Very few Japanese developers concern themselves with English lore and fantasy when creating their Role Playing Games. More often then not an R.P.G from the land of the rising sun will have both elements of popular culture, science fiction and a little fantasy thrown in for good measure. While there is no denying that many of these games are classic, every once in a while Fantasy enthusiast long for something a little closer to Lord of the Rings or perhaps Dungeons and Dragons. The Kings Field series of titles by From Software were always the closest attempts at recreating the medieval fantasy worlds that so many of us desired. Unfortunately the Playstation hardware just didn't have the processing power required to present a solid first person view and despite a cult following the game never really took off.

The developers at From decided that the PS2 might just be the system of choice to update the old series. There are definite improvements made to this aging concept but in the end even processing muscle can't help save a stagnating idea.

From a graphics standpoint Eternal Ring has it's moments of grandeur like a great oak wood carved hall, or a beautifully rendered water dragon. There are even some surreal moments like the dimension where you create magical rings. In the end these brief areas of beauty are overwhelmed by a complete sense of repetition. Every area has a generic texture that repeats itself time and time again and you can't help but notice the very bland and empty nature of the level design. Over and over I found myself longing for a deep forest or dank dungeon as opposed to empty caverns and dry valleys.

Enemy and character designs in the game are the real treat, with swordsmen and town folk all spectacularly rendered. Creatures in the game look like they have been taken right out of a D&D creature compendium. Ranging from Goblins and Lizard Men to giant sleeping dragons. Ever enemy you could ever want to hack to pieces is present in this game, which brings us to combat. From Software has never deviated from the attack system used in previous games and by the looks of it that won't happen any time soon, just like King's Field killing your enemies requires you to run in swinging and then quickly retreat until you have the energy to take another swipe. As you gain levels it takes less and less swings to kill previously encountered enemies which helps with the incredible amount of backtracking you have to do. In the end though, each time you reach a new area, more powerful enemies appear that require greater amounts of attack. This repetitive swing and retreat style of combat gets stale very quickly.

Sound is always a major contributor to the ambience of first person games such as this yet you'll find little in the way of environmental effects within the game. The voice acting isn't even worth mentioning, southern drawls and Bronx accents do not suit a game such as this but that's how many of the characters speak. In places the voice acting is so painful you'll be searching for the volume control. Music within the game is an odd collection of pieces, some fit the style of game but many others are completely silly and repetitive, playing the same riff over and over again. In the end I got so tired of some of the music that I simple turned it off and played the Conan soundtrack in the background.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment in the games is that it is non-linear, which would be welcome in most games but simply does not work here. Stumbling into an area unprepared with low levels and health will get you killed time and time again. You are forced to find the easiest route possible, which defeats the whole purpose of making the game non-linear. I don't see too many players going back through the game once they have finished it the first time.

So there you have it, while still the closest to Tolkien youre going to get on the console, Eternal Ring does too many things poorly to really warrant your attention.