Today, Shouzou Kaga unveiled the official website for Vestaria Saga, ahead of its release in exactly a month’s time.

Note: All images belong to Shouzou Kaga.

Like the game itself, the website isn’t exactly the most pretty thing ever, since Kaga developed it in his spare time for free. However it does its job well, providing helpful information about the game.

Now, there’s a lot to digest, so to save time (and my sanity), I’ll merely summarise the pages and point out the key details.

Home: The front page of the website. The banner at the top explains that the game is scheduled to be released on 21st September 2016. Towards the bottom of the page are banners that you can click to download and share on your own website.

Like so…

Overview: A brief explanation of the premise of the game–a strategy RPG based on medieval European fantasy that promises a tale of intentions, betrayals, meetings, departures, love, friendships and death. Sounds like Fire Emblem to us!

The blurb towards the top is a verse from the Vestaria Bible, describing the woeful era when the island inhabitants were besieged by the Dark Lord Magul and the three dragons he called forth from the netherworld. That is until a heavenly king descended.

Operating Environment: Supported operating systems are Windows 10, 8, 7 and Vista SP 2 (presumably these are the same OSs supported by SRPG Studio). Additionally, Kaga recommends using a USB game pad if possible.

Terms and Conditions: The first entry describes who owns the respective rights to the game (Vestaria Project, SRPG Studio and those that contributed materials).

Meanwhile, the second entry states that game is free, but includes a standard disclaimer that any damage caused by the game is not the author’s responsibility. It’s highly unlikely the game will cause any harm, but always remembers this (as with any software).

The final entry explains what’s forbidden, which includes reselling the game or copying the game to a disk (or other medium) without permission, but also extends to editing the game in any manner without permission.

World Guide: An overview of the 8 nations of Vestaria Island, including their key members. In the past, Vestaria Island used to be known as Magul Island (named after the Dark Lord), but was renamed by the third king of Celeron.

Celeron is the mainland continent that Vestaria is a part of and is located towards the south-east, opposite Meleda. Currently, Celeron is ruled by the Solvian Empire, instigators of the Meleda invasion at the start of the game.

Berwick Saga fans may recognise this setup, which is a direct parallel to that of the off-shore Berwick Alliance and the mainland Raze Empire.

Game Guide: The game itself will be distributed as a zip file that you need to extract; afterwards, you start the game by clicking V S I.exe. As reported earlier, you can start the game on the recommended Normal Mode or easier Rescue Mode.

You can save the game during Battle Preparations or every 5th turn from the 1st turn (inclusive). There are 98 save files, so you’re unlikely to run out of space any time soon.

Known issues:

1. Repeatedly pressing the Start key to skip scenes can cause the game to hang. Try not to hammer the Start key and take it slowly.
2. Pressing L and R to switch units can occasionally make you select a dummy character out of bounds.
3. Playing the game for long periods of time can cause the game to slow down, such as during enemy phases. If this occurs, save your game, exit then restart the game to clear the memory.
4. During the enemy phase, there are rare occurrences of the game engine reporting an error. It’s entirely unknown why this occurs (and thus cannot be fixed).

Game Controls: There are three supported control schemes.

Game pad

Keyboard

Mouse

How to Play: Outlines the basic flow of the game, from the start of a chapter to the end. If you’ve played a Fire Emblem game, all of this should be second nature.

Basic Rules: Key things to know while playing the game. Again, most of this is common knowledge. Items with a star at the end, such as Lord Asral☆ are valuable items, but they can still run out of uses (same as TearRing Saga).

Towards the bottom are a list of weapon types:

Icon	Weapon	Description
	Common Sword	Common swords.
	Female-only Sword	Swords wielded by females only. May have various effects.
	Greatsword	Massive swords that are powerful, but slow.
	Short Sword	Swords that bypass the enemy’s defences.
	Common Lance	Common lances.
	Throwing Lance	Lances that can be thrown from a distance.
	Axe	Common axes. Some can be thrown.
	Bow	Common bows. Used to attack from range.
	Longbow	Giant bows. Boasts a whopping 3~7 range.
	Spirit Magic	Fire, thunder and wing magic. Targets various weaknesses.
	Holy Magic	Passed down by the Church of Vesta. Halves damage.
	Dark Magic	Evil magic with terrifying effects.
	Staff	Can be used to heal allies, etc.

