Eternal Poison is unlike many other games I've played in that it doesn't even try to be more than what it is. Atlus wanted an anime game with Gothic elements that'd hopefully be cheap to localize and would appeal to both the Hot Topic and Gamestop crowds, so that's exactly what it is. On the bright side, based on my (limited) experience with it, it didn't turn out quite as badly as I thought it would.
The game opens with a Prologue scenario where you control main character Thage ("Tage", a girl in traditional Goth garb who is apparently fourteen?) and her companion, a horned wolf named Rakim as they beat the everloving shit out of a few Majin - the demons that you can turn into money, if you recall. The combat system is very simple. Characters get turns in varying order based on their Speed stat, and each turn a character can move and take one action, be that casting a spell, attacking, or capturing a Majin (more on that later, as it's pretty much the only thing that sets Eternal Poison apart from your typical SRPG)
Thage is a spellcaster, Raki is a melee fighter, and the enemies in the Prologue scenario are all weak to at least one form of their attacks (Thage has Fire and Dark, Raki has Slash and Pierce), so it's not hard to wipe the floor with their asses. The interesting thing is that it's not enough to just kill an enemy. Each Majin has an Overkill rate - if you manage to kill the Majin by getting rid of all their HP PLUS this Overkill amount, the Majin doesn't die; instead, it's Bound, stuck in place by a giant cross spear thing. From then on, any non-Majin character that stands next to it can Capture it, basically sealing it in a giant book for later use in town.
That's basically all there is to it. You beat on Majin with attacks they're not weak to until you get them down to 10HP or thereabouts, then use an attack aimed at their weakness to Bind and Capture them. There's a few other things. Combo attacks, for instance, are available and do the combined damage of each character involved in the combo. This would normally be a waste of time to set up, but the sum damage could be the difference between a bind and just a kill.
Once the Prologue is over, you can move on to the main game. After some background exposition - there's a kingdom, the princess has been kidnapped by Majin, a gate to the Majin's home of Besek has appeared, the King says that anyone who goes in and finds the princess gets anything they want - you're given the option of choosing between three potential parties. I chose the one led by Thage since I was used to her from the Prologue; the others are led by the Princess' fiancee and a priestess.
Thage, as it turns out, is after the Eternal Poison, which is a magical treasure that does...uh...something. They haven't said what it does yet, but we DO know that it's somewhere in Besek, so Thage and Raki are in there looking for it. Thage magically enslaves some kid for some reason with magic, the kid spends the next three missions whining about it and also dying to Majin because he's terrible. One of the things I noticed about this game is that every character but Thage and Raki has absolutely atrocious magic defense, and every Majin except the basic Egyptian jackal things can attack with magic. In other words, everyone but Thage and Raki gets their shit fucked up on a regular basis. There's game balance for you.
Next time I'll write about town and what you do with those captured demons, also why this game is hard as a motherfuck.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Eternal Poison Teaser Trailer
Judging by the Atlus USA teaser trailer for Eternal Poison, found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vH_98HfJzs, my guesses about it making little to no splash at all would seem pretty accurate. It doesn't seem to have any thematic elements that other, similar, most likely better games don't, so I'm expecting a nice big wad of mediocrity. I do wish there was some gameplay footage, but no dice there, and I'm not going to go actively search for any.
I will say that the blonde Gothic girl that seems to be the game's main character looks pretty goddamn creepy, so there's that. It's not even in a stylistic way, it's just that her eyes are way too big for her head. Maybe I'm getting too old for Japanese RPGs if I'm noticing stuff like that.
I will say that the blonde Gothic girl that seems to be the game's main character looks pretty goddamn creepy, so there's that. It's not even in a stylistic way, it's just that her eyes are way too big for her head. Maybe I'm getting too old for Japanese RPGs if I'm noticing stuff like that.
Monday, November 10, 2008
What I know
As part of working on this blog, I've resolved to not read any comments, reviews, forum posts, articles, or anything else relating to this game. I'm going into it blind, in other words, and this blog will be based off a blind playthrough of the game. However, when I preordered Eternal Poison, I ended up learning a little bit about it via EBGames' promotional info and the art book that came with the pre-order. Let's take a look at the former.
Laden with Gothic themes, this mysterious strategy RPG for PS2 is full of interesting characters, daunting locations, and a fantastic quest spanning 5 long episodes. With tremendous production values, allowing for cinema-quality CG cutscenes and extensive voice work, and a tried-and-true strategy RPG mechanic with the added novelty of demon-collection, Eternal Poison blends tradition with innovation to provide gamers a surprisingly familiar yet equally new experience.
