[Review] Aeternoblade – Nintendo Switch

Aeternoblade
Nintendo Switch

Developed By : Corecell Technology
Published By : Corecell Technology
Category : Action, Platformer
Release Date : 02.01.2018

Most of the time, a game’s story is centralized around a character, or group of them. On occasion though, the story can be focused on a key item within the game, and the character simply acting as a vessel to drive the story. Such is the case with Aeternoblade. Typically, when the story focuses on an item or weapon, the story becomes a bit more of an epic. The main character fulfills a sort of prophecy, setting in motion the events of the story by acquiring said weapon/item. That is not the case with this game.

Aeternoblade follows Freyja as her village is destroyed and her tribe is slaughtered by Lord Beladim. In the opening cutscene of the game, Freyja herself meets her demise at his hands, until the titular blade transports her back in time one week, giving her a chance at redemption. Her path crosses with Vernia who guides her in the use of the blade and its time-warping abilities. With the blade, Freyja must travel across many dimensions, mastering it’s abilities and finding a way to destroy Beladim before her village and tribe are lost once and for all.

While the game touts platforming, combat, and even a bit of Metroidvania, all these elements come off quite lacking. The scenery has 3-D depth to it, but you’ll only move sideways on a single plane as you slice enemies down, navigate platforms and ledges, and explore alternate routes. But, you won’t have much trouble doing any of that.

Combat feels very stiff, with enemies hardly living up to that term. The only time I really took damage was if I took just a bit too long setting up for my own attack. You’ll fight all sorts of demons, some directly summoned by Beladim himself, but they go down without much of a problem. They’re slow in their movements and attacks, killed with a single combo of your basic attacks.

Platforming is extremely simple, jumping across basic ledges and gaps. The Metroidvania aspect of the game ties in mostly with the platforming in an attempt to extend the use of the blades time abilities. Except to utilize them (if you want to), you’ll be back-tracking through the the majority of a level just to do so. It can be pretty fun combining your skills with what the blade can do, but don’t expect an amazing payoff every time, or even some of the time.

So, what exactly can this blade do? To name a couple, you can manually rewind time if and when you die, and you can stop/reverse time for everything around you. The former is a great way to give the player some mulligans, making you feel less like you need to “perfect” while playing the game since there’s a bit of wiggle room for error. The latter is fun to use and…well that’s really it. It’s a quirky way to have your own back if you manage to get bogged down in a fight, while it also gives some of the platforming sections a puzzley feel.

Visually, Aeternoblade isn’t all that stunning. The opening cutscene looks and feels like it was built in the N64 era, and once it’s over the rest of the game feels the same way. A few years ago, this game was launched on the 3DS, and has now been re-released in the hopes of extending it’s fanbase to justify a sequel. After playing it myself, I’m not sure what side of the fence I stand on. I see the promise this game could have, but it felt like it was literally just copy and pasted from the 3DS to the Switch without even polishing anything up. Yet despite seeing the promise for a sequel to this game, the dry story and stiff character movements has the back of my mind echoing one word : Why?