Eternal Paradise

~Eternal Paradise~
A review by Linkforce

Okay, let me begin by just saying this: I feel like I have just played the sequel to a previous game! From the moment I began playing until the moment I stopped, I felt like there was a very large, large, large amount of background information, story, character history, and relationships that I should have known about. The very first few sentences of dialogue were written as if I already knew who these people were and......I'll just get into the review, it'll better show how I felt about the game.

STORY: 4.5/10
So from what I can gather, the four main characters are seeking revenge on Ephiam because.....umm....i don't know. He messed up with their past or something like that? I don't know! I feel like there was so much backstory that wasn't told so it made everyone's motives meaningless. This brings me back to what I said about this game feeling like a sequel. I feel like there was a game before this that told the stories of Andrew, Alexander, Maria, and Laura. But there isn't. I was just thrown into the game with all the characters knowing who they were, where they were, why they were there, and what was going on. The game characters knew everything...I knew nothing. I think this was a major flaw in a story that seemed like it had a history...but ultimately failed to deliver.

CHARACTERS: 4/10
I don't know what it is...but none of these characters seemed real. I think it was mainly the way they talked. They said things like "Shit" and "Bahaha" completely out of context and often sporadically. The game had a medieval theme to it and they were talking like they were kids in 2010. And speaking of kids, they all acted rather childishly. I don't know what their ages were but it seemed like they were in their 15's, but I know I'm wrong on that. Overall, I didn't much care for these characters, but not because I didn't give them a chance or read what they were saying! I simply knew nothing about them and had no way to relate to them in any way. They were simply...there.

GAMEPLAY: 5/10
Well there weren't really any systems implemented in this game, as far as battles go. The dark cave effect used was clever, but it was used too early and too often, especially right at the beginning of the game. Battles were standard and didn't drag on for too long. I liked that magic replenished a little every turn, it took the need out of constantly using ethers to replenish MP. I also liked that the monsters were on screen and there were no random battles, but boy were there a lot of them! Especially in the dark cave where I could barely even see where I was walking, I was constantly trying to avoid them, just cause there were so many! Also, those people/ghosts that sold you armor and weapons? Waaaaaaay too much variety waaaaaaay too early on, at least for me. I understand you wanted the player to customize their characters to their liking, but there were just way to many weapons and armor to choose from, it took the fun out of buying anything, at least for me. And each had specific stats, and I really didn't feel like mixing and matching, especially when I didn't even know what was going on with the game. For me, I think it was too much variety way too early on. And in all honesty, I defeated enemies with ease, and I didn't buy a thing.

GRAPHICS: 6.5/10
The maps in this game were actually alright. The cave (from what I could see) had a bunch of tunnels and had a true cave-like vibe to it. The island was detailed as well and the backdrops you used were used correctly. There was nothing spectacular here, it was all your standard mapping. The sprites were...funky. They were big and bulky, and unlike any sprites I've ever seen in an rm2k3 game. But you had some poses here and there and it was alright. There's not much else to say here, because there weren't too many different locations. When you tried to simulate other places, you just went to a black screen. This works, but only sometimes, and during specific scenes, not fleshed out conversations. I think you had good intentions with using the black screen/white text but you abused it and made the texts too long. I was sooo tempted to skip the conversations, but I'm not that kind of player so I endured it all. Might I suggest you actually map out cutscenes, it would really add another layer of storytelling for the game.

MUSIC: 7/10
This was probably your strongest point. I really liked the victory music, i don't know why. It just popped for me. The rest of the music library stemmed from various RPG games on various systems. For the most part they all worked and fit each scene appropriately. None of the music really moved me though, that's why I'm giving this section a 7. It was just average music.

FINAL WORD:
To be 100% fair, I didn't get very far in the game. I stopped at Chimera II because it was extremely difficult and in all honesty I didn't have the patience to train up and beat it, because I don't think I would have gained any satisfaction by continuing on. I checked out the rest of the maps that were coming up...from what I can tell there are no towns. No NPC's, no exploring, no world map, no...anything! This begs the question, is this supposed to be an RPG? Or perhaps a demo of an RPG? Or maybe you were going for a story-like experience and this was a small chapter of it? I don't know but whatever you were going for, it's not for me. But please! Don't take this personally, I, in no way, are bashing your creativity or your game making skills and the like. I'm sure you put a lot of work into it and I respect that much. But overall, as a player that went into this knowing nothing, as most gamers are, it just wasn't for me. For everything I have said above and up until now, I just didn't enjoy it. But hey, I'm just one guy. One player. If everyone else likes it, I guess my opinion doesn't matter. Again, don't take this personally! This was my personal review from my experience with this game.