Vestaria Saga I: War of the Scions

Vestaria Saga I: War of the Scions
N/A
Metacritic
86
Steam
79.86
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$19.99
Release date
27 December 2019
Developers
Steam reviews score
Total
86 (864 votes)

A prince in flight, charged with defending the last of the royal family, determined to secure a future for his kingdom, unaware he would be fighting for stakes greater still.

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Vestaria Saga I: War of the Scions system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7
  • Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 2.0 GHz equivalent or faster processor
  • Memory: 512 MB RAM
  • Graphics: 1024 x 768 pixels or higher desktop resolution
  • Storage: 430 MB available space

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
694770
Platforms
Windows PC
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Hodu
Hodu

Big disclaimer: play this game with a guide. The game has good design decisions in some places, and the high difficulty leads to creative thinking that is very satisfying. However, as a first-time player doing a blind run, I missed enough content that in some ocasions I could have ended softlocked, or straight had to check guides. If to that we add the poor usability of the game, knowing what is to come completely makes the difference between enjoyable and wasting 3h on map reset because of memes.
What annoys me is that Thracia 776 was also difficult, but it was never unfair; this game straight pulls out its crap every few maps, and there's nothing you can do about it; you can come to expect some of it, but when at the end of the map the game says "btw, in 6 turns you die because overpowered cavalry and magic reinforcements", and your armored unit mathematically needs more than that to leave the map, well, then they are dead. However, like I said, if you have a guide, and it doesn't matter to you that the focus of the game is more on preparation than adaptation, it's a great game within its genre.

happy
happy

WTF is this game? Maybe it's great, I think I'll never find out though

Why is windowed mode by default and...so tiny?
Why once I apply fullscreen(which the game never tells you how to), why do I lose my mouse?
And why does esc key simply outright kill your game, esc is the most common key to all games ever made, and certainly does not just shut your game off. To be fair I press esc out of reflex because...since I can't play with my mouse I try to figure keyboard shortcuts/and or controller buttons...wait, that's just another problem, my bad, no need to be fair.

I'm pretty sure I could enjoy the game, but devs don't want that apparently, what they want is me to play in a tiny windowed mode and to lose all my progress if I ever hit ESC. you might object: don't hit esc you idiot, I reply: I'd love to see you try not hit esc in a videogame, especially a game where your mouse does not work.

This game is for the braves only, I give up.

oceanvoicer
oceanvoicer

Just Finish Vestaria Saga I & II

Love it. If you are Fire Emblem Fans just buy it.Great Story & very Challenging.

I Play Dark Deity (Hard Mode) though that was hard. But Vestaria Saga I is way harder cuz 5 turns save. Vestaria Saga ll will be more comfort playing since able to save anytime still hard to play but enjoyable.

Alcarondras
Alcarondras

Nothing quite like a good scrap in a FE style game. Challenging and a good test of the fundamentals for series vets. Enjoyed the story so far as well, much more than the new Three Houses Dynasty Warriors style game. Even though it is somewhat old, surprised more people haven't found this game!

MetalFlow
MetalFlow

I really really really like old school tactical games like Fire Emblem, and I was really hoping that this game could deliver. Its taken me 24 hours to get 4 missions in. This isn't totally due to my ineptitude. I can also blame really clunky controls, poor communicated mechanics, and piss poor implementation/coding.

first, the controls. The controls are sort of obtuse, and definitely reminiscent of when you needed a manual to play a game (hooray for old school there, but in a bad way). The game seems to have been designed with controller input in mind, but I don't see a way to get a controller to work with the game. My controller certainly doesn't, at least. So you gotta actually use the online manual PDF at their website to tell you how to accomplish certain things in game.

Second, poorly communicated mechanics. The actual battle mechanics are cool. Well communicated damage amounts and probabilities to hit. However, they lack depth, and are pretty simplistic. At least they didn't opt for the classic "rock, paper, scissors" model, but I'm not sure leaving that space empty was the right choice either. Also, its hard to get a feel for how the stockpile works, and when you can and can't shop, and who can use what weapons. You *can* convince the game to give you a "threat area", but that threat area doesn't get modified until after you have moved and confirmed a unit. Therefore, sometimes you move a unit expecting to block off a route, only to find that they could still squeeze around you or some other unit can still get behind you. Figuring out what weapon an enemy unit is using is difficult as well, which can lead to ranging complications.

lastly, the actual implementation of the game is sad, at best. None of your standard window sizing/resolution changing options exist. You *can* convince it go full screen after you find the right button, but all this does is stretch the existing window with no additional aspect correction or sprite rendering correction. This leads to a predictably awful full screen view. The windowed default view is pretty small. Hitting the ESC key causes the game to instantly quit... no confirmation window, no questions at all, at any time. which is useful as a "boss key" if you are playing at work, I guess, but can be *really* frustrating if you accidentally hit it trying to close a window or some such. The game also does not allow for any remapping of keys, which might belong under the poor controls section, but I think fits better here.

On the upside... the little I have seen of the story is good, I like the saving structure, and the core game play is solid. The units feel unique enough, and the map has interesting interact-able elements on each map so far.

salehtundra
salehtundra

Game constantly crashes, and just managing inventory can cause a crash. I have lost quite a bit of progress throughout playing it. However all of that wasn't the final straw that made the game a negative review for me even though it really shouldn't have been.

The final map requires at least one of three units to infiltrate a castle filled with enemies. I benched all 3 units early on because they were all terrible and I had much better units to use of the same class as them. Well I guess the final chapter is now a middle finger to me because it is basically impossible with unleveled weaklings to allow my other units to do a single thing. No warning, no nothing, just middle finger directly to the player on the final map.

Edit: The 3 units are not actually needed on the final map, however the final map is really really really annoying with constant enemy respawns everywhere and some of them are really cheap. If you can ignore all of the games flaws, the random crashes and the lack of polish since it is a small budget indy game, it is a very good strategy RPG game.

