SaGa Emerald Beyond was one of the more surprising games I’ve played this year. It’s new, different, sometimes fantastic and in other moments dull and complex. Hi my name is Phant0m and these are my thoughts on… SaGa Emerald Beyond.
Visuals
First Thing you’ll notice is a pair of visuals that I thought weren’t great. Character designs can look interesting. But most of the other scenes came off as very basic and uninspired in most hours of the game. When it does eventually differentiate from this for minor moments, it is fun. Sadly you get stuck in more conversations than cool areas. And even then the game still feels cheap and at first I thought this was horrible modern gaming optimization until I read that this game is also on android. Which then means the visuals would actually look pretty good! The highlight of the visuals is definitely in the character designs, although nothing too high quality they are completely brimmed with detail, from small details to big, you can really get to know who your characters are based on clothing alone, and that’s a pretty impressive feat!
Gameplay
The gaming aspect of this game is actually the most fun part, although traversing the insanely empty, quick to pass levels isn’t great, you mostly just sit through moments of exploration between dialogue. But then you get to the combat that happens between this exploration is so good! Although it’s a bit complicated and hard to get into, it’s just super amazing once you do! At first when I didn’t know the depth behind it, I thought it would be another simple and mid turn based combat system, and although it is turn based, it’s more than that. Combat shows you a simple line helping you to manage times that you and your companions can attack, if you time things alongside your friends you’ll drop devious amounts of damage, if you don’t, you’ll do way less. And the game does a pretty good job of balancing the combat from small enemies that don’t do anything and big enemies that will absolutely destroy you if you’re not ready. Seriously give this game a try at least for its combat alone, which carried most of the experience by genuinely surprising me.
Story
The story was ultimately where I felt mixed. If you want a wide variety of stories that can change a significant amount based on choices, play this! But if you want the story to be great that’s where this unfortunately goes down a tough ride. No matter what I did the story of this game felt too scattered to connect, although it definitely tried to make the story a bit more understandable over time But I was always asking myself questions about some of the most simple things like theme or why I even went on this journey to be with just aren’t present, and as a big story nut I personally felt disappointed.
Characters
Luckily I didn’t think the characters were bad at all, if you put aside the very spotty voice acting you might have some potential here as most characters at least grabbed my interest. Most seem well written enough to enjoy, but their dialogue could use some work. The characters are very stereotypical, and I wouldn’t have minded it if they didn’t have to remind you during dialogue multiple times, I genuinely couldn’t believe my eyes at how many times they made the Western/Southern lady says Western/Southern lady things, it’s kinda funny and luckily since most of the story does have very funny moments, I don’t completely hate it; just very weird that it kept happening. Side note that the voice acting was disappointing mostly because everything felt like it was recorded on a very first take. With almost no depth to performance.
Music
Now probably my favorite part of the game… maybe tied with combat is the music, because it is so good! I genuinely would put so many tracks on my playlist just to vibe to. The fast sci-fi fantasy music just really can’t sound much better, which shout-out to the combat music for literally being on my ost playlist because I listened to it on the way to work absolutely vibing, it all just feels so fun and invigorating. And it also doesn’t feel copied or stolen, it feels fresh and new! (Whoever worked on this deserves a Promotion/Raise)
Performance
The performance of the game was splendid, I didn’t run into any issues while playing the game, even during combat I didn’t feel a single frame drop.
Verdict
If you’re wondering I don’t recommend this game unless you’re already a fan of the series. And if you can get past most of its issues, your fine. If you’re anything like me, this will mostly come out to be a messy ride. I give this game a 5/10 a pretty fun game if you ignore the story, some characters, and the boring world. Anyways those were my thoughts on SaGa Emerald Beyond! Thx For Reading! Keep doing great things! You’re good at them. Bye 🙂