Units: Explains the difference between player, enemy and NPC units. Also includes a list of unit types. Each of Vestaria’s multitude of classes are grouped into the following categories:

Icon	Class Type	Description
	Foot Soldier	Common soldiers
	Lightweight Soldier	Soldiers with little armour. Have lower defences, but better movement.
	Priest	Mages and priests.
	Brigand	Can freely navigate mountains and cliffs.
	Pirate	Can freely navigate seas and lakes.
	Lightweight Knight	Knights with little armour. Lighter than regular knights.
	Knight	Common knights.
	Heavy Knight	Knights encased in heavy armour. Great defences, but low mobility and speed.
	Special	Incredibly light-weight, with greater mobility than other light-weight units.
	Lightweight Rider	Riders with little armour. Can enter areas heavier riders cannot.
	Heavy Rider	Riders with heavy armour.
	Flier	Able to fly freely in the skies. Can move almost everywhere, but weak to arrows.
	Dark Flier	A denizen of the dark that can fly freely, but weak to arrows.
	Standard	Regular civilians.
	Dark	Denizens of the dark.

Below this is a look at the character stats, which include HP, Level, Experience, Strength, Magic, Skill, Speed, Luck, Proficiency, Defence, Resistance and Movement.

Proficiency is basically “Weapon Level” from previous games–it dictates the caliber of weapons that the character can wield.

Each class has its own maximum stats, although HP cannot exceed 80, Movement cannot exceed 10 and other stats cannot exceed 30. Certain classes (possibly bosses) may break the rules, however.

Further down the page is an explanation of the various attributes and calculations.

• Hit rate: (Unit’s Skill x 3) + Weapon’s Hit rate
• Fatal rate: Unit’s Skill + Weapon’s Fatal rate [*Requires certain skills and conditions to trigger]
• Avoid: (Unit’s Speed x 2) + Terrain Avoid
• Fatal avoid: Enemy’s Fatal rate – User’s Luck
• Battle Speed: Speed – (Weapon’s Weight – Half of user’s Strength) [*Minimum value is 0]

At the very bottom of an example of Class Changing. Unlike Fire Emblem, you can upgrade to a promoted class at any Level. Otherwise, everything is pretty much the same.

Although promoted units gain experience at a slower rate (60% of what a non-promoted unit would gain), characters with the “Diligence” skill can gain experience at the normal rate.

Status Conditions: These are divided into good and bad. Bad status conditions can disappear after a number of turns or by using certain items.

The Good

• Natural Recovery: Recover 5 HP for 5 turns
• Power Up: Boosts all combat stats by 3 points; effect decreases by 1 each turn
• Defence Boost: Boosts Defence by 5 points; effect decreases by 1 each turn
• Resistance Boost: Boosts Resistance by 5 points; effect decreases by 1 each turn
• Movement Boost: Boosts Movement by 1 point; persists for 10 turns

The Bad

• Sleep: Unit cannot act for 3 turns
• Silence: Unit cannot use magic or staves for 3 turns
• Paralyse: Unit cannot use physical weapons or items for 3 turns
• Numbness: Unit cannot use physical weapons or items for 1 turn
• Berserk: Unit attacks allies and enemies indiscriminately for 3 turns
• Poison: Unit takes 3 damage for 8 turns

Skills: These come in three flavours: Class-based skills, Personal skills and Weapon skills. Skills can also be learned by leveling up, changing classes or using certain items. All skills are divided into the following:

1. Offensive Skills: These can trigger when attacking an enemy, eg. Fatal Attack and Adept.
2. Counter-attack Skills: These can trigger when the enemy attacks, eg. Vantage and Wrath.
3. Defensive Skills: These always trigger when the enemy attacks, eg. Shieldbearer and Magic Shield.
4. Special-command Skills: These trigger when selected as a command, eg. Lockpick and Invigorate.
5. Auto Skills: These are passive, eg. Leadership I, Charisma and Celerity. Passive skills can stack.

Battle Map: This page shows the various menus during the battle map.

Map Menu

• Objective: Shows the player, enemy and ally numbers, victory conditions, defeat conditions, turn number and Dena (currency).
• Options: Adjust various gameplay options (see later).
• Load: Load save file.
• Unit list: View a list of all deployed units, as well as characters they can talk to.
• End turn: End your current turn and proceed to the enemy’s turn.

Unit Commands

First, here are the general commands you’ll be using a lot:

• Attack: Attack an enemy with the selected unit and weapon.
• Staff: Use a staff on a selected target.
• Item: Change the unit’s equipped weapon or use/discard items.
• Trade: Swap items with an adjacent unit.
• Stock: Only available for the main character. Manage the army’s item convoy.
• Wait: End the unit’s individual turn.