KorruptionXIII
KorruptionXIII

The game tries its best to be Fire Emblem but is worse in every way. The characters are dull and unimaginative, the maps are too large with too much empty space to where several turns just involve doing nothing but moving units. It also runs very poorly with consistent framerate issues which is odd considering how low fidelity the graphics are. The attack preview window is also misleading; my units consistently miss attacks when they have higher than an 80% chance to hit, approximately 4 times more often than they hit. Any attack with less than 100% accuracy should be considered as having half the accuracy it displays. Because of this, despite starting with 4 units, only 2 of them can actually do anything. You can't train up the other two because they can't hit anything. There are free fan-made games available that are much better than this.

CupCake
CupCake

This game is soooo underrated! I wish more people will buy and play it! It's so addictive and the battles are intense and very fun!!!

Sweetant
Sweetant

Really good tactical Game
- good story
- Challenging
- nice gameplay

God Enel
God Enel

This game is outstanding. An amazing script, solid play-through, and a nostalgic art style. Anyone missing the feel of danger from the earlier Fire Emblem games would love this.

SquadLeader
SquadLeader

Every DAMN button shuts off the game, what the heck.
You press ESC, it shuts off the game.
You press F12 to take a pic, it shuts off the game.
You do nothing, it shuts off the game.

How are you supposed to enjoy this?

I know I've played 12 minutes, but when the controls are so bad, of course disappointment comes out.
Other than that, it's decent Fire Emblem clone, far from the perfection we saw on the GBA episodes, however.

Dragonbourne
Dragonbourne

Game is not very enjoyable, during Chapter Five it shows its blaring weaknesses: lack of mobility for the units, item durability/costs, named mobs far out perform your party members and the most frustrating part is the complete lack of certain skill type characters (thieves for doors/drawbridges, your one mage and ranged characters can only attack 2 squares while the enemies can hit up to five squares away even from non-elevated positions and you will only have one healer until round #11).

This game also has other glaring weaknesses in not giving EXP to characters that are not allowed into the battle map so they will fall behind and be ineffective in future fights, plus the game does not allow you to recruit generic characters so if you lose a party member during a fight not only are your reserve members so weak, what is the point in completing the map/battle when you lose one of your limited characters like healer, mage or thief.

robertoagtz
robertoagtz

The game is really good if you like fire embelm style games however its also extremly hard in the last chapters i wont go into spoilers put there are some seriously broken abilities in the hand of enemies troops that can destroy a perfect strat so safe often and trust me if you have chance to get extra money in the missions do it i took me 61 hours to beat the 20 chapters so i recommend to try it out but be prepare for some really irrating moments and there also some crashes that i found when you start madd clicking so beware of that too

MagmaRam
MagmaRam

As the world's number one armor knight apologist, I wholeheartedly support any game that starts me off with two of the beautiful bastards.

drunk driving is pog
drunk driving is pog

other people have explained why this game is based but you should buy it to ensure 3 gets translated

GOOD VIDEO GAME

Ashtempus
Ashtempus

Playing this was a blast but Christ almighty there were a ton of bugs plus this must be the first game I have played where (using the default mapping) Esc exits the game, so if you have been conditions by years and years of games where Esc paused the game or brought up a menu, tough luck. But let's say you overcome this bump, what awaits you is a poor porting of a wonderful game. The reason I say poor porting is because the game crashes A LOT. And let's say you have spent a few hours trying and trying not to get your units killed and have memorized every attack pattern possible, you have executed it to a T, you know the next turn is that magical Save turn, and the game crashes. I assure you that out of the 54 hours of gameplay, a good chunk is me replaying parts of it that crashed on me.
Enough about the comlaint section, the game is a solid strategy that comes from one of its masters, a guy who previously worked on Fire Emblem - Shouzou Kaga. The game is challenging and prefers you to go in blind and experience the twists and turns every map has. I should say this is a must play for every strategy fan out there.

Tempy
Tempy

The limitations of SRPG Studio suck, but every other aspect of the game comes together really well. The map design and variety of units, skills, and weapons all mesh together to make a very demanding experience that pushes you to learn how to play efficiently and pick apart the maps

Yurius
Yurius

As a veteran of Fire Emblem games and turn based strategy games. This one is definitely one of the best I played. I'm more of a fan of FE4 but this game is more similar to FE5 (Thracia 776) in terms of the layout with some elements from the newer FE games but much harder due to the saves being done every 5 turns as well as there is no way to grind your units similar to how FE4 is. You will need to manage your resources as well as distributing the exp among your roster as some units you may favor a lot are not available to use on certain chapters. Challenge is similar to FE5 with more limited resources on Orthodox which is what I'd recommend to veterans. Looking forward to the sequel once I'm done with this.

Mythril Zenith
Mythril Zenith

WHAT IS THIS GAME?!
It is amazing. But also incredibly frustrating. Straight from the mind of Kaga himself, Vestaria Saga gives you a lot of options to work with and a TON of map-specific events and triggers. Six chapters in, you already get into an absolutely massive map with an incredibly large number of events to manage. If you are looking for a serious tactical turn-based RPG in the vein of Fire Emblem, this is probably one of the more complex and intricately designed ones on the market.
It's not all good for this game, though. The UX is hot garbage. Want to see what your items do? You can do that from the character menu but not from the item menu itself. Want to know what the stats mean? Better take notes on the houses in the prologue because there are NO other tutorials on them in the game. Used to most games having the menu on escape? NEVER PRESS ESCAPE BECAUSE IT QUITS THE ENTIRE GAME!
You can save every 5 turns, which is nice, but there is no way to load those saves without either getting a game over or exiting the entire game and reloading those saves.
So far, it's a great game if you're really looking for that sort of swiss-watch big-brain strategy experience, but the horrible usability elements make it a tough sell.

markv
markv

What if there was a previously unreleased SNES-era Fire Emblem?

