Years ago, Senia's village was wiped out by demons, leaving her the only survivor after a priestess, Magaleta, saved her. Magaleta adopts Senia to live a peaceful life at her monastery, but their happiness ends after Magaleta ventures into the ominous Tower of Eternity without telling anyone. Luckily, Senia learned to wield a sword, so it's up to her to follow Magaleta into the tower and hopefully bring her back.
Unfortunately, it is said that the Tower of Eternity can grant one's wish, but at the cost of being possessed by a malevolent power. What kind of wish is Magaleta seeking? What other people are using this power to grant their wishes? Senia will find the answer to these questions as she climbs this tower.
Holy Priest developed Eternal Senia, which is a Taiwanese RPG Maker VX Ace game with character designs inspired by Ragnarok Online. It's an Action RPG that aims to be fairly simple and easy to play (think of a simplified version of Ys 1&2's combat) and heartbreaking to read. It was translated to English and released onto Steam in 2015 for free, likely due to containing copyrighted content.
It's now a series, called Eternal Senia, because of the sequel, named Eternal Senia: Hydrangea After The Rain was released on mobile devices in 2017.
Tropes found in this game:
- Anti-Frustration Features: You can save between the phases of the final boss and save right after the last phase without using the statue, allowing you to get both endings 2 and 3 without fighting the boss over again.
- Beam Spam: Every boss and a few special enemies have one attack that has them spam this across the field. The final boss takes the cake, with the beams going vertically instead of horizontally (lengthwise) across the stage, and as many as five coming in at any time, with the stage crumbling as well.
- Blessed with Suck: The power of Eternity appears to give a significant power boost, provides Reality Warper abilities and according to legend will provide one wish to the user when mastered. It also results in a Lack of Empathy, and a powerful desire to remain within the tower and never leave. Those who fail to master it become full on Ax-Crazy.
- Bonus Dungeon: The Holy Chamber, a hidden area of the Fallen Sanctum. Clearing it fixes the Cross Pendant, unlocking the chance for the second and third endings, and lets Nia and Senia finally meet.
- Broken Ace: Magaleta one shots most monsters she encounters, is a high ranking priestess and the big sister of the main character. Her life however is peppered with losing the people she cares about, and she blames herself for all of it. Two of the endings drive this home, both resulting in her utter failure. The third requires a heroic sacrifice on her part, but at least accomplishes what she set out to do.
- Cap: A few:
- Senia's max level is 50.
- Senia can only hold 99 of any item.
- Closed Door Rapport: In Ending 3, Magaleta and Senia are talking through a door to a room that Magaleta teleported Senia out of.
- Collision Damage: Senia's non-skill attacks are triggered by running into enemies, causing damage to both, but mostly to the enemy.
- Cooldown: The Eternity Burst has this.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Senia's Eternity Burst is implied to be this, since she appears to be possessed by Eternity during the cooldown phase. Luckily, it doesn't affect the ending, but it's still disconcerting.
- Developer's Room: The password for accessing it is given after getting the third ending and filling out a Google form. You can learn the password from other players, but rooms explaining bosses will be locked until you actually beat the boss, thus minimizing spoilers.
- Difficulty Levels: Floor bosses (other than King Slime) allow you to select the difficulty level before fighting them.
- Downer Ending: All of them. Ending 1 has Senia lose herself to Eternity alongside Magaleta, leaving them together but both trapped as slaves to its power. Ending 2 has Senia lose herself to Eternity and kill Magaleta. Ending 3 is the most positive and involves Magaleta taking all the dark magic into herself before teleporting Senia away, leaving Senia vowing to find Magaleta again and break the curse upon her. The sequel might give us the happy ending we want though.
- Experience Meter: Shown in the top left corner of the screen, below the Mana Meter.
- Experience Points: Gotten by defeating enemies.
- Fake Ultimate Mook: There are 4 giant sized versions of normal enemies in every area. They have the highest reflected damage in the game, but cannot move or use ranged attacks, making them easy to beat with patience.
- Finale Title Drop: The name of Ending 1 is "Eternal Senia".
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When the Fairy Queen and Demon Lord use Eternity's power, an outline of a winged demon appears, which looks different from the latter's second form.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Senia lacks any long range ability whatsoever, so she solves this weakness by throwing her Fairy Companion instead. It even becomes a permanent skill.
- Heads-Up Display: It shows all the meters and also the controls for Senia's special attacks. Plus SP count, which actually can't display all .
- Healing Checkpoint: The Goddess Statues, which heal you when you get to them, and are also Save Points.
- Heroic BSoD: In the ending where Senia loses herself to Eternity Magaleta doesn't even attempt to fight back, simply allowing herself to be hacked to death as penance for her failure.
- Hit Box Dissonance: Every enemy has a 1-tile hitbox, including bosses with large sprites. Senia also applies due to having an XP style sprite, unlike most enemies.
- Hit Points: Shown above the Life Meter in the top left corner of the screen.
- Holy Halo: Cherubs, the strongest type of Angel, have yellow glowing ones.
- Hope Spot: Magaleta is free from the power of Eternity, they're both finally reunited and hugging, they go to finally leave... but Senia is still cursed, which was the whole reason for Magaleta seeking Eternity in the first place. And her time has run out.
- "I Can't Look!" Gesture: Senia tells the little fairy to close her eyes when Senia attempts to throw her to activate an unreachable switch.
- Idiosyncratic Menu Labels: Downplayed, the game keeps the Start Screen options labelled normally but adds subtitles to them, see the page image.
- Infinity +1 Sword: Senia starts with the incredibly powerful Hydrangea Sword and Violet Crystal Armor, but they end up breaking early on and can be fixed via sidequests.