This is the gaming version of PR bullshit and tells us nearly nothing of consequence. The only really interesting point here is the demon collection bit. Let's take a look at the bullets under "Expanded Information" on EBGames.
Five stories in one—Walk the winding paths of five different characters, each in search of the legendary Eternal Poison. Select a hero to begin the first tale, and chart each course carefully, as your actions will be the difference between joyous triumph and bitter failure.
First off, this sort of intertwining-story mechanic can be either a blessing or a curse, and in the case of a strategy-RPG I get the feeling that it'll mean five times the level grinding. We're already off to a great start. We also discover that the titular poison is some sort of legendary treasure or such. We'll assume for the time being that it's actual poison, because that leads to the interesting question of why exactly it's legendary and why people are looking for it:
Villager A: You hear about that Eternal Poison? Word on the street is that it'll fucking kill you.
Villager B: Poison does tend to do that, what's the big deal?
Villager A: This shit'll REALLY kill you.
Villager B: Guess we'd better tell the rest of the villagers then! Alert the local adventurers, there's asbestos somewhere in that terrible monster-filled dungeon and they need to find it post haste!
Villager A: Should we post a request on the tavern message board in the hopes that someone will eventually take care of it for us?
Villager B: God yes!
More likely it's a gem or magic sword or something, but let me keep my dreams. I particularly like the "bitter failure" bit; it's like it's comparing the trip back to the load screen with watching your trench buddies get cut down by Viet Cong bullets, and that takes guts. You had to carry your pals' rotting corpses back to base for a proper burial amidst a searing hail of gunfire? Pussy. I had to reload from the start of episode two.
Capture and collect demons—All demons can be exploited, and so every battle offers the intriguing choice of bind or kill. Bound demons can be summoned to fight alongside you or add skills to weapons, as well as create items or being turned into money.
This is pretty insensitive to demons, if you ask me. Millions of demons are exploited every day. Some are even turned into money. It's not really a laughing matter.
Gorgeous dark fantasy world—Step into a twisted fairy tale world of black magic, white magic, and a search for the ultimate treasure. The kidnapping of a princess draws heroes together with unexpected villains and over 100 monsters in a world as rich in beauty as it is corruption.
It's probably a good thing that there's over 100 monsters seeing as they can apparently be turned into money and I'm sure that's quite the racket. The rest of it's mostly fluff like kidnapped princesses, twisted fairy tales, and ultimate treasures, though I like the game's adherence to the 1966 Magic Diversity Act.
To summarize:
*It's a strategy-RPG.
*There's five different characters, and I'd almost guaruntee they don't share levels, so you'll have to level all of them up seperately. It's five times the game!
*You can exploit demons, then turn them into money. Feel free to throw in some prostitution jokes here.
*The world is as rich in beauty as it is in corruption. Add another prostitution joke.
Tune in next time when we look at that art book that I'll hopefully have scanned by then or that we'll imagine I've scanned even though I haven't.
Laden with Gothic themes, this mysterious strategy RPG for PS2 is full of interesting characters, daunting locations, and a fantastic quest spanning 5 long episodes. With tremendous production values, allowing for cinema-quality CG cutscenes and extensive voice work, and a tried-and-true strategy RPG mechanic with the added novelty of demon-collection, Eternal Poison blends tradition with innovation to provide gamers a surprisingly familiar yet equally new experience.
This is the gaming version of PR bullshit and tells us nearly nothing of consequence. The only really interesting point here is the demon collection bit. Let's take a look at the bullets under "Expanded Information" on EBGames.
Five stories in one—Walk the winding paths of five different characters, each in search of the legendary Eternal Poison. Select a hero to begin the first tale, and chart each course carefully, as your actions will be the difference between joyous triumph and bitter failure.
First off, this sort of intertwining-story mechanic can be either a blessing or a curse, and in the case of a strategy-RPG I get the feeling that it'll mean five times the level grinding. We're already off to a great start. We also discover that the titular poison is some sort of legendary treasure or such. We'll assume for the time being that it's actual poison, because that leads to the interesting question of why exactly it's legendary and why people are looking for it:
Villager A: You hear about that Eternal Poison? Word on the street is that it'll fucking kill you.
