Eternal Eden 2 Announced

By: Guest Reviewer

On: May 26th, 2009

[This is a guest review by Craig Stern. Submit your own reviews to TIGSource here (forum membership required).]

Word has it that Blossomsoft has confirmed a sequel to its well-received indie RPG Eternal Eden, creatively named Eternal Eden 2.

The original Eternal Eden is a JRPG take on the Eden myth from (you guessed it) the Bible. Although a straightforward RPG Maker game in many respects, Eternal Eden stands out largely because it encourages player exploration. There are no randomized battles – you can walk around to your heart’s content without fear of being attacked, provided you’re nimble enough. Enemies are visible as clouds of smoke wandering somewhat aimlessly across each area. So long as you don’t walk into them, they will leave you alone. Additionally, items and loot are hidden in nooks and crannies all over the place, discoverable only by walking over them and pressing the space bar. The game informs you that it is essential to gather these in order to survive, and given how difficult some of the in-game battles are, I reckon that’s correct. Between avoiding enemies and searching for pick-ups, Eternal Eden occasionally feels more like a slow-paced game of Pac-Man than it does a JRPG. This is a good thing – it helps keep Eternal Eden from feeling too same-y. (The game does encourage you to fight monsters, however, via special treasure areas that open up only when you’ve cleared an area of enemies.)

Eternal Eden is not without its flaws. It relies heavily on pre-packaged RPG Maker graphics, and the in-game writing is sometimes quite clumsy. For instance, while searching for someone you know near the beginning of the game, one of your companions helpfully suggests that you kill every monster in the area in order to make her appear. Why a person in the world of Eternal Eden (who, come to think of it, has never even seen monster-containing smoke clouds before) would think those two things are related, much less announce it aloud without prompting, is beyond me. Presumably, this dialog is in the game because no rational player would ever make that connection either.

In spite of its flaws, Eternal Eden is on the whole a well-produced game with some innovative features and an interesting premise. It seems that the sequel is going to have its share of twists as well. Blossomsoft has described the forthcoming EE2 thusly:

Eternal Eden 2 will focus on Japhee, a female protagonist who possess a mysterious clairvoyance gift. Thanks to her special ability, the player will be allowed to influence parts of the game by reading the future through special artifacts.

Influencing the course of future events by learning of them in advance could make for a really interesting gameplay mechanic. The way I imagine it, however, it would take some strong non-linear writing to make it interesting and non-gimmicky. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see how Blossomsoft makes it work. In the meantime, you can decide for yourself whether the original Eternal Eden is worth your $19.99 by downloading the demo, which lets you get as far into the game as you can in the span of an hour.

TIGdb: Entry for Eternal Eden

Posted in Previews, RPG, Windows | Tags: Blossomsoft

AmnEn

I’ve actually got a hobby including creationists. I call it the “Brain Freeze”. It consists of a few simple questions that somehow deadlocks their brain for a few minutes.

1. You do believe that god is omnipotent?
2. And that he has a divine plan and works in mysterious ways?
3. And despite him being almighty and having a plan spanning Aeons, you say its utterly impossible he guided evolution through Stimuli til we were created?

At this point their brain usually locks down. Takes about 5 minutes for it to reboot and by then you really should be gone since the first gear it kicks into is the crusader mode, involving swords, pitchforks and torches.
lokijki

I believe evolution may happen, just not to an extreme that we evolved from single celled organisms or monkeys. I don’t know any Christain, either, who would lock up at such an obvious set of questions.
Craig Stern

Hey Elder, no problem. Just doing my part to boost the exposure of indie RPGs. :)
Ezuku

@ guy

Seriously, more personal attacks, can we please keep this civil? I already gave a reply to the use of the word “myth” and the best you can come up with is to just completely ignore everything I said. Anyway trust me, I know what theory is, and I would suggest you look up the definition of a theory or hypothesis yourself, with regards to the “theory of evolution”, as in Modern Evolutionary Synthesis. Something being commonly accepted is completely different to it being proven.

@ AmnEn

That’s not a particularly difficult conundrum to resolve, and come to think of it, there isn’t really a conundrum in that.

Maybe your friends are just zoning out?

@ etc.

Strawman much?

Anyway, this has gone on long enough, lets all discuss indy games instead of this.

