Etheria

Etheria is a role-playing game where players are placed in the wondrous world of Etheria, a virtual world created after a global freeze, where humanity's consciousness has been transferred. However, the emergence of a genesis virus has corrupted the virtual world, and players become hyperlinkers embarking on an adventure to save Etheria. Players must choose suitable characters from a multitude to form a team for battle and exploration, earning rich rewards through story missions, arenas, and various events to develop their favorite characters. Each character has multiple growth paths, and players can combine Ether Modules to create characters with different combat styles, enhancing the game's fun. The game is also continuously being updated, with more high-quality storylines, new characters, and events to be released. Stay tuned!

Worldview of Etheria:

Extreme Snow Case: In the spring of 2133, an unprecedented cold wave swept the whole world. Invisible ends of the end and the resulting sulgwang covered the world. The humans who saw Seolgwang slowly lost their memory and consciousness and fell into a deep sleep and eventually died in a coma. In order to maintain human society, the coalition government established and maintained all refuge centers by establishing a driver of the shelter and an automated ground material.

50 years of prophecy and winter project: AD 2150, the coalition government prophesies that a storm caused by extreme snow will use a supercomputer. Large panic has been confused with human society again, and several places of shelter are destroyed by internal conflicts. At the same time, the coalition government confirms that there is no way to prevent this disaster with the current science and technology of humanity, and begins the 'winter project'. At the beginning of the winter project, humanity formally built and experimented with humanity on an artificial island near the Pacific Equator.

Restart Day: In November 2174, the Allied government officially declared the beginning of Eteria. Qualified humans entered Node City's intensive sleep zones and went through sleep and almaization. Their spirit, consciousness, and memory are all converted into alma data and stored in the Alma Database and then connected to etheria. The Allied government also builds a defensive guard and protects Node City and Alma Central through smart machines and guards. At this time, the world of humanity began to be divided into two. Some people chose reality, and others chose etheria.

Etheria's prosperity: The most brilliant city in Etheria is Eltries. Humanity facing the prosperous etheria quickly entered and begins to adapt. Here, mankind regains his life, dreams, and hopes, play here, work, meet people, and love. In this new place, with the beautiful dream of a new life, mankind could forget the bitterness of the eyes, ice, and extinction in reality. However, this prosperity and peace did not last long, and the crisis caused by external invasion, the division of humanity, and the conflict between humanity and anime began to grow up little by little.

Features of Etheria:

Strategic Combat & Limitless Team Compositions: Etheria evolves classic turn-based combat by incorporating diverse strategic mechanics and sandbox exploration, delivering a next-generation Team RPG experience! Create countless team combinations by synergizing Animus abilities, issue real-time combat commands, and freely control each Animus in battle. Master skill combinations and tactical setups to experience the thrill of overcoming powerful foes through superior strategy.

Breathtaking 3D Visuals & Cinematic Spectacle: Built in Unreal Engine, Etheria delivers cinematic immersion through lifelike lighting, detailed shadows, and fully rendered real-time scenes. Each character features unique combat animations enhanced by dynamic camera work and dazzling effects, creating spectacular battles without visual clutter or overwhelming effects.

Strategic PvP Arena Battles: Step into the Arena, where non-stop duels rage day and night! Engage in exhilarating PvP battles amid roaring crowds, showcase your unique strategies to fellow Hyperlinkers, and experience the pure thrill of tactical competition as you pursue your combat dreams!

Venture into the Threshold: Explore Etheria's rich PvE content, where formidable foes from the Main Quest return in the Threshold, GP Outposts, and Investigations. Team up with your Animus squad to tackle powerful bosses! For those seeking greater challenges, venture into the Ember ruins, where even deadlier and more mysterious adversaries await...

Forge Your Combat Style: Each Animus features a unique Prowess system with diverse progression paths. Customize their abilities through Shell equipment and nearly a hundred different Ether Module combinations to develop distinct fighting styles and combat approaches. Create specialized builds for your favorite Animus to tackle any battle scenario!

Strategies of Etheria:

If you’re just starting your Etheria journey, these tips can help you progress more efficiently.

Focus on a Core Team: Instead of spreading resources across every character, invest in a small group of reliable heroes first.

Learn Character Roles: Understanding which characters excel at offense, defense, or support helps create balanced teams.

Complete Daily Activities: Daily missions provide valuable rewards that speed up progression and help strengthen your roster.

