I'm going to try to keep this review's spoilers to a minimum. Anything I reference after the first hour of gameplay will be as vague as possible.

Story: 4.5/5

The only knock I have against Forever's End's story is the heavy use of cliches during the first few hours of the game. Good Kings going bad at the behest of a shadowy advisor, a protagonist that defects from his country after torching villages might make you scream Final Fantasy 4 rip-off. But I implore all players, move past this. The story builds on itself as the game moves along. The story eventually makes 4 "main" characters, each having their own mysteries and plot lines that (so far) have weaved themselves into the big picture rather nicely.

The plot of Forever's End thickens with each segment and leaves the player on the edge of their seat, and the episode ends on a great cliff hanger.
Graphics: 4.5/5

The character designs and battle animations are well done. There're a lot of great animations that aren't normally seen in RPG Maker games. The best example I can think of is one scene where Cyrus removes his cloak and mask, virtually becoming a different character in just a couple smooth animations. There's plenty of stabbings that are put together nicely as well.

There's no complaints about the maps either. None of them are bland, and each village seems to have its own unique architecture.

The only graphical thing I didn't like was the black and white portraits in battle. I'd like to see the portraits colored and some differing coloration to the health, magic, action and Soul Rend bars as well.

Gameplay: 4.9/5

This is the shining point of this game and what makes it great. Nearly every character has their own set of abilities and different ways to learn and upgrade them. The only one who doesn't is Elise. I have a feeling, the way the story is developing, that she'll develop something interesting in later releases. Some examples of the finer character systems are as follows:
-Epoch gains Blade Arts from reading magazines, and upgrades them by exchanging hidden Upgrade Coupons to an NPC.
-Lee is a blue mage that simply "draws" out abilities from monsters. None of that annoying wait until they cast it to learn it.
-Goldo steals components from enemies and uses them to craft new abilities and unique items. This is one of my favorite systems in the game.

The most interesting system surfaces at the very end of the episode, and leaves me longing for the next installation. The character will go nameless to avoid spoiling it, but it involves earning "points" by killing specific monsters and using them to buy new abilities or upgrade current ones.

The battle balance is pretty good here as well. The standard monster fights are very easy, most tend to die is 2-3 hits if you exploit their weaknesses. Most boss fights are fairly simple as well. There are challenges to be had, however. Lv. 2 hidden monsters gave me a run for my money, one I even avoided in hopes of coming back to it later in the game.

Gold is very feast or famine in Forever's End. There's so many weapon/armor and magic book choices at the beginning of the game that gold gets spent rather quickly. By the end of the episode, however, there's typically only one or two pieces of equipment worth buying and there's never any magic books beyond first tier elemental attacks and basic recovery, which left me sitting on a sizable pile of gold.

Overall: 4.5/5

Forever's End has the potential to develop into one of the Indy RPG community's greatest games. It shows the promise of great first episodes such as Legend of the Philosopher's Stone, and Balmung Cycle. With this review, I took the responsibility to name all the flaws of this game, most of which are very, very minor. The pro's far outweigh the cons of this game.

I encourage everyone to download and play this game, and make sure you do for more than just the first hour, which is the only weak point in the entire game. I'm looking forward to Episode 2, and I hope I'm not old and grey by the time it comes out.