SaGa Emerald Beyond Gets More Details
Following the game’s announcement during the most recent Nintendo Direct presentation, Square Enix released more media and screenshots for SaGa Emerald Beyond. The information covers the game’s setting, protagonist options, and combat.
SaGa Emerald Beyond features multiple worlds connected by apparent emerald waves, though most of its people believe their current world to be the only one. There are seventeen such worlds connected to a place called the Beyond, with each of the game’s protagonists passing into the Beyond before journeying to different worlds. The protagonists are themselves met with emerald waves that indicate different choices leading to different fates. In keeping with the SaGa’s series approach, the game grants players freedom to explore these threads as they wish.
Players have five different protagonist options to choose from; the majority feature a single main protagonist, with one consisting of a pair. The game’s narrative will change depending on player choices, as players might find different narrative developments within the same world on different playthroughs. Square Enix promises that the game will have the highest amount of potential narrative changes in the SaGa series so far.
The first available protagonist is Tsunanori Mido. He is from the important Mido family of Miyako City, which has streets that sprawl out from a central temple. Following a great war, the city has been plagued by supernatural phenomena, and Tsunanori is selected to investigate others worlds to restore spiritual order by finding four element spirits. The second protagonist is Ameta Aisling, a witch-in-training hiding as an 11-year-old schoolgirl name Yumeha Izumi in Miyako City. Ameta lives with her cat familiar but loses almost all of her magical power after being attacked by an unknown man.
The third lead is Siugnas. He is an immortal vampire, known as the Dismal King, who rules over the darkness-shrouded world of Yomi. Siugnas is betrayed and driven from his home, awakening in a gathering place for dead warriors known as Brighthome, where he is put within the ranks of the army fighting for forces of disorder. The fourth protagonist, Diva No. 5, is a songstress mech in the industrial world of Avalon. Enrapturing those who saw her perform, she sings a forbidden song that causes her to lose her memory and singing ability. After discarding her “human” body, she is invited to join a secret society.
The final protagonist option is the duo of Bonnie Blair and Formina Franklyn. The pair are new recruits to the police force; Bonnie is a former marine, while Fromina is a renowned sharpshooter. They work together on an investigation into an assassination attempt on the President of Capitol City. Their only clues are a mysterious triangle and a person of interest claiming the president is a traitor.
SaGa Emerald Beyond’s combat refines the timeline-based system from SaGa Scarlet Grace. The party features a shared resource of BP, which is used for abilities and skills. Certain actions will allow the player to manipulate the turn-order to interrupt enemy actions or create special United Attacks. These attacks can be used when the green areas below each character on the turn-order overlap, but can also be done by enemies. In addition, when a character has no others within two slots of them, they can enter a state called Showstopper. This lets them create a powerful individual combo using multiple skills.
SaGa Emerald Beyond will also include the returning Glimmer system and formations. The Glimmer system sees party members potentially awakening to a new skill during combat, which they can use immediately. Meanwhile, party formations provide useful strategic effects, such as reducing skill costs, increasing the party’s defence, or powering up specific characters. The game’s characters also come from multiple races that vary greatly in different ways including stat growth, skill acquisition, and unique skills.
SaGa Emerald Beyond is in development for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. It is planned to release worldwide in 2024.
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