Aselia the Eternal -The Spirit of Eternity Sword-

too long

Buen juego de estrategia, sistemas algo antiguos. Controles algo torpes. Una joya del pasado

At first glance this game seems easy. Essentially OP protagonist and powerful allies. NOPE you quickly learn strategy is paramount. I've lost more than once essentially because I didn't think of every possible factor like the moves having limits. I didn't even know that they couldn't guard forever that cost me dearly. The AI isn't that smart but they don't have to be. Many of their forces are put together well and you have to figure out how to exploit them. Easier said than done.

Aselia the eternal is a story-driven Visual novel with tactical strategy gameplay elements. It, along with Fate/Staynight was my gateway to visual novels. the story in interesting, the gameplay is engaging, and the characters actually make you care. I take points off for this version being censored, having removed an entire route among other things, but the story more then makes up for it. I recommend this to all my fellow visual novel fans and japanophiles.

Aselia is a mix between tactical and visual novel.

The Novel part is done well(the art are.. passable) with a good story ; The lore is smartly implemented(it make use of most of the light medieval fantasy codes and only explain it's own elements) ; The cast of character is mostly well done (weither their background or they're growth)

The tactical part is hard, and while i really like it, it may be unfair at first. Let me briefly explain :

The gameplay is actually separated in Base building and tactical combats and while the first bunch of fight are quite easy if you didn't take/optimized every ressources you will have a really hard time later on because in the whole game the ressources are finite and the late game enemies are quite strong even with the best squad you could made.

There are also quite a lot of replayability as there are 7 possible "route" which change the story quite a bit each time (while it still stay coherent and give more lore) .

The game still isn't perfect and suffer from two major problems :

the first, completely subjective, two major character in the cast are.. gnii... unsatisfying to stay polite. And the way the story circumvente their shortcming to advance is really annoying. (Make note that even though they are important you won't see them that much)

And second problem only rise when you're playing a new game + (the feature is important and sometime necessary for unlocking a few route) : The grind
There is no grind when playing in normal difficulty however, when you'll change it for a harder one then it will become not only annoying but borderline impossible. I really advise you to cheat your way on higher difficulty as in the harder one, there isn't enough exp to level up your units.. because past vl 60 the required amount of exp is higher than the ressources cap.

I recommend this game (i love it myself) but if you wish to see each ending, seriously search for the trainer.

I played the game a while ago before downloading on Steam. The Steam graphics are little outdated but good enough.

I have a soft spot for it as this was my first VN. The story for me ranks among the best for a VN. There are also a good selections of routes and a mix of story and strategy. The strategy can become a bit tedious, especially when playing through alternate routes as there are not clear branching points to save at. Aside from that, this game is a Masterpiece and would totally recommend.

Pretty nice old school game that I played back during my middle school days. Story isn't really its strong point but it's not half bad, gameplay is the main thing in the game since it does get pretty difficult even on the first difficulty level. Music is okay and the voice acting is good. Overall a very nice game to just relax to, there are tons of mechanics at the start so you might get lost but the tutorial is decent enough to make you understand most of it.

I just finished Esperia's route and even after 80 hours of gameplay I still want to jump back in. It's definitely not for everyone. I appreciate the visual novel and turn-based strategy genres, and this one is a very happy medium. I'm a bit surprised that more choices weren't available on the visual novel side, but it made the choices I did have more meaningful.

+ All of the main character's love interests have their own different sort of charm. Liked them all.
+ I found the story to be engrossing, for the most part. Some of Yuuto's dialog, internal and external, was a bit childish... but hey, so was mine as a teen. Translation seemed to be great. A few spelling errors on occasion, but I forgive.
+ RNG doesn't exist. The combat can be tough, but I never had that feeling of "I screwed up everything and have to reload from last chapter." If I was getting beat it was because I ignored the game mechanics or overlooked something important. Something like "Whoops, that skill was out of uses!".
+ Even though the game has to be played on a low resolution, the art and sprites were beautiful to me, if reused frequently.
+ Plenty of mysteries remain even after the first playthrough. It is easy to get your money's worth from this game if it's your style.
+ Back and Skip functions helped a lot. Especially the "L" key with battles.

