Eternity: The Last Unicorn

Eternity: The Last Unicorn is a fantasy action RPG set in a world inspired by Norse mythology. Players take on the role of Aurehen, a young Elf warrior, on a quest to free the last surviving Unicorn and restore balance to the world of Avalon, which has been plunged into chaos after the Elves’ sacred unicorns were captured. The game features a behind-view perspective with direct control, combining combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving in a 3D environment built with Unreal Engine 4.

Eternity: The Last Unicorn: A Cautionary Tale of Nostalgia and Ambition

In the vast and often unforgiving landscape of action RPGs, few titles arrive with such a palpable sense of ambition clashing directly with technical reality. Eternity: The Last Unicorn is not merely a game; it is a time capsule of good intentions, a relic of a bygone era that somehow found its way onto modern hardware, and a stark lesson in the perils of overreach.

Introduction: The Pursuit of a Lost Era

In March 2019, as the gaming world was still reverberating from the seismic impact of titles like God of War (2018) and was deep in the throes of Souls-like refinement, a small Brazilian studio named Void Studios, in partnership with publisher 1C Entertainment, released Eternity: The Last Unicorn. Promising a “fully featured RPG with classic game mechanics and an extensive lore based on Norse mythology,” it aimed to tap into a wellspring of nostalgia for the fixed-camera action-adventures of the PlayStation 2 era. Its thesis was clear: to marry the challenging, exploration-driven design of a bygone age with the high-fantasy grandeur of Nordic myth. The result, however, was a project that critics and players alike would deem not a loving homage, but a tragically flawed anachronism—a game so out of step with modern design sensibilities that it felt less like a purposeful throwback and more like a artifact unearthed from a dig site, incomplete and bewilderingly out of place.

Development History & Context: A Dauntless Vision Meets Harsh Reality

Void Studios, a nascent developer from Brazil, embarked on Eternity: The Last Unicorn as its debut title—a monumental task for any new team. The vision, as articulated in numerous developer diaries and Steam community posts, was profoundly ambitious: to create a rich, Norse-inspired world with two playable characters—Aurehen, the pure Elf, and Bior, the Viking—each with unique abilities and backstories. The game was built on Unreal Engine 4, a modern and powerful toolset, yet the team’s design pillars were firmly rooted in the past.

The development was plagued by constraints typical of a small studio: limited budget, a relatively small team of around 53 core developers, and the immense challenge of creating a sprawling action RPG. The decision to employ a fixed-camera system, a hallmark of early Resident Evil and Onimusha games, was a conscious one, intended to evoke a specific nostalgic feel and allow for more controlled, cinematic scene composition. However, this choice would become the game’s most criticized feature. In an era defined by free-flowing cameras in titles like The Witcher 3 and Dark Souls, this design felt not classic, but archaic.

The gaming landscape of 2019 was particularly unkind to such ambitions. Players and critics had been conditioned by a decade of polished, open-world epics. The release of Eternity was a stark contrast; it was a game that seemed to ignore fifteen years of industry evolution, landing with a thud amidst a market with little patience for its particular brand of janky nostalgia.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: A Tale of Myth and Misfire

The narrative premise of Eternity is, on paper, compellingly esoteric. It weaves a unique tapestry by combining Celtic fantasy (elves and unicorns) with Norse mythology (Vikings, gods, and the realm of Vanaheim). The story follows Aurehen, an elf tasked by her people to save the last surviving unicorn, whose captivity has jeopardized elven immortality. She is joined by Bior, a Viking searching for his missing troops.

However, the execution of this lore-rich plot is where the game stumbles catastrophically. As noted by critics, the story is “very derivative and uninteresting,” leaning heavily on the clichéd “chosen one” trope. The plot is delivered primarily through walls of text and poorly implemented cutscenes, with no voice acting to bring the characters to life. This creates a profound disconnect; the world-building, while extensive in its loading screen lore dumps, fails to engage the player emotionally.

Themes of sacrifice, immortality, and the wrath of the gods are present but feel underexplored. The dialogue is functional at best, and the characters lack depth, making it difficult to care about Aurehen’s quest or Bior’s personal mission. The narrative’s most interesting idea—the forced crafting of key story items—adds a layer of mechanical depth but also introduces tedious grinding, pulling the player out of the story rather than deeper into it. The fusion of Celtic and Norse mythologies, while novel, is never fully reconciled, leaving the world feeling like a patchwork of cool ideas rather than a cohesive whole.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: A Clunky Relic

The core gameplay loop of Eternity is its most significant failing, a masterclass in how not to modernize classic design. The fixed-camera angles, intended as a homage, become the player’s greatest adversary. As Digitally Downloaded noted, the camera “frequently breaks,” creating blind spots during combat and exploration. Entering a new camera angle often abruptly shifts the control scheme, leading to moments of disorientation and cheap deaths. This was a necessary evil in the PS1 era due to technical limitations; in 2019, it feels like a bizarre and frustrating design oversight.