Upgrade Equipment Regularly: Good gear can significantly improve a character’s effectiveness during battles.

Experiment with Team Compositions: Different encounters may require different strategies. Don’t be afraid to test new combinations and discover powerful synergies.

Player Comments of Etheria:

Recommended but with a whole lot of reservations. Things to note about me for this review: I am an almost Day One player. I am F2P and mostly casual.Good core gameplay loop and fun team building. It's *somewhat* F2P-friendly but you need to dedicate so much time and effort if you want to catch up to people. But would you even want to considering how little new content there is? It's a good side gacha but it will never become someone's main game unless they don't know they have other options available.The game marketed itself as a F2P-friendly PVP-focused game to the point they even have an esport about it. That was the thing that drew me to it at the start because I was skeptical and, broadly speaking, they somewhat achieved this goal. The PVP scene is not dominated by only a specific set of characters and lower rarity characters are still often used because they fulfill a specific role in the team. You can do really well in the PVP scene as a F2P (if you dedicate a lot of time to the game) HOWEVER it is still heavily skewed towards people who drop cash into the game. Higher rarity characters are still insanely strong and being able to drop money to get a ton of summons and resources will really help you. Plus, there's the Perfect Lattice issue. You get so few of this vital resource as a F2P. It's improved a bit by dropping money on the game but even then it's still so rare.The gameplay itself is pretty fun. I like the loop of gearing up your characters and the small bit of exploration is nice (the levels are beautifully designed even if they're linear). The character designs are nice, I haven't seen anything that's just gooner bait. The characters also have depth in terms of strategies, synergies and specialisations. You will need to build different teams for different aspects of the game so you're not stuck with just the same five or six OP characters. It takes a lot of currency to do summons but you get said currency fairly easily enough.The community feels very small. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of players, especially new players. You can see this in the Arena where the devs have to put bot accounts because otherwise you won't be able to progress since everyone else has a maxed out team. World chat is also full of the same - people who have reached max level and just idly doing dailies while they play their other gachas. 99% of people I met during the test period and pre-Steam have dropped this game. I do appreciate that majority of players still remain decent people and are helpful. There's very little new content to the point that the game is 90% the same since I last played it. Don't know if there's a roadmap for new content but the game desperately needs it. Especially leaning towards new players.

This game is not bad. It is not perfect either.First of all, the story is very boring and easy to skip. It also hasn't been updated in a long time, it's been on "to be continued" for years and i honestly doubt they will ever continue it. The events are repetitive, they just keep cycling them. The skins are just recolors of the base skin, but at least you can get some for "free" in the shop, with a currency that you gain from doing PVP.Other than that, the game is heavily focused on PVP, while the PVE content is a bit challenging and requires a lot of grinding for the long term. Resources for leveling and upgrading characters are limited, so you will often have to prioritize certain units over others, however, sometimes (not that often though) the game gives you a free reset, so if the character you invested into is not meta anymore, you can reset it and get the materials back.When I started the game, I thought that because it is very PVP focused, it would've been P2W, however so far I never struggled or felt punished for being fully f2p.One thing worth mentioning is that, despite being a PVP oriented game, when you start playing, the PVP is locked behind account progression, therefore you will probably spend your first week or even months focusing almost only on PVE, neglecting PVP until you clear the majority of PVE content. There are still missions to introduce you into the PVP, so you are not completely locked out of it.I don't dislike at all the gatcha system. In fact, I think is quite fair and I managed to get almost every limited characters, and the game is very generous (except for LD and KINETIC units which require a rarer currency). However, the standard banner includes basically all the characters, so I think that's a plus! There is also no weapon banner and no 50-50 on limited banners.I like some of the character designs and I also appreciate the fact that the game relases a good number of male characters too, compared to most gatcha games.Overall, I would recommend this game to players who enjoy gacha games and PVP. Just keep in mind that it requires a fair amount of grinding.

Final words:

This world is in danger. It’s because a mysterious virus is secretly taking over the world. This is understandable because this game places itself in a modern and different world. It is considered a work, a genre, of the Japanese fantasy world. Players will witness an open world with many modern buildings. It’s bright and flashy, not dark like the post-apocalyptic world. But deep inside that brilliant exterior are earth-shattering secrets. The player plays the role of a hero. In this world, they call us Hyper-linkers. Accompanying the Animus, a battle to reclaim the world will unfold.