SaGa Emerald Beyond

I tried so hard to like this game. I played Saga Scarlet Grace and loved it. Once I learned that the Last Remnant was a secret Saga game, I loved it even more. This game is really hard. I know Saga games are supposed to be quirky and there are multiple ways to do anything, but only a few battles in with any character, regular enemies are impossible. It’s just not fun. It seems like the only way to beat enemies is the strategy of becoming stronger than your enemies. If you’ve played a Saga game before, you know that this is easier said than done. There’s no way to get stronger and beat opponents early on, so you’re stuck in a corner early on, getting beat by starting opponents only hours into the game. It makes me all the more angrier that the game cost $50 and it stutters like crazy between simple actions. I feel like I wasted my money. At first I thought I could ignore the performance issues, then I discovered how unfun this game is and I gave up. A few months after I got this game, for some reason I refused to delete it and just offloaded it. Maybe it was because I didn’t want to feel like I wasted $50. Every now and again, I’ll redownload it, thinking maybe I could get into it. I only ever last one battle, where I barely survive, before I offload it again. Edit: I also have an iPhone 15 plus, so there’s no reason for such poor performance.

Almost beat a three phase final boss. Game crashed last second. Game has great combat, great dialogue, and is otherwise great to play. But the game has crashed on me twice during important story and boss scenarios. If it’s done so twice, it will most certainly do so again in the future, so I give up on this game. Square Enix will never fix these problems either, which is a shame. This game probably runs better on console as opposed to iOS. I’ll never know because I’m not doing that all over again. Update: I bought the game on ps5 and played it for a bit. The ps5 version is absolutely flawless. It made me fall in love with the game again. Made me hate the iOS version more. Don’t buy this game on iOS. You’ll regret it you’ll despise it. Get it on ps5 instead.

This is the first time that I have ever left a review, and I am only doing so because I am so incredibly disappointed. I am a longtime Square Enix fan. I am a longtime SaGa fan. I have been looking forward to playing this particular game for quite some time. However, at present, this game is unplayable on an iPhone. This game was created with the Unity engine and it was simultaneously released on iOS, the Nintendo Switch, the Xbox, the PlayStation, and PC. With a large screen, I'm sure this game is great. However, at present, this game is unplayable on an iPhone screen. The text is so small, it is terribly difficult to read. The menus are so small, it is terribly difficult to ensure that you touch the correct option. It seems apparent that the developer made no effort to ensure that the text for this game would be scaled to an appropriate size for a iPhone screen. This is despite the developer marketing and selling this game as being playable on an iPhone. The previous game in the franchise (SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions) had two text size options: one for large screens and one for small screens. However, SaGa Emerald Beyond has no such option -- which is a terrible oversight from an accessibility perspective, but also just a playability perspective. I have contacted Square Enix about this program, and the response I received was very disappointing. At this point, I feel like I have no choice but to leave my first ever review, if only so that others that are curious about playing this on their phones know not to. Don't waste your money.

This game runs poorly on the iPad Mini 5. Lots of stuttering even on low graphics setting. Additionally, it crashes every 5-10 minutes rendering it unplayable for me. I had hoped they’d fix it with a patch, but they didn’t with the latest. Sad.

I’ve played a couple Saga games before, but tried this demo and fell in love with its absurd characters and situations, its amazing battle system, and the beautifully eclectic soundtrack. This game feels like watching a cozy Saturday morning cartoon when I was a kid. The fact that there are 5 interwoven stories with 6 main characters and a lot of supporting characters makes it such a deep experience. And then each time you replay a character’s story, different things happen and even more opens up! I have only played through 2 stories so far, and haven’t even come close to seeing all 17 worlds. Saga Emerald Beyond makes it easy to pick up and play a few minutes at a time or a few hours. You can save anywhere and reload from anywhere you’ve saved. I’m currently grinding a boss that defeats me a lot just to reap some good gear. I didn’t think I would enjoy it much, but it’s become one of my favorite games ever! Picked it up on Switch now too but love playing on my iPhone way more.

Loved Scarlett Grace. Love Emerald Beyond. The entire Saga franchise is great, but these last two titles are works of art!