LP

Life Points (LP) are an attribute which is a characteristic element of the SaGa series. As opposed to Weapon Points (WP), Spell Points (SP), Battle Points (BP) etc, they are constantly appearing in the games. While other video games may also use them, the SaGa series is special considering Life Points are not considered the same as Health/Hit Points (HP).

Explanation
In general, in all the games, regardless of what other uses the LP had, there always were a few similarities.
 * Whereas HP always was in high numbers (sometimes even reaching 999), LP always was short (barely ever exceeding 20).
 * Its number is fixed, aside from a few rare exceptions.
 * When it runs out, the character cannot be used until they rest at an inn; in certain cases, they are removed from the party altogether.
 * If a main character runs out of LP, it always means Game Over even if the rest of the party is alive.
 * When a character's HP drops to zero or his unconcious body gets attacked, they lose one LP.
 * A few opponents are capable of decreasing a character's LP even when their HP is intact.
 * Some spells or attacks may require LP to be cast.

Romancing SaGa
In Romancing Saga, there was no LP system, so no matter how many times the party members fell in battle they never get removed from the party. However, more work has to be put into keeping a character standing, since if they go down in battle they stay down for the remainder of the fight as healing does not work. In its remake, Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song, the game adopts the LP system.

Romancing SaGa 2
In Romancing Saga 2, LP is introduced to the series for the first time, where its basic function would shape future games in the series. In this the amount of LP depends on various classes and sometimes genders. Classes such as the Nereid and Ocean woman had an overall low LP count while classes like the Mountain Monk or Salamander had LP that ranged from 12 or higher. LP could be lost by either getting all HP depleted or getting hit while unconcious. Unlike future games in the series though LP can never be restored through sleeping in inns; instead rare LP-restoring potions were used to restore 1 LP per potion. There is one character who has maybe the highest LP count in the series as a whole: Coppelia coming in with 99.

Romancing SaGa 3
In Romancing Saga 3 LP would work very similar to how LP works in future games in the series here is the starting point of most of its current functions. LP amount varied between different characters but most had an LP count of 10 some characters had more Zo has the highest count in the game having 35 LP. LP decreased if a character lost all HP or is hit while unconcious some magic spells also made LP decrease such as dragon god the ultimate wind magic it makes the user have unlimited JP,WP,HP but if the person is hit they lose 1 LP,LP can be restored by simply going to an inn or using potions to restore them. One character that can never die to LP loss is Leonid as he is undead and has a total LP count of 0 so even if he goes down he would not be removed from the party but would simply be removed from the current battle being fought and return once its over.

SaGa Frontier 2
In Saga Frontier 2, LP was not as important. It decreased only when the character died, when the unconcious body was hit or if a specific opponent hit the character with a specific command. Additionally, you could choose to decrease the LP through the "Recover HP" command, which for the price of 1 LP recovered the character's entire HP between turns. You can also lose LP by performing an attack without having enough WP or SP to perform it, in which case the game would allow the player to perform the action regardless, but for the price of 1 LP. The enemies also had LP, however due to the fact that dealing direct LP damage to the enemy was a very rare instance and nearly all enemies had more than 1 LP, this was no way to eliminate enemies.

The English version of Saga Frontier 2 was a lot more challenging than the Japanese original. The enemies not only had more HP, stronger attacks, but in the case of the Final Boss, a lot of his attacks, which were weak in the original, were turned devastating by allowing them to deal direct LP damage with a 100% efficiency. This added with the fact that the main hero during the final Egg battle, Ginny Knights, did not posses a large amount of LP, forced players to take several precautions in order to have any chance of winning, such as giving her the "Wall" Role to reduce damage dealt to her, putting her in the back row or casting the Guardian Beast spell, which would be the only chance of avoiding the attacks of the enemy.

Unlimited Saga
In Unlimited Saga, the LP was as important as never before. The player started each quest with max HP/LP, and had to survive to the end without losing all LP. The only way to recover LP in the middle of a quest would be through using rare herbs, which could only be obtained during a quest in the Chapa village. As opposed to nearly all other video games, if a character had 0 HP, this would not mean his/her death. This confused a lot of players. In Unlimited Saga HP serves merely as a shield to protect the LP. As long as a character has full HP it's nearly impossible to deal LP damage to him/her, but should it drop to zero, then LP damage becomes much more likely. The game provides armor that has the "Life Protection" ability and the Endurance attribute, which both provide higher protection against the lose of LP.

All enemies can only be defeated by deminishing all of their LP (the only exception being using an instant death spell or weapon skill on them).

Since protecting LP became such an important factor, the game provides several ways to recover HP to be able to protect one's LP: resting on the map (press R3) or having a character not participate in the current battle turn. Both these methods would recover a portion of the character's HP dependent upon the character's specific recovery rate (indicated by a letter grade), which added even more confusion to unfamiliar players.

===Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song === In the PS2 remake, LP was present. It mostly was lost due to fighting specific opponents and falling in combat or the unconcious body being attacked. But it also was used as an alternative to DP if the weapon one was using was Martial Arts or Magic. Legendary weapons also applied to this and consumed LP instead of DP.

Enemies also posses LP. Just like in Unlimited Saga, aside from instant death attacks, only possibility to kill an enemy was to damage his/her/it's LP, however this did not mean that droping it's LP to zero was necesarry. Due to a weird design decicion, at least 1 LP would be lost by the enemy upon death, since the LP ammount they had was far greater than that 1 point, we can be sure that the LP the enemy lost is not the reason for it's death but rather a reaction to it, yet it still leaves one wondering if such a thing was necessary.

Also if a character looses all LP, he/she dies and is gone permanently (unless it's to be the main character, then it's Game Over). There is however a way, if the player visits The Netherworld and talks to Death, the fallen characters can be revived, but only for the prize of 1 LP of the main character being lost permanently. The game also features as only the possibility to increase one's LP. If one accomplishes the Fairies' Grove quest, the main character's LP will increase by 2 permanently.