:''Disambiguation: for the 1998 film, see Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy'' is a Japanese

adult An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social an ...

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

developed by

Circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

, released on November 22, 2007 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, as both a standard edition and a limited edition. The

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game. The term applies to both video games and Tabletop game, tabletop games. Gameplay is the connection between the player and the game, the player's overcoming of challenges, and t ...

in ''Eternal Fantasy'' follows a linear plot line, which offers pre-determined scenarios and courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the main female characters, but differs from traditional visual novel in that the player is allowed to navigate in an

overworld An overworld or a hub world is, in a broad sense, an area within a video game that interconnects all its levels or locations. They are mostly common in role-playing games, though this does not exclude other video game genres, such as some pla ...

map from a

top-down perspective A variety of computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to hardware advances and restrictions ...

, and its utilization of a combat system.

Gameplay

The

in ''Eternal Fantasy'' utilizes three different styles of gameplay. The game features an

map and a combat system, typical to

role-playing video games Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...

, and a visual novel system. While on the overworld map, a scaled-down depiction of the game's fictional landscape, the player is allowed to navigate between locations from a

. Upon entering locations in the overworld map, the game shifts to a visual novel-style gameplay. Gameplay in this segment requires little player interaction as most of the duration of the game is spent on simply reading the text that appears on the screen, which represents either dialogue between characters, or the inner thoughts of the protagonists. Every so often, the player will come to a "decision point" where he or she is given the chance to choose from options that are displayed on the screen, typically two to three at a time. Gameplay pauses at these points until the player makes a choice, and depending on which choice the player makes, the plot will progress in a specific direction. At times, the player will be engaged in combat. Combat in ''Eternal Fantasy'' utilizes a real-time battle system, with the player taking control of one member of the party, while other characters are controlled by AIs. Each character and enemy has a certain number of hit points. Players may reduce

hit point Health is a video game or tabletop game quality that determines the maximum amount of damage or fatigue something takes before leaving the main game. In role-playing games, this typically takes the form of hit points (HP), a numerical attribute ...

s by wounding targets using different types of physical and magical attacks, and may also restore their hit points by healing themselves using items. When a character loses all his or her hit points, he or she faints, and if all of the player's characters lose all of their hit points, the game ends, and the player may either restore their progress from a previously saved location or immediately before battle. Attacks from characters are restricted by a countdown gauge similar to

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

Active Time Battle Active Time Battle (ATB) is a role-playing video game mechanic invented by Hiroyuki Ito. It was first used in ''Final Fantasy IV'' (1991), and patented in 1995 by Ito and Hironobu Sakaguchi, though the patent expired in 2010, allowing it to be use ...

system, and players can only issue attacks and place movements when the gauge is completely empty. There are multiple plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience. To view all of the plot lines, the player will need to replay the game multiple times, access different areas and make different choices to progress the plot in an alternate direction. One of the goals of the gameplay is to view the hentai scenes, depicting one of the protagonists having

sexual intercourse Sexual intercourse (also coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion of the Erection, erect male Human penis, penis inside the female vagina and followed by Pelvic thrust, thrusting motions for sexual pleasure ...

with one of the heroines.

Development

''Eternal Fantasy'' is the tenth game developed by Circus' Northern subdivision not counting re-releases, and is their first game not in the ''

Da Capo Da capo ( , , ; often abbreviated as D.C.) is an Italian musical term that means "from the beginning" (literally, "from the head"). The term is a directive to repeat the previous part of music, often used to save space, and thus is an easie ...

'' canon since ''AR: Forgotten Summer''. ''Eternal Fantasy'' is notable for having a large development team for a visual novel. The producer for the visual novel is Tororo, who has also produced and composed for most of Circus Northern's past titles. Planning and the original story was done by Futsumamu, who also contributed in character designs, along with Eko, Natsuki Tanihara, Soba Aki, Narumi, and Mochi Chinochi. Scenario work was split between six people, Masaki Sonoda, Fumihiko Kuwabara, Shingo Hifumi, Aiha, Mori no Me, and Shin Gotō.

Release history

A free demo version of ''Eternal Fantasy'' was released online on November 10, 2007. The demo introduced players to the characters and the gameplay. The full game was released on November 22, 2007, as both a limited edition and a regular edition. The limited edition contained the game itself, a 64-page book containing development materials, a fully colored 20 page illustration book, a special original soundtrack disc, and a map of the Gladio peninsula; the regular edition did not contain the aforementioned extras.

Related media

Internet radio show

internet radio Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...

titled ''D.C. to EF'' being produced by Onsen began streaming online on October 11, 2007. The show is based on ''Eternal Fantasy'' and ''

Da Capo II is a Japanese Eroge, adult visual novel developed by Circus (company), Circus which was first released on May 26, 2006, for Windows computers. It is a part of the ongoing ''Da Capo'' series of games by Circus, and is the direct sequel to ...

