Not worth the time

Summary: This JRPG wants a lot of your hours but there are much better games in the genre.

This is a JRPG-style game and shares a lot in common with Final Fantasy VII through X and a million other titles. While I applaud the attempt, its exactly the wrong genre of game for an low-budcet developer to choose.

Ive played around 10 hours so far and have found some good points: some of the scenery and monster design is quite appealing. However, the voice acting is poor and often doesnt match the subtitles, the music is nothing special, and the writing is very poor. The writing bears special mention because, in a character driven story, the characters need to be realistic. In the first 5 hours or so, one of the characters knowingly confesses treason to the relative of a high-ranking official whom he had met only a few minutes prior. Rather than turn him in, she decides to join him.

JRPG games are, at the core of their gameplay, very boring. The user wanders around fetching items and fights by selecting options from a menu. Its about as exciting as doing your taxes. They make up for this, though, by rewarding the player with a fantastic story, great music, great art, etc. Basically, they are a movie stretched out over the course of 40 hours. This is fine when its an excellent movie; however, when its not a good movie, 40 hours is a lot to ask. And thats really where this game falls down: its not that it doesnt deliver good value for the dollars, its that it doesnt deliver good value for the hours. It has to compete with the plethora of high-budget, well-written, excellently scored titles on the dirt cheap PlayStation 2 ($20-$30USD for a used console and $15 for Final Fantasy X, for example).

If you are a die-hard JRPG fan that has to kill a lot of time on business trips or the bus, this game might work for you (the price is certainly low enough to give it a try) but I wouldnt recommend it for the average gamer.

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To the developer: Dont let the problems with this game stop you from exploring the genre and leveraging the technology and art you already have. Do something unusual and cut out the filler. Ill gladly sit through 10 hours of a good concept if it makes me think, even if the execution isnt perfect.

RHTBG about Eternal Legacy, v1.0.0