EDENS ZERO Review

I’m not going to lie to you, dear reader. I’m a bit of a Mashima fan. I’ve read both Rave Master and Fairy Tail, but I remember struggling with the Edens Zero manga when it first came out. However, when I heard it would be getting a videogame adaptation, I was curious. After all, I know the manga has ended, and I wanted to get a good idea of the story — especially the parts that I hadn’t read. Naturally, when I got the chance to review it, I decided to be thorough.

Now, the beginning of EDENS ZERO is essentially as described in our editor’s preview. And I’m glad that I’m not the only one who noticed the… jiggle physics. I shouldn’t be surprised, I know how much Mashima loves fanservice. Granted, after a number of hours into the game, you don’t really notice it. Or, you just become desensitised to it… like I did.

The entire portion at the beginning of the game in the tutorial cutscene is essentially the overall plot of the game you can expect. You start from Granbell, where Rebecca meets Shiki, and the androids go on to attack them. After that, Rebecca takes Shiki to Blue Garden, where she has him join the Shooting Starlight guild, which operates differently from the guilds in Fairy Tail. You want the power of friendship here? Nah, these guys are here to work.

It’s also on Blue Garden where Exploration Mode takes place when you’re not undergoing Story Mode. There are numerous different biomes on Blue Garden, and there’s a lot to do there — dozens of quests, friends to recruit, deliveries to make, photos to take — and it’s a world that I can safely say I hadn’t finished exploring by the time I completed Story Mode. If you’re wondering how long that took me, well, let’s consider that howlongtobeat.com puts the main story completion at around 15 ½ hours. However, I took a little bit longer than that, as I was running around and doing side missions wherever I could, so it took me around 25 hours.

Speaking of Story Mode, let me continue from where I left off, before I got distracted by Exploration Mode. After Blue Garden, you go to Norma, where you’re searching for Professor Weisz, but instead, Shiki and Rebecca meet a younger version, who ends up joining the group. They then meet Elsie — praise me, for I did not call her Erza, as this was also the point where I dropped the series before — who challenges them and gives them the EDENS ZERO ship, where they then meet Witch, who sends them on a journey to find the other Four Shining Stars.

Throughout this, they also meet Homura, a student of Valkyrie, who assists them on the mission. The search continues, and they end up battling an impostor of Sister, another of the Four, and travelling to an MMORPG world to find Hermit. After this, it’s time to find Valkyrie, and to do this, they go to a fortune teller, who is also the game’s narrator: Xiaomei, who reveals the planet she’s on, and upon finding her, they then all go to deal with the Belial Gore to battle against Drakken Joe.

And, deep breath, that’s the plot. It doesn’t cover the entire series, but there’s no doubt that they’re already thinking of an EDENS ZERO sequel. It’s been left open-ended enough, and hey, I might actually get around to reading the series proper now. But moving on, after you complete Story Mode, you can also replay each chapter in the Deep Dive room on the ship (unlocked after getting Hermit), but there’s even more to do there. As mentioned, you can recruit friends to join you, and this means even more people join you on board.

There are several requirements to get all the Friends available, and so you will need to promote your Guild Rank and complete these specific side quests. It’s also a way to progress some post-game gameplay, as even when Story Mode is complete, you keep the same save file. It’s admittedly a good way of doing everything, and I’m pretty chill with it. There’s also an additional mission that is separate from your side quests, and this will involve your former enemies appearing in the world even after their death. But of course, that’s not all, silly. You don’t just fight enemies; you’ll also be fighting the likes of Natsu Dragneel.

Admittedly, I’m not going to go into too much detail about that, as my main focus here was getting the Main Story out of the way for this review. Plus, I’m trying to avoid spoiling it too much for any fans who haven’t read the series. But, I have to say, the side quests offer a lot of content, and they provide a great way of levelling up between Chapters of Story Mode.
But now that I’ve summarised the main story, it’s time to discuss the actual gameplay.

