When it comes to JRPGs, it’s hard to not honor some of the biggest franchises that have graced the world. It’s no secret that there also have been so many that have tried to capture some of that grandiose scale and wonder as well. As an avid fan of JRPGs in general I was recently intrigued by a rather promising JRPG that surprisingly comes from a very small studio. It’s apparent that Midgar Studio clearly has a fond love that a lot of us share for Final Fantasy so when I sat down to play Edge of Eternity for PC I couldn’t wait to see what was in store.

The story of Edge of Eternity follows the conflicts between an invading robotic alien force and the native inhabitants of Heryon. As the war raged on the invaders struck Heryon with a fatal disease called the Corrosion. After the opening act, our protagonists and siblings Daryon and Selene seek out the rumored cure that could save Heryon and its afflicted inhabitants. There is something about the whole devastating alien robots versus folks with magic and swords premise that comes off as an underdog story but it’s an age old classic and one many a RPG is founded on.

While Heryon is quite beautiful visually there are the underlying realities of war where young women and men are conscripted in a desperate attempt to win by numbers. Our idealistic Daryon has decided to change his fate and seek out another in a world that desperately needs a miracle. Of course there’s bound to be some opposition so what better way to do that with some strategy based combat.

Edge of Eternity utilizes hexagonal grids with rather large cells to accommodate a varying degree of enemy types including towering robotic ones. At first I thought that they were oddly oversized until I found out that you can have more than one party member in a cell at a time. Usually you can’t do this as the battle grids are made of much smaller grid patterns allowing for a single character. It was actually nice to see a different approach from a strategy RPG. One such reason for sharing a space is to get out of the way of an uninterruptible attack made known in advance with a lock icon on their ATB (or Active Time Battle) bar.

A majority of your party’s attacks will happen very fast with the only delay coming from when their turn comes around. However certain attacks such as spells like ones you see very early on take time to cast. On the opposite side of the attack coin some of these are interruptible which resets their casting time. This means that character positioning in Edge of Eternity is equally if not more important than what attacks to use and when. Attacking your foes from different angles like from behind can give you that much needed edge.

Unlike most strategy RPGs though I found that each battle did take a degree of strategy and you aren’t going to be burning though each fight in a desire to boost, not only your party member’s levels, but those of their weapons. While any given weapon’s levels by no means hits Disgaea’s meteoric proportions there is a bit of depth there as well. Each weapon is complete with their own skill trees which gain you skills and even spells. By placing different crystals, something that Heryon seems to be in no shortage of, you can gain different effects and bonuses to damages for instance. For those that really dig the finer details of damage output and resistances there’s room to play there.

Considering the roots behind Edge of Eternity’s creation, I’m really impressed with the level of detail found in Heryon’s world. When not in combat you get to explore the various locations that make up this world.  You will encounter various enemy wildlife patrols as well as you explore them on foot or with your fluffy steed. The inevitable glowing resources from the world are key to the somewhat interesting crafting system. Full disclosure though, as crafting has never been my finest endeavors in the RPG genre as a whole but it varies from title to title. One small detail that I absolutely loved is that outside of chests you can pick-up any resource while still mounted on a Nekaroo. I know that’s a seemingly small feature but it’s a major one for someone like me who’s harvested their fair share of materials in MMOs.

Despite my mixed success at the crafting mechanics there were some issues such as lip sync and some awkward running/stepping in place animations that are noticeable even from the early acts of the story. That said it’s impossible to not love the Nekaroo, one of the cutest mounts I’ve ever seen this side of a Chocobo, and that’s saying something from someone that’s spent a LOT of time with MMOs over the years.

For me the RPG genre is full of stories to be experienced and Edge of Eternity definitely is full of mystery, charm and prophecy to fill an RPG fans checklist. This is a story of war, sickness and inevitably death but along the way you fall in love with the beautiful locales, the heart of its characters and the great score. The love that Midgar has for their inspirations shows and despite being a small studio has created something that is full of heart and well worth Nekaroo ride.

MORE SCREENS

It’s not often you come across a game that raises a brow by its mere suggestive name. For me it wasn’t just because of the title, but rather my intrigue of its promise of darker things in the veins of Beksiński, Giger and Lovecraft. As horror stylings go those are some rather big names to draw inspiration from so I couldn’t wait to see what Lust from Beyond on PC had in store for me.

It should be said that Lust from Beyond, like its predecessor Lust for Darkness, should not be considered for the viewers under the age of 18 so fair warning. You are actually given an option to censor anything considered sexual into pixilation every time you load up the game but that takes away from the intended vision in my opinion.

