It’s been about a year since indie developer StudioSai debuted the reveal trailer for its Persona-inspired title, Eternights at 2022’s State of Play. While receiving a roundtable of winces from the WellPlayed team at the time, those same tropes and reasons that pushed away everyone else were precisely what pulled this writer further in. An ambitious outing from this small team, itself a tight outfit running only a single full-time dev, Eternights’ initial reveal teased a vertical slice very reminiscent of Atlas’ iconic series.
Eternights features real-time combat and is set during the apocalypse but focused on an indistinct, modern anime cityscape. Leaning into its inspirations, the game has choice-driven social interactions, romance, anime tropes, and even that dinky little calendar box in the upper right corner of the screen. But chasing Persona makes for some large Sora shoes to fill, and having spent some time with the game now, I’m still not sure Eternights will be able to.
I’m a little stumped in explaining what themes, genres, or notable elements might best illustrate what Eternights is. The gameplay and vision of this game comprise so many different ideas and styles for an action-adventure title of this scope. During the demo, the game sprinkles in some decently produced anime cutscenes that cover the game’s opening chapter and a bit. I didn’t anticipate how fast these cutscenes would play out, how many events they would entail, and how little of it is immediately contextualised in the proceeding conversations between the primary cast of young students and pop idols.
I needed to flash this image first to set the tone
The narrative outside of cutscenes is conveyed via dialogue between the player-named protagonist and a cast of atypical caricatures. These conversations feature dialogue choices as well, with writing evocative of a dorky romance visual novel spliced with Persona’s responsive, intimate dialogue. These conversations made up almost half of this experience, with flashes of an affinity system rearing its head. Obviously, with less than two hours of gameplay, it is difficult to grasp how consequential your sassy banter will be.
After a dream-state combat tutorial, the game kicks off with a news broadcast showing several sci-fi labs with a compound called Eternight leaking into the atmosphere and spreading across the world. Shortly thereafter, a bomb explodes in this previously mentioned nondescript city and people flee to shelters. This is all happening very fast, with the game reminding us of the passage of time via the calendar that remains on the screen throughout most cutscenes and gameplay. Just when you think the game might pause to lay some exposition or reaction from these characters, a mysterious magical wall appears, stretching across the centre of the city. Keeping up? Because now there are zombified citizens roaming the streets too.
Based on the conversations I was having, I’m not holding my breath for any tear-jerking character arcs or narrative foundation. Instead, my protagonist delves into small talk with his homie about how horned up they are. Three dialogue choices are offered typically, with most being different flavours of pubescent pervert musings. Don’t get me wrong, this stuff has its audience. Heck, if I didn’t have such fresh and fond memories of playing the Persona games, I might have even been more forgiving of being a cheeky little horndog.
Just like real life!
Dating apps are another system-lite dialogue feature that has weaved its way into Eternights. It’s dating apps through the eyes of the most hopelessly indulgent male gaze. As dialogue cutscenes play out, the character will occasionally decide to switch gears and start hunting the apps for a mate. It is rather jarring and will switch off anybody who doesn’t already gravitate towards the anime tropes of quiet, hapless manlet who find themselves eagerly embroiled in the wooing whims of eager maidens.
The combat itself is relatively simple, with a basic attack, dodge, and some cooldown abilities available depending on who is in the party. A well-timed dash triggers a slowdown evade, where the player can then unleash a flurry of attacks from their energy-blade prosthetic hand. It all looks okay in an indie, mid-budget 3D action title kind of way. Though the actual controls don’t feel as responsive as I would have liked. It’s never quite clear when an attack animation has ended, and there is very limited input queuing, so I often found myself messing up combos and flow because I was having to re-enter inputs before they would trigger.
The tutorials infer that combat abilities might change depending on how party relationships are managed during dialogue. About halfway through the demo, after mastering a couple of combos and the dodge, one of my party members could be called into combat via an unlocked ability. These abilities will no doubt be the spice that the relatively basic combat heartily benefits from. Compared to the work done on the presentation and dialogue, the combat had little to show off and made less of an impression.
Form relationships to add elemental and support abilities to combat
Combat aside, there is a whole heap of other gameplay odds and ends that make their way into this already thematically overstuffed buffet of an indie action RPG. There are stealth sections in the subway that are best overcome by just sprinting through the concrete passageways. There are quick-time events that catch the player out of nowhere. Even a few surprising set pieces that cinematically frame the player escaping from a big infected baddie that cornered my party of students in the subways.
If you like well-written romance featuring layered characters worth caring about, this may be an unusual title to check out. I don’t want to imply that this game has either of these qualities, but it does want to make romance a forward-facing narrative device during this apocalypse. I would hazard that this is more appealing to the fantasy of sheepish folks who enjoy timid YA fanfics with end-of-the-world stakes. All power to you, but the oddly adolescent and randy approach to romance for horniness’ sake is not the draw that gets me invested in the relationships of games like Persona.
After this demo and the trailers, I have no clear idea about what Eternights is or why I would want to persevere with its idiosyncratic characters. The whirlwind two-hour preview left me with tonal whiplash and befuddlement over what had just unfolded. If you love your cheesy anime tropes about horny high schoolers and idols, keep this probable cult title contender on your radar.
Previewed on PC // Preview code supplied by publisher
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Eternights launches on September 21 on PS5, PS4, and PC.