Personally I’m looking forward to the new Dwarf Fortress… (ah, hijacking a thread hijack)
http://www.blossomsoft.com/ Elder

Sorry if Iâ€™m getting a little off-topic here, but why don’t you try the demo of Eternal Eden in order to distract yourself? :P
foo

why did this post have so much text? usually you just post a game and say, “hey, a game! check it out!!”, but this time you had to give it a couple paragraphs of warning/explanation (“EE has some flaws, and it also has some more flaws. it’s sort of OK, though.”)

very often AWFUL art games get posted here with no warning, explanation, or apology, yet it seems like you think you have to explain yourself for posting this, just because (i suspect) it’s a JRPG. why? :(
foo

guest. review. i get it. -_-

…still, though – give JRPGs a chance! don’t ignore them just because some big-headed indie assholes say they’re uncool! NOTHING ROCKS YOUR SOCKS LIKE AN OLDSCHOOL SQUARESOFT GAME, ADMIT IT
Ezuku

LOL, DF IS NOT GAME IZ ART NOOB!

Just read boatmurdered if you don’t believe me :P

And a whole fortress burning down because a butterfly held the door open and the smoke made everyone crazy *is* artistic… well kinda…
MasterShake

It seems like only the mediocre RPGMaker games are ever sold, and the really great ones never are. I mean, that’s a good thing, considering I don’t have to play great games, but it gives a bad wrap to RPGMaker, evident in a lot of the stinging comments about it.

Has anyone here ever played Romancing Walker or the unfinished Kinetic Cipher (Again)? Cuz those games blew me the fuck away…

Either way, until someone here PROVES that there was once an Eden, “myth” is completely proper and doesn’t need to be changed, regardless of denotation. So stop yer whining. I know that’s going to “offend” some of you–boof’inhoo–but no matter how much conviction you have that something is true doesn’t make it true.

But as a final statement: the ‘myth’ that all RPGmaker games are subpar offends me.
MasterShake

BTW, foo, I hope you’re not talking about Glum Buster.

I don’t care what kind of retro-boner-popping elitist tightwads say that Seiklus was better, Glum Buster was an amazing game. It’s easier to figure out than MS Word, also…so I don’t see the validity in the complaints, either.

BTW, I played Seiklus. Good game, but not Glum Buster.
Ezuku

How do you prove a past event? For example, I could tell you that I had eggs yesterday for breakfast, and you could say, check my fridge, check the bin for egg shells, and sure it would add evidence that I most likely did, but none of those would *prove* I ate eggs for breakfast. Is it appropriate to say my eating eggs for breakfast is a myth? Incidentally, if I told you that I ate eggs for breakfast and you referred to it as a myth I’d also feel offended.

Anyway, clearly the games as art debate is more powerful than a religion / English debate.

Never heard of Romancing Walker or Kinetic Cipher actually, I really must try them.

Oh, and I never could get into Glum Buster. Sure it was pretty and all, and exploring was fun, but I just felt that things didn’t really hold together.

I think the thing with RPGmaker, gamemaker, etc games, is that if they’re actually good, you never realise that they’re not built from scratch anyway, and the programme never gets the credit. I remember a while ago, there was a video with a montage of all the gamemaker games, and well… I never would have guessed that half of them were made in gamemaker.
undertech

“Anyway, clearly the games as art debate is more powerful than a religion / English debate.”

Both are equally worthless here on TIGS. Please end it now and forever.
Craig Stern

If there are indie RPGs you think are more worthy of coverage, by all means, submit them here on the forums:

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=6171.0
Frankie Smile Show

It could or could not be fun, but the fact I have to pay to *really* find out and the fact it relies on prepackaged art makes me choose not to try it out.
The price tag places a sort of burden of proof on the game, I need to be convinced instead of just needing to be curious.
On one hand, the author wants remuneration, and on the other, doesn’t feel enough about his creation to have all of his/her art be original. To hell with that! I’d rather play a game with all original, less professional (or even ugly) art than one with nice-looking art taken from elsewhere.

Also, I am offended by the fact everyone refers to the ancient Greek polytheistic religion as mere “mythology”. Its not because its older that it makes it any less true. I believe in Zeus with a beard throwing lightning bolts from the bottom of my heart and you are all awful people for thinking I am making this up just to prove an obvious point. It is your duty and obligation to do everything in your power to make sure I am never, ever offended by your words! The current popularity of your own religion does not grant you any extra rights to have it respected over mine…
Ben

YOU’S TROLLIN’!
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