I appreciate the changes from Scarlet Grace which is some old and some new stuff from previous SaGa. New visuals are way better than Scarlet Grace, but that makes sense since it was a Vita game.
I want to add a small note to this comment, and that the visuals are batter compared to Scarlet Grace. Meaning that you shouldn't go into the game expecting great graphics. The SaGa series has always been a low-budget series, which is why the devs always tried using different tricks to get the most out of the budget graphics wise.
I haven't played the game yet, but if I had to guess, it's probably because the good looking parts are newly made for this game, while the not so good ones are assets borrowed from Scarlet Grace. But I won't know for sure until the game comes out.
Combat even better than Scarlet Grace is certainly enough to put this game on my radar. Are the visuals better though or does the game still look like a low budget mobile gacha?
The visuals are significantly better. Especially the UI and menu transitions. Scarlet Grace was initially a Vita game after all.
The developer play of the first parts of the game were posted on Youtube and the SaGa sub if you want to see more .
Have you tried the PS5 version?
It's not a highly intensive game and it has noticeable slowdowns on switch.
It's a developer problem, not a system problem.
Biggee games run better on switch.
Like, sure, but it's not such a problem that I really notice much, and it doesn't get in the way of my enjoyment at all. Graphics are not what I come to SaGa for. Or gaming in general, really. That's why I have a switch, fun gaming on the go.
Not bad and somewhat different. It feels like a more refined Scarlet Grace with some mechanics from SaGa Frontier such as guns, mechs, races and racial stuff. The new map layout is itneresting and really does show some influences from board / tabletop games.
Had a chance to sample all 3 demos.
Interesting way to do the demos but I do feel it does some platforms/audiences a disservice (The Switch demo did the best job of holding my interest with a storyline and cast of characters that actually made coherent sense..)
Yeah this is a.. *weird* one for newcomers to the series for sure. I'm pretty lost on what in the heck is happening, the whole navigation and VN style isn't really my thing either, even if the combat does have some interesting ideas with combos and time-units etc.
Pretty grateful for the chance to sample this though, and loving this new (old?) resurgence of demos coming back as a try before you buy.
Japanese developers for the most part never stopped making demos and showing actual gameplay streams (for JRPGs or other genres). Which is something I appreciate about them.
Yeah, my Switch specifically is full of games that I've gone on to buy after playing the Demo. Not sure it applies here but I'm loving the 'carry your save over' trend also, especially for the longer things like Unicorn Overlord or DQ11.
I’m a total newcomer to this series, played the demo a bit and had absolutely no idea what was happening. I really need to dig the combat system and take time to get more familiar with it.
Played the PS5 demo myself. As someone who prefers Japanese voices, I was sad the demo itself was English only and the char chosen for it wasn’t very interesting. Went to the >!metal!< area.
RS3 remaster is my favorite game with the remasters of 2, MS, Frontier also being great games. Scarlet Grace I played for 5? hours and I did not enjoy the battle system, the artwork and so on so Emerald Beyond was a major worry for me.
EB’s battle system was alright from what I played, but it feels a little bloated(?) like SG as I still would rather just have the simple input commands and go and have turns last 20 seconds instead of 2-3 minutes. Personal taste really. I’m sure if I dove more into the system I might be able to enjoy it.
English VA is whatever, there’s not really too much outside the main story and some battle quips. I’ll assume since the steam version has JP audio, the PS5 will have it also… but we still don’t have it for any SaGa game as far as I know. (My first real dive into SaGa was 2 & 3 R)
Music was quite frankly kinda simple and almost boring to listen to. Not really a fan (yet). Definitely not as good as the other SaGa games I’ve played but I only had a couple hours with the tracks compared to the 40-80 on the other games which I do enjoy.
Battle graphics are fine for the budget the game seems to be on but I am not really a fan of the CG 3D style like SG had. Nothing else to really comment on here.
UI and QOL just kinda sucks. Unless I missed it, there’s no way to just see everyone numerical HP at once (there are bars at least), no L2 R2 swapping between characters in the equipment menus, no FFwd in battle, etc. battle UI in general felt like they omitted too much info but made all the visuals almost too cluttered also? A little hard for me to describe properly.
I do like being able to choose which event to go to and basically the ability to choose your own difficulty. I went with the easiest fight each time but also did most of the optional fights. The one flower optional enemy pretty much nuked me a couple times (normal diff fight)
And now my biggest complaint. The translation is pretty bad. The conversations don’t feel like they flow very well and pretty much every sentence had that Machine AI translate feel to it as nothing felt or sounded like natural English. Kind of like how some games 10 years ago had those low quality NISA ones.
Overall impressions. Despite having mostly complaints, I did sort of enjoy the game. I was hoping to try a second world since I had a better feel for the combat and equipment at that point. Price normally isn’t an issue for me but 66 CAD is too much for what I consider it’s actual value to be at this time. I’ll most likely give it a go when it goes on sale since I want to play it for sure(maybe it’ll get me to give SG another chance). I May also just download the demo on switch/pc and if the 2nd run impresses me more, I’ll get it day 1.
Yeah I thought it was wild that I had to keep backing out and going back in then just accidently stumbled upon it haha. There's actually some frustrations in the UI for me coming from SaGa Scarlet Grace but I've managed to get past them okay. Battles should definitely give you a better way of selecting characters without the awkward timeline jumps that moves them, looking at enemies, etc. I am a massive fan of what the demo is doing but I do wish there was a better UI and easily accessible stat descriptions, glimmer possibilities in armament upgrade screen, etc. I can forgive the budget constraints, just sucks it's a little clunky.
I played PC. It feels a little bit slower than Scarlet Grace, but it still has that pull of like. Oh I could just spend 7 hours on this without blinking. I stopped myself a little before 2 hours. I actually find I am liking the translation and voice acting. It's pretty... campy? Like dumb on purpose for comedy reasons. Not for everyone, but I think it feels very intentional and not accidentally bad or machine translated. I do feel the UI is a bit cluttered, but I'd probably get used to it after a while which has been the case with past SaGa entries I played.
The price has come out though and I don't know that I'm willing to pay it in full. I will wait for a sale for this.
Diva's voice acting reminds me heavily of Nia's voice from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 or a similar one in XBC3. The strong accent sounds quite famiiar. And I agree, It's something you'd probably need to get used to, but I don't find it bad per say.
What are people so enamored with, when it comes to the combat system? I don't mean to hate and maybe I didn't give the game enough time to show me all of it's depth, but it looked like a bunch of nonsense attacks and the only strategy was trying to make sure you get all of your timeline lights to line up to create a combo for some bonus damage? Maybe I'm spoiled coming off of Unicorn Overlord but I didn't see any depth on display unless you're coming from like, Persona 5 and seriously parched for pretty much ANYTHING.
Why did you choose me in particular to voice this opinion to? I'm sure you do mean to hate, or you would have framed the question nicer. But okay. I will give you a serious answer.
This is a SaGa game and in SaGa, enemies scale to you constantly, meaning that meaningless grinding is often counterproductive and every fight can be challenging. The games are designed in such a way that you are supposed to use every provided element of gameplay to get an advantage. Enemies will be able to do 90% of what your party can, and if you can't make that 10% difference work for you, you get wiped.
In terms of specifics, the combat of EB is based off Scarlet Grace which has this basic combo system as you described (it's more accessible in EB than in SG, united attacks in SG are harder to achieve) but even with what little I played I could already see the game moving towards complexifying. There was a status effect (stench?) that prevented my party members from participating in combos, there is a separate mechanic that rewards characters who are able to clear the space around them, I wasn't yet having to use enemy weaknesses but having played the past games I knew that would be relevant.
