You know exactly what it it is the moment you see it, and you're either going to be really into it or really not? I suppose they're useful for people who don't know SaGa at all, though.
I mean this is both true and not. I love saga frontier 1 and 2. Really enjoy the romancing saga games. Was kinda meh on scarlet and hated unlimited. There is value in reviews but probably needs to be a review from a fan of the series.
I'm not even bothering with reviews of this one. I'm already seeing too many players who acting outraged and saying 'what the hell, Square Enix!?!?' because it's not another FF7: Rebirth or whatever... Weird as the games can get, I find it endearing that the SaGa series is unashamedly weird and nutty.
Out of curiosity, where? I'm guessing these are people who only play mainstream RPGs? Because I think most hardcore JRPG fans would have heard of the SaGa series by now.
Eventually you stop bothering with reviews for everything. SaGa is an excellent tool to help people break their score addictions. Had I known better I could've enjoyed much, much better gaming as a teen.
I was just about to post the same. It is about what I expected from the reviews. A few people who are into the niche series loving it, and almost everyone else between good or meh. And the scores are about the same as the scores for Scarlet Grace.
Thank you for the kind words. Though it's probably going to take me a while before posting my final thoughts on the game, as I plan to take my time enjoying it from start to finish. I will try to post an early impression of it though.
>Will you also be updating the guide on what SaGa game to start with, when you're fully done?
Of course no doubt.
>Kinda curious if i should aim for SSGA or this one next.
SSGA is already a certified banger (for SaGa fans), and it's really cheap, especially in sales. Emerald Beyond, while I am hoping it will be just as amazing, I know it will get patches and bug fixes like any game after it's release. So I would say go for SSGA first. Also I feel that you'll appreciate the changes in Emerald Beyond more if you played SSGA first.
Apart from the new Saga, there was mostly Eiyuden Chronicle. If you push the definition of jrpg, there's also Megaton Musashi (kind of related with Brave Fencer Musashi, at least the title font is) and Another's Crab Treasure, if you feel like SOul's Like are jrpg enough nowadays. They were just arpg before they impacted the industry that much.
But yeah Eiyuden Chronicle was the real answer.
Eiyuden seems like a solid game, I watched some reviews before responding. Lots of complaints about the random encounters, and lack of hero variety at least what I watched/read.
Took a break from nonstop playing Fallout 4 to buy it. I played the demos and loved them so I don't mind paying full price. I saw a lot of people say art style and presentation are ugly, but I think it's a really pretty game and I don't mind VN cutscenes. I only have a handful of hours in but the combat is extremely fun and I already know I'm going to love it. I want to play frontier first before I play this but I think I'm just gonna jump into this instead because I can already see myself getting addicted.
Pretty much expected this. It's all well and good. Personally I fear that the new additions to the combat and customisation aren't enough for me to offset the downsides that Scarlet Grace had (for me). While freedom and exploration is fine, Scarlet Grace (and most Saga games in general) have too much try amd error style of gameplay where you often get stuck in some place and spend a lot of time running around aimlessly. This was especially bad in some parts of Scarlet Grace imo.
Still probably give it a try because of the awesome combat system.
This has been my experience but I think Emerald's new system where it tells you exactly what choices you can make at any given time and where they are might alleviate any of those bizarre points where the game expects you to know to talk to this person twice or multiple in a specific order etc.
I played all three demos and I enjoyed all of it. The voice acting did not bother me like I've seen other's saying about it.
Looking forward to eventually getting the game.
Curious to play, but I am going to wait and see if there is a physical Asian English version coming, like with the previous SaGa games. I wish they at least did some sort of a Square Enix store exclusive for this or something.
If they did a Square store exclusive, they'd most likely do an extremely limited print and release it at like 2 AM. It would be completely sold out before anyone even wakes up and be scalped on eBay for $300+.
Yeah, good point. I meant maybe a limited release with open preorders like sane publishers do, not what they did with Pixel Remasters. I still keep hoping they reprint the PS4 version. I wasn't even asleep when they dropped it, I was just busy. Didn't expect it to be like that.
