History YMMV / SacredEarthSeries

! Sacred Earth - Promise
* GameBreaker:
** Relima's Inspire skill fills up everyone's EX by 10, and while it has a long cooldown time, it can be significantly reduced by having Relima use EX Recover as much as possible. This makes it easy for characters to dish out EX Arts on the first round of combat, making quick work of random mobs.
** The Boost mechanic gives the party a buff at the start of battle while healing their LP and EP, all for 10 TP. This effect is far more powerful than the effects of bonus nodes, making it preferable to choose to gain TP at these nodes rather than the bonus effect. The only catch to the Boost mechanic is that it's only usable on normal encounters.
** The stackability of Freeze, Blind, and defensive debuffs can help the player maximize their damage output. With the right setup, it's possible to deal over 18k damage to the FinalBoss on Nightmare.
* ScrappyMechanic: While the game is beatable on all difficulties, there is no way to display the current status effects of the enemies, making it harder to read the flow of battle and make informed decisions.
* SequelDifficultyDrop: This game is generally much easier than ''Sacred Earth - Memory'' and ''Sacred Earth - Bonds'', even on the highest difficulty.
** Support Ether Arts don't use up a turn, but they still increase EX.
** In ''Memory'', skill and stats have to be allocated through player choice. In this game, all base stat gain and skill gain is predetermined, with the customization being handled by the Ether Gem system. This functions like equipment rather than permanent skill or stat allocation.
** The Boost mechanic heals the party and buffs their stats for the next encounter, making it easier to overcome the difficulty jump of new dungeon.
** EX Heal no longer has to be chained from another action and is instead a turnless action, making it combinable with Focus to increase the party's survivability.
** EX Arts require 25 EX, which can be reached very quickly depending on the player's actions. In contrast, Bursts in ''Bonds'' and ''Memory'' require three BP, and you can only get 1 BP per normal attack or strike chain. This means the player can reach their EX Arts much faster.
** {{Limit Break}}s in ''Promise'' require four uses of EX Arts, but require ten Outbursts in ''Bonds''. ''Memory'' requires specific party members to have certain Command skills active before their combined LimitBreak can be used.
* ThatOnePuzzle: The music puzzles in Filbumvetir Forest are usually merciful enough to provide color cues in case the player can't differentiate the music notes, but the optional flowerless gate has a less obvious solution than the mandatory gates. Worse yet, last puzzle in the forest's hidden looping room has no color cues. While the flowerless gate and looping room are optional, they're still required for the true ending. This is somewhat fixed by an update that adds color cues to the looping room.
* UselessUsefulSpell: Priel has the Tremor spell, which inflicts Hamper on an enemy. The status ailment lowers the target's speed, but also raises their defense, which actually works against Priel's playstyle because she's mainly a physical attacker. Tremor[=/=]Hamper become obsolete once Relima joins the party, since she can just inflict a standard speed debuff without increasing the enemy's defense.
* WakeUpCallBoss: Balcruade and Zuleika are far more difficult than the Beholder boss, since they can easily exploit your characters' elemental weaknesses. The battle serves to teach the player how to do the same to them, as well as how to use auras to cover elemental weaknesses.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: This game is generally much easier than ''Sacred Earth: Memory'', even on the highest difficulty. In ''Promise'', buffs don't use up turns, there is no ATB to make life harder for slow characters, all skill gain is predetermined, the Boost mechanic makes it easier to maintain HP and EP in dungeons, and EX Heal makes it much easier to recover from powerful enemy attacks.

* SequelDifficultySpike: Veili and Gunnar don't start with any aura EP Arts, which means they can't cover each other's elemental weaknesses. Additionally, Veili can only buff KNW while Gunnar can only buff POW, despite them specializing in POW and KNW respectively. This means if one of them falls before the other can be buffed, the survivor will have a harder time dealing with the enemies. However, the reroll feature for encounters and traps, along with Link Attacks, mitigate the difficulty increase slightly.

** The Freeze ailment lowers both physical and magic defense, making it more versatile than the standalone defensive debuffs. These can also stack to help the player maximize Exceed Limit damage.

* ThatOnePuzzle: The music puzzles in Filbumvetir Forest are usually merciful enough to provide color cues in case the player can't differentiate the music notes, but the optional flowerless gate has a less obvious solution than the mandatory gates. Worse yet, last puzzle in the forest's hidden looping room has no color cues. While the flowerless gate and looping room are optional, they're still required for the true ending.

* WakeUpCallBoss: Balcruade and Zuleika are far more difficult than the Beholder boss, since they can easily exploit your characters' elemental weaknesses. The battle serves to teach the player how to do the same to them, as well as how to use auras to cover elemental weaknesses.

** The Boost mechanic gives the party a buff at the start of battle while healing their LP and EP, all for 10 TP. This effect is far more powerful than the effects of bonus nodes and less random, making it preferable to choose to gain TP at these nodes rather than the bonus effect. The only catch to the Boost mechanic is that it's only usable on normal encounters.

* ScrappyMechanic: The effects from the bonus nodes are usually worse

* GameBreaker: Relima's Inspire skill fills up everyone's EX by 10, and while it has a long cooldown time, it can be significantly reduced by having Relima use EX Recover as much as possible. This makes it easy for characters to dish out EX Arts on the first round of combat, making quick work of random mobs.

* UnderusedGameMechanic: There are map nodes where the player can choose to receive either a bonus or additional TP. However, due to the Boost mechanic buffing the party on top of healing their LP and EP, these nodes are better used for TP than bonus effects.

* ThatOnePuzzle: The music puzzles in Filbumvetir Forest are usually merciful enough to provide color cues in case the player can't differentiate the music notes, but the last puzzle in a hidden ruin has no color cues. While the puzzle is optional, it's still required for the true ending.

* GameBreaker: Relima's Inspire skill fills up everyone's EX by 10, and while it has a long cooldown time, it can be significantly reduced by having Relima use EX Recover as much as possible. This makes it easy for Priel and Perrine to dish out EX Arts on the first round of combat, making quick work of random mobs.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Priel has the Tremor spell, which inflicts Hamper on an enemy. The status ailment lowers the target's speed, but also raises their defense, which actually works against Priel's playstyle because she's mainly a physical attacker. Tremor[=/=]Hamper become obsolete once Relima joins the party, since she can just inflict a standard speed debuff without increasing the enemy's defense.