1016: A Few More Aselia Thoughts

I finished my first playthrough of Aselia the Eternal this evening. Clocking in at about 54 hours, this $30 title is certainly good value for money in terms of its dollars-to-hours ratio.

It’s also a very, very good game, though one that will undoubtedly not be to everyone’s taste. Simply put, if you enjoy the narrative being the focus of a game rather than its gameplay, you will dig Aselia the Eternal. If you’re the sort of person who skips cutscenes even if you haven’t seen them before, you will not like Aselia the Eternal.

This is not to say that Aselia the Eternal is as “gameplay-free” as most other visual novels, however — in fact, it plays host to an excellent strategy-RPG component as well as its decision-based visual novel aspect — but you have to be willing and able to deal with the fact that the game will frequently break without warning in mid-“mission” for a considerable amount of plot exposition. I love that the game does this, as it gives a nice feeling of “coherence” to the experience rather than sharply demarcating where “plot” and “game” are. Equally, it will doubtless annoy some others. If it sounds like it might annoy you, you will probably not appreciate Aselia the Eternal.

There are eight endings to the game. I have now seen one of them. After the break, some spoileriffic thoughts on the whole playthrough.

MAHOOSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD, in case that wasn’t already clear.

The route I beat the game with was the Aselia route, which I was quite pleased about, since my (usually unintentional) habit with this sort of game is to play what appears to be the “canon” route first (assuming there is one) and then possibly explore the other options. And come on, you can’t play a game called Aselia the Eternal and not be at least a little bit interested in the character Aselia.

The player-protagonist Yuuto’s first encounter with Aselia isn’t until a fairly hefty amount of time into the game. Its first few hours are all set in the “real world” as Yuuto goes to school, hangs out with his friends and (foster) sister Kaori and attempts to stave off the relentless advances of the human ball of hyperactivity that is Kaori’s friend Kotori.

When we first meet Aselia, it becomes clear that something is amiss. Just prior to her appearance, Yuuto was engulfed by a mysterious white light outside his local shrine, and he woke up in an unfamiliar forest. When Aselia eventually appears to rescue Yuuto — an event that was seemingly preordained to happen — her ethereal appearance and huge white wings make it immediately apparent that she is Not Of This Earth. Of course, everything around Yuuto is Not Of This Earth, as he has been sucked into the strange parallel world that is Phantasmagoria, and is soon to meet the rest of the cast — along with Aselia, there’s the kind, gentle and motherly green spirit Esperia, the youthful, energetic red spirit Orpha and the noble princess Lesteena, initially frustrated with her megalomaniac father’s worrying ambitions, but later put in a position to make the world a better place when he meets an unfortunate end.

It’s a while before we get to know much about Aselia. Early in the game, she is quiet and somewhat aloof, responding to most situations with nothing more than her trademark “……Nn.” There’s a playful innocence about her, though, best exemplified by the scene a little later where she gets into the bath with Yuuto while he isn’t paying attention. It’s not the same sort of innocence that Orpha demonstrates throughout, though — Orpha is all childish exuberance and willingness to throw herself into awkward situations without thinking of the consequences, while Aselia is more hesitant but inquisitive; you get the impression that Aselia always things everything through very carefully before she does it, but still has the confidence to try things that are unusual.

In the times where Yuuto and Aselia get to spend some time together away from the rest of the spirits, we get to see her “drop her guard” somewhat, letting her true feelings out and even smiling and laughing. It’s during one of these scenes that we discover Aselia’s core motivation: she wants to understand her reason for living. Spirits are raised to believe that they are weapons, that the sole reason they exist is to fight on behalf of humans — it’s something that Esperia frequently states in an increasingly-resigned manner — but Yuuto’s influence causes Aselia to question whether this is really true. It’s clear that Aselia thinks about things a lot and has probably considered this possibility even before Yuuto’s arrival, but his belief in the Spirits and his treatment of them as “family” causes her to explore these feelings in more detail.

For Yuuto, his attempts to build a relationship with the spirits are an attempt to make up for something he has lost several times in his past. Not only are his birth parents dead, but his foster parents — Kaori’s birth parents — are also deceased. It was only through binding a contract with the Eternity Sword “Desire” that Yuuto was able to ensure Kaori’s survival — but in exchange, he incurred the debt which drew him to Phantasmagoria. Yuuto initially resents his obligations to “Desire”, referring to it as “stupid sword” rather than addressing it by name throughout the majority of the game, but over time he comes to feel a sense of begrudging gratefulness to the mysterious consciousness for all the good things he has found in Phantasmagoria.