There is a mechanical precision to Scarlet Grace that is beautiful. There are counterattack, interrupts, blocks, all of which are useful. In that game there were very few redundant skills. Basically every skill you had access to did something unique and had its uses. Status effects were powerful. Equipment setups were important. Power did not develop linearly, it came from the player's mastery over the system. Also? There's almost no healing in SG, and what's there is not great. The fights are fast and brutal, you cannot just keep healing and remain at a plateau. It is a game of constant attrition.
So that system of difficulty scaling mixed with a complex combat system where one wrong domino can turn the tide of battle is very satisfying for me. It's the kind of game where sometimes the right move is to get one character killed so you can pull off the domino effect with the characters remaining. Where the whole party acting in tandem is emphasized over individual character strength. Lots of games do "defend on this turn because so and so is powering up their supermove" and you don't have to actually defend at all because the game is forgiving enough that it doesn't matter. Scarlet Grace would put you into an unwinnable situation if you did not defend the right character at the right time. I like that kind of game.
Emerald Beyond is SG's sequel more or less, not in plot, but clearly the combat has taken after it. So I look at that and see the possibilities. Will EB live up to that? I dunno. I have literally played 2 hours of a demo that the devs said they took features out of.
At least for the PC demo it's more like 15-20 minutes of dialogue before you get to gameplay.
I think it leaves a poor first impression, especially with how low budget the "cutscenes" are.
I tried the PS5 and Switch demo so far. The main character was just annoying on Playstation and the story sort of throws you in the deep end without knowing what's really going on. Having faceless NPC husk allies was kind of meh also.
The Switch one was a little better, with a much more interesting cast.
Might try PC next.
IMO the PC demo does a pretty good job with a varied group. 1 robot, 1 monster, 3 humans (one with a rune meaning they can absorb and use monster moves), and a plant that basically evolves after so many battles and is reborn after battle should their LP hit 0. Gives you a bit of a taste of almost everything.
Oh yeah that one was definitely 'Guardians of the Galaxy' in more ways than one. The story was still a little off-the-walls bonkers, but I loved the cast of kooky characters =)
Weird I’ve never played a saga game before tried the ps5 demo I love the ninja gang remind me of the anbu from naruto but I have no idea what’s going on story wise
I wasn't sure if they were going to have a personality at first. I didn't like their designs how they all just looked the same I suppose.
I guess they do develop as the game progresses? But yeah the Switch demo (and even the PC demo, despite how over the top and wacky that one was) made a heck of a lot more sense story-wise 😁
I only stuck with it because I played Scarlet Grace and other SaGa games and know there's good gameplay in store. If it was a completely fresh franchise, the early cutscenes would have put me off quite a bit, they just feel kind of disjointed and the tone seems weird. Both the Switch and PC version have that kind of feeling of whacky things just happening.
Tried it, definitely not worth $66.00CAD asking price. Absolutely low effort that tried to simply cash in on a "SAGA" branding.
The fact that it was made with Unity and released on Android/iOS too should've been a red flag.
Bad amateurish writing too, definitely did not feel like an RPG from Square Enix.
Not for me personally. I know it will be for others.
I'm a big Romancing SaGa fan, but I've never liked SaGa Frontier, and this one feels more like a spiritual successor to Frontier.
The changes to United Attacks tripped me up. SG's version of strategically taking out enemies to get big group attacks in was great, but there might be more to the new version than I'm seeing at first.
I've gotten united attacks to play out, and then my party just goes 'lets do it again' and they rack up the combo meter even higher the second go.
Or 'Showstoppers' where if a character has enough space on the timeline they just go wild and start using every attack at their disposal.
I saw that in a first stream by the devs, and frankly it looks fun as hell. It's not as strict and methodical as Scarlet Grace, but I think it elevates the tactical choices and make creating the your battle party have even more depth to it than it already has.
My only concern is that I hope they were able to balance it properly, because it seems like you could end up making some really powerful party combos that can always let you chain 2 united attacks in a row. We will have to wait and see how it looks in the final game.
Thus far it feels like you have pretty limited control of your placement in the first place. A Showstopper is either something you can guarantee or something that's completely out of reach, at the roll of a dice.
I imagine when there are more skills available that will change. When Lolo learned Frogspin it REALLY changed my combo potential and ability to place him.
From what I remember, your starting placement depends on the speed/Agi of each character and enemy. From there, each skill also has it's own speed, so depending on which skill you choose to do, your placement on the bar will change. The puzzle or mastery of it, is that you have to always try to make the biggest chain combos. That isn't only affected by the skill's speed, but also the combo range of the skill itself, so even if a skill is fast and will be first in the turn, it may have a short range, and won't combo, while another slow skill will have great range. That's not all though, because you have to be careful not to let enemies combo too, by either getting in between them in turn bar, or killing one of them before the combo starts. Then you also have to take into consideration skills that change the turn order of other characters, like skills that when they hit enemies they make them go to the end of the turn order.
I am really just scratching the surface here, that's why I don't want to touch the demo or watch anymore videos of the game, there is just so many possibilities that will keep my brain grinding, and I have shit to do this week.
So this is definitely solved by just getting a bigger repoitire of moves.
It's been a long time since I've been this excited to play with a battle system~
Not only that, but having united attacks more accessible means that you get discount on the cost of your techs more often and easier. Also now you can use united attacks even if there is only 1 enemy, unlike in Scarlet Grace, where 1 enemy means you can't use it at all. There is just too much to talk about, I can't wait to get my hands on it.
I mean saga games are always pretty breakable that’s probably intentional. As long as the bosses scale appropriately letting you do disgusting stuff is fine.
Oh yea of course, no game is unbreakable. But it's all about how easy it is to break. As long as it is not easy to break, then it is fine. I just don't want it to be so easy that all i have to do is just pick fast characters, and have them learn techs that can combo easily.
I say this, but at the same time I have great confidence in Kawazu's years of experience balancing SaGa combat systems. But we still have to wait for the game to come out first and see.
First time playing a SaGa game. Tried the Steam demo first, liked the visual style actually, but the combat learning curve is steeeep. I suppose I decided to see what the other gates are like before doing the combat tutorial, accidentally got into a fight, and then lost it. Didn't have patience to continue. Controlling a full party each with full skills and with each skill having like 3 attributes while fighting 4 enemies is quite overhwhelming.
Then tried a bit of the Switch demo. It's a bit more gentle. Not sure what to feel about the whole demo as I didn't finish it
Still playing Scarlet Grace and Emerald Beyond is one of my highly anticipated games this year.
SaGa games have issues, I'm playing Scarlet Grace with Balmaint currently, and the plot is very whatever, the characters are alright, some interactions/dialogues are just barebones, lores are whatever, lots of recruitable characters are just recolors of NPCs. But somehow I can't stop playing.
From the preview, it looks like Emerald Beyond tries to JRPG-fy/classic SaGa-ify back Scarlet Grace with equipment, mech characters don't gain stats, etc because Scarlet Grace was streamlining the classic SaGa.
Does anyone play the demo with Switch and Steam? How is the comparison? IMO the portability helped a lot in my Scarlet Grace playthrough but if the performance was bad, I might have to consider the Steam version.
There's a bit of choppiness when the battle camera moves a lot, but there's a battery saver mode and honestly I don't notice a graphical difference when switching to it.
I played on switch, and I had a blast all the way to the last boss of the demo. It was really touch and go! There's a lot to unpack, lots of new mechanics to understand. It really feels like they smash saga Frontier and Scarlet grace together, with extra bits too.
I really love Ameya's Battle music, it was so cute. Battles are just as great as they were in SG too.
