Eternights is a hack-and-slash action game that seamlessly mixes in dating game elements. Styled like a modern anime, players take control of the self-named protagonist in a rush to prevent catastrophe in a post-apocalyptic world, while finding love along the way. With a mix of many different elements, Eternights manages to execute on all of its fronts pretty well to create a game for older audiences that’s pretty unique to play.
Eternights opens on our protagonist, who is trying to find love on multiple dating sites with the help of his best (and presumably only) friend Chani. The next day, an apocalyptic event sees most of the world turning into strange, mutated zombies. After having his arm cut off and becoming the avatar of a strange god, our protagonist finds himself and his friends new and old caught in the middle of a battle between two ancient beings. Being quite literally one of the last guys on earth puts you in an excellent position for dating.
One of the things I like about Eternights right off the bat is the seamless way they integrate humorous writing and adult themes with their gritty, sometimes terrifying presentation. The dialogue writing is not exactly what I’d call a modern epic, but feels smooth, humorous and modern in its presentation. I believe that the characters talking are really young adults who might say these things.
Comedic and somewhat raunchy moments break the tension between scenes of surprisingly interesting body horror and nightmarish gore. The enemies in the game are supremely creepy-looking, disgusting amalgamations of flesh or physics that should not be made out of what were once human beings. This aspect of the game is an absolute highlight for me, as I was and am a big fan of John Carpenter’s The Thing and all things body horror continue to delight.
The horror aspects go beyond the enemies, with real moments of gorey visuals and dramatic violence thrown in throughout the game. This is especially true in some of the amazingly animated 2D cutscenes, which had me convinced that Eternights was adapted from an anime series (it isn’t, as far as I can tell.) These super dramatic cutscenes mix in well with the humor of the game to create an experience that doesn’t feel like it takes itself too seriously, but isn’t afraid to be blunt about the reality of the setting you’re in either.
Another great tool Eternights has for presentation is the soundtrack, which can easily jump from chill jazzy beats to intense electronica on a moment’s notice. The variety of music present in the game never fights the setting, with each song and genre feeling like it fits in just as well as the others. The music can be subtle at times, hard to notice, or it can be at the forefront of your mind. I found the latter particularly true during boss fights. It all depends on how the game chooses to use its score within that moment.
The gameplay is rather simple, lacking in any complex mechanics but making clever use of several systems. Combat is your sort of standard hack and slash where combo attacks and precise dodging are rewarded with the use of special abilities. These abilities have to be used to break the guard of bosses, creating a sort of tense opening segment to battles where you have to carefully dodge to build up your guard break before you can actually hurt the bosses. I kind of enjoyed this feature, it gave boss fights a sort of tense pacing that I couldn’t just spam attacks to get through, without making them so difficult that I died over and over and over again, like a FROMSOFT game.
I wasn’t in love with the dodging side of combat, which rewards you for perfectly timing your dodge to avoid enemy attacks. Like most games, enemy attacks have both a visual and sound indicator to warn you of the oncoming damage. However I found that the visual warning was a little off, and if you relied on it you would often be too late and would eat a hit. It was difficult retraining myself to use sound indicators over visual warnings, but I did eventually get the hang of it.
The dating sim side of the game allows you to build relationships with several different characters, with certain dialogue options either increasing their opinion of you or building your personality in certain directions. This cleverly ties back into gameplay, with your relationships and personality stats giving you access to new abilities. Gameplay is split up into two sections, with long combat and puzzle-filled dungeons and then downtime where you interact with your party, and the fact that both intertwine and create joint progression makes the entire game feel neatly connected.
The dating sim aspects of the game work not only because it ties back to combat, but because the characters are interesting and likeable. The fact that you want to interact with each and every one of them can make building relationships a fun and breezy process, and it can also make choosing who to go with a difficult decision. This is made all the harder by the fact that you have to juggle which abilities you want access to as well. With cutscenes that change based on your chosen relationships, I can easily imagine players going back for multiple playthroughs of Eternights just to pursue different love interests.
The Final Word
Eternights is a humorous and raunchy adult dating sim that cleverly fuses itself with a grim action adventure. Good comedy writing combines itself seamlessly with the dark reality of the setting, presented through beautifully designed levels and masterfully animated cutscenes. Everything in Eternights meshes together wonderfully, and if you’re a fan of anime you’re sure to enjoy what this game has to offer.
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Try Hard Guides was provided with a PC review copy of this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! Eternights is available on Steam, Epic Games and PlayStation.