As luck would have it I’d already experienced Darkness prior to playing this new adventure so I had some idea of what to expect. Though I have to say that the gameplay experience I engaged in with Lust from Beyond was quite a bit improved since Darkness’s release in 2018. It’s clear that the developers really dove deeper to polish their crafted vision here as you assume the role of Victor Holloway.

You see Victor, when not apparently hunting down desired treasures and artifacts, is haunted by dreams of a dark and twisted world whose denizens seek to harm him. One of these nightmarescapes causes him to panic and lash out against someone he cares about. It seems that Victor has a few issues and rather reluctantly seeks out the help of a Doctor Austerlitz at love interest Lily’s suggestion. Of course this means traveling to the beyond creepy town of Bleakmoor which despite the name looks like a very suggestively themed hotspot version of New Orleans. While this isn’t Innsmouth there is still something very off behind the façade of neon.

Even this Lovecraftian creepy town is nothing compared to the alien world of Lusst’ghaa which is inspired in a wonderful mix of both the late Giger and Beksinski works. The wonderfully created worlds here in Lust From Beyond capture the organic alien look so well I’d almost say Giger had a hand in this too if it were possible. It was also oddly pleasing to see how much of Polish artist Beksiński’s style was found throughout many of the statues and other elements throughout my adventure.

You’ll be able to better appreciate the polish found in Lust from Beyond as it is presented in a first person perspective much like Darkness was. As you spend much of your time going back and forth from Bleakmoor to Lusst’ghaa you’ll be interacting with the world much like in any modern adventure title. Beyond uses a rather fluid mouse click hold and drag interface to interact with items like doors, drawers and levers which worked pretty well. The one minor issue I had was with the quick time events as I felt they were a little unclear on their purposed input requirement.

The rest of the time you will go into pure adventure mode as you click on everything of interest when close enough. While you can actually interact and inspect a fair bit of items many are there for show, adding a bit of personality and depth to the world. Any item of significance can be added to your inventory some which are interestingly questionable. In true adventure fashion there are a mix of puzzles that you have to progress. While some of the solutions are practically handed to you nearby others will take a little digging, as you are only presented with a partial solution. These later puzzles offered me the most enjoyment as a fan of adventure games growing up. I also rather enjoyed the “essence” mechanic used to aid you in subverting your enemy’s attempts to keep you from your goals. You can use essence by creating light beacons and even path across otherwise unpassable pits to draw them far enough away to complete whatever your goal is especially if you lack means of defense.

You are actually told early on that stealth or straight up running from your enemies are your best chances for survival especially in Lusst’ghaa. Lust from Beyond however doesn’t leave you completely defenseless though as you gain access to a knife and even a revolver throughout the adventure. Of course the latter option has a limited ammo supply so while it’s often enough to get rid of your problems easily you’ll want to save it for when you really need it. One such need for it is the bosses that you will encounter throughout the story. I was actually surprised at this discovery as it added moments of more serious danger compared to the more manageable entities. You can actually take damage throughout the game with few means to restore health such as daises found in key locations.

There is another type of damage you can sustain in Lust from Beyond though that plays to Lovecraftian strengths. At certain events and cues present themselves Victor will take a hit to his sanity meter. There are pills you can take if you’ve found any that will restore this meter a little at a time. However taking in too much horror will have devastating effects including making you disoriented, messing with your controls or worse. Several of Lovecraft’s mainstay elements are in place pretty much from the very start including a primeval deity and occultism.

While Giger and Beksiński’s inspirational presence in Lust from Beyond is a visceral visual presentation it takes Lovecraftian influence to showcase the horrific side to carnal desire and ecstasy. It does so in a real and cosmic sense in the well scripted narrative. That’s an even more twisted thought considering Lovecraft’s aversion to anything sexual in his actual works. Yet despite considering that knowledge, Lust from Beyond manages to elevate itself above its predecessor with a deeper crafted narrative, more detailed environments and refined gameplay that I thoroughly enjoyed.

That’s a good thing too as there is incentive enough to play it again to see the repercussions of the other choices you didn’t make throughout this tale. Of course I couldn’t pass up another opportunity to take in the visuals and sound work that went into crafting the environments and atmosphere as the real world was often just as creepy as the twisted landscape of Lusst’ghaa. If you love the works of Giger, Beksiński and Lovecraft then you have to check out this beautifully crafted dark tale of erotic desire, fear and horror with Lust from Beyond available now on PC.

If anything can be said about the past year is that we’ve all been dealt varying degrees of fortune or misfortune. But as many press on through these times, we find ways to move on and make choices that keep up safe right now. Well it so happens I had the pleasure to experience a game where choices can change the very story of Ivan, the one-handed blacksmith with incredibly bad luck, in the Slavic inspired action adventure Yaga for PC.