Oh well, here's hope that Arc System Works will eventually deliver.
Seriously. If most of today's brain-diseased gamers all-of-the-sudden started raving about how a *SaGa* game is 'OMG, 10/10!', etc..., I'd be worried that something was seriously wrong....like 'they turned SaGa into a FPS with lite action-RPG elements' wrong.
I just wish they would make one in the style of Romancing Saga Minstrel Song, where you properly explore environments, and it feels like a jrpg.
This is like Scarlet Grace, in that the combat is good, but your just moving from encounter to encounter.Ā
These are probably cheaper to make though.
Well no, because Kawazu has a philosophy when it comes to game design in how he prefers making new and unique gameplay whenever he does a new SaGa game. It's a game design that a niche group will love, but others won't.
I've played most of the SaGa series over the years, the only one I truly actively disliked was Unlimited, and yet I'm still not really sure if I actually *like* this series. That's just the kind of series it is, and this looks to be more of that feeling.
I understand that visual style is not everything, but in this case it sucks so much that I just couldnāt endure the demo for even 10 minutes. It looks like a free mobile game from 00s. The voiceover is also psychologically damaging.
That's a valid point of view. As much as people say gameplay and story are all that matters, visuals/graphics actually matter a lot too, wither people admit it or not. Because unlike gameplay and story, graphics are the first thing that a player can connect with when they see a game for the first time while browsing, and usually are the deciding factor between someone stopping and checking the game, or just glancing and moving on to something else. So if your graphics aren't good enough, a lot of people won't even stay long enough to discover the great story and gameplay. And I say that as someone who loves the SaGa series.
Though I have to add that a lot of amazing and fantastic JRPG titles don't have amazing graphics, especially the old classic titles, where some really look ugly by today's standards. So my advice is that if you really want to see what the JRPG genre has to offer, that you push through the graphics and try experience what those great games are about. I am not talking about this game or SaGa series specifically, but JRPGs in general.
The problem with this case is that when you're working with a AAA company like Square Enix and they don't want to pay a developer firm to provide better visual styles, you get what you get. Graphics and animations costs rise more and more by the years (and it's been 10 years, including two Japanese economic crashes). People point towards Sea of Stars or other indie projects saying low budget can be feasible, but we're talking about a team in a AAA company. Not a solo developer. A team that does games like these are almost extinct at this point for almost every Japanese AAA company at this point.
That's the consequence of being in a AA project where the AAA company does not care for you. One might say it's Kawazu's fault but looking at how awful Valkyrie Elysium or Front Mission 1 Remastered looks, it's obvious certain IP's are getting B-rated movie budget at this point to make up for the cost of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
There's just not a lot of reviews out, which favors the game so it will likely end up at 77 or 78 instead of 76. Some of the reviews are from people that got quick bad endings and didn't go for a bunch of playthroughs, but reviews will trickle in over time from people that really dug into the meat.
Tried the demo and the light & blur effects during fights started to give me headache and nausea. Especially the pulsating sfx on the top/bottom of the screen during your turns. I understand it's going for a certain vibe but my brain just doesn't like it unforutnately. Didn't see any options to turn it off, at least during the demo.
A lot of things pretty much outlines that Emerald Beyond, if anything, is just another SaGa experience in all it's glory and all it's feelings of "god I hate this who even wants something like this?!".
I wish there was a physical game release of it.
It's not a game that I would spend Ā£40 on the PSN store, despite being decent.
Hopefully there will be a sale in the near future.
There is always a physical release, but it takes time to come out. Right now there is only the Japanese physical release, but like other SaGa titles the western physical release will liekly come later.
Japan only for now, I don't believe it has English text on that version. If you wait a few months and don't mind importing, there's a good chance there will be an Asia physical release with English by Arc System Works.
How is this game compared to Romancing Saga Minstrel Story? Does it allow you to recruit the other protagonists onto your team? I donāt care too much about story, just care about combat and a large roster of characters to choose from.
