- Developer: Studio Sai
- Publisher: Studio Sai
- Reviewed On: PlayStation 5
- Available On: PS4, PS5, PC
Eternights wears its influences on its sleeves and doesn’t try to hide them. Clearly taking plenty of cues from Atlus’ Persona franchise, Eternights strives to distill the strong story and character focus of its inspiration into a smaller package, with an emphasis on romance and action-based combat being its key differentiators. While it does manage to do some things well, it also misses the mark in more ways than one.
The story in Eternights is easily its weakest element. You play as a single guy who’s struggling with online dating when one day, the apocalypse begins. People transform into grotesque monsters, mysterious walls are erected, and everyone is forced into hiding. You’re quickly thrust into a conflict between two omnipotent beings with the fate of the world hanging in the balance, as you meet new allies and forge deep bonds with them along the way. It’s an interesting premise that had me intrigued from the start, and while it’s entertaining, the way the story is told constantly cripples it.
For one, it feels extremely rushed and underdeveloped. At roughly 10 hours long, the story moves from one plot point to the next at a pretty quick pace with some details either being glossed over or simply never explained. This made it hard to follow and care about what was going on at times since there was a lack of key information that would add to the stakes and make me more invested in what was happening. When the apocalypse begins, we see a brief cutscene of a wall appearing and one person transforming before it fades to black and we’re told that our character escapes to a shelter. Shortly after, our best friend Chani comments on how people were attacking each other in the streets, something that we never see or are made aware of.
If you were to ask me about the beings Lux and Umbra, or the Core and Totem that we’re tasked with getting, I wouldn’t be able to say much since any descriptions are briefly touched on early in the story and then not really discussed again. All I know is that Lux is good, and Umbra needs the Core and Totem for their plan. Even on a more minor scale, this is a problem. In Act 2 of the five-act story, your confidant Yuna sees her eye momentarily change color and it appears as if this is going to be something that matters later on. A payoff never comes though as this isn’t mentioned ever again, leaving me wondering what the purpose of that scene was.
What saves the narrative are your five Confidants, as everything about them is actually pretty great. They’re the heart of the story and Eternights takes its time to properly flesh them out, making you care about the people you’re fighting alongside and eventually falling in love with. They’re well-written and feature some expressive animations, which when combined with the solid voice acting, had me getting attached to them as soon as they were introduced. Each Confidant has a fully developed character arc that I found myself deeply invested in as well, whether it was Yuna’s guilt over ignoring a friend in need or Min’s struggle to find her inner confidence. Furthering these bonds was something I enjoyed which made seeing everyone’s growth rewarding. Outside of the one-on-one dates you have with your Confidants, the group’s hilarious and heartwarming interactions with each other build a sense of companionship that I couldn’t help but appreciate. By the end of it all, they felt like a close-knit friend group that I knew on a personal level and was going to be sad to say goodbye to.
Seeing how much care was put into these characters makes it all the more frustrating that the story surrounding them is so lackluster, with perhaps the most egregious example of this coming at the very end of the story. I won’t spoil the specifics of the ending, but the way in which Eternights chooses to close the book on its narrative and characters is extremely disappointing since it runs completely counter to the experience that it’s wanted you to have the entire time.
Eternights features a calendar system just like in the Persona series, with your days being split between progressing through dungeons and spending time with your Confidants before the next deadline in the story arrives. Dungeons are linear affairs with an even mixture of combat and puzzle-solving to keep things from getting stale as you make your way to the boss at the end. Some also feature segments that briefly change the gameplay such as dancing or riding a motorcycle through a tunnel. They may not be much, but they’re fun instances that help further break up the standard gameplay and add more character moments.
There are also some nooks and crannies slightly off the beaten path where you can find resources, but that’s really the extent of exploration. The environments these dungeons are set in don’t stand out too much either, but they’re varied enough and don’t take too long to get through, so they never wear out their welcome. In fact, you’re often given more than enough time to complete the dungeons. I never needed more than one or two in-game days to complete them due to their length and overall difficulty, leaving me with plenty of time to bond with my Confidants.
Even with all that time on hand, I still had difficulty choosing who I wanted to spend it with. Aside from getting closer to each of the Confidants, furthering your bond with them unlocks new abilities and stat boosts for you to purchase. Do I hang out with Sia to get more attack stat boosts and improve her ice abilities, or should I go with Yuna for her healing skills? Adding to the decision-making is the fact that you need a resource called White Essences to purchase Confidant abilities, and these are only obtained by training or scavenging with your allies.
The one area where the Confidant system falters is with regard to your character’s social stats. These four categories increase through dialogue choices you make, but it’s never really clear what social stat is going to be increased by the dialogue. This can result in some stats being much lower than others, which in turn can prevent you from spending time with Confidants. Chani is able to help you train any of the stats though, giving you a major boost to them, which does alleviate this problem a bit.
Managing your time is a delicate balancing act and all of these factors make each ability purchase and Confidant session matter even more. You’ll need multiple playthroughs in order to fully level up each Confidant and see all of Eternights’ endings, something that’s made easier thanks to your social stats, abilities, and Essences being carried over to New Game Plus.
Combat is good for the most part, with its action-oriented system providing some depth, but it’s not without fault. You have your standard light and heavy attacks, but you also have other combat skills such as sending out a wave of energy or summoning three swords that spin around you. Using these moves comes at the expense of your skill gauge which refills with each combo you complete or perfect dodge you perform.
Every enemy has an elemental weakness that can be exploited for extra damage, with some enemies having a barrier that needs to be destroyed first by using their elemental weakness. By filling up your Elemental Gauge, you can select a target and have one of your allies perform a powerful elemental attack that destroys the barrier and deals heavy damage. You can also command your allies to perform other special moves, although these are on a timed cooldown and are limited by how much SP you have. It’s worth noting that the only ways in which your allies participate in combat is through these direct commands, which is odd since they’re all perfectly capable fighters, and their help would be greatly appreciated during fights.
SP doesn’t replenish while in a dungeon so the only way to refill it is to leave. This presents a problem for a large portion of the story since I would find myself in situations where I was low on health but couldn’t heal due to not having any SP left to use Yuna’s healing ability. So I could either try to push forward through the dungeon as best as possible, or leave and come back the next day. Sometimes this would happen early on in the dungeons since combat encounters aren’t always the easiest, even against basic enemies.
One of the central mechanics in fights is the perfect dodge which briefly slows combat to a crawl. Performing this is always satisfying since it provides an opportunity to get in some extra hits or put some space between you and your attacker. Getting the timing right for this is hit or miss though, as sometimes I’d do it at what appeared to be the correct moment but either still get hit or just not trigger the perfect dodge. This is especially frustrating when going up against enemies with a barrier since your regular attacks don’t contribute much to filling up your Elemental Gauge, but performing a perfect dodge will add to it a lot. Parrying instead of dodging is also an option, but I’m not the best at doing that in games and with how difficult it is to nail a perfect dodge, I didn’t even bother trying to perform one. Overall, combat is competent and has enough depth to keep it from getting boring, but it could be better.
Overall
Eternights is a mixed bag of a game. The story is entertaining but is told in such a baffling way that it prevents any deeper enjoyment. Combat is fine and has some layers to it, but it’s not remarkable. The glue that holds it all together is the main cast, with the relationships you from being what drives you to continue on and see what happens to them next. It’s disappointing because I can see that Eternights has the potential to be something better, but it just isn’t quite able to live up to it.
TheComfySpot 