Eternity Fragment
A Review by Mike Willis
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This is a review... ...about a game.

Eternity Fragment is a game about playing an old, stereotypical NES RPG, complete with (purposeful) glitches in graphics, attacks and items without descriptions, and a bizarre difficulty curve where patience is tested earlier rather than later.  And guess what?  I love it for all these reasons and more.


It looks ripped from every Dragon Warrior game ever, but isn't that part of the point?

I don't have much to say about the graphics that the screenshot doesn't say for me.  It's a Dragon Warrior rip-off through and through, and the enemies are similar.  Shopkeeper NPCs look horrible, but it doesn't matter any more than it mattered for those old games.  The music also sounds ripped from some old NES games that I've forgotten, but if not then I do commend the author on a spot-on impression of the 8-bit music of the 80s.

The 'story' of the game is pretty clever, and thankfully understated.  The player takes on the role of a person who decides to play an old NES game (Eternity Fragment) that he was never able to beat.  From the moment that the game starts working, the player is essentially playing that game, with only occasional reminders that he is actually playing a game within a game.  This setup allows Eternity Fragment to act as a slight parody of 80s RPGs like the original Dragon Warrior, poking fun at their idiosyncrasies, but all the while staying true to their core concepts in a very authentic way.  Like all the best parodies, the result is an experience that both mocks and celebrates its subject matter.


This might have been the point that I fell in love with this game.

The picture above is a prime example of what I'm talking about.  Little useless monologues like that are littered throughout this game.  Are they dumb and pointless?  Yes.  Do they sound EXACTLY like the townsfolk of old Dragon Warrior games?  Yes.  I laughed out loud when I read that line, and several other times talking to NPCs in this game, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  There are a couple duds here and there, but overall the dialogue and in-game story of Eternity Fragment were incredibly entertaining.  Here's another personal favorite:


Really now?  Convenient that, since he just disappeared to mourn his daughter.  Still, too bad he didn't think of this when I wanted to pass the stone Kraken.

The gameplay of Eternity Fragment is similarly modeled after that of the early RPGs.  The game opens with the main hero too weak to survive more than a battle or two at a time, although even one level up alleviates the problem significantly.  Very soon the player is made aware that he will need to buy a boat deed, and at a steep price.  The grind to be able to afford the boat is certainly the longest grind in the game, but once the player reaches level 3 or 4 it really doesn't take long to get the necessary gold.  Throughout all of this, the game makes a rather simple assumption that nearly all 80s RPGs did (and very few do today): the player will explore as much as possible, and will NOT run from enemies while doing so.  I found that by simply killing everything in my path (and turning back when unable to do so) while poking around on the overworld, I fought more than enough to be adequately leveled from the purchase of the boat onward.

Speaking of killing things, the battles in Eternity Fragment deserve attention.  With only a single enemy ever fought at a time, they threaten to become boring, but luckily they are all over fairly quickly.  The enemies aren't that different from one another in anything but stats, but the heroes each have different ways to be used most efficiently, and as new heroes are added gradually, this keeps the battles from becoming overly monotonous.  Simple?  Yes.  Pointless?  No.  Not only are the EXP and gold necessary to beat future foes, but the gradual damage built up over the course of a cave or tower IS a threat, and one that needs to be monitored by the player.

In fact, a lot of the balancing in the game was excellent.  Equipment costs were perfect; even when advanced equipment was available, the cost prohibited any thoughts of saving up to buy it until the player was fighting enemies that would require it (and thus earning much more gold).  Dungeons were a suitable length, requiring a handful of potions but never a long grind.  All of these balancing aspects ensured that Eternity Fragment was not only an accurate parody, but a fun and challenging one to play.

All that said, there were some aspects of the gameplay that were annoying, and it was difficult to tell whether these were intentional as parody or not.  In towns there are far too many places where pathways are made of single tiles that can easily be blocked by NPCs, forcing the player to wait for them to move out of the way.  I know that old 80s RPGs had this happen on occasion, but I don't think there was any reason to have it occur so often here.  We also have some spells that do not seem to balance out with their costs.  For example, Blast I is less expensive to use than Flare I, and yet they often seemed to do very similar amounts of damage.

By far the biggest flaw in the game, however, was the inclusion of the Sleep spell, which was basically useless against random enemies, but ridiculously overpowered against bosses.  With a healthy stock of Seltzer to keep the MP flowing, the Sleep spell, which never failed, made it ridiculously easy to ensure that no boss ever got a turn to attack.  I can't imagine this being intentional, and I'd recommend the author either make this less effective, or simply remove it altogether.


Yeah, once that 'glitched' mess of pixels is asleep, the player could be asleep too and still beat the thing.

Eternity Fragment is a game that reminds me of what made early RPGs fun: simplicity.  The story and characters are pure stock that don't end up really mattering, and progressing throughout the game requires only patience and the desire to explore.  There is no need for byzantine strategies here; survival hinges on common sense and resource management.  There is no need to sympathize or empathize with any characters; just save the bloody princess and find some rusty equipment.  There is also no need to be told where to go; explore everywhere, and you'll find your way (while building necessary levels in the process).  I love it, but others might not.  This is certainly not a game for everyone.  Just as someone who doesn't like Star Wars will find little to entertain them in a spoof like Space Balls, here too anyone who does not truly enjoy 80s-style RPGs will find even the central joke of Eternity Fragment running thin, most likely as soon as he hears about the boat.  But for those who still love the old RPGs, Eternity Fragment will not disappoint.