Yaga right off the bat has a storybook feel to it similar to Grimm especially when you start controlling Ivan as he recants his tale of how he loses his arm to Likho. For those unfamiliar to Slavic mythology, Likho is the embodiment of evil fate and misfortune and in this case is the source of Ivan’s bad luck. His only saving grace was the intervention of another classic Slavic legend, Baba Yaga. Yes the titular supernatural being herself is up to her own schemes with Ivan being the center of it after being slighted by the Tzar.

After that you are sent away to find Strength beyond Measure by the Tzar to keep him far away from his kingdom. This is to avoid having his kingdom ruined as he can’t outright kill Ivan himself according to Yaga’s curse. I love how much of the spoken story narrative is in part told in charming rhymes. Conversation and more importantly your choices do play into how Ivan’s personality and reputation is seen. This even plays into what happens in Ivan’s story and the upgrades you can choose throughout.

While you don’t have a lot of options at first you will soon earn materials like ore, enhancements and runes along other blueprints to make things along the way. Breadcrumbs did a great job of making this crafting feature not only easy to use but also a very important aspect of the game. I’m normally not one for crafting in games in general but here it’s actually fun to create and experiment with the different combinations to suit your needs and playstyle. This also where you will create new weapons and tools when you’re others break and they will.

But crafting is only part of the adventure as you’ll be fighting your way through much of the story, or not depending on choices, along the way. The basic combat formula is here with the left mouse click acting as your primary attack and the right click is used to throw your hammer like Thor himself. If Thor was a blacksmith that is. The combat is pretty limited but it is solid with just enough strategy to still be fun.

When you create tools like the Cartwheel shield from random items in the world you can then use them with the Shift key to block enemy attacks and even parry them if your timing is right. One of my favorites is the chain and pitchfork that you combine to create a grappling hook. Not only is it useful and needed for getting to out-of-reach places but it’s great for avoiding enemy attacks like bosses.

The combat animations as well as Ivan’s normal movements fit right into the humble, if out of his league, hero as he sort of haphazardly roams through many of the locales.  It kind of tells that Ivan knows he’s been given an unlikely achievable goal but damn if he isn’t going to try. It’s charming and somehow fits right into the absolutely unexpected banger of a soundtrack done by Romanian hip-hop group Subcarpati. I have to say if you’re going to roaming around procedurally generated maps while attempting to complete quests there is no better music than folklore inspired music such as this. You can actually buy the soundtrack and game together or separately if you choose which is nice because I like the music a lot.

Just like with the music Yaga features a lot of detail when it comes to the world as a whole. Each location you visit is unique with its own elements that make you want to explore. I love that while this story is largely based upon Slavic folklore there are other cultures sprinkled throughout like the Maneki-neko inspired cat that Ivan’s babushka carries around. Speaking of details I heavily enjoy the effect that choices have on the game as a whole.

When leaving for mission areas you not only get to choose were you’re going if multiple quests are in progress but what day it is when you head there. Each day choice carries with it a modifier of sorts such as increased fortune or attack damage. If you fall in battle however and wish to retry the area the map is reset and that day option is removed from the options. You also suffer a penalty such as lost items which hurts if you happen to lose your strongest gear.

That’s why crafting is so important in Yaga. You may have to craft more gear whenever you find a forge to do so. This does give you the opportunity to plan ahead a little to craft better weapons and even tools to better suit the occasion such as weapons that inflict more damage to unclean foes. In a nice touch the materials you use also change the look of Ivan’s hammer to signify the effect they are imbued with like the above example makes your hammer look like a Crusader Cross of sorts.

Yaga is not without its challenges despite a fairly simple combat system. This is largely due to the Bad Luck mechanic at the heart of the story. For the most part it’s a pretty manageable feature depending on your choices of course. But at times if things get bad Likho can straight bugger things up for you including stealing your money, disarming you (your weapons only this time) and even breaking your weapons in the middle of a fight. To say the least this can be frustrating and almost unfair particularly in endgame. But that’s the whole point really. You define the story based on your choices and outside of certain moments it all comes down to YOUR actions no matter what difficulty you choose to embark on.

Even with that in mind Yaga was an absolute blast to play. I love games that take choices and make them have a real impact on a story or the character or in case both. For me a lot of little pieces clicked for me from the awesome score right down to the storybook elements and the spoken dialogue. So if you like folklore, storybook adventures and choices that matter you have to check out Yaga available now for PC.

Screenshot Gallery

[carousel arrows=”display”]
[panel][/panel]
[panel][/panel]
[panel][/panel]
[panel][/panel]
[panel][/panel]
[panel][/panel]
[/carousel]