Eternal Twilight

Transcription of above review:
Eternal Twilight is an RPG game developed by Fernando Gonzalez. In the game you take control of a group of misfits and survivors who must band together to stop a centuries old evil from remaking the world in his own twisted image.

At its core, there isn’t really anything special about the plot of Eternal Twilight; it’s a very standard JRPG style story. What makes this one shine above the many, many entries to this genre are not only its characters...which are great, by the way, but its in-depth combat and exhaustive crafting systems. It’s these systems I’ll be basing my review on.

Eternal Twilight takes the cake on ‘difficult’. It has three levels of difficulty, which you can change at just about anytime after initially choosing one at the beginning. Hard is punishing. Normal is brutal, and Easy? Lures you into a false sense of security as it stabs you from behind. The game doesn’t hold your hand. It explains things, once if anything is said at all, and then it is up to you the player to survive its onslaught.

So why speak so favorably of a game with such a punishing and rough learning curve? Because every time the game chewed me up and spit me out...it was invariably somehow my fault. And that’s a good thing.

Eternal Twilight’s difficulty is akin to a Dark Souls experience. If you don’t learn and respect the game and the combat, it will throw you around until you do. But it’s all telegraphed. Tactics can be learned. Boss ultimates are given special auras. Mechanics are well choreographed and balanced so it is up to the player to pick the right buffs and debuffs, and use them at the right times.

Plus, there’s no ‘true’ game over. If you lose to a boss fight, it will take a tax in your money, and ask if you want to restart or go better prepare yourself. Any items used during the encounter are also given back to you. In a way, this was a godsend. But in another, it kind of made the encounters less urgent. In the back of my mind, even as annoyed and intensely focused as I became, I knew there was a soft reset waiting if I screwed up -too- badly.

And screw up I did. Not gonna lie: There were times I found it terribly frustrating. But then there was the euphoric rush as I beat a boss that had given me a hell of a time. After, there would be large chunks of story with interactions between the characters (my favorite being Trish) that spurred me forward, wanting to know what was going to happen next.

The combat, in a nutshell, is strategic. So if you’re going to give this game a try, know that first and foremost you can’t simply spam basic attacks. Even for the trash mobs. Screw those pigs...swear to god....

Thankfully, that’s where the crafting comes in. While I’d say 70% of winning the game comes down to the combat and how you react to different situations, the foundational 30% is the gear. And the way to get the gear? CRAFT IT. Four Tiers. Three types of Armor. Several different weapons. END GAME ULTIMATE weapons. Hundreds of combinations FOR those ultimate weapons...STACKING passive buffs...it just goes on and on. It’s literally insane the level of care and detail that went into the crafting system for this game. It was, for me, one of the high points. If a boss kicked my ass, I crafted more gear. The more you craft, the better the quality, all the up to legendary status.

I’m usually not one for a heavy amount of crafting in a game, but for the most part it was painless and efficient. I was able to craft dozens of different pieces quickly, see what worked and what didn’t, recycle the trash, and then start all over again if I had to.

The only complaint I had about the crafting system was in was all RNG based. If you wanted a specific suffix to your armor or weapons, you had to just keep making items until it showed up. Still, it was a minor annoyance in an otherwise flawless system.

So. Do I recommend Eternal Twilight? The story isn’t anything you probably haven’t heard a thousand times before. But, the characters are heartfelt, have a human touch, and are interesting enough that you care for them. The humor isn’t overbearing or oddly place, and adds a nice relief for many of the heavy scenes. I would say that alone would make the game worth it, but it’s the combat and crafting that really shine in this title. It’s probably one of the best crafting systems I’ve ever experienced in an RPG Maker game. As for the combat...

If you enjoy a challenge, like thinking strategically for every battle, and enjoy juggling buffs and debuffs, then it’s paradise. If you prefer to spam attack enemies, then you are probably going to be less enthused about how much thought goes into each battle. Either way, I still say try it. It wasn’t my thing, and I still enjoyed it immensely.