Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

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Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem box cover
Developer(s) Silicon Knights
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Designer(s) Denis Dyack
Release date(s) North America June 24, 2002
Japan October 25, 2002
Europe November 1, 2002
Australia November 7, 2002
Genre(s) Psychological horror
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: Mature (M)
ELSPA: 15+
Platform(s) Nintendo GameCube
Media 1 × GameCube Optical Disc
System requirements 15 blocks of memory for saving

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a psychological horror video game originally planned for the Nintendo 64 but later released exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube, and largely inspired by (but not directly adapting) the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Developed by Canadian developer Silicon Knights, it was released on June 24, 2002 and published by Nintendo.

Contents

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The plot of the game revolves around protagonist Alexandra Roivas, who is investigating the mysterious murder of her grandfather Edward Roivas. While exploring his Rhode Island mansion, she discovers a secret room containing, among other odd items, a tome bound with human skin and bone. When she reads this book, The Tome of Eternal Darkness, she experiences a scene in the life of Pious Augustus, a respected Roman Centurion in 26 BC. Pious is lead by mysterious voices to an underground temple, where he chooses one of three mysterious artifacts. The artifact transforms him into an undead warlock, the Liche, and makes him slave to of one of three Ancients, powerful godlike beings whose "Essences" are incarnated as the artifacts. As the plot unfolds, it becomes clear that Pious is attempting to summon his Ancient into this reality, while the powerful fourth "Corpse God" Mantorok is bound on Earth already, helpless to stop it.

As the player discovers more chapters of the Tome, Alex finds herself reliving the experiences of several (player-controlled) individuals who have crossed paths with Pious or other servants of the Ancients over the centuries, and as a result come in contact with the Tome itself. While many of these individuals meet a sinister fate, their cooperation ultimately gathers the Essences of the three remaining Ancients in the mansion. Alexandra's own ancestors discover the long-deserted City of Ehn'gha beneath the family mansion, and powerful magickal machinery inside. Alexandra powers up this mechanism with the Ancients' essences, and summons a rival Ancient to fight Pious's.

While the two Ancients fight, Alexandra engages in combat with Pious with the aid of the spirits of his victims, ultimately destroying his Ancient's essence. It loses the fight above as Alexandra kills Pious. Then, realizing that the Roivases and their allies have just brought another powerful ancient into the world, Edward's spirit quickly sends the other Ancient back where it came from. He expresses pride in his granddaughter before he disappears.

After completing the game under all three alignments, it is revealed that all three ancients have been destroyed — "All at once, separate and simultaneous, for the universe is made of many timestreams, many possibilities, all in harmonious synchronicity." Because he was bound, and not powerful enough to stop Pious Augustus himself, Mantorok manipulated the Roivas family, and other chosen ones, into completing the work for him. He orchestrates the deaths of all three ancients, in separate timestreams, and then connects them all, resulting in the annihilation of all three alignments. In the end, only the corpse god Mantorok is still alive, languishing, festering somewhere in his hidden tomb, plotting.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Gameplay

[edit] Structure

Alexandra's part of the game, at the mansion in 2000, forms the hub. The player finds the book, and Pious's story, first. Then Alex finds the first Chapter Page, leading the player on to the next section of the game as a different character. This character's story provides plot exposition, and once complete, the player as Alexandra has knowledge, an object, or an ability which allows her to find the next Chapter Page, highlighting another character, and so on.

This cycle of new gameplay sections, leading to new abilities, leading to new gameplay sections, was first pioneered by Metroid, but Eternal Darkness was lauded for its application of the idea to a narrative with a variety of settings and time periods.

[edit] Alignments

The player chooses which of the three essences Pious attempts to claim at the start of the game. This determines which of the three Ancients he is aligned with, and subsequently which enemies dominate. The alignments have a rock, paper, scissors relationship, which is important in the player's consideration of his or her own magick use.

