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Dennis Dyack made a big splash recently by announcing that a crowd-funded episodic spiritual
successor to Eternal Darkness is in the works, known as Shadow of the Eternals. And it's
coming to both PC and the Wii U, with possible future platforms to be announced as well.
Now they haven't really shown that much, besides a brief trailer and some screenshots, but
that's not going to stop us from taking a look at everything that's available, including
the project's website itself, and see what other secrets they might be hiding.
So in the trailer, we're introduced to two distinct time periods split between three
different characters. And thanks to the game's website, we know a few things about them:
First up with have Clara and Erzebet Bathory, of 1610 AD, and their scenes takes take place
in the real-life location of Cachtice Castle
And not only is the location real, but so is Erzebet Bathory, who earned herself the
nickname of the "Blood Countess" for being one of the most--productive--female serial
killer of all time, with a body count in the hundreds
Now according to the website, the scenes involving these two characters occur in the Pilot episode
titled A Dream Within A Dream, and it seems you'll be taking on the role of Clara, an
ex-gypsy who's now the hand-maiden and lover to Bathory, and is being blackmailed by the
authorities to provide information in regards to a missing nobleman's daughter
But the website also enlightens us to the framing device for that same episode--and
presumably the entire series.
As it turns out, the episode actually begins in the modern day with you taking control
of detective Paul Becker as he investigates a massacre in a Louisiana hospital. And it's
there that he interrogates two survivors who have no recollection of who they are or what
happened, which according to the site, then segways into the Erzébet Bathory's gameplay
chapter.
If that sounds familiar, that's because Eternal Darkness used almost the exact same framing
device. In that game, the protagonist, Alex Roivas, was investigating the *** of her
grandfather, and in her search, discovers a book that allows her to experience life
as various characters throughout history, including some of whom were her ancestors,
so maybe that'll be the case here too.
Now one thing that hasn't been made clear is how exactly the third character shown in
the trailer, Theodoric, ties into all this.
After all, his section takes place 800 years earlier in 814 AD. But we think we may have
some idea.
In one of the scenes, we can see Clara and Bathory looking at a book--a book very similar
to the one from Eternal Darkness. And perhaps like the one in that game, it also acts as
a gateway to relive the experience of historical characters, in this case being Theodoric
So yes, that would be a story sequence taking place within the story sequence of the overall
story, which might be what the Pilot episode's title "A Dream Within A Dream" refers to.
It's kind of like Inception
Now let's take a closer look at Theodoric himself, who's apparently a courier,.
Interestingly, this matches up almost perfectly with a character from Eternal Darkness named
Anthony , who was also a messenger in that same year.
And not only that, but the chapels both characters explore appear nearly identical, right down
to the staircase in the corner.
In addition, it seems Theodoric will also be using a sword as his primary weapon. So
are all of these similarities just surface-level, or do the ties go even deeper?
Now during the Theodoric scenes, we actually get a glimpse of some of the enemies he'll
presumably be fighting off too, which bear a strong resemblance to the enemy types in
Eternal Darkness's
And we can also see that the ones in this clip exhibit a green glow, which again is
similar to some of the enemies in ED who were also green in color which signified their
affiliation with one of the three ancients, Xel'lotath.
Could the ancients be returning as well, or something similar to them?
It sure seems that way, especially if we take a look at the final clip in the trailer which
showcases a tower with an eyeball, which is nearly identical to one that appeared in one
of the endings to Eternal Darkness, which displayed what a world would look like Xel'lotath's
control.
And those aren't the only elements returning from Eternal Darkness, as the website also
confirms that Macgik and sanity effects will be returning too. In fact, it's very possible
the trailer showcases some of these very sanity effects, with the world collapsing around
Theodoric
Unless that's happening for real, in which case he's really screwed
Alright, we're just about done here, but as usual, there's just a few final details left,
and they deal with the remainder of the Cast as shown on the website,
Now it only full reveals a few of the characters, the 3 shown in the trailer, then Paul Becker,
the detective from the Modern world, as well as the two survivors from the hospital massacre.
But let's take a look at some of the unannounced ones. As you can see, we can actually make
out their silhouettes, and we might be able to use this to guess what periods we might
be exploring in future episodes
Take this guy and his horned helmet for example, which might suggest a sequence during the
middle ages.
Then we have this dude who appears to be wearing a Bicorne, suggesting a time period somewhere
between the late 1700s to 1800s
And then we have this guy who looks to be either a greek or roman soldier, based on
the helmet
But he doesn't seem to be alone as someone else appears to be be wearing a Roman helmet
too...and by the way, does he look at all familiar to you?
His outfit is very similar to Pious Augustus, the main antagonist from Eternal Darkness.
And if we take a look at the silhouette of the girl next to him, doesn't she look extremely
similar to Alex from the same game?
Huh? Is this really just a spiritual successor, or is it just sticking super close to the
style of Eternal Darkness?
And with that, we're done covering everything we could dig up on Shadow of the Eternals
As usual, let us know if we missed anything by posting in the comments.
Thanks for watching and make sure to stay tuned to GameXplain.com for more on Shadow
of the Eternals and other things gaming too