This is the answer.

Edit:
After playing most of the game (I'm on the third-to-last mission) I have some tips for new players.

Play on easy unless you're a masochist. It's hard enough as it is, and easy just gives you extra XP and a small stat boost in some missions.

If you don't like old-FE-style trial-and-error bullshit that basically requires foreknowledge (I don't) use the spoiler-free guide on Steam.

Do NOT let anyone die, recruit everyone, and try to build up as many units as you can. You can often deploy everyone, and there's been several parts that would have been very hard, maybe even impossible, without certain units (looking at you, Dune).

There's no need to be stingy with rare and personal weapons. There's plenty of repair items throughout the game and a character who gradually repairs for free. Plus, some units start so weak that you can't level them without leaning on a really strong weapon for awhile.

If you're used to modern FE games, it can seem like units' stat growths are way too low. Don't worry about it. Enemy stats are similarly low, and stat caps are also low, so most characters will max the important ones anyway.

Anyway, now that I'm almost done with this game, consider my recommendation a super recommendation.

Drought
Drought

Really strong story and gameplay integration and excellent music too. Where the newer fire emblem games fail, this game shines. My biggest issue so far is that sometimes it feels like there was something you should have known about a map but weren't told.

Djip
Djip

The writing is by far this game's strongest asset, both dialogue and plot.
The gameplay is fun and, so far, well balanced with the option to save at 5 turn intervals with plenty of slots. Although I haven't beaten the game yet I expect some difficulty spikes.
The presentation is mixed. The visuals range between decent, nostalgic (in a good way) and placeholder-level, which can be a little jarring, but given the history of this game's development I can forgive this. The music also isn't quite uniform in its atmosphere and doesn't always fit the rest (although none of it is bad).
I've encountered no bugs just yet.
All in all, a very fine TBS worth playing for the story alone with solid gameplay to carry you through it.
Certainly a better Fi*e E*blem game than Three Houses.

Beeps
Beeps

Guess how many female characters get kidnapped or imprisoned over the course of the game.

Whatever you guessed, it's not high enough.

Nougat
Nougat

Haha wow this game is hilariously broken. Controller (Switch Pro) doesn't work at all, most of the setting you'll actually want to change are in an ini file, if you want to change keybindings you'll also need to find the games ini file, fullscreen is garbage, game is locked to 4:3 or stretched full screen, and by god do the battles look terrible. Uninstalled within 2 minutes of actually playing the game because of just how terrible everything looks.

Kairi
Kairi

It's fire emblem but more difficult by half. Give it a shot.

nice lettuce
nice lettuce

if you had any doubts about just how much of a kaga game this is, in chapter 1 you get a prf bow with 2 durability named "the elder cornelius".

RealmKnight
RealmKnight

It's an otherwise amazing game that is let down by its inflexible and excessive difficulty. As much as I enjoy the strategy and combat and like a challenge, Vestaria Saga is relentless in how it ratchets up the difficulty. This would be fine were it not for a few other quirks that undermine the experience. Character level ups seem to randomly deal anywhere between 0-5 stat upgrades, meaning bad luck can leave you with useless under-powered characters, and you can't invest stats where you think they would be best utilised. You can save once every 5 turns, but when managing teams of 15-30 characters in later levels this means one strike of bad luck (like an all too common critical hit from an overpowered enemy) can throw you back hundreds of moves. On the plus side, the story is neat with plenty of political and military intrigue, the characters are all entertaining and each recruitable character brings something interesting into the mix, but this game all too often feels like a slog against mechanics that can only be overcome through dumb luck and far too many rage-inducing reloads. Please add more options to tone down the difficulty. More frequent saves, a better level up system, more stat boosting items, and some tweaks to chance mechanics would all be appreciated.

darksydex3226
darksydex3226

This is definitely a great game if you're into past Fire Emblem games. Map objectives are varied (not just route), missions can take a few hours and have victory conditions that can change as the turns progress. The music is really good. Some of the images look kind of stretched and weird at times, but I enjoy the aesthetic of the game otherwise (love me some SNES looking stuff), so I guess the graphical presentation comes down to personal preference. The storyline is the usual Fire Emblem depressed Lord goes on a mass murder spree to get his house back. Good stuff.

SavoryBread
SavoryBread

Great game so brings back Fire Emblem Memories but of course this is its own thing but definitely on the same level of fun and strategy. Great Characters dialogue is a bit rough but nothing to actually complain about.

cylanth
cylanth

If you have been looking for a 16 bit Fire Emblem, this is it, right here. Sure, the visuals are outdated, but the strategic gameplay is great, I wouldve believed this was a long lost fire emblem game, if I didnt know the title of the game. Plot is good enough, dont expect Nintendo quality writing, but its enough to give you a reason to fight. I wasnt expecting much, but this game really exceeded expectations.

cjaramillo9
cjaramillo9

Its an awesome throwback to fire emblem. The sprites are lovely, the story is really well written and captures you.

dog
dog

200 hours of reset to get the best ending at Clemency (Normal) difficulty
Tons of secrets and lore to unravel
Of course I damn well recommend this Kaga's masterpiece

Do mind about occasional crashes so please save frequently, you gonna need that 98 save slots (I am not kidding)
Pretty much adds a fourth wall layer of decision making when wrestling with both the game AI and crash

Also this game is DRM free on Steam, no need to buy it from GOG
Here's hoping for the next game release in English too!

