SaGa Emerald Beyond on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
Quick menu
FORGE YOUR OWN TALE The latest standalone entry in the SaGa franchise, SaGa Emerald Beyond, brings together the very best elements of the beloved series to offer each player their own unique gameplay experience.
SaGa Emerald Beyond is a turn-based, party-based rpg and jrpg game
developed and published by Square Enix.
Released on April 25th 2024 is available only on Windows
in 2 languages: English and Japanese.
It has received 316 reviews of which 241 were positive and 75 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.2 out of 10. 😊
The game is currently priced at 49.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for 22.92€ on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified SaGa Emerald Beyond into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at SaGa Emerald Beyond through various videos and screenshots.
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows® 10 / Windows® 11 64-bit
- Processor: AMD Ryzen™ 3 1200 / Intel® Core™ i3-3210
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon™ RX 460 / NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 750
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 10 GB available space
- Additional Notes: 30FPS @ 1280x720
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
First of all, I want to say happy 1st anniversary to SaGa Emerald Beyond! For the past year, I spent a good amount of time on this game, and found myself thinking about it from time to time even while away from it. I would also like to add that I played this game entirely blind without looking up any recommended strat for any hard fight, or for any way to get a specific character or scenario. Simply put, it is one of the best games in the series. As far as combat is concerned? I'd argue it is at the peak of console-styled turn-based jrpgs. It is a very calculated system that allows many different types of attacks and spells to flourish somewhere in your game plan. Throughout my entire time of playing, there were extremely few attacks that I would call not worth using in some way (mostly some monster techs, and I could just be wrong on this too). This is thanks to many factors for each move: BP, your current formation, timeline placement, combo ranges, conditionals, and plenty of other properties all contribute to nearly every move having a unique purpose depending on the ever-changing situations throughout every fight. And while weaknesses do play a part at times, by no means do you have to always adhere to hitting them save for a slight few standout enemies. In order to be optimal, you need to essentially build most characters into swiss-army knives to cover as many combat situations as possible on the timeline and to take advantage of doing combos and even breaking enemy combos to prevent nasty setups. For example, an ideal tech setup on a character would be having techs that moves you far up the timeline, far down the timeline, or move you just up or down enough to connect with another character for a combo or break an enemy's setup. Adding techs that counter or interrupt the opponent helps further this goal, as these moves deal big damage while moving you around to beneficial (or detrimental!) spots during the round. There are also techs that allow you to follow up on the first ally to attack for easy combo extensions, techs that allow you to target a specific enemy and follow-up on their attack instead, and techs that delay the enemy and push them down the timeline. Spells are incredibly versatile and powerful both in their damage and party support, but costs the character's turns and vulnerability to chant much like in Scarlet Grace. All of this can allow for some explosive rounds during a fight as you can potentially create combo scenarios in clever ways, or ways you do not expect if the enemy makes a blunder somehow. There is also the Showstopper mechanic which you can take advantage of to have one character do a combo on their own to deal insane amounts of damage. You can build your strategy around this if you kit a specific character with enough powerful moves (every move that deals damage gets used in Showstoppers) and use the right formations, but there are definitely fights that can make this strat not worthwhile too. Do mind that the enemy can do all of these mechanics against you as well. There is also no healing, which makes stopping the opponents, their combos, and mitigating as much damage to your party as you can that much more important. For this, pay very close attention to your formation's benefits, and the guard directions certain moves and weapons grant you. Of course, your gear and skills play a major role in your survival as well, mostly for preventing status effects (status effects in this game are no joke) or to have characters protect one another with a greatsword to ensure less people are hit during group-wide attacks. Gear and skills that increase aggro on characters can also help you, letting you draw only a certain percentage of specific moves towards them. There are other examples, but in short you will have to get creative on your defense much like your offense. Overall, this lead to some incredibly addicting gameplay and party building. The depth here was worth digging into and made me real proud of the dev team, as it felt like they built this system to address many issues with jrpg combat including even most older SaGa games. I feel the combat here is the real evolution to battles from games like FFX and Grandia 2, and truly refined some of mechanics they tried to do back then. I hope the recent success of the RS2 remake from XEEN doesn't dissuade them enough to dumb any of this down in the next major game... Speaking of party building, the race system that was missing since SaGa Frontier came back, and it's better than ever! This added even more complexity to party building and how you handled certain characters in combat (and probably demanded you read a few tooltips or two) With all of that said about combat, this also highlights one of the biggest issues I had with the