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Eternal Grace is a classical offline Role playing game which puts its power into the emotion rollercoaster of a storyline, interesting characters and their interactions, challenging tactical battles and addictive card based mini games. The first game created by Indonesian studio Enthrean Guardian looks to bring to life the dying JRPG genre.
An JRPG with action battle system, filled with emotional element of inter-character relationship, sets in the world that almost being destroyed. This Classic RPG can bring you into unique experience in gaming… Eternal Grace is an Action RPG that has features such as stylish encounter based action battle system, stunning artworks, immersive story, unique characters, and also nice to be listened music. This game also has many side quests, collectible card mini game, weapon enhancement system and sympathy systems that strengthen the relationship between main characters. You will be offered by unique feel and experience when playing this game.”
A story about one planet called Enthrea that near the brink of destruction because of the greed of its inhabitants. Wars ravaging and the struggle of power has causes the planet to become fragile and easily struck by meteor which is the big problem for this planet. However sadly, the heroes that once contributed to this planet are no longer care with the situation ‘cause they think the condition is already beyond repair.
A girl named Millia suddenly appeared from an organization called SOFRA (Special Organization For Restorative Action) who is looking for chosen people who wants to join her to save the planet. Again, these people reject her. In the middle of her desperation, Millia finally meet some people who are bellow her expectation but have a will to restore Enthrea. Finally Millia change her way of thinking and she no longer looking for great people who are able but those who would. In the game’s first episode, the story will tell us about the beginning of journey where Millia and Razh, a mercenary that willing to do anything for money with couple of exceptions began their journey. These two character’s journey that we are going to follow in this game.
The Gameplay in Eternal Grace: Episode 1 Is pretty standard for an action RPG. Its laid out very similar to such games as Chrono Trigger where the enemies are on the map and you need to go and attack them or they come to you. When you touch them it immediately opens up the battle screen. In the bottom right hand corner is the characters status – Hit Points, Mana Points and the action bar that is used to attack. The enemies Hit Points appears in the top left of the corner.
To attack you simply click and hold the action button – either C or Enter. To change characters, both inside battle and outside you hit Q which comes in handy because of character has their own set of skills and moves. I really loved the sprites that represented the characters. They fit seamlessly into the colourful and vibrant world. The battle system is very easy to understand but hard to master and this leads to some challenging and exciting gameplay. Your characters don’t tend to die easily which is sometimes slightly annoying as it can be a little to easy as you find potions in large quantities throughout the game.
Other than the standard battles there is also a card based mini game which is thoroughly enjoyable. Hexabattle is the name and unlike most card battles Hexabattle like is suggests uses hexagonal shaped cards. Each card has its own strenghts and weaknesses and also has a direction that it can attack which varies with each turn. White dots will mark where you can attack and one side of the card can only attack the other side of the card in front of that point. I found these card games to break up game play and be very enjoyable, a great add to the game.
Sounds complicated? Don’t worry, as you play the Hexabattle tutorial system will guide you through making sure you understand what you are doing. The learning curve is very good for Hexabattle, however I could not find a single NPC that could challenge me which was a little disappointing. I seemed to master the game very quick and a little more development later on with the cards would be excellent. There is certainly a lot of potential to add to the game through this mini card game and especially as you accumulate more game modes!
Graphically, I love this game. Its colourful, vibrant and puts a smile on your face. Both character sprites and world are beautiful created and at most times the characters look more like artwork. The menu’s are laid out simply and are vibrant and well designed. Eternal Grace certainly has the feel of a 1990’s game which to most gamers from that era will leave a nostalgic taste in their mouth! I personally loved the world of Eternal Grace as it wasn’t just a standard fantasy game, it had elements of science-fiction, fantasy and historical elements combined. The sound of the game is typically fantasy with some cute Japanese esq effects that will be found. Eternal Grace really plays homage to JRPG’s of the early 1990’s!
The scripting is lovely, although there are sometimes a few times where you felt the dialogue between characters could be sped up. Humour has been well implemented into the game and overall I was very interested in the story. Preferably there should have been access to more tutorials at the start of the game instead of having to walk up to NPC’s halfway through to find out some information, but this is a minor problem.
I played the game for around four hours and was very absorbed into the game. There were only a few moments in which my concentration was broken due to some minor glitches. Yes, they were minor, but they were enough to interfere with play. Sometimes the day/night feature of the game gets buggy which leads to you stuck in either one until you reload the game. Also sometimes the music will disappear and the screen may suddenly turn to black. These are just some minor issues, like I said, but hopefully in the next Eternal Grace game they will be sorted out!
Overall I really enjoyed this game. You can tell that it has been crafted with such love and care that is not always found in most games of present. Even though this game is made for PC, I would love to see it on a smaller platform to where it is suited better. Such as the Nintendo DS or Playstation Vita! I wholly recommend Eternal Grace and I believe that any subsequent games will have a lot of potential and have a lot of room to grow!
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
