SaGa: Scarlet Grace - Ambitions

released on Aug 02, 2018

An expanded game of SaGa: Scarlet Grace

SaGa Scarlet Grace is the latest title in the SaGa series, released in December 2016 for the PlayStation Vita in Japan. An enhanced edition of the game subtitled "Hiiro no Yabou" (lit. Scarlet Ambition) was also released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, on August 2, 2018, which featured a few enhancements to fix minor gameplay issues as well as additional story content.


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Claramente un profundo e interesante juego con un sistema complejo y bien construido, pero no es lo que pensaba que iba a ser y desde luego no es lo que necesito ahora mismo. Quizá con ganas, tiempo y guías en la mano en el futuro, me ponga con ello o con otro título de la franquicia.

Scarlet Grace has the best combat of any JRPG I've ever played. I don't want to write an entire treatise on the mechanics, but with all of the timeline manipulation, counters and interrupts, unite attack mechanic (if defeating an actor brings two actors of the same team adjacent on the timeline, a special attack happens), status effects, damage types, delayed spells, cover mechanic, etc. each turn becomes a puzzle leading to easily the most dynamic decision making I've ever experienced in the genre. The combat can be brutally hard -- there's almost always a risk of death, even in regular battles. That said, it's exceptionally fair -- if you use your toolbox appropriately and come up with the right strategy, you'll make it through. Also the final boss, holy crap. They put phases inside the phases and I kept thinking I was gonna die, but somehow scraped by. Top notch send off.

Outside of the combat, though, the game is very stripped down. You essentially run around a world map to trigger events or combat at nodes. Towns are just a menu and the events are largely limited to simple dialogue with character models making poses to show emotion. As with most SaGa games, the overarching story is a bit vague, but still fairly enjoyable. The side quests have stronger writing, though they can still be rather strange and a bit stilted at times. I'm down for that, but it's definitely not for everyone.

Oh, there's 4 different main characters to chose from at the start, each with a different scenario. I chose Balmaint, the executioner. His story is very on-rails for a SaGa game, but I liked Balmaint, Arthur, and company, so it was all good.

I'm a big fan of Kenji Ito's music, and Scarlet Grace is no exception. Similarly, I absolutely love Tomomi Kobayashi's illustrations, and was very happy to see a couple actually show up in game. The character designs are great, though graphics themselves clearly come from a lower budget Vita game.

Scarlet Grace: Ambitions is easily my favorite SaGa game to this point.

Has the most fun combat of all RPGs, the streamlined exploration was done extremely well and still has that immense satisfaction you'd get from a game with more in depth exploration, the forging system is incredible, the ability to choose which path you want to go down for weapon/armor upgrades is so cool, overall, a really great RPG in a series full of really great and unique RPGs.

Not my thing at all, also not what I was expecting, though. SaGa: Scarlet Ambitions is not your average JRPG. What I found inside this more obscure Square IP is basically a visual novel with puzzle-like turn-based combat. It's not exactly obtuse, but I wouldn't call it intuitive. Very non-traditional character progression coupled with battles that can take more than a few tries just creates a scenario where I'm not really into a game at all. Not to mention that the story writing here is the really reason this isn't getting three stars. I was playing more for the battles and just couldn't be fucked to care about the story at all, even if the characters looked at least a little interesting. Maybe Urpina's story is the weakest and a different character's route might suck me in more, but that'll have to be down the line.

The base combat is fun & challenging, but I very much prefer weapon drops over material ones. Magic is also handled not well and find myself not really want to use mages. Overall, I like to see this refined even more.

I have a love/hate relationship with the SaGa series. The unique gameplay works in some of the titles and is excruciatingly frustrating in others. Scarlet Grace is the pinnacle of the series, it easily has the best variation of combat and a pretty decent story to boot. Easily my favourite of the franchise.