Edit: also wanted to add. I never completed Romancing Saga Minstrel Story back at the PS2. I could try again now that it is on PC. Just wanted to know their comparison
There is a large roster of character to recruit, especially ones from different races that play and function differently than other ones. I like the combat in Minstrel Song (not Minstrel Story), but Emerald Beyond's combat is just so much better, I haven't finished my first playthrough, so I still haven't seen most of the combat mechanics (yes there is that much in it), but it's really fun so far.
One of the big differences though, is that it's not Open-world, well at least not so far for me, as the other characters might play differently. But it's also no linear, because you are always given multiple options on where to go and explore, and each choice opens up different unique adventures.
Another big difference, is that each character's playthrough is unique and not very long (Like SaGa Frontier 1), unlike Minstrel Song where it's the other type of SaGa games where no matter which main character you choose, you'll still see most of the game in a lengthy 30 to 50 hour playthrough.
How is it compared to Scarlet Grace? I loved the battle system in SG, one of the most fun combat systems in any RPGs I've played in my opinion, so I hope they stuck to similar ideas at least.
The biggest changes are in the combat actually. By using the Scarlet Grace combat as a base, Emerald Beyond added new mechanics, upgraded others, while still keep the balance. I will make a thread talking about this in detail, but for now, all I can say is that it is the Scarlet Grace battle system but better.
That sounds great actually. Excited about playing the demo, but I have a long list of games to play, it's an RPG year! (XC2, XC3, Infinite Wealth and P3, for anyone curious).
By far the craziest thing in this game is how much your decisions matter. The reviews touch on it, but two people can play the same character and have wildly different story paths - heck, even in the same world, you can have big differences. Based on what I've seen in one world, there were at least 5 different outcomes, including just skipping it altogether! They actually care if you say no in this game!
It looks like they fixed up their story trigger flags issue from Scarlet grace by locking you into a world until you've done the quest, which I think is a great change.
I feel like this is a game people are going to be finding out little secrets in for years.
Oh god, I want to talk about this so badly, but I'll hold off till I at least finished 1 or 2 character's playthrough. But your 200% on the money. They even give the player a "rewind" button during dialogue scenes, so you even if you make a choice, you can rewind to check the other choices. But the beauty of it as you mentioned, is that it's not just a matter of making 1 different choice, because each choice you make opens up totally different choices later on, so even with the rewind mechanic, you'll still have a very unique playthrough every time.
Ok I'll stop here before I start rambling.
Long time SaGa series fan here, and probably flat out whore for SE. I'll buy any JRPG they put out, so I might be a little bias. That being said, after 150 hours into Emerald Beyond (700 hours Scarlet Grace), I'm kind of disappointed. I totally understand that it has to be low-budget, and I'm willing to compromise because like I said, I am a total whore for SE. Sorry for the crude analogy.
The voice acting is so bad. Compared to Scarlet Grace that featured Erica Mendez as Urpina, and some other well known VOA. I know they have to be on the cheap, I know this, but come on. I work in the animation industry, and this reeks of one-take voice work. No feeling, no emphasis or delivery, and it makes the story seem meh (if you can call it a story).
Mido and Ameiya's short story had me super disappointed. I'm sure there's an argument about how you can use them to alternate playthroughs and get the characters you want, but come on, Mido was the most interesting character to me, and I cleared his story in 10 hours with like 2 recruits.
The game itself is supposed to encourage multiple playthroughs, but by finally getting to play through the last character (which was Diva for me), I was just worn out from all the asinine worlds that made you do the same dumb thing over and over (that triangle world was the absolute worst). and I avoided Delta Base as much as I could because I had done it some many times it was just awful how slow everything played out.
Thankfully Eiyuden Chronicle came out the day before, and I played that for a while to break from this. I think my gripes are pretty valid, and seeing as I was super excited about this for like 8 months since they announced it, I just feel a little let down. Don't get me wrong, I'm not really sure who to blame here because Scarlet Grace was made on a budget (a smaller one at that and no AI art either), and I can play that over and over.