game: the severe lack of enemy variety. All of those amazing battle systems in place only to fight the same depressing few enemy types and their recolors throughout most of the game does hit you hard after a bit. The biggest offender here was the Great Tree world when (or if) you ended up fighting any of the animal statues, instead of a bear enemy being used for its statue, they opted for the generic Treant mob you already seen a few dozen or hundred of times already. It was a bit embarrassing to see... I was also hoping to see proper dungeons make a comeback in this game after the lack of them in Scarlet Grace. Some people may not agree with this, but it would've been actually really cool to see dungeons styled after Unlimited Saga. The 2nd best thing about this game were actually the characters themselves! I was actually shocked at how charming and even funny some of them were, and they all have their distinct sense of humor, quirks, and reactions to the many hurdles thrown their way. Some you don't actually expect too. A few examples that took me by surprise were some traits of Lifetaker and Ameya's personalities. Despite the presentation of the game not being top-notch, I definitely sensed the passion put into adding a good amount of nuance to some characters. I also personally think the English translation was good at conveying this well. SaGa music is always amazing, including here. Not much to say on this part. Tsunanori's theme, Diva's theme and final boss fight stood out the most. Also, this game is built well to be replayed many times to collect as much gear as you can, see as many different interactions per character, and see all the different twists and turns that occur in the worlds you visit (although some worlds could use a bit more variation, such as Kosmos). Although as mentioned before....the enemy variety ends up making these things as less exciting as it could be. On new game+, you can customize your next playthrough in multiple ways, and depending on which options you choose you can make the game very difficult for yourself until you gather enough good gear to kit your characters properly. Staple to the series at this point, enemies do get stronger with the more battles you win and you can carry their level to subsequent playthroughs. When I played, grinding did not feel necessary at all since you encounter a lot of battles as you progress through the worlds and story anyway. As you replay, you'll understand more about the overarching story that connects everything. However, don't expect anything all too mind-blowing once you do. SaGa as a series isn't known for grandiose cinematic stories presented to you in full like other JRPGs, but you can still just simply appreciate the multiple journeys that you take with all the lovable characters along the way. To the devs, thank you for this wonderful game. Some may think of it as a mess, undercooked, or the sign of the series falling off for whatever reason. For me, though? This was my personal GOTY of 2024 and did everything it could to keep the pure spirit of this series alive.
Expand the review
I've beaten 3 runs, the two short campaigns (Ameya and Tsunanori) and one of the long campaigns (Diva No. 5). I feel like I'm doing this review too early despite already having clocked in 45 hours and reached and beaten one of the proper final bosses. But also, a lot of people have made their judgments of this game based on less. So first. This game has a lot of content. This is a game that I could see myself putting way more hours in and some of the other reviews here are proof of that. Some of these are in the 200s. It's a very more-ish game and it has the content to back it up. And, I think a lot of the things people are criticizing about it are actually contributing to that long term playability. It has the kind of simple "assemble your party, go on an adventure, every vista has its own silly little self-contained story" format that you would see from Dragon Quest , for example, which is a series whose popularity in Japan is partially owed to the fact that people can play it in short bursts while commuting. It has characters with simple motivations and clear quest signalling so you can't get lost. It has literal roguelite mechanics and progression over several runs. It's a game where you tell yourself: just one more fight, just one more story node. The depth of the combat system is unmatched. These are all good qualities... but somehow people are still comparing it to Final Fantasy. Which I don't completely lack sympathy for. Not everyone wants to buy a high quality indie game at Square Enix pricing. That's fair. I bought it on sale. But it doesn't erase those qualities as merits and the way people reframe them as flaws when this is clearly trying to be a game you can comfortably spend hours fine tuning your team to tackle scaling difficulty levels ala Disgaea or Siralim and not trying in any way to be Final Fantasy strikes the wrong chord with me. What I do agree with is, in comparison with its immediate precursor, SaGa Scarlet Grace or even older games in the SaGa series there are things that have been lost. Scarlet Grace was not a roguelike. Playing it a second time opened up aspects of the game that I had been blind to the first time, but my initial playthrough was a much more complete experience than my three playthroughs of Emerald Beyond . The combat in SG was a lot tighter and more elegant too, EB has expanded it significantly in terms of playstyle diversity but has lost the feeling of precise razor-wire tactical gameplay. I also miss being able to recruit loads of random people in SG, where straight up just nobody NPCs end up part of my godkilling final team. The cast seems a lot smaller this time around, and I found myself using a lot of my starting party to the end, which was not at all how SG went. EB is, to me, not a strict upgrade but more of a sister game to SG that has a different way of doing things. I'm gonna play more of this. It's very fun. Also yes. The menu-ing in this game is kinda cheeks. But I found a mod that says it fixes it. Will try that my next run.
