Another Eden: A Cat Beyond Time and Space | PC Review

What do you get when you mix time travel and cats? Obviously a mobile gacha game! Another Eden: A Cat Beyond Time and Space, originally released in 2017, was an attempt to bring a proper JRPG to mobile. Masato Kato, an industry veteran behind such gems as Chrono Trigger and Xenogears, helmed the development, and it shows: the plot kicks off as you follow your cat into a swirling blue vortex that takes you through time and space.

You know, as you do.

Time and Time Again

Another Eden takes you through three different time periods as you attempt to correct a horrific future, similar to Chrono Trigger. Along the way you’ll encounter new allies, battle monsters in turn-based combat, and adventure across time and space.

However, all this was true three years ago, when Another Eden first released on mobile. It’s since been ported to the Switch in Japan, and now to Steam. And as a free-to-play game, it’s not so much a question of “should you buy it?” as “should you play it?”

Fortunately, that question is easy to answer: Another Eden is a solid JRPG, mobile origins aside, though it makes some obvious concessions due to the limitations of that platform. Exploration is done by moving back and forth along 2D “roads,” and then moving up or down to reach a different area of the map. Quick travel to areas you’ve explored before is encouraged, and your only actions in combat are default attacks or any skills your characters have learned (so no items, or defending, though you can switch characters to the reserve to protect them and let them recover).

Shouldn’t This Be Updated?

So while the game itself is solid in terms of presentation, story, and design, veterans of the RPG genre will quickly notice the bare bones nature of the underlying systems. Leveling up, for instance, is simply done by spending AP (one per level) along a mostly linear track of basic stat-ups, with the occasional new skill at certain milestones. This is because, as mentioned before, Another Eden is a gacha game. 

While you’ll gain allies naturally as the game progresses, you can also spend premium currency to summon allies as well. You’ll gain this currency through sidequests, simple achievements, and of course, spending real money. That said, there’s no pressing need to drop real dollars to get new characters. The main story is perfectly doable with the party members you receive for free, and there’s special collaboration characters from the “Tales of” series and Persona 5 Royal, so it’s very F2P friendly.

Unfortunately, the Steam version is a straight dump of the mobile game, done without a single bit of care to adapt the UI, controls, or anything else for the PC ecosystem. You move around using WASD and the mouse, and those controls can’t even be changed. What makes it especially galling is there’s no controller support, when the mobile version lets you use a controller! Add to that a lack of Japanese voices that are, again, in the mobile version, and it’s clear the developers took a “release first, fix later” approach to the Steam version.

Another Eden: A Cat Between Space and Time Final Verdict

Ultimately, while Another Eden is a worthwhile experience and definitely worth your time if you’re a JRPG fan, the Steam version is, without a doubt, the worst version as of this review. Pick it up on your mobile platform of choice, and wait for the devs to fix the Steam version. You can transfer your game data to and from either platform, so don’t worry about starting on mobile and having to start over on Steam.

To hear me talk more about Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space, be sure to listen to Episode 340 of The Gaming Outsider around the 1:05:11 time stamp.

This review is based on a PC copy of Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space provided by Stride PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on Android, Nintendo Switch, and iOS.