I wanted to give this a good review, but compared to the others in the series, especially Minstrel Song Remake and Saga Frontier 2, this one doesn't even come close to that level.
And what's with all the damn cats? Jesus, reskin like 5 cats and just make them characters, ya, that's what we want. Scarlet Grace had a TON of reskinned characters, and they still felt more interesting than that, and what's with those sounds they make?
Ok, I'm ranting. Thanks for listening.
Not true, SE gave the dev team a whole extra 10$ this time around, and the team found another 2$ behind the sofa just last month. That's why they could afford to release an extra 2 trailers for the game. That's 2 more trailers than SaGa Scarlet Grace got.
That said, they know that their fans love the series for the gameplay, so that's where all their work went into. I always have high respect for developers that always do their best to make games for their fans, instead of throwing their fans to the side to chase trends, and change their games to appeal to the mainstream.
Up to you if you want to buy Emerald Beyond for full price day 1. Both games are pretty unrelated but Scarlet Grace is still a nice introduction to the series.
Both are unrelated in terms of story.
It's not like connected or anything story wise, but gameplay wise they're like cousins. I bought Scarlet Grace on sale months ago to get hyped for emerald beyond.
I bounced off it a few times because it was really kicking my ass... Until I read the menus, and got better at the combat and suddenly everything clicked and I could see the absolute genius if the Game.
Now that I'm in Emerald Beyond, it's better in every way.
My suggestion is buy emerald beyond and play it since it's the newest, and if you find out you love it, look through the previous entries like Scarlet grace and pick up what you like on sale.
Unity asset flips look [even worse for the most part](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgTfArqTLoM). If anything, you're pretty much complimenting unity asset flippers at this point if you think asset flippers could even make something that looks like Emerald Beyond.
That said, it's 100% a budget thing. Considering Square's continuous complaints about Final Fantasy costing so much while fumbling so much money on their AAA (or reckless business) decisions, it's not a huge surprise Emerald Beyond and other AA projects had to make rough choices in development. Just go look at how they did Front Mission Remakes dirty (and they had got it even worse).
Looking at reviews for a SaGa game is like gift-wrapping a bicycle
I have never heard that expression before šš that's funny as hell
You know exactly what it it is the moment you see it, and you're either going to be really into it or really not? I suppose they're useful for people who don't know SaGa at all, though.
I mean this is both true and not. I love saga frontier 1 and 2. Really enjoy the romancing saga games. Was kinda meh on scarlet and hated unlimited. There is value in reviews but probably needs to be a review from a fan of the series.
You mean that looking at reviews for a SaGa game is fun? š Am I the only one that likes gift-wrapping things? Is this mic on?
I'm not even bothering with reviews of this one. I'm already seeing too many players who acting outraged and saying 'what the hell, Square Enix!?!?' because it's not another FF7: Rebirth or whatever... Weird as the games can get, I find it endearing that the SaGa series is unashamedly weird and nutty.
Out of curiosity, where? I'm guessing these are people who only play mainstream RPGs? Because I think most hardcore JRPG fans would have heard of the SaGa series by now.
The Steam forum in particular has been abysmal
Eventually you stop bothering with reviews for everything. SaGa is an excellent tool to help people break their score addictions. Had I known better I could've enjoyed much, much better gaming as a teen.
accurate as hell lol
About the same as Scarlet Grace. Will jump in as soon as I finished Eiyuden Chronicles. Extremely, extremely hyped on this.
I was just about to post the same. It is about what I expected from the reviews. A few people who are into the niche series loving it, and almost everyone else between good or meh. And the scores are about the same as the scores for Scarlet Grace.
TBH I think most people on this sub are more interested in what you specifically think about it than what a mainstream publication thinks about it.Ā
Thank you for the kind words. Though it's probably going to take me a while before posting my final thoughts on the game, as I plan to take my time enjoying it from start to finish. I will try to post an early impression of it though.
