Despite their less-than-stellar reputation, gacha games were a genre that provided me with some decent fun back in high school. But as the years went on, I always thought: “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could experience this story without being beholden to their predatory nature?” Not to mention, being part of the live service sphere means that the moment the servers shut down, you’re out of luck if you ever want to experience the story again, a fate that many gacha games have sadly suffered as of late.
Thankfully, we’ve been seeing many games that were once gachas make their way into offline paid console experiences, preserving their stories in a format that can be enjoyed by both newer fans for years to come. But can Another Eden Begins provide a suitable experience for those who would rather not touch the gacha game?
The Cat Beyond Time and Space
Our story begins with Aldo and his sister Feinne. After being found by the mayor of a quiet little village known as Baruoki when they were little, he raises them as if they were his own children. 16 years pass, and just as they thought nothing could happen in this peaceful slice of their world, Aldo comes across a mysterious rift that takes him to a space called the Observatory of Time. And just as he returns from this mysterious place… the Beast King and his lackeys kidnap his sister, claiming that she holds a special power capable of wiping humanity off the map. But as he tries to follow the Beast King in order to get his sister back, Aldo ends up being sucked into a rift that warps him 800 years into the future.
Right off the bat, the story didn’t really hit me. Something that you’ll constantly hear in Another Eden‘s marketing is that the story of the game was produced by none other than Masato Kato, the writer behind Chrono Trigger and various other iconic RPG franchises. Unfortunately, it feels surprisingly shallow. The first five hours, which I typically expect to hook me, instead present a mishmash of predictable plot elements and tired clichés.
Even after I reached Chapter 12, the story didn’t show any signs of improving. There’s this weird lack of coherence to it, with people and party members being removed from the story cutscenes without much of a reason behind it. For example, one moment we are tagging along with someone, and at the snap of a finger, it’s as if they were never part of the story. I really did try to give it a fair shake, but the more I played, the more confused I got, and it’s such a shame.
It’s also a lot shorter than I thought it would be, too, as in a single gameplay session, I went through five whole chapters. When I sat down and thought about it, the Observatory of Time, which is introduced rather early in the story, makes it very convenient to just add different what-ifs to Aldo’s journey. This is where my main gripe lies with Another Eden: Begins: it feels like the development team tried their best to remove the gacha aspects, but somehow, the story doesn’t manage to stand on its own. It’s hard not to feel like there’s this huge gap that’s missing from it.
In fact, the gacha game, which is still active, has three whole expansion arcs, and those aren’t included here. By purchasing Another Eden: Begins on PC via the Steam store, you’ll receive a serial code that will essentially skip the story on the gacha game itself, so you can experience those additional arcs. But then what? This genuinely makes me wonder what the developers’ plans are, given that in our interview with them, the idea behind this game is to have a new future for the series. Yet, I fail to understand what the objective was here if this is not the complete experience.
New Characters, New Tales
Besides the main story, you’ll have something the game calls Kinship Quests, which are special quests that dive deeper into the lore of each individual character that joins Aldo’s party. The more you fight with them, the further their bond increases, which then allows you to start special quests that can be done at any time. There are 18 different characters to meet in the base game, and they each contain three kinship quests in total. Hold on. “Base game”? Why, yes. As much as it pains me to say it, Another Eden: Begins will have five DLC character packs that are going to be released throughout this year.
These packages add two characters per volume, alongside their respective encounter and Kinship quests. This wouldn’t be a bad thing… except the character packs are $10 each, or $45 if you obtain the Season Pass containing all five packs. And the game itself is $40, meaning you’re spending more than the base game just to get characters that aren’t even exclusive to this version of the game itself. While I was unable to check out the DLC, there’s no sugarcoating this: it is a terrible deal. With how shallow the story is on its own, you’d be forgiven for feeling like you didn’t get your money’s worth.
As for the quests themselves, I thought they were pretty decent. I always enjoy quests that have this aspect of diving deeper into a character’s past, and for the most part, the characters in Another Eden feel pretty fleshed out. Obtaining the required amount of bond, however, can take quite a while, and the game doesn’t give you any clear indication of how many more battles you need to complete with that character in your party before reaching the bond level required to unlock their next quest.