Expand the review
It's all about the combat! SaGa Scarlet Grace had such a great battle system. SaGa Emerald Beyond tweaked it and made it even better! Now I can't wait for the sequel, SaGa Azure Infinity and see how they'll exceed my expectations as always. (This game is not real, but let's make it happen.)
Expand the review
The One Piece of RPGs It is definitely hard to get into this game, but just about everything for an interesting game experience is here. The story is really great if you work for it and probably a little better if you are familiar with past SaGa entries. The Final Emperor, Mr. S and Macha are pretty important figures in other SaGa games, for example. But the combat is also really rewarding, but a slog, especially if you are relying on trades rather than trial rewards. It is also missing some quality of life features that the "prequel" game (Scarlet Grace) provided, like being able to move to the end of the timeline with L1/R1, speeding up animations by pressing X/A, faster paced combat and animations in general, et cetera. On the other hand, the combat has been improved a lot from that game, with combos that are easy to activate and can turn the tide of battle easier, showstoppers that prevent a battle from snowballing too easily, first aid roles that easily heal up LP and are standard for every (non-ephemeral) character (you used to need really slow methods for LP recovery in Scarlet Grace) and two new types of skills which although I rarely use them, make it even easier to manipulate the timeline and prevent too many unfair situations. The main characters are amazing in this game too. They really change the experience of playing the game more than the characters in SaGa Frontier. Ameya gets a lot of help making her potentially much more powerful than your other characters if it is your first or second playthrough or something. Siugnas can get insane amounts of LP that he can spend for useful skills and he also can interact with his team members in interesting ways. Tsunanori Mido can power up his puppets with a lot of unique easily acquirable roles that make his team very powerful in early game, but require a lot of work because of the Mimicry skill learning of Kugutsu. Diva can switch her mech body, giving her potential to gain some permanent benefits that other mechs can not get, and she also gets Wednesday and the plant girl who are very useful and rare types of party members. Bonnie and Formina barely have anything (that I know about), but they do get to start with three "monsters", which are another potentially great companion for early game. I think Siugnas and Mido are the best protagonists and sadly Ameya only seems to get better when you nearly 100% the game. That brings up another important point - this game is based around many playthroughs. Ameya is basically the worst character to do multiple playthroughs with until you meet all of the conditions. Mido is so good that you might want to just play with him 5 times as your first character. Siugnas has a lot of great story and might unlock content for the worlds. Bonnie and Formina seem to learn about the core plot points of the game, but so does Mido. Diva seems the least worthwhile so far in terms of payoff. Anyways, if you are bored with straightforward and tropey games and you also are a fan of grinding a great combat system, this game is perfect. However, like games of old, this game is much better if you take a lot of breaks rather than trying to binge and see all of the content quickly.
