Edge of Eternity

While not every idea in Edge of Eternity fully gels, developer Midgar Studio gets enough right that the game feels familiar and welcoming – a fantastic classic RPG in modern clothing. With fun characters, a solid battle system, and just enough surprises to maintain the player's attention, Edge of Eternity announces the arrival of Midgar to the top echelon of JRPG developers.

What Edge of Eternity lacks in polish, it makes up for in spades with heart. With it’s fun wrinkles on the ATB system and complex characters, you can tell the developers cared so much. Once you get past the jank and camera issues, this is one JRPG well worth seeing through.

Ambitious in size, scale, and scope, Edge of Eternity offers a somewhat enjoyable romp that could last you over 40 hours. Sadly, it's also very rough around the edges, and poor pacing can be detrimental to your experience.

Edge of Eternity is a love letter to classic Final Fantasy and Xenoblade games. It doesn't live up to the level of its influences, but given the small team and limited resources, it's an impressive attempt. The story does rely on tropes and the characters aren't all that likeable, and while the game comes close to reaching its ambitious goals, it never reaches its full potential. It does scratch the JRPG itch and fans of the games that influenced it will likely get a lot of enjoyment from Edge of Eternity, but ultimately it's a good but not great JRPG.

Edge of Eternity is definitely a welcome addition to the JRPG pantheon, and while it clearly doesn’t have the budget of the genre giants, it is full of heart and character. I certainly enjoyed my time exploring Heryon, despite a few niggles and a crafting system that adds little. If you go into this with an open mind and have an affection for the genre, then you’ll find much to like.

Edge of Eternity is a beautiful turn-based RPG, but it left me with mixed feelings. The world is beautiful, the combat is fun, and there’s a lot to love about the story and characters. At the same time, it feels like it’s missing something… or like it’s still incomplete. Despite spending almost 40 hours with the game and enjoying most of that time, I reached the final cutscene feeling as though this was a game that really needed to be longer to truly feel like the epic JRPG it wants to be.

Edge of Eternity has a lot of great individual concepts, but they don’t entirely mesh well together. The game still feels like it needed more time in early access to work out the design and technical issues.

An epic fantasy turn-based game with lots to experience but needs some tightening.

Does a JRPG have to be made in Japan? Perhaps more to the point, is it possible to make a good JRPG outside of Japan? Plenty of Western-developed titles, from Secret of Evermore, to Child of Light, to the countless RPG Maker projects hitting Steam every month have tried to answer the latter question. The results have been mixed, to say the least. The latest game to step up to the plate is Edge of Eternity from small French developer Midgar Studio.

Edge of Eternity offers a throwback to 90's JRPGs, though it doesn’t nail the landing it seeks.