The JRPG has been, since the days of the NES, a particularly thriving market thanks to its adaptable gameplay and the ability to create a series of particularly intriguing worlds and characters. In this review Edge of Eternity it therefore appears as a real tribute to those atmospheres fantastic and a bit sci-fi characteristics of the genre, a love letter to the history of the video game. The boys of Midgar Studio so they worked for nearly seven years to this ambitious project, wanting to bring to light those dreams and hopes, evident since the launch of the campaign Kickstarter.
A journey to the borders of Heryon
The narrative tells of a young military man named Daryon who, despite himself, finds himself involved in a dangerous war that sees humans fight against mysterious aliens. The battle has put humanity on the ropes who find themselves not only fighting with more technologically advanced beings, but they have even spread a deadly virus to the entire population. Due to a series of dramatic events, the protagonist decides to desert to be able to see a mother who is now seriously ill due to the pandemic. However, there seems to be hope, given that the sister is a priestess Solene knows someone who can provide an antidote for the poor sick woman. Thus begins a journey that combines intrigues, conspiracies, war, trade, the expansion of one’s party, fights to the death and a pinch of chests, for a story that is not particularly original but still interesting.
However, we prefer to stop here in the description of the game’s plot, since it is one of the main focuses of the entire experience and we have already talked about it in the review of the PC version of the game. The important thing is to know that the player is not faced with an original experience, but that he has some arrows in his bow, through a more relaxed narrative rhythm than the current market average. Too bad that some beautiful gimmicks in the screenplay do not have a worthy counterpart in the writing of the dialogues, with characters who tend to offer a joke even in forced contexts. However, we confirm that the console edition does not present novelty narratives inside, in order to offer that kind of adventure even to those who have waited for the game to arrive in their living room.
A tribute to the classics
The gameplay created by the guys from Midgar Studio it does not seek in any way to innovate the market, yet it tries to offer one new but nostalgic lymph to the JRPG. The game is mainly divided into two sections: the first dedicated to exploration and the second at glories of strategy. In the first, the user finds himself exploring a world from an art style that combines typically oriental fantasy with elements taken from sci fi, in a open world divided into areas, which open every time someone continues in the story. The world itself fails to offer adequate interaction with the environment, but offers a good glance thanks to a refined and well-finished aesthetic. Furthermore, with our hero’s, it is not frustrating or boring to explore every single corner of the game map.
Within each single area the user meets the NPCs, collects the different chests, discovers secrets, negotiates some goods or he even creates his own objects and herms. All features practically now typical of JRPGs, and all so intuitive that they can be completed with the push of a button. Definitely an admirable operation, which demonstrates the commitment that the small development team has dedicated. Unfortunately, the other side of the coin is that each of these elements turns out far too superficialso much so that the player risks seeing them more as a mandatory part to be faced than a real feature.
A situation caused by the fact that it does not exist nothing really wrong in the structure devised by the developers, yet the game remains average of a market practically saturated with JRPG. The attempt to carry out a huge project remains however remarkable, intuitive from the fact that it tries in every way to make the exploration satisfying. Environmental puzzles, for example, they are a breath of fresh air that gives that slight but appropriate variation of the mood.
The second main gameplay section that we mention in the review of Edge of Eternity, is related to pure combat. The development team made a “Active battle system”, in which the player must not only pay attention to the turns of their moves, but also to the positioning of their characters and the stamina of their actions. The idea is to offer a real combat grid, in which each turn determines the use of a specific action with possible consequences. The result thus depends on the strategy of each individual user: perhaps it is that of loading a spell, setting a trap, moving your character or simply attacking. A simple idea that combines the classic JRPG mechanics with a grid structure, a result that is not exactly original but nice and fun.
Curious how the visual of these sections highlights the PC origins of the production, and for this we really appreciate how the gameplay it is not cumbersome through the use of a controller. A commitment also included in the calibration of the difficulty where, in the difficult mode we tested, the player must be careful and without ever feeling betrayed by the game itself. Our advice is to prepare in time before facing long battles, given the difficulty that some clashes can present. The use of skill trees, equipment or even the leveling of your characters is absolutely not to be underestimated.
An imperfect world
As we have seen in this review, Edge of Eternity certainly presents a varied and layered gameplay albeit not absolutely original. The same declaration can also be made for the art style of the game, which tries to attract a certain kind of oriental taste, without however excelling in it. Unfortunately this is combined with poorly crafted polygonal models, a low quality English dub, a desynchronized lip, a poorly curated cutscene direction, a chatacter design that often contradicts itself, and other downsides. Too bad even for the soundtrack that, although it has received the collaboration of Yasunori Mitsuda, it does not really manage to remain impressed, if not for some sporadic trace.
However, the real problem remains in theconsole version optimization. Work on PS4 turns out incomplete and poorly maintained. It is not uncommon to encounter game crashes, bugs, glitches, loading not working properly, noticeable invisible walls, areas where the character disappears, pop ups, textures not loading correctly and several other problems. In the current situation, the experience offered cannot be absolutely sufficient, thus preventing you from living this little dream of developers. We cannot say the same for the version available in the Game Pass or that in the cloud for Nintendo Switch, but at least for the fourth generation of Sony consoles this Edge of Eternity it still needs some work. The hope is that corrective updates are already in the pipeline.
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