I really enjoyed SaGa: Scarlet Grace - Ambitions. Its greatest strength is the combat system, but the SaGa flavor of open world RPG is also in full effect here.
Combat in Scarlet Grace is in the Grandia tradition of having character turn order obviously displayed, with the player (and enemies!) being able to manipulate it. It is still turn-based, rather than real-time though -- you choose all your attacks and can clearly see what effect they will have on the timeline, then all the characters execute them as they might in a game like Suikoden or early Final Fantasy games.
Seeing all the enemy attacks gives you opportunities to stun or interrupt enemies who are executing powerful attacks or delay them in the turn order so you can kill them before they can kill you. Speed up and down effects also have extra value, permanently giving you more options in that battle. The kinds of timeline control you have is determined by the weapons you bring into battle and what abilities their users have learned. There is an additional wrinkle here when a character dies -- if it causes two characters on the same team to come together in the timeline they will perform a combo attack on a random enemy, dealing a large amount of damage and buffing themselves for the next round of combat. This is extremely powerful and fun to manipulate even though the random nature of the attack can sometimes screw you over.
All of this makes the battles very cerebral and engaging because you are granted so much control over your success or failure.
The enemy variety is lacking, unfortunately, with only about 15 different things to fight. It is a downer, but the complexity of the combat system means that different combinations of enemies usually need to be tackled very differently, so this doesn't hurt the game too much.
As in other SaGa games, characters get more powerful not through leveling up, but incrementally as they fight battles. HP increases and they have the chance to "spark" new abilities for whatever weapon or spell type they are using. Abilities can also increase in tier, making them more powerful and cheaper to execute. This is a super satisfying system that feeds directly into the timeline controlling focus of the combat, since getting new abilities almost always opens up new ways for you to maximize your effectiveness.
New Game + is a bit more restrictive than I would like from playthrough to playthrough, with a complicated matrix of what does or does not transfer over. I never really felt like I got much out of it, especially since the large stable of available party members means not too many are shared between protagonists, so you cannot benefit from your past games too much.
Visually, Scarlet Grace is striking but doesn't look that impressive. The character designs are pretty eclectic and random feeling (perhaps to try to capture a lot of different cultures) -- it doesn't work that well despite having a certain amount of charm. The models and textures are pretty low res as well (other than the main characters) and none of the 3d really looks that good, unfortunately.
This game does make some cool stylistic choices with its overworld that are really good. It is sort of like a papercraft world the characters run around, with locations and characters popping up and down as they change. It lends the game a unique and whimsical feel.
Narratively SaGa Scarlet Grace is pretty low key and fun, but doesn't have a ton going on. There are four protagonists you can choose from, each of them has a small scenario specific to them that you play through, with varying levels of freedom to explore the open world and various extra, side quests as well as a final boss that is shared between all four. They each have their quirks and range from a scavenger hunt for gems hidden around the world to a headsman hunting down a criminal who can't seem to truly die.
The world structure is a bit like SaGa Frontier, but unfortunately Scarlet Grace also forces each character to play through two of the other three character's scenarios, which makes playing as each character extremely repetitive and needlessly extends the length of a single playthrough. Extending playtime was probably the goal, but playing through more than a single protagonist's chapter is pretty tedious. The game would just be better if each protagonist's main quest was only available to them.
Repetition aside, the world is fairly complex with a ton of history and setting that makes it feel somewhat real although the translation and explanations are very stilted. There is a lot of assumed knowledge and focus on a pantheon of gods that is never really explained beyond a side quest to visit each of their shrines (though even this is more confusing than enlightening).
I like this game a lot, carried mostly by the strength of the combat system and the general charm of the characters and world. Despite the structural shortcomings and repetitive narrative, I played through the full game as three of the four protagonists (Urpina, Balmaint, and Taria) and was engaged the entire time based almost entirely on the gameplay.