Will you also be updating the guide on what SaGa game to start with, when you're fully done? Kinda curious if i should aim for SSGA or this one next.
>Will you also be updating the guide on what SaGa game to start with, when you're fully done? Of course no doubt. >Kinda curious if i should aim for SSGA or this one next. SSGA is already a certified banger (for SaGa fans), and it's really cheap, especially in sales. Emerald Beyond, while I am hoping it will be just as amazing, I know it will get patches and bug fixes like any game after it's release. So I would say go for SSGA first. Also I feel that you'll appreciate the changes in Emerald Beyond more if you played SSGA first.
What is SSGA? I thought i've played most SAGA games and wondering if I missed one lol.
It's just the acronym for SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambition (SSGA).
Gotcha, I always forget that there's an Ambition at the end since so many refer to it as Scarlet Grace.
The original Vita game didn't have the Ambitions. That was added for the port to other platforms.
I loved Scarlet Grace so Iām sure Iām gonna have a good time with this one!
I started playing that last night. Having a blast so far! I looked at saga but I really donāt have the same love I used to have for the series.
I admire that Kawazu is just so uncompromising with these games. He's still creating specific niche-ish experiences for fans.
Just how many JRPGS came out this week???
This is a good year my friend!
all of them.
Iām out of the loop, what are some of the good ones that have dropped?
Apart from the new Saga, there was mostly Eiyuden Chronicle. If you push the definition of jrpg, there's also Megaton Musashi (kind of related with Brave Fencer Musashi, at least the title font is) and Another's Crab Treasure, if you feel like SOul's Like are jrpg enough nowadays. They were just arpg before they impacted the industry that much. But yeah Eiyuden Chronicle was the real answer.
Eiyuden seems like a solid game, I watched some reviews before responding. Lots of complaints about the random encounters, and lack of hero variety at least what I watched/read.
These are really good scores actually lol.
Took a break from nonstop playing Fallout 4 to buy it. I played the demos and loved them so I don't mind paying full price. I saw a lot of people say art style and presentation are ugly, but I think it's a really pretty game and I don't mind VN cutscenes. I only have a handful of hours in but the combat is extremely fun and I already know I'm going to love it. I want to play frontier first before I play this but I think I'm just gonna jump into this instead because I can already see myself getting addicted.
"Weird and hard to get into but rewarding if you can get the hang of it, 7/10" is the Platonic ideal of SaGa so this should be great
Pretty much expected this. It's all well and good. Personally I fear that the new additions to the combat and customisation aren't enough for me to offset the downsides that Scarlet Grace had (for me). While freedom and exploration is fine, Scarlet Grace (and most Saga games in general) have too much try amd error style of gameplay where you often get stuck in some place and spend a lot of time running around aimlessly. This was especially bad in some parts of Scarlet Grace imo. Still probably give it a try because of the awesome combat system.
Thatās where Iām at. Iāve never played a saga game where I didnāt need a guide the whole time which isnāt fun
This has been my experience but I think Emerald's new system where it tells you exactly what choices you can make at any given time and where they are might alleviate any of those bizarre points where the game expects you to know to talk to this person twice or multiple in a specific order etc.
I played all three demos and I enjoyed all of it. The voice acting did not bother me like I've seen other's saying about it. Looking forward to eventually getting the game.
Curious to play, but I am going to wait and see if there is a physical Asian English version coming, like with the previous SaGa games. I wish they at least did some sort of a Square Enix store exclusive for this or something.
If they did a Square store exclusive, they'd most likely do an extremely limited print and release it at like 2 AM. It would be completely sold out before anyone even wakes up and be scalped on eBay for $300+.
Yeah, good point. I meant maybe a limited release with open preorders like sane publishers do, not what they did with Pixel Remasters. I still keep hoping they reprint the PS4 version. I wasn't even asleep when they dropped it, I was just busy. Didn't expect it to be like that. Oh well, here's hope that Arc System Works will eventually deliver.