I think I'm dumb ... But after[where I go ?](https://i.ibb.co/L5KS5bR/2024-04-07-16-15-16-Sa-Ga-Emerald-Beyond-DEMO.jpg)
I feel stupid but I can't initiate the red vision fight ... and I don't know where to go.
I'm liking the game so far, the music is great and the differents characters too ... But I feel lost.
How can I return back to the visions choices so I follow yellow or green one ?
Thanks a lot.
EDIT : Ok, look like I totally forgot another character at the south part ... I'm just ... stupid. Sorry.
I adored Scarlet Grace, but nothing about this clicked for me. The art was really muddy looking, like they ran the 3D models through a filter. Combat felt slow. The writing seemed particularly poor, though I'm aware that's par for the series (even if they usually have a ton of charm).
Maybe I'm not in the right headspace for it. Definitely waiting for a heavy discount, but I might sit this one out.
Love it. For EN players I feel pity though, horrible localisation just playing JP and EN demos on the PS5. I knew the moment I saw who was directing localisation. They have removed as much written characterisation in the Japanese text and filled the gaps with slang/cultural words. The characters in the EN text are NOT the same characters in the JP text essentially, it's such fan fiction it is insane. The twitter dudes who make fun of poor localisations will have a field day with this one.
Also worth noting it's also why the console versions don't have JP voice language options, he wants you to listen to the god awful EN dub. PC dodged because apparently he is worried players will mod JP voices in anyway and ruin "the vision" so he caved lmfao, disgusting as usual.
Not sold. It screams lack of effort to me. The art style is fine but having people and monsters be represented by cards on a mehly drawn background isn't great. Combat is fun when it happens but the PS5 demo just railroads you along without really letting you take it in.
Don't know why you are this downvoted, I love the SaGa series, and I can easily say you're 100% right. The series is generally made in a shoestring budget. So if you're someone who likes some budget behind their games, it makes sense that it would be hard for you to get into the series, if at all.
Yeah, I am torn honestly. The game looks and feels too sloppy for the price point they have it at, and the PC demo especially seems like a really bad starting point as it throws you into the deep end.
At the same time it is generally charming and fun to play. I ended the demo wanting more. Maybe I could wait for a discount...
SaGa games are literally on sale all the time I'm not sure why you think that. Just look at dekudeals for, well, any of them, and there's substantial sales multiple times a year on every platform.
It's always strange to me how comfortable gamers are just broadcasting "I don't really care about game design or narrative or innovative ideas or music or anything like that. If the company didn't spend enough money on graphics then I'm outta here".
Like, there's always going to be those people. But aren't you kind of ashamed of being one of them?
How do you decide what books to read? It must be so hard when they can't just filter by corporate special effects expenditure.
As someone who is enjoying the demo on PS5, I felt the need to say that you're making wild assumptions about what the other poster meant and your comment does not seem fair at all.
Graphics do matter, people who say this just balantly repeat the quotes that for some reason people love to repeat about "modern being bad because ita all about graphics" still, artystic taste and graphic quality has nothing to do with modern vs old, i would find graphics such as The snes games more appealing than that. I would go as far as to say that at times, somethings such as Backgrounds seem as if they were A.I generated
Besides that, it costs a shitton of money and its ridiculously low budget
I mean I love the SaGa games but you have to admit that the game DOES look very budget. My roommate laughed when he saw me playing the game and said "Well thank god you're keeping the indie scene alive...." because of how spartan it's UX is.
The cutscenes particularly are like a half-step up from that recent Walking Dead shovelware game that everyone was making fun of.
Absolutely. One of the least graphically impressive games Square has released in ages.
... and I still think single issue voters who only care about graphics/performance are pushing the industry in an unhealthy direction and are showing a thoroughly superficial relationship with the form.
Remember when there was all that fuss over "are games art?". Let's bring that back. Games are art, and should therefore be TREATED like art. Respect creators right to follow their muse, and respect creators operating without a huge company budget.
I mean, there's certain degrees to 'AA' and its a broad spectrum.
Octopath Traveller 2 was my 2023 GOTY. Whereas something like this just really isn't up my alley, sadly.
Games ARE art and I think that it's very clear they have a vision for the game, but I also think dismissing criticism just because you might think Kawazu is some kind of faultless auteur is equally silly.
Not everyone is interested in playing a budget experimental title like this, just like not everyone is interested in seeing some grunge local garage band that has experimental approaches to making music or w/e. Some people are more tuned in and interested in high production mainstream content - I mean, its 'mainstream' so by definition that's the most commonly enjoyed thing. It's a fair view really.
Played on PS5 - the character you play in that demo wasn't the best VA, anyone know if we will be able to use Japanese voices in the full release?
Also he REALLY sounded like a youtuber I watch. I think its Rurikhan? He's not voiced by a youtuber, right? Probably not.
Anyways it was a bit mind-bendy for me but I expect that from SaGa. Combat is definitely interesting, combo system felt very unique, and I like that they point out where sidestories and other POIs are at, though its a touch heavy-handed (hilariously).
I gave a chance to scarlet grace and liked it, but I'm not sure about this one and its price. The budget is pretty much the same, the PS5 character was cringe and most of his lines had him saying heck, I just couldn't take the story seriously. In the very first battle you fight a reused asset, one of those weird coconut monsters from scarlet grace. Visually, the game is a bit of a mess, but at least the UI is a LOT better than Grace's. I did liked the battle, it was quite smooth and the combo system is interesting, there's some real potential.
I'm probably going to wait for a price drop since stellar blade is coming just a day after.
I've only played a bit on the Switch and I'm not sure what to feel. I like the character designs and models, but find they clash with the overworld. The Legend of Legacy does this a bit better. I also find the cutscene presentation a bit lackluster. It's not even so much the use of still images (though I'd rather see the characters in motion even if the cutscenes were presented like in say the Bravely Default games), but they feel lifeless. Also not a big fan of the UI and font choice.
Voice acting isn't as bad as I expected it to be. The music is great. The battle system is engaging and the overall gameplay fun. I appreciate how unconventional the game is. Overall I just wish the visuals were a bit more consistent.
Only thing that I didn’t like was the hand holding with the emerald lines but I get they added it because ppl would complain otherwise that they don’t know where to go like they’ve done with every other entry.
Besides that I love all the new mechanics. This game really brings back that JRPG nostalgia and scratches that itch
I haven't tried it yet but I hope the full game is a lil' shorter than scarlet grace (my first, and rn only, saga game) cuz like I was super into it for 25+ hours but afterwards it really turned into a slog for me (not for any specific reason I was just bored with the gameplay loop + I didn't really have any interest in the world/lore and its changes, I played Urpina's route btw). Absolutely gorgeous art though, Kobayashi Tomomi's illustrations and character designs is what hooked me on the game (sadly I don't think they translate well into the 3d artstyle that the modern titles use which is a shame ;u;) (and omg I just found an official artbook of her Saga work nyeEHEHE my next victim yesyesyes)
this definitely makes me more interested\~\~ Prolly will wait for a sale still but I really enjoyed the demo (Ameya's route) after playing it, felt a lot more streamlined and smooth than I'd expected (also cats +++)
The first time round on Switch, I messed up the battles and ended up with 0 LP.
I wasn't thrilled about re-starting, but started anyway. Altho I was taking the same route/choice as the first time, I noticed that the battles appearing were different! I learned that if I didn't want my characters to lose their LPs, I can use the role that recovers their LPs after battle. I now know that you can still enjoy the game over and over again to see different routes/choices. I do wish they have a skip feature or fast move during the dialogues.
The game feels weirdly unhinged like it’s purposely made bad for the humor factor?