Villager B: Poison does tend to do that, what's the big deal?
Villager A: This shit'll REALLY kill you.
Villager B: Guess we'd better tell the rest of the villagers then! Alert the local adventurers, there's asbestos somewhere in that terrible monster-filled dungeon and they need to find it post haste!
Villager A: Should we post a request on the tavern message board in the hopes that someone will eventually take care of it for us?
Villager B: God yes!
More likely it's a gem or magic sword or something, but let me keep my dreams. I particularly like the "bitter failure" bit; it's like it's comparing the trip back to the load screen with watching your trench buddies get cut down by Viet Cong bullets, and that takes guts. You had to carry your pals' rotting corpses back to base for a proper burial amidst a searing hail of gunfire? Pussy. I had to reload from the start of episode two.
Capture and collect demons—All demons can be exploited, and so every battle offers the intriguing choice of bind or kill. Bound demons can be summoned to fight alongside you or add skills to weapons, as well as create items or being turned into money.
This is pretty insensitive to demons, if you ask me. Millions of demons are exploited every day. Some are even turned into money. It's not really a laughing matter.
Gorgeous dark fantasy world—Step into a twisted fairy tale world of black magic, white magic, and a search for the ultimate treasure. The kidnapping of a princess draws heroes together with unexpected villains and over 100 monsters in a world as rich in beauty as it is corruption.
It's probably a good thing that there's over 100 monsters seeing as they can apparently be turned into money and I'm sure that's quite the racket. The rest of it's mostly fluff like kidnapped princesses, twisted fairy tales, and ultimate treasures, though I like the game's adherence to the 1966 Magic Diversity Act.
To summarize:
*It's a strategy-RPG.
*There's five different characters, and I'd almost guaruntee they don't share levels, so you'll have to level all of them up seperately. It's five times the game!
*You can exploit demons, then turn them into money. Feel free to throw in some prostitution jokes here.
*The world is as rich in beauty as it is in corruption. Add another prostitution joke.
Tune in next time when we look at that art book that I'll hopefully have scanned by then or that we'll imagine I've scanned even though I haven't.
What is this?
Eternal Poison (Poison Pink was the title of the Japanese version) is a PlayStation2 strategy-RPG released by Atlus on 11/11/08. It's got decent graphics, as most PS2 games do; it uses a tile-based system similar to the Disgaea series of strategy-RPGs and apparently includes some Pokemon-esque collection elements. It's also got some very nice gothic-inspired art, which is what caught my interest in the first place.
Generally speaking, though, it's almost entirely unremarkable. I don't think it's going to change the gaming landscape - in fact, I really don't think it's going to make any sort of splash at all. I see lots and lots of reviews in the 5.o-6.0 range in Eternal Poison's future shortly after being released, and I'd wager money on at least one reviewer calling it unoriginal, unimpressive, too difficult, or a bore. It's an Atlus game, after all.
I'm not sure, then, why I've decided to make it my favorite game and play nothing else from the day it's released to the day I finish it. Likewise, I'm not sure why I'm going to write about it as I play it, much less include screenshots and video. Whether I know why I'm doing it or not, though, that's the plan, and that's what this blog is for. Feel free to follow along, whether you're one of the five other people in the world who plans to purchase this game or just an interested (disgusted? bored?) bystander. Hopefully we'll have a good time! More likely, I'll have an overwhelmingly mediocre time that'll be made a bit more fun via blogging about it, and all of you will have a good time.
Generally speaking, though, it's almost entirely unremarkable. I don't think it's going to change the gaming landscape - in fact, I really don't think it's going to make any sort of splash at all. I see lots and lots of reviews in the 5.o-6.0 range in Eternal Poison's future shortly after being released, and I'd wager money on at least one reviewer calling it unoriginal, unimpressive, too difficult, or a bore. It's an Atlus game, after all.
I'm not sure, then, why I've decided to make it my favorite game and play nothing else from the day it's released to the day I finish it. Likewise, I'm not sure why I'm going to write about it as I play it, much less include screenshots and video. Whether I know why I'm doing it or not, though, that's the plan, and that's what this blog is for. Feel free to follow along, whether you're one of the five other people in the world who plans to purchase this game or just an interested (disgusted? bored?) bystander. Hopefully we'll have a good time! More likely, I'll have an overwhelmingly mediocre time that'll be made a bit more fun via blogging about it, and all of you will have a good time.
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