stocking equipment which uses powerful endgame materials that have only been available in treasure hoards before now.

The Master

This sidequest is available at any point in the Endgame, although it is fairly heavily Rittson-coded.

The Master lives in a hermitage somewhere in the game world. Reaching it on foot for the first time should feel like an accomplishment. It is the only location that exists next to both a fae crossing and a shadow crossing. The Master challenges any character of the player’s choosing to a duel.

This boss fight has special properties:

The fight is one-on-one.
The Master’s Speed is set to be one less than the challenger’s. This means the Master always acts second, and there are no EX Turns.
The Master blocks all damaging attacks and then counters with a full 5 → 4 → 3 → 2 → 1 Unarmed combo.
The Master has a special counter for q’avvach cards, tossing them into the discard pile before they trigger their effects; not even Alphonse’s Death Mark will work.
The Master has another special counter for status conditions, deflecting them and adding them to the challenger instead.
If the player adds stat buffs or debuffs, the Master always uses their turn to remove them.
If the player does anything else, the Master attacks with a full Unarmed combo.

Most rounds involve the player eating two full Unarmed combos and losing very quickly.

If the player performs a full Unarmed combo, the Master takes full damage. Thus only a true martial arts luminary stands a chance.

Upon winning the duel, the Master bestows a flashy title upon the challenger (determined randomly to reflect the challenger’s favorite techs in the fight), and their acolytes open a shop at the hermitage selling equipment made of a unique, lightweight material that perfectly synergizes with an unarmed play style.

Heroes of Another Age

One dungeon branch of the Blood Palace doesn’t contain a mini-boss or treasure horde, but instead a conspicuous dead end with a statue of a man with an eyepatch.

If Alphonse is in the party, his cursed q’avvach bursts out of his hands. Cards swarm around the room, creating a circular lens. A silent image plays between them showing the fate of the adventuring party who fought the Blood Empress in Interlude I.

The five heroes are injured and distressed. The green-eyed swordsman is the only one with any strength remaining. His companions implore him to leave and continue their quest — it’s clear he can’t save them with the Blood Palace crumbling around them. Though it breaks his heart, he does. His journey continues elsewhere, defeating the Blood Empress on Mt. Rouebach, absorbing her magic, and founding a kingdom as the Emerald Skylord.

One of the remaining heroes — a long-haired man with an eyepatch — manages to stand up. He fans out a q’avvach from his pocket. One by one he approaches the bodies of his companions: the magician offers up the last of her Chrysm, the beastkin sacrifices their heart, and the construct removes their spirit board. The q’avvachist’s deck absorbs their gifts, triggering a bright flash that turns him to stone. The image fades away as the heroes’ bodies are buried in rubble.

Alphonse insists he’s seen better puppet shows than that, and complains that he has to go around the room collecting his scattered q’avvach cards. From this point on, three new exclusive cards are added to his deck, one each reflecting the souls of the master mage, the valiant beastkin, and the titanium construct folded inside.

Bad Ending

After defeating the Blood Empress’s final form, the Heroes escape the Blood Palace before it crumbles, burying the broken throne and the Final Dragon under a mountain of rubble.

An impromptu celebration festival springs up around the excavation site as the citizens of Bastion and the other members of the coalition celebrate the victory. The player controls a solitary Hero (chosen from the party that defeated the final boss) as they run around exploring the festivities. This would be a good time to drop clues about any remaining sidequests. If any of Lenathé’s companions are at the celebration, they are satisfied with the outcome, although to them the victory is bittersweet.

Abel works on a big machine near the edge of the ravine. He tells the player-controlled Hero to come back when they’re ready for “the big finale”. When the player speaks to Abel again, he throws the switch, launching spectacular fireworks into the sky. The screen fades out and the credits roll.

Though the Heroes are triumphant, there is a somber edge to the credits sequence. Bitter music plays over monochrome flashback scenes to Lenathé’s adventure, emphasizing the good she did in the world and how close she became to her companions. It should leave the player feeling a sense of broken closure, as though there is yet more to do.

If the player completed any portion of The Betrayed, the corresponding characters appear in color during the credits sequence. This is the player’s clue that the secret to improving the ending is to re-connect with Lenathé’s companions.