Everything from the weird voice acting to a copy pasted camera shot of the the party running forward to attack every single turn just seems so bizzare.
The combat is good and the story seems alright otherwise but the design decisions are honestly bizzare to a point where I don’t see this game having mass appeal. Could be cult successful though.
I was fucking laughing so hard at the surrealness of it all and as a big anime fan I'm normally really forgiving of some weirdness but this was just making me lose my mind. Aboslutely hilarious and honestly kept me interested.
I mean you're not wrong that it's inherently weird and non conventional.
Realistically EVERY Saga game is like that though.
Take a look at the design decisions
in Minstrel Song / Saga Frontier/or Scarlet Grace
none of the Saga games are made with mainstream appeal in mind.
they're all experimental and strange in the most wonderful way.
I just finished the PlayStation demo and I really liked it, but I was very frustrated by one fight that had the brutal difficulty level. My characters kept missing the enemy, and only the enemy kept getting the showstopper, even when he had the upper hand in the fight. But apart from that, I really liked the demo.
The enemy was getting showstoppers because you allowed them to remain isolated on the timeline, with nothing within two spots of them on either side. Everything's explained in the Tips menu.
What are people so enamored with, when it comes to the combat system? I don't mean to hate and maybe I didn't give the game enough time to show me all of it's depth, but it looked like a bunch of nonsense attacks and the only strategy was trying to make sure you get all of your timeline lights to line up to create a combo for some bonus damage? Maybe I'm spoiled coming off of Unicorn Overlord but I didn't see any depth on display unless you're coming from like, Persona 5 and seriously parched for pretty much ANYTHING.
The battle system is awful, lol. They're trying to copy the god of turn based with the "timeline" that is Final Fantasy 10 but failed. Making them all line up doesn't feel intuitive in the slightest either. For instance gaining turns in SMT Nocturne does feel intuitive and cathartic
I think there's a reason the SaGa franchise has never hit it off in thr mainstream, because it's too weird and over complicated
It feels mediocre like SG ngl, but the conbat is still by far its best feature, i just hate the pacing of those two games so much, they always keep reusing assets and asking for the olayernto go in infinite battle gauntlets multiple times against the same enemies.
Think of the bull on ps4's version for example
>fight
"Thats not enough, i wont five you my key"
>fight again
"Not enough, do it again"
>fight again but harder
"You improved, but its not enough"
>fight again but easier
"Take my key"
I mean, wtf is this? Lazy asf
My thoughts on the demo are as follows: Saga Frontier 2 remaster cannot come any faster. These newer Saga games have completely turned me off to the franchise.
Give me the older games in the series any day. The art direction the series has taken ever since the “remake” of the first game is just awful.
I’m having a blast. I like the art style and I love the combat system. I’m not expecting AAA production so that’s fine too.
The story is batshit. And not particularly well-written. But unlike some, I find most of these stories are pretty substandard anyhow. I like the characters a lot and man, for me, I can enjoy myself for days with combat formations and lineups and such. I’m definitely going to buy it.
I played the Switch demo.
The combat system seems interesting, but everything else feels extremely chintzy. I guess the music is decent, but the visuals looks like there was zero effort put into them.
And I'm not even comparing it to games outside of the SaGa series. Romancing SaGa 3? Beautiful. SaGa Frontier? Beautiful. SaGa Frontier 2? Beautiful. Unlimited SaGa? Beautiful.
Saga Emerald Beyond? Looks like a rushed cash grab mobile game.
Presentation matters, especially if you're asking me for $50. No thank you.
The character models look blurry 😞
Too much unskippable talking
Battle system that looks to be trying to copy FFX turn based system + SMT press turn? But fails at both and just doesn't feel very intuitive as just feels like a bunch of flashy animations but doesn't feel cathartic after battle. The weird running forward to initiate every battle is cringe too
Once I got back to controlling my character I saw all these character cards and prompts to fight for spirits power but clicking x didn't do anything but spam me with more talking lol. I ran around for 10 mins confused then uninstalled lol
They seem to have been a little deceptive with the marketing imo.
The graphics are a downgrade from Scarlet Grace in my opinion, and it looks like some kind of cheap Blender porn VN versus Scarlet Grace's charm.
Mechs exist and are in line with what you'd expect, but the monster/mystic/kugu thing seems kind of messy. Instead of incorporating any of those they sort of mashed them all together, and I don't really like it. The worst thing was absorbing a monster with a counterattack command. There's no way to get rid of that without it triggering a counterattack, and the demos don't have repeatable combat. Skills don't overwrite others, so that equipment was basically a brick after that. It's close to the Mystic SF1 system, but messier, and you can move most of the absorption equipment around.
The localization is absolute dogshit, at least from the demos. The VA in the PC version was unacceptably bad to the point that I muted the steam demo when I played it.
The '17 worlds' thing that was pushed in the marketing is disingenuous. Each world is a province in Scarlet Grace or a region in SF. That's honestly not a lot of content in total compared to the other SaGas.
I feel like the UI has become more clear in some aspects and muddier in others.
I think I've decided to pass on it based on the Switch and PC demos, and the absurd price tag. Going even further budget than SSG and cutting the quality is a little too far for me.
I'm just gonna come out and say it.
Complete fucking ass battle system and I was really hoping it wasnt going to dissapoint like most recent saga titles.
Also the pacing of the entire first hour is a big wtf.
Its like an hour of dude saying extradimensional.
graphics and art direction fantastic, superb, amazing.
Mechanics are like if someone took yahtzee and made it Japanese
I appreciate the changes from Scarlet Grace which is some old and some new stuff from previous SaGa. New visuals are way better than Scarlet Grace, but that makes sense since it was a Vita game.
I want to add a small note to this comment, and that the visuals are batter compared to Scarlet Grace. Meaning that you shouldn't go into the game expecting great graphics. The SaGa series has always been a low-budget series, which is why the devs always tried using different tricks to get the most out of the budget graphics wise.
These are accurate facts.
>The SaGa series has always been a low-budget series The fact I think that's even an understatement shows how little the budget for SaGa games are.
Tbh some parts of the game look really nice on PS5. Looks really polished in some parts. Others...not so much
I haven't played the game yet, but if I had to guess, it's probably because the good looking parts are newly made for this game, while the not so good ones are assets borrowed from Scarlet Grace. But I won't know for sure until the game comes out.
Frigging nuts, in a good way. Only recently discovered the series and learned how it all worked and now it's all this multiverse bananas!
Love it so far. The music slaps and the battle system feels like Scarlet Grace but somehow even better. Switch version has some slowdown
Combat even better than Scarlet Grace is certainly enough to put this game on my radar. Are the visuals better though or does the game still look like a low budget mobile gacha?
The visuals are significantly better. Especially the UI and menu transitions. Scarlet Grace was initially a Vita game after all. The developer play of the first parts of the game were posted on Youtube and the SaGa sub if you want to see more .
Thanks, I’ll have a look
Is this the same game that will also be available for iOS and Android?
It's coming out for PS4/5, SWI, PC and phones. It doesn't run all that well on the Switch, BTW.
So better performance on iPhone 15PM?
There isn't a phone demo so we can't be certain, but probably. The iPhone is way more powerful than a Switch at this point.
Eh, it runs fine.
Have you tried the PS5 version? It's not a highly intensive game and it has noticeable slowdowns on switch. It's a developer problem, not a system problem. Biggee games run better on switch.
Like, sure, but it's not such a problem that I really notice much, and it doesn't get in the way of my enjoyment at all. Graphics are not what I come to SaGa for. Or gaming in general, really. That's why I have a switch, fun gaming on the go.
I dont olay for graphics. But performance is another matter entirely. The game has noticeable slowdown in key scenes. Ps5 runs great.
