Another Eden: Chrono Trigger spiritual successor (with a frog!) on mobile
Sporadic thoughts incoming, bear with me.
Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space is a time travel JRPG like Chrono Trigger, with the story written by Masato Kato (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears) and the main theme by Yasunori Mitsuda, who also worked on the previously listed games music, as well.
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The story itself is reminiscent of that classic JRPG feel. The mayor of a small Truce-like village finds two children in the woods and raises them as his own grandchildren until that fateful day where our young protagonist has to go on a journey to find his sibling who gets kidnapped by a big bad because of her innate magical powers she doesn't know about. You know how it is.
This game is a large scale, single player RPG that appears to avoid all of the large pitfalls of free to play mobile games. Here are just some of the things I picked up on having played it for an hour or two and also doing a bit of research.
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-There's no stamina/energy meter, so the time you spend playing isn't capped or behind a pay wall.
-Piggybacking off the last point, the game lets you play at your own pace. There's no timed events, PVP, or daily quests, so you don't feel guilty about not logging in every day.
-There does, however, seem to be a login bonus. The game currency is called Chronos, which is this game's version of lapis/crystals. You can use this to buy extra characters.
-There's partial voice acting. Due to the nature of mobile titles it's mostly reserved for battles and character introductions.
So here's the thing about the "gacha" feature of this game. It's not really necessary to buy characters. As a story driven RPG, you meet story related characters along the way, on top of getting free Chronos for doing things like beating monsters or moving through the story, so you can use that to unlock new side characters instead of buying them.
Much like Kingdom Hearts Unchained, it appears you can sink hours into this game and not have to pay a dime unless you want to buy side characters faster.
The references to Chrono Trigger are all over this thing. If it wasn't written and composed by the same people, you'd might think it was almost a bootleg. Fortunately, it's charming enough that it comes off as more of a love letter. The frog man in the header image is named Cyrus, wink wink.
This launch trailer will hopefully give you a general feel of the game, the side scrolling nature, and the playstyle.
02-03-2019, 01:12 PM
WarZidane
The fact that there's no stamina system alone already puts it miles ahead of most other mobile games, so I'll probably check it out.
Note that there's also a Switch version in the works, though presumably that one will cost money.
02-04-2019, 05:49 AM
Ergroilnin
I hate Mobile gaming with passion but... I must admit that this looks pretty good. I will likely check this out and see for myself.
02-04-2019, 06:04 PM
Wolf Kanno
I remember hearing about this. The Frog is even named Glenn if memory serves me correct. I may check it out soonish, especially since a few mobile games I do play will be ending their services soon.
02-04-2019, 11:36 PM
Lone Wolf Leonhart
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The frog is named Cyrus, which is a nice homage to Frog's friend.
Some of the pull characters also have familiar faces. There's a magic user who has similar features to Guile, for example.
I would encourage people who are on the fence to not be scared away by the fact it's a mobile title. It's a full fledged RPG that might as well be called "Chrono something" that just happens to have a mobile interface.
You can actually walk through this world, and it's not like other mobile games where you have to "pick-a-city from the world map". You can use the world map to fast travel to places you've been before, but in general you'll be walking from town to forest to cave to town etc.
The pull characters actually work in this game, and they don't feel out of place in a single player experience. You go to an "End of Time"-like place and draw your characters there, and they have their own dialogue. It isn't that different from Chrono Cross where you can recruit someone by going to a random town and exchanging 3 lines of dialogue with them.
Since the game's still new there's a "Pre-registration bonus character" you can find in your inbox (called Lynx mail, btw) even if you didn't pre-register.
02-06-2019, 01:47 PM
Vyk
You would think the Facebook page for this game that bugs me every day would have done of this information front and center in their sponsored posts. They made it seem like a fan game. Not once have i seen creator names attached, not even an off handed "from the makers of". Terrible marketing. I completely took it for a "me too" cash on for nostalgia in the vein of Chrono, not something as legit as Xenoblade. Sounds like a mobile game I may actually have to try. Thanks for the clarification and impressions
02-07-2019, 05:08 AM
Lord Golbez
I wouldn't want to play Chrono Trigger on my phone either. So if it really is that good, I'll hold out for the Switch version. Also, not the biggest deal in the world, but the graphics look atrocious. The character models look exactly like what you'd expect for rando mobile RPG #594. They actually look bad enough that I feel like it would be hard to get past, so the story had better be engrossing.
02-08-2019, 11:09 PM
Mercen-X
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Originally Posted by Lone Wolf Leonhart
The frog is named Cyrus, which is a nice homage to Frog's friend.
Also, Aldo mentions he was turned "again", so this is a step above an expy. I don't know in regard to Raven.
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It isn't that different from Chrono Cross where you can recruit someone by going to a random town and exchanging 3 lines of dialogue with them.
I kinda get you mean those extraneous PCs didn't have much of a role to play as very few of them impacted the storyline, but your statement almost makes it sound like attaining those characters was easy. The only draw of obtaining every character in Cross was the different tasks you had to perform to unlock them. RANTI HATE hatpull characters. It's not just that they don't impact the story, it's that their entire presence feels unearned. No sidequest, no minigame, no character-specific key item. Nothing but the programmer's half-assed attempt to convince us this is an interesting character using only a scant character summary which you can't even find in game. Remember "show, don't tell"? And no, the Personal quests do not fulfill this criteria.
But what I HATE all the more is when they are unlockable guest characters for a special event that pertains to their own story and YET. THEY. HAVE. NO. ROLE. Every game that features the character draw system should be deleted from the outset. Rant over.
Did I happen to mention I like this game so far? No? Probably should have led with that. I do have some gripes.
I'm at Tower of Time and the Visus Embryo is OP. Destruction Time hits the whole party for 500p. The storyline grants you access to one healer. Unless you buy up a load of pulls for a chance at a second healer, if she goes down, you're screwed because there is no recovery from KO during battle.
02-21-2019, 12:53 PM
Lone Wolf Leonhart
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Originally Posted by Mercen-X
I'm at Tower of Time and the Visus Embryo is OP. Destruction Time hits the whole party for 500p. The storyline grants you access to one healer. Unless you buy up a load of pulls for a chance at a second healer, if she goes down, you're screwed because there is no recovery from KO during battle.
I'm not that far yet, but the tip I've heard for this boss is to make sure the Another Force gauge is at least 50% full before you start.
The top 2 complaints of this game as I've seen it:
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1. People would really like an easier way to pull/acquire a second healer.
2. The text dump of dialogue in side quests can be overbearing on people who just want some quick Chronos to collect.
Having said all that, it's still regarded as an otherwise above average gatcha game that's a lot of fun.
I haven't played far enough yet to know if grinding and methodically using "continues" is enough to get you through tough bosses. I do every sidequest I come across so the game hasn't been too hard so far.
