Aeons Past

I went in not knowing what id get myself into, but after spending 6 hours i was rather intrigued, surprised, and amazed at how well this game is. I hope to see a full game of this rpg.

I picked Aeons Past up on a whim. Sure, there are only a handful of reviews on steam, but it's short, only a couple of bucks, and has a playable goblin. Despite my shaky selection criteria, it turns out Aeons Past is actually pretty darn good. As far as the story goes, it's a fairly standard JRPG set up. Protagonist's home gets burned down by big bad from father's secret past. The story doesn't necessarily evolve into anything mindblowing, but I enjoyed what was there and left wanting more. Similarly, the characters won't see my favorites list, but they were solid and I enjoyed learning more about them as the game progressed. I enjoy the mixed 2D-3D graphical style here, and the sprites generally work quite well. There are a few oddities with the rendering, especially when loading into new zones, but it was never a big deal to me. The music and sound design is quite solid, and holds up well compared with the JRPG music of yesteryear. Combat is mostly the typical JRPG fare, but with the addition of an MMO-esque aggro mechanic. This actually does a lot to spice things up, since it means your DPS can't spam out damage with no regard -- you're gonna have to use a taunt or cast some shields or something. Further, status effects and stat buffs are king here -- keeping the enemies attack down and your own defense up can be the difference between being 2 shot or being 10 shot. Blind can take a ton of pressure off when fighting physical bosses, and bleed/burn/poison can be the MVP against bosses with large health pools and defenses. In addition to the standard MP system, you also have focus to power certain abilities, which builds up as your character performs their chosen roll (receiving or dishing out damage, status effects, healing, etc.). It's another wrinkle that adds a nice rhythm to combat. The general balance and pacing is also excellent. Story battles require you to pay attention, but the real fun is in the surprisingly numerous optional boss fights. These bosses are frequently just at the edge of your capabilities when you first find them, and many of them took me a couple tries to figure out a solid strategy against. Every area is dense with exploration and opportunity, and you're not flooded with random or forced battles -- most combat feels meaningful. My biggest complaint is that Aeons Past feels like the first half of a game. It's quite short at 10 hours and the ending really feels like the midpoint twist in a standard JRPG to me. Of course, I'd much rather the developer keep the scope in check and deliver something this well put together than overreach lose quality, so I'm not going to complain too much... but I wouldn't mind a sequel.

This game is awesome. I only wish there was more. I hope they expand on this style and make a bigger game one day. For this to be suck a low price it maximized the Product. I love the way you can strategize to beat an enemy instead of just grinding away. The changing of perspective adds to the way you explore and I think could greatly improve the way we think of 2-D/3-D space. Not just one view with top down perspective. Gratz might be my favorite character. I hope to see more.

Really fun game, I played a bit more offline, about an hour or so and I"ve really enjoyed it. Fun and nostalgic experience. I'd say it's worth it!

I fell in love with this game. There's something about the story line, characters, and music that keeps me moving forward and feeling good. It has been a long time since I played a turn based RPG and Aeons Past delivered it in a very enjoyable way. It didn't take long before I had my entire crew's abilities synced up in a way that was fluid and unstoppable! One of my favorite things is that this game offered challenge right out of the gate. It took a couple of deaths to figure out how to beat certain bosses or to learn that I ventured a little too far out of my ability territory. It made it very rewarding when things started to click. I was sad when it was over and to me that's a sign of a good game. I wish I could say more but I'll leave it at this: I LOVE THIS GAME!

First thing: some commands (the compass and, more importantly, the lantern) are not accessible on the gamepad. This isn't game-breaking, but it's very silly. The compass stayed on permanently once I turned it on, but the lantern didn't. I usually just made my way without the lantern, as it's rarely crucial. Aeons Past brings influences from Brandish and Arx Fatalis into the RPG Maker template. It's charming and well-written, with plenty of side quests and dense, lively dungeon design that rewards poking into every corner. This is clearly intended to be the first of a series, with many lingering plot and character threads and an ending that demands a sequel, but the game is still plenty satisfying on its own and is not an incomplete experience by any means. There is more than enough content and quality here to justify the full price of US $2.99, so if you're interested, don't wait for a sale. Just get it. The one aspect of the game that I didn't find very compelling was the multiclass system. Since you don't have an abundance of skill points and skills are limited by what armor and weapon you're using, I just stuck to each character's default spec. There didn't seem to be much reason to swap them around.

really enjoyed this so far. gem of an RPG maker game tbh.