This ending does not trigger the post-game or unlock New Game +.

Good Ending

After defeating the Tenth Entity, the Heroes recover the Blood Empress’s body before escaping. She is capable of walking if she leans on someone. One of the party members throws an inconspicuous cloak over her when they see the festival crowd forming.

The celebration proceeds as above. This time, though, the Blood Empress sits alone, clutching her plain cloak, watching the festivities from afar. She doesn’t know how to feel or what to do; she’s never been without magic before. She admits this moment is scarier than waking up with no memory at the bottom of Puffincup Mine.

The Hero’s response changes depending on who the player is controlling.

Rook merely listens. Then, he pours them each a drink, hangs up his hat and cloak, and kicks back in a chair next to her. The Blood Empress drinks, apparently appreciating the silence. When Rook speaks, he says simply, “Lenathé’s a good name. Old. Dependable.” The Blood Empress blinks, then nods, understanding. Rook finishes his drink, dons his hat and cloak, and returns to the party.
Junior sympathizes. Not that long ago, he had no power, no prospects, and no direction in the world. Then one day he decided to stop feeling sorry for himself and find small things to take comfort from. For him that’s ink and parchment. The Blood Empress listens to his advice. Junior uses her name casually when he departs: “Well, see you around, Lenathé.”
Saka Saka angrily challenges her. Even amidst the festival, anyone can look around and see the destruction the Blood Empress brought to Bastion. She insists people can’t just go around breaking things all the time, and if there’s no magic left, then it’s time to pick up a hammer or tie off a rope. She says, “I can sense your Heart… I don’t know if it’s good or bad… I only know that it’s yours, Lenathé.” Then she scrams before the mood gets any heavier.
Alphonse uses her name immediately. “You’re Lenathé, right?” Then he laments how she’s just the latest in a long string of women who have caused him trouble. He came to Bastion hoping to find his fortune, but of course he got tangled up in a bunch of dumb hero stuff. The scene is briefly interrupted by a fake title card from Alphonse’s story, depicting the Blood Empress as looking deliciously wicked. Alphonse’s griping has an effect, even getting a chuckle out of her. Alphonse tips his hat and takes his leave.
Mildred answers indirectly. Instead of engaging the Blood Empress’s words, she instead changes the subject to Prue and Voz. Prue gets a little stronger each year, while Mildred gets a little slower. Someday Mildred will have to accept that her protégé has surpassed her, and she’ll know her good works have been accomplished. She says of Voz, “She calls you Lenathé, you know. As others might.” Prue then arrives with Mildred’s hot tea. Mildred instructs her to serve it to Lenathé instead.
Ren invites her to the festival. He thinks everyone belongs somewhere, and he knows from experience that transformation doesn’t erase who you were. He says he wasn’t scared when he woke up after the boar attack, because even though his body had changed, he still felt like Ren. He asks, “How about you? Deep down, do you still feel like Lenathé?” She closes her eyes to think about it, then King Lepidus arrives to drag Ren away.
Denemede asks for her hands. The two women sit for a moment in meditation. Denemede says that while her visions frequently showed death and devastation, they never showed the Blood Empress in the flesh. She admits the visions are never clear, and sometimes she interprets them wrong. But when she looks now, “I see a girl in a brown cloak. The world is different for her than it was. Her name’s Lenathé.”

When the player is ready they may speak to Abel to trigger the fireworks display and the credits. This time, the credits sequence is energetic, depicting scenes of the characters continuing their lives after the Bastion coalition. In the final scene after the credits. McAlister approaches a secluded house in the woods. The Colorling is napping lazily on a nearby balcony. Lenathé opens an upstairs window to greet him.

This ending leads to the post-game. Completing this ending with seven secret-complete chapters additionally unlocks New Game +.

Post-Game

The first time the player loads their game after seeing the good ending, the world enters its post-game state, with these changes:

The coalition’s stated goal is no longer to defeat the Blood Empress, but rather to explore and preserve the ruins beneath Bastion, which still contain many exciting and dangerous things.
A new location appears on a secluded area of Bastion Isle: Lenathé’s Retreat. This is a quiet place for her to recuperate and to adjust to a life without magic. Some characters interact with her if they’re in the party, especially her former companions.
Returning to the location of the Blood Empress’s throne reveals the area to be damaged beyond recognition. Something older, more primal, and undeniably malevolent sleeps beneath. This is the path to the game’s third superboss. There is no reward for defeating this boss except bragging rights.

