Another Eden is a side-scrolling JRPG developed by Wright Flyer Studios. After an initial release on Android and iOS, the game has made its way to Steam, with a Nintendo Switch port on the way too.
Starting out in the green-leafed village of Baruoki, Aldo and his sister Feinne live a relatively peaceful life after being taken in by the Mayor as young children. One fateful day, Aldo returns home to find the Mayor lying on the floor, he informs Aldo that Feinne has been kidnapped. Aldo rushes out of the door to try and save her, and his hero’s journey begins.
Aldo catches up with the Beast King and challenges him but is unable to succeed. Aldo soon finds himself transported to a strange world 800 years in the future. What happened to Baruoki? And maybe more importantly, what happened to Feinne?
The story itself is quite captivating, with enough wonder and intrigue to keep players interested. Another Eden consists of chapters which help to break the story up into manageable chunks. At the time of writing this, there are currently 74 chapters (Yes, 74!) which see you traversing the past, present, and future. It’s a sizeable game, with a whole host of side quests, extra content and collaborations with other hit game franchises – such as Persona 5 and the Tales of series.
As is quite common with mobile games, gachapon is a feature, although Another Eden isn’t as pay to win as you would assume. None of the content is locked behind paywalls, and it is possible to finish the story with standard three or four star characters. Chronos Stones can be earnt quite easily in game through completing content and these can be used to purchase new randomised characters. Of course, you can still spend money if you wish, but it is by no means necessary in order to progress.
The characters and environments are all beautifully designed, but unfortunately the animation leaves much to be desired – with the characters running around like little cardboard cut outs. It’s jarring and something which probably worked quite well in a mobile environment, but doesn’t have quite the same feel to it when playing on PC.
In Another Eden, your party consists of six characters, four of which are placed into the frontline and two are placed into a reserve party. During combat, characters can be swapped between the two groups in order to activate Valor Chants. These are unique skills which range from afflicting status effects on the enemy to changing the entire battlefield.
Using your reserve party is also a good way to heal your characters on the fly and becomes an integral part of keeping your party alive as the game progresses in difficulty.
The battle mechanics are a little more complex than it would first seem. Characters and attacks each have their own affinity to certain skill types and elements. If an enemy has a weakness to a particular attack then the damage dealt is roughly doubled – if they have a resistance then the damage dealt is reduced to a quarter. Elemental resistances tend to follow a specific pattern, with certain elements being weak against others. However, weapon type resistances don’t follow a set pattern and will vary depending on the enemy being fought.
Another Eden: Overall thoughts
So with the amount of JRPG’s available nowadays, is Another Eden worth the time? Or are you better off finding something else to play? It’s actually quite hard to answer. I find it quite difficult to play more than one chapter at a time because despite the amount of content it somehow feels quite soulless. Having the random characters to add to your party doesn’t really add anything other than giving Aldo an entourage of waifus (shudder). I think I’d prefer a static party which helps to foster an understanding of the characters and their individual backstories. As it stands, Aldo is really the only character worth caring about and it makes the other characters feel pretty pointless.
It’s really just a question of taste. Wanna build something that definitely isn’t a harem and have a small to moderate amount of fun doing it? Check out Another Eden. Want a deep, rewarding JRPG? Might be wise to look elsewhere.
You can check out Another Eden on Steam here. You can also find more of our game reviews and previews here.