Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time And Space Review: A Must-Have On-The-Go JRPG

Another Eden is a nostalgic venture into classic JRPG tactics combined with beautiful art, well-written characters, an engaging narrative.

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Quality JRPGs and mobile gaming are two things that may not typically go together, but Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space is the exception. Created by the legendary Masato Kato (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Final Fantasy XI), the game is a gamechanger in the mobile gaming genre. Another Eden is a nostalgic venture into classic JRPG tactics combined with beautiful art and well-written characters, all driven by a compelling and engaging narrative-driven story.

Let’s Travel Across Time And Space!

Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space tells the story of a young boy named Aldo, who finds himself caught up in an epic adventure after his sister Feinne is kidnapped by the evil Beast King. Aldo sets forth to get his sister back, but soon finds himself journeying through the time-space continuum to save Feinne and the entire universe.

At its core, Another Eden has everything you could want in a JRPG. Firstly, the graphics and animations. Another Eden has opted for a two-dimensional side-scrolling design, which flows seamlessly from each location to the next. The game rarely pauses to load screens, and running from location to location is as seamless as if it were an open world.

Speaking of the open world, the artwork in the game is gorgeous. Rich with colors and depth, each new world looks stunning; and combined with the game’s epic store, feels unique and special.

Another Eden stands out from other mobile RPGs by focusing on character development in lieu of fighting, PvP mechanics, or gacha microtransactions (we’ll talk about that later). The first few chapters focus on introducing the characters and establishing who they are, rather than jumping straight into battles. It’s a refreshing departure from the typical mobile fighting game, and illustrates the amount of care and thought that has gone into the writing. While the characters are two-dimensional like the scenery, they’re adorably animated with specific movements to react to other NPCs in the game, giving everyone a more active feel.

And the writing! While Another Eden does offer side adventures, the game predominately focuses on one main story making it solely narrative-driven. It feels like a real RPG, with no gimmicks or distractions in the way. It utilizes turn-based combat, with enemies growing in difficulty as you progress through the game.

While Another Eden is not immune to the gacha-trap many mobile games have succumbed to, the feature is so underpromoted and unnecessary to the story that you honestly might even forget that it’s there (I certainly did). Yes, you can spend extra money to purchase “Chronos Stones” to unlock new characters, but it’s definitely not needed.

As you progress through the game naturally, you’ll unlock new characters to add to your party. At no point during the game’s 26 chapters will you be required to spend a penny to move forward. Sure, maybe you’ll be tempted after losing to a boss a couple of times and want to take a chance on a new party member, and it’s nice that Another Eden has that option, but you don’t need it. The game definitely doesn’t try to force it on you either.

Finally, the collaboration side story. Another Eden currently offers one side story – which you can play independently of the main story – entitled, Bound Wills and the Hollow Puppeteer, which features the famous Phantom Thieves from Persona 5. Yes, you’ll need to complete parts of the main story to unlock it, but boy, is it cute and a whole lot of fun.

An Epic Adventure… On Your Smartphone

Truthfully, my biggest problem with Another Eden is that it’s a mobile game. It feels like a waste for a game with such beautiful graphics and an epic story to be regulated to something like a smartphone. While mobile games are nothing to scoff at, I was disappointed that I was unable to experience the battles and dialogue on my TV screen with my thumbs out of the way and using a real controller to run around and fight monsters.

One note: if you’re a casual mobile gamer who’s looking for something to play during train commutes or waiting in the doctor’s office, this isn’t the game for you. I remember spending at least five minutes in each new location just to talk to every NPC and explore every house and shop, before even continuing on with the main story. Five minutes may not seem like a lot of time, but during a twenty-minute train ride when there are multiple new locations to explore one after the other, there were times I spent my entire commute without really advancing the story.

Which brings me to my other main con with this game: the lack of manual saving. Another Eden autosaves after every battle, every major conversation, and after every cutscene. These autosaves are quite frequent, so in theory, it shouldn’t be an issue. But as a mobile game, one that I played on the subway or in waiting rooms, sometimes I was unable to save when I suddenly had to cut my playthrough short.

Supposedly, there are plans in the works to port Another Eden to the Nintendo Switch, so perhaps my qualms will be for naught in the near future. Until then, if you’re in the mood for some quality JRPG fun and the least aggressive gacha microtransactions you’ll probably ever encounter in a mobile game, Another Eden is the app for you.

An iOS version of Another Eden was used by TheGamer for this review. Another Eden is currently free to download for iOS and Android devices.

Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/another-eden-review-ios/