The Ancients are members of a species that existed before other life emerged from the primordial ooze. The relentless movement of ice and the continental drift and other "inscrutable" reasons bound the Ancients deep beneath the planet's surface, biding their time, waiting until the moment was right to return. The surviving Ancients are:

  • Ulyaoth, God of Magick: his creations are tinged blue, and they specialize in magickal damage. Ulyaoth has power over Chattur'gha.
  • Xel'lotath, Goddess of Madness: her underlings are tinged green, and have an affinity for affecting sanity (see below). Xel'lotath has power over Ulyaoth.
  • Chattur'gha, God of Matter: his troops are tinged red, and focus on physical attacks and toughness. Chattur'gha has power over Xel'lotath.
  • Mantorok the Corpse God, God of Order and Chaos: the creator of the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Although it appears in the game to be in a position of inferiority, it is actually dominant over all. It created the equilibrium between the other three Ancients, making sure that they would be bound to fight against and destroy one another.

There appears to be a fifth alignment, colored yellow, that is not connected to any of the Ancients in the game.

[edit] Magick

Unlike most games in the horror genre, Eternal Darkness offers magickal powers for healing, solving puzzles, and experimenting in combat. For example, it is possible for player characters to summon (and, if they wish, directly control) monsters like those they are fighting. This is achieved by a fairly intuitive system of "runes" for the components of the spell and 3-, 5-, or 7-point "Circles of Power" which allow the runes to be scribed. To cast a spell, an alignment rune (fueling the spell with the power of one of the 4 Ancients– though Mantorok's rune is well hidden), a "verb" or effect rune (describing the action of the spell) and a "noun" or target rune must be used. For example, the spell for recovering health consists of the alignment rune for Chattur'gha, the rune for "absorb" (Narokath), and the rune for "self" (Santak). As more runes are discovered, more combinations are possible, although not all have an effect. With a larger Circle of Power, "power" (Pargon) runes may be added to spells to increase the intensity of the spell. Runes and Circles gathered during a chapter are stored in the Tome and available in all subsequent chapters, as well as the present day. More runes and spells are detailed in the "Runes" and "Spells" sections below.

[edit] Sanity effects

The game's standout concept, patented by Nintendo (US patent 6,935,954 [1]), is the "sanity meter", a green bar on screen which is depleted under various conditions, generally when the character is seen by an enemy. It can be restored under various conditions, such as performing a "finishing move" on an enemy. As the bar becomes low, various effects occur, reflecting the character's slackening grip on reality. If the bar remains empty, further damage to sanity decreases the player character's health.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

One effect which is consistently used is a skewed camera angle accompanied by whispers, cries, and other noises. The lower the sanity meter, the more skewed the camera angle and the louder the sound effects. Fourth-wall breaking effects include simulated displays with messages apparently produced by the TV or the GameCube; this does not affect gameplay unless the player misconstrues them as actual technical malfunctions and turns off or resets his or her system, thereby losing all progress since his or her last save. Though some of these affect the character as hallucinations or muscle control issues, and others break the fourth wall, being aimed at the player directly, all are temporary.

Silicon Knights co-developed, with Konami, a remake of Metal Gear Solid subtitled The Twin Snakes. 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". 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.

There are many different sanity effects, and a given effect will not necessarily be encountered during a given run throgh the game. A few more commonplace examples include:

