Shovel-ware At Its Most Boring (Eternal Eyes (PS))

Member Name: Guile176

Product:	Eternal Eyes (PS)
Date:	29/04/03 (243 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Only $10

Disadvantages: Too easy, Boring as can be

Strategy games have been a long time favorite genre of mines. From
turn based classics such as Shining Force and Iron Storm, to real
time games such as the Command and Conquer series. There's nothing
like the feeling of building up a mighty force and taking it out on
the battlefield to wreak havoc on your foes. Two months back I
discovered a game called Eternal Eyes at a Circuit City store.
Previously I hadn't really seen much on this title except a scant
few pictures in some older gaming magazines I have. But it was on
sale for a mere $5 and it was a turn based strategy game. How bad
could it be? I was about to find out.

Eternal Eyes puts you in the role of a young boy named Luke. Luke is
blessed with a gift, which allow him to give life to and control
puppets. Along the way Luke learns to better use his gift and the
whole thing eventually falls into your typical RPG fantasy plot with
evil goddesses and lots of monsters. In it all your the worlds last
hope in all the chaos. Now I know that that's a pretty basic summery
of things but I won't ruin it for anyone since the storyline is
about the only thing worth playing this title for past the first
hour or two. Unfortunately that's not saying much either since in no
time, the plot and all the characters in the game will probably bore
the life out of you.

Now the story may suck but how is the gameplay? Sadly the gameplay
sucks too. Think another turn based strategy RPG like Final Fantasy
Tactics. Now cut the graphics and sound in have, take away 95% of
the strategy element, and
there you have Eternal Eyes.

Gone from other similar strategy titles is the sense of building a
massive army. In Eternal Eyes the only humanoid character you can
use is Luke. The rest are simple puppets which you can only bring 2
of. These puppets can evolve into different forms and learn
different magic's (or increase stats) depending on which types of
items you give it. However as cool as this little monster making and
evolution thing may sound, it's not. Its boring. Maybe its just me
but pretty much every evolved form these puppets take feels the
same. To top it all off, these puppets are incredibly stupid
looking.

The overall gameplay is incredibly simplistic and easy. There seems
to be no real strategic element required for winning battles. The
terrain ranges from castles to caves but every map totally feels the
same. I never once had to alter my tactics drastically in order to
beat a map. In fact I never lost a single character through the
whole game. Never once in the entire game did I either feel
challenged in anyway or like I was doing something new. The battles
you fight in the beginning of the game pretty much feel no different
then the ones near the end. I just can't stress in words how generic
the entire thing feels.



Graphics 6: Graphics are pretty decent for the most part and they do
get the job done. However, that's about all they are is decent. Like
the rest of the game they feel rather generic. Color is nice and
some of the textures are pretty good, but the whole thing just looks
bland. Anim
ation is choppy and like I said, the maps are very small.
Then there's the spell effects. One would think that for a game that
was released long after the likes of titles like Final Fantasy 7 and
Shining Force 3, they would be able to get some halfway decent spell
effects in here. Sadly like everything else in the game, that
remains disappointing too. Most spells resemble nothing more then
colored light.

It amazes me that 6-7 years after the PS1's launch, that developers
are still producing titles which resemble 1st generation games. Have
they no nerve?


Sound 4: One word best suites the sound in Eternal Eyes. BORING!
Boring and instantly forgettable music and bland sound effect. There
is honestly nothing really good to say about the sound in this game.
I've heard worse but that still doesn't change the fact that what's
here is boring. It's best to play this one with your own music
cranking out a stereo or headphones. Trust me, you won't be missing
a thing.


Control 8: Well, fortunately the control is pretty good. Kind of
tough to screw it up in a turn based strategy game. Control is
overall pretty simplistic and easy to learn. It shouldn't take even
the worse gamers more then 10-15 minutes to get used to everything.


Overall Eternal Eyes is a pretty poor game. Even if this was a first
generation title then i'd still feel the same about it. The whole
thing is just put together with a very generic and unprofessional
feel. It feels more like a title that an amateur programmer on a Net

Yarazou (a different model PS1 made for the public to produce PS1
games) would have developed. Still, there's no excuse here. And no
just because this was released as a $10 budget title is no excuse
either. In fact, I believe this was developed originally as a full
price title over in Japan. If your interested in this then by all
means get it. You may find something in it to enjoy that I didn't.
If not then you've only lost $10. Still I have a hard time
recommending it, even at that price. The simple fact is that, you
can go into most stores and pick up a much better used title for the
same price. In fact i've seen many quality new titles for only $10.
Sorry but I really can't recommend this one at all.

Summary: