Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Description official descriptions
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a psychological thriller epic starring the adventures of twelve characters that span across the world and two millennia. From time immemorial the forces of evil from beyond have been trying to manifest themselves in our world, and it is only through the actions of these forgotten heroes that the world has been saved from being overrun. Chapters take place in Ancient Rome, Persia, the Middle East, and modern-day Rhode Island. Throughout the game, the protagonists will have access to several weapons appropriate for their era, from bastard sword and gladius to flintlock pistol and shotgun.
The game features an involved Magick system, which allows different spells to be created through the combination of runes. These spells can attack enemies, dispel illusions, and heal both the body and items.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem also has a unique feature called Sanity. If an enemy sees a character, their Sanity meter drops. When Sanity gets low, hallucinations begin to plague the character. Walls bleed, voices whisper from nowhere, the camera gets disoriented. Sanity can be restored by dealing a finishing move on a dying enemy, or with spells or some items. Aside from this, characters also have health and mana meters.
Spellings
- エターナルダークネス 招かれた１３人 - Japanese spelling
- 이터널 다크니스 - Korean spelling
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Screenshots
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Credits (GameCube version)
119 People (96 developers, 23 thanks) · View all
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 90% (based on 79 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 108 ratings with 9 reviews)
A Tribute To All Things Macabre
The Good
Eternal Darkness, from Silicon Knights, was originally intended for the N64 console. After years of lingering in developers hell, the game was finally released for the Gamecube. It was the very first game I got for my Gamecube, and it is one of the best for the console, and also one of the reasons that I wanted one.
In Eternal Darkness, you play as Alex Rovias, as well as 11 others, whom all play a role in defeating the Eternal Darkness. Which is an ancient evil deity, not unlike Lovecraft’s “Great Old Ones”. The game spans the world, from Ancient Persia, Medieval France, and Modern New England. And has a good 15 hours. The game also has pretty good replay value. There are also some unlockables. As in the beginning, you choose which rune to take red, green, blue. Each changes the game slightly. Red makes monsters harder, blue drains magicka, and green drains sanity.
Each playable character has there own weapons and quest. Weapons include melee and ranged. Each also has varying stats. But you must find the magicka. Which transfer to each new character. Runes come in three powers. Three, five and seven point spells. Spells have a wide variety of effects from healing to shields.
In Eternal Darkness you have to watch your health and magicka, and well as your sanity. The Sanity effects are one of the coolest features of Eternal Darkness. It does not have the subtitle of Sanity’s Requiem for no reason. The effect occur when your sanity gets to low. Effects range from grisly ones like characters accidentally shooting themselves, and goofy ones like the display of the volume being lowered. It does not actually lower. One of the coolest is when the game shows a screen saying Thanks for playing the demo!
The Graphics are pretty good. But not Gamecube power. But then again it was designed for the N64. And it was a launch title. It is the character models that suffer the most here. The spells and environments look fantastic.
The Sound department excels. The voice acting is excellent. Particularly the voice of the Ancients. The sound effects are all creepy as they should be. The music takes a backseat here but is still well done.
The Bad
Why do you have to create the spell every time you get a new rune? Like the five and seven point runes, once acquired you must re-make the more powerful spell. Which is a real pain in the arse. The game also suffers from many horror game flaws, such as constant back tracking. And having to use and item like a key instead of it being automatically used.
The Bottom Line
Along with Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth, Eternal Darkness is one of the best horror games of recent years. And the references to Lovecraft and Poe are cool.
GameCube · by MasterMegid (723) · 2006
The Good
Sanity meter, What more do I have to say? This was the first game I have ever seen with such a thing. Once it gets low, your character starts seeing things that don't exist, situations that haven't happened. Once the meter gets low enough, it starts messing with the player, popping up error messages and messing with the volume. Pure and utter genius.
The idea of 3 different plots was great, each revolving around either Ulyoth, Xelotath, or Chatturga. The plots don't change much, but the bad guys do.
The format of the game, the girl going to her fathers house, the way the game is played through in chapters was great, my favorite chapters being playing as the girl's father, and as her great-great some-odd grandfather.
The Bad
The game can get VERY repetitive when you don't know what you are doing.
The Bottom Line
I bought game-cube just to play this game.
GameCube · by Boris Stovich (26) · 2004
An excellent game with superb pacing.
The Good
Eternal Darkness is rather similar to Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil, but avoids the "dull bits" present in those games with meticulous attention to pacing and advancement.
