Eternal Ring
Score: 80% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Agetec Developer: FromSoftware Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Action/ RPG
Graphics & Sound: While, for the most part, while the graphics in Eternal Ring aren't amazing, it has its high points. And it's a vast improvement -- in framerate, at least -- over the old King's Field titles (and Shadow Tower, if you want to get technical). The game clips along at a smooth, high framerate, which resolves the main problem that people had with the earlier games. The environments are often quite pretty, but then you enter a "cave" hallway that has the same repeating pattern of jagged edges on the wall, and you start to lose that sense of majesty. Of course, then a dragon appears and makes you gain it back. It's not jaw-dropping, but the graphics in Eternal Ring aren't half-bad. The music is also quite good, with nothing you'll hum, but lots of songs you won't mind hearing over and over. It's a solid soundtrack, more so than most games made nowadays, and one you might actually find yourself enjoying more than you ought. It's doubtful you'll run out and buy the OSV, though. The sound effects, on the other hand, are pretty wimpy, with slashes and roars and whatnot sounding a little underdeveloped. It's not terrible, but it doesn't have quite the feel that it should. Eternal Ring also sports voice-acting, and while it's not the best I've ever heard, it's actually quite solid. Sometimes it drags out a bit more than I'd like, but it certainly doesn't take away from the experience, and probably helps it some.
Gameplay: I'll admit it. I'm an unrepenitant King's Field lover. That doesn't necessarily mean I'd score them high -- they're not particularly fantastic games -- but I find myself throwing my copy of King's Field II (which I got for a whopping five dollars at a local Wal-Mart) into my PlayStation way more than I probably should. There's something about the first-person RPG that just tickles my fancy. Imagine my pleasure when I got to play Eternal Ring. No matter what anyone will tell you, it's basically King's Field with a good framerate. And while it has many of that game's issues, it's still a rather enjoyable little romp through the world of RPGs. It's not everybody's cuppa, and I'm well aware of that, but those who enjoy this sort of thing will find it quite nice. In Eternal Ring, you're sent to the rather forebodingly-named Island of No Return to find the, er, Eternal Ring. It's going to save the world/kingdom/little Japanese schoolgirl, so it's your Sacred Duty to find it and return with it. Of course, things go Horribly Awry, and you've got to scramble to keep up, find out what's happening, and still come out as a hero in the end. The plot's rather hackneyed, and it never really gets off of its cliched feet, but it's certainly not terrible either. The game is played in a first-person perspective, and it runs in real time. That means that, although it's an RPG, you'll have to run around and attack enemies while they're trying to wail on you. This means that battles often have a little more strategy than in most RPGs, even if said strategy consists of running behind an enemy and slashing them with your weapon. Fortunately, not too far into the game, you start to get magical rings. And then, not long after, you get to create your own. This is where the core conceit of the game lies, and it's a fun one. Creating your own weapons of mass destruction is highly entertaining, and you're generally never short on supplies -- almost every enemy drops something you can use in ring construction. You can wear many rings at once, too, which makes for a rather handy (pardon the pun) game mechanism. You don't need to dig in your inventory for the item you need when you can hit a button and call it up almost instantly. Nice. Yes, the game still has some of the issues that have been lingering since the King's Field days. There's no analog. One misstep and you fall off a cliff/into water, losing all your progress since the last save point. And enemies can be either trivially easy or viciously difficult, depending on how well prepared you are. There are also some hit-detection issues. But it's entertaining nonetheless.
Difficulty: Probably the most difficult section of Eternal Ring is the first part of the game; not because it's that hard to beat, but because it's rather rote. Once you start to craft your own death-dealing devices, however, the game itself picks up rather rapidly, and makes for an enjoyable experience. There are some tough boss battles, but nothing that you can't handle with a little planning and pattern observation, and if you try hard enough and beat the crap out of enough enemies, you'll be prepared for whatever the game throws at you. The one thing that I miss is the multitude of items hidden in weird places that the King's Field series (and once again, Shadow Tower) had. In those games, it seemed that in every other corner of a room or behind every third rock was some cool and useful item that you only found if you searched hard enough for it. There are a few instances of that in Eternal Ring, but they're definitely fewer than in the previous games.
Game Mechanics: Okay, folks, here's an easy one: Analog Sticks. Yes, they're there. From Software even acknowledges them in Evergrace. So why aren't they in Eternal Ring? Augh! The game supports the analog D-Pad as well, but it's a lot more tedious than it's worth -- nothing's more irritating than having to wail on a button to walk full speed. Just keep it off and run around like a maniac. It looks foolish, but it works fine. Hitting an enemy is still more difficult than it should be, requiring you to look up and down way too often for my own tastes. But it's certainly all doable. The menus are, for a change, quite concise and easy-to-use, easily better than the complex and tangled affairs we had in the previous games. And even though you can't use the Analog sticks, controlling the game is much simpler than it seems at first try. While it's certainly not stellar, Eternal Ring is a solid little launch RPG. I love it, of course, but I can't give it a stellar score just because I have serious mental issues. Nonetheless, it's probably the most solid launch RPG out there for the system, and if it "clicks" with you, you'll find yourself with an enjoyable little romp. And for the seven other fans of the King's Field series -- this one's for you.
-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications AKA Phil Bordelon
Metal Gear Solid Evergrace