When it comes to combat, this is a very button-smashy game, so if you play it, please get a controller. I didn’t play it on my laptop, but I fear for anyone who plays this on Steam without one. However, it works well on the Steam Deck, even if I did have to make some small alterations to improve the frame rate. Admittedly, I just popped the settings down a bit. When it comes to combat, each character has a different fighting style.

Shiki’s fighting style is fully melee-based. Using his Gravity Ether Gear, he can drag enemies closer to him (except in boss fights when it’s one-on-one) and knock them off balance to wail on them. Rebecca and Happy (not to be confused with another blue cat of the same name and design) have Happy transform into blasters, and Rebecca’s special ability enables her to shoot your enemies from a first-person POV for a limited amount of time. Weisz also uses guns, but his ability allows him to use traps — bullets, flame throwers, and rocket launchers — to attack an enemy while he runs around dodging and shooting as normal.

Witch is, naturally, a witch who uses elemental magic that can inflict different status ailments. Homura is fast and uses swords to do slash attacks, Sister uses her whips and summons her robot helper Moscoy, and Hermit? Hermit uses drones and can make multiple copies of herself. There’s also Jinn, who you can unlock after Story Mode, but as he’s an extra character, I won’t go into too much detail. Let it be known, he is a ninja and he is fast, though. Each character can get skill enhancements through Ether Gear Enhancement, which is their own skill tree. You can improve stats by changing your gear, and you can then improve each gear by using different materials on the Edens Zero.

There are also mini-games that you can play to unlock rewards that you can only get from a specific part of Weisz’s store on the ship. They’re both rhythm mini-games, with one being a whipping, punishment game from Witch, and the other being a massage mini-game, but there’s not really a difference between either of them. They’re fun enough, but not so much that I would want to do that boss fight again. The massage mini-game takes place at the Spa of Eden, which is also where you can go to boost your Ether Gear to the next level once you get the specific item to do just that.

You’ll also find that, like any Mashima work, the power of friendship is everywhere here. Shiki’s after friends, and you can deepen those bonds at the end of story chapters and by utilising each character in combat. The kitchen will allow you the ability to cook food, and you can also make special gear for Pino, an android friend they saved on Norma, who will give status boosts in battle. Did I mention you can dress up your party whenever you want? Because you can, and you can even keep your strongest gear as it is and just go nuts with all the different outfit choices.

I will admit that when it comes to levelling up in combat, I didn’t really see much of a boost outside of Ether Gear Enhancement. Your defense stats can only be improved with your outfits, and the same goes for HP and Attack. Level differences essentially mean nothing in this game. And I say that with honesty, for you see, when I was but a humble level six, I still managed to beat a level 20 monster on a whim. Literally, all you need is healing items, and you can use those healing items by opening the start menu. It’s ridiculously easy. Yeah, it’ll take more time when you’re underlevelled, but it’s certainly not an impossibility.

While the combat is addictive, I didn’t really feel much when travelling around. You can either travel by motorbike, flight, or through a mech if you want to find Notes and other collectibles. You can do this from early on in the game, so you don’t even have to fight the numerous enemies on the map.

Speaking of the map, I would like to say I didn’t really enjoy the mini-map in this game. I still had to keep opening the menu to find out where I was going, especially on the Belial Goer. You can’t set markers for things you found earlier, and I don’t like that you have to leave Exploration Mode, go back to the ship, and then change your party by going back into Exploration Mode. It just… it felt tedious. It would’ve been better if they had just utilised the rest points better, but I suppose that’s a time for another game.

Overall, I have to admit, I did enjoy EDENS ZERO in spite of a few flaws. Do I think the translators could have proofread a little more in dialogue? Yes. Was the combat a bit repetitive? Also yes. But was it fun? Yes. Honestly, I think when it comes to EDENS ZERO, whether you’re a fan of the series or if you’re just curious about it, then I’d consider trying it out. It’s a great way to kill time, and I have to admit, I really enjoyed the characters and the story. It did actually make me want to go back to the series, and in a way, isn’t that what it should be doing?