Boorat
Boorat

is not fire emblem but it is also fire emblem
10/10 if you don't care about crit animations if you do 0/10

bufkus
bufkus

Classic Kaga game. One of the best SRPG experiences of all time.

mikelee123468
mikelee123468

Pretty decent game. But the later levels are almost impossible. I'm no sure how to get enough exp or decent gear to get past level 13 and up on normal difficulty

Zent
Zent

The game would be fun if:

It didn't crash ALL the ****ing time, depending on the map/difficulty 5 turns since your last save can be ages

UI is atrocious, you can save but you can't load without closing the entire game and relaunching

Sometimes you are forced to reload because some random grunt with 2% chance to crit just globals you out of left field after you already had to reload because the game crashed

It feels like a terribly optimized GBA/Handheld port to PC - gameplay itself is fun when it's actually working which isn't as common as it should be

$teamed & Delicious
$teamed & …

Like a gba fire emblem you never heard of until now

bgillisp
bgillisp

Gave this game a try but the many issues I hit early on caused me to quit. Here they are in no particular order:

-Bad UI, with no explanation what any button does. I was pretty much regulated to hitting anything and hoping it would work. Which didn't go so well when I was told I could save now if I do it before an action and end up accidentally taking an action trying to find the save button.

-Terrible balance. I played on the easiest it offered and Chapter 1 puts you in a 4 vs way too many with no healing. Yep you read that right. No healing. Unless you get really lucky you are going to lose a lot of units early on. I quit before I finished this chapter so maybe it will change at some point but I had one unit lost and one on 3 HP and this was on the easiest setting, and again, no healing at all present at that point in time. So who was this game made for, masochists?

Overall I quit in Chapter 1 due to sadistic difficulty. I don't got the kind of time to keep redoing stages over and over due to bad balance anymore like I did 30 years ago when this was common.

Kiwialamode
Kiwialamode

Classic fire emblem formula translated very well to computer format. Not finished with the game yet but overall it has been quite good.

Gman
Gman

If you like Tear Ring Saga, then you'll definitely like Vestaria Saga. The character portraits look pretty, The combat is nice, and it's nice seeing a lot of skills that you, and the enemy has. Haven't even had it for long, but I still like it. If you like the feel of classic Fire Emblem, you'll love Vestaria Saga.

Babel116
Babel116

holy god this game is awful. its like firing up a PC98 strategy game, mixed in with some faux Fire Emblem\Tear Ring Saga art and zoomed in battle system. but with none of the charm of any of its predecessors. if Shouzou Kaga had a hand in this game, he should feel REALLY bad about it. if he just inspired this mess we should wrap his coffin in copper wire now, that way the continuous spinning of his corpse upon his burial would give us something good.

Cons:
the over world maps look ripped right out of a PC98 game or early windows 9x ero games. this would be fine if I was playing a PC98 title or a win9x game, not something with a decent developer pedigree
the battle sprites are very uninspired.
the battles are boring. no weapons triangle? you gotta give me some kind of hook.
the battle animations are stiff and poorly designed and implemented.
the music is bland, and non existent in some cases.
did I mention the battle animation is bad? the spear users don't even have a run animation, they just walk REALLY fast and jankily across the screen, then get to stabbing.
I am sure there is more, but I can't bring myself to play this anymore.

Pro's:

the character art direction is pretty good despite having multiple artists, or just having one artist employ different styles for the key characters, and NPC sprites. either way, character sprites are appealing to the eye.
the writing was very competent for what was present. didn't get a whole lot of engrish.
again, I am sure there are more pros, but I can't play anymore. its THAT bad.

before the torches and pitch forks come out, please keep in mind, while I am a Fire Emblem fan, I am not blind to the main franchise issues, Three Houses was really bad, I cannot understand the logic that developers use for mute protagonists. if they are mute, leave them that way. Byleth chatters like crazy during a fight, then employs a thousand yard stare and vague answers during house interactions, Christ, they clearly took time to write and record battle dialog, someone couldn't be bothered to cook up some conversational lines for the tea party scenes? same thing happened with Xenoblade Chronicles X, so when this game shows up with an excellently written script and the main protagonist interacting with the characters around him, it was a refreshing surprise. its the shame that the rest of the game is just SOOO badly developed. if romancing a party member in an option in this game, I hope its drawn out with a back and forth, not just the other party member doing their schpiel.

I stopped writing this review to take care of some chores, and came back a few hours later. I tried to fire up the game again, but just could not bring myself to play it again. I would rather finish playing the fourth house story of three houses and it didn't make any damn sense, why is there a underground map with sky in it? I thought I was descending the abyss to find the holy grail... okay look, I clearly didn't like the recent fire emblem, but I like this game even less and I only got past the second map. Shouzou Kaga needs to make up with Nintendo and Intelligent systems and give the world a proper strategy RPG rogering that its been wanting.

I'm getting a refund.

もしんでる
もしんでる

Honestly, this game is a bad product. This doesn't mean the game in it's entirety is bad however.

The framerate for some of the battle animations are really scuffed, the game is a bit choppy and controls are a bit rough. In addition the game exits if you click ESC (which in most games would lead you to the main menu) it closes the whole thing. This requires you to make yourself learn not to click esc to want to view any other menu.

The game, like any Kaga game has a pretty solid story honestly. If you played Fire Emblem 1-5 you can see a lot of similarities in the mc, the storyline and mechanics. Still a better story than 3 houses and fates.

If you want to play this game, play for the appreciation of the art and the story. Otherwise you'd do yourself a disservice.

Keliena Mintha
Keliena Mintha

Beatable. But not too much fun.
1. Very bad UX:
- I only found out about the full screen when I was at the final chapter (My cat hit the F4 accidentally)
- No cloud saving.
- Why do I need to turn on the load function to get it?
- Bad description: e.g if you have an item that grants you a skill. You wouldnt even know what the skill does unless you find someone in your team with that skill...
- Can't filter / sort from the roster.
- Pre-battle menu aint that great to check through your units, exchange equipment ect...
2. The chance your enemies proc skills / do crit damage or your very best, most reliable character simply forgets how to dodge and then die just before the save turn is weirdly frequent to the point that it turns the game to plain confusion.
3. Personally I don't find maps' designs very enjoyable.
4. Dark magics that cause debuff status with weirdly wide range and 70 accuracy, really?

