This is the latest game in the long-running SaGa series, starting on the original GameBoy. For SaGa fans, it continues the tradition of difficult turn-based combat with a variety of party members across multiple worlds/universes running the gamut of robots, monsters, humans, and vampires and draws combat elements from previous games like a Great Hits compilation to create an RPG with immense customization and depth. Compared to other modern RPGs, it noticeably has a small budget; some critical story moments are voiced, along with combat call outs and quips, but the majority of the dialogue is text-only.

For SaGa fans, the design philosophy feels closest to Saga Frontier 1: you select between starting characters with individual story lines who travel across multiple worlds and who share some but not all of the same recruitable characters. The story pacing follows the old design of stringing short dialogue scenes between combat, with cutscenes an affair of still slideshow images. If the hours of cutscenes of modern RPGs a turn-off for you, this is up your alley. In contrast to the visuals, the audio is quite outstanding; headphones are recommended. Diva's final battle music is my highlight, blending the rapid-fire techno soul of Saga Frontier's T260G Carnage Heart track with a more traditional vocal folk-song to make a fitting thematic and climactic end for her storyline. Party preparation and turn-based combat are the core meat of the game.

While each character has their own main story, the worlds you choose to visit each have their own storyline which will play out differently depending on your character and story decisions and will impact item rewards and which, if any, characters choose to leave their world to join your quest.

The main story length can vary quite widely based on your choices to pursue side areas. Most playthroughs were in the 15 hour range when pursuing all side options. I found the witch-in-training, Ameya, to be the shortest; My first playthrough was about two hours, in which I discovered that the game actually lets you choose the dialogue option to leave a kid alone in his frozen world because he doesn't have the cat you're looking for and skip an entire world of content and I quickly earned a bad ending as a power-crazed catmonger. If you are used to Dragon Quest ignoring your choice if you pick the No option, you are warned!

For the longest playthrough, Siugnas the vampire clocked in over 30 hours. As the sole vampire in the game, he can make any human party member into a Thrall or Blood Knight to gain power. Amusingly he can do this with minor NPCs before exiting many of the worlds, leading to brief scenes of loyalty oaths only to never to be seen again. You'll forever keep the Life Point gains though, mwahaha.

For those of you familiar with Shin Megami Tensei the high difficulty level will be familiar, but one critical difference is that the player sees the timeline of actions and the name of the abilities the enemies will be performing. This information is vital, and will test your decision making each turn like each differently shaped block in Tetris.

Maybe two enemies are side-by-side, creating an attack combo. Maybe you have a plant-girl with stun to stop the enemy combo before it begins, but is she fast enough in the timeline to act before the enemy? If not, you may want a katana carrying edgelord to use an Interrupt to break the chain. Pro-active defense is critical because there are NO healing options in the game. You will learn quickly after you unwittingly leave an enemy alone on the timeline to activate Showstopper and witness your first TPK. And if you can't prevent the combo, you may be better off using active Protect skills like Deflect, or debuff the enemy's attack power. (Psst, debuffs last the entire battle. Use them early and often!)

Despite your best efforts, you will see members KO'd in combat. Thankfully, fighting with 2/5 of a team isn't hopeless. Lone members can activate Showstopper mode more easily when the field is empty, hitting above their weight class to stand toe-to-toe with bosses. In addition, your actions per turn are based on spending BP, a shared resource that refills at the start of each turn. With less people to spend BP, your surviving members can use more powerful attacks. These systems work together as a counter-balance over the course of the fight, so even when things are dire you can turn it around. You will win boss fights by the skin of your teeth when your last mole monster stands up on his shaky little legs at 10% health and pulls 5 killer moves out of his ass in Showstopper mode, so don't give up!

Once you master the system, you will turn the chaos of battle into an orderly march to victory. The first time you land a 5x combo double-overdrive by internalizing knowledge earned over dozens of battles to turn defeated enemies mid-combo into stepping stones to extend your attack chain further (with the right circumstances and a little luck), you'll bask in the glow as your team turns into a perfectly oiled warmachine.

Firstly, formations. There are a variety of formations to tweak your playstyle. Read the descriptions, because many also weight the timeline in different directions; Last Stand will put most of your party at the end of the turn, so unless you have high initiative techs or Interrupts to break enemy combos, you'll be a sitting duck when the enemy team strikes first.

