Another Eden Begins review

Something kind of wonderful is happening to games born as gacha releases. Octopath Traveler 0 took the mobile-only Champions of the Continent, yanked out the random character pulls and premium-currency economy, and rebuilt its material as a pay-once, standalone adventure without all the money nagging. Final Fantasy Resonance is poised to do the same for the first story arc of Brave Exvius this October, turning the opening portion of a decade-long live service into a proper console RPG.

Beating Resonance to the punch is Another Eden Begins. Here, Wright Flyer Studios and Studio Prisma have adapted the entire first story arc of Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space, removed the gacha, and put the base game on Steam for $39.99. The campaign contains no random pulls, and I like that. However, two of five planned two-character DLC packs launched alongside the game. Each costs $9.99, while a $44.99 season pass covers all five, so $85 is you want to see everything.

A Boy, His Sister, and a Hole in Time

Aldo lives a simple life in the village of Baruoki with his younger sister Feinne, splitting his days between guarding the village and doing errands for his neighbors. But when the Beast King abducts Feinne, Aldo’s pursuit through Moonlight Forest ends with him being flung through a tear in spacetime and landing eight hundred years in the future. From there, the game moves among three distinct eras: antiquity, the present, and the future. There’s an ancient age where four great spirits rule nature, Aldo’s own period of crystallized prisma energy, and a future where pollution has driven humanity into floating cities.

If you’re familiar with director and scenario writer Masato Kato’s body of work, then the Chrono Trigger comparisons are probably unavoidable. That said, the remarkable thing here is how much of the storytelling works, especially when exploring how technology and other forces reshape civilization. Across the campaign’s 26 main-story chapters, the plot remains understandable even when the scope jumps from a rescue mission to a millennia-spanning conflict. Best of all, Another Eden doesn’t forget the little human moments that can make a JRPG feel special. One of the first missions involves helping Feinne build a birthday cane (not a typo) for the mayor, the foster grandfather who raised the siblings. It remains one of the more poignant fetch quests I’ve undertaken.

The Feinne Print

And then there’s Feinne, who is, well, completely adorable. Her design is cute without feeling like gratuitous fan service (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and her expressions give her plenty of personality. Ai Kayano’s Japanese performance adds even more, bringing just a bit of playful mischief to the role. Feinne sounds exactly like the kind of sweet, slightly vulnerable younger sister the story needs, and her delivery gives even simple conversations an extra bit of warmth. It is difficult not to become attached to her, which makes the main rescue mission all the more effective. For all the talk about saving worlds and manipulating history, a big part of the game’s appeal comes down to wanting to see what happens to your little sister.

Combat in Begins is largely solid, even if it trickles out its best ideas a bit slowly. Battles are turn-based, with four active characters on the field, while Chain Skills can fire automatically when attacks, healing, or other actions fulfill their conditions. Another Force can halt enemy actions while the party unleashes a rapid barrage of abilities. As your roster grows, increasingly interesting combinations emerge. Different characters provide distinct abilities and roles, while Valor Change lets you swap among as many as four complete parties. There’s enough strategic depth to make you care about party composition.

Easy Does It, Then Does It Again

The problem is that the game doesn’t always force you to use its different systems. Early enemies are generally so weak that many fights end after a single area attack. Even elemental advantages and weaknesses are clearly displayed before you commit to an action, which can make Begins feel as though it is revealing its mobile roots. Eventually, more demanding encounters provide a reason to pay attention, but the opening portion could have used a higher difficulty setting or at least an auto-battle option.

There are also a few mechanics that feel more like remnants of Another Eden’s mobile days than something you’d find in a standalone RPG. Consumable battle items do not exist, and you cannot heal from the menu, which had me scouring menus like a madman. During a fight, recovery therefore depends entirely on character skills. Sure, none of this is disastrous, but it occasionally reminds you that the adventure has been rebuilt rather than crafted from the ground up.

Following the Mobile Breadcrumbs

Meanwhile, exploration has its own ups and downs. Early areas are fairly linear, with paths that usually usher you directly toward the next objective and only a few side routes containing treasure. This can make the opening hours feel constrained. That’s probably fine for longtime JRPG-heads, but players raised on broader 3D worlds might expect more fully realized environments.

Fortunately, things grow more interesting once the game’s time-travel mechanics open up. Moving among different periods helps offset visual tedium, while later areas do an even better job of making you feel as if you’re traveling through history rather than merely touring three sets of scenery.

Nineteen Characters in Search of a Pivotal Scene

Begins’ sizable cast feels like another mixed blessing. There are 19 playable characters in the base game, and many have distinctive personalities and individual stories. However, the sheer size of the roster occasionally works against the main narrative. Characters can feel important when they’re first introduced and then vanish for long stretches. Because most recruits are optional, your party can feel less like a cohesive group than you might expect. And honestly, that doesn’t have me excited for the season pass, which looks to bloat things even more.

Visually, Another Eden Begins is attractive without having to try to overwhelm you with technical spectacle. It boasts appealing marionette-style character models, while its storybook environments exude warmth. With RAM and GPU prices exorbitant at the time of this writing, it’s comforting to see a game that relies on solid mechanics, skilled storytelling, and stylized visuals rather than cutting-edge graphics. That said, the game’s strongest visual asset is its expressive character art.

No Banners, No Badgering

However, the most impressive thing about Another Eden Begins is how good its design feels once the gacha baggage has been removed. The absence of random pulls and live-service pressure changes the entire experience. Now, you can concentrate on the story, experiment with the characters you actually enjoy using, and play at your own pace without wondering what reward you are supposed to chase next. The paid character packs complicate that victory, but they are conventional DLC rather than random pulls. Maybe it’s an idiosyncratic thing, but I just can’t relax and focus on the story if I know the next sales pitch is imminent.

A Future Worth Saving

And that makes Another Eden Begins a really interesting example of what can happen when a mobile RPG is given the opportunity to become a conventional game. Sure, it’s not flawless. The combat takes too long to become compelling, exploration can feel restrictive early on, and its enormous cast can make the narrative feel uneven. But the story is consistently engaging. Not only does the time-travel premise provide momentum, but the main characters give Begins a warmth that feels authentic. Most importantly, Feinne is absolutely delightful. She’s cute, she sounds cute, and the game gives you plenty of reasons to care about her.

Another Eden Begins was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.