Marvelous Entertainment's new role-playing game, Eternal Anima, is poised to make a significant impact in 2027 with its innovative approach to turn-based combat and a compelling time-travel narrative. The game, first showcased during a Nintendo Direct presentation, blends familiar JRPG elements with a unique mechanic that allows players to manipulate time, fundamentally altering both combat and character development.
Set in the world of Urvis Ael, a land where hope for a better future is suppressed, players control Wade, a soldier with the ability of Psychometry. This power allows him to read memories from the past and glimpse future events. Branded a heretic for his abilities, Wade embarks on a journey through time to alter the past and shape a new future.
Eternal Anima's Psychometry manifests in two key gameplay systems. The first, "Inherit Wisdom," enables Wade to absorb classes and abilities by recovering memories embedded in artifacts. This allows for a highly customized playstyle, letting players combine various classes to complement their party members. The second system, "Future Sight," directly impacts turn-based battles. It presents enemy actions and their predicted outcomes on a visible timeline. Players can strategically react to these future events by defending, attacking, or healing, knowing exactly when and how allies might be endangered.
Future Sight adds a dynamic layer to combat by allowing players to disrupt enemy actions. By concentrating attacks on a foe, players can 'Knock Back' their actions further down the timeline, potentially delaying or even removing them from the turn order entirely. This mechanic forces a reevaluation of standard RPG combat strategies, encouraging players to utilize less time-intensive actions to set up more powerful moves later in the sequence or to proactively mitigate incoming damage.
The game also features a cast of well-developed supporting characters, including the warrior Neria, the automaton MOS, and the magic-user Martin. These fully voiced characters add personality to the narrative, and their individual stories are expected to be explored throughout the game. The development team includes industry veterans who have worked on titles such as Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy: Origins, and Monster Hunter Stories, as well as scenario writers from the Final Fantasy, Persona, and Phoenix Wright franchises.
Eternal Anima is slated for release on March 4, 2027, for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. With its blend of retro JRPG aesthetics and forward-thinking gameplay mechanics, Eternal Anima is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated RPGs of 2027.