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:

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