Emperors SaGa
Developer(s)Square Enix
AltPlus[2]
Publisher(s)Square Enix
Producer(s)Akitoshi Kawazu
Artist(s)Tomomi Kobayashi
Writer(s)Moku Tochibori
SeriesSaGa
Platform(s)GREE
Mobage
NTT DoCoMo
Release
  • JP: September 18, 2012[1]
Genre(s)Role-playing[3]

Emperors SaGa (Japanese: エンペラーズ サガ) is a downloadable social game in the SaGa series from Square Enix. The game was released on the GREE platform on September 18, 2012 and on Mobage and NTT DoCoMo on November 28, 2013. It was shut down on April 28, 2017.[4] In Emperors SaGa, players take the role of the emperor of a nation, and guide the country as its ruler.[5]

Gameplay

The game features a combat system utilizing digital playing cards.[1] The game itself is free, and players purchase packs of cards for the game with real money.[3] Those cards represent allies that the player can use to battle enemies. The game can be accessed on Japanese smartphones and feature phones by going to a website hosted by GREE.[6]

Story

Players run their own kingdom as the emperor, craft a unique history, and save the world from an unprecedented crisis.[1][7] Situations, characters and villains from past SaGa games are present.[8]

Development

Concept art for the game

Takehiro Ando, a Square Enix executive in charge of social games, said that adapting the SaGa series to a mobile social game was difficult, especially since he grew up with the original games and did not want to upset longtime fans with too many changes.[9]

Pre release

The trademark for the title Emperor SaGa was registered by Square Enix in September 2010.[10] The game itself was announced at the 2011 Tokyo Game Show.[11] GREE, the Japanese social platform, merged with OpenFeint in 2012, and Emperors SaGa was listed as a title that would be featured on the service.[12][13] The artwork was designed by Tomomi Kobayashi.[1] Square Enix ran a promotion pre-release that if players registered for the game before it came out, they received a rare in-game card, Andromache.[1] The title is freemium, downloadable for free but allowing a player to purchase more content with in app purchases.[7] The game was produced by GREE, the Japanese gaming social network.[14]

Reception

Michael Baker of RPGamer heavily disliked the game when he played a demo of it. He found that much of the plot he saw was directly taken from earlier games like Romancing SaGa 2 and Romancing SaGa 3, that the gameplay consisted mainly of clicking on links, and the iPhone game was not responsive to input.[15] 1UP.com listed the game as one of five classic Japanese mobile games unlikely to come to North America.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Spencer (2012-08-28). "Emperors SaGa Finally Comes Out In September, Makes Players An Emperor". Siliconera. Archived from the original on 2012-08-30. Retrieved 2012-09-12.
  2. ^ "Service | altplus for en". Archived from the original on 2016-11-04. Retrieved 2017-12-25.
  3. ^ a b Spencer (2011-12-06). "SaGa Series Goes To Smartphones With Emperors Saga". Siliconera. Archived from the original on 2013-01-23. Retrieved 2013-02-11.
  4. ^ "「エンペラーズ サガ」が2017年4月28日15：00をもってサービス終了に" [Emperors SaGa: End of Service Effective 15:00 April 4, 2017]. 4Gamer (in Japanese). February 28, 2017.
  5. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (2011-12-06). "First Look: Square Enix's Emperors SaGa and Galaxy Dungeon". Andriasang. Archived from the original on 2012-02-04. Retrieved 2012-02-06.
  6. ^ "サガシリーズ最新作「エンペラーズ サガ」，GREEにおいて本日配信開始。シリーズ歴代の戦士達や七英雄などと協力し世界の平和を取り戻そう" (in Japanese). 4gamer. 2012-09-18. Archived from the original on 2012-12-23. Retrieved 2013-02-11.
  7. ^ a b Gantayat, Anoop (2011-09-08). "The New SaGa Game is Emperors SaGa... for GREE". Andriasang. Archived from the original on 2012-10-25. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
  8. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (2012-08-28). "Social Romancing SaGa Resurfaces". Andriasang. Archived from the original on 2012-12-25. Retrieved 2012-09-12.
  9. ^ Gifford, Kevin (2013-01-23). "Square Enix social-game devs talk about clones, growing pains and hope for the future". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2013-03-31. Retrieved 2013-04-14.
  10. ^ Spencer (2010-09-21). "Square Enix Ready To Give Gamers An "Ultimate Kiss" With A Theatrical Game?". Siliconera. Archived from the original on 2012-12-20. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
  11. ^ "Emperors SaGa TGS 2011 Trailer". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2016-06-18.
  12. ^ Chavez, Chris (2011-12-11). "GREE Brings Major Gaming Studios To Android – Capcom, Konami, Square Enix and Sega All On Board". phandroid. Archived from the original on 2012-07-11. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
  13. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (2012-12-06). "Yakuza, SaGa, Resident Evil and More Coming to GREE". Andriasang. Archived from the original on 2012-08-11. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
  14. ^ Anthony John Agnello (2012-10-08). "So Long Zynga: Mobile continues to eat up PC social gaming's audience". digital trends. Archived from the original on 2019-10-16. Retrieved 2013-04-14.
  15. ^ Baker, Michael (2012-09-20). "Impression/Rant - Emperor's SaGa". RPGamer. Archived from the original on 2013-01-20. Retrieved 2013-02-11.
  16. ^ Chris Pereira (2012-09-20). "Japanese Cell Phone Treasures: 5 Mobile Games We Won't Be Seeing". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on 2016-08-08. Retrieved 2013-03-31.

External links

SaGa series
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