Aselia sees how Yuuto naturally draws close to people and tries to feel like “family” with them — even with those who are initially resistant, such as the petulant Nimnthor, her perpetually-masked companion Faren and the cold, formal Selia — and starts to feel like she wants to draw close to Yuuto, too. She takes an interest in his home world — which Phantasmagoria’s residents refer to as “Hyperia” — and eventually, through a surprising turn of events and a lucky escape, manages to fulfil her dream of seeing it.

Unfortunately, her happiness is not to last, as the thin mana in Hyperia causes her to fall ill. Yuuto takes it upon himself to tend to her, but quickly realises that he will be unable to make it back “home” to Phantasmagoria — for by now he regards the other world as “home” — if he doesn’t find some clues as to how to cross between worlds. He eventually enlists the help of Kaori’s friend Kotori after explaining the strange situation that has unfolded — including the fact that Kaori, too, was drawn into Phantasmagoria when the whole mess started, and that she is in terrible danger — and manages to find the information he needs.

But fate has another surprise in store for Yuuto. The Eternals Matriarch Temuorin and her lieutenant Takios abduct Kotori and drag her to school, where they use their powers to draw out her “true self” which tells Yuuto some things that he doesn’t want to hear. This sends him flying into a rage, wasting the limited mana held in “Desire” and leaving him unable to open the gate back to Phantasmagoria by himself — Temuorin’s plan all along.

Temuorin didn’t count on Aselia’s presence, though. Aselia sacrifices her mind to draw out the power from her own Eternity Sword and cast the two back into Phantasmagoria, but loses herself to her sword’s control in the process. All life fades from her eyes, and she becomes an apparently-unfeeling automaton, incredibly strong in battle, but free of all the personality she once had. Yuuto, understanding the sacrifice she has made for him, feels terrible. Fortunately, a deep-cover mission that crops up shortly after their return to Phantasmagoria presents Yuuto with a potential opportunity to recover her soul — but it doesn’t quite go according to plan. Yuuto and Aselia are left to hide in a cave while the Empire’s soldiers hunt them down. Yuuto eventually comes up with the idea of using “Desire”‘s power to try and bring Aselia back — a selfless move, as this would leave him completely powerless temporarily.

It’s here Aselia reaches her “turning point”. Far from being so weak as to have her soul devoured completely by her sword, her strength of will is such that she manages to convince “Desire” to recover her mind without expecting anything in return. “Desire” admits that this is most irregular, but her persuasive words and powerful belief in Yuuto allow her to convince him that this is indeed the best course of action.

Aselia is all the more determined to stick by Yuuto from this point on. This culminates in her desire to join Yuuto in becoming an Eternal — the only way in which he can defeat his old school rival Shun, who has since been swallowed by an incredibly powerful Eternity Sword that is threatening to destroy the world — and dooming herself, along with Yuuto, to wander forever throughout eternity with everyone having forgotten her original existence. The fact that neither Yuuto nor Aselia hesitate for a moment when “crunch time” comes and they have to say goodbye to the lives they have been living says a lot about them both — and proves that they’re both a good fit for one another.

When the battles are finally over, though, we see that Yuuto still has some hesitations and is still, as ever, prone to shouldering all the burdens by himself. He attempts to slip away and begin his eternal wanderings without Aselia, but she knows him too well by now and is already waiting for him. Yuuto feels guilt about what he sees as dragging her into this, but she has already made her choice — she’s already become an Eternal, which means that everyone has already forgotten her original life. Yuuto finally accepts that she’s in this for the long haul — for eternity, in fact — and fully embraces her.

The last we see of the couple is a hundred years after the events that unfolded in Phantasmagoria. They have had a child together — previously unheard of for Eternals — and are happy. Both have grown very comfortable with one another — you’d hope so after a century together — and are cracking jokes and ribbing one another. Aselia’s gentle, innocent nature is still apparent, but the seemingly “uptight” side of her personality has mellowed considerably.

She is happy, because she has finally found her reason for living.