(Impressions) Edge of Eternity

December 20, 2018 Ailingforale

Ah JRPG’s… well crap, most RPG’s in general if I’m honest. I really do enjoy a good one. You know, when game can take you on a wild ride through the imaginations of the writer(s) to crazy lands usually done in a very long game setting. Midgar Studio wants to take you on a journey of two siblings reunited after a decent chunk of life happens to them in order to find a cure for their ailing mother who’s suffers from a disease called “Corrosion”. Is Edge of Eternity reinventing the wheel here or are they traversing a new path? Can you blow stuff up? Does the game function like a bad Early Access game? Is it worth jumping on this ship early or should you wait? So many questions!? Let me break it down for you.

The Team Energy meter on the bottom right goes up when you eat and rest at an inn and gives you buffs in exchange for money.

As I’ve stated, your mother is dying and you reunite with your sister in the hopes of finding a cure for this Corrosion that is killing her. You play as Daryon, an army deserter (good reason or not, he still left without permission). He’s got the sword skills to pay the bills, a bit of teenage angst and dresses like he’s going to a funeral (he’s a man in black). Contrast him to his sister Selene. She’s a priest/mage who plays a more lightened version or her brother (although you can tell she’s got a fire in her too). It’s plain to see that both of them have skeletons in their closets, but as the story is only beginning, that’s all but hidden for now. You reside in the land Heryon whose people fought off these “ever-helpful” aliens called the Archelites. They were all nice to have around until they wanted to take the Heryon people’s crystals. Needless to say, they didn’t go for that because these crystals play an important role in their lives. At this point, it’s not completely spelled out or explained how exactly, but they still don’t want to give these crystals away to some aliens. Did the aliens cause this Corrosion in retaliation? I’m not so sure. Either way, off you go on your grand adventure!

Looks like this little piggy is heading our way! We’d better move, but I love this life-giving crystal too much! (Yes, I’m playing with a controller and it works way better than the keyboard.)

A lot of the mechanics feel familiar with almost every other RPG I’ve played. The combat is what stands out the most so let’s get into that. The battlefields are setup with hex-shaped positions on the ground for you and the enemies to occupy separately. There is a boundary that you can’t leave, but you can choose to move to a different unoccupied hex or attack/heal on your turn. (You can be in the same hex as a teammate.) In the traditions of tactic-type games, if you attack from behind you’ll do more damage. Keep in mind, if you choose to move on your turn, you will stay in the direction at which you moved. This could end up putting your back towards an enemy. (Fun times!) You can only melee attack hexes directly next to you, but magic can be cast two or more hexes away from you depending on the spell. Under the floating health bar is each unit’s attack timer and when it fills up that specific unit has a turn (sped up by haste). The spells you can cast farther than two hexes tend to take a while to cast and do AOE damage (at least the one I have is). The smarter enemies won’t stick around to get hit unfortunately. This can get frustrating, but you’ll eventually realize which enemies will take it in the face and which ones won’t. Everything’s a process.

Another typical cog in this RPG machine is gearing up. Putting on better boots works as one would expect, but you get to add crystals to your weapons which gives your characters different stats and abilities. (Think materia from *Final Fantasy VII*.) You can swap the crystals out at your leisure to follow a different path and gain different abilities or stats. On the other hand, finding the crystals necessary can suck.

Issue wise, I only have a few complaints up to this point and they all come off as minor. You’ll see some trees growing through rocks and the bare ground has a weird hex-shaped look to it that may be explained later in lore or needs to be covered up by more grass. The voice acting is good, but while you’re enjoying it the lips of the characters will move at times and stop in others in the same cut scene. The spoken words also don’t always match what’s written in the captions and the name’s of the people talking (placed above the captions) don’t always change properly so that can get confusing as well. Loot drops were funky due to UI sizing when there’d be an excess of unused space and at other times the text would be very small. All of these are very patchable and the devs are constantly working on the game. I have hope that as the rest of the game comes out in an episodic method, like the Telltale franchises did, that things will get patched and smoothed out. I am very much looking forward to it.

A giant, spiky bacon monster… do you think it’s friendly?

Even at this point of development, I have to say that Edge of Eternity is worth supporting. There are a few minor issues here and there, but nothing game breaking. The story, music, voice acting and battle mechanics are all very enjoyable. I feel for the characters and really enjoy the world that is being crafted here. That being said, there is currently only a fraction of the story available. More of the story will be coming out in episodic releases as development continues. If waiting is not your thing, then maybe wait until the game is fully completed. What is here is impressive and if the whole game holds up what this first chapter has built, it’s going to be an awesome ride.

Further Reading on Edge of Eternity: Facebook / Official Page / Steam / Twitter