I remember when Edge of Eternity‘s Kickstarter was first announced in 2015. The promise of it sounded great, and the developers seemed to be creating something that was right up my alley. A team of four which eventually grew to double digits by the console release, Midgar Studio made many changes to this game over the past decade. Watching the trailer may even hit the right chords, but a small team can only do so much.

The game’s inspirations are clear when playing through. There’s a lot going on this game, whether it’s the narrative, exploration, side quests, or other mechanics the game throws at you. But as I mentioned, the team isn’t very big at all, while the game itself is about 50 hours and takes place in a rather large world. That being the case, there’s bound to be a lack of polish. To set the stage, you’re in a war torn world with people fighting off the corruption, and it’s up to a couple of siblings to find the cure for their mother. Obviously, things get a bit grander from there.

Starting out, there’s a brief flyover of a military base before being introduced to the main character, Daryon. The intro to the game lasts about an hour, and is a bit difficult to get through. That is, I was not engaged in the stakes at all. When I originally played it, the save anywhere function was not available – I’m not sure if you can add it on now for this prologue, but if not, prepare yourself. An hour isn’t much time for most people, but as a dad I rarely get an hour of consecutive playtime, and not being able to save is a bit nerve wracking – especially thinking I’d have to play the opening again if I didn’t save soon. The game opens up quite a bit more after this introduction, traveling between cities, picking up hunts and side quests, as well as fine tuning your team. However, it takes a few chapters to really get going, and that can be a turn off for many people. It’s the “it gets good after 40 hours” mantra of Final Fantasy XIII. If you’re not a fan of 90s JRPGs, I don’t see you making it to that point.

Combat is more tactical than you may expect, as the area you engage an enemy in is then broken up into a grid. As you’d expect, melee attacks require you to be next to the enemy, while spells can be done from afar. Some skills will be tied to the area you choose, whereas others will be tied to the enemy. So if you can time it right, you can manage to take out multiple enemies at once – if not, you can waste a good two turns (or more) of time to only hit the environment. You’ll want to take advantage of character placement, getting behind enemies, environmental objects like siege weapons and crystals, as well as using elemental weaknesses to your advantage. There will also be extra goals for you to complete each battle, which will give you bonus rewards if completed.

Outside of battle, you can build your equipment and characters. As you’d expect, the gear you equip will change your stats, but you can also imbue your weapons with crystals. These serve to bolster your stats, as well as provide new abilities, depending on the gem. You’ll acquire many of these as you open chests and win battles, so you’ll regularly need to look at your weapon and determine if changes need to be made, especially with the path chosen for the skills. You’ll be able to craft weapons and armor, as well as create other things such as traps for use in battle.

The team’s ambition was no doubt huge, and while small teams can make great things, the scope of this suffers from it. One of the bigger things that bugged me was something I like to call “the Yakuza effect.” This is when the main, important characters have a more polished look, while the rest of the NPCs (or even playable characters in the beginning) look like they’re from a generation or two ago. Gameplay is king, but when the world looks as nice as it does, the characters looking like they’re from a PS2 game can be rather distracting. The game also froze many times; in some cases it was prolonged loading because it wasn’t anticipating some action being taken, and other times I had to exit out of the game and reload. Through the end of chapter 1, I had to reboot the game about four times, while I had to wait a few minutes for it to load about twelve times. I stopped keeping track after that, but it certainly continued on.

There’s lots of texture and environmental pop-in, especially during cut-scenes. I was talking to someone that just turned into a flat shade of color with no textures for a few seconds mid-conversation – he was just a silhouette of violet. I also found that I have to avoid playing during the game’s night cycle. I don’t know if it’s my TV or the game, as I tried adjusting the settings with little success, but I can’t see anything other than the glowing effects when it’s dark. I remember early on I had to sleep before going into a battle – I chose to wake up at 7am, and it was like I was playing blind aside from the battle menu. I even found the placement of things to be a bit haphazard, like the treasure chests. Some spots make sense, while others feel like they just needed to put them somewhere and got tired of finding places, and had the computer randomly generate them. I appreciate what went into this game, especially with such a small team, but I feel like the experience would’ve been much stronger if it was a tighter experience, and the later parts were focused on sooner.

If you’re a fan of 90s JRPGs, you’ll likely find something to appreciate in Edge of Eternity. The team no doubt wanted to make a love letter to the games they played growing up, and it definitely shines at times, especially for those of us that played those games non-stop. The writing for Daryon is surprisingly enjoyable; although I like Squall quite a bit, so take that for what you will. I hope the team attempts another game in line with this, as I have no doubt they learned a ton during the development cycle. There’s so much promise here, but it’s ultimately held back by the team’s resources.

6 out of 10

Pros

• Beautiful Landscapes
• Fun Dialogue
• Lots of Content

Cons

• Bugs/Glitches Galore
• Night Time Visibility
• Unpolished

Edge of Eternity was developed by Midgar Studio and published by Dear Villagers. The game is available for NS, PC, PS4, PS5, X1, and XSX. The game was provided to us for review on PS5. If you’d like to see more of Edge of Eternity, check out the game’s site.

 

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