Eternal Ring

by Agetec

Product Features

• Play the young magician Cain on a quest to find the ultimate magic ring in this exciting role-playing adventure
• Fight numerous beasts and find ancient magical items supposedly buried long ago
• Enhanced polygon graphics offer an excellent first-person perspective of a 3D world filled with giant dragons and enemies
• Features real-time atmospheric effects like time of day and weather

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004YKHU
• Item Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: October 18, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,534 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #60 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Role-Playing
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

GameSpot Review

Eternal Ring marks From Software's first attempt at the first-person action-RPG genre for the PlayStation2. The game's opening sequence begins with the main character - an adventurer named Cain Morgan - walking through a palace surrounded by water. He notices a glowing object on one of the pedestals and picks up a ring. A dragon immediately swoops down out of the sky, preparing to attack. Cain raises his arms high above his head to ward it off, and the ring blasts the dragon with tremendous force, destroying it utterly. Yes, you're going to want to get more of these rings.

The game itself begins with a narration introducing the character Cain and a background story using a series of pictures that are drawn in a style reminiscent of medieval art. After the narration, you see Cain on a sailboat heading toward an island. Cain and the boatman begin a brief conversation, which you expect to be voiced-over since the narration featured voice, but unfortunately they aren't. Instead you just see characters opening their mouths and moving their lips as the dialogue text scrolls on the bottom of the screen. Despite some lackluster sound effects and the absence of voice-overs, the game's soundtrack does manage to set an appropriate mood and atmosphere of the game.

Eternal Ring runs at a faster frame rate than From Software's previous first-person RPGs (King's Field, King's Field II, and Shadow Tower), which clocked in at 15 to 20 frames per second. In the beginning, your movement is relatively slow, but once you obtain a special object from the first boss, you're able to move faster, and the rate becomes satisfactory.

The graphics in Eternal Ring are a leap from its PlayStation predecessors, but there is still room for improvement. Considering that some of the most recent PS titles (such as Vagrant Story) have been visual marvels, one can't help noticing that the graphics on this PS2 game could've been better. For instance, the faces on many of the characters are very plain. On the other hand, the environments, though not incredibly populated, are really well done. The waterfall inside the caverns and the transitions from daytime to sunset to nightfall really are very impressive looking. The biggest mistake in the game's graphics is the collision detection. When enemies throw projectiles like a stone or even magic spells, your instinct is to hide behind a wall or an object to avoid getting hit. Unfortunately, these projectiles or magic spells go through walls, so you still get hit by them.If you have played From Software's previous first-person RPGs, you'll have an idea as to how Eternal Ring plays - for the most part. The game uses a first-person perspective, and you, as Cain, use a variety of weapons and magic spells to defeat your foes, though more of the latter than the former since the only weapons in this game are swords and you will not come across a whole lot of them. Instead, the game focuses more on the usage of magical spells. While you had a gauge for both weapons and magic spells in King's Field, only magic spells are available in Eternal Ring. The gauge indicates the charge time to cast spells. Magic spells can be obtained by equipping up to ten rings. More than 120 different kinds of spells can be created by producing different combinations of the rings' elemental jewels. Other rings may not provide you with magic spells but instead may enhance your abilities, such as increasing your stats. There are countless combinations for creating rings that have magic spells, and you could spend endless hours trying to complete the entire set. In that sense, there is potential for replay value.

The Dual Shock 2 controller features analog buttons, including the D-pad. The default setting in the game has the analog buttons turned off, and the sensitivity is on 5 (on a scale of 1 to 10). It's really quite necessary to have the analog button turned on and the sensitivity at 1. This makes movements much smoother and faster during gameplay, and you don't have to press the buttons as hard as you do in the default setting. Tapping the attack button during a fight supposedly induces lesser damage compared with pressing the attack button, but the difference was hardly noticeable.

