cashew | Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space

I am currently very enamored with this game. I haven't gotten very far, but after four days of intense playing (I'm sequestering post-vaccination and am sore and unproductive), I can start to understand what people mean when they say that this is a gacha game where you do not need to play the gacha.

Another Eden (because The Cat Beyond Time and Space is long and painful to type every time) is a turn-based single-player JRPG using a gacha mechanic to generate party members. If you've ever played a SquareEnix turn-based RPG, you'll feel right at home with the mobile mechanics. Here's what a typical battlefield looks like:

Your active party members (front line) are on the right. The enemy is on the left. The two dimmed slots are your reserves. Each turn, the units execute the command that you selected in the order determined by their speed stat (aka fastest character goes first). At the end of each turn (when battle is still on-going), units in the reserve slots regenerate HP and MP. Repeat ad infinitum until one side loses all of their units. All members in the front line and reserves gain XP for completing the battle.

Reserve members can swap in at any time using the "Swap" command. When reserve units swap in, they auto-cast a swap-in skill called "Valor Chant", which gives either the party a buff or the enemy a debuff. Picking and choosing when to time your swap to activate Valor Chant can turn the tide of the game.

The other gimmick is the Another Force gauge (AF gauge). This mechanic unlocks after you finish Chapter 9 (took me days - and there's some 30+ chapters released so far). The AF gauge is the top right bright bar that you see in the screencap below:

The AF gauge fills up if you strike the enemy. Multi-strikes fill the gauge faster than single strikes. Strikes roll over to the next battle up to 50%. The rest of the gauge needs to be filled in the battle itself. At 50% full, the gauge can be released for a count down, during which all skills cost 0 MP. There's also a combo system that others explained better than I can. In short, unleash the AF gauge and tap on skills in the correct order to achieve insane damage numbers. This is a must for bosses, as some of them have timer count downs so you need to spike them to death with AF combos.

Why do I say that this is a gacha game that doesn't require playing the gacha?

Because the story campaign gives you all the units you need to succeed. First, the main character, Aldo, is a 3-star unit that can, with a lot of grinding, upgrade to a 5-star unit. Aldo is a swordsman with multi-hit skills that are good for building up the AF gauge. Next, Riica, your first healer, is a 3-star unit that can, with a lot of grinding, upgrade to a 5-star unit. Riica uses a hammer, so she/it deals respectable damage while still being able to heal the team. Third, the game gives you a guaranteed 4-star pull that allows you to select the unit you want. If you pick the unit Ciel, he is a unit that can, also, get to 5-stars with, repeat it again, a lot of grinding. Ciel is a buffer-debuffer who has a very good Valor Chant and great for setting up the AF for uber damage.

Finally, the game gives you a 10-pull bundle ticket at the very beginning of the game. This bundle guarantees one 5-star unit. This 5-star unit will carry your team through the grind until your active party members (Aldo, Riica, Ciel) are fully 5-stared. After chapter 10, you'll receive another guaranteed 4-star healer unit to take over for Riica, your first healer, until Riica can reach 5-stars.

On top of all of this, there are also story collaboration crossovers. The Tales of crossover event gives you four 5-star units that are actually extremely powerful in the current meta:

Cress - From Tales of Phantasia, Cress is able to increase slash damage for your team through his sword buffs. Cress also deals slashing damage. His element is Fire.

Yuri - From Tales of Vesperia, Yuri is able to raise the combo % of your AF attacks to insane levels. Yuri also deals slashing damage. His element is Wind.

Milla - From Tales of Xillia, Milla is an all rounder. She protecc, she attacc, her debuff is wacc. She both multiplies damage, lowers enemy defense, and heals the party with one skill. Milla also deals slashing damage. Her element is Water, but under AF she delivers all four elements.

Velvet - From Tales of Beseria, Velvet is your AF gauge charger. She has high multi-hit skills (x5!) and heals herself. Velvet deals blunt and slashing damage. Her element is Earth.

All four of these units are 5-star units, guaranteed through sidequests. So, between these guaranteed 5-stars, plus the units the game gives you at the beginning of the game, you do not need to ever play the gacha roulette to get a functioning, high-powered team. (You will have to invest in a lot of swords to keep the party equipped.)

For a full list of all the free characters, take a look at this list. As you can see, you can get all the units you need to succeed at the game without ever having to pull on the gacha. Of course there are unique units in the gacha to make it enticing, but you don't need them to get places.

As for the story, Another Eden starts off painfully slow. But, once you make your way past the first chapter and start the timey-wimey ball going, the story gets a lot better. I mean a lot better. The dialogue is better written, the story starts to build complex plot threads, and the characters start to really show...well, character.

I'm currently extremely fond of Riica, the android healer of the team. She's sneaky about her snark, then turns to I'm an android I don't know how humans work as an excuse when someone starts to catch on to her sarcasm. The main character, Aldo, is pretty generic, but that's almost a plus in these days of doom-gloom-dark-gritty cynicism. Aldo is a decent guy with some mysterious past that I'm interested in finding out. The antagonists cover an interesting array of gray to black, from psychotic evil to just misguided.

Then there's Cyrus, the samurai frog. Yes, he's a frog and he's a samurai and he lives in a swamp.

If all this is starting to sound a little familiar, it's because the writing staff is the same as the group behind Chrono Trigger. Am I getting Chrono Trigger flashbacks when playing this game? Yes. Is it a bad thing? Only if you despise the Chrono Trigger story.

Point is, I'm actually enjoying Another Eden a lot. If you have even the smallest fondness for JRPGs, I think you should give this game a whirl. Hey, it's free and you don't even have to pay to progress very far, what have you got to lose?