Generation Mechanics

Imperial Succession, also known as the Generation Mechanics, are gameplay mechanics in Romancing SaGa 2. It often overlaps with Succession.

Overview
Unlike other games in the SaGa series, Romancing SaGa 2 is a game that tells the story of an empire rather than focusing in on a single cast of characters. As part of the mechanic to support this concept, every so often after certain events, the game will move forward in time by several decades, leading to a new generation.

In this instance, the player will be given the chance to pick a new emperor, and assemble a brand new team around this new emperor.

The following effects can happen when a generation skips:
 * All playable characters will shuffle forward to the next person on the class list, giving you new characters of the existing classes.
 * All fusion magic that you have researched in the last generation will be finished by this generation
 * All new techs you have sparked in the last generation will be recorded in the dojo, allowing you to teach them to your new team.
 * All newly developed armor and weapons in the last generation will become common place and be available for sell in all stores that are in territories you control.

Achieving a generation skip
Not all events will lead to a generation skip. The mechanics of doing so operates on the 8-15 principle. The core concept behind is this is that all events you complete have a set event point value to it. Whenever you complete an event, the game checks to see for a generation jump.
 * The 8-15 principle

Basic Principles

Whenever you get a black screen with some texts informing you of the completion of an event, you are faced with possibility that you will make a generation skip. Whether or not you get a skip depends on a number of conditions.
 * There are two situations where you will get a generation jump regardless of other conditions
 * If you have defeated five or more of the Seven Heroes. (This prompts the final emperor to appear) This disregards the event point value and forces the final emperor to appear.
 * If your current generation has a combined event point value of 15 or more.
 * If your current generation point value is between 8-14, whether or not you get a generation jump will be determined by your battle count.
 * In this scenario, the game will take a look at your battle count first.
 * If the battle count is above 240, it will cause a jump
 * If it's below or equal to 240, it will divide the number by 16 and take the remainder. \
 * If the remainder if larger than the pre-black screen event point number, then you will get no jump
 * If the remainder is smaller than the pre-black screen number, then you will get a jump.
 * If your current generation event point value is below 8, then the game will continue as normal.

Years skipped
When you get a generation skip, the number of years that is skipped is dependent on the number of the battles you've had in this generation. Keep in mind, number of years skipped has no other mechanical implications other than a cosmetic year count.