Edge of Eternity is a JRPG developed by Midgar Studios which recently released day one on Xbox Games Pass. Players take on the role of a soldier named Dayron, who’s planet has been attacked by a technologically advanced mechanical race. The world’s inhabitants are at the mercy of the invasion, as well as a biological agent that takes over the body and turns the host into a monster. Dayron makes it his mission to find a cure when his mother is infected with the agent. And that’s where the story begins.
As fan of 90s and 00s JRPG myself I was happy to see that turn based battles are the basis of the games combat system. JRPGs these days too often resort to real time battles which take away from the nostalgia. The turn-based system in Edge of Eternity works similar to that of Final Fantasy VII’s ATB system in that each character has a turn timer that only progresses while it is not any one character’s turn. This allows spells like Haste or Slow to alter the time it takes for your character’s turn bar to fill.
The combat system also has a grid movement mechanic where players can move their characters around during a battle in lieu of attacking or casting a spell. This is sometimes useful to have your spell-casters behind your tanks, or to interact with objects on the battlefield such as cannons.
All in all, the combat system is complex enough to keep turn based battles interesting and fresh for the ever impatient new generation of JRPG players.
The world on the other hand is less interesting. Being a semi open world game, Edge of Eternity falls prey to the same “emptiness” that plagues most open world games. There is a littering of monsters that are engaged when you go near, lots of shiny items to collect, and even some nice scenery, however it still feels bland for the most part.
The graphical engine and assets feel heavily outdated, more like something you’d see one or two generations ago. An example of this is that the players character while manoeuvring in the world looks as though they are sort of floating, with no real collision between them and surfaces. Idle animations of animals and characters look like something out of Final Fantasy X on PS2 – which was a masterpiece for its time, but we have moved on to bigger and better things, or at least we should have. The cat like Nekaroos bouncing in place almost makes you feel sorry for them.
Characters in Edge of Eternity vary from similar to carbon copies of many other JRPGs, there isn’t much that we haven’t see before. The voice acting is okay. It does its job, but there are some unnatural pauses that break immersion.
I think Midgar Studios bit off more than they can chew for such a small team. It’s easy to see the ambition behind the game, but it feels as though they tried to include too much to the point the game feels empty and void of much real emotion. That said, this definitely isn’t a bad game, it just doesn’t live up to its potential.
As a moderate JRPG fan I will not be finishing this game. I put in 15 hours, and I tried my best but it just isn’t keeping me interested. Players will have varying mileage depending on how much they like the genre.
Sam Russell
5 – Average – This game doesn’t hit it out of the ball park but it does provide a solid experience, with a few issues here and there. As an average game, fans of the genre or series may get more enjoyment out of it, but it’s worth a try for the average gamer, at a discount price.
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