That of porridge it is a very popular genre on mobile devices, especially in Japan, while we do not have such a huge success, despite the fact that there is still a large passionate niche of this type of titles. However, there are still some examples of productions able to break through cultural barriers and be successful also in the West. The most striking case is that of Genshin Impact, that thanks to well balanced gacha elements, mechanics inherited from the Zelda Breath of the Wild and stunning graphics, has managed to amaze both critics and audiences. Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space, developed by WFS, tries to break through the hearts of jrpg enthusiasts, both western and eastern, by proposing many classic stylistic features. Let's find out if he has succeeded in the enterprise, or if he deserves to enter the category of the usual gacha without art or part.
Cats and time travel
The plot sees the young man as the protagonist Aldo, who lives with his grandfather and sister Feinne in a quiet and small village. One day, the place is attacked by the Beast King and by his army, with the aim of kidnapping the girl, to use a mysterious power dormant in her so as to achieve an unclear goal. In an attempt to save her, our inexperienced hero makes contact with a time-gap portal, which sends him 800 years into the future, and from here our long journey begins. The incipit of the plot, as you can guess, is very classic; this classicism will also be maintained throughout the course and of the events that are proposed, with a narrative that presents all narrative topos of jrpg. Unfortunately, the plot is a collage of clichés abused to exhaustion, stereotyped characters and a predictable plot.
Rather than being a citation of the great classics of the genre, as it would like to be, it is configured instead as a pale carbon copy that was badly done; it does not matter that there is Masato Kato to writing (writer of Chrono Trigger), the plot is banal and pretentious. The characters show themselves with the usual archetypes without a minimum of variation, starting with the protagonist, yet another unblemished and fearless warrior, devoted to the good without shades of morality and ethics. Even the supporting actors are one-dimensional and free of bite. The dialogues are limited to carrying out the homework, they are not ugly, but appear flat and without particular flashes. In short, the plot is limited to playing the gluing role between the different playful situations, but it fails to do it well.
By evoking, evoking and evoking
Also from the point of view of the gameplay Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space turns out to be the most classic there can be. There are basically two well divided phases, that of exploration and combat. In the city you take main quests, visit shops where you can buy weapons, armor and accessories, and you can rest. In the dungeons and in the paths it is limited to moving straight roads with some detours, in which you can find chests containing precious materials. Both the paths and the dungeons they turn out quite flat, without any particular found of level design. Just the latter present some very timid environmental enigma, but these too have turned out to be quite simple and often simply lengthen the broth without providing a real challenge or source of fun; paradoxically it would have been better if they hadn't been there.
The positive note is that the backtracking turns out to be quite limited, although it is still present; fortunately there is the rapid journey between the places already visited, very convenient, also because you are often forced to retrace your steps to advance in the main quest or complete secondary ones left behind. The quality of the secondary quests is fluctuating, some are successful while others less so. Fortunately, there are no fetch quests and each secondary mission has its own subplot, however in the course many are tedious and too verbose. Quite interesting are the missions related to the recruitable characters, since they allow you to deepen their narrative background. The main missions, on the other hand, are limited to simply going from point A to point B, or talking to certain characters.
Il combat system is turn-based, with parties made up of 4 characters, plus two reserves that can be switched at the cost of one turn. The encounters are casual, which is slightly anachronistic and antiquated. The options in battle are very few, we are limited to choosing whether to attack with the basic attack, use one of the 4 equipped skills, switch characters or try to escape. Furthermore, during the adventure a special mode is unlocked, which can be used once a bar has been filled by hitting enemies, which allows you to block opponents thus preventing them from acting while bombarding them with attacks and techniques. However, everything appears too basic and in the long run it is repetitive. There is also no possibility to use items in battle or to defend oneself; indeed these features are missing in many titles of the genre, but given that Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space stands as a classic jrpg with gacha elements, it was reasonable to expect at least such features and greater depth. There tactics is kept to a minimum, we just choose which enemy to attack and exploit its elemental weaknesses, all combined with an annoying imbalance in difficulty.
Clashes with basic enemies can be overcome simply by using the basic attack repeatedly, while boss fights could represent real obstacles, often have many HP and attacks capable of inflicting considerable damage. Wild grinding will therefore often have to be resorted to. The characters take long enough to level up worthily, but luckily there is the possibility to speed up the animations, making it less frustrating. However, there is a lack of tricks to speed up the process, such as the equivalent of the gray slimes of Dragon Quest, or even objects or passive bonuses able to increase the experience points obtained in percentage. The only speed up present is summarized in rare items that can immediately give experience to the selected character. Fortunately, it is virtually possible to advance in the story even with only the characters obtained with the advancement, however the difference between a 3-star and a 5-star character is felt. All in all, in this the system is much more honest than the competition, even if you still notice some burrs and in the long run the weight of the grinding required is felt.
The system linked to the purchase of weapons, armor and accessories is interesting. During the exploration and at the end of the fights, the materials needed to unlock new equipment to be purchased are obtained as a reward, a system that incentivizes exploration and further enhances every single fight. One of the most delicate factors of the gacha genus is the system of random summoning and obtaining the necessary gems for the whole. The latter are obtained in 4 ways: paying (and the prices are not low), completing internal achievements, completing secondary missions and logging in daily (obtaining 20). To carry out asummoning requires 100 gems, it is possible to spend even 1000 to carry out 10 summons at the same time, but this option is quite useless, since it will not provide any kind of bonus to the drop rate. The latter is one of the Achilles' heels of the production, being in fact too low for the characters with 5 stars and even getting some with 4 is not easy.
Fortunately, you can do a good number of summons even without paying, but they will often prove unsuccessful. Even the characters themselves present critical issues. Many of them they resemble each other in terms of skill available, some are even identical in appearance, with simple variations of the color palette. There is a certain laziness in the creation of the set of characters available and the variety is negligible, not to mention that the development system is particularly simple and basic. At each level up the characters get a skill point to spend in a tree; Unfortunately, the development is too linear, the trees have few deviations and most of the skills are stat upgrades, with a small number of active and passive skills.
Going Chibi
Technically speaking, come on smartphone the title defends itself quite well. However the style adopted doesn't work as well on PC. The color palette is quite lively and pleasing to the eye, even if it lacks a true identity. The settings are quite varied, even if they are anonymous and already seen in a myriad of other jrpg. Outside of the dialogues, the style chosen for the characters is the chibi, an element that can be appreciated or not according to personal tastes, while during the various chats present and in the menus our heroes will appear much more realistic. The artistic direction is fluctuating, some characters are pleasant (even if without great peaks of originality), others are much less inspired and many are similar to each other. The music appears pleasant, even if not memorable and rather anonymous. In general, the artistic and musical direction is sufficiently accurate (with ups and downs), but it lacks a real identity, presenting derivations of the genre to which it belongs.
Longevity is around 100 hours, therefore quite high, but not proportional to what it has to offer in terms of playability, variety and complexity of character development. Interesting are the crossovers with the series of Tales Of e 5 person, which allow you to recruit some characters by completing the dedicated sub-stories. Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space is an all in all honest gacha, despite being tainted by the percentage of drop of characters at 4 and 5 stars rather low. Unfortunately it fails to stand out neither for plot nor for gameplay, all too basic and not very articulated. We recommend the game, which we remember being a free to play, to those looking for a gacha experience that recalls the classics of the jrpg genre, without expecting however the glories of the genre classics, but rather a pale emulation of them.
