SaGa Emerald Beyond, the review

It was difficult, almost 35 years ago, to imagine such a future for Kawazu’s very particular SaGa franchise. Eclectic like its creator, SaGa has always been a niche JRPG, however capable of carving out its own place in history thanks to the ability, more of Squaresoft than of Square Enix, to drag it across the generations. We are talking about a narratively ambitious title, but in a different way from what the general public can expect and this SaGa Emerald Beyond it is no less. SaGa has always required a certain malleability from its audience: its absolute non-linearity, the bizarreness of its characters and on-screen situations, its mix of Japanese sci-fi and surreal narrative.

SaGa’s story is humble, but no less ambitious. It reflects Square’s desire to put truly minimal but refined, compact and capable titles on the market conquer the public first on Nintendo consoles, then Sony, then mobile and now completely multiplatform.

Follow us on this one SaGa Emerald Beyond review to find out if it can aspire to be your next JRPG.

Fights and time bars

For those who know a little about Kawazu’s pedigree, the talented producer knows what it means to develop a combat system. We want to start from this element because there is no doubt that it will be precisely in combat that you will spend a good chunk of time in Emerald Beyond and consequently it requires your attention more than the rest. Without making great leaps backwards, Emerald Beyond takes up what was seen in Scarlet Grace on PS Vita: we are talking about a turn-based combat system in dedicated arenas that reflect the theme of the setting of the moment. There is a system of formations, skills and tactics prepared a priori from a specific menu: you enter the heart of the battle thanks to the battle points to be used to make attacks, each capable of consuming more or fewer points and connecting to the attacks of the others thanks to an action bar. This bar will be the fulcrum of every battle: for novices to the series, Emerald Beyond relies on a temporal mechanism guided by this flow of actions and which gives rise to combined, chained, repeated or magic attacks, which are slower than physical attacks. The fulcrum (and fun) of this system is to “draw” the combat turn with your own choices, aware that certain actions move the turns, therefore breaking any balance (of the player and the enemies) that had been assumed to be certain.

The system has its own charm and takes up a lot of what has already been seen in the past, adding a touch of hardcore modernity that doesn’t hurt: SaGa Emerald Beyond is not soft on novices and it is of little use to have a full life again after the conflict if this is not overcome. Dare to choose to go against the wrong enemy compared to your current value and it will be really, really tough – if not impossible – to overcome him. It’s nothing new for those who know SaGa, but it certainly needs to be said for those who choose to enter the multiverse designed by Kawazu for the first time. There is strategy, there are interruptions to calculate, there are statuses that block unions, enemies that insert themselves into the middle of your group always immersed in an arena geography whose correct reading will require many clashes. If at first glance SaGa may seem less than honest or even infamous, know that it only requires enough preparation and competence in reading the battle and, sometimes, luck in understanding which enemy is defending and who is attacking. We would have preferred a little more speed in managing some transitions and a general reading in the interface more accommodating for novices, but Emerald Beyond does very little to accommodate those less accustomed to its dynamics. As you change characters and stories, you’ll always end up seeing those weapons, attacks, and characteristics: humans have unique abilities, robots depend on equipment, monsters absorb abilities from other monsters. Overall, the system works and its cumbersomeness is slowly washed away as you progress and learn the mechanics thoroughly.

Bizarreness in the multiverse

Kawazu’s trademark is and remains a complete and utter background bizarreness in uniting multiverses and enormously bizarre characters in the same setting. There will be moments when you will wonder what you are doing, or reading, or playing: it’s like this, it’s normal, you’re not strange but it’s right that you feel these sensations. Emerald Beyond is a primordial bramble in which Kawazu frames various stories, twists them, gives birth to thorns and waits for her enthusiasts to enter prepared. It’s difficult to recommend SaGa Emerald Beyond to any JRPG fan, especially the more recent ones: the way in which the team throws the player into individual plots, how it makes them evolve by jumping from setting to setting, how it links the worlds between characters and above all the dialogues it is unique, but certainly not for all palates. You must like it minimal visual and playful, that’s for sure: the progression mechanics of the franchise return here in all its humility and lack of timidity. The explorable “worlds” of Emerald Beyond are very small areas, characterized by 2D drawings like origami to outline the setting points with a small explanation attached, with sometimes a pinch of level design to manage (elevators, platforms or one-way sands ), don’t expect much else. There are certainly ideas, many ideas in characterizing the characters, their personalities and the way in which each one approaches their own destiny, a destiny which can also be modified thanks to the possibility of making choices along the way and being able to replay stories and scenarios several times , as well as bringing the dialogue back.

The multiverse theme or of interconnected universes is nothing new, obviously, but it is new in today’s panorama and unique to Kawazu’s creature, which certainly confirms itself as edgy but coherent, although, we reiterate, suitable for a small number of JRPG enthusiasts, certainly more ready than others for the fairly minimal flow of gameplay, especially when compared to the infinite facets that many sacred monsters of the genre have implemented to attract and train new proselytes in recent years. Even the audience of supporting characters, unfortunately, does not always find the right space for expression, sometimes they don’t find it at all: you will find yourself fighting with supporting characters who have no characterization whatsoever, as if the efforts had been enormously centralized on that handful of main and secondary characters. It is certainly a logic that we know, we are not surprised by it, but there remains another alienating element compared to the classic JRPG: once again Kawazu does little to broaden its audience and this is, on balance, absolutely estimable but also not inclined to bring SaGa to a greater number of users. The writing of dialogues makes the absence of a precise trait its most peculiar ability: there will be dialogues that you won’t know where they want to end up, paradoxical situations, other surreal ones in which this great cylinder of multiversality carries you forward, yes, but not always easily… the great thing is that whoever buys this game also expects exactly this.

An element that will help you is the music, well imagined and capable of alternating with cunning, it is no coincidence that Kawazu has chosen 3 composers with different influences and styles and it shows. However, the English dubbing is good, accompanying the adventure with competence and dignity. Technically, however, having to also run on mobile and above all having to count on a fairly limited budget, the game is very minimal and just the battles require a little more effort, but this is an aspect that has always mattered very little in SaGa, and This time too we will turn a blind eye.

Conclusions

Even in its historic niche of existence, SaGa Emerald Beyond is not an easy title to manage because it is a product absolutely inclined to the tastes and palates of those who have financed the series in these almost 40 years of activity, but at the same time it is a very difficult title to swallow for more traditional JRPG lovers. Paradoxically, the combat system is the most assimilable thing because it is closest to a fairly well-established JRPG digestion mechanism. Well, is this bad? No, absolutely and fans will be able to find in Emerald Beyond the title they have been waiting for for years, so the vote is of little use. For everyone else, we can recommend it to those who appreciate a lot of experimentation and to those who are not subject to the influence of tradition, in short to those who are willing to turn a blind eye to an edgy advancement but with enormous replay value, which will be able to suck up dozens of hours if savored in its entirety. Together.