If you like interesting combat systems (especially timeline based ones!) or open world turn-based RPGs, SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions is definitely worth a look.
Combat in Scarlet Grace is in the Grandia tradition of having character turn order obviously displayed, with the player (and enemies!) being able to manipulate it. It is still turn-based, rather than real-time though -- you choose all your attacks and can clearly see what effect they will have on the timeline, then all the characters execute them as they might in a game like Suikoden or early Final Fantasy games.
Seeing all the enemy attacks gives you opportunities to stun or interrupt enemies who are executing powerful attacks or delay them in the turn order so you can kill them before they can kill you. Speed up and down effects also have extra value, permanently giving you more options in that battle. The kinds of timeline control you have is determined by the weapons you bring into battle and what abilities their users have learned. There is an additional wrinkle here when a character dies -- if it causes two characters on the same team to come together in the timeline they will perform a combo attack on a random enemy, dealing a large amount of damage and buffing themselves for the next round of combat. This is extremely powerful and fun to manipulate even though the random nature of the attack can sometimes screw you over.
All of this makes the battles very cerebral and engaging because you are granted so much control over your success or failure.
The enemy variety is lacking, unfortunately, with only about 15 different things to fight. It is a downer, but the complexity of the combat system means that different combinations of enemies usually need to be tackled very differently, so this doesn't hurt the game too much.
As in other SaGa games, characters get more powerful not through leveling up, but incrementally as they fight battles. HP increases and they have the chance to "spark" new abilities for whatever weapon or spell type they are using. Abilities can also increase in tier, making them more powerful and cheaper to execute. This is a super satisfying system that feeds directly into the timeline controlling focus of the combat, since getting new abilities almost always opens up new ways for you to maximize your effectiveness.
New Game + is a bit more restrictive than I would like from playthrough to playthrough, with a complicated matrix of what does or does not transfer over. I never really felt like I got much out of it, especially since the large stable of available party members means not too many are shared between protagonists, so you cannot benefit from your past games too much.
Visually, Scarlet Grace is striking but doesn't look that impressive. The character designs are pretty eclectic and random feeling (perhaps to try to capture a lot of different cultures) -- it doesn't work that well despite having a certain amount of charm. The models and textures are pretty low res as well (other than the main characters) and none of the 3d really looks that good, unfortunately.
This game does make some cool stylistic choices with its overworld that are really good. It is sort of like a papercraft world the characters run around, with locations and characters popping up and down as they change. It lends the game a unique and whimsical feel.
Narratively SaGa Scarlet Grace is pretty low key and fun, but doesn't have a ton going on. There are four protagonists you can choose from, each of them has a small scenario specific to them that you play through, with varying levels of freedom to explore the open world and various extra, side quests as well as a final boss that is shared between all four. They each have their quirks and range from a scavenger hunt for gems hidden around the world to a headsman hunting down a criminal who can't seem to truly die.
The world structure is a bit like SaGa Frontier, but unfortunately Scarlet Grace also forces each character to play through two of the other three character's scenarios, which makes playing as each character extremely repetitive and needlessly extends the length of a single playthrough. Extending playtime was probably the goal, but playing through more than a single protagonist's chapter is pretty tedious. The game would just be better if each protagonist's main quest was only available to them.
Repetition aside, the world is fairly complex with a ton of history and setting that makes it feel somewhat real although the translation and explanations are very stilted. There is a lot of assumed knowledge and focus on a pantheon of gods that is never really explained beyond a side quest to visit each of their shrines (though even this is more confusing than enlightening).
I like this game a lot, carried mostly by the strength of the combat system and the general charm of the characters and world. Despite the structural shortcomings and repetitive narrative, I played through the full game as three of the four protagonists (Urpina, Balmaint, and Taria) and was engaged the entire time based almost entirely on the gameplay.
If you like interesting combat systems (especially timeline based ones!) or open world turn-based RPGs, SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions is definitely worth a look.