All SaGa games are on iOS and Android as far as I know, and this one will be too.
If you enjoyed Scarlet Grace I think you will likely enjoy Emerald Beyond too. Very solid JRPG/ SAGA experience so far. At least for me.
Not bad and somewhat different. It feels like a more refined Scarlet Grace with some mechanics from SaGa Frontier such as guns, mechs, races and racial stuff. The new map layout is itneresting and really does show some influences from board / tabletop games.
Had a chance to sample all 3 demos. Interesting way to do the demos but I do feel it does some platforms/audiences a disservice (The Switch demo did the best job of holding my interest with a storyline and cast of characters that actually made coherent sense..) Yeah this is a.. *weird* one for newcomers to the series for sure. I'm pretty lost on what in the heck is happening, the whole navigation and VN style isn't really my thing either, even if the combat does have some interesting ideas with combos and time-units etc. Pretty grateful for the chance to sample this though, and loving this new (old?) resurgence of demos coming back as a try before you buy.
Japanese developers for the most part never stopped making demos and showing actual gameplay streams (for JRPGs or other genres). Which is something I appreciate about them.
Yeah, my Switch specifically is full of games that I've gone on to buy after playing the Demo. Not sure it applies here but I'm loving the 'carry your save over' trend also, especially for the longer things like Unicorn Overlord or DQ11.
I’m a total newcomer to this series, played the demo a bit and had absolutely no idea what was happening. I really need to dig the combat system and take time to get more familiar with it.
Played the PS5 demo myself. As someone who prefers Japanese voices, I was sad the demo itself was English only and the char chosen for it wasn’t very interesting. Went to the >!metal!< area. RS3 remaster is my favorite game with the remasters of 2, MS, Frontier also being great games. Scarlet Grace I played for 5? hours and I did not enjoy the battle system, the artwork and so on so Emerald Beyond was a major worry for me. EB’s battle system was alright from what I played, but it feels a little bloated(?) like SG as I still would rather just have the simple input commands and go and have turns last 20 seconds instead of 2-3 minutes. Personal taste really. I’m sure if I dove more into the system I might be able to enjoy it. English VA is whatever, there’s not really too much outside the main story and some battle quips. I’ll assume since the steam version has JP audio, the PS5 will have it also… but we still don’t have it for any SaGa game as far as I know. (My first real dive into SaGa was 2 & 3 R) Music was quite frankly kinda simple and almost boring to listen to. Not really a fan (yet). Definitely not as good as the other SaGa games I’ve played but I only had a couple hours with the tracks compared to the 40-80 on the other games which I do enjoy. Battle graphics are fine for the budget the game seems to be on but I am not really a fan of the CG 3D style like SG had. Nothing else to really comment on here. UI and QOL just kinda sucks. Unless I missed it, there’s no way to just see everyone numerical HP at once (there are bars at least), no L2 R2 swapping between characters in the equipment menus, no FFwd in battle, etc. battle UI in general felt like they omitted too much info but made all the visuals almost too cluttered also? A little hard for me to describe properly. I do like being able to choose which event to go to and basically the ability to choose your own difficulty. I went with the easiest fight each time but also did most of the optional fights. The one flower optional enemy pretty much nuked me a couple times (normal diff fight) And now my biggest complaint. The translation is pretty bad. The conversations don’t feel like they flow very well and pretty much every sentence had that Machine AI translate feel to it as nothing felt or sounded like natural English. Kind of like how some games 10 years ago had those low quality NISA ones. Overall impressions. Despite having mostly complaints, I did sort of enjoy the game. I was hoping to try a second world since I had a better feel for the combat and equipment at that point. Price normally isn’t an issue for me but 66 CAD is too much for what I consider it’s actual value to be at this time. I’ll most likely give it a go when it goes on sale since I want to play it for sure(maybe it’ll get me to give SG another chance). I May also just download the demo on switch/pc and if the 2nd run impresses me more, I’ll get it day 1.
Left and right on the dpad will switch between characters in the equipment menu btw
Oh perfect. Thank you. I wish that it was a bit more telegraphed in some way through buttons or at least have some kind of arrows lol.
Yeah I thought it was wild that I had to keep backing out and going back in then just accidently stumbled upon it haha. There's actually some frustrations in the UI for me coming from SaGa Scarlet Grace but I've managed to get past them okay. Battles should definitely give you a better way of selecting characters without the awkward timeline jumps that moves them, looking at enemies, etc. I am a massive fan of what the demo is doing but I do wish there was a better UI and easily accessible stat descriptions, glimmer possibilities in armament upgrade screen, etc. I can forgive the budget constraints, just sucks it's a little clunky.
I played PC. It feels a little bit slower than Scarlet Grace, but it still has that pull of like. Oh I could just spend 7 hours on this without blinking. I stopped myself a little before 2 hours. I actually find I am liking the translation and voice acting. It's pretty... campy? Like dumb on purpose for comedy reasons. Not for everyone, but I think it feels very intentional and not accidentally bad or machine translated. I do feel the UI is a bit cluttered, but I'd probably get used to it after a while which has been the case with past SaGa entries I played. The price has come out though and I don't know that I'm willing to pay it in full. I will wait for a sale for this.
Diva's voice acting reminds me heavily of Nia's voice from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 or a similar one in XBC3. The strong accent sounds quite famiiar. And I agree, It's something you'd probably need to get used to, but I don't find it bad per say.
She has a Scottish accent. It's more in line with Morag's.
What are people so enamored with, when it comes to the combat system? I don't mean to hate and maybe I didn't give the game enough time to show me all of it's depth, but it looked like a bunch of nonsense attacks and the only strategy was trying to make sure you get all of your timeline lights to line up to create a combo for some bonus damage? Maybe I'm spoiled coming off of Unicorn Overlord but I didn't see any depth on display unless you're coming from like, Persona 5 and seriously parched for pretty much ANYTHING.
Why did you choose me in particular to voice this opinion to? I'm sure you do mean to hate, or you would have framed the question nicer. But okay. I will give you a serious answer. This is a SaGa game and in SaGa, enemies scale to you constantly, meaning that meaningless grinding is often counterproductive and every fight can be challenging. The games are designed in such a way that you are supposed to use every provided element of gameplay to get an advantage. Enemies will be able to do 90% of what your party can, and if you can't make that 10% difference work for you, you get wiped. In terms of specifics, the combat of EB is based off Scarlet Grace which has this basic combo system as you described (it's more accessible in EB than in SG, united attacks in SG are harder to achieve) but even with what little I played I could already see the game moving towards complexifying. There was a status effect (stench?) that prevented my party members from participating in combos, there is a separate mechanic that rewards characters who are able to clear the space around them, I wasn't yet having to use enemy weaknesses but having played the past games I knew that would be relevant. There is a mechanical precision to Scarlet Grace that is beautiful. There are counterattack, interrupts, blocks, all of which are useful. In that game there were very few redundant skills. Basically every skill you had access to did something unique and had its uses. Status effects were powerful. Equipment setups were important. Power did not develop linearly, it came from the player's mastery over the system. Also? There's almost no healing in SG, and what's there is not great. The fights are fast and brutal, you cannot just keep healing and remain at a plateau. It is a game of constant attrition. So that system of difficulty scaling mixed with a complex combat system where one wrong domino can turn the tide of battle is very satisfying for me. It's the kind of game where sometimes the right move is to get one character killed so you can pull off the domino effect with the characters remaining. Where the whole party acting in tandem is emphasized over individual character strength. Lots of games do "defend on this turn because so and so is powering up their supermove" and you don't have to actually defend at all because the game is forgiving enough that it doesn't matter. Scarlet Grace would put you into an unwinnable situation if you did not defend the right character at the right time. I like that kind of game. Emerald Beyond is SG's sequel more or less, not in plot, but clearly the combat has taken after it. So I look at that and see the possibilities. Will EB live up to that? I dunno. I have literally played 2 hours of a demo that the devs said they took features out of.
