Emperors SaGa

Emperors SaGa was a 2012 role-playing video game co-developed by Square Enix and AltPlus, and published by Square Enix across multiple mobile networks for both Android and iOS smartphones, and feature phones. A spin-off within the SaGa series, the game is the first non-console entry in the series. The story followed different characters defending their world from hostile divine forces, drawing inspiration from the Romancing SaGa subseries. Its turn-based combat system was based around character cards which could be gained through a gacha system, with skill acquisition and party formation carried over from the SaGa series. Production began in 2009 as an internal Square Enix project, but quality concerns and the wish to have it playable on smartphone devices prompted the game to be restarted in 2011 with AltPlus as co-developer. The two companies' different design approaches led to some friction during production. Series creator Akitoshi Kawazu supervised the project and contributed scenarios, and recurring illustrator Tomomi Kobayashi provided character designs alongside a number of other artists. Emperors SaGa was a commercial success for the developers, with one million registered players by 2013. Japanese journalists praised the gameplay and character art, while Western reactions were more varied. Remaining exclusive to Japan, the game was shut down in 2017. The game's success inspired the production of Imperial SaGa (2015), a web browser game with a similar premise, and was credited by Kawazu with reviving interest in the series.