Summon Night's developer Flight-Plan moved away from medieval-steampunk and embraced dark fantasy for Eternal Poison, another episodic tactical-RPG but divided into multiple scenarios this time. Each of its five 'tales' feature different teams who must complete certain mission routes to clear chapters, structured as a level-select menu with branching paths and a hub world. Its combat, which flows smoothly with the cinematic cut-ins toggled off, is also marked by a strong focus on exploiting weaknesses, as reflected by its element-themed maps and a handful of foes that nullify all but 1 type. Slightly more interesting is its Lead command (where allies can move/act during the party leader's turn) and a few weird twists on Tactics Ogre mechanics, namely their position effects (governing damage instead of hit/counter chance) and their mid-battle recruitment system (that relies on overkills to collect monsters). While these captured mobs are somewhat disposable (seeing as they last for a limited time and can't gain EXP), they can still be sacrificed to either gain resources, unlock shop items, or extract skills for weapons that may carry over between playthroughs. The rest - unfortunately, can't measure up to that creative standard, and even those ideas don't make for a particularly memorable game to begin with.

Reviewed on Apr 22, 2023


Comments