Classic Turn-Based Combat
In the overworld, Another Eden: Begins does not feature any sort of random enemy encounters. Every enemy location is clearly labeled on the minimap, and the moment you approach one, a turn-based battle begins. From here, each character can Attack or use one of their Skills. And by defeating the enemies, you’ll earn EXP, and by leveling up, you’ll obtain Ability Points, which, as their name implies, allow you to unlock brand-new skills in the Ability menu. It is pretty simple to grasp, and honestly, this will feel very familiar if you’ve previously played turn-based RPGs.
An important detail is that Attacks are divided into four types: Slash, Piercing, Blunt, and Magic, and they’ll also have an element attached to them, such as Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Shade, Thunder, and Crystal. That sounds like a lot, but because the game lacks the gacha mechanics, using the story-provided characters will pretty much allow you to successfully clear anything that is thrown at you without much of a fuss. Something the developers did mention is that the UI for this was completely overhauled to be controller-friendly, and I’m impressed, because every menu action feels very fluid when using either input.
Another mechanic of Another Eden Begins is the Combat Points. Each character has a specific condition under which they’ll accumulate them. For example, Aldo gets one point every time an ally hits an enemy’s weakness. His sister Feinne, on the other hand, will accumulate one point for every time an ally is healed. After a certain number of points have been accumulated, the character will perform an additional skill that is unique to them, and those can be chained for a lot of damage.
Next, there is the Another Force mechanic. The more you attack an enemy, the more a gauge on the top right fills up, and once that’s full, you can press L1 + R1 to activate Aldo’s sword, Ogre Rancorem. From this, you’re able to use character abilities in quick succession, without the need to worry about MP usage. It takes a bit to understand at first, because the abilities are all mapped to the face buttons of your controller, so you’ll have to build some muscle memory to effectively use the short time it gives you.
And finally, exclusively added to this port of the game is the Another Party mechanic. As I’ve said previously, there are 18 characters you can recruit, but your party can only hold up to 4. That’s where it comes into play. Through the main menu, you can make three distinct parties, and you can then select Valor from the combat menu and swap your entire party to that. And as a bonus, you can also choose a Valor Skill to trigger upon the party’s swap. This is a really cool feature because it allows you to prepare for whichever kind of enemy that is thrown at you, without the need to just keep editing your party composition every time you get to a new area.
This is especially handy because there isn’t a way to change the in-game difficulty. But thankfully, even the so-called “Horrors”, which are enemies that are a slightly higher level than average, are not much of a challenge once you properly gear up the appropriate parties. There were a couple of times when it felt like the difficulty had spiked a bit; however, it at least never reached the point of me thinking I should grind heavily to just progress further in the story.
Not the Eden We Desired
If there’s one lesson I’ve learned yet again from Another Eden: Begins, it’s that no matter how much you boast about having big names from the gaming industry involved with your title, it doesn’t necessarily translate to a good experience. I had hopes that this would be a game I’d enjoy, since up until now, I’ve only dabbled in the gacha game here and there, and I was always curious about trying this story out, especially after many have claimed the only thing stopping it from reaching greatness was the gacha game attached to it. But the story is so shallow, which is a shame, given how fleshed out the characters themselves are.
Truthfully, if games like Octopath Traveler 0 and the upcoming Final Fantasy Resonance, both of which adapt their respective gacha games’ stories into an amazing experience, didn’t show us what is possible, then perhaps a game like Another Eden: Begins would make sense. But as it stands, the title has only one good thing going for it, and that is the fact that players can enjoy its story and characters without feeling they must spend copious amounts of money just to finish playing through its tale, even after the gacha game closes its doors. And that is something you can’t take for granted these days.
Disclaimer: Wright Flyer Studios provided a PC (Steam) copy of Another Eden: Begins for review purposes.
 review of Another Eden Begins, developed by WRIGHT FLYER STUDIOS and Studio Prisma.){kind=link}