- Moving units around became tedious at the end. Too many nodes in the final area made navigation a chore.
- There is no technical support. The game doesn't like newer PCs. I had to figure out how to enlarge the window on my own. Any attempt to Alt+Enter or change the game to "Fullscreen" in the options caused a crash for me. Having Steam resize the window upon launch didn't do anything, either.
** At first, I used the tried-and-true Windows Magnifier (Win and Plus key). Works decently. Eventually I fooled with it a bit more. Right-clicking on the icon in the taskbar, going to Properties, then locating an option to run the game in 640x480 res. Smooth sailing after that; never had any other crashes.
- Not too many musical tracks, and they get repetitive quickly.
- I suppose this is part of the difficulty, but it could be hard to predict what worked and what failed. For instance, gold-lettered skills were more powerful than their face value indicated, but coming up with how much more powerful was often a guessing game for me. Not to mention the Ice Banish skills. Seemed like they arbitrarily determined that "Level X Ice Banish" works on "Level Y Support Skill" and didn't tell the player. I read somewhere that "equal level Ice Banish works on equal level support skill" but if that's actually true, then I wish it was a bit more specific. The "level" of the skill can mean any number of things. Several numbers assigned to the skill in the status screen could be construed as its level. Ice Banish 5 doesn't block Ether Sink 5; this I found out the hard way. For me there ended up being a lot of finding things out the hard way.

It's an older title, but definitely worth it if visual novels and a bit of turn-based combat are up your alley. I played without adult scenes and I didn't feel like I missed out on anything. I'm really happy to have found this series on Steam and I'll get around to playing #2 pretty soon.

Update: I'm playing through Aselia's route, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how much content differs from one route to another. This game really has a huge amount of content if someone played through all of the routes. Also, I *think* I have a better handle of Ice Banish. Compare Ice Banish "Target Level" stat with the actual level of the skill being used that I'm trying to block. IceB t-lv >= SupSkl Lv = successful block.

I played this game 8 years ago and it has always been one of, no, it IS the best visual novel I ever played. It is also the only game I have ever cleared 3 times. The gameplay was great but the best thing about this series is the world it introduced me to and the whole mana/shinken mechanic. It has one of the most OP cast of characters I have ever seen in any fictional multiverse (think of Marvel but 40% of the main cast have an infinity gauntlet). The story has everything you would hope for from an epic tale, touching moment, hype moment, great character and yet it is only the opening of the Eienshinken series. Euphie and her mom are always best girls and I would go full gay for Yuuto. 11/10

The story is a big focus in a game like this. Everyone and their mom has written something about it, so if you're interested in that, check out someone else's review. What I'm going to focus on is the actual gameplay.

I'm about halfway done throwing a guide together for the missions and mechanics of the game as of writing this review, so I won't go too much into what strategies are optimal or anything like that, here.

I would reckon that if you're not familiar with permadeath strategy games a-la X-com and fire emblem, you WILL have trouble. The game will make you pay for every mistake you make, and there's very little foreshadowing on what you need to have and when. There will be times where the game spits an enemy at you with a spell too high for you to counter without you having any ability to see it coming. Your whole squad will eat ass and you'll get very familiar with the game over screen by the end of your first playthrough.

SAVE OFTEN. S A V E O F T E N. I can't say this enough. Experimentation is key to success here, and sometimes things don't work out. Losing lots of progress sucks, and there's 50 save slots so go nuts.
In terms of progression, there's no indication of who gets what spell at what level. Check the forums for a Google Doc which can help guide your character growth if you don't feel like experimenting.

The game uses negative feedback rather than positive to get you to try your best. There's big rewards for winning in a timely manner, and failing to do so can make it difficult to progress later on.

