![Eternights Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.pushsquare.com/screenshots/139044/900x.jpg)
Eternights begins along with your unnamed teenage protagonist establishing his Tinder profile whereas his finest buddy offers him high suggestions like photoshopping his image to make himself look extra heroic, and mendacity about who he’s to be extra interesting to the women. This, apparently, is sage recommendation, as a result of nearly immediately our hero matches with a woman who gives to ship him soiled footage earlier than he is even had an opportunity to make use of any of his finest chat-up traces.
Ordinarily, this could be a successful morning for a teenage boy, however as he heads out to satisfy this lady within the flesh for what we are able to solely assume can be a most unsavoury encounter, the apocalypse begins, and a supernatural murderer slices his arm off utilizing a magical sword. What rotten irony; not solely is his afternoon delight together with his Tinder date ruined by Armageddon, however his hand has been unceremoniously chopped off so he cannot even… properly, we can’t end that thought.
![Eternights Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.pushsquare.com/screenshots/139045/900x.jpg)
With the world’s inhabitants steadily remodeling into hideous monsters and unusual, otherworldly partitions abruptly showing all through the town making escape inconceivable, issues are wanting fairly bleak. All just isn’t misplaced, nevertheless. A surprisingly flirtatious deity offers our hero a mystical glowing alternative arm that may remodel right into a sword, and together with his finest buddy and a handful of different survivors, he decides to battle again in opposition to the denizens of evil, and perhaps, simply perhaps, discover love alongside the way in which.
It is easy to have a look at Eternights and suppose it is merely a randier model of Persona, and there are certainly similarities and it’s certainly randy. However gameplay is wildly totally different, with Eternights being extra of an motion recreation with mild RPG parts. Throughout fight encounters you may assault enemies with combos mapped to the Sq. button, and while you often occur upon a harder creature that has an elemental defend, utilizing a spell of the opposing factor will break that defend, permitting you to wail on the beast unabated.
These spells can solely be solid as soon as you have crammed the requisite meter, and also you fill that by attacking baddies or by dodging incoming assaults. The dodge timing is extremely beneficiant, and for those who do it accurately you may decelerate time for just a few seconds, which suggests you may land hits uncontested.
![Eternights Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.pushsquare.com/screenshots/139049/900x.jpg)
The preventing is not precisely difficult, however as soon as we settled right into a groove of dodging then attacking after which dodging once more, we discovered it enjoyable, if not totally difficult, all through the marketing campaign. Maybe if the sport had been longer we might have grown uninterested in it, however we noticed Eternights off in round 15 hours, and with fight situations accounting for roughly half of that point, it by no means managed to wear down its welcome. It is easy however efficient.
You’ve got at all times obtained a principal mission on the horizon, and the calendar explains how lengthy you have to full stated purpose. Throughout these missions you may battle monsters and resolve some mild puzzles earlier than in the end taking up a boss and advancing the story. Monster designs are suitably grotesque, steadily leaning into physique horror and offering greater than satisfactory fodder all through your journey.
Between principal missions you may spend your time attending to know your occasion members in addition to serving to them out by happening scavenging missions for gadgets they may want. These sections do not final lengthy, and finishing them will elevate your relationship with the character you assist out. You too can participate in minigames with every character, rewarding you with expertise that can be utilized to enhance their abilities in battle.
![Eternights Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.pushsquare.com/screenshots/139043/900x.jpg)
Some abilities are locked till you elevate your relationship degree with a personality to a sure level, and also you do this by speaking to them, serving to them, and naturally, flirting. You’ve got obtained loads of time between story missions because the dungeons can simply be accomplished in a single sitting, so that you should not really feel too dangerous about pushing aside saving the world to make goo-goo eyes on the quirky scientist in sizzling pants.
A lot of the characters are sporting outfits ill-suited to fight, it needs to be stated, however then we suppose if it is the apocalypse and also you simply occur to be sporting a schoolgirl uniform then what are you able to do? The conversations you’ve along with your new pals/love pursuits will construct up statistics like braveness or confidence, and getting these stats to the next degree is required for unlocking some later dialogues.
For those who progress your friendship with a personality sufficient it might probably flip right into a extra severe relationship, with a same-sex possibility if that is the way in which you’d favor to go. And whereas the relationship sim mechanics are a giant a part of the sport and horny jokes are the order of the day, Eternights by no means veers too far into overtly seedy territory. It is extra FHM than Razzle.
![Eternights Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.pushsquare.com/screenshots/139042/900x.jpg)
The dialog sections are elevated by snappy writing with an anarchic sense of humour. A number of the dialogue choices are genuinely humorous, and the blasé approach a few of the characters discuss concerning the absurd conditions they’ve discovered themselves in offers Eternights with an irreverent, light-hearted tone all through a lot of the early going, earlier than getting a little bit extra severe in the direction of the top.
A number of the jokes do not land, and the bawdy banter is certainly grating at occasions, however we might say there’s extra right here that made us smile slightly than groan, and in the long run we discovered the entire thing fairly charming. It needs to be famous that we had been taking part in the sport in Korean with English subtitles and so that you might need a unique expertise for those who go for the English voice work, which we discovered altogether much less interesting.
Eternights is a little bit tough across the edges graphically, and there’re some extremely questionable animations. The entire characters look downright weird after they’re operating, for instance, and typically when somebody is performing a job, the display screen will simply fade to black after which fade again in with that character in a unique place, presumably to keep away from having to animate the movement.
![Eternights Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.pushsquare.com/screenshots/139046/900x.jpg)
However regardless of the plain price range constraints, there are occasions that Eternights seems higher than it has any proper to due to intelligent use of lighting. Throughout fight, which takes place principally in darkened arenas, your glowing arm/sword and the graphical prospers that accompany assaults or a well-timed dodge conceal a large number of visible sins.
Conclusion
Eternights’ nice success is that it manages to be greater than the sum of its elements. The witty writing papers over the shakier facets of the storytelling, the slight fight is used sparingly sufficient that its flaws not often frustrate, and above all, it is obtained an simple allure regardless of its tough edges. We’re swiping proper on this one.