Elohim Eternal: Exodus

An interesting take on the Moses mythology set in the wider Elohim Eternal setting (which itself is influenced by Xenogears/saga, with heavy references to biblical mythology). Makes use of the smaller run time to make each fight count, each section only having a flight or two but each interesting and challenging encounters with some flexibility in how you build each character. There's also a story mode if you want to read as a visual novel. Did I mention it's free?

[h1]The Prince of Misru[/h1] [h2]Story[/h2] For the most part, the story plays out like Exodus or that one animated film retelling of Exodus. There are some key differences, such as powerful Archon bosses that Moshe has to recruit, who perform the plagues instead of the Abrahamic god. Additionally, the Misru, the Egyptian equivalents, have their own gods [spoiler]or rather technologically advanced immortal humans[/spoiler] backing them up, giving them an advantage that the Egyptians never had. This leads to tragedy when Moshe [spoiler]sacrifices himself to save his people from the Demiurge's laser[/spoiler]. Still, I did like Moshe's growth from a fence-sitter to a true deliverer for his people. IMO, he earned his chosen one status in a more convincing way than Joshwa, who had more inconsistent character development. There are some odd parts of the story, such as Ramses not recognizing Zipporah. My interpretation is that he looks down on the Simru so much that he can't even be bothered to remember if he ordered their executions at one point. It's also odd that we only get to fight one demigod (basically a golem-like construct) when enough time should have passed for the Misru to make more, but it's also possible [spoiler]the Archons destroyed most of the demigods before Ramses and Adun killed them, leaving only one to serve as the penultimate boss[/spoiler]. Finally, Moshe seems to have received some divine power as the deliverer, but this doesn't translate into gameplay, since he's mostly a physical-based character anyways. Am I supposed to believe he [spoiler]used his muscles to hold back the Demiurge's death laser?[/spoiler] [h2]Gameplay[/h2] No, you cannot cheese the game with Frozen Waters anymore, lol. You actually have to use all your skills the way they were intended. For the most part, I found that all six Styles were useful and well-balanced, since they resemble traditional JRPG classes, though it is fairly obvious who the best candidates for each one is. I wonder if anyone tried to do a challenge run where they equip the Styles onto their least suitable wielders? The only really hairy battle was the one on the second map where Moshe has to fight two guards by himself, but everything afterwards gives you at least 2 party members, giving you more of a turn advantage. The previous game had good mapping and collectibles, but this game has a more minimalistic mapping style where you travel along nodes on a parallax map. It's a bit of a shame, since it's hard to get a sense of what ancient Kenoma looks like compared to Idin. Maybe the next Kenoma game, Son of Man, will allow us to learn more about the planet. [h2]Verdict[/h2] 8/10 The gameplay is more balanced and less centralized around a meta skill and I like Moshe's version of the Moses story. However, I wish we could properly explore full dungeon maps and city maps to give more life to the world of Kenoma.