- In Medias Res: The game starts with Senia entering the tower, but everything else (including the background outside of summary) is pushed to flashbacks.
- Lady of Black Magic: And White Magician Girl. Magaleta packs an impressive array of high powered holy magic, along with some healing spells and support abilities.
- Life Meter: A red bar at the top left of the screen.
- Little Miss Badass: Senia bears herself like a scared little girl, and claims that she's fragile and weak. In stature she's short and lightly built. Despite this she's easily the most powerful person in the game, and wields a succession of massive two handed swords.
- Mana Meter: A blue bar at the top left of the screen.
- Multiple Endings: Three of them. The first ending is the default, but has no credits, replaced by a hint to the second and third endings. By clearing the Holy Chamber and fixing the Cross Pendant, then equipping it during the battle with Magaleta, Senia will be protected from Eternity, leading to the True Final Boss and a Last-Second Ending Choice between endings 2 and 3.
- Ending 1: Eternal Senia. After Magaleta is defeated, she embraces Senia, and both are possessed by Eternity and decide to stay in the tower forever.
- Ending 2: Senia and Magaleta, to eternity. If Senia pushes Magaleta away, she'll be possessed by Eternity, and Magaleta will let herself be killed.
- Ending 3: Eternal Determination. If Senia does nothing as Magaleta runs to her, Magaleta takes Eternity onto herself and pushes Senia out of the room. Senia bangs on the door and cries for a long time, but eventually resolves to one day save Magaleta, no matter what it takes.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Senia presumably already knows how to perform the Phantom Strike and Splash Leap before the game starts, but doesn't think to use them until events in the game force her to use them. Naturally, after these events, the player can freely cast these special attacks at will.
- One-Hit Kill: Can happen if leveled high enough and with the proper equipment. But, Cherubs and Fallen Angels take two normal hits, even with Senia's attack stat maxed out with Trial, although, a high enough skill level in any skill will kill them both in one hit.
- One-Winged Angel: A function of Eternity. The demon lord and Magaleta both transform into more powerful forms when beaten in their primary guises.
- One-Woman Army: Senia is taking on an entire dungeon with nothing but a Fairy Companion. Magaleta counts as well, since she made to the top of the tower by herself.
- Our Angels Are Different: They appear in the final area, and there are multiple varieties, with Cherub as the strongest.
- Angel Intern
- Fallen Angel
- Cherub
- Point of No Return: Beating the area boss forces you into the next area, with no way to go back. The Demon area also features two subsections that can't be revisited upon completion.
- Purple Is Powerful: The ultimate sword and armor are purple, and so is the hair of Senia, the protagonist.
- Reality Warping Is Not a Toy: Every area is tailored to the current boss's desires, but they're possessed by Eternity as a side effect.
- Replacement Goldfish: Senia was adopted by Magaleta shortly after Magaleta's sister Nia died. The similiarities in their names has not gone unnoticed. Even a resident of the Demon stage tries to use this to convince Senia.
- Sad Battle Music: "Silent Love
" is used for the first fight against Magaleta. - Save-Game Limits: 16 save slots, plus an auto-save.
- Save Point: The Goddess Statues serves as this. They also restore all HP and MP, which makes them Healing Checkpoints as well.
- Separated by the Wall: Part of the Third Ending, when Magaleta and Senia are talking through a door, Magaleta on the left, and Senia on the right.
- Stationary Boss: Every boss except King Slime and Magaleta's first form.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Magaleta ascended the tower to undo the curse on Senia; in two of three endings Senia is possessed by Eternity, and in the third it's ambiguous whether the curse is truly lifted. Senia ascended the tower to find and rescue Magaleta; in two of three endings Magaleta is possessed by Eternity, and in the third she dies.
- Shout-Out:
- At one point in the second world, you have access to the Pit of Strength, Corridor of Wisdom, and Passage of Bravery, through three teleporters arranged in a triangle. The Pit of Strength is at the top, the Corridor of Wisdom is to the left, and the Passage of Bravery is to the right, just like the Triforces of Power, Wisdom, and Courage.
- The second world is a Castlevania reference as well, being a castle full of monsters whose final area is a clock tower connected to the boss' lair with a very long staircase over an abyss and with a full moon in the background.
- The "Holy Priest" in the Developer's Room is modeled after Charlotte, a witch from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Given the similarities between Eternal Senia and PMMM, this seems very fitting.
- As confirmed in the Developer's Room, the puzzle in the Holy Chamber is based on Legend of Mana. The boss battle with Magaleta's first form bears a strong resemblance to one from Trials of Mana as well.
- Superboss:
- The Giant Mooks found throughout the levels each drop a legendary crafting material needed to forge the highest-tier equipment.
- Each main boss after King Slime has an optional "hard mode" variant with higher stats.
- True Final Boss: Beat the final boss with the repaired Cross Pendant equipped, and Magaleta shifts to an Eternity-powered second form, leading to the second and third endings.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Senia doesn't remember what happened to the enemies surrounding her after she unwittingly uses Eternity Burst for the first time.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The little fairy isn't so much as mentioned in any of the endings, even though it's accompanying Senia at the time. She does appear in the sequel though.
- Winged Humanoid: The angels in the final area. There are many varieties:
- Angel Intern
- Fallen Angel
- Cherub
- The Worf Effect: The Demon Lord gets a One-Winged Angel form, which is quickly defeated by Magaleta before he can fight Senia.
- Yin-Yang Bomb: Although the Eternity power uses a dark vortex sprite, Magaleta is able to use her holy spells just fine while possessed by it.
- You Can Talk?: Senia was surprised when she sees the Legendary Goat and Slimey talk for the first time.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: When Senia fights those with Eternity's power and wins, she ends up absorbing some of it. Strangely, this happens even if she doesn't kill her opponent.
