Ends of the Earth
A Retrospective by Aethereal
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Every now and then, a game will be released that ages quite well in the following years, despite the more technologically advanced games that are available. Classics such as Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger are perfect examples of this phenomenon. There are a few people out there who will stand by Valkayree Productions' Ends of the Earth as another game that has aged well, but comparing this game side by side to more modern OHRRPGCE games shows how poorly the game has aged.

That is not to say the game has lost all its value; far from it, in fact. That is why I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is an OHRRPGCE game everyone should play through once. The less important reason for my recommendation is that Ends of the Earth, when it was released, was a groundbreaking game for the engine and was certainly the best game available for it at the time. Therefore, playing through it would be a good experience for any designer to see what used to be considered 'amazing' and should generally be avoided nowadays. The more important reason, however, is that the game has two very well-designed cities (Ocethep and Concorde) that are still among the best cities seen on the engine, and the Summoner's Castle is still one of the greatest dungeons the engine has ever seen (imagine the reactions to it back when this was first released).

Since they number few, I'm going to start off with the good points that the game still has. Ocethep and Concorde, two of the main cities in the game, are some of the best designed cities seen in an OHRRPGCE game. Sure, if you think about it, the basic structure behind each city is cliche, but in too many games you see too many mundane cities or towns that all look alike (except for the layout) and have inhabitants that all look they're related. Ocethep and Concorde really broke the mold here (and, in a sense, Birka too, but I'm focusing on the more interesting cities); they had completely unique styles and appropriate inhabitants. Ocethep's watery terrain and aquatic creatures are quite different from Concorde's bright colors and winged creatures. These cities are an example of what should be seen more often, as far too many games are plagued by towns that are copies of one another.

The other major pro the game still has today is the final true dungeon, the Summoner's Castle. One of the hardest, largest, and greatest mazes the engine has ever seen, the castle has many sections that must be completed in a certain order, as switches in one section will affect a completely different section of the maze. It's also filled to the brim with strong enemies, so not only do you have to figure out a lengthy maze with a puzzle, you have to do it while trying to stay alive. It does use the generic "elements" thing, but that doesn't take away from its grandeur in any way. As Valkayree put it in the credits, it is a "long ass castle".

I know I'm making it sound like the game is still great amongst today's great OHRRPGCE games, but now it's time to get to the parts of the game that have aged horribly and show it. The first and most obvious is the amateurish presentation. The text boxes are horribly formatted and filled to the brim with text. Now, if I remember correctly, this game was made when the OHRRPGCE only allowed 999 text boxes. However, I'm fairly confident the formatting could have been cleaned up significantly without going over the limit. The dialogue also needed some proofreading, and, perhaps most amateurish of all, the character names were not consistently spelled the same way. Azalahad's name was also seen spelled as 'Alzahad', 'Azalhad', etc. Equuis' name was also seen as 'Equiss', etc. It's all quite bad considering the standards of today.

Not helping the poor presentation is the story, or rather, lack thereof. The story basically details the adventures of Centaurus, the only centaur living in the village of Birka. He leaves the village in search of others like himself, and eventually follows the trail of an evil centaur named Caramawn, who wants to destroy the world for some unknown reason. Very few of Centaurus' allies have any real motive for joining him; the only one that makes sense is Azalahad. You sometimes have to figure out what to do without very much help, and there is no world map until the very end of the game, and that world map only allows you to access new areas, not return to old ones (not that there's much of a reason to backtrack). Perhaps the worst part of the story is the bridge on the world map that requires you to sacrifice one of your teammates to continue across. This is only to make room for Archangel, who joins in the Summoner's Castle and joins for absolutely no reason. It's dumb because it paves the way for an overpowered character with no story, and requires you to give up a guy you might have trained for a good while (or, in the case of smart gamers, just give up Areolys, since he just joined at level 0 shortly before this. Poor guy). The end of the story, before the big bad final boss fight, is as cliched as anything I've ever seen at first, and then surprisingly original just before the final fight. I'm going to avoid spoiling it, even though 90% of you probably already know what happens.

The gameplay was fairly good for the time, but nowadays the game is a real chore to play. All new characters start on level 0 (yes, including Archangel) and the battles boil down to mashing the spacebar until you win, maybe throwing out a cure spell or an attack spell every once in a while. At the very beginning, the battles are impossible with Centaurus alone, and require Shadow (a hidden character) to get past. If you don't get Shadow (as I forgot to in this playthrough), you're forced to run from every battle until you get Azalahad. Overall, with the exception of the beginning (unless you found Shadow), the game is fairly easy to get through. The last few boss battles, notably Ram, are pretty tough though. Like many games, however, levelbusting will get you through them.

The music and graphics are acceptable, and even above the average crap you see/hear these days. Even so, the graphics are still slightly dated looking (keep in mind these were considered amazing back in the day), with the exception of the large bosses. The large scale bosses, even today, hold their own in the "awesome" category, as they take up several sprites and look quite good (see: Datholys, Gohrahn Dragon, Caramawn). In general, however, the graphics don't hold a candle to games like Sword of Jade or anything created by Friend. Generally, the same can be said for the music; most of it is well placed and fits alright, and the battle music has a nice kick to it, but the boss music is awfully boring. There are hits and misses in these two categories but they don't show their age nearly as much as the presentation, story, and gameplay.

So, really, that's what Ends of the Earth is: a good game slaughtered by its age and its inability to hold up to the games of today. I would recommend playing the sequel instead of this one if you want to choose between the two, even though the sequel wasn't as groundbreaking and has some ripped graphics. The original does have its merits, and should be played once by everyone, as it is certainly one of the most important games released and was groundbreaking for its time, but that's all it is: a relic of the past that has no place amongst the modern era of the OHRRPGCE.