Then we get to the gameplay side of things. It plays well enough for the most part, but in others it borders on criminal and cripples this game to the point of being unplayable, mainly due to frustration. The main gripe/quality most role playing games have are the random battles they have. Some people love them, others don’t, but this game needs them like you wouldn’t believe. The difficulty level of this title is nothing short of horrific and it’s really down to the lack of fighting you’re allowed to do in the early stages. As you try to battle monsters later on, without the ability to go back and gain more XP by leveling up more, you will die very often. It shouldn’t be like this and I wish it wasn’t, but it is. If anything needs to be addressed in the beta testing, it’s this.

Another flaw for me is when a character dies during battle. In most games, after the fight is won and you come back out to the main world again, your fallen comrade will have an HP of 1. It’s not the case here though, as Eternal Eden will have your player stay dead until you can actually find a potion to revive him or her. This also keeps things bordering on the impossible; so much so I think only Ethan Hunt would be able to get far enough into it. Even with all the tonics and remedy potions easily findable (all you need to do is find a corner or little indent on the map to get one) you never seem to have enough to get an advantage.

I wished for this to be a joyful, exciting and altogether fun little romp and on paper it should have been. The control system is remarkably simple, the graphics, in most parts do their job well and the sound doesn’t really irritate, but Eternal Eden commits one of the cardinal sins of gaming. It’s so hard to get anywhere that it has the potential to scare off people from wanting to try and get further into the game, or dare I say, finish it. If these somewhat major problems are rectified in the beta code before launch, I think there’s potential to have a very decent little throwback to a bygone age. If it stays the way it is, however, it will scare people away and I fear a lot of the work will be for nothing. It still needs a bit of TLC, but with luck, Blossomsoft will be able to iron out the problems before it’s unleashed on the masses.

Let’s hope this isn’t a result of a fruit that stays forbidden for all the wrong reasons. It should have been something to enjoy and savior, but instead it just feels like you want to save up for a new monitor as you’ll have put your fist through your old one in frustration after playing this. Has the potential to be ok, but if it’s left in it’s current state, I would ONLY recommend it to people who have played every RPG they can get their hands on and are struggling for something to do. Shame, really. It should have been something to enjoy and savour, but instead it just feels like you want to save up for a new monitor as you’ll have put your fist through your old one in frustration after playing this. Has the potential to be ok, but if it’s left in it’s current state, I would ONLY recommend it to people who have played every RPG they can get their hands on and are struggling for something to do. Shame, really.

Editor’s Note: As this game is still in beta testing, we have refrained from giving this game full scores and will do so once the game is completed in order to be fair to the developers and the game.

Addendum from Reviewer:

Since writing the preview, it’s come to light of a problem in the game involving the HEAL and CURE spells. Dependent upon what style of RPG you use, these can be swapped around with great frequency depending on what game you play. After realising how Eternal Eden sets itself out with these spells, I’ve actually found the difficulty to be nowhere near as bad as originally thought. It’s not to say that there’s nothing needing to be addressed before release, but it’s more stuff lost in translation than anything else, most notably all of the different coloured switches stating that they’re red, regardless of their actual colour.

I’m looking forward to seeing the review code and hope Eden will allow me to put it through it’s paces when release time comes. With the slight confusion over spells gone, I’ve found Eternal Eden’s demo code to be very enjoyable.

Hope this clears everything up.