The Bad
Early choices have far-reaching implications, which are lost on people who play through only one time. Also, the save game file is much larger than it needs to be, which is a bother.
The Bottom Line
It's Resident Evil for people who didn't like Resident Evil.
GameCube · by Simon Strange (58) · 2003
Trivia
1001 Video Games
Eternal Darkness appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Ancients
Each of the Ancients is represented by a colour, which is the colour of their alignment as well as their Magick and their creatures.* Ulyaoth, God of the dimensional planes, is Blue. * Xel'lotath, Goddess of the Mind and Madness is Green. * Chattur'gha, God of physical strength and matter is Red. * Mantorok the Corpse God or God of Order and Chaos is Purple (though sometimes Black).
However, there is also"neutral" Yellow Magick present in the game. According to Denis Dyack, a designer of the game, this actually represents a fifth, unrevealed Ancient.The fact that yellow is the complementary colour of purple may also indicate that this Ancient is diametrically opposed to Mantorok.
Canada
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is the first game to be developed fully by a Canadian developer, inside Canada, and published by Nintendo Of Canada (NoC). As a result, it was released in Canada two days before the U.S.
Development
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem was originally planned to be one of the last games released for the N64. Once it slipped that release, it was scheduled to be a GameCube launch title and be shipped in October 2001. It didn't make that date and was once again rescheduled for release in February 2002. It still didn't make that date and was finally released in June 2002. Because it was in testing for so long, the in-house testers at Nintendo began calling it "Everlasting Darkness."
Fourth wall
Silicon Knights co-developed the remake The Twin Snakes of Metal Gear Solid with Konami. Given that series' fondness for breaking the fourth wall, Silicon Knights reused some of the Eternal Darkness sanity effects, such as the tilting floor effect, during the player's battle with Psycho Mantis. Eternal Darkness is also one of the games recognised when the character attempts to "read the player's mind" (which consists of reading the contents of the system's memory card). Breaking the fourth wall in such a manner is a notable stylistic similarity between games developed by Silicon Knights and those developed by Hideo Kojima.
Inaccuracies
In the manual when describing Dr. Maximillian Roivas, they put the date and setting of "A.D. 1760 - Rhode Island, USA." Not only is it glaringly obvious that the United States not even exist at that point, but Rhode Island didn't even join the Union until 1790! Oops! The developers, Silicon Knights, are Canadian.
Names
Alexandra's family name, Roivas, is savior spelled backwards.
Ratings
This was the first Nintendo only published game ever to receive a ESRB Mature rating. Conker's Bad Fur Day and Perfect Dark are older Nintendo games that also carry a Mature rating but it can be argued that they were co-published by Rare.
References
- This game has several homages to classic horror and fiction writers. As if the Edgar Allen Poe quote on the intro wasn't enough, the guy who speaks to you on the beginning of the game introduces himself as Inspector Legrasse... and there is an Inspector Legrasse on H.P. Lovecraft's tale The Call of Cthulhu. The setting being on Rhode Island is another tip of the hat to Lovecraft's place of birth.
- Mantarok, the creature encountered by Ellia, is the keeper of "The Ancients". An obvious reference to Lovecraft's Yog-Sothoth, who is the keeper of The Great Old Ones. Also they both coexist in multiple planes of reality.
- While playing as Alex, check the stack of books in the study, to find another reference to classic horror tales, including Poe and Lovecraft.
- One of the sanity effects has the character's head falling off and quoting Shakespeare, more specifically Scene I, Act III of Hamlet, the famous "To Be Or Not To Be" speech.
References to the game
In Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, magazines called ED Magazine can be used to distract guards. The magazines show Ellia on the cover and a centerfold of Alex Roivas when used, two characters from Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.
Title translation
The translation of the Japanese title in English is "Eternal Darkness: Call of 13 People".
Awards
- 4Players
- 2002– Best GameCube Game of the Year
- 2002– Best GameCube Action Game of the Year
- 2002 – #2 Best GameCube Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
- GameSpy
- 2002 – Day of the Tentacle (Cthulhu) Award (GameCube)
Information also contributed by CaptainCanuck, Jiguryo, lasse, Mark Ennis, MasterMegid, Mike Turner, Sciere and Shadowcaster
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Related Sites +
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Eternal Darkness
Nintendo of America's official web site. -
Eternal Darkness Sanctuary
Fan page with guides, cheats and various media.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by JPaterson.
Additional contributors: Apogee IV, Sciere, Alaka, gamewarrior, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, FatherJack.
Game added June 27, 2002. Last modified January 17, 2024.