New Game +

Selecting New Game + allows the player to go through the game again while keeping some or all of their accumulated progress. Coins, inventory, stat gains, equipment, learned weapon techs and spells, and other aspects of the game’s advancement systems can be independently flagged to be carried forward, allowing the player to customize their experience.

Additionally, the player may replay any of the nine chapters with any party they want. In addition to the entire Bastion coalition and all of Rook’s animals, a few extra characters are also included:

Lenathé, in whatever state she was in at the end of her chapter.
Ren, in his human form from Issel Village. He retains his low stats, terrible affinities, and “Just a Stick”.
The Emerald Swordsman, a human with high physical stats and endgame equipment, including a legendary sword that doesn’t appear anywhere else in the game.
The Master Magus, a human whose magic is almost as powerful as Lenathé’s.
The Valiant Beastkin, comprised of powerful endgame parts, and with an exceptional Heart even Saka Saka has no way to obtain.
The Titanium Construct, with a 9×9 spirit board stacked with amazing elemental gems, including a copy of the 2×2 omni-gem from the Battle Royale.
The Eyepatched Q’avvachist, with an absolutely cracked deck, including The Depths Shall Return Thee and all of Alphonse’s unique cards — but not the three cards from the Heroes of Another Age sidequest.

The ancient heroes are never given canonical names. If the player chooses one, they are prompted to give them one.

7. Conclusion

Well, unless someone gives me a no-strings-attached 7-figure operating budget, NotSaGa will forever remain an enjoyable writing exercise for me, and an interesting “what if?” for you.

I think it’s normal for old-ass gamers like myself to look back wistfully at game concepts that were explored once — perhaps explored badly or in an incomplete way — and then discarded. SaGa Frontier is not a game I’ve ever loved, but it’s one that’s always intrigued me. What if these random skill systems made sense? What if I could build my own monster unit? What if the stories converged, rather than sat apart? What if the themes traveled through and around each other, rather than being packaged separately?

What if I could design the perfect game, unconstrained by practical concerns like deadlines, production bottlenecks, and budget?

Well, it wouldn’t be a game… and it’s not. It’s just this, whatever this is.

Feel free to leave your speedrun strats in the comments. I can’t wait to see Ren% No Major Glitches on stage at GDQ!

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NotSaGa: a game design doc

Table of Contents

1. Premise and Overview

Elevator Pitch

Genre and Subgenre

Flow and Structure

2. Mechanics

Stats & Experience

Affinities

Experience Bars

Aptitude

Base Stats

Weapon Skills & Magic Schools

Combat

User Interface

Rounds, Turns, & EX Turns

Position & Targeting

Rewards

The Bestiary

Character Archetypes

Humans

Beastkin & Animals

Constructs

Q’avvachists

Equipment

Materials

Weapon Slots

Armor Slots

Accessories

Provisions

Transmogrification

Treasure Hoards

Chapter Completion & Secret-Complete

3. Advancement Systems

Weapons, Techs, & Combos

Blades

Bows

Staves

Shields

Unarmed

Magic Spells, Cantrips, and Chains

Fae Magic

Bright Magic

Chaos Magic

World Magic

Pillar Magic

Shadow Magic

Infernal Magic

Architect Magic

Doors Magic

Trainers

Beastkin Absorption & Consumption

Observe & Mark

Body Parts

Fetishes

Weapon/Magic Interaction

Constructs

Core, Capacity, & Essenta

Spirit Boards

Elemental Gems

Weapon/Magic Interaction

Extra Pockets

The Q’avvach

Q’avvach Rules

Deck Stats & Experience

Deck Management

Weapon/Magic Interaction

Exhaustion

4. Characters

Archetype & Pronouns

The Golden Rule

The Heroes

Construct Chassis

Lenathé’s Found Family

Saka Saka’s Companions

Alphonse’s Rival

Mildred’s Servants

Ren’s Friends

Denemede’s Retinue

The Fae Princess