Aeterna Noctis is a game with the metroidvania subgenre, developed and distributed by the studio Aeternum Game Studio SL It was released on December 14, 2021 for consoles ps4, PS5, xbox series, Xbox One and to pchis arrival at the nintendoswitch It would be delayed just under a year, thus reaching the eshop on November 4, 2022.
Aeterna Noctis introduces us to the world of aeterna with a 2D mode, with cinematics and some amazing scenarios that will undoubtedly leave more than one person who plays the title amazed. However, like all good metroidvania, this one has its certain degree of difficulty, since despite showing an “easy” gameplay, it can become quite complicated in some sections of the game.
Before starting this review, we must thank the study Aeternum Game Studio SL for letting us test such a wonderful title on the console nintendoswitch. With that being said, let’s get started with the review.
Aeterna Noctis Trailer
History of Aeterna Noctis
“Time is a canvas, and my hand is its brush…”
The game welcomes us with an amazing and interesting introduction that takes us into the world of aeternawhich was created by a being called «Chaos«. Chaos He is the divinity that created an infinity of universes, to then create life and give them consciousness so that they were free to do what they wanted, trusting that they would preserve the peace that he granted them.
However, this would not last long in the world of aeternasince two beings raised their weapons against each other, with the intention of breaking the balance that Chaos had established, but what they did not know was that Chaos he would not let simple beings disturb the balance that he had created, so as punishment he condemned them with immortality, thus having to fight until the end of time to rule aeternathat’s how he king of darkness and the queen of light they would fight for several cycles without rest, or that’s what Chaos I intended, well, one day….
gameplay of Aeterna Noctis
The gameplay within Alternate Noctics It doesn’t differ much from other games with the same genre, however, it adds new modalities with which you will have to think a lot and change or defend yourself quickly against some boss or enemy.
Despite not having several elements that increase your mobility within the game (not counting the teleports that you find around the map), this is replaced by adding more weapons that will help you kill your enemies more easily. This could be because the king of darkness He boasts in the game of finishing off his enemies and almost no mention is made that he rejects or flees from a duel.
Within our weapons we can find a sword (our base weapon), an axe, a spear, a sickle/scythe, a shield that will help us protect ourselves from a blow from a character for a short time.
As a distance weapon we will have a small orb that will have 4 variants, the first being an orb of light that will launch projectiles of light, which we will have to aim to damage our enemies, the second a blue orb that will help us teleport from a place to another, having a medium range, the third is a dark orb that works the same as the orb of light, but with the difference that it can be used in dark areas, and finally a red orb that will absorb blood to fire a powerful charged attack.
Visual Section and Content Details of Aeterna Noctis
The visual section of Aeterna Noctis It is undoubtedly one of the best I have seen in a video game with 2D aesthetics, since each scenario will be complemented by the area in which you are, taking as an example the initial area where we will find various houses, the interior of castles which They will have pictures of characters and will be stylized maintaining the atmosphere of the place, mine areas and crystal areas, which will have structures and gems which indicate that the place was exploited by beings, among many more scenarios.
Some flaws you find in the performance of Aeterna Noctis There are some bugs when receiving damage, because on some occasions this will cause your character to not be able to advance normally and therefore affect you when you are against a boss, when going from one zone to another there are occasions in which your character simply crosses the limit , causing your character to take damage and, if you are low on health, end up sending you to a checkpoint.
The following section has spoilers for the story of Aeterna Noctisso if you are playing it or plan to play it, we recommend you go straight to the conclusion, but if you want to know how this fantastic story unfolds, keep reading.
———————————Spoilers for Aeterna Noctis———————————
The responsibility of a father
Aeterna Noctis makes us think that he king of darkness He is a superior, arrogant and selfish being, wow, he describes him as the worst of the worst, alluding to his dark element.
However, it must not be forgotten that the King of Darkness, before being an immortal being, he was an ordinary mortal who felt the same as the others, we can see this reflected later in the game, when they show us that the king of darkness he gets tired of everything, of the battles, of the war, of the cycles, of the desire to be in power, because they do not show him sitting on his throne without wanting to fight with the queen of light.
This triggers both of them to realize that there is another way apart from war, and that is love, which helps calm things down and results in the creation of the “gray soul”, the son of both kings, who does not it was neither dark nor light. This itself makes the King worry, forcing him to investigate more about the nature of his son. The King visits the Oracle, who mentions that when his son is born, one of the two will die, as one of the commandments of Chaos is that “there can only be a King of Darkness and a Queen of Light«.
Concerned, the King asks the Oracle to tell him some way to change this destiny, because this would mean losing his beloved and fighting with his daughter or making him die and his son fighting with his mother. It is in this way that the king of darkness will do the impossible to change the destiny dictated by its creator Chaos.
References
Now let’s talk about some small references that I was able to find throughout my adventure in the world of aeterna, the veracity of these may vary depending on whether the author accepts them or not. That being said, here are some winks:
Twilight Saga:
Those who are not fans of the saga will agree with the comment of the King of Darkness
Indiana Jones Saga:
With this we verify that, indeed, the video game is cinema:
conclusion of Aeterna Noctis
play Aeterna Noctis It has been a totally satisfactory experience and one that I would certainly repeat again, since the animations and narrations are marvellous, since they help the player to delve deeper into the world of Aeterna, the only thing I would like would be for them to release a patch to cover and improve the aforementioned details.
If what you want is to have an adventure with a high level of difficulty and with a story that will move you as you go along, without a doubt Aeterna Noctis It will be your ideal game to get addicted for a few hours. My name is BlackDemon020 and I’ll see you in a next review.