Developer: Tamsoft Publisher: Midas Release: 05/21/04 Genre: RPG
The Simple 1500 series of games has always fascinated me. Dating back as far as the PS One these smaller titles spanned every genre and ranged in complexity, from otherwise full blown titles sold at a budget price to smaller games with a unique hook that might not warrant full price. While the series largely skipped the US European publishers like Midas localized many of the games. There are some gems but I would not lump Eternal Quest in that bunch. As a roguelike Eternal Quest is pretty decent but its simplicity prevents it from true greatness.
The war between the Shogun Kagetora and the Realm King Higul has left the land ravaged, with evil spirits roaming the land. These spirits congregate in a shrine near Jinuma village and being plaguing the villagers there. The shogun summons the warrior Gyokuro to enter the shrine and defeat the spirits within to restore peace to the land.
The goal of the game is simple, make your way down to the 50th floor of the dungeon and defeat the leader of the demons encroaching on the land. Eternal Quest follows all of the typical conventions of the genre. Each floor is randomized, from its layout and enemies to its loot. Every time you move the enemies move as well, a fact that you can take advantage when it comes to positioning or gaining the first attack. If you die you are sent back to the first floor with none of the items you have found which is soul crushing. You start with Bell of Maria which can warp you back to avoid this but while you keep your items you must start the journey over again. This is the epitome of the genre as there are no towns or NPCs, just you and an ever expanding maze.
Combat is both simple and complex. Depending on the weapon you can only attack in one direction or hit multiple enemies simultaneously. Thrusting weapons like the spear for instance are long enough to cover two spaces. Forked weapons attack in an arc and can hit three enemies at once. The rare hundred weapons can hit five (!) enemies but chances are you will never see that many. The only form of magic is talismans that use health to perform AOE attacks and the jewel that powers up as you defeat enemies. The more jewel power the larger the area of effect which can be a life saver in a pinch. As I said before the general gameplay is simple but there are mechanics that are not explained that give the game depth.
Normally you would horde healing items until necessary. But the generous HP regeneration makes that irrelevant. In addition using healing spheres at max health increases your maximum HP a few points. With your inventory limited to 24 slots it is better to use them as soon as possible to boost your stats.
Speaking of stats like any good roguelike Eternal Quest has many varied debilitating status effects. These range from plague which saps health massively to hesitant which reduces attack power by 20%. There are 11 total and you can be afflicted by many at once. Normally these can potentially cripple your run. But Eternal Quest has a reverse condition system. Certain items like insane monk notes will reverse a negative condition so that it benefits you. Doom cuts your HP in half but reversing it boosts it instead. Where you would normally dread the plague with this system you will recover massive chunks of health with every step. If you have four or more ailments and reverse them all you can potentially break the game. This system is the best in the game and it is shocking that even the manual does not explain it.
As with any roguelike your experience will vary. Early on it is tough as you desperately search for weapons and armor. But if you exploit the systems in the game you can make the game much…..simpler. I reversed the plague early in my run and felt nearly unstoppable briefly. But my old equipment became cursed on floor 8 and I did not find an uncurse book until floor 26. That meant I was stuck with beginner gear against increasingly powerful foes that tore through my armor. But once I was able to deal with that and reversed the insane condition for a massive defense and attack boost along with plague for HP regen I was practically invincible. Even the final boss was trivial. Playing around with the various hidden systems helps alleviate some of the game’s flaws but not completely.
As engaging as all the various systems can be the dungeon experience lets it down. Eternal Quest suffers because it is exactly what it is, a Simple dungeon crawler. Even though there are fifty floors in the main quest there are only six or seven floor themes. They are random but you will see palette swaps in short order. The worst is the enemy variety, or lack thereof. There are only six enemy types in the entire game which grows old fast. The game tries to vary them by giving them different classes like a summoning mage, fire master, ice user, etc. But it does little to hide the fact you are fighting the same monsters every floor. As much as I enjoyed the mechanics I began to struggle staying interested until the game’s conclusion. The game lives up to Japanese namesake and suffers for it.
In Closing
Eternal Quest can be fun. You have a lot of options in terms of how you tackle the game. But everything surrounding the game’s play mechanics will let you down. I am disappointed as the game had the potential to be better. But I suppose you get what you paid for.