One thing the game does an AWFUL job of telling you is that every 10 levels your characters get a class-up, and these class-ups can make the game a LOT easier. The details for this are in the Dakkodango guide for the game, so make sure to take a look at it.

There's all sorts of hidden stuff in the game that really doesn't feel very useful until after normal mode. Most of the guardians will eviscerate you if you bother to face them when they first pop up (but are pretty manageable at the end of the playthrough), and mana crystals aren't worth your time early on.

The game gives you more characters than you can use after a certain point, and inevitably a few are going to get sidelined. A lot of the best characters don't really show their utility up front, and require heavy investment to really shine. Failing to invest wisely in your characters can cause a lot of anguish.

This game is fun, but the difficulty mainly comes from a lack of polish. Going in blind is how I did it when I played the fan-translation of it over 8 years ago, and there's definitely fun to be had that way, but a lot of people don't groove with that.

If you've read this far, here's a big tip: The "L" key will skip combat sequences in game. It works during battles during cutscenes, too, so don't hesitate to take advantage of it.

A Review By an Old Fart for Old Farts

sometimes you want a peaceful game. sometimes, you just want to incinerate hordes of angels as a loli. sometimes you want a strategy game with new game plus. sometimes you want a drama. why not all of the above?

Part Fire emblem part Clannad. This game is what set the bar for a great visual novel. The strategy portions of the game actually will effect the outcome of the story, and the interplay of the story and strategy make you pretty invested into the troops. It isn't some generic spirit mook you are fighting with it is the cute and shy Hellion, and knowing about her makes you sad if you can't bring her home safe ;;

The one thing I would say as a complaint is some of the missions are too damn long, which is ok for a pure strategy game but as the whole game is pretty much one long war campaign it seems like the missions that are super long could have been subdivided into smaller tasks with story breaking it up. Now there are some that sorta do that... kinda... but it stays in the strategy mode engine which doesn't let you save when they are talking and only gives the profile icons for people talking so it isn't as immersive as the visual novel mode engine, which has voice acting and quick saving.

Anyway. The game is great. if you like visual novels or strategy games like fireemblem or super robot wars, this is a must.

To start off with, this Visual Novel was released back in 2003, so the art is indeed a bit dated, but thats part of the overall charm. This VN is easily one of the best I've played, not just because of the story, the music, the atmosphere, the way it handles the whole "transported to another world" aspect, and the way its written, as well as the strategy elements involved force you to think hard, because every mistake you make could set you back for the rest of the game (unless you reload a save)

This isn't a traditional VN, a very heavy chunk of it involves a strategy portion where you command your "armies" (About 15 or so spirits divided intp 1-4 squads) to battle it out across the continent on various routes of conquest. The combat is unique in the way that each position has a unique role in battle, and lacking one could mean the end for those unfortunate enough to be in the squad. Not only that, the spirits (class would be more appropriate) dictate who would be best where. Blue for frontline attacker/stopping magic attacks, green for the damage soaking defender/healers, red for the arcane assaulters in support, black for a (very poor) position filler, estrangers are like black spirits but LEAGUES more useful. You'll learn more as you go.

The music, while limited to about 20 song, is amazing despite its decade old age. The art as well, as I said before is apart of its charm. The art might repel some people, but if you look past it, everything else will pull you in, and before you know it you'll have sunk 10 hours into this easy. That being said, its about a 50 hour clear for the 1st clear, and seeing as there are multiple routes, this will require some replaying to get them all. As there are no acheivements, and currently no full 18+ patch, replaying it really is more of a willpower thing for most people. There are some things that are in subsiquent clears that the 1st doesn't feature, but there could be more incentive. If a full 18+ patch were added, it would add more incentive to buy, and 100% complete the game (JAST please), but I'm getting off track.

Buy this VN, for $15 it is without a doubt, well worth the price, and playtime.

Fantastic game with good story and awesome battle system. I didnt like the art of the characters but I didnt let it get in the way. The game is hard but very good once you learn how the battle system works. I definitely recommend it, especially now that it`s sequel, Seinarukana, has been released on Steam!