Secondly, party and equipment. Robots Tech moves are tied to specific equipment, humans learn Custom Techs, monsters learn Techs from defeating monsters. Ephemerals grow more powerful the longer they live, and learn special Techs when they die and spawn a new Generation. If you transform a human into a vampire knight they will lose the ability to learn and even use previously learned Custom Techs, so keep that in mind.

Compared to previous games in the series, balance for all racial types are quite good, particularly for monsters who have suffered in previous games. Everyone but robots gain stats from battle, robot stats are tied to upgrading equipment. Monsters have the largest move pool by gaining physical and magical Techs from defeated enemies, but you will have to recapture previous skills via combat later if you decide to change abilities. Humanoids equip armor to min-max defenses for particular situations. Robots are immune to almost all status effects. Choices feel impactful yet balanced.

I have enjoyed auto-battle in RPGs like Dragon Quest 11, but this game really revealed to me that games use auto-battle as a crutch because the majority of battles were solved by using the same move on your fighter, mage, and cleric. At that point many turn-based games become little more than repetition and drudgery for which auto-battle is a band-aid. Kudos to the design team here for tearing the band-aid off and wrestling with the difficulties of creating an engaging turn battle head-on.

In its own way, the combat became story for me. I'll never forget the time the incarnation of Hate annihilated Tsuninori with the Absetzen technique, only for the puppet Musashi to instantly Mimic the move and end the Boss on the same turn. Thank you lizardman Nitram for giving your life to Deflect a freaking firestorm to buy Guinevere one more turn to complete her spell and win the battle. I enjoyed my time in the game immensely and look forward to experimenting with more teams in future playthroughs, and maybe you will too!

BRUSQUE SLICE IS BACK

Do not start with Diva unless you want your first run to be hell. The Steam demo is very deceptive.

Start with Mido or Ameya

I write this after having finished Diva no. 5's scenario. I think beating one character is enough to get a feel for what this game is all about.
I'm a long-term SaGa fan, since I first played SaGa Frontier back on the Playstation One. It has remained one of my favorites. This detail is relevant because Emerald Beyond definitely brings back some elements from Frontier, such as the wacky Sci-fi/fantasy setting, different worlds, and the different races. Otherwise, the game is functionally quite similar to SaGa Scarlet Grace.

This game, I would say, is one of the smoothest and most comfortable SaGa games that I've played. The menus, tutorials, and design are all made for a pretty enjoyable experience. However, there are the usual SaGa elements such as steep difficulty curves and having to figure out all the nuances of the battle system so that you can beat difficult encounters (how about that final boss of Diva's scenario, eh? No joke...)

SaGa games can be quite difficult to get into, but if you've played Scarlet Grace, you should feel at home with this game. There are some changes they've made that put Emerald Beyond above Scarlet Grace, in my opinion. It has mainly to do with the setting, worlds, and focus on dialogue. Emerald Beyond has probably the most dialogue and characterization of any SaGa game, and I've found it very enjoyable. The stories are bite sized and also still have all the SaGa quirks, good and bad, but I have thoroughly enjoyed this new focus.

The battle system has proven to be deep and nuanced, even if it has been streamlined a bit since Scarlet Grace, and some may not like the changes. But I love the higher focus on combos. Later on, you will be having combos on top of combos on top of interrupts on top of conditionals. It can get pretty crazy.

Generally, the battle system they've created for Scarlet Grace and Emerald Beyond is one of the best turn-based battle systems ever created. The only issue is that the game is very combat focused, so after a while it's good to take a break and come back the next day or two.

I definitely recommend people to try the game. SaGa is one of my favorite weird little obscure RPG series, and Emerald Beyond is definitely in true form for the series. It's also pretty accessible this time around, at least comparatively for the series. The game is, however, relatively low-budget, and this is pretty obvious. But they did a great job doing all they could to make the game true to the series while also being accessible for newcomers. This is just the nature of the series, as it is quite niche.

I spent hundreds of hours replaying characters in SaGa Frontier, so I wonder how many hours I'm going to sink into this game, with all its multiple endings and branching paths. I'm also looking forward to chaining overdives beyond 2. That sounds kinda crazy.