  • Sounds, including women and children crying out of fear and pain, the sound of a blade being sharpened, accompanied by the whimpering and screams of its victim.
  • Paintings turning to nightmarish depictions. For example, an idyllic mountain landscape turns to hell on Earth.
  • Walls and ceilings bleeding. Attacking them causes more effusion.
  • When casting a spell, the player character's body above the waist explodes.
  • Appearance of large numbers of monsters that are not really there, and disappear when attacked.
  • The player character's head falling off. When picked up, the head begins to recite Shakespeare.
  • Character or monsters shrinking or growing.
  • A version of the blue screen of death.
  • Statues and busts turning to look at the character. They turn back to original position when the character faces them.
  • Character whimpering and babbling to him or herself.
  • A "to-be-continued" message (leading the player to believe they have reached the end of the game) and promising continuation in a sequel game: Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Redemption.
  • Body parts systematically falling off one-by-one.
  • Character walking into a room from a previous or future chapter that uses the same location.
  • Character accidentally shooting him- or herself while reloading.
  • Character entering a room on the ceiling; after a while the player finds him- or herself back outside the door used to enter the room.
  • Character sinking into the floor.
  • Entering a room as a zombie, forced to wander the environment in this form until destroyed (and thereafter reappearing at the room's entrance as though nothing had happened).
  • When trying to save, instead of the usual "do you wish to overwrite saved date" screen, there is a "do you wish to delete all save files" with a "yes" and a "continue without saving" option. No matter what you do, all files appear to be deleted.
  • A volume bar appearing (much like a normal TV's bar) and showing the voluming increasing, decreasing, or being muted.
Spoilers end here.

Some sanity effects are character specific, relating to the individual's experience or fears.

[edit] Playable characters

Main article: List of characters from Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The player controls the following characters in the years noted next to their names.

  • Pious Augustus (26 BC) - A Roman Centurion in his late 20s, at war in the Middle East. He becomes the game's chief antagonist after being corrupted by one of the Ancients' essences while examining a ruins he stumbles upon. Alexandra Roivas defeats him in 2000 and destroys him forever.
  • Karim (565) - A Persian swordsman, sent into the desert to find a treasure (one of the Ancients' essences) for his love, Chandra. Chandra, however, is not faithful. She is killed for her indiscretion, and her ghost warns him about the artifact's true nature. Although initially reluctant to believe her, he sacrifices himself so that he can watch over the artifact.
  • Anthony (814) - A Frankish messenger for Carolus Magnus, ordered to deliver a message to his liege, a message that consumes Anthony in some corrosive magick which alludes to treachery in store for the Frankish emperor. He learns that the monks are plotting against the emperor, but is too late to save him. When Paul finds him, centuries later, he rises as a zombie-like creature, under the control of the Darkness. Paul defeats him, prays for him, and takes his sword and a gem needed to proceed.
  • Ellia (1150) - A Cambodian slave girl and court dancer for Suryavarman II. She yearns for adventure after reading passages from the Tome. She is chosen to bear Mantorok's essence. Pious kills her, but she remains half-alive because it is inside her. Eight hundred years later, she surrenders it to Lindsey.
  • Roberto Bianchi (1460) - A traveling Venetian artist and architect, taken as a prisoner of war while roaming abroad. He is forced to work for a warlord (revealed as Pious Augustus in a pre-level cinematic), helping with the construction of the Pillar of Flesh by surveying the foundations. He acquires the artifact from Karim while surveying the monster-infested site, and when his work is complete, he is thrown into the pillar and buried alive.
  • Paul Luther (1485) - A Franciscan monk on a pilgrimage to see the holy relic, the Hand of Jude. He is detained in Amiens by the Inquisition on a pretense of suspicion in the murder of Brother Andrew. A custodian frees him, and helps him to find Brother Andrew's journals, which reveals that Andrew was killed to protect a secret: the dominant Ancient's Relic is hidden in the Cathedral. The Hand of Jude was a fake to lure victims to sacrifice. Paul ventures deeper into the Cathedral, finding a metal statue of the custodian near a door. Paul must "kill" the statue with a magical dagger to open the door, but as he does so he hears a wail from nearby, and finds the custodian has been killed with a similar dagger. Later, Paul finds the Black Guardian, and it kills him instantly.
  • Dr. Maximillian Roivas (1760) - A rich doctor in colonial Rhode Island, ancestor of both Edward and Alex. Something is amiss in the mansion he recently inherited from his father, Aaron, and Max is displaying symptoms of hysteria. Max eventually finds the city of Ehn'gha under the mansion, and after realizing how powerful the denizens are after barely defeating a Lesser Guardian in single combat, he attempts to warn the world, but fails. It is implied that he was committed to an insane asylum for that, but later revealed that he killed four of his servants, suspecting they were possessed by Bonethieves. Alex, surveying the room where the servants' remains lie sealed, notes that one of the corpses was missing its head, and that one servant was most likely possessed.
  • Peter Jacob (1916) - A field reporter during World War I, staying at Oublie Cathedral, which has been converted into a field hospital. He notices that people are mysteriously disappearing, and investigates the lower levels when monsters attack. He defeats the Black Guardian, and keeps the artifact for many years until he delivers it to Edward.
  • Edward Roivas (1952) - A clinical psychologist, Alex's grandfather, led to the Tome by Max's ghost. His servants are attacked by a dreadful presence, the Vampire. Edward eventually defeats it, and severely damages Ehn'gha with a massive Dispel Magick spell from the city's nine-point spell circle (formed by the towers of the city). Years later, he is killed by a Lesser Guardian. Edward is the game's primary narrator, introducing each Tome chapter and narrating the epilogue.
  • Dr. Edwin Lindsey (1983) - An archaeologist exploring in Cambodia under the auspices of a mysterious benefactor named Paul Augustine. Paul Augustine, revealing himself to be Pious in disguise, tries to kill Lindsey, but he escapes and finds Mantorok's essence, delivering it to Edward.
  • Michael Edwards (1991) - A Canadian firefighter sent to extinguish the oil fires ignited by Iraqi troops in the Middle East after the Gulf War. An explosion at one well leaves him trapped in the Forbidden City as the only survivor. He receives the Essence of the ancient from Roberto and destroys the City with an enchanted plastic explosive at the bridge. A few years after his return, he meets up with Edward in the city at night. Mike gives Dr. Roivas a package, believing that he himself will soon be killed by the Guardians (however, he is alive when the player last sees him). The package's contents are unknown; the Essence and the Weapon of the Guardian of Light were later sent to Alex through the mail, and the Tome of Eternal Darkness does not need to be delivered to the next recipient.
  • Alexandra Roivas (2000) - A student at a university in Washington. The game's main protagonist, she is investigating her grandfather's gruesome death. Finding the Tome, she reads about the past struggles against The Darkness, and of the plan to prevent Pious from summoning the Ancient. She narrates the conclusion.