The gameplay isn't bad, but it's quite linear and not really challenging. The plot is okayish, has likeable and unlikeable characters and bad guys are kinda cheezy. I believe that at some points you can actually tell that the story has been forcefully bended a little to make it all-ages. The partial blood / skimpy clothes censorship doesn't help either. And yet, despite all that... it's quite enjoyable if you are into this kind of thing. If you know japanese though, I would recommend going for different version.

Aselia the Eternal is a visual novel / SRPG hybrid. Both parts are executed really well, with the visual novel parts maybe taking up an a bit bigger portion.

The introduction of characters and setting, and the build-up towards the first battles may feel a bit long, but once you get there you're rewarded with highly strategic (zero randomness) , turn-based RPG, which also boasts a great story. And once it gets started it really picks up pace, both in terms of story and difficulty.
Since this version of the game also includes the expansion it allows for a total of 7 different routes and 9 endings.

The battles quickly become very tough, combined with perma-death (and a straight game-over if a main character dies) you may end up requiring several attempts for certain battles. Especially on the higher difficulties one poor battle can see you losing characters, which becomes all the more painful thanks to all the side characters having their own story and background.

Also of note is that this is the prequel to Seinarukana: The Spirit of Eternity Sword 2, which just saw it's official 'English release and will be released on Steam later this year. Definitely a recommendation if you're a fan of SRPGs and like a good story to go along with it.

I played this game before it came to steam and loved it. Now that I'm replaying it in preparation for the sequel that finally came out, and I am finding that I still love it. I will also mention that this game originally had erotic scenes in it and while they weren't exactly removed gracefully, they are few enough that you can easily ignore the hints that the characters got it on offscreen.

As for the basics of the game, it's a strategy game where you place and move your units around the map to get into scripted battle sequences when they meet. In between battles, there is a visual novel style story about the main character trying to cope with being brought to another world and forced to fight for a king he doesn't trust.

Put simply, I am a huge fan of the story and the battle system was fun enough that I actually turned up the difficulty after each playthrough when I was replaying the game to go through other routes instead of powering through lower difficulties to get the battles over with.

The first thing I have to mention is the beginning of the game right after the prologue. I'm going to gush a bit about a stylistic choice made early on, so feel free to skip this paragraph. Now, I've found that very few developers have the balls required to actually have the language of the fantasy world NOT be English (or in this case, Japanese). The foreign characters in this game initially have lines voiced (and written in) in a made up language that, while obviously unknown to the player at first, is very clearly translateable. The main character is implied to spend a very long time just picking up the language when he comes to the world, but the game goes one step further by asking the player if *they've* actually managed to start picking some simple stuff up (That might sound like a horrible decision, but they don't throw you entirely into the frying pan and the results barely matter if you really don't care enough to bother; it's just for scoring a few points with the girl taking care of you). Now, the dialogue boxes eventually switch into English when the main character gets better at the language, and by your first battle, the character voices are all in Japanese instead of the fantasy language, indicating that Yuuto is fluent now. You can also switch character languages to Japanese for the whole story when you get to New Game+, but that entire process shows a level of care and dedication to the story that is honestly very rare in the games and shows I've experiences and I have to give it credit for that.

Anyway, the prologue starts us off pretty slowly, but the rest of the story is quite enjoyable with multi-dimensional characters and some fun twists throughout. As mentioned before, I enjoyed both the story and gameplay immensely, though a walkthrough of choices to make to get each ending would probably be a good thing to look up on your second and subsequent playthroughs. Combine this with a multiverse lore that is just ripe for sequels and spinoffs and you have a great game to spend some time with. This is seriously a great game to check out.

In my opinion Aselia the Eternal is one of the greatest visual novels ever. It has a beautiful storyline with lots of twists (some of which you don't see coming), fantastic interaction between characters, the choices you need to make to enter a character's route are a bit subtle, so here I recommend using a guide, and most importantly, for me, actual high repalayability value (which isn't true for a alot of VNs). What I mean by that is that each route has a (sub)storyline and missions unique to that route which makes each playthrough different enough from one another that you don't want to just give up on the game and move on. Basically a bit of strategy is required because what worked on one playthrough might not work on another. If you don't understand what I mean, play the game a couple of times and you'll see.

