Card games can be pretty niche, and each one tries to bring something different to the table to help it stand out from the rest of the crowd. Eternal Destiny does not do any one thing spectacularly well, but by the same token it does do most things well. I came away enjoying my time spent with this game, despite its handful of lesser flaws.
Or tale here is a basic one where you are a member of an organization tasked with keeping balance between three factions that are at war with one another. Of course over time, it can be a challenge remaining a truly nuetral party and the story is aided by some nice artwork and a surprisingly plentiful amount of voice acting.
The storyline here is a good excuse to learn the game - indeed one could almost look at it like campaign modes in a first person shooter. It is largely there to guide you and serve as a tutorial, with enough text to make it feel somewhat akin to a visual novel. The nice thing is the story also offers some unique scenarios that you would not otherwise find in an even multiplayer game. This extra dose of variety is certainly welcome, because one of the flaws to this game that there is a lot of grinding to be had here. This is not unique to Eternal Destiny, but a trend of this genre.
The offline modes are basically your farming opportunity. You have the campaign, there is a daily dungeon option, a challenge mode and a sort of PvE option of player versus computer. The game is at its best when you are playing online against other players, but it can be difficult to feel as though you are competitive unless you spend some time grinding through the offline modes along the way. The best news is - I did not spy any microtransactions. That is where the grinding comes into play, because you pay for the game and everything is there - you just have to earn it. It is nice to play a game that has this as an option versus so many of the free to play card games that really weigh you down so heavily on the grind of farming that you wind up spending money due to the monotony of it all. I never had that issue here because Eternal Destiny is a paid game that strikes a better balance than that.
As for the game itself, the strategy elements are all quite solid. This is easier to pick up and play than a lot of games out there. Attribute stats are important, but knowing when to trigger a card's specific skills is key to survival. Admittedly some strategies work better than others, or are at least more accessible early on until you get stronger, more complicated cards. The real dynamic is in how you play cards off of one another. Defense is actually one of the most important elements of the game, once you figure out how to best leverage it.
Unfortunately the deck building is a bit more of a slog. The user interface is not terribly well optimized and more often than not I just felt like I was forced to spend more time in there than I probably should have had to. Again, not a deal breaker because the actual construction of decks is a lot of fun - I like trying to come up with new and interesting combinations of cards. This is why I have over forty decks made out of my real life Magic: The Gathering cards. However, some optimization here would have been welcome.
I touched on this earlier, but the presentation is generally solid. I enjoyed most of the anime style artwork, and for those who do not care for censoring, well, there is the Infinita mode that lets you play with uncensored artwork. Unfortunately the framerate does not hold up quite as well. I have a pretty beefy machine, but there was definitely some laggy stuttering frames now and again. Hardly a deal killer, but for a game with so little actual animation, it is curious that the graphics engine is not better optimized, much like the deck building could have been too.
By and large Eternal Destiny gets a lot of things right. I like that there are no microtransactions. Most free to play games say they will let you earn everything in-game, but in reality you will likely die of boredom long before reaching that point. There is still a farming grind to be had here, but it is far better balanced than similar card collection games. The actual combat mechanics are solid and there are a lot of very attractive cards to be collected and I enjoyed improving my decks and taking them up against greater challenges.
Game Information
PC
Developer(s):
Office 5656
Publisher(s):
Degica
Genre(s):
Strategy
Card Game
Mode(s):
Single Player
Multiplayer
Other Platform(s):
None
Article by Nick