Note that the above list is in strict chronological order. Disregarding Alex's actions at the beginning and between chapters, and the return of other characters during the final battle, the player controls the characters and experiences their struggles against the Eternal Darkness in the following order:

  1. Pious Augustus
  2. Ellia
  3. Anthony
  4. Karim
  5. Maximillian Roivas
  6. Edwin Lindsey
  7. Paul Luther
  8. Roberto Bianchi
  9. Peter Jacob
  10. Edward Roivas
  11. Michael Edwards
  12. Alexandra Roivas

The action is divided between four principal locations. Though the game skips back and forth through time, chapters concerning each individual site are in respective chronological order.

  • The Forbidden City (Persia) - Pious → Karim → Roberto → Michael
  • The Cambodian temple - Ellia → Lindsey
  • Oublie Cathedral - Anthony → Paul → Peter
  • The Roivas family mansion and the Ruined City of Ehn'gha - Max → Edward → Alex
Spoilers end here.

[edit] Creatures & enemies

Eternal Darkness boasts a variety of enemy creatures, each of which belongs to one of the three alignments (the only exception being the generic Mantorok Zombie). It should be noted that Chattur'gha creatures can generally deal and sustain more damage than the others. By comparison, Xel'lotath creatures are weaker but tend to take away large amounts of sanity, while Ulyaoth creatures may use and/or drain (more) magick. Maximillian Roivas can perform an autopsy on each creature in his chapter, which is saved in the Tome.