Maclo
Maclo

Really fun game, especially if you're a fan of the Fire Emblem franchise since this game was made by the original creator, Shouzou Kaga. Unfortunately my enjoyment was ruined when I got to one chapter and my game wouldn't stop crashing. Use an item?
CRASH.
Defeat an enemy?
CRASH.
Save the game periodically to try and deal with the frequent crashing? You guessed it!
CRASH.
The odd thing is that I can go back and play all the other battles in the game and they work smoothly without any glitches or crashes, so it's just the issue of this one level for me, but because of this I had to drop the game entirely. My issues could just be an isolated incident since I see a bevy of positive reviews that don't mention the same degree of crashing that I had. If you do decide to buy it I hope you enjoy it and don't run into the same issues I did since it's a great game. But for me it was completely broken at a certain point, so now I'm leaving this review as a warning to others.

Shmeef
Shmeef

Average.
Very similar to early Fire Emblem games, however, not nearly as good.
You really have to protect the weak units and save scum over and over.

EDIT: Watching allied NPCs rush into a 1v10 and then watching them die resulting in a game over is fantastic.

RydiaHighwind
RydiaHighwind

I'm at Chapter three and MAN it's such a great experience so far.

mag1cally
mag1cally

who decided esc closes the game?

WorldOrder1
WorldOrder1

This game is awesome. if you love old school fire emblem then you'll love this game!

Fartlek Spizzle
Fartlek Spizzle

Shouzou Kaga, crator of the Fire Emblem series, left Intelligent Systems in 1999 and created an independent studio, Tirnanog. Their first release was Tear Ring Saga, a game suspiciously similar to Fire Emblem in design and gameplay - so much so that Nintendo sued his publisher for copyright infringement and Kaga would ultimately take a long break from game development lasting over a decade. Vestaria Saga was another attempt to recapture his former glory, seeing a release as a free game in Japan (though the English version would ultimately carry a price tag of $20, allegedly to pay down the cost of development on the localization). As you'd expect, Vestaria Saga very much resembles an older Fire Emblem game - visiting houses to get clues, money and items, fighting enemies, using the familiar Weapon Triangle and terrain bonuses to gain advantages in fights, limited-use weapons, and of course characters being able to permanently die in battle. Being built in a retail game creation engine (SRPG Studio) does have some disadvantages, though - while the art is of good quality, it also looks distinctly stock, strongly resembling other prefab assets like RPG Maker's. It's also irritatingly locked into a single 4:3 resolution that cannot be changed, making it rather hard to play on a 4K monitor, and while XInput controllers are supported, it irritatingly does not recognize the D-pad on them without external tools like XInputPlus. Fans of old-school Fire Emblem or Tear Ring will probably enjoy seeing Kaga back in the saddle again, but those attuned to the style of newer FE games will probably be better off going for one of those instead. Or Dark Deity.

Aptronymic
Aptronymic

The best version of the old school Fire Emblem strategy games.

Gator
Gator

Its just old school fire emblem, good story, fun characters, and very hard and long maps.

TheLonelyToaster
TheLonelyToaster

gib me all of the kaga saga plz

Edit: Kaga saga incoming

b.diamond_210
b.diamond_210

love the game, fire emblem has lost it's style along the way ever since Kaga left. but gotta be honest, this game is a masterpiece, not animation wise, but more about style, story, and character development, the process of playing through the game. not just go straight forward through the game like other FE now aday, but you have choices, consequences of your choice. thats what make this game special.
thanks Kaga.

Roman
Roman

Nice one Kaga you did it again.... maybe spend more than 5 dollars making a video game next time? ty

puffins
puffins

I need to still play more of the game, but it's like classic Fire Emblem pretty much. A little different though. I played Shadow Dragon on the DS and this feels reminiscent of that game in many ways, especially the graphics. If you like the strategy aspect of Fire Emblem, you'll probably like this.

Mekan1
Mekan1

play fire emblem instead this game is made in windows movie maker and also not good

cbone91
cbone91

I highly recommend this game to iPhone users who aren't capable of using emulators to play Fire Emblem style games. The steam link works well once you configure the button A to Z and B to X. Also the PC must be on in order to play on your iPhone via the Steam Link App. Whether your on PC or iPhone (or other mobile OS) all saved files are interchangeable, so you can easily pick up where you last played.

For game play the screen is cropped to not completely fit full screen. There is a lot more information in menus so the scale is a little smaller and is better played on a larger screen. There are many more classes and weapons than previous Fire Emblem Sacred Stones and Fire Emblem games. Also, the story line is expansive with much dialogue to read in between chapters. The game is playable as intermediate or hard mode. I've just successfully passed chapter 5 without losing any playable characters, but it took dozens of in chapter restarts. To further explain this, the game is set up to only let you save every 5th turn at the start of the turn before using any players. This does not mean at least every 5 turns, because if you choose not to save then you will have to wait till the next 5 turns pass to get the option to save again. Saved states are a very important strategy to use in this game as it is challenging. I hope the prequel and sequel to this game will be translated to English as well.

TFJ
TFJ

This may be long, so bear with me. But if you want the short version, it's simple:

Vestaria Saga is the best Japanese style SRPG in recent memory.

Now, this may sound like hyperbole, but the sad truth is that there are no other talented developers that truly understand what makes a "good" SRPG. But let's go back a bit before talking about that.