Next are the situational commands:

• Talk: Speak to various units on the map. You can persuade enemies to join your side, as NPCs or withdraw from battle or speak to NPCs to gain items.
• Visit/Info/Village: Obtain information (and sometimes items) from certain houses and villages. Be wary as some enemies can destroy villages.
• Shop: Buy/sell items or weapons. There are also “Rare Shops” with valuable stock.
• Bridge: Units with the Lockpick skill can lower drawbridges.
• Door: Units with the Lockpick skill or a Door Key can open doors.
• Chest: Units with the Lockpick skill or a Chest Key can open chests.
• Seize/Occupy: Only available for the main character (in general). Doing this usually completes the map.

Battle Preparations

• Map: View the map before the battle. Sometimes enemies may appear after the mission begins.
• Re-position Units: Change the positions of the units in the map. Leader units are fixed and cannot be moved.
• Battle Preparations: See below

• Sortie: Select the units to participate in the map.
• Item Management: Here you can store items, trade items, reorder units, check units and sell unwanted items.
• Begin: Start the chapter.
• Mini-Map: Check the geography of the battle map at a glance. No units appear.
• Save: Save the game.

Terrain: A list of the terrain types, as well as their entry costs and benefits.

Type	Icon(s)	Plains	Waste	Forest	Thick	Cliff	Mt.	Desert	Shore	Peak	Water
Bonus	–	0%	0%	20%	30%	0%	25%	0%	0%	30%	25%
Standard		1	2	2	x	x	4	2	3	x	x
Light Soldier		1	1	2	x	4	3	2	4	x	x
Knight		1	2	3	x	x	4	2	4	x	x
Heavy Soldier		1	3	4	x	x	x	2	3	x	x
Light Rider		1	1	2	x	x	4	2	2	x	x
Rider		1	2	2	x	x	5	3	3	x	x
Priest		1	1	2	x	x	3	1	3	x	x
Rogue		1	1	2	4	3	3	1	2	x	x
Mountaineer		1	2	2	x	3	2	2	3	4	x
Seafarer		1	2	2	x	x	4	2	2	x	2
Aerial		1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

Terrain marked with a black star cannot be entered, while terrain with a double question mark (??) may trigger something interesting.

Support Effects: As you’re probably used to by now, certain characters perform better when fighting near other characters. These so-called “support effects” also stack with other supportive effects, such as passive skills.

There are three types:

• Friendship, Loyalty, Familial Love: Hit rate and Avoid +5, Fatal +3
• Love, Strong Loyalty: Attack and Defence +1, Hit rate and Avoid +10, Fatal +6, Fatal avoid +3
• Guardian: Defence +2, Avoid +15, Fatal avoid +6

Game Options: Here, we see various game settings that you can access via the Map Menu during the middle of a chapter.

• Background Music: Volume: 100% by default; can be changed in increments of 25%.
• Sound Effect Volume: 75% by default; can be changed in increments of 25%.
• Voice Volume: This game doesn’t include Voice, so changing this does nothing.
• Real Battle Style: On by default. “On” shows battle scenes, while “Off” shows map battles.
• Auto Turn End: On by default. After moving every playable character, the player’s turn automatically ends.
• Enemy Turn Skip: Off by default. Skips the entire enemy phase.
• Map Grid: Off by default. Displays a grid on the map.
• Unit Speed: Slow by default. Affects the speed that units move on the map.
• Message Speed. Slow by default. Affects the speed that text is displayed during messages.
• Unit Status: On by default. Displays a unit’s status in the Unit Menu.
• Load Command: On by default. Enables the “Load” command from the Map Menu.
• Auto Cursor: On by default. At the start of each turn, the cursor moves straight to the Leader Unit.
• Mouse Controls: Off by default. Enables mouse controls (not supported by this game).
• Mouse Cursor Tracking: Off by default. Automatically tracks the mouse cursor  (not supported by this game).

Early-game Characters: A look at the characters you meet during the early stages of the game. Divided into three pages. If I have time (and people are interested), I’ll cover this in a separate article.

Early-game Data: A list of classes, skills, weapons, magics/staves and items you may encounter up to Map 5. A full list will be included in a future “Database” page. As such, I’ll leave this out for now.

Contact: Fans can use this form to message Mr. Kaga. Keep in mind that since it’s a free game, there is no user support. In addition, don’t expect any replies. Instead, there may be announcements or updates on the website.