Eternity
Fragment
A Review by Mike Willis
Download
Here
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.