Vestaria Saga was originally a freeware Japanese game made by Shozou Kaga and volunteers. For those unaware, Shozou Kaga is the creator of the Fire Emblem series and probably the man mostly responsible for starting the SRPG genre in Japan. He has retired professionally quite some time ago, which means that he has made this game in his free time, with zero budget and using a buggy engine. Which, to be frank, makes my previous statement seem even more ludicrous.

But no, I mean every word of it. Which would be funny, if not sad, because when one retired guy in his seventies can make a much better SRPG game than big corporations with huge budgets and teams... you start to feel that something is not quite right. Or perhaps, as I like to think, there is simply no substitute for raw talent and passion.

But what makes this game so great? As mentioned before, it has the right core design ideas for the genre, which namely are:

- Varied, complex level design
- Mechanical depth
- Secrets, hidden stuff and optional objectives galore
- Character design and uniqueness expressed in gameplay
- Downplaying of RPG elements (stats) in favor of more strategic elements

Note that I didn't mention plot, music, graphics or similar. Those don't matter much for what makes a SRPG tick for me, but of course, people play things for different reasons. Naturally, this game lacks greatly in the presentation department due to mostly use freeware assets, but the world building and plot is classic Shozou Kaga, which means it's good.

Expanding on the points outlined above, Vestaria Saga focus on complex, varied missions to keep the player on his toes. The level difficulty is higher than average, though not the hardest in the genre (more on that later). On top of that, there are many hidden secrets and optional tasks scattered through the game, which will reward attentive players and provide some replay value if inclined so.

That is complimented by huge number of equipment and skills available, which more often than not break the basics rule of combat and allows smart players to more easily tackle the various missions. Characters are not just stat sticks or only defined by their background, but express themselves on how they work on the battlefield and what kind of niche they fill.

To summarize, Vestaria Saga is a rich and varied SRPG that is not afraid of being complex and asking a lot from the player. But for those who value those aspects, the payoff is outstanding. Hopefully the sequel games (a Gaiden and Part 2) also get localized in the not so far future. The world needs more Vestaria Saga, because no one else is filling that void.

As a closing note, for those who enjoy this game and want to play similar stuff, check out Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 and Berwick Saga: Lazberia Chronicle Chapter 176. Those two games were also made by Shozou Kaga and have the same core design principles. Berwick Saga in special is a treat and the best SRPG ever made, being the culmination of everything Kaga learned through the years. It's the closes a game has come to fulfilling the entire potential the genre has.

JoramPencilord
JoramPencilord

Fire Emblem but if they chose to push their creativity and strategy.

lone duck
lone duck

No game has ever made me feel the way a Shouzou Kaga game has made me feel, and I am not sure if that is a good thing.

strumbo907
strumbo907

If you like old school Fire Emblem then this is for you.

Anonymous
Anonymous

It's a very well thought out, thorough strategy rpg, with thrilling combat, multiple objectives in every map to keep it interesting, and a wonderful cast of characters. You can't wait to see what comes next. If you love Fire Emblem, then you will love this game; made by the creator of FE.

Ballmaster (Top 1 Ball Race)
Ballmaster (To…

If you can get past the janky-looking exterior, this game is absolutely fantastic and definitely worth giving a shot!

dingding
dingding

Bought it because the creator of Fire Emblem series worked on this and I love the FE series. I would recommend buying it on sale.
The story is good and the combat system closer to the older FE series. I definitely recognised some of the older game mechanics and had flashbacks to the old FE games, which was sometimes positive and sometimes very frustrating, but nostalgic.

srpg enjoyer
srpg enjoyer

Game for hardcore SRPG fans. Story is archetypal but well executed. Important characters have nuance to their tropes. Gameplay and level design is amazing if you're up to deal with rng screwing you over every now and again, but even then you can always find tools to win. UX is terrible though. Can't reset chapters, so use up the 99 save slots given to you.

MarigoldRose
MarigoldRose

If you like older fire emblem (1-5) games, you'll love this as it to was made by Kaga!

kkstarfox
kkstarfox

As some who has played and beaten all the fire emblems, including patching translations into the Japan exclusive games, I cannot recommend this game with a good conscious. Only if you are a die hard Kaga style FE fan would I recommend this.

The things I don't like about this game are numerous from the small (pressing ESC cause the game to close) to the big, like the plot being boring and poorly translated and the game play seeming intentionally malicious towards the character. I feel like those who enjoy this will be the die hard chest thumpers of "the SNES era of FE is the only good era."

Robert Stewart
Robert Stewart

Very satisfying to finish! Base gameplay is similar to FE but the structure is quite different. Levels are generally more puzzle like than anything in FE. Definitely worth playing.

Sigenfire
Sigenfire

It's Fire Emblem for people who think Fire Emblem isn't complicated or tricky enough. If you enjoy a strategic challenge, you will love this game.

slimevixen
slimevixen

If you can look past not-great graphics and QoL that you expect from Fire Emblem, then you get a game that advances the SRPG genre in interesting ways.

