SaGa: Emerald Beyond

SaGa Emerald Beyond has a deep and satisfying combat system that gets its hooks into you from the jump. There's a lot of narrative content across its five adventures, as well as a diverse collection of characters, but very little that truly grips the attention.

SaGa Emerald Beyond is a bold celebration of the series' past and present, warts and all.

There really isn’t anything else like a SaGa game, and you will get your SaGa fix with SaGa Emerald Beyond.

This is a game that wants you to tinker and fail, before you “get it”. It’s also a game explicitly designed to be different every time you pick it up. With its disregard for convention and disinterest in “quality of life” guidelines, you could have a rough start. But there’s so much going on under the hood, so much charm in its presentation and fearlessness in its design, it’s easy to recommend even to folks who might be looking at me like a weirdo right now. SaGa Emerald Beyond comes with caveats like any other JRPG that isn’t the usual Final Fantasy or Persona blockbuster, but those caveats are in service of an experience you won’t find anywhere else.

It's hard not to suspect that deciding to put SaGa Emerald Beyond onto mobile gaming platforms hurt the game in many ways. From its lackluster art style, to a bevy of mostly un-engaging characters, the few hints of that Square Enix touch can't be found anywhere except within the cinematic combat moments and the length of the story overall. While interesting combat can carry a game a long way, there isn't enough of it to satisfy the majority of users. There will be some players who don't mind the pages and pages of dialogue, and won't care about the seemingly made-for-mobile art styles, but it's hard not to see these dragging SaGa Emerald Beyond down towards mediocrity and below.

SaGa Emerald Beyond is a peculiar game. It aimed to streamline a lot of Scarlet Grace, but they might have maybe gone a bit too far. At the same time, I wouldn’t call it safe either. The cast and setting are wonderfully bizarre, reminding me of SaGa Frontier in the best of ways. I had hoped this would have strived to be more of an evolution, and in reality, it’s more of an iteration. I say all of this and acknowledge all these complaints, but I still genuinely love this latest take on SaGa. It is iterating on gold, and there’s so much I either haven’t been able to figure out yet or just didn’t have time to delve into. These systems with a higher budget in presentation? You’d have an all-timer. I adore this series and think this is a great entry point for anyone looking for a systems-driven RPG that strives to be different. It’s ironic that the upcoming Romancing SaGa 2 remake is looking to be a step forward in what this series is capable of, but for all we know Emerald Beyond is a final hurrah for this style of SaGa game. I’m not going to complain about two SaGa games in one year, either.

At the end of the day, SaGa Emerald Beyond takes what worked in its predecessor and improves upon it, while bringing in touches of classic SaGa at the same time. With one of the best and most engaging battle systems out there, even the most seasoned RPGamers will find their skills tested.

SaGa Emerald Beyond provides an engaging RPG that takes you through five different stories and a complex battle system. By replaying stories and carrying over your experience, you can overcome previously insurmountable obstacles and view different endings. However, the emphasis on repetition and lack of information make this a hard game to master. You'll need to enjoy replaying stories multiple times and learning on the job to get real enjoyment out of the experience.

SaGa Emerald Beyond is a rollercoaster of feelings, despite the many problems I've had with it, it's a game I respect a lot and it has some very valuable things in it.

SaGa Emerald Beyond is a curious beast of a game. The global release, demo, and marketing would have you believe this is going to be an ideal game for newcomers. It's not. Making this your first SaGa title could easily put you off the franchise for life. It’s a quirky and obscure adventure where many of its mechanics are hidden. It feels completely random at times and you’ll be hours deep into it before you feel semi-competent at the battle system. As much of a “JRPG” as this is, it's not what most gamers would expect from a game of this genre at all. The game requires a lot of attention, experimentation, and tolerance for confusion. It’s tough for me to suggest to anyone who isn’t familiar with SaGa Scarlet Grace, even for those of you coming from Romancing SaGa or SaGa Frontier might not click with this one. Like most of the franchise, this is one you’ll either love or hate, and the fact that there's a demo will be invaluable here to many players.