- Some very tactical PvP ideas
- A gacha you don’t need to spend a fortune on
- But it will require a large time investment
Given how popular HoYoverse games have been, it is surprising that we have really seen many direct competitors to Honkai: Star Rail on mobile. Especially given that turn-based RPGs are perfect for phones. Well, now we have another with XD Entertainment’s Etheria: Restart, and I have given it a thorough test.
Our story is set in 2197, after a vicious global freezing has devastated the Earth. The remaining humans have retreated into Etheria, a virtual world. Of course, viruses occur and start to be weaponised by anti-Etheria groups. Enter, us. As a Hyperlinker, you are overseen by an Agent, commanding a team of Animuses as they fight to protect the internet. It is your standard sci-fi story, basically.
Exploration with a stylish twist
There are two gameplay modes, although you will become much more acquainted with one of them. The first is exploration. You will run around maps going from story beat A to B while collecting treasure. Straightforward, but XD have thrown in two little features that make this more interesting. 
You are equipped with a grappling hook to help you navigate. The places you use it are mandatory, and it doesn’t help you find hidden places, but it’s a nice little action setpiece to keep you entertained. The other feature is the ability to enter cover and ambush enemies. Doing this, you can one-shot your target, which forfeits the experience you’d gain for fighting, but it’s another enjoyable novelty, which moves us neatly onto what makes up most of Etheria: the combat.
Your standard combat mechanics with some nice signposting
As mentioned, this is a turn-based game, so you know what to expect. You select four or five units, depending on the mode, and then proceed to tactically plan every turn or spam your powerful moves. What I really appreciated was that each skill has a tag telling you what it does, like Single Damage, Taunt, CD Reduction and so forth. When you have dozens of characters to remember, it’s nice to have that little prompt. 
Besides that, there isn’t much that makes it stand out from other turn-based RPGs. Some characters have interesting mechanics, like Tiamat switching between forms under certain conditions, but beyond that, you won’t be blown away. I know this is one of the hardest genres to innovate in, but XD could have at least tried something new.
Before battle, you, of course, need to kit your squad out, and to give credit to XD, they give you ample resources to summon characters when you start out. You are even gifted an SSR rank early doors in the form of Lian. She just so happens to be incredibly powerful and is still a cornerstone of my team.
A gacha you can play without requiring a massive monetary investment
You can equip your team with your standard armour sets that can confer bonuses to your ATK, or increase healing. More importantly, though, are the Shells. These adorable little mascots float by your characters and occasionally perform helpful little actions like attacking foes or advancing your next turn.
We all know the worst part of gachas is having to collect multiple copies of the same rare character to buff them. Etheria does have this, but happily, the gains you get from that here aren’t game-changing. You can happily chug along with your one copy of a character, and you won’t miss much. The majority of your stat building will be done by enhancing your three skills using mostly farmable materials. It is a fantastic choice that allows free players to create properly powerful teams. You can also promote any character up to the maximum six-star rank. Your SR characters might not have as good a suite of skills as the SSRs, but it is great that you have that choice. 
After picking your squad, you will have more than enough places to use them. Etheria has perhaps the biggest array of modes to play through. You have the Daily Challenges that provide you with equipment, Shells, and update materials, Trail Challenges for the bigger challenges, and Limited Events for fun little mini games like the current Monopoly one. You can also join a Union and take on uber-powerful bosses with friends.
Some incredibly tactical PvP
One mode I need to shine a light on is the PvP offerings. You have the usual fights against computer-controlled teams of other players’ characters, which is ok, but the Summit Arena is amazing. It is real-time combat, where, before the fight, you take turns picking five characters. There can be no duplicates between the two teams, and then you each void one of the opponent’s options to leave a 4v4. It is an incredibly fun tactical challenge before the fighting even begins. I love it. 
Now, Etheria: Restart does have a few minor gripes that need addressing. I found the frame rate can be choppy during cutscenes and transitions, even on the lowest graphical settings. There is also no conversation log in the scenes, so if you accidentally skip some dialogue, you just won’t find out what was said. These are small, but sadly, there is a much larger problem to contend with: the main story progression.
You will need to grind for days to experience the actual story
It feels like XD is actively trying to stop you from experiencing it. To begin with, you can’t enter the main stage if your Stability is too low, and no game should stamina-lock the main campaign. I know it happens a lot, but it’s a feature I dislike in general, especially in an RPG where the story should be one of the biggest draws. 
However, Etheria goes one step beyond and locks down missions behind your Hyperlinker level. Thus, you have to raise this by completing random side content that requires Stability, so if you run out, then tough luck, you aren’t continuing the story anytime soon. You need 10 Stability to attempt a Challenge, and it charges at a rate of 1 per 5 minutes, and you will be capped at around 120. That makes close to just one battle per hour, maths fans.
The first time I encountered this level lock was Chapter 5. I was level 8 and it needed level 10, so I grinded. I reached the requirement and completed the level, then suddenly Chapter 6 demanded a level of 13. Now, for Chapter 7, you need to be level 20, with material grinding being pretty much your only method of levelling up. Seeing as most people will use the Continuous Battle to auto-complete these, it’s not an engaging process. 
We are all used to stamina systems being an arbitrary way to prevent us from completing a game too “fast”, basically. But Etheria seems to be throttling our progress just a bit too much right out of the gates. You shouldn’t have to grind content this early just to advance the main story. I am in the single digits! It is either bad game design, or XD are aggressively trying to force you to spend money to restore stamina. Neither is good.