samf6398
samf6398

Vestaria Saga, a game made by Shozou Kaga, the guy who directed the first five Fire Emblem games. It was made in RPG maker on a shoestring budget, and it shows. The art direction is, like the last game, bland. The story, likewise, is nothing special. It has a generic beginning, and is better than Dark Deity, but also less risky. Musically, the game is so forgettable I don’t remember a single track from it. The same can be said about Dark Deity.
There are three main things I want to talk about with Vestaria Saga: The visuals, the controls, and the map design.
Visually the game is generic and forgettable, but the biggest problem is the battle cam. The animations are mega unfinished. It looks like only some key frames of animation were made up before the game shipped. It was a game made on almost no budget, and it shows.
Hoo boy, for a game about navigating menus, navigating menus is so slow! Part of what makes Fire Emblem so great is the quality of life. Play the GBA or 3DS games. The cursor is so smooth and follows your direction so well, navigating the menus is so snappy and immediate, that you can, given sufficient knowledge of the game, play fast as fuck. Now play Vestaria Saga. Don’t let this game’s controller support fool you–the cursor only moves in four directions, so you can say goodbye to any thumbstick-related quality of life improvements, or even to moving the cursor diagonally with a dpad or WASD. The cursor itself is so lifeless, so stiff. Navigating menus is no different. When a menu pops up, it’s like there’s like a delay, like a short window of time where the menu doesn’t register any inputs at all. So you have to wait. After every. Single. Input.
The stiff controls are made all the worse by the map design. Now, I’m not against Genealogy of the Holy War, but that game’s map design definitely has its drawbacks, mainly the need to move large numbers of units across vast empty spaces without doing anything for turns on end. This game is Genealogy writ small. Fewer units, smaller maps, but it generally takes the Genealogy level design philosophy: That of “take two or three small maps, and combine them into a really big map.”
As far as I’m concerned, the benefit to doing this is that you get a grander story, because you feel like your units are fighting a greater battle, traveling a greater distance, like the map represents a larger portion of the world. But gameplay-wise this is just tedious. I don’t see the benefit of forcing you to spend a great amount of time moving units between sections of the map as each section unlocks when you could just let us deploy our units fresh between every section. And those locked sections of the map are completely irrelevant until you complete the section you’re currently on, making them basically empty space until you progress far enough. Progression is entirely linear, meaning that the only thing you can do by splitting up your units is have one group wait and do nothing at the border to the next level while another group tackles the current level. Not very exciting.

Doki
Doki

Kaga games are good. Kids these days don't know how to appreciate classic game design with no big tiddy anime waifus.

Marshmello
Marshmello

10/10
A fun game
Reminds me of Fire Emblem
Has a sequel planed (yeees please)

Jebadiah
Jebadiah

Great game, very much like Fire Emblem. The levels are difficult and challenging without being Dark Souls like. Very fun if you enjoyed kaga's other series. The character developement and story line are engaging but not intensely deep. The chapters can take several hours a piece, and characters can die fairly easily if you do not strategize carefully.

Sooper Dooper
Sooper Dooper

Game is fantastic. It was made by a small studio and distributed for free in Japan so its worth forgiving its subpar UI and lack of QoL and visuals given the immense fun the game actually is. A $60 game for $20

A few pro-gamer tips to smooth your transition into this game:
-change or delete "EXIT=ESC" in the game.ini folder of \Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Vestaria Saga to prevent shutting down of game every time you press the escape button
-F4 for full screen
-spacebar to skip battles, convos, scenes, and such
-train just about every character (except for the thieves imo) to prevent you having inept characters in later stages of the game which could make you restart from very beginning (it happened to me although i enjoyed going through it again and having a stronger cast of characters later)
-Haldyn MVP

peacemaker
peacemaker

Any enjoyer of SRPGS should try this game. Don't be fooled by the visuals, this game has top tier map and unit design that rivals AAA SRPGS.

谢若梅
谢若梅

Kaga really experiments a lot in his Saga games, and this game is no exception. Released for free in Japan, the price tag is pretty high for the translation, but if you like Kaga's games from either FE or Saga, I highly recommend trying this out.

I Work in Finance
I Work in Finance

I was not paid for this review. Fire emblem too easy? Hold Zade's beer.

Fei
Fei

GOD I FUCKING LOVE TROY HE LITERALLY SOLOS THE ENTIRE GAME WITHOUT THINKING HES SO FUCKING GOOD WHAT THE FUCK WHY DID KAGA SPOIL US SO MUCH I CANT STOP USING TROY PLEASE HELP I PHYSICALLY CANT USE ANYONE ELSE BECAUSE THEY ARENT UNGODLY OP LIKE TROY KAGA SHOULD HAVE JUST NAMED THE GAME TROY SAGA I: TROY FUCKS THE ENTIRE WORLD THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ONE DEPLOYMENT SLOT FOR EVERY MAP AND TROY FORCED YOU DONT NEED ANY OTHER UNITS I WISH I WAS JOKING HE ATTACKS LIKE 47291583937474 TIMES WITH A CUTLASS BUT ONLY NEEDS 2 HITS AT MOST DUE TO HIS MASSIVE FUCKING STRENGTH STAT AND ABSURD SPEED NOTHING CAN STOP THIS MAN HIS BULK IS UNMATCHED BONACEL WISHES HE WAS THIS FUCKING BULKY WITHOUT HIS ARMOR TROY COULD LITERALLY BE ASS NAKED AND STILL TAKE NO DAMAGE WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS OK EVEN WHEN HES UNPROMOTED HE BREAKS EVERYTHING ITS LIKE KAGA DESIGNED THE GAME WITHOUT TROY THEN JUST BLESSED US WITH HIM LAST MINUTE GOD I FUCKING HATE PERSONA 3

leoleez
leoleez

I can refunded this game, but I have played enough and read up enough to know this is a rich and compelling world to play in. I plan on purchasing it later, maybe when my backlog is smaller and itching for a classic TRPG.

If you really like Kaga's vision of Fire Emblem, like Thracia 776 and before, this is a treat. Lots of secrets and smaller substories to explore, while the arch narrative is a little tired for a modern trpg player.

What you're paying here is the cost of translation to English. I want to support Dangen's excellent work, but I want to put my money right now into Kaga directly so he can add the polish to this genre so that he can compete with modern Fire Emblem and now Square Enix. This game is hard, and is full of tension, even the first map, the clock forces you to make tough prioritization. I really enjoy my time with it, I'm just playing too many retro games at the same time currently.

SDy
SDy

play this blind and you will find yourself resetting the entire run

Mat
Mat

I bought this game thinking it was the next shining force.... it was not.

