- Some very tactical PvP ideas
- A gacha you don’t need to spend a fortune on
- But it will require a large time investment
Despite the overwhelming success of HoYoverse games, it’s quite unexpected to find a large number of direct rivals to Honkai: Star Rail on mobile platforms, particularly since turn-based RPGs are ideally suited for phones. However, with XD Entertainment’s Etheria: Restart now available, I’ve had the chance to put it through its paces thoroughly.
In the year 2197, following a harsh global freeze that left Earth in ruins, humanity has sought refuge in Etheria, a digital realm. Unsurprisingly, viruses emerge and are manipulated by anti-Etheria factions. That’s where our tale unfolds. As a Hyperlinker, you’re under the supervision of an Agent, leading a squad of Animuses in their mission to safeguard the internet. Essentially, it’s a classic sci-fi adventure.
Exploration with a stylish twist
There are two gameplay modes, although you will become much more acquainted with one of them. The first is exploration. You will run around maps going from story beat A to B while collecting treasure. Straightforward, but XD have thrown in two little features that make this more interesting.
In your arsenal is a grappling hook that assists in traversing specific locations. It doesn’t reveal hidden areas, but it adds an exciting element to your journey. Additionally, you can take cover and surprise attack enemies, instantly defeating them. This action skips the experience points you would usually earn from combat, but it provides another fun aspect to explore, leading us nicely into the primary focus of Etheria: its intense combat system.
Your standard combat mechanics with some nice signposting
As mentioned, this is a turn-based game, so you know what to expect. You select four or five units, depending on the mode, and then proceed to tactically plan every turn or spam your powerful moves. What I really appreciated was that each skill has a tag telling you what it does, like Single Damage, Taunt, CD Reduction and so forth. When you have dozens of characters to remember, it’s nice to have that little prompt.
Apart from a few unique character mechanics such as Tiamat transforming under specific circumstances, XD doesn’t offer anything exceptionally fresh compared to other turn-based RPGs. While it’s challenging to bring novelty to this genre, I wish they had attempted something more original.
Prior to engaging in combat, it’s essential that you equip your team appropriately. Fortunately, XD provides you with abundant resources to call upon characters at the onset. Notably, you are initially bestowed with an SSR-ranked character, Lian, who turns out to be exceptionally powerful and remains a vital member of my team.
A gacha you can play without requiring a massive monetary investment
You can equip your team with your standard armour sets that can confer bonuses to your ATK, or increase healing. More importantly, though, are the Shells. These adorable little mascots float by your characters and occasionally perform helpful little actions like attacking foes or advancing your next turn.
We all know the worst part of gachas is having to collect multiple copies of the same rare character to buff them. Etheria does have this, but happily, the gains you get from that here aren’t game-changing. You can happily chug along with your one copy of a character, and you won’t miss much. The majority of your stat building will be done by enhancing your three skills using mostly farmable materials. It is a fantastic choice that allows free players to create properly powerful teams. You can also promote any character up to the maximum six-star rank. Your SR characters might not have as good a suite of skills as the SSRs, but it is great that you have that choice.
One mode I need to shine a light on is the PvP offerings. You have the usual fights against computer-controlled teams of other players’ characters, which is ok, but the Summit Arena is amazing. It is real-time combat, where, before the fight, you take turns picking five characters. There can be no duplicates between the two teams, and then you each void one of the opponent’s options to leave a 4v4. It is an incredibly fun tactical challenge before the fighting even begins. I love it.
It feels like XD is actively trying to stop you from experiencing it. To begin with, you can’t enter the main stage if your Stability is too low, and no game should stamina-lock the main campaign. I know it happens a lot, but it’s a feature I dislike in general, especially in an RPG where the story should be one of the biggest draws.
The first time I encountered this level lock was Chapter 5. I was level 8 and it needed level 10, so I grinded. I reached the requirement and completed the level, then suddenly Chapter 6 demanded a level of 13. Now, for Chapter 7, you need to be level 20, with material grinding being pretty much your only method of levelling up. Seeing as most people will use the Continuous Battle to auto-complete these, it’s not an engaging process.
In simpler terms, it seems that Etheria’s progression system is excessively limiting our advancement from the start. Instead of grinding content early on to make progress in the main story, it would be more enjoyable if we could proceed at a faster pace. I find myself barely into double digits and it gives off an impression of either poor game design or an attempt to push players towards spending money to regain stamina, neither of which is desirable.
Read More
2025-06-12 17:18