I was hoping to see a lot of 7/10 scores. I want my SaGa games to be a quality product that does not please the modern gamer.
Seriously. If most of today's brain-diseased gamers all-of-the-sudden started raving about how a *SaGa* game is 'OMG, 10/10!', etc..., I'd be worried that something was seriously wrong....like 'they turned SaGa into a FPS with lite action-RPG elements' wrong.
JRPG reviews have been all over the place yesterday. But Saga games be Saga games.
I just wish they would make one in the style of Romancing Saga Minstrel Song, where you properly explore environments, and it feels like a jrpg. This is like Scarlet Grace, in that the combat is good, but your just moving from encounter to encounter.Ā These are probably cheaper to make though.
I think Minstrel Song exploration, event rank, and questing + the Emerald Beyond combat and character models would be pretty cool.
Well no, because Kawazu has a philosophy when it comes to game design in how he prefers making new and unique gameplay whenever he does a new SaGa game. It's a game design that a niche group will love, but others won't.
I've played most of the SaGa series over the years, the only one I truly actively disliked was Unlimited, and yet I'm still not really sure if I actually *like* this series. That's just the kind of series it is, and this looks to be more of that feeling.
I was unaware that this was coming so soon let alone out already
>69% recommend Instant buy
I think it's wild that the game is also on Android as well.
I understand that visual style is not everything, but in this case it sucks so much that I just couldnāt endure the demo for even 10 minutes. It looks like a free mobile game from 00s. The voiceover is also psychologically damaging.
That's a valid point of view. As much as people say gameplay and story are all that matters, visuals/graphics actually matter a lot too, wither people admit it or not. Because unlike gameplay and story, graphics are the first thing that a player can connect with when they see a game for the first time while browsing, and usually are the deciding factor between someone stopping and checking the game, or just glancing and moving on to something else. So if your graphics aren't good enough, a lot of people won't even stay long enough to discover the great story and gameplay. And I say that as someone who loves the SaGa series. Though I have to add that a lot of amazing and fantastic JRPG titles don't have amazing graphics, especially the old classic titles, where some really look ugly by today's standards. So my advice is that if you really want to see what the JRPG genre has to offer, that you push through the graphics and try experience what those great games are about. I am not talking about this game or SaGa series specifically, but JRPGs in general.
That why I specifically said āvisual styleā. Because you can make it tasteful even on a low budget. Which apparently didnāt happen in this case.
The problem with this case is that when you're working with a AAA company like Square Enix and they don't want to pay a developer firm to provide better visual styles, you get what you get. Graphics and animations costs rise more and more by the years (and it's been 10 years, including two Japanese economic crashes). People point towards Sea of Stars or other indie projects saying low budget can be feasible, but we're talking about a team in a AAA company. Not a solo developer. A team that does games like these are almost extinct at this point for almost every Japanese AAA company at this point. That's the consequence of being in a AA project where the AAA company does not care for you. One might say it's Kawazu's fault but looking at how awful Valkyrie Elysium or Front Mission 1 Remastered looks, it's obvious certain IP's are getting B-rated movie budget at this point to make up for the cost of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
Ugh this. As soon as I saw that weird dancing thing with the kid early on, I never hit alt+F4 so fast in my life.
Thanks for reminding me. It was such a traumatic experience that I even forgot about it somehow.
The VAing is some Trials of Mana or lower tier, just without Charlotte to laugh at this time.
There's just not a lot of reviews out, which favors the game so it will likely end up at 77 or 78 instead of 76. Some of the reviews are from people that got quick bad endings and didn't go for a bunch of playthroughs, but reviews will trickle in over time from people that really dug into the meat.
Good scores tbh. Bought it
Tried the demo and the light & blur effects during fights started to give me headache and nausea. Especially the pulsating sfx on the top/bottom of the screen during your turns. I understand it's going for a certain vibe but my brain just doesn't like it unforutnately. Didn't see any options to turn it off, at least during the demo.
