Eternal Ring is the brainchild of From Software, the fine folks who more recently brought us the critically acclaimed Demon's Souls and the more personally acclaimed 3D Dot Game Heroes. The game tells the story of Cain Morgan, a very feminine-looking man (reminiscent of the effeminate Sephiroth of Final Fantasy VII fame) sent to the Island Of No Return to seek out the mystery of the legendary Eternal Ring (hence, the title of the game!), while seeking the previous investigative team who never returned or even posted a Twitter message. However, the island is pretty damn weird, caused mostly by the supposed powers of the Eternal Ring, transforming humans into creatures and slowly stripping away their remaining internal humanity. The depths of this island are inhabited by creepy lizard things, flying creatures, living magical statues -- not to mention *gulp* the scariest beings of them all: a few unaffected humans here and there! Oh, I can't watch any more! Too scary!

When I first read about this game, I was advised that it was (and probably still is) an RPG. And that's very true... to a degree. When I first played this game, I was stunned to discover that although the basic elements of RPG games are present (gain experience to power oneself up, item management, buying new weapons to further power oneself up, etc.), it plays as a first-person adventure game featuring countless amounts of stabbing! Very rarely do you see your own character, though it does happen. You basically follow your way through a sequence of areas, though occasionally backtracking for whatever reason, exploring the regions and stabbing your way to freedom and victory. And believe me, the majority of the game is explorative. Encounters of people and/or morphed remnants of former humans are few and far between, mostly confined to a small encampment near the beginning of the game, so you'll learn the most about your surroundings by visiting them personally. That may sound a bit barren for a supposed "RPG", but it puts more emphasis on the player's control of their own fate. The whole game reminds me somewhat of Shadowgate 64, but with more action and less drowsiness. There's no in-game map, however; you may want to plot your path on a basic paper diagram or else you may end up getting lost trying to find your way back to some areas as a certain unnamed reviewer certainly did on a few occasions.

...and what IS the Eternal Ring, you ask? Well, I can't go around spoiling things, but all I can say that is that the Eternal Ring is indeed a ring, but also a metaphor for the cage it entraps you in forever...

Although you can buy or pick up weapons here and there (though there's no equippable armor to be found anywhere, oddly enough), you will not be able to survive solely on your swift fencing skills. That's where the concept of magic rings comes into play; in fact, you really can't live without these beloved rings. Heck, you can't even escape the title of this game without encountering a ring. There is a seemingly endless (though not actually endless) amount of magic rings you can use to make your journey a little sweeter. See some enemies that could be weak to fire? Equip a fire-based offensive ring and let 'er rip! Low on hit points? Slap on a water element ring and feel instant rejuvenation. And there are also attribute rings to boost your stats in whatever areas are necessary. Though you can occasionally find them in predetermined locations during your exploration quest, you're going to have to synthesize most of these rings yourself.

For purely one-time effect-based rings (attacks, cures, etc.), you'll need a Ring of Magic as a key ingredient; for attribute rings, this isn't necessary. You'll also need various gems of various elements in funky combinations to create more powerful rings. Unfortunately, the game is not clear at all on how to make good rings, so either you'll need to have printed off a decent guide or you'll have to play a game of trial-and-error. But don't just go using up all those gems: they also double as currency in the game's stores, which are few and far between, but nevertheless existent. It's somewhat fun to develop new rings, especially if you have new gems of higher levels, but I often found myself creating the same rings using different gem combinations (an in-game tutorial wouldn't be a bad idea). And if you lack sufficiently powerful and effective rings in an area, you are screwed. So my advice is that it's best to save before synthesizing any ring. Also, Rings of Magic are pretty difficult to find, not only because they are very tiny and blend in well with the floor sometimes, but many of them are also invisible unless you have a specific "True Eye" ring equipped, forcing you to go back later on in the game to earlier areas in search of these hidden rings. Ah! And every use of your magic rings requires MP (Magic Points), but on the plus side, every time you kill an enemy, you get some MP restored. At least they were kind enough to give us THAT luxury.

The controls are pretty straightforward, though one major qualm I have is the lack of support for the analog sticks. They're not used one bit, something that would be considered cause for imprisonment in gaming nowadays. A first-person console game that only uses the directional pad makes for rather stiff controls. It's cumbersome to look up, down, and around; turning is a sluggish process as well. And unfortunately, the lack of analog accuracy makes for some potentially sticky situations, especially with quick-moving enemies. Considering there are some enemies where you HAVE to look up or down in order to attack them successfully, a smoother viewing control scheme would have been most beneficial. To further aggravate me, the game even contradicts itself in the configuration menu, stating in different areas that you both can and CAN'T use those sticks. "No, they won't be used," says the control configuration menu. Yet in the general options menu, the option is quite clear: "DUAL SHOCK 2 Analog - ON / OFF" ...c'mon! Can I use it or can't I? Ultimately, you can't use analog controls, which is surprising for the type of game AND the fact that PlayStation controllers had analog sticks for years prior. Thank goodness for the shoulder buttons; strafing saved my butt many times over.

Now when I look at this game, I have to consider the fact that it was a launch title. The developer did not have five or six years to tinker with their given PS2 development kit to optimize their product. They had to work fast to get their game out with the console. So as far as I'm concerned, the graphics are quite decent, and in fact have aged well over a decade's time. The framerate is generally solid, although I did note the occasional slowdown; one short span in the Library, in particular, gave me the sensation that I was on acid and moving at the speed of marshmallow. The game's soundtrack hardly qualified as a memorable addition; the way I see it, music was only there for the purpose of having music in the game. Sound effect use was fine, although there were definitely some technical issues happening. Sometimes effects would have echoes, while other times not, even if I was standing in the exact same place performing the exact same action. Random reverb is not exactly the norm in life. As well, the North American version of this game was provided with voice acting, something mysteriously absent in the Japanese edition. But that doesn't mean this version is superior; the voice acting ranges from tolerable to unacceptably laughable. Many characters are just dull to listen to; others, such as Wallace, the owner of the single town's supply warehouse, sounds similar to a demon-ridden New Yorker. Of course, it hardly helps that the script is so lame (as agreed upon by both Beverley and myself). Perhaps even the voice actors thought so: the on-screen text and speech do not always match. I won't even get into some spelling errors (thru instead of through; too instead of to), though a grammar buff such as myself does not take too kindly to this.

Lastly, I must declare that the game's difficulty is ultimately determined by several factors. If you are wise in approaching enemies, you can sneak barely within their vision range and lure one at a time, your life can be a lot easier. However, magical enemies seem to have the upper hand: their spells can go through walls and hurt you before you even see them. Actually, same goes for a few physical attacks as well. How do slingshot pellets fly through cliff walls and hit you in the face? To find this out, we asked a local physicist if this could happen in real life.

"Uh..."

There you have it. It's just not possible. However, you can definitely get yourself stronger so that formerly difficult situations end up being far more pleasant. Yeah, that's right. I'm talking about the ancient art of leveling up. I actually found two wonderful places to level up easily, one of which allowed me to secretly level up by about 27 levels within a few hours (Sneaky, perhaps, but I needed all the HP and MP I could possibly get. Seriously.), and other well-hidden in a not-so-hidden but not-so-easily-accessible hellish bonus dungeon, where I eventually was able to go up another 25 levels within a very brief 15-minute period by increasing by one level after killing a giant chicken with one stab. Video games are art. But... why do I keep getting experience even after I max out everything?