[BnBG] Neruo
[BnBG] Neruo

Good'ol SNes/GBA Fire Emblem. It's a low budget indie game running on a dated subpar engine but there are some heavy names attached from the OG Fire Emblem team and the character art and story is not bad at all. So If you are an oldschool Fire Emblem fan this game is a no-brainer and the pricing is not bad for a Japanese game.

ContradictionKing
ContradictionKing

A good amount of difficulty mixed with good storytelling and great characters.

Dribble
Dribble

I hate every second I spend playing this game, and I've beaten it twice. 10/10, best game ever.

BoneDaddy1969
BoneDaddy1969

Kaga the madman actually went and made another FE successor, nice.

Too bad it's in a janky SRPG-oriented RPGMaker knockoff that would be barely passable in 2003.

Slick-C
Slick-C

Anyone who is a fan of the Fire Emblem series or the Wars series should try this game.

DandyLordLiebs
DandyLordLiebs

Put simply the master of classic tactics games is back. If you have any interest in the genre and aren't turned off by a simple looking game but love a rich story and difficult tactical action then I have to recommend Vestaria Saga, especially if you've been dipping your toes into Fire Emblem or have a fondness for the storytelling of the earlier titles. Shozou Kaga is back and I couldn't be happier.

Silver
Silver

As a Fire Emblem fan, after playing through up to the start of chapter 4, I'm impressed and disappointed.

The story isn't mindblowing (from what I've played) but I will say that the tone and themes they explore are darker than the usual Fire Emblem. They actually talk about the main lord being ok with killing?!?! Crazy. Treating a protagonist like a flawed human instead of a chatty, perfect person? Nuts. Additional themes discussed include things such as the poor turning to brigand causes because of hunger. Treating brigands like humans is something Fire Emblem never/rarely does. Take notes.

This game has interesting design choices. On one hand, main and side objectives feel well thought out and contribute to the flow. On another hand, certain encounters feel like they weren't tested, such as 3 enemies that all support each other and have crit on all of your units. Or take another unit who has a 1-3 range axe and has crit on all of your units that have less than 6 luck (early game units have low luck). This game was meant for the REAL Fire Emblem fans. Not the "Oooo I loved Three Houses and Awakening" fans, or the "Fates gud" crowd. The game is less ability heavy, which I adore. None of the bs in Fates where an enemy has that opponent -6 defense after combat.

The maps are...alright. I do like that they have a few paths to take thru them, with each path leading to something important (haven't played far but I'd wager later game maps are more linear). For instance, the first map of the game is an escape sequence. Your entire team has to reach the port before the ships leave, but there are lots of houses you can visit for some early game cash. Additionally, there's a thief on the bottom left with an expensive dagger that you can sell, and a village. Many casual players would just head for the port, but I managed to save the ships from being destroyed, got all but 1 of the houses, killed the thief and visited the village, and escaped. That felt so good to do on my first try. Additionally, maps are more bearable with the game allowing you to save every 5 turns. Quite nice. However, splintering your units to cover multiple objectives feels less smooth compared to Fire Emblem. It feels like you need at least one more unit in each squad, because it feels way too tight at times. Maybe that's the point?

The misc negative: Lack of control customization. Lack of proper fullscreen. You can't get a class description on a unit's page. I would love to know the differences between certain enemy classes! Unit animations are choppy when running up to their opponent, like weirdly choppy. It feels unintentional. Whenever you click a unit, move them to a location and then wish to cancel the move, it deselects the unit. Annoying to say the least. They put in enemy ranges but not this?

I rly only recommend this game if you're already a Fire Emblem fan, mainly a fan of the older games. If you've only played the newer games, tread carefully. If you haven't played any Fire Emblem, dooooon't. Don't don't don't. This game will be way out of your league.

Escobar
Escobar

If you like classic fire emblem then this is for you and the writting is really good.

Cirno
Cirno

I love playing Fire Emblem games, so I'm definitely biased in loving this game. There are memorable characters, a great story and set up for the sequel, and very challenging tactics based combat. Basically anything you'd get in Fire Emblem, you'd get here, and I love that. I do think it's a little weird that they introduced so many 14-15 year old princesses and put them in your party. I'll just pretend that it's to set up to them being powerful in the sequel and drawing a bond to the protagonist, who I'll say is actually the harem protagonist from any anime. Seriously he's so dimwitted with girls and every single one loves him, it's hilarious.

That being said, I do have a few complaints for the game. The first and biggest one for me is that you need to do many specific and confusing things just to get the most enjoyment out of the story. You'll need a guide open every time you play the game so you aren't missing out on anything because the game explains it poorly. For example, at one point in the story the game shows you two very powerful enemies that obliterate any unit in one strike. The problem is, you can't get past them unless they leave or die. So apparently the solution was to send a very weak Level 1 unit against the two enemies and they'll leave the battlefield after failing to kill that level 1 unit. The game never tells you that you're supposed to do this, you just have to figure it out from a single line of dialogue from the two enemies, and that's the worst part about every chapter in this game, the puzzles. One other complaint I have is that there seems to be next to no enemies with tiny slivers of crit chances or crit chances at all. Kind of a small nitpick, but honestly it makes every battle kind of stressful since there's practically no "HOLY SHIT MY GUY GOT A 5% CRIT" moment from other fire emblem games that drastically turn the tide. Another thing with the game is it's really ugly and bad looking. It's not really a big problem for me since I enjoy older fire emblem games too, but this is like a whole new vision of ugly in terms of strategy rpg games.

A few other smaller complaints like there being next to no QoL things in the game like using items before the battle, but really they're just small nitpicks. A great game, can't wait for the sequel!

Pickle-Lo
Pickle-Lo

(Insert unoriginal comment on how this game is like classic Fire Emblem but on PC).

It's still a fun and well-made game though.

Kranchan
Kranchan

The game is great but the controller support is terrible. I hope it's better in the sequel.