LifeisXbox’s Edge of Eternity review | ‘t Is the season of RPGs at the moment. With Elden Ring on the horizon, Soul Hacker 2 being announced, and many more in the pipeline? We’ll surely have no shortages of (J)RPGs soon. But one that hit the market not so long ago is one that I want to talk about right now. Namely, Edge of Eternity.
This truly is a conundrum to be sure. Heck, if you’ve been with us long enough, you know that we already covered this game. My arch-nemesis, Maui, wrote about it even. So, why are we doing this one again? Well, this is the full release now. All the 8 chapters have been finished (quite a while back on PC actually), but now finally on console as well. Will it prove itself to be a technical marvel, or is it rather a ‘meh, I’ll just let it pass’? Let us find out!
You play as Daryon, a soldier that deserts the army after losing his party at the start of the game. The lands of Heryon are being ravaged by a disease called Corrosion. This was unleashed upon Heryon by an invading alien race called the Archelites, a race that first tried to improve the human race, but eventually deemed us unworthy and thus wants to snuff us out. After learning that his mother was diagnosed with Corrosion, he ventures home, to find his sister, Selene, trying to convince Daryn to help her find a cure. And this is where we start our real adventure. Developed by Midgar Studio, Edge of Eternity truly is a marvelous creation if you remind yourself that this studio exists only out of 8 people.
Most Memorable Moment
To be fair, I got quite bored from the story after 4 whole chapters of just filler and fluffer material. Most of the conversations were just that, conversations. And cutscenes were just that as well… Cutscenes. And so whenever a new one started, I just started putting my controller aside and scrolling my phone. But somewhere in mid-chapter 5 they sprung a new method on me. Suddenly, the conversation between [REDACTED] the captured [REDACTED] gave me options to choose from. And of course, I heard the conversation, but I wasn’t fully paying attention. So I chose a few options and instantly regretted it because my choices caused [REDACTED] to be sacrificed. And I’m not a save-scummer, so I just owned up to my mistake, forever regretting the choice that I made. But it surprised me that they actually change the formula for one scene, nearing the end of the game. I don’t mind change, but not when we are so far along! Ugh!
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by PR/publisher, this review is the personal opinion from the writer.
What we Liked!
- Graphics | Visually Edge of Eternity doesn’t really underperform. It looks and feels clean. With rarely any texture pop-in, I can only applaud the time and love that must have gone into the game, making it look exactly the way it does. Another thing that I can really commend them for is the fact that they fine-tuned the game so, that there was not even one frame that was being dropped. It also looks really fresh, the color palate was just… Mwah! Chef’s kiss!
- Music | Another great feature, and that one that shows the amount of love and dedication that these developers must have put into it, hands down has to be the audio in this game. Namely the songs. These just align so perfectly with the ambiance of Heryon, the combat that you are in, or the dramatic feeling cutscene that you may or may not (in my case) be watching. Their songs are energetic, full of kick-ass beats, and just a joy to listen to!
- Humor | Humor is an important addition in RPGs. Some of them take themselves way too seriously. But not Edge of Eternity. Some characters that you’ll come to meet just ooze that perfect sarcastic vibe. And that makes them feel so relatable as well, since almost everyone will have one of these in their own friend circle, that you’ll start making comparisons. And if you design your characters so that you actually start looking at your real-life friends? Then you truly are a force to be reckoned with on the development scene!
- Voice Actors | I’ve got to give another hand of applause to the devs for this one, but the voice actors that they found for Edge of Eternity are just really enjoying their roles, and that shows in how they put their rendition down. And not only do they have original Japanese, but if you’re not really into that? Then you can just swap from JAP to ENG. Even when you are mid-way through the game! So, really well done there, Midgar Studio! Most RPGs don’t give you that option to swap voice-over language, but you guys did so… Nice!
Mixed Feelings
- Boring | Let me get this out of the way. Edge of Eternity is boring. Even though the trailer shows a vibrant world that is filled with a lot of stuff to do and to explore? You’ll quickly realize that somewhere along the line, you got lied to. The first few chapters go from point A to point B in search of a person. Found him? Great, come meet me at another spot. Then, when you finally do that? You are tasked with… Another fetch chapter, and afterward yet another “go find this person” task. Every time you complete your main chapter’s mission, it just sets you up for yet another “go find this” mission. The only worthwhile chapters that I saw, had you leave Heryon for a bit so that you could explore a different biome.
- Re-skin fiesta | Another sad note that I noticed, was that there wasn’t really much of any variation in enemies. What I did notice, was a lot of the same type, just in a different wrapper and element slapped onto it. One monster has a normal model, then a Corrosion version, a specter version, and a big version… And that’s about it. Sure, each time you meet a variant, they’ll have a different weakness. But that’s about it. And there aren’t really even a lot of unique monsters either. That’s actually such a shame, seeing that the devs had put so much effort into the rest!
- Combat | While combat does have its upsides, it also has its shortcomings. For instance, having all the time in the world is really mandatory when it comes down to strategic planning. But even the best plans can be thwarted if your combat controls really are horrible. Hear me out, the game has a hexagonal playing field when you enter combat. And at times I really had to wiggle the cell around to select the right cell or enemy. And sometimes when I thought I had selected the right one? I missed it because the visualization really isn’t clear either. And that really is a downer when you clearly see that they put in a lot of effort to polishing the game!
What we Disliked
- Gem randomizer | At times you’ll gain gems that can be used to upgrade your gear or unlock new paths in your gear customization. These gems scale with your level, so the further along you are? The more gems you’ll accumulate. Each town has a gemstone enhancer and my thought was, if I put in a few gems, I’ll sacrifice them, and upgrade the gem to become a more powerful kind of gem… And while that may be right? Somehow, it felt as if I was losing more than I was actually gaining. For instance, I put in all blue gems, to improve the stats. And while a few attributes did rise, I noticed that some even suddenly lowered in score, and some attributes even vanished, even though all of the gems that I put in had that one. Only to be replaced by another random one that wasn’t even on any of the other gems? Basically, adding stat points to the gemstone would make my ‘improved’ gem actually worse. … How do you screw this one up this badly?
- Out of place grinding | Another weird element that I found were some of the boss battles and the zones they were in. The first boss time noticed this was when I was around level 30, all the mobs around me were around level 25 and had their name change from yellow to green (meaning their difficulty in regard to your level). So, I thought to myself; “I mastered the zone, time to beat the boss!” … How wrong I was! The boss wiped my party so fast, I had to grind some more to raise my level… even more. Which was a chore, since I wasn’t gaining a lot of EXP anymore. Eventually, I hit level 33, and went to the same boss again, killed it, and unlocked the next zone… Only to rage quit for a while. Want to know why? The zone behind this boss had mobs level 30. Still lower than the level I was since their names also were green! This felt so sloppy, that it really took me out of enjoying the game, and really started to see the flaws that were piling up.
- Camera | One of your worst enemies during combat that you’ll encounter isn’t one that you can defeat on the battlefield. But with your controller stick. I am talking about the camera. My god does Edge of Eternity have a bad case of a slippery camera or what! Not only is it annoying to turn sometimes, but if you’re in a confined space, like for instance, in a cliff? Then good luck! Because your camera will get stuck in the side of the walls more often than you would like it to happen! Djeez… Fix the camera already! This was an issue way back in 2021 when Maui reviewed Edge of Eternity as well. She put it as an in-between. We are 2022 now, and it is still present? No. No! Bad devs! Go fix this one already, dammit!
How long to beat the story | 80+ hours.
How long to achieve 1000G | 80+ hours.
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