Expand the review
This is the latest game in the long-running SaGa series, starting on the original GameBoy. For SaGa fans, it continues the tradition of difficult turn-based combat with a variety of party members across multiple worlds/universes running the gamut of robots, monsters, humans, and vampires and draws combat elements from previous games like a Great Hits compilation to create an RPG with immense customization and depth. Compared to other modern RPGs, it noticeably has a small budget; some critical story moments are voiced, along with combat call outs and quips, but the majority of the dialogue is text-only. For SaGa fans, the design philosophy feels closest to Saga Frontier 1: you select between starting characters with individual story lines who travel across multiple worlds and who share some but not all of the same recruitable characters. The story pacing follows the old design of stringing short dialogue scenes between combat, with cutscenes an affair of still slideshow images. If the hours of cutscenes of modern RPGs a turn-off for you, this is up your alley. In contrast to the visuals, the audio is quite outstanding; headphones are recommended. Diva's final battle music is my highlight, blending the rapid-fire techno soul of Saga Frontier's T260G Carnage Heart track with a more traditional vocal folk-song to make a fitting thematic and climactic end for her storyline. Party preparation and turn-based combat are the core meat of the game. Story While each character has their own main story, the worlds you choose to visit each have their own storyline which will play out differently depending on your character and story decisions and will impact item rewards and which, if any, characters choose to leave their world to join your quest. The main story length can vary quite widely based on your choices to pursue side areas. Most playthroughs were in the 15 hour range when pursuing all side options. I found the witch-in-training, Ameya, to be the shortest; My first playthrough was about two hours, in which I discovered that the game actually lets you choose the dialogue option to leave a kid alone in his frozen world because he doesn't have the cat you're looking for and skip an entire world of content and I quickly earned a bad ending as a power-crazed catmonger. If you are used to Dragon Quest ignoring your choice if you pick the No option, you are warned! For the longest playthrough, Siugnas the vampire clocked in over 30 hours. As the sole vampire in the game, he can make any human party member into a Thrall or Blood Knight to gain power. Amusingly he can do this with minor NPCs before exiting many of the worlds, leading to brief scenes of loyalty oaths only to never to be seen again. You'll forever keep the Life Point gains though, mwahaha. Combat For those of you familiar with Shin Megami Tensei the high difficulty level will be familiar, but one critical difference is that the player sees the timeline of actions and the name of the abilities the enemies will be performing. This information is vital, and will test your decision making each turn like each differently shaped block in Tetris. Maybe two enemies are side-by-side, creating an attack combo. Maybe you have a plant-girl with stun to stop the enemy combo before it begins, but is she fast enough in the timeline to act before the enemy? If not, you may want a katana carrying edgelord to use an Interrupt to break the chain. Pro-active defense is critical because there are NO healing options in the game. You will learn quickly after you unwittingly leave an enemy alone on the timeline to activate Showstopper and witness your first TPK. And if you can't prevent the combo, you may be better off using active Protect skills like Deflect, or debuff the enemy's attack power. (Psst, debuffs last the entire battle. Use them early and often!) Despite your best efforts, you will see members KO'd in combat. Thankfully, fighting with 2/5 of a team isn't hopeless. Lone members can activate Showstopper mode more easily when the field is empty, hitting above their weight class to stand toe-to-toe with bosses. In addition, your actions per turn are based on spending BP, a shared resource that refills at the start of each turn. With less people to spend BP, your surviving members can use more powerful attacks. These systems work together as a counter-balance over the course of the fight, so even when things are dire you can turn it around. You will win boss fights by the skin of your teeth when your last mole monster stands up on his shaky little legs at 10% health and pulls 5 killer moves out of his ass in Showstopper mode, so don't give up! Once you master the system, you will turn the chaos of battle into an orderly march to victory. The first time you land a 5x combo double-overdrive by internalizing knowledge earned over dozens of battles to turn defeated enemies mid-combo into stepping stones to extend your attack chain further (with the right circumstances and a little luck), you'll bask in the glow as your team turns into a perfectly oiled warmachine. Combat Preparation Firstly, formations. There are a variety of formations to tweak your playstyle. Read the descriptions, because many also weight the timeline in different directions; Last Stand will put most of your party at the end of the turn, so unless you have high initiative techs or Interrupts to break enemy combos, you'll be a sitting duck when the enemy team strikes first. Secondly, party and equipment. Robots Tech moves are tied to specific equipment, humans learn Custom Techs, monsters learn Techs from defeating monsters. Ephemerals grow more powerful the longer they live, and learn special Techs when they die and spawn a new Generation. If you transform a human into a vampire knight they will lose the ability to learn and even use previously learned Custom Techs, so keep that in mind. Compared to previous games in the series, balance for all racial types are quite good, particularly for monsters who have suffered in previous games. Everyone but robots gain stats from battle, robot stats are tied to upgrading equipment. Monsters have the largest move pool by gaining physical and magical Techs from defeated enemies, but you will have to recapture previous skills via combat later if you decide to change abilities. Humanoids equip armor to min-max defenses for particular situations. Robots are immune to almost all status effects. Choices feel impactful yet balanced. Conclusion I have enjoyed auto-battle in RPGs like Dragon Quest 11, but this game really revealed to me that games use auto-battle as a crutch because the majority of battles were solved by using the same move on your fighter, mage, and cleric. At that point many turn-based games become little more than repetition and drudgery for which auto-battle is a band-aid. Kudos to the design team here for tearing the band-aid off and wrestling with the difficulties of creating an engaging turn battle head-on. In its own way, the combat became story for me. I'll never forget the time the incarnation of Hate annihilated Tsuninori with the Absetzen technique, only for the puppet Musashi to instantly Mimic the move and end the Boss on the same turn. Thank you lizardman Nitram for giving your life to Deflect a freaking firestorm to buy Guinevere one more turn to complete her spell and win the battle. I enjoyed my time in the game immensely and look forward to experimenting with more teams in future playthroughs, and maybe you will too!