Trapper: Trappers are small, blind, scorpion-like creatures that walk around and listen for nearby movement. When aggravated, a trapper will scream loudly, wiggle its tail, and eventually glow. If the aggravator moves too swiftly the Trapper will release energy and transport him or her to the Trapper Dimension. The Trapper dies shortly afterward. Trappers have no damaging attacks, and the Trapper Dimension contains few enemies as well as at least one guaranteed regenerative zone (pool that regains either health, sanity, or magick); for these reasons, alerting a Trapper can be a strategic move. They come in each of the three primary alignments, which dictates the alignment of the monsters in the Trapper Dimension when the player is trapped there. Xel'lotath Trappers have no heads.

Zombie: The Zombies in Eternal Darkness are not as mindless as those in other games or films. They seem able to feel pain and to notice events around them (such as other zombies being killed.) Decapitation will disable but not kill a Zombie, and most will continue to attack blindly after losing their heads. More than anything, decapitation appears to annoy them.

  • Mantorok (Fodder) Zombies are generic with no special skills or weaknesses, aside from bursting into flames if struck with a torch. They are little more than dried-out husks and are very weak.
  • Chattur'gha (Flesh) Zombies are the most durable. These hulking red masses of muscle become extremely aggravated if they are decapitated and will keep moving around, attacking blindly; it is therefore better to hack off their arms first when they are alone, but in crowds it is a viable strategy to behead them as, in their confusion, they commonly strike one another. Additionally, these zombies will eventually regenerate lost heads and limbs.
  • Ulyaoth (Drowned) Zombies, due to gas accumulated in their stomachs while rotting in water, have a devious last-ditch attack. After taking sufficient damage they begin to "sing" (a low moaning chant) and are joined by all nearby Ulyaoth Zombies. As they sing, the Zombies accumulate magickal energy and will explode unless quickly decapitated. The resulting blast of magickal energy and noxious gases deals damage and prevents the character from "finishing" the Zombies. A one-Zombie blast does minimal damage, but increases greatly (perhaps exponentially) with each participant. However, the entire catastrophic process can be stopped simply by severing or destroying the head of the first zombie-before the surrounding ones are "infected" by its song and start singing even after the first one has been decapitated.
  • Xel'lotath (Mummy) Zombies resemble Egyptian mummies. As one might expect, Zombies under the deity of madness are not what they seem. They function reliably when their body parts are severed, as the flesh gives way to translucent green ‘ghost' limbs that can still inflict sanity damage, and virtual heads that can still see. However, they are relatively weak and will also burst into flames if hit by a torch. They can be defeated by decapitation, preceded or followed by standard combat damage but if a finishing move is not performed on them soon afterwards they will again rise.

Horror: Horrors are large masses of pure muscle whose sole purpose is to devour anything that comes near them. They strike victims with their large claws and also have a long distance magickal attack that drains the element signified by the color of the electricity that surrounds them. As a rule, Horrors are instantly killed if their three heads (eyes on Xel'lotath Horrors) are destroyed. Counterintuitively, the most viable strategy is to charge straight at them with a melee weapon and strike the heads until the creature dies. The only innate differences between the three are the usual extra damage and hulking size of Chattur'gha Horrors, the magick drain from Ulayoth Horrors, and the sanity toll from engaging Xel'lotath horrors.

Generally, Horrors are hulking humanoids with strong legs, massive arms and a very wide torso/shoulder area. Their heads aren't set atop their torsos but are in the middle.

Chattur'gha Horrors are red, with rocklike skin and lizardlike heads.

Ulyaoth Horrors are very dark blue, with several lighter-blue translucent sections and smooth, eyeless heads resembling those of a Xenomorph (though they are apparently capable of sight- Maximillian Roivas reports being able to "feel" their gaze.)

Xel'lotath Horrors appear covered in sickly green chitin and have no heads, but rather three eyes, the lids of which are "festooned with tiny, hook-like teeth."