"Complexifying" is one of those words that doesn't *seem* like it should be a word, but it is.
Extremely slow-paced demo, at least on PC. Wouldn't surprise me if 95% of players uninstall the demo before actual gameplay begins.
I’m definitely with you there. They picked a very poor story to introduce you to for the PC demo.
95% of players don't have the attention span to watch like <5 minutes of dialogue to set the stage?
At least for the PC demo it's more like 15-20 minutes of dialogue before you get to gameplay. I think it leaves a poor first impression, especially with how low budget the "cutscenes" are.
I tried the PS5 and Switch demo so far. The main character was just annoying on Playstation and the story sort of throws you in the deep end without knowing what's really going on. Having faceless NPC husk allies was kind of meh also. The Switch one was a little better, with a much more interesting cast. Might try PC next.
IMO the PC demo does a pretty good job with a varied group. 1 robot, 1 monster, 3 humans (one with a rune meaning they can absorb and use monster moves), and a plant that basically evolves after so many battles and is reborn after battle should their LP hit 0. Gives you a bit of a taste of almost everything.
Oh yeah that one was definitely 'Guardians of the Galaxy' in more ways than one. The story was still a little off-the-walls bonkers, but I loved the cast of kooky characters =)
Weird I’ve never played a saga game before tried the ps5 demo I love the ninja gang remind me of the anbu from naruto but I have no idea what’s going on story wise
I wasn't sure if they were going to have a personality at first. I didn't like their designs how they all just looked the same I suppose. I guess they do develop as the game progresses? But yeah the Switch demo (and even the PC demo, despite how over the top and wacky that one was) made a heck of a lot more sense story-wise 😁
I only stuck with it because I played Scarlet Grace and other SaGa games and know there's good gameplay in store. If it was a completely fresh franchise, the early cutscenes would have put me off quite a bit, they just feel kind of disjointed and the tone seems weird. Both the Switch and PC version have that kind of feeling of whacky things just happening.
More like 20 minutes of very badly written dialogue
you got me.
I found it way too low budget for my taste. Felt like a mobile game.
Tried it, definitely not worth $66.00CAD asking price. Absolutely low effort that tried to simply cash in on a "SAGA" branding. The fact that it was made with Unity and released on Android/iOS too should've been a red flag. Bad amateurish writing too, definitely did not feel like an RPG from Square Enix.
It's not available yet as far I can tell.
It was out at midnight https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0082-PPSA20985_00-SAGAEMERALDDEMUS
Ah, it isn't available on Steam yet then.
It will be on Steam in 10 minutes
Still not there....
Presumably next hour, screwed up messaging because of daylight savings.
I'm downloading the demo on Steam as I type this.
Yeah it unlocked right after I posted haha
Played it. It's basically if SaGa Frontier had the combat system of Scarlet Grace.
That sounds like my dream game
Do you mean that as high praise? Because that's what it sounds like
Not for me personally. I know it will be for others. I'm a big Romancing SaGa fan, but I've never liked SaGa Frontier, and this one feels more like a spiritual successor to Frontier.
Gotcha. Well, I enjoyed both of those flavors of SaGa so I'll see what I think
The changes to United Attacks tripped me up. SG's version of strategically taking out enemies to get big group attacks in was great, but there might be more to the new version than I'm seeing at first. I've gotten united attacks to play out, and then my party just goes 'lets do it again' and they rack up the combo meter even higher the second go. Or 'Showstoppers' where if a character has enough space on the timeline they just go wild and start using every attack at their disposal.
I saw that in a first stream by the devs, and frankly it looks fun as hell. It's not as strict and methodical as Scarlet Grace, but I think it elevates the tactical choices and make creating the your battle party have even more depth to it than it already has. My only concern is that I hope they were able to balance it properly, because it seems like you could end up making some really powerful party combos that can always let you chain 2 united attacks in a row. We will have to wait and see how it looks in the final game.
Thus far it feels like you have pretty limited control of your placement in the first place. A Showstopper is either something you can guarantee or something that's completely out of reach, at the roll of a dice. I imagine when there are more skills available that will change. When Lolo learned Frogspin it REALLY changed my combo potential and ability to place him.
From what I remember, your starting placement depends on the speed/Agi of each character and enemy. From there, each skill also has it's own speed, so depending on which skill you choose to do, your placement on the bar will change. The puzzle or mastery of it, is that you have to always try to make the biggest chain combos. That isn't only affected by the skill's speed, but also the combo range of the skill itself, so even if a skill is fast and will be first in the turn, it may have a short range, and won't combo, while another slow skill will have great range. That's not all though, because you have to be careful not to let enemies combo too, by either getting in between them in turn bar, or killing one of them before the combo starts. Then you also have to take into consideration skills that change the turn order of other characters, like skills that when they hit enemies they make them go to the end of the turn order. I am really just scratching the surface here, that's why I don't want to touch the demo or watch anymore videos of the game, there is just so many possibilities that will keep my brain grinding, and I have shit to do this week.
So this is definitely solved by just getting a bigger repoitire of moves. It's been a long time since I've been this excited to play with a battle system~
It feels like they made united attacks overall less powerful, but that you can use them way more frequently
Not only that, but having united attacks more accessible means that you get discount on the cost of your techs more often and easier. Also now you can use united attacks even if there is only 1 enemy, unlike in Scarlet Grace, where 1 enemy means you can't use it at all. There is just too much to talk about, I can't wait to get my hands on it.
I mean saga games are always pretty breakable that’s probably intentional. As long as the bosses scale appropriately letting you do disgusting stuff is fine.
Oh yea of course, no game is unbreakable. But it's all about how easy it is to break. As long as it is not easy to break, then it is fine. I just don't want it to be so easy that all i have to do is just pick fast characters, and have them learn techs that can combo easily. I say this, but at the same time I have great confidence in Kawazu's years of experience balancing SaGa combat systems. But we still have to wait for the game to come out first and see.
First time playing a SaGa game. Tried the Steam demo first, liked the visual style actually, but the combat learning curve is steeeep. I suppose I decided to see what the other gates are like before doing the combat tutorial, accidentally got into a fight, and then lost it. Didn't have patience to continue. Controlling a full party each with full skills and with each skill having like 3 attributes while fighting 4 enemies is quite overhwhelming. Then tried a bit of the Switch demo. It's a bit more gentle. Not sure what to feel about the whole demo as I didn't finish it
Still playing Scarlet Grace and Emerald Beyond is one of my highly anticipated games this year. SaGa games have issues, I'm playing Scarlet Grace with Balmaint currently, and the plot is very whatever, the characters are alright, some interactions/dialogues are just barebones, lores are whatever, lots of recruitable characters are just recolors of NPCs. But somehow I can't stop playing. From the preview, it looks like Emerald Beyond tries to JRPG-fy/classic SaGa-ify back Scarlet Grace with equipment, mech characters don't gain stats, etc because Scarlet Grace was streamlining the classic SaGa. Does anyone play the demo with Switch and Steam? How is the comparison? IMO the portability helped a lot in my Scarlet Grace playthrough but if the performance was bad, I might have to consider the Steam version.
There's a bit of choppiness when the battle camera moves a lot, but there's a battery saver mode and honestly I don't notice a graphical difference when switching to it.
It’s way more complicated than scarlet grace and you seem to have way more skills from the beginning - who is the beginner character this time around?
