You might look at the dearth of posts on this blog this year and think I’ve quit gaming. Nothing of the sort has happened. It’s just that I’m playing mostly casual browser and gacha games where nothing much happens from day to day. Those games provide a nice dopamine hit when I need it, and they’re easy to fit into my busy schedule of sleeping, working and sleeping again. And eating sometimes. Wait, I think I’ve explained all this before.
Anyway, I had a little free time last week and naturally I wanted to fill that time with games. So did I play any of the many games on my massive backlog? Noooooo. I went to QooApp, browsed through their RPGs, and Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space caught my eye. It promised to be a stamina-free single-player RPG with gacha elements, and that’s right up my alley.
No stamina means I can play as much as I want without running out or worrying about refills over time. Stamina-free usually also means the game is grindy or heavily-padded because they don’t want you to finish too fast, but it’s not too bad so far. Single-player RPG means there’s no pressure to join a guild or compete with other players or race to complete events before a deadline. What’s not to like? So I downloaded it and I’ve been playing on-and-off for about a week now.
Story and Sound
The main character is Aldo, a generic orphan kid. Bad dudes kidnapped his sister Feinne, and he’s totally going to save her one day, but first he has to travel through time to save the world because that’s just how video games work. Another Eden is supposedly inspired by Chrono Trigger, hence all the time-travelling. Apparently Yasunori Mitsuda did the main theme of the game. Unfortunately I can’t tell, because the sound is low on my phone even when I crank it up to the max. I’ll look at the settings next time. I don’t mind a good soundtrack, but I’m not tempted by “Chrono Trigger-inspired” games. I used to be, then I played the fetid waste of space called Chrono Cross and that cured me sharpish.
BTW, you might be wondering about the “cat beyond time and space” part of the title. I’m wondering about it too, because cats show up all the time leading people here and there. But why? Why cats? I don’t get it, but I’m only 6 chapters into the game so I don’t expect all the answers so quickly. I’ll let you guys know if the catspiracy is ever solved or if the developers just added the cat motif to be “different” and “cool” and stuff.
Or maybe the developers just like cats.
Gameplay
Simplified turn-based RPG mechanics. There’s Attack, there’s Run, there’s Skills. There’s no Defend unless you use a skill. No Items either. You have four characters in the front line, two in the back. Characters in the back recover HP and MP every turn, and they use a special move called a Valor Chant that attacks/buffs/debuffs when you switch them in. The system reminds me most of Mana Khemia, actually, the way you have characters in the backline who can jump in and out every turn. Controls are basic, just tap or hold to do everything.
I forgot to take a screenshot of my part in combat so I’ll just google a random one (source). There’s nothing to see, really.
It would be better if it had an Auto-battle feature, because it gets boring tapping the same options every single time. [update: there’s a feature to Save the last commands you gave so you can repeat them easily. Makes things a little easier. Thanks for the reminder, Nirinsi.]
Gacha
The main way to get new characters, aside from the occasional free unit. The game is very much against re-rolling for the best units, so it took me days of collecting Chrono stones (gacha currency) when playing irregularly to save enough for a 10-pull. A more serious player could get that much in a few hours of sidequests and monster battles, but it’s still a long process. And lots of reading, which I can already tell I’m going to hate. It reminds me why I don’t play more RPGs these days.
Back on topic, since your party is limited to 6 characters, you probably don’t need more than 10-12 well-built characters in your roster to clear content. Thanks to my good gacha luck, I have a number of 4-star characters, including the supposedly top-tier ones like Miyu, Ciel and Bivette, as well as one 5-star (Tsukiha, Extra Style).
What’s more, I hear the game will eventually reward me with Joker and Morgana from Persona 5 for free. And maybe some characters from the Tales games too? Either way, my basic party is set and will stay set until/unless I pull or otherwise get any 5-stars someday. All this to say, you really don’t need to pull much in Another Eden.
TL;DR: you can play Another Eden perfectly well without spending a dime. You can get a good party either by drawing with free Chronos stones or by progressing the story. Though I do support the developer by watching ads because I get a few Chronos stones for it.
What I really think about it so far
Another Eden is a mediocre JRPG so far. Sorry fans. There’s absolutely nothing special about it, whether it’s the story or the graphics or the music or the combat. The main character is the usual ultra-passive gofer who talks a good game but in the end always goes along with whatever a random voice in his head or passerby on the street says. And the talking… so much talking… And no cutscene skipping option.
I gotta wonder though, what happened to me? Why can’t I endure long talking sequences in gaming any more? I think it’s because I’ve seen it all before. RPGs aren’t that clever or inventive. Blah blah blah, long talking sequence… so deep and intriguing… NOT! You’re not reinventing the wheel, you’re just wasting my time before pointing me at the next boss to kill or quest to fulfill. You know it, I know it, so why don’t we all get on with it?
I should take my own advice and end the post here. For the record I’m enjoying Another Eden, more or less. It’s average but not actually bad. Plus it’s free, and works fine on my phone so I can play it once in a while. If I play a little more and it turns out to be “Kyaa best game ever sooo sugoooi!” I’ll be back to report it. Otherwise, peace out for today!
Your “why can’t I endure long talking sequences in gaming any more” plea totally resonated with me. My own plea would be similar, along the lines of “Why have I never been able to endure long talking sequences in gaming”. The answer is pretty simple: because I game to play, not to read or watch. If I wanted to read or watch, I’d go for a book or a film, thank you very much. Get that, developers?
Anyway, totally unrelated query: I wanna explore the Ace Attorney series, but I don’t know which entry would be the best starter. As an AA expert, which instalment would you recommend to a complete noobie for a first foray into the series? ^^
Play them all in release order. It’s the only way to go.
And AA is a very talkative series, just for the record. But fun-talkative for the most part.
If you click the button between the fast forward and status button until it’s at “save”, it should keep the skills you were using in the previous battle to your next. It’s a pretty new feature so idk if this was stated in the tutorial or not
It wasn’t stated, but I discovered it a day or two ago. I will update the post to reflect that, thanks for the reminder!