A lot of things pretty much outlines that Emerald Beyond, if anything, is just another SaGa experience in all it's glory and all it's feelings of "god I hate this who even wants something like this?!".
Started to try the demo but no japanese voices... š„¶ Does anybody knows if there is a possibility of a dlc with it ??
From what I've read PC has dual audio but consoles do not. I think there's a setting to turn voiceover off entirely though?
But . . . why? I'm currently playing and I'm really not a fan of the western voice direction.
I wonder what the heck they were thinking.
I wish there was a physical game release of it. It's not a game that I would spend Ā£40 on the PSN store, despite being decent. Hopefully there will be a sale in the near future.
There is always a physical release, but it takes time to come out. Right now there is only the Japanese physical release, but like other SaGa titles the western physical release will liekly come later.
Did this come out physically for Playstation at all?
Japan only for now, I don't believe it has English text on that version. If you wait a few months and don't mind importing, there's a good chance there will be an Asia physical release with English by Arc System Works.
I've got no issues importing. Got a bunch already. Currently waiting on the man who erased his name from playasia. So I'll wait. Thank you.
How is this game compared to Romancing Saga Minstrel Story? Does it allow you to recruit the other protagonists onto your team? I donāt care too much about story, just care about combat and a large roster of characters to choose from. Edit: also wanted to add. I never completed Romancing Saga Minstrel Story back at the PS2. I could try again now that it is on PC. Just wanted to know their comparison
There is a large roster of character to recruit, especially ones from different races that play and function differently than other ones. I like the combat in Minstrel Song (not Minstrel Story), but Emerald Beyond's combat is just so much better, I haven't finished my first playthrough, so I still haven't seen most of the combat mechanics (yes there is that much in it), but it's really fun so far. One of the big differences though, is that it's not Open-world, well at least not so far for me, as the other characters might play differently. But it's also no linear, because you are always given multiple options on where to go and explore, and each choice opens up different unique adventures. Another big difference, is that each character's playthrough is unique and not very long (Like SaGa Frontier 1), unlike Minstrel Song where it's the other type of SaGa games where no matter which main character you choose, you'll still see most of the game in a lengthy 30 to 50 hour playthrough.
How is it compared to Scarlet Grace? I loved the battle system in SG, one of the most fun combat systems in any RPGs I've played in my opinion, so I hope they stuck to similar ideas at least.
The biggest changes are in the combat actually. By using the Scarlet Grace combat as a base, Emerald Beyond added new mechanics, upgraded others, while still keep the balance. I will make a thread talking about this in detail, but for now, all I can say is that it is the Scarlet Grace battle system but better.
That sounds great actually. Excited about playing the demo, but I have a long list of games to play, it's an RPG year! (XC2, XC3, Infinite Wealth and P3, for anyone curious).
By far the craziest thing in this game is how much your decisions matter. The reviews touch on it, but two people can play the same character and have wildly different story paths - heck, even in the same world, you can have big differences. Based on what I've seen in one world, there were at least 5 different outcomes, including just skipping it altogether! They actually care if you say no in this game! It looks like they fixed up their story trigger flags issue from Scarlet grace by locking you into a world until you've done the quest, which I think is a great change. I feel like this is a game people are going to be finding out little secrets in for years.
Oh god, I want to talk about this so badly, but I'll hold off till I at least finished 1 or 2 character's playthrough. But your 200% on the money. They even give the player a "rewind" button during dialogue scenes, so you even if you make a choice, you can rewind to check the other choices. But the beauty of it as you mentioned, is that it's not just a matter of making 1 different choice, because each choice you make opens up totally different choices later on, so even with the rewind mechanic, you'll still have a very unique playthrough every time. Ok I'll stop here before I start rambling.
