Eternights

Eternights is an enjoyable action RPG full of crude humour, lovestruck teens, and monstrous abominations out to kill you. Easy to recommend for any anime fan looking for their next adventure.

It’s amazing how talented Studio Sai is, and how much it got right with Eternights. I had a great time despite some rough patches in the early hours, and I’d love to see what these folks can do with more time and resources. And a better joke-writer. Don’t go into Eternights expecting an alternative to Persona; that’s not what this game is. Instead, put your action shoes on and keep an open mind about playing a more “true” dating sim, and I’ll be shocked if you don’t walk away with a smile on your face. And make sure you have a QR reader handy. You’ll see.

Eternights is an ambitious and mostly successful swing at the dating-sim/action genre that delivers a cool world and likeable characters with robust combat options and a refreshing take on who you can love at the end of the world.

Eternights can occasionally be rough around the edges, but there is a charming JRPG within that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy. Sure, the story may be all over the place, but at around a 15-hour play time, the hijinks also don’t overstay their welcome. Combat can also occasionally frustrate with some uninterruptible animations and a merciless window of time with which to perform dodges and parries, but most people should be able to adapt to it, and there is also the easier difficulty to try out if things get too dicey. Being an indie developer, Studio Sai should be applauded for producing...

There is an apocalyptic event that only you, the blank-slate protagonist, can stop from occurring. You and your group of friends are all high school students and in your downtime from saving the world, you strengthen your bonds. Maybe even love will blossom amid everything! You may have seen this situation in games many a time at this point, but this is its crux. The game knows this and revels in it, offering an earnest, heartfelt and pretty darn good venture into the known genre. This is Ete...

Eternights is a fantastic hack-and-slash game with an interesting social system that runs quite well on the Steam Deck.

Eternights is a game that wears many hats. Sort of. You get quick glimpses into several different subgenres, little bites of many pies. I was kept on my toes, yes. But the game never quite commits to any one idea. On the other hand, what I saw of the dating sim and action RPG genres was pretty good. The survival elements were more threadbare, however. Were all these little ideas enough to make a cohesive game? Kind of! It all depends on what you’re looking for.

Eternights begins with your unnamed teenage protagonist setting up his Tinder profile while his best friend gives him top tips like photoshopping his picture to make himself look more heroic, and lying about who he is to be more appealing to the ladies. This, apparently, is sage advice, because almost instantly our hero matches with a lady who offers to send him dirty pictures before he's even had a chance to use any of his best chat-up lines.

Weightless combat and forgettable story aside, Eternights is a solid game of romantic vibes in a crumbling world.

Eternights ultimately get more things wrong than right. It lacks a general sense of polish, and the writing is legitimately baffling at times. The combat feels great more often than not, but it’s hard to justify spending too much time on this title.

Eternights is a dating action game where you try to make the most out of life during the apocalypse. Monday: Go on a date. Tuesday: Clear dungeon. Friday: Freak out! The clock is ticking!! PS5 version reviewed.

Most of the game features excellent English voice-acting, performances which help sell the narrative and add poignancy to the script. A naughty or childish joke is usually close at hand, but there’s enough eventual depth revealed in the cast and their actors to outshine their clichéd trappings. Everything is further helped along by Eternights’ striking visual style, which alternates between relatively simplistic 3D designs and some superb but lightly animated hand-drawn cutscenes. Many enemies and city scenes are effectively nightmarish, including several twisted Cronenbergian horrors wielding...