Almost Everything You Wanted to Know About End of Eternity...

I know this translation has been a long time coming, but I finally got around to getting it done.

As you are likely already aware, End of Eternity is the first joint RPG project between RPG developer tri-Ace and publisher Sega, due out sometime this winter in Japan for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

End of Eternity is set in a giant machine city known as Basel. The game takes place almost completely within Basel’s mechanical compound, from its upper level tower to its lower living areas, the story reportedly never takes you out of the city’s metallic confines.

Background
Basel was created as a desperate attempt to save humanity from the poisoned deterioration of the Earth. It was supposed to protect and govern human life, and people willingly set themselves under its supervision.

Eventually, many people flocked to Basel, took up residence, and built themselves a city. However, the machines slowly began to deteriorate themselves, becoming corrupted like the world outside.

People forgot the truth of the past, and, secluded in their self-made tiny world, began to repeat the past.

Inside Basel and the People that Live There
When Basel was initially constructed, humanity possessed a highly advanced technological society. However, after confining themselves within the structure, this knowledge was eventually lost, and there are currently few who hold any knowledge related to the mechanical metropolis.

That said, there are still ongoing construction projects with Basel, and people live thanks to Basel’s grace. Through its power generation plants, street lights function, television broadcasts are relayed, and other important functions are possible. It seems that the standard of living is not all that bad.

The Scriptures and the Cardinals
The people of Basel believe in a single faith that they have based on a set of ancient writings that they brought with them. This religion’s leading class are known as “Cardinals,” and are distinguishable by their unique robes.
Originally, the religion was centered around a pope, but authority was assumed by a man named Roen after the pope’s death.

Characters: the girl who bids farewell to fate, and the men who shoulder the past

Subject #20 (19)
Soon after her birth, this young woman was raised as a live test subject in a kind of reaserch facility and named Subject #20. Due to a certain experiment she was involved in, she has been set to die exactly 20 years after her birth. Knowing that her remaining life is nearing its end, she escapes from the facility and chooses to end her own life before her 20th birthday in an attempt to defy her fate.

Zephyr (17)
A young man raised in a facility, Zephyr causes an incident several years earlier that brings a man named Vashyron on assignment to suppress it. During that incident, he received what should have been a fatal blow from Vashyron, but somehow escaped without a single scratch. Currently, he lives with Vashyron as a PMF.

Vashyron (26)
A former military officer who currently lives with Zephyr, Vashyron works as a PMF. He met Zephyr as an assignment to suppress a violent young man. Though he is a survivor of the Cardinals’ subordinate armed forces that were annihilated in a large scale battle, he rarely speaks of his past.

PMF
Short for Private Military Firms, PMF originally referred to hired mercenary soldiers, however the word has recently come to refer individuals who take many sorts of job requests, such as intelligence gathering or goods exchanges, regardless of battle.

Currently, only Zephyr and Vashyron have been confirmed as playable characters.

Grid-divided fields and gun-heavy battles
In EoE, movement on the field is very different from movement within dungeons.

The overworld map is divided up in a hexagonal-celled grid with your party appearing as a sort of symbol. As your party moves across the grid, it has a certain probability of encountering enemies on each cell. By contrast, movement in dungeons is very much as you’d expect a modern JRPG to handle, with your characters visible and controllable in a third-person view, with enemies also visible. Engaging enemies in a dungeon transitions you into battle mode seamlessly.

Battles are played out in semi-real time, with the player taking direct control of one member of your team of up to 3 characters. While your character is performing any action, the game’s time proceeds normally, but stops when your character is stopped, allowing for strategic planning on the fly.

It has been made known that there will be some sort of dynamic between the positioning of your characters, as well as some sort of element that will enable certain special attacks, but we don’t have any details on exactly what those might be yet.

Additionally, the current release shows the playable characters engaged against living machines (?) and biotic weapons, but we are not sure what their true identities are yet.

I think you might also be interested to note that the battle screens list a playable character name of something like Leenbelle (Riinberu), but don’t actually picture her or him. Possibly the next revealed playable character?

End of Eternity will be available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sometime this winter in Japan.