Eternal Ring

Eternal Ring is an action role playing game that was released in late 2000. This was the launch game for the Sony PlayStation 2, and was a rather disappointing release game.

Developer: From Software
Publisher: Agetec
Release Date: October 26, 2000
Platforms: PS2
JustRPG Score:
 40%
Pros:
+Interesting equipment system.
Cons:
-Poor visuals.
-Clunky controls.
-Linear, lack luster story line.

Overview

Eternal Ring Overview

Eternal Ring is an action adventure role playing game that was released in October of 2000, and was a launch game for the Sony PlayStation 2. The game centers around the acquisition of rings which change the characters attributes. These rings make combat a little easier and managing these rings is the main way to improve your character throughout the game. Overall the game is very poor, with bad visuals, clunky controls, and a linear, lack luster story line.

Eternal Ring Screenshots

Eternal Ring Featured Video

Full Review

Eternal Ring Review

By: Jason Ferguson

It’s games like Eternal Ring that make RPG fans lose all hope in the PS2. The system lacks the great RPG titles that the original Playstation had, and Eternal Ring certainly didn’t help the lineup any. I’ll be honest, this is among the worst RPGs I’ve ever played.

The story goes like this- An advisor to the King of Heingaria overhears the elders speaking of strange happenings on the Island of No Return. These elders hold considerable power in the kingdom and refuse to acknowledge the king’s queries into the events on the island. The King then sends his son, Cain Morgan, to the island to investigate. When he arrives he finds the island filled with monsters, and discovers that many of the people there are transforming into strange beasts. A monster who claims to be searching for “The Ring” attacks a small outpost and kills everyone there. Cain chases the creature deep into the Island of No Return where he learns of his secret past and unravels the mystery of the Eternal Ring. The story is explained sparingly throughout the game and doesn’t end up being a very good one. Nothing particularly interesting EVER happens and there is absolutely no high point in the plot. I’d like to mention the characters a bit, but they’re hardly worth it. You rarely run into anyone else on your journey and none of them have much of a story. Even your main character,Cain, doesn’t have much background to him. Late in the game you find out a little bit about Cain and a character named Lyla, but it’s nothing interesting and by that point no one really cares.

click to enlarge -  Eternal Ring screenshot

click to enlarge -  Eternal Ring screenshot

 

click to enlarge -  Eternal Ring screenshot

I can’t say enough bad things about the battle system. But, let me start off with something good so I don’t sound completely negative. There’s a lot of different rings you can gather throughout the game which can give Cain access to new magic spells or change his attributes (lessen MP costs, increase fire defense, etc.). You gather gems from the monsters that you kill on the island and then you attach them to rings of magic. The type of magic you learn depends on the gem combination. With so many different combinations you can spend hours and hours just playing around with the magic spells. But I can’t imagine anyone enjoying the combat enough to actually want to go around killing monsters for their gems. The game is from a first person perspective and battle involves hitting triangle to stab the monster with your sword, strafing back and forth to dodge attacks, and hitting square to use magic. That’s it…literally. It gets really boring really quick and after a few short hours of running up to a monster, stabbing it in the back, and then running away so it doesn’t hit you, you’ll probably be ready to start a new game. I suppose the very basic gameplay in this game would be good for someone who is new to the RPG world, but it’s not a fun enough game to keep most people interested. The monsters are often much more powerful than you when you enter a new area, and the item shops are few and far between so stock up when you find one. Otherwise you’ll get stuck backtracking a lot. The enemies will be a lot easier that way, but you don’t want to play this game anymore than you have to.

The graphics in Eternal Ring have their highs and lows. There’s a really nice opening cinema, which is sadly the game’s best feature. There’s a few highly detailed and all around cool looking dragons in the game and some of the effects like fire and water were decent too. Unfortunately, the backgrounds were dull and repetitive, and most of the characters didn’t look too convincing either. Character movements weren’t a high point to the game either, but most of the monsters really only had one or two attacks. This made combat even more boring, but saved you from having to see additional crappy movement. Half the game you’re cooped up in a cave somewhere and it’s often a little too dark to be able to play comfortably. The game went into the detail of adding day and night, which was an interesting feature. But it was an addition that grew really annoying when you could hardly see at night and fell off every cliff around, or walked right into a river and drowned (stepping into any water would kill you…even if it’s only the very edge of the river). The item shops, few as they are, also close when night comes, so if you need some items then you might as well just throw your controller down and grab a snack because you’re gonna have to wait for the item shop guy to get out of bed. In nearly any other game you wouldn’t have this problem because you could just go level your character up while you wait, but combat is just too bad in this game to actually want to fight. I also had a lot of trouble with monsters clipping right through walls. Don’t walk along the wall if you play this game because if there’s a monster on the other side of that wall he’ll likely be able to stab right through and get you. It happened quite often and got really annoying when the monsters could attack me and I couldn’t fight back!

click to enlarge -  Eternal Ring screenshot

 

click to enlarge -  Eternal Ring screenshot

click to enlarge -  Eternal Ring screenshot
The sound also has some highs and lows. Overall the music is pretty good and features a great orchestral soundtrack. It works pretty well with the medieval/fantasy setting of the game. The voice acting is pretty awful though, and if for some reason you decide to play this game I suggest you mute it whenever someone prepares to talk. Don’t watch their mouths either…they continue moving for quite some time after they’ve stopped talking. It’s horrible. Fortunately there are very few characters in the game that actually do talk, but unfortunately it’s hard to get them to shut up once they start. The sounds of combat are practically nonexistent. You stab someone with your sword and all you hear is a light groan. No screams or clashing of sword and armor here…just “argh!”

I don’t recommend this game to anyone unless you’re really desperate for an RPG and you’ve played 99% of the other games on the PS2. Even then you’d be better off to play an original Playstation game. With any luck the upcoming titles on the PS2 will more than make up for what this game lacks as well as for the current shortage of great RPGs on the system right now.

Final Grade: 40%

Screenshots

Eternal Ring Screenshots

Videos

Eternal Ring Videos

Eternal Ring Gameplay Video

Guides / Links

Eternal Ring Guides / Links

Eternal Ring Wikipedia Entry

FAQ/Walkthrough