SaGa: Emerald Beyond[a] is an upcoming role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix. An entry in the SaGa series, it is scheduled for release on April 25, 2024 for Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows. The story follows six protagonists as they traverse 17 different worlds connected to a realm called the Beyond. The player explores these worlds completing quests and unlocking new events, with the turn-based combat focusing on timeline manipulation and the random learning of new skills.
Beginning development in 2017 after completion of SaGa: Scarlet Grace, the development team included series creator Akitoshi Kawazu as director and lead writer, lead artist Satoshi Kuramochi, and Kenji Ito returning as composer. Kawazu's aim was to build on the mechanics of Scarlet Grace, expanding the narrative and gameplay elements.
Premise and gameplay
Combat in SaGa: Emerald Beyond is turn-based, with turn order and character positions on the combat timeline influencing elements of battle.
SaGa: Emerald Beyond is a role-playing video game in which players will take control of six protagonists, navigating a selection of seventeen worlds. Characters explore the worlds, with which ones visited triggering different events and influencing the path forward. Navigating worlds, players can follow different glowing lines dubbed Emerald Waves, which lead to different quests. Combat is turn-based, with the party pulling their actions from a shared resource called BP. Two central mechanics are Formations, pre-set positions for characters that influence their battle abilities, and manipulating the turn order timeline to gain strategic advantages including launching team attacks when two or more party members are adjacent on the timeline. Similar to earlier SaGa titles, there is no traditional experience point system, with characters learning new skills at random with Glimmers.[2][3]
The storyline is set within a realm where multiple worlds exist in believed isolation, in fact being connected by an interdimensional space called the Beyond. The story begins when an event is set in motion that will bring change to all worlds connected to the Beyond. The six protagonists are Tsunanori Mido, a magically gifted young man tasked with restoring balance between worlds; Ameya Aisling, a witch-in-training who has her magic taken away and goes gain it back; Siugnas, a vampire king seeking to reclaim his realm from a usurper; Diva No. 5, a songstress robot who loses her voice and original body, and Bonnie Blair and Formina Franklyn, a couple of rookie police officers investigating an assassination attempt.[2]
Development
Planning for Emerald Beyond began in 2016, following the completion of SaGa: Scarlet Grace. Production started the following year[4] Multiple SaGa veterans returned to work on the game, including series creator Akitoshi Kawazu as director and lead writer, Masanori Ichikawa as producer, and composer Kenji Ito.[3][4] After taking a minimalist design approach with Scarlet Grace, Kawazu wanted to build upon that foundation with more explicit story elements and refinements to the gameplay. After finalizing the game's design, full production began in 2018 after work finished on Scarlet Grace's expanded version Ambitions. Production was slowed due to both other parallel SaGa projects, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[4]
While Kawazu wrote the main scenario, other writers were assigned to the substories of different worlds. This was to avoid the chaotic story design problems caused during the production of SaGa Frontier, which featured a similar multiple world and protagonist approach.[4] The combat designer was Tomokazu Shibata, who had worked on Unlimited Saga (2002) and acted as battle director for Kingdom Hearts III (2019).[4] The battle system, which focused on formations and manipulating the battle timeline, was carried over from Scarlet Grace.[2] The key visuals and most main characters were designed by Kuramochi, who had previously worked on SaGa projects including Scarlet Grace and mobile spin-offs. The characters were designed based on Kawazu's instructions. A notable lead character not designed by Kuramochi was Siugnas, who was instead designed by Sara Takahashi.[4]
A new major SaGa title was confirmed in late 2021 during a livestream on the series, with Kawazu stating a hope that it would be revealed the following year.[5] The Emeral Beyond title was trademarked by Square Enix in October 2022.[6] The game was officially announced in September 2023, initially through a Nintendo Direct broadcast and later for wider release. It is scheduled for release in 2024 for Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Windows.[2][3]
