Well, I have finished the main story campaign for Another Eden. There's more main campaign ahead, but it's more like DLC. I figured now would be a time to discuss the plot, characters, and similarities to Chrono Trigger. WARNING: SPOILERS!!!
The Story:
Our main hero Aldo is forced to travel through three different historical eras in order to save spacetime from collapsing on itself via timequakes. He is at first manipulated into altering history for a better future by an enigmatic Phantom, but later learns this only hastened the destruction of spacetime. This Phantom serves as the main antagonist.
The World:
The game is divided into three eras: Antiquity (20000BC), Present (300AD), and Future (1100AD).
The Present is a time of war, in which humans fight against Beastmen (Interestingly enough, a common plot in this game is that humans abuse the planet and squander resources while both robots and Beastmen live in harmony with the planet). Magical items called Prisma are unique to this era and are empowered with elemental energy (Earth, Fire, Wind, Water), and are a part of everyday life.
The Antiquity is an era mixing magical kingdoms and dinosaur-like creatures. The largest kingdom, Palisfal, has a corrupt king guided by a mysterious Oracle, and the two plot to control the timeline and change it for their own interests. This era also has four elemental deities representing the four elements, who live in seclusion.
The Future is a time when the planet is corrupted, forcing humans to live on floating, high-tech islands. Humans fight against robots, called Synth-Humans, with the Synth-Human goal of eradication of the human race (in order to heal the planet). The Prisma so common in the Present no longer exists, but the human-created artificial Xeno-Prisma is used to help make the islands float.
Last, there is Spacetime Rift -- a strange place that exists outside of time. It is, quite literally, a recreation of the End of Time from Chrono Trigger. It has cobblestone streets, lamplight, a bucket, pillars of light used to time travel, a mysterious creature that can be fought and grows stronger as the party grows stranger, etc.
The Main Cast:
ALDO, FIENNE, and PROFESSOR CHRONOS:
A boy and his sister found abandoned in a forest as babies around the year 300AD. They are adopted by the kindly mayor of Buruoki Village, where Aldo joins the village guard. When they are 16 years old, Fienne is kidnapped by the Beastmen. This sets off the events of the game, with a large portion of the second act dedicated to finally freeing Fienne from the violent Beastmen.
We later learn that Aldo and Fienne come from the far future and are the children of Professor Chronos, a researcher for time travel. Aldo's real name is Eden, and I can't recall nor find (on the internet) Fienne's real name. Anyway, the Professor knew that the future was doomed and wanted to fix history, so he developed mysterious special powers known as GeoPrisma and put them within his children with the intent that they would be able to save the planet if they traveled back in time.
Professor Chronos, his cat, and his two children then time traveled to Antiquity, but he was separated from his children and cat during transit. He arrived in the year 20000BC while the other three went to roughly 300AD. Without the GeoPrisma contained within his children, he continued his research and became the enigmatic Oracle that advises the king of Palisfal in order to manipulate history so that the planet is not destroyed.
Early in his adventure, Aldo is manipulated by a ghost-like Phantom into changing history so that the planet isn't destroyed, and he erases that timeline. This only leads to horrible timequakes that hasten the destruction of space-time, so he is forced to undo the timeline changes, return the future to it's somewhat dire state, and try and find another solution.
Eventually, the truth is revealed -- Aldo isn't the son of Professor Chronos. The enigmatic Phantom is! Like his father, he was separated during the initial time travel journey and was lost to the Dimensional Vortex (similar to the Darkness Beyond Time) and lived for infinity, eventually growing angry and desiring to see history undone and all of space-time destroyed. He is defeated, and upon his death once again finds love and kindness.
But the question remains -- who, then, is Aldo? He is in fact the family cat that time traveled, and magically turned into a human. He is thus the namesake of the game... he is "another" Eden (remember, Aldo's birth name was Eden) and is the cat beyond time and space.
AMY
Originally from the Future, Amy is the blacksmith's daughter in the high-tech city of Elzion. She is a rough and tumble brawler akin to Final Fantasy VII's Tifa, and she is a critical member of the Resistance that fights against the Synth-Humans of the era.
CYRUS
Originally from the Antiquity, he is a frog-knight from the Eastern Lands (not seen in the game), he was once a human but was somehow turned into a frog. I haven't played his sidequests yet, so I know next to nothing about him. However he does have a dual tech with Aldo that is essentially Chrono Trigger's X-Strike.
RIICA
Originally from the Future, she is a customized android with an enigmatic past. Whenever parts of her past start to reveal themselves, her black box deletes them, keeping her past shrouded in secrecy. I haven't done her side quests yet, so I don't know what her entire story is just yet.
HELENA
A Synth-Human from the Future, Helena is a villain that aids the leader of the Synth-Humans. She is spared by Aldo and eventually turns coat to help Aldo, believing that Humans aren't as horrible as she was led to believe.
THE RIFTBREAKER
A giant attack vessel built by the Synth-Humans, it is eventually commandeered by Aldo. It is a mobile base and is actually a living organism with two main personalities. The ship itself is a brave soul known as Hydra, and the boisterous main cannon known as the Main Cannon. It has the ability to travel anywhere, and can even time travel.
Game Mechanics
The game is a traditional turn-based jRPG. Money (called 'Git') and loot from enemies are used to upgrade weapons and armor as the storyline progresses. Aldo can also gain dozens of allies (I currently have about 60) that can be used in battle. Each ally can learn about seven or eight special abilities (either magical or attack-based), but can only assign three at a time.
The game also regularly releases new content, either in the form of lengthy side quests, mini-games (such as fishing, resource management with the building of a new town, etc), or advances to the main campaign (after the initial ending).
There is a gotcha element to the game, however. The player earns Chronos Stones by logging in daily or by earning various achievements, or they can be bought with real money. These Chronos Stones then be used to recruit new allies via a clocktower at the Spacetime Rift.
These characters are ranked by stars, which indicates their potential for stat growth. Five-star characters are the strongest and rarest to obtain, then four, then three. Some characters can also "class change" and move up a star. This requires considerable grinding, certain rare items ('Tomes'), or the character being recruited multiple times via the random draw mechanic.
Since the game was free, I did pay roughly $30 USD upfront in order to buy some Chronos Stones and try and get strong characters off the bat. I felt that was my "support" for the game and the developers and as a thank you to Kato for Chrono Trigger.
The great thing is that the gotcha element is completely optional, as one can gain Chronos Stones through regular play, just at a slower pace. Oh, and each character also has optional side quests that help flesh out their personality and backstory, so each character comes with roughly an hour of in-game content.
Review
I have probably played this game for about 60 hours at this point, maybe more. I've spent $35 total in the gotcha element and don't feel the need to pay any more. I feel like I can properly review the game at this point.
The story is engaging but nothing mind-blowing (and even has a lot of similarities to one of my own Chrono fanquels). The characters are colorful, interesting, and aplenty (think Chrono Cross' roster times 2.5 or so). There is tons of content, both as part of the main story and the tons of optional content. The battle system is also nothing new or inventive, but that isn't a bad thing at all.
All in all, this isn't a Chrono sequel, and that saddens me... But it is the closest thing that we have to a sequel and is very much a spiritual successor, and for that it is absolutely worth playing, if only for the main campaign. I don't think we will ever see a Chrono Trigger sequel, so I think Another Eden will have to suffice. It hands down the best mobile game I've ever played and I enjoy my time with it -- and will continue playing it for time to come.