I bought this game on a whim because I saw it was on sale.

The Prologue I found to be fairly generic and unimpressive, but I can think of a LOT of fantasy games in this style and presentation like that and quite a few of them have turned out to be gems. So I decided to stick with it and see what happens. And once the game hits Chapter 1, I think it really starts to find its groove. I actually really like the presentation of Esperia teaching you how to speak the local tongue of the course of some months, but I may be a sucker for the Florence Nightingale effect.

When they finally gave me some gameplay beyond the visual novel, I was quite surprised by the depth of the tactics and planning I had available to me. I do think the UI could use a little more polish but it has a sort of GBA FE7 feel that appeals to me. It's clear to me that the game is a bit old and using some retro looking effects, but I found it charming enough to go through the game twice.

The cool thing about this game is that the first couple of NG+'s add new story material. For example, you don't really understand the bully's motivations the first time through. You get a hand-wave explanation, but it's all alluded to and it isn't really talked about until the end of the game. When you start your first NG+, the game adds an emotional scene that finally makes the bully something beyond a one-dimensional rival because they know you already know about this exchange.

There are...a lot of different ending routes but Aselia's is the "canon" one but I've only seen hers and Esperia's (because I really like Esperia).

This game is definitely not for everyone, but the gameplay is definitely unique and I do recommend it.

I don't know if there's a sequel to this game, but I really hope there is.

If you don't think you'd like a visual novel, this is the game for you (if you also love turn-based strategy games like Fire Emblem, Heroes of Might and Magic, Disciple II, etc.).

I played the original PC release from JASTUSA years ago (hence the lack of time played here). And by played, I mean obsessed. And by obsessed, I mean I played through every single permutation of the game (colloquially referred to as a 'route') twice. I think the grand total was well over 100 hours of precious life, but it was preciously spent.

Aselia is one of those high fantasy stories that really grips you. It tends to hold nothing back, and is very challenging in both its strategic/tactical aspects and in its themes. The themes of said story are pretty excellent, ranging from social prejudice and slavery all the way to love, obligation, and duty (heehee).

The gamplay portion, which is very significant if viewed through the lens of a typical visual novel, is challenging and diverse. There are units to train, squads to create, buildings to build, and tactical decisions to be made in the face of time limits, finite resources, and the ever-onward march to victory.

The narrative portion of the game, which is still significant, is very excellent. Fans of high fantasy and gritty takes on alternate world transportation will enjoy the plot, while the average anime fan may be surprised at how dark the story goes.

Don't be put off by the graphics; despite the age, this is a top-notch game. The art itself is a style unique to the developer, and while the sprites evoke nostalgia the "cutscenes" and events are well-done.

That they're selling this game at normal price for less than $20 is a steal. If it's ever on sale, buy immediately and kiss your weekends goodbye. Fans of Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics will jump right in to the style of gameplay, and everyone else will be pleasantly surprised by the depth of both the tactics and the narrative. Look forward to literally hours and hours of enjoyment.

An unforgiving, highly tactical SRPG, where your troops persist from one battle to another.

Aselia is quite old by now, but it deserves to be called a classic. The story is grim but captivating and incorporates some unusual ideas, like the protagonist being at first unable to speak or understand the language of the world he's summoned to. The worldbuilding is remarkable. The real meat, though, is the challenging gameplay where every choice matters and which involves absolutely 0 luck.

Aselia has 7 main endings, and fully completing it can easily take 100+ hours. For that, the price point is ridiculously fair.

Norio Wakamoto voices 2 characters in the game. For some, this might be worth it for that alone.

Originally released in 2003.
Also worth noting that Aselia is a prequel to Seinarukana, which is coming on Steam later this year, and I recommend playing this before it.