Combat is a sluggish, unresponsive affair. Attacks, whether light or heavy, lack impact and weight. The lock-on system is unreliable, and hit detection is frequently broken. Players reported attacks phasing through enemies or dodges failing to register, leading to a combat experience that The Indie Game Website called “not fun to play.” The enemy AI is simplistic, yet bosses are often “damage sponges” with predictable patterns that can be easily cheesed, making encounters tedious rather than challenging.

Character progression is rudimentary. Players level up automatically by collecting crystal shards, with upgrades limited to weapons found at specific NPCs. There is no deep skill tree or meaningful customization, reducing the RPG elements to a bare minimum. The crafting system is particularly egregious; as noted in reviews, key story items must be crafted, forcing players into repetitive grinding loops. Failure rates on crafting attempts add further frustration.

The UI is serviceable but bland, and the control scheme is clunky, with no option for customization—a baffling omission for a PC release. The game’s difficulty is unbalanced, not through thoughtful design but through sheer jank, leading to a experience that Wccftech accurately described as “broken or irritating in some way.”

World-Building, Art & Sound: Fleeting Glimmers of Beauty

If there is one area where Eternity shows fleeting glimpses of its intended vision, it is in its artistic direction. The concept art and environmental designs, inspired by Norse architecture and symbolism (Yggdrasil Garden, Skadi Temple), are genuinely appealing. The score, aiming for a Nordic, fantastical ambiance, was occasionally praised for its serenity and attempt to capture a mythical atmosphere.

However, these elements are brutally undermined by technical execution. The game’s visuals were universally panned; despite using Unreal Engine 4, the graphics were described as “really ugly and very outdated,” with textures and character models that looked like “an Early Access PlayStation 3 title.” The lighting is inconsistent, and the lack of facial animations renders characters eerily lifeless, shattering any sense of immersion.

The sound design is arguably the game’s lowest point. Sound effects are poorly implemented, with items picked up emitting a “big muffled noise” that critics found abrasive. The combat sounds are lackluster, and Aurehen’s constant grunts (“HA!”) during attacks become grating quickly. The music, while adequate, cuts in and out abruptly as players cross zone boundaries, further breaking the already fragile sense of atmosphere.

Reception & Legacy: A Critical Whimper

Eternity: The Last Unicorn was met with a barrage of negative criticism upon release. On Metacritic, the PlayStation 4 version holds a score of 36/100 based on 8 reviews, while the PC version sits at 39/100. The MobyGames aggregate critic score is a damning 40%, based on three reviews. Publications were unanimous in their disdain:

• PlayStation Universe (4/10): Called it a “hot mess of a game with old school graphics and game mechanics that feels more dated than a launch title from the original PS1.”
• WayTooManyGames (4/10): Declared it “would have been considered an average-at-best game had it been released for the Xbox 360.”
• TheSixthAxis (2/10): Bluntly stated, “If it means having to play Eternity to save them, you’re better off letting that last Unicorn go extinct.”
• The Indie Game Website (Unscored): Summarized the core issue: “Instead of pulling inspiration from the Nintendo 64 era of gaming, Void Studios just made a game that belongs in it.”

User reception on Steam was “Mostly Negative,” with players echoing criticisms of the camera, combat, and bugs. The game quickly became a poster child for “so bad, it’s horrible” lists and was featured on websites like Qualitipedia as a prime example of misguided ambition.

Its legacy is virtually non-existent. The game failed to sell, vanished from public discourse almost immediately, and serves only as a cautionary tale—a reminder that nostalgia must be filtered through a lens of modern quality and polish. It did not influence subsequent games but rather stands as a monument to the importance of scope, playtesting, and understanding contemporary design standards.

Conclusion: The Verdict of History

Eternity: The Last Unicorn is a fascinating failure. It is a game bursting with passionate ideas, a genuine love for Norse mythology, and a clear desire to recapture the magic of a specific era of gaming. Yet, it is also a textbook case of how ambition without the requisite technical execution, budget, and design wisdom can lead to disaster. Every potential strength is hamstrung by a critical flaw: its story is buried under poor presentation, its art is betrayed by outdated tech, and its nostalgic gameplay is rendered unbearable by clunky mechanics.

Its place in video game history is secured not as a classic, but as a relic—a well-intentioned but deeply flawed curiosity that exemplifies the immense gap between a developer’s vision and a player’s experience. For the most ardent collectors of gaming’s oddities, it might hold a perverse value. For everyone else, Eternity: The Last Unicorn is a pursuit best abandoned. The last unicorn, it seems, was not worth saving.