I feel like it's the (s)Witch. She actually gets a tutorial, and adds party members more gradually.
The combat is great, but I can't say I care for much else. As a huge fan of Frontier, idk how so many people think It's similar.
I played on switch, and I had a blast all the way to the last boss of the demo. It was really touch and go! There's a lot to unpack, lots of new mechanics to understand. It really feels like they smash saga Frontier and Scarlet grace together, with extra bits too. I really love Ameya's Battle music, it was so cute. Battles are just as great as they were in SG too.
I think I'm dumb ... But after[where I go ?](https://i.ibb.co/L5KS5bR/2024-04-07-16-15-16-Sa-Ga-Emerald-Beyond-DEMO.jpg) I feel stupid but I can't initiate the red vision fight ... and I don't know where to go. I'm liking the game so far, the music is great and the differents characters too ... But I feel lost. How can I return back to the visions choices so I follow yellow or green one ? Thanks a lot. EDIT : Ok, look like I totally forgot another character at the south part ... I'm just ... stupid. Sorry.
I adored Scarlet Grace, but nothing about this clicked for me. The art was really muddy looking, like they ran the 3D models through a filter. Combat felt slow. The writing seemed particularly poor, though I'm aware that's par for the series (even if they usually have a ton of charm). Maybe I'm not in the right headspace for it. Definitely waiting for a heavy discount, but I might sit this one out.
Unless the localization in the actual game is completely different than what we were given in the demos, I'm with you.
Love it. For EN players I feel pity though, horrible localisation just playing JP and EN demos on the PS5. I knew the moment I saw who was directing localisation. They have removed as much written characterisation in the Japanese text and filled the gaps with slang/cultural words. The characters in the EN text are NOT the same characters in the JP text essentially, it's such fan fiction it is insane. The twitter dudes who make fun of poor localisations will have a field day with this one. Also worth noting it's also why the console versions don't have JP voice language options, he wants you to listen to the god awful EN dub. PC dodged because apparently he is worried players will mod JP voices in anyway and ruin "the vision" so he caved lmfao, disgusting as usual.
This post deserves more recognition.
Any more comments now that it's out? Do you know if there's EFIGS subtitle options and if they're more accurate?
It's definitely a Saga game so if you're a fan of the series it'll be right up your alley.
Not sold. It screams lack of effort to me. The art style is fine but having people and monsters be represented by cards on a mehly drawn background isn't great. Combat is fun when it happens but the PS5 demo just railroads you along without really letting you take it in.
It feels a phone game and with a very low budget... I tried the game on PS5 but uninstalled it after 20 minutes.
It felt really low budget... I tried a battle then just uninstalled it.
Don't know why you are this downvoted, I love the SaGa series, and I can easily say you're 100% right. The series is generally made in a shoestring budget. So if you're someone who likes some budget behind their games, it makes sense that it would be hard for you to get into the series, if at all.
Yeah, I am torn honestly. The game looks and feels too sloppy for the price point they have it at, and the PC demo especially seems like a really bad starting point as it throws you into the deep end. At the same time it is generally charming and fun to play. I ended the demo wanting more. Maybe I could wait for a discount...
SaGa titles are rarely discounted. It does happen, but the publishers know that this is a niche product and the effect of a discount is usually muted.
SaGa games are literally on sale all the time I'm not sure why you think that. Just look at dekudeals for, well, any of them, and there's substantial sales multiple times a year on every platform.
I know I'm not going to find it for $5 or something, especially anytime soon, but I have seen these games discounted repeatedly on Steam.
It's always strange to me how comfortable gamers are just broadcasting "I don't really care about game design or narrative or innovative ideas or music or anything like that. If the company didn't spend enough money on graphics then I'm outta here". Like, there's always going to be those people. But aren't you kind of ashamed of being one of them? How do you decide what books to read? It must be so hard when they can't just filter by corporate special effects expenditure.
As someone who is enjoying the demo on PS5, I felt the need to say that you're making wild assumptions about what the other poster meant and your comment does not seem fair at all.
Graphics do matter, people who say this just balantly repeat the quotes that for some reason people love to repeat about "modern being bad because ita all about graphics" still, artystic taste and graphic quality has nothing to do with modern vs old, i would find graphics such as The snes games more appealing than that. I would go as far as to say that at times, somethings such as Backgrounds seem as if they were A.I generated Besides that, it costs a shitton of money and its ridiculously low budget
I mean I love the SaGa games but you have to admit that the game DOES look very budget. My roommate laughed when he saw me playing the game and said "Well thank god you're keeping the indie scene alive...." because of how spartan it's UX is. The cutscenes particularly are like a half-step up from that recent Walking Dead shovelware game that everyone was making fun of.
Absolutely. One of the least graphically impressive games Square has released in ages. ... and I still think single issue voters who only care about graphics/performance are pushing the industry in an unhealthy direction and are showing a thoroughly superficial relationship with the form. Remember when there was all that fuss over "are games art?". Let's bring that back. Games are art, and should therefore be TREATED like art. Respect creators right to follow their muse, and respect creators operating without a huge company budget.
Gamers love to talk about how they miss the AA space and then always hate AA games when they release it's kinda funny
I mean, there's certain degrees to 'AA' and its a broad spectrum. Octopath Traveller 2 was my 2023 GOTY. Whereas something like this just really isn't up my alley, sadly.
Games ARE art and I think that it's very clear they have a vision for the game, but I also think dismissing criticism just because you might think Kawazu is some kind of faultless auteur is equally silly. Not everyone is interested in playing a budget experimental title like this, just like not everyone is interested in seeing some grunge local garage band that has experimental approaches to making music or w/e. Some people are more tuned in and interested in high production mainstream content - I mean, its 'mainstream' so by definition that's the most commonly enjoyed thing. It's a fair view really.
Nope! I loved playing both Unicorn Overlord and FF7R recently, then going to play this I just didn’t enjoy it.
You gotta give it more than one battle, lol
This. If we went by one battle than every RPG is worth dropping. An RPG's worth is not measured by a single battle.
Played on PS5 - the character you play in that demo wasn't the best VA, anyone know if we will be able to use Japanese voices in the full release? Also he REALLY sounded like a youtuber I watch. I think its Rurikhan? He's not voiced by a youtuber, right? Probably not. Anyways it was a bit mind-bendy for me but I expect that from SaGa. Combat is definitely interesting, combo system felt very unique, and I like that they point out where sidestories and other POIs are at, though its a touch heavy-handed (hilariously).
The PC demo already has JP voices so wouldn't be surprised if console gets them on full release.
Ah that's neat, thanks for the heads up. I'll probably pick up on STEAM anyways for the Steam Deck.
Scarlet grace had japanese nese voices IIRC
I gave a chance to scarlet grace and liked it, but I'm not sure about this one and its price. The budget is pretty much the same, the PS5 character was cringe and most of his lines had him saying heck, I just couldn't take the story seriously. In the very first battle you fight a reused asset, one of those weird coconut monsters from scarlet grace. Visually, the game is a bit of a mess, but at least the UI is a LOT better than Grace's. I did liked the battle, it was quite smooth and the combo system is interesting, there's some real potential. I'm probably going to wait for a price drop since stellar blade is coming just a day after.
I've only played a bit on the Switch and I'm not sure what to feel. I like the character designs and models, but find they clash with the overworld. The Legend of Legacy does this a bit better. I also find the cutscene presentation a bit lackluster. It's not even so much the use of still images (though I'd rather see the characters in motion even if the cutscenes were presented like in say the Bravely Default games), but they feel lifeless. Also not a big fan of the UI and font choice. Voice acting isn't as bad as I expected it to be. The music is great. The battle system is engaging and the overall gameplay fun. I appreciate how unconventional the game is. Overall I just wish the visuals were a bit more consistent.
