Having grown up in the 90s, the Golden Age of Square RPGs, I became incredibly familiar with many of the developer’s heavy hitters – the Mana, Chrono, and Final Fantasy franchises. The one that always eluded me was the SaGa series, having only a passing familiarity with the games, barely more than just “yes, they exist.” With last year’s reveal of a brand new game, SaGa Emerald Beyond, and all of the remasters that are now easily playable, I resolved that 2024 would be my year to play some SaGa games, and having played Emerald Beyond, what I can say is that “man, this wasn’t what I was expecting.”
For a long time, I was on the fence about whether or not I would do an actual review for Emerald Beyond. It was a game that I bounced HARD off of the first ten hours of and had a tough time dealing with, but it was also one that every SaGa fan I spoke with had fallen in love with. A prevailing statement I kept hearing was that the SaGa games were divisive and polarizing, with people who liked SaGa really liking them and the folks that didn’t, well, didn’t. It’s a passionate fanbase, and I’ll give them that. I wanted to be in that club. So I pushed through, and after a dramatic readjustment and level setting of my expectations from Emerald Beyond, I came out the other side with an appreciation of some parts and an indifference bordering on disappointment on others.
On the scale between novice and expert, I would place myself far closer to the expert side of things, especially with RPGs. Yet, even I struggled to grasp Emerald Beyond’s multiple systems and mechanics. Much of this headache comes from a somewhat lacking and confusingly laid out Tips and Glossary section. It wasn’t uncommon for me to have to spend nearly a minute bouncing around from topic to topic to find the answer I sought, with it more often than not leading to a still vague revelation, if there was one at all.
One such example is Emerald Beyond’s item trading, which is the answer to your traditional RPG shops. There’s a brief explanation describing something akin to an auction house, where I can post items on a board and eventually receive offers for items in return. I couldn’t tell you if the offers are random if there was any way to get certain resources to be offered, or if there is any benefit to increasing your trade level outside of being able to offer more items up for trade.
Another perplexing omission that I never came to grips with is the apparent lack of bestiary or scan ability that could give you details on the foes you face. Attacks in Emerald Beyond can have all manner or properties associated with them, like slashing or piercing, or abilities that harness the elements of nature. All of that is great, and the large amount of skills your party members can learn provides you with a lot of optimization potential. Still, without a resource or the ability to discover your enemy’s weaknesses, that potential is hampered. It makes what could have been a great strategic element into a chore that requires outside information.
After locking in to give it another honest try, the biggest turnaround from my old opinion of was Emerald Beyond’s campaigns and writing. I was aggressively annoyed with it. I couldn’t stand the odd phrasing of lines, the out-of-nowhere remarks from characters, and the rather nonsensical flow of the stories, all of which are presented in static conversations between two images against a backdrop. I had just assumed that, similar to Square’s other series, the SaGa games were more serious affairs and that Emerald Beyond had derailed from that course. An assumption I learned from friends was wrong, and that SaGa games tended to be more of this on-the-nose style and that Emerald Beyond wasn’t an outlier but a pretty solid example of the series.
I gave the strangeness more of a pass. I relaxed and let myself chuckle from time to time when the lines landed right, and I basked in the graces of the charm of the SaGa series. I wouldn’t say that I ever fell in love with the stories, writing, or its characters; I never found myself really invested in the goings-on of the Conjoined Worlds or the plight of the Dismal King and his Generals. Emerald Beyond expects you to playthrough each individual campaign multiple times, letting you unlock and experience slightly different events during each New Game+ run you complete. For those who love the stories and want more, Emerald Beyond rewards that dedication. I simply accepted them for what they were and left them at that, like an old man accepting the cringy music his grandchild listens to – I don’t have to like them, but I can accept that other people like it and be happy for them.
The stories are all presented through characters and NPC still pictures against various backdrops, more often than not, without being voiced. Even when parts are voiced, whether it’s in a story moment or at the end of combat, the character’s mouth won’t move. I don’t mind this approach, but its execution here just doesn’t quite hit what I expect out of a Square Enix game, and I wonder if it is due, at least in part, to Emerald Beyond also having been developed to be played on mobile devices and not strictly on PC and console.
By far, my favorite part of Emerald Beyond is its combat, and quickly scratched my grinding catharsis itch. SaGa staples Glimmer and Formation systems return, which sees your characters randomly devise new attacks mid-combat and reposition your party to receive different boons. However, the real showstopper is the inclusion of the battle timeline. Every attack that you and your enemies use will take up a certain amount of space on the Timeline, and by overlapping and lining up attacks with allies, you can cause special combos to take place, which can string together more attacks and is a crucial system to master. Seeing as enemies can also take advantage of this combo potential, you will need to take advantage of attacks that can interrupt attacks, delay their actions, or just devise some other way to insert some sort of breakup in their string and save your party.
While it took some time before I grasped the intricacies of everything in combat, I fell in love once it clicked – it’s spectacular. As an avid fan of grinding in RPGs, I especially appreciate Emerald Beyond allowing me to endlessly grind in special areas of each world I visit. This will give me more resources to enhance my gear, trade-off, Glimmer new attacks, and just try out strategies. Coming up with the best party makeup to make them as broken as possible never got old, and I was constantly chomping at the bit, waiting to learn the next move and see how I could work it into my flow.
SaGa Emerald Beyond is a game that, despite my issues, I came away appreciating far more the longer I played, and I owe a lot of that to my SaGa-loving friends whom I spoke to. While I admit I never ended up becoming invested in the personal stories of the protagonists, reframing my expectations at least allowed me to enjoy them enough for what they were. But there are other areas that I simply feel aren’t up to snuff for a Square Enix game, especially from one of its legacy properties. Pixel borders showing on the trophy graphics, compression artifacts on some character portraits, the floaty, almost ice-skating-like disconnect with the movement while navigating the area maps, and of course, the previously mentioned lack of a bestiary. I don’t know how much of this results from the game having to be made for so many platforms, including mobile iOS and Android devices, but I hope that the next game can ditch those platforms because I would love to see what a premium SaGa experience would look like. Issues aside, I still found myself feeling that tug to play more, to grind a bit more, to get that next weapon, and wanting to spend more time in the conjoined worlds. It may not be perfect, but SaGa Emerald Beyond has marked the beginning of my own SaGa adventure of experiencing more that this series has to offer.