Bonethief: A small mantis-like creature that possesses people, forcing them to attack the player. After the host takes sufficient damage or is decapitated, it bursts out from inside to attack head-on, a sight which takes a tremendous toll on the player's sanity. Bonethieves are instantly killed by cutting off their heads, with the exception of Xel'lotath Bonethieves, which have none. Bonethieves must be eliminated immediately, by any means possible, as they will of course try to possess the player's vacant body. If a Bonethief succeeds in possessing the player, the player effectively dies, and the world falls to the Eternal Darkness. Bonethieves are best engaged at close range, as they occasionally dodge bullets, unless the player is using a spell to become invisible.

A Bonethief possesses a person by burrowing into his or her chest cavity. The precise method of control is unrevealed, as is the means by which the creature (about two and a half feet tall) fits itself inside. Ulyaoth Bonethieves have no eyes, and rather than heads, Xel'lotath Bonethieves have three tiny orbs of green light that spin over their bodies.

Reaper/Gatekeeper: Similar in appearance to a combination of scorpion, human, and bat. A reaper's presence is signified by red, blue, or green mist on the floor. They attack the player with a sting, which causes momentary immobilization and drains health, magick, or sanity, then summon creatures for the player to fight. They can't be attacked from the front until they open their wings, which only happens if the player is close enough. Their wings can actually be targeted, but this has no effect. Reapers are unique in that, for some reason, they are most efficiently destroyed by targeting their torsos, not their heads, and that they drain sanity just by being in the same room as the player for as long as they are alive. Ulyaoth Reapers have no eyes or legs.

Lesser Guardian: Each of the Ancients (except Mantorok) have their own guardians which inhabit the Ruined City of Ehn'gha underneath the Roivas Mansion. They use spells to attack and defend themselves and have the ability to take the form of a glowing orb that can move quickly to anywhere. The only significant difference between these creatures is in their appearance and the alignment of their spells:

  • The Guardians of Chattur'gha are gigantic spider-like creatures.
  • The Guardians of Ulyaoth look like a cross between the Bonethieves, a squid, and a jellyfish, only jointed like an insect.
  • The Guardians of Xel'lotath are bizarre green creatures that resemble two human bodies attached at the hip, and have no heads, only large horizontally opening mouths.

Vampire: This beast drains the life of Edward Roivas's servants. Upon taking enough damage it returns to the cellar to heal itself by drawing energy from an enchanted headstone. In order to kill this creature, the player must destroy the stone. It can become invisible at will, but is thwarted by the Reveal Invisible spell. It can also be seen briefly during flashes of lightning. It is roughly humanoid, save for legs that joint the wrong way and a tendency to revert to all fours for extra speed. Those slain by the beast rise as hostile undead immediately afterward. This creature appears only once in the game, during Edward's chapter.

Black Guardian (Greater Guardian): This is a gigantic creature that inhabits a secret chamber underneath Oublie Cathedral and guards one of the three artifacts the player must collect, killing all who approach, including the Franciscan monk Paul Luther. Later, as Peter Jacob, the player ends up fighting it as a boss. The Chattur'gha version is a wormlike beast with lobster claws and a long, sticky tongue. The Ulyaoth version has three legs attached to a central orb, which holds a smaller orb beneath it via tentacles. The Xel'lotath version is dark green (almost black) and appears as an oversized, spindly humanaoid form with four arms and a floating Xel'lotah Rune in place of a head. Regardless of its form, the Black Guardian is a powerful enemy. It appears to have some sort of magickal force field that renders it immune to conventional weapons, even enchanted ones, plus a variety of magickal attack forms and the ability to summon zombies. Even Pious Augustus had some difficulty keeping the creature bound in his service, requiring frequent sacrifices of flesh and bone to keep it from escaping to its home on the Planes of Eternal Darkness. Despite his best efforts, the Guardian never completely bowed to Pious' will, saying "If I am to guard this place, then I will do it as I see fit."

[edit] Runes

Though they are called "runes" by the game (probably due to the term's association with mystery and magic), these symbols do not form an alphabet, but rather a vocabulary. As such, they would be more accurately termed glyphs or especially sigila.[original research?]