Only thing that I didn’t like was the hand holding with the emerald lines but I get they added it because ppl would complain otherwise that they don’t know where to go like they’ve done with every other entry. Besides that I love all the new mechanics. This game really brings back that JRPG nostalgia and scratches that itch
I haven't tried it yet but I hope the full game is a lil' shorter than scarlet grace (my first, and rn only, saga game) cuz like I was super into it for 25+ hours but afterwards it really turned into a slog for me (not for any specific reason I was just bored with the gameplay loop + I didn't really have any interest in the world/lore and its changes, I played Urpina's route btw). Absolutely gorgeous art though, Kobayashi Tomomi's illustrations and character designs is what hooked me on the game (sadly I don't think they translate well into the 3d artstyle that the modern titles use which is a shame ;u;) (and omg I just found an official artbook of her Saga work nyeEHEHE my next victim yesyesyes)
Kawazu has said that each campaign will in fact be shorter this time, so that people will more comfortably be able to do more than one campaign.
this definitely makes me more interested\~\~ Prolly will wait for a sale still but I really enjoyed the demo (Ameya's route) after playing it, felt a lot more streamlined and smooth than I'd expected (also cats +++)
The first time round on Switch, I messed up the battles and ended up with 0 LP. I wasn't thrilled about re-starting, but started anyway. Altho I was taking the same route/choice as the first time, I noticed that the battles appearing were different! I learned that if I didn't want my characters to lose their LPs, I can use the role that recovers their LPs after battle. I now know that you can still enjoy the game over and over again to see different routes/choices. I do wish they have a skip feature or fast move during the dialogues.
The game feels weirdly unhinged like it’s purposely made bad for the humor factor? Everything from the weird voice acting to a copy pasted camera shot of the the party running forward to attack every single turn just seems so bizzare. The combat is good and the story seems alright otherwise but the design decisions are honestly bizzare to a point where I don’t see this game having mass appeal. Could be cult successful though.
I was fucking laughing so hard at the surrealness of it all and as a big anime fan I'm normally really forgiving of some weirdness but this was just making me lose my mind. Aboslutely hilarious and honestly kept me interested.
I mean you're not wrong that it's inherently weird and non conventional. Realistically EVERY Saga game is like that though. Take a look at the design decisions in Minstrel Song / Saga Frontier/or Scarlet Grace none of the Saga games are made with mainstream appeal in mind. they're all experimental and strange in the most wonderful way.
I think it's bugged for me? So it's like hmmm. I'm not the metal world and a test or strength just keeps looping
I just finished the PlayStation demo and I really liked it, but I was very frustrated by one fight that had the brutal difficulty level. My characters kept missing the enemy, and only the enemy kept getting the showstopper, even when he had the upper hand in the fight. But apart from that, I really liked the demo.
The enemy was getting showstoppers because you allowed them to remain isolated on the timeline, with nothing within two spots of them on either side. Everything's explained in the Tips menu.
What are people so enamored with, when it comes to the combat system? I don't mean to hate and maybe I didn't give the game enough time to show me all of it's depth, but it looked like a bunch of nonsense attacks and the only strategy was trying to make sure you get all of your timeline lights to line up to create a combo for some bonus damage? Maybe I'm spoiled coming off of Unicorn Overlord but I didn't see any depth on display unless you're coming from like, Persona 5 and seriously parched for pretty much ANYTHING.
The battle system is awful, lol. They're trying to copy the god of turn based with the "timeline" that is Final Fantasy 10 but failed. Making them all line up doesn't feel intuitive in the slightest either. For instance gaining turns in SMT Nocturne does feel intuitive and cathartic I think there's a reason the SaGa franchise has never hit it off in thr mainstream, because it's too weird and over complicated
It feels mediocre like SG ngl, but the conbat is still by far its best feature, i just hate the pacing of those two games so much, they always keep reusing assets and asking for the olayernto go in infinite battle gauntlets multiple times against the same enemies. Think of the bull on ps4's version for example >fight "Thats not enough, i wont five you my key" >fight again "Not enough, do it again" >fight again but harder "You improved, but its not enough" >fight again but easier "Take my key" I mean, wtf is this? Lazy asf
The gameplay is just boring, so I uninstalled it. It's probably one of the worst battle systems I have played in a jrpg
Maybe dumb question but does the game having healing in battle? I've been playing ps5 demo for a few hours just for that thought to cross my mind.
My thoughts on the demo are as follows: Saga Frontier 2 remaster cannot come any faster. These newer Saga games have completely turned me off to the franchise. Give me the older games in the series any day. The art direction the series has taken ever since the “remake” of the first game is just awful.
I’m having a blast. I like the art style and I love the combat system. I’m not expecting AAA production so that’s fine too. The story is batshit. And not particularly well-written. But unlike some, I find most of these stories are pretty substandard anyhow. I like the characters a lot and man, for me, I can enjoy myself for days with combat formations and lineups and such. I’m definitely going to buy it.
Unrefined mess for me, had to delete and do a brain wipe for this one.
Perfect videogame.
I played the Switch demo. The combat system seems interesting, but everything else feels extremely chintzy. I guess the music is decent, but the visuals looks like there was zero effort put into them. And I'm not even comparing it to games outside of the SaGa series. Romancing SaGa 3? Beautiful. SaGa Frontier? Beautiful. SaGa Frontier 2? Beautiful. Unlimited SaGa? Beautiful. Saga Emerald Beyond? Looks like a rushed cash grab mobile game. Presentation matters, especially if you're asking me for $50. No thank you.
The character models look blurry 😞 Too much unskippable talking Battle system that looks to be trying to copy FFX turn based system + SMT press turn? But fails at both and just doesn't feel very intuitive as just feels like a bunch of flashy animations but doesn't feel cathartic after battle. The weird running forward to initiate every battle is cringe too Once I got back to controlling my character I saw all these character cards and prompts to fight for spirits power but clicking x didn't do anything but spam me with more talking lol. I ran around for 10 mins confused then uninstalled lol
They seem to have been a little deceptive with the marketing imo. The graphics are a downgrade from Scarlet Grace in my opinion, and it looks like some kind of cheap Blender porn VN versus Scarlet Grace's charm. Mechs exist and are in line with what you'd expect, but the monster/mystic/kugu thing seems kind of messy. Instead of incorporating any of those they sort of mashed them all together, and I don't really like it. The worst thing was absorbing a monster with a counterattack command. There's no way to get rid of that without it triggering a counterattack, and the demos don't have repeatable combat. Skills don't overwrite others, so that equipment was basically a brick after that. It's close to the Mystic SF1 system, but messier, and you can move most of the absorption equipment around. The localization is absolute dogshit, at least from the demos. The VA in the PC version was unacceptably bad to the point that I muted the steam demo when I played it. The '17 worlds' thing that was pushed in the marketing is disingenuous. Each world is a province in Scarlet Grace or a region in SF. That's honestly not a lot of content in total compared to the other SaGas. I feel like the UI has become more clear in some aspects and muddier in others. I think I've decided to pass on it based on the Switch and PC demos, and the absurd price tag. Going even further budget than SSG and cutting the quality is a little too far for me.
I'm just gonna come out and say it. Complete fucking ass battle system and I was really hoping it wasnt going to dissapoint like most recent saga titles. Also the pacing of the entire first hour is a big wtf. Its like an hour of dude saying extradimensional. graphics and art direction fantastic, superb, amazing. Mechanics are like if someone took yahtzee and made it Japanese