Eternal Night – Test, Plattformer

More than the sum of its parts

Apart from the very atmospheric intro, which tells the story of the eternal struggle between the Queen of Light and the King of Darkness for the world Aeterna in the style of glass mosaics, many of the elements used by Aeterna Noctis seem familiar. The first work of the Spanish team Aeternum Game Studios not only cites the greats from the niche area of ​​the action adventure, which is often referred to as Metroidvania. It builds on this and tries to create something independent from the set pieces – and it works for the most part. Fans will associate the teleport system used by the King of Darkness, as well as some approaches to art design, Castlevania, whose offshoot Symphony of the Night is one of the most formative games in this area to this day. The option of charging a special ability by killing enemies, which when activated, reveals part of the health, has also been seen in the Hollow Knight, which has been boasting on numerous systems since 2017. The premiere project by Aeternum Game Studios creates the trick that each element that you recognize is sorted into part of the whole – without you having to think again hours later, “Oh yes, that’s like game X or Y! ” Everything looks very homogeneous and well interlinked.

In the best tradition and based on old and modern classics, Aeterna Noctis creates the typical pull that results from the crisp fights, the extensive area research and new skills, which in turn reveal access to new areas or previously inaccessible sections that normally occur again have fresh rewards ready. However, one urgently needs to have a high level of frustration resistance. Because the world of Aeterna Noctis is merciless. The level of difficulty is high. However, it never gets unfair. The fights could offer more variety despite different weapons that you gradually unlock. But the available funds are being exhausted. And in the end it all comes down to learning the movement patterns, recognizing the characters and reacting accordingly, from the simplest standard opponents to the naturally very crisp (and sometimes a phase too long) bosses. But if necessary, embedded in jump sequences to be landed with pinpoint accuracy, the timing of the attacks must be absolutely precise if one does not want to lose any of the scarce life points. And with the carefully put together groups in the hand-drawn sections, which do without any random parameters, you always have to keep an overview when close and ranged fighters challenge you at the same time. Every fight, every platform passage, which also benefits from the highly accurate control and collision query, is manageable – sometimes it feels only pixel-perfect and using all the movement elements that are gradually available, but manageable. Extremely hard, but also extremely fair. And extremely motivating when you’ve finally made it after umpteen attempts and can reap your reward.

Overdressed

And so, in the truest sense of the word, you fight your way from section to section, from area to area, from checkpoint to every largely well-placed checkpoint in almost every respect. You make a mistake, you die. You try it all over again. And so forth. Despite the high potential for frustration, the adventure builds up enormous motivation. Because you know that if you fail, it is not because of the level design or the mechanics, but only because of yourself. However, the studio overdid it on two points. One thing has to do with the final demise: If you have used up all life points, you start at the last checkpoint, all opponents are back and at the place of death, the experience gained up to that point is waiting to be picked up again (Dark Souls sends his regards) . If you don’t manage to collect these points again, you can get them back from an NPC for an (overpriced) price. But regardless of whether you choose this path or set out to maneuver again through a minefield of difficult jump passages and / or collections of monsters: Until you have collected the experience again, the ability is deactivated, the collected life energy of the killed opponent in a life point to convert. And even worse: For the time being, you will not receive any further experience points, but actually only (and then with all opponents that have been killed again up to that point) when you are reunited with your experience. But that could also be dealt with.

However, Aeterna Noctis with its 16 visually very different, but always presentable and surprisingly large areas is a little too focused on openness and freedom for my taste. After the relatively linear start phase, the world opens up more and more. For those keen to explore, this may be a positive trait. But apart from cryptic mission descriptions and only rudimentary advertisements, there are only a few clues as to where to find the main story after one has “lost the way” due to the undoubtedly existing exploratory stimuli, which are also rewarded. It is true that you can not only buy healing vials or a magical potion that brings you back to the last throne / teleporter you visited, but also buy markers for the map to set memories where you should look again with new skills if necessary. But you can also get lost in the world – in a negative sense. In their balancing act between playful freedom and following the campaign, games like Hollow Knight or Ori are more successful. Nevertheless, Aeterna Noctis always manages to get you to the pad – even if you feel lost. Because somehow you find a way that leads you back onto the main path. And your journey there will be audiovisually sweetened even in the toughest moments. Atmospheric landscapes, clean sound effects, tightly (but effectively) used voice output with a language specially developed for the game, plus a character design that is somewhere between Castlevania and titles by Vanillaware (Odin Sphere, Dragon’s Crown) and leaves a great soundtrack: Technical Aeterna Noctis makes a consistently good, and often even very good, impression. The fact that the DualSense loudspeaker is integrated on the PlayStation 5, among other things, is a nice element, but does not affect the fun of the game.