As for gameplay mechanics, Eredia: The Diary of Heroes employs a four-party, change turn battle system. Change turn is based on agility, so the fastest act first and may act again before a slower combatant. There is also a class system, as each character is assigned a class with its own Fighting Styles. Kenrad, a hunter, will gain Fighting Styles that are typically based on dealing damage and defeating enemies to build up technique points (TP) for skill use. Only one Style can be chosen at a time, providing a bit of strategy to play. Each character will also unlock a set of Specials, which combine two or more skills if you have the TP. And lastly, different Traits become available, improving specific stats. The Styles and Traits available offer a touch of variation to play, but ultimately it comes down to leveling up your characters enough to progress.
Outside of combat and quests, there are other familiar RPG extras too. Loads of weapons and equipment to collect, setting runes into equipment for buffs, crafting in the forms of forging and alchemy, an arena that hosts duels, seasonal tournaments, and an annual tournament, and again, an entire continent to explore. You may easily find yourself diverging from the main quest for hours on end with how much there is to do and see.
One last mechanic to mention is the time system. Time is always moving forward and specific events will occur on specific dates. Festivals that offer rare items and equipment, the annual and seasonal tournaments, and auctions all occur on specific dates. Taking a time-sensitive quest means racing against time to complete it for risk of failure and, in some instances, tragedy. Time moves fastest on the world map, conveying the length of journey and size of the world. Resting at inns means spending hours to recover. Time plays a major factor in many facets of the game, so staying on top of it is crucial.
Overall, I would rate the quality of Eredia: The Diary of Heroes’ gameplay and its implemented mechanics as satisfactory. Combat is easy to master, the ways to keep busy during play are mostly strong, and the extras such as tournaments are a nice touch. I also found the time system well implemented, adding a bit of desperation to certain quests. And again, I appreciate the variety and uniqueness of certain quests, such as the investigative and puzzle based ones. However, there are several flaws and issues I encountered as well. For one, while the calendar item has a fair amount of detail in highlighting events, some events are only mentioned by NPCs, and so I wish new events could be added as you learn of them to keep better track. I also have issue with the annual events, such as festivals. An in-game year is a huge chunk of play time, so having multiple chances for events would make the experience less aggravating should you miss them.
Another more significant complaint I have regards difficulty and balance. Given the length of the entire campaign, I can understand how troublesome it must have been to find a balance in growth and difficulty. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that balance is achieved, as I frequently found myself underpowered. Even if I met the recommended levels for main and side quests, I still found myself outmatched far too often, needing to grind. This is especially true for bosses, as their strength levels are often mismatched with the difficulty of the maps they’re placed in. Along similar lines, I also took issue with leveling. It felt as if level-ups failed to grow the characters significantly and I felt about three level-ups in this game would equate to one level-up in others games that achieve a better balance. Not only that, I also found the experience point requirements far too steep. And, this hurts all the more, as non-active party members do not receive experience from battle, furthering the need to grind and catch those other characters up. To add to the tediousness, enemy encounter rates are downright awful; at times far too frequent and random. Many times, sets of battles would start one-after-another within just a few steps. There should have been a minimum time or step count implemented because the ridiculously high encounter rates made me often dread exploring, which stands out extremely in a game heavy on exploration. Lowering the encounter rates overall, increasing the stat gains per level up, decreasing their point requirements or increasing point yields, equal point gains for both active and non-active characters, and adjusting boss strength to tolerable levels would all have served to alleviate the palpable degree of obnoxiousness that is regrettably present during play.
Aside from gameplay, I also wish to address the build quality of the game. Players will be able to play from title to end as I did and for the most part, it will be a manageable experience. But, there will be some frustration along the way. For one, crashes will happen. Not often, but enough to notice, so saving is key. Autosave isn’t a perfect bandage, but it’s much appreciated. There will also be moments of lag and slowdown, though this seems more of an issue with RPG Maker MV and how it handles certain graphical extras, such as lighting effects. This slowdown is especially prevalent when navigating the menu screens, specifically the quest logs. For whatever reason, the more text the quest description possesses, the more slowdown. This is again most likely due to the lighting effects in the backgrounds within these menu screens. This issue also seems independent of graphics card quality, so unfortunately even players with robust rigs will experience some stutters along the way. The bug that stands out the most for me is one in which one or more party members with unequip all of their gear at random. I learned to check my characters and their equipment often because several times I would be grinding away against standard enemies wondering what’s wrong, plus on two occasions, I walked into boss battles with at least one completely helpless character. Build quality is far from perfect, but workable if you have the patience and a resilient temper.
Finally, I wish to discuss Eredia: The Diary of Heroes’ aesthetics. Aside from a few custom visual works and the use of RPG Maker’s character generator, the entirety of Eredia’s visuals are borrowed from RPG Maker’s premade assets and all of the audio assets are taken from RPG Maker and a number of free-to-use composers. That’s not to say the aesthetics aren’t great, on the contrary, the game looks and sounds fantastic. It’s just that only a few pieces of art are original and none of the music was specifically composed for the game. Having said that, the visual assets utilized for the game are well implemented, as the game possesses the fantasy stylings that support the tones of the plot and the overall mood of the game. The audio selection is also noteworthy, borrowing from some of the most popular and talented free-use composers, such as Kevin MacLeod and Makai Symphony, a personal favorite. The music placement is solid and the track selection is equally satisfying. Overall, the aesthetics are acceptable, but here’s to hoping we see less dependency on premade and common use assets and more original aesthetics in the future.
Eredia: The Diary of Heroes is indeed quite the memorable epic and very much a hidden gem. An intriguing set of dramas intertwining, some fantastic characters whom I look forward to revisiting, stellar writing with plenty of humor, and a jam-packed journey that will never leave you bored, Eredia’s entire experience is an impressive one. Although it’s a long way from perfect, it’s most definitely on its way to becoming an exceptional story and series. Eredia: The Diary of Heroes absolutely captivated me, spurring my excitement and desire for its next chapter.
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