The gameplay though has not changed much since the creation of King's Field, and if you are an expert at the game, then the usual routine of strafing around enemies in a circle and slashing enemies as you approach them still works in Eternal Ring. If you have experience with previous From Software titles, you will probably finish the game in 10 to 15 hours. As you may expect from this genre developed by From Software, there is a good story integrated into the game, but somehow your character, Cain, lacks personality and the ability to interact with the rest of the characters in the game. For instance, in one case Cain watches a man getting killed by a monster and doesn't react in any way.

With more development time, From Software could have polished this game much more, but instead it has arrived feeling rushed. Eternal Ring is definitely a leap from its previous title Shadow Tower and is promising what King's Field IV may offer in the future, but it's certainly not the type of game that pleases every gamer. Avid fans of King's Field and Shadow Tower will likely love Eternal Ring, but others may want to try the game out first.--Ike Sato--Copyright © 1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Product Description

Who Said Fantasies Had To Be Final? A young magician is sent by his King to investigate the strange happenings on the Island of No Return - an island inhabited by numerous beasts and enormous dragons that were supposed to have died long ago. Armed with hi

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars First-person fantasy shooter doesn't live up to PS2 promise, November 24, 2000

By 

Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast" - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Eternal Ring (Video Game)

I'm a huge RPG fan, and got this immediately for the PS2. You are Cain, son of a noble father who wishes to help the King. A typical beginning, and unfortunately the first-person shooter graphics are also of Playstation-One quality, hardly taking advantage of the speed and power of the PS2.

The cut scenes are uninspiring, with mouths moving much longer than it takes to get through the text. The monsters, like tadpoles and wasps, will drop water gems and feather gems for you to collect. The graphics are reasonable, but not up to some of the other PS2 game levels. Really, though, what you seek are the rings.

There are tons of rings in the game, and by equipping combinations of them you can create yourself a great number of spells or powers. Gameplay in this sense is quite intriguing - you can easily get caught up in gathering rings, figuring out which items work best for your style of gameplay, and fight to the end. Combat is reasonably interesting.

In general, though, I play RPG and action games not just to shoot hordes of monsters, but to really get involved with the characters. I just can't care about Cain - he has no personality, and it often seems like just a dungeon crawl (i.e. killing anything in your path) instead of a real game. I think they might have rushed this one to get out in time for the PS2 release, and hope that their next release will spend more time in development.

31 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great game, just a few problems, January 2, 2001

By 

Joman1000 (inside your brain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eternal Ring (Video Game)

Personally I don't see why all you computer geek jerks have to rate a game lousy because it isn't what you would call Shenmue or Final Fantasy. For regular people like me, a game like this is just perfect if you're in a good mood and if you like to get hooked on things. I bought this game at a store for 29.99 and I was proud to add this one to my Playstation 2 archive of games. This game has some of the most creative concepts of an RPG that I have ever seen. Characters have smooth movements and detailed bodies. Backgrounds aren't the best I've ever seen, but they are good. The game runs on a steady 60 frames per second. Sure, it needs analog control, but other than that, it is very fun to play and the controls are easy to learn. The puzzles are somewhat obvious but they are still fun to figure out. If you still don't want to spend the money on this game just yet, rent it first. See if you like it. If you don't, then that's okay. Just don't be a snotty jackass about it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good! Pretty good! Pretty good!, March 10, 2002

By 

Gary L. Hormell (San Pedro, CA. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eternal Ring (Video Game)

I was not going to write a reviewbecause the reviews of some ofthe other reviewers were on target.This game was pretty well thoughtout. If you enjoyed the Kings fieldseries, then you would definitleyenjoy this game. The sealed Labyrinth toward the end of the game provides added thrill and challenge, as you seek to obtainthe AWESOME eternal sword, andspecial unique secret rings thatreally add blossoming effect toyour power and attribute. Thelimited imperfections are really not worth noting. I hope Amazonwill be selling "Kings field IV-The Ancient City" expected out forPlaystation 2 at the end of March.After reading a review of thissoon to become available title,There is much anticipation, especially after completing thisenjoyable eternal ring Quest.