[edit] Alignments

  • Chattur'gha - red in color; represents the flesh, health and physical might. Overpowers Xel'lotath, but is vulnerable to Ulyaoth.
  • Ulyaoth - blue in color; represents the planes, magick and intellect. Defeats Chattur'gha, but is overcome by Xel'lotath.
  • Xel'lotath - green in color; represents the mind, sanity and knowledge. Prevails over Ulyaoth but succumbs to Chattur'gha.
  • Mantorok - purple in color; represents chaos, manipulation and death. Dominant over all others, can replenish the health and sanity meters, and cause unusual effects in certain spells – but is useless for summoning. Due to Mantorok's entropic nature, being struck by a weapon enchanted with his energy causes the affected creature to decay, taking damage slowly over time.

There appears to be a fifth alignment, colored yellow, that is not attributed to any of the Ancients in the game. It rots away the flesh, can teleport objects, and covers floors, causing painful shocks to those who stand on it.

[edit] Verbs

  • Bankorok - "protect" - used to create a force around something
  • Tier - "summon" - used to summon something of the specified alignment
  • Narokath - "absorb" - used to absorb the specified element from/into something
  • Nethlek - "dispel" - used to dispel something of an alignment weak to that being used
  • Antorbok - "project" - used to project the specified alignment's power onto something

[edit] Nouns

  • Magormor - "item" - focuses the spell on an item
  • Redgormor - "area" - focuses the spell on the area around the character
  • Aretak - "creature" - focuses the spell on a creature
  • Santak - "self" - focuses the spell on the spellcaster

[edit] Other

  • Pargon - "power" - used to power up spells

[edit] Spells

Spells are created using one alignment rune, one verb rune, one noun rune, and Pargon runes to fill out the Circle of Power. In order to create spells of a certain level (3, 5, or 7), the appropriate Circle of Power must first be obtained from Oublie Cathedral (in Anthony's, Paul Luther's, and Peter Jacob's chapters, respectively). In order to create a specific spell, all runes used in that spell must have been obtained (it is not necessary to obtain the codices or the spell scroll). When the player has acquired the runes, codices, and spell scroll for a particular spell, its lowest-level version will automatically be learned. Higher-level versions must be created in the "New Spell" menu. Sometimes a higher-level spell is required in order to achieve the desired effect. The necessary level is usually, but not always, denoted nearby in some way.

Each character is only able to create and cast spells after acquiring the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Some spells are only for specific situations (such as Reveal Invisible or Dispel Magick), while some (like Magick Pool or Recover) are extremely useful at all times. When casting, if a character moves or is attacked before the spell is complete, magick will be drained but the spell will fail.

Some characters possess an item which can have the same effect as a Recover spell of varying degrees and effects:

  • Ellia happens upon a "Strange Necklace" near the beginning of her chapter. When used, it creates a Chattur'gha-aligned Recover spell, recovering a portion of lost health. It can be used up to ten times.
  • Karim begins his chapter with a "Talisman", which has the same effect for five uses.
  • Paul Luther begins his chapter with a "Meditation Rod". When used, it creates a Xel'lotath-aligned Recover spell, recovering a portion of lost sanity. It can be used up to three times.
  • Peter Jacobs acquires a "Magickal Elixir", which fully recovers his magick meter. It can be used five times.
  • Edward Roivas begins his chapter with a "Flask of liquid courage"(some type of potent alcoholic beverage), which will recover a small part of Edward's sanity, and can be used seven times. He is seen using it in a brief cinematic when he hallucinates that a giant worm is attacking him. Alex, however, does not have the "liquid courage," and must sneak by the worm toward the end of the game.

[edit] Reaction

Critically, the game was largely successful. As of July 2006, Eternal Darkness had a ranking of 92/100 on the Metacritic website. [2]

The game did not, however, experience incredible commercial success. As stated by Adam Sessler from X-Play during an interview with Denis Dyack, President of