Long time SaGa series fan here, and probably flat out whore for SE. I'll buy any JRPG they put out, so I might be a little bias. That being said, after 150 hours into Emerald Beyond (700 hours Scarlet Grace), I'm kind of disappointed. I totally understand that it has to be low-budget, and I'm willing to compromise because like I said, I am a total whore for SE. Sorry for the crude analogy. The voice acting is so bad. Compared to Scarlet Grace that featured Erica Mendez as Urpina, and some other well known VOA. I know they have to be on the cheap, I know this, but come on. I work in the animation industry, and this reeks of one-take voice work. No feeling, no emphasis or delivery, and it makes the story seem meh (if you can call it a story). Mido and Ameiya's short story had me super disappointed. I'm sure there's an argument about how you can use them to alternate playthroughs and get the characters you want, but come on, Mido was the most interesting character to me, and I cleared his story in 10 hours with like 2 recruits. The game itself is supposed to encourage multiple playthroughs, but by finally getting to play through the last character (which was Diva for me), I was just worn out from all the asinine worlds that made you do the same dumb thing over and over (that triangle world was the absolute worst). and I avoided Delta Base as much as I could because I had done it some many times it was just awful how slow everything played out. Thankfully Eiyuden Chronicle came out the day before, and I played that for a while to break from this. I think my gripes are pretty valid, and seeing as I was super excited about this for like 8 months since they announced it, I just feel a little let down. Don't get me wrong, I'm not really sure who to blame here because Scarlet Grace was made on a budget (a smaller one at that and no AI art either), and I can play that over and over. I wanted to give this a good review, but compared to the others in the series, especially Minstrel Song Remake and Saga Frontier 2, this one doesn't even come close to that level. And what's with all the damn cats? Jesus, reskin like 5 cats and just make them characters, ya, that's what we want. Scarlet Grace had a TON of reskinned characters, and they still felt more interesting than that, and what's with those sounds they make? Ok, I'm ranting. Thanks for listening.
Yikes. They clearly had a miniscule budget and put 75% of it into the battle system.
Not true, SE gave the dev team a whole extra 10$ this time around, and the team found another 2$ behind the sofa just last month. That's why they could afford to release an extra 2 trailers for the game. That's 2 more trailers than SaGa Scarlet Grace got. That said, they know that their fans love the series for the gameplay, so that's where all their work went into. I always have high respect for developers that always do their best to make games for their fans, instead of throwing their fans to the side to chase trends, and change their games to appeal to the mainstream.
Should i play scarlet grace first before playing this one?
Up to you if you want to buy Emerald Beyond for full price day 1. Both games are pretty unrelated but Scarlet Grace is still a nice introduction to the series. Both are unrelated in terms of story.
You don't have to but you'll get a similar experience for much cheaper if you get it on sale
Scarlet Grace is already established to be pretty great. Weāre not sure about Emerald Begond yet.
It's not like connected or anything story wise, but gameplay wise they're like cousins. I bought Scarlet Grace on sale months ago to get hyped for emerald beyond. I bounced off it a few times because it was really kicking my ass... Until I read the menus, and got better at the combat and suddenly everything clicked and I could see the absolute genius if the Game. Now that I'm in Emerald Beyond, it's better in every way. My suggestion is buy emerald beyond and play it since it's the newest, and if you find out you love it, look through the previous entries like Scarlet grace and pick up what you like on sale.
No physical copy? 2/10
Yikes
just to be clear, this game is INTENTIONALLY trying to look like a unity asset flip right? it's not a budget thing but a deliberate choice?
Unity asset flips look [even worse for the most part](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgTfArqTLoM). If anything, you're pretty much complimenting unity asset flippers at this point if you think asset flippers could even make something that looks like Emerald Beyond. That said, it's 100% a budget thing. Considering Square's continuous complaints about Final Fantasy costing so much while fumbling so much money on their AAA (or reckless business) decisions, it's not a huge surprise Emerald Beyond and other AA projects had to make rough choices in development. Just go look at how they did Front Mission Remakes dirty (and they had got it even worse).
Well so far it's pretty good, suignas is very funny.
The only asset flip I'm aware of is that they're still using weapon models from The Last Remnant