On paper, Sacred Earth – Reverie is the type of game I’d expect to enjoy. After all, it’s a VN/RPG hybrid with point-and-click exploration mechanics, fast turn-based combat, high replayability that builds on past actions, amazing battle music, and a rich story with colorful characters: all signs of a grand gaming adventure. Unfortunately, Sacred Earth – Reverie‘s well-polished armor has a few chinks, keeping it from being a stellar experience, with one significant, frustrating weak point that almost made me drop it entirely for a time.
Sacred Earth – Reverie revolves around protagonists Cain and Abelle. You pick which one to play based on a personality dialogue choice in the game’s beginning portion. Our heroes were once successful knights until a fateful battle between the realm’s human forces and their sworn enemy, a powerful entity known only as the Demon Queen. The decimation from the battle disillusioned Cain and Abelle, leading them to abandon their knightly careers. So, they retire to the outskirts of human society until word reaches them that the Demon Queen is on the move. Burning with questions about the fighting’s purpose, they set off with a colorful cast of characters to do the seemingly impossible: ask the Demon Queen herself for the truth.
That’s the main gist, though I’ll say the plot goes in some unexpected directions. The game’s worldbuilding is also impressive. It’s no wonder that, from a narrative stance, two of the inspirations for Sacred Earth – Reverie are Utawarerumono and Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails series. While the game does reference lore and events from previous Sacred Earth titles, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to get immersed in the narrative without extensive prior knowledge. It provides a self-contained story that constantly evolves based on choices and actions made throughout the playthrough. There are multiple endings to uncover on the way to the true ending, and new scenes to peruse if you happen to play the New Game Plus version after reaching the end credits. The first time I played, I engaged in an optional boss battle that not only gave me an influential new party member for the endgame but also netted me a surprisingly different ending than the one I initially expected. I give Sacred Earth – Reverie credit for its constantly evolving narrative, which is not predictable and offers high replayability.
Sacred Earth – Reverie‘s exploration phases are point-and-click affairs. In town, you enter into conversations and event scenarios by picking them from the map, with some new events only opening up if you choose to see a prior one. The NPC narratives also constantly evolve alongside the main plot, helping the world feel lived in. You can also occasionally acquire sidequests that require you to enter into battles or find spots of interest in dungeons and gather materials to earn rewards. You equip weapons, armor, and optional stat-boosting accessories to your party alongside powerful elemental Ether Gems that provide ability and stat boosts to your characters.
In the dungeons themselves, you traverse by point-and-clicking over points of interest on a given section of the map. Each time you travel to a new area of the dungeon, you acquire more points on a danger/encounter gauge. Once the indicator is full, a random battle occurs, and you’re given options on how to deal with it based on your Travel Points. These Travel Points allow you to do things like re-roll for a different encounter, boost your stats before the fight occurs, or even retreat from combat before it begins. This system helps keep random encounters manageable, though unfortunately, it isn’t available for the myriad demanding boss battles over the course of the journey. I played the game on my Steam Deck, and Sacred Earth – Reverie is totally playable on the platform. However, I’d like to point out that it isn’t as controller-friendly as a mouse-and-keyboard schematic.
The sheer difficulty of many boss battles is the frustrating point of contention I mentioned in my first paragraph. Even on lower difficulty settings, there’s a very noticeable spike in challenge when it comes to boss fights. Usually, bosses get multiple immediate turns to shell out massive amounts of damage. Depending on random luck, those turns can spell doom even before the fight properly begins. I lost count of how many times I restarted a boss fight because I got a game over before my party had a chance to counter. When they do get a turn, your party members aren’t awarded nearly as many moves as bosses receive, so fights feel largely one-sided. Boss battles should offer more challenge than regular fights and require more strategy to overcome, but this game’s hellish spike in difficulty is incredibly frustrating. Be prepared to retry boss battles often and scream profanities the second you make a miscalculation that turns the encounter into a wash. Given that retries seem expected, ideally, I’d have loved a retry option for boss fights right from the Game Over screen. Unfortunately, you have to backpedal and load a save from the main menu.
Visually, there’s a lot to praise about the game. The UI is clearly visible and eye-catching with large, easy-to-read text, and there are two different art styles to choose from at any point in the narrative. I went with Style A, but there’s nothing visually negative about Style B either. It boils down to your personal preference. The CG illustrations for key scenes and the pixel sprite art for dungeon exploration are nicely detailed and aesthetically pleasing. The art itself is vibrant and colorful, and all the characters are expressive throughout the story. I admit I don’t love several of the female character designs, in particular, and I could see them as potentially offputting to others who might be interested in the game, which is a shame given that other aspects of the visual direction are solid. That said, I know the character designs won’t be a dealbreaker for everyone, given the subjectivity of art and visuals in general.
The game’s soundtrack is quite remarkable, especially this track and the many stellar battle tracks throughout. Hearing them over and over again was probably the best thing about the constant boss battle repeats! Sacred Earth – Reverie also has partial voice acting, and the cast delivers top-notch performances. The story script does have occasional typos, but given the title’s sheer amount of text, it’s mainly negligible and easy enough to correct in your head when an error occurs. However, I did notice that, while playing as Abelle, the game would sometimes address the protagonist as “Cain,” which makes me think Abelle was perhaps a later addition. This misnaming is rare, and the two protagonists’ personalities are pretty different.
Sacred Earth – Reverie is a game with surprising depth, held back in particular by a crushing difficulty spike regarding most boss battles. I enjoyed my time within its multilayered story, appreciating the various ways the narrative could evolve, but I also found some aspects of the game offputting. Gamers who can get past those hurdles and overcome the demanding boss fights that await could encounter a potentially engaging experience in Sacred Earth – Reverie.