Expand the review
Similar games
View all
Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered
Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- returns as a stunning remastered edition, with new gameplay elements and quality of life features! Get ready for an even deeper story and an even more thrilling adventure!
OCTOPATH TRAVELER II
This game is a brand-new entry in the OCTOPATH TRAVELER series, the first installment of which was initially released in 2018 and sold over 3 million copies worldwide.
Heroines of Swords & Spells
Join a team of wayward heroines in Heroines of Swords & Spells, an epic and humorous turn-based combat JRPG with over 150,000 lines of dialogue, 20 hours of gameplay, and challenging battles. Navigate tough dungeons and uncover the rich lore of the world.
Persona 3 Portable
If I say there’s an hour “hidden” between one day and the next... would you believe me? Master the power of the heart, Persona, and uncover the tragic truth of the Dark Hour.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2: Sisters Generation
Gamindustri has been taken over by a new threat, and the CPUs are nowhere to be found! It’s now up to their younger sisters to step into the spotlight and save the day in this hilarious, deeply customizable JRPG!
DRAGON QUEST® XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age™ - Definitive Edition
The Definitive Edition includes the critically acclaimed DRAGON QUEST XI, plus additional scenarios, orchestral soundtrack, 2D mode and more! Whether you are a longtime fan or a new adventurer, this is the ultimate DQXI experience.
SaGa Frontier Remastered
The beloved 1998 RPG Classic, SaGa Frontier, is reborn with improved graphics, additional features, and a new main character!
THE LEGEND OF HEROES: HAJIMARI NO KISEKI
The empires of Zemuria have narrowly managed to escape the Great Twilight, a curse that threatened to end the world, thanks to the valiant efforts of those known as heroes. This has resulted in a ripple effect of events that hurtles the series toward its thrilling conclusion.
Septerra Core
At the very heart of Septerra lies the Core, a huge Biocomputer. Seven continents at different elevations, each with its own unique people and culture, orbit around the Core.According to an ancient prophecy, Septerra's continents will one day converge and join in orbit together on one level - this is the Legacy of Marduk, the Creator's...
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC
Picking up shortly after The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, Estelle travels across Liberl in search of Joshua. The journey involves more than seeking loved ones, however, as the Bracer Guild also tasks her with unraveling the mysteries behind the newly unveiled Society of Ouroboros.
The Caligula Effect: Overdose
Mobius. An idyllic world that lets people forget about the pain and problems of reality. Created by a sentient vocaloid program, μ (Mu), reality and fantasy have become blurred, allowing people to relive their high school years in bliss -- but just how real is a virtual happiness?
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie
Three different legends are about to unfold! Determine the fates of Rean Schwarzer, Lloyd Bannings, and the mysterious “C” in this climactic chapter of The Legend of Heroes series.
Frequently Asked Questions
SaGa Emerald Beyond is currently priced at 49.99€ on Steam.
SaGa Emerald Beyond is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 49.99€ on Steam.
SaGa Emerald Beyond received 241 positive votes out of a total of 316 achieving a rating of 7.16.
😊
SaGa Emerald Beyond was developed and published by Square Enix.
SaGa Emerald Beyond is playable and fully supported on Windows.
SaGa Emerald Beyond is not playable on MacOS.
SaGa Emerald Beyond is not playable on Linux.
SaGa Emerald Beyond is a single-player game.
SaGa Emerald Beyond does not currently offer any DLC.
SaGa Emerald Beyond does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
SaGa Emerald Beyond does not support Steam Remote Play.
SaGa Emerald Beyond is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for SaGa Emerald Beyond .
Data sources
The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 06 June 2025 21:02 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 07 June 2025 11:33 |
| Steam price | 15 June 2025 04:47 |
| Steam reviews | 13 June 2025 03:57 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about SaGa Emerald Beyond , we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about SaGa Emerald Beyond
- SteamCharts - Analysis of SaGa Emerald Beyond concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck SaGa Emerald Beyond compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
27
Developer
Square Enix
Publisher
Square Enix
Release
25 Apr 2024
Platforms
By clicking on any of the links on this page and making a purchase,
you may help us earn a commission that supports the maintenance of our services.