7th Saga “No items” playthrough

I felt like doing something a bit different with 7th Saga as part of my 10-year subscriber special, so I decided to attempt to play through the entire game while only using items when absolutely mandatory. To stay in the spirit of the challenge, I also did not use the tune-up glitch with Lux. This playthrough absolutely required Valsu, as his Elixir spell in the only feasible way to sustain yourself through dungeons and long boss fights, and he is the only person capable of using Agility. I needed to recruit a partner at two points, and would ideally end with either Olvan or Kamil. I need a partner who can do damage and is also capable of reviving Valsu. As Kamil was the traitor in this run, I had to recruit Olvan (who also happened to have the Sky Rune!)

I will be allowing myself to sell items that I collect, and will also allow myself to change equipment in the item menu (to equip things like Ice Cloak and Ring/Amulet). This isn’t a total lockout on the item menu.

 

Links: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Detailed item restriction breakdown

For maximum clarity, below is a breakdown of all of the allowed/disallowed items.

Forbidden items

None of these items are allowed to be used at any point, for any reason:

  • Any healing items (Potn 1-3, MHerb 1-2, Recovery, Antid, M Water)
  • Any runes in the present era
  • Any runes in the past that debuff or damage Gorsia: Moon, Wind, Star, Sky, Water.
  • Buffing items (B.Power, B.Protect, B.Agility, etc)
  • Winball (teleport between towns)
  • Permanent stat-boosting seeds
  • Harps and mirrors (prevents instant death and reflects petrify, respectively).  Though these items are not actively used by the player, they are used.
  • Exigate (exit dungeon)
  • The Whistle
  • Any offensive items (B.Ice, B.Fossil, etc)
  • RemoteControl and/or Key of Brilliance are not allowed to be used. When you reach Bone, there are three possible paths for proceeding to the northern portion of the continent, depending on which character interacts with the child there (or another NPC, if you’re Olvan). If Esuna or Lux talk to Perole, he will ask them to bring him to Bonro and you’ll take a boat to Pandam. Everybody else gets the RemoteControl to use in a nearby cave to take a submarine to Dowaine. The RemoteControl is an item, and cannot be used, so we must recruit either Lux or Esuna and have them trigger the boat event.

 

Permitted items

The following items must be used to proceed with the story:

  • Key of Earth: opens a locked gate in the Earth Cave so we can proceed to Bonro.
  • Jail key: Used to release the prisoner in Bilthem to get the Star.
  • Star: Required to make Doros tangible. It is not possible to damage him otherwise.
  • Moonlight: Required to make Gariso visible/tangible.
  • Wizard Rune (past): Required to make Gorsia visible/tangible.
  • Light Rune (past): This is required in order to damage Gorsia.

Potentially-permitted items

There are some items that are a bit hazier and I am uncertain if I’ll allow myself to use them or not:

  • The Map. This gives little in-game benefit, and can be substituted with outside resources, though it’d be a bit more annoying to use.
  • Gems (Opal, Topaz, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond). These don’t have a direct gameplay impact, but they do allow me to purchase items late-game. I am allowing myself to sell items and equip items from the item menu, so this isn’t really much different except that I am actively buying them instead of finding them.

Update: I have allowed myself to use the map and gems

Consequences of this restriction set

Cannot quick-travel between towns. Without access to the Wind Rune or Winball, we need to walk between every town. When we need to find a partner (Esuna/Lux to get to northern continent, Sky Rune apprentice, Olvan/Kamil for end-game), we will need to basically camp out near a cluster of nearby towns and fight around until the apprentices change location, and then hope they show up and have a favorable interaction. When we get Esuna/Lux and it is time to bring Perole to Bonro, we need to walk all the way back through Melenam from Bone on foot. Once we crash the ship on the new continent from Brush, we cannot ever return to the mainland.

Cannot use seeds to boost stats. Manipulating seed rolls can account for several extra levels worth of stats by the middle of the game. We can’t use those. I will almost-definitely be saving before levels and trying to manipulate the raw levels to get 5 speed and a high magic stat, otherwise I’ll be stuck for a long time.

Cannot debuff Gorsia. He is going to beat the shit out of me and I’m just going to have to sit there and take it. I don’t think there is any way to survive a physical hit from him without debuffs, and I don’t think I’ll be able to dodge.

No convenient and consistent access to S.Brains. Because of the teleport restriction, we also can’t S.Brain farm efficiently because their island is on the other side of a dungeon from the nearest inn. They appear elsewhere, but with other bad enemies and less frequently. I will need a lot of levels, so the mid-game leveling will be very slow.