'', and is hosted by Ai Hinaki, Hijiri Kinomi, and Aya Tachibana, who voiced Locomoco, Farte, and Arcie in the visual novel respectively. Two sets of two CDs, each containing thirteen episodes previously streamed online and a special episode was released on August 15, 2008.

Cast

* Carolina - Hikaru Kaga * Arche - Aya Tachibana * Farute - Hijiri Kinomi * Ryurika - Megumi Haruka * Euretta - Ayako Nakagawa * Rokomoko - Ai Hinaki * Prills -

Minami Hokuto is a Japanese voice actress from Osaka Prefecture, Japan. She has also done voice work, especially in eroge, under the name . She is married to fellow voice actor Kazuya Ichijō. Adult Roles Eroge ;1998 * Kyouhaku (Reika Takatsukasa) * Ma ...

* Saint -

* Witch -

* Tiraiyuru -

Ayumu Nakazawa is a Japanese voice actor specializing in the voicing of characters from ''eroge'' (adult video games). He was a member of AG Promotion. Filmography Video games * '' EVE burst error'' (1995) – Susumu Nikaido * '' One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e'' (1 ...

* Idea - Shinsuke Fukui * Ron - Ryou Itou * Efumeru - Mayumi Shindou * Erehia - Sayaka Aoki/ Rumiko Sasaki * Feresu - Hijiri Kinomi * Scotti - Hideyuki Umedsu

Audio CDs

''Eternal Fantasy'' has three main theme songs, the opening theme is , the ending theme is , and the grand ending theme is . The opening theme and the ending theme were performed by Sena, and was written by Tororo, while the grand ending theme was performed by

Aki Misato is a female Japanese J-pop singer from Saitama, Japan. Most of her songs are theme songs for anime and video games. She made her debut in 2004 with her first single Kimi ga Sora Datta (君が空だった), which was featured as the ending theme ...

. The main theme songs were accompanied by eight insert songs, six for each of the heroines, one for boss battles, and one played during the climax of the storyline. Arcie's insert song is "Trust My Way" and was performed by Yoshino; Farte's insert song is , and was performed by Hīko; Lyrica's insert song is , and was performed by

Ceui Ceui (, born January 31) is a Japanese singer–songwriter originally from Chiba, Japan, though she grew up in Fukuoka. Ceui's name is derived from the Portuguese word for sky, céu. She has been singing since 2000, but made her major debut in 2 ...

; Euretta's insert song is , and was performed by Aki Misato; Locomoco's insert song is , and was performed by Jun Miruno; and lastly, Pril's insert song is , and was performed by

Yōsei Teikoku is a Japanese rock band formed in 1997. Their music mixes elements of gothic metal, heavy metal, electronic and classical music. Their works include the opening tracks of several anime series, including ''Future Diary'', '' Magical Pokan'', ' ...

. The boss battle theme is "Last Fight" and was performed by Elefant, and the climax insert theme is , performed by Sena. The first music album released was a

maxi single A maxi single, maxi-single, or maxi CD (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song. Maxi singles are often mistaken for extended plays (EPs), especial ...

titled "Eternal Fantasy: Ai wa Sekai ni Amaneku Hana no Yōni", and was released on December 26, 2007 containing the opening and ending themes. The visual novel's original soundtrack was released on January 23, 2008 containing fifty-eight

background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...

tracks on two discs. It was later followed by a vocal album, entitled ''Songs from Eternal Fantasy'' released on February 27, 2007, containing the theme songs and the insert songs used in the game. An

image song In Japan, an image song or character song is a song on a tie-in single or album (often called an image album or character album) for an anime, video game, drama, manga, or other commercial product that is sometimes sung by the voice actor or a ...

album titled ''Destination for Arcie'' was released on March 26, 2008, containing six vocal songs, and four instrumental pieces. All the vocal pieces were written and sung by Sena, while Lavi composed the instrumental pieces. Four image song singles were also released for the heroines featured in ''Eternal Fantasy'', featuring the voice actors from the visual novel. The first single, for Arcie, was released on April 23, 2008; the second single, for Locomoco, was released on May 21, 2008; the third single, for Lyrica, was released on June 25, 2008; the fourth single, for Farte, was released on July 23, 2008; and a fifth single, for Euretta, will be released on August 27, 2008.

Reception and sales

According to a national ranking of bishōjo games based on amounts sold in Japan, ''Eternal Fantasy'' was placed at the fifth place for the most pre-ordered

bishōjo game A or is "a type of Japanese video game centered on interactions with attractive girls". ''Bishōjo'' games are similar to ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' books in the way of narrative, in which the game tells a story but the player may make c ...

s during mid-September to mid-October prior to the release of the game. After the game was released, ''Eternal Fantasy'' premiered at the first place out of fifty during the month of November, and was then dropped to the twenty-eighth the following month, before dropping to the forty-sixth place the following month, making its final appearance on the charts.

References

External links

Official ''Eternal Fantasy'' visual novel website
* {{vndb, 323 2007 video games Bishōjo games Circus (company) games Eroge Fantasy video games Japan-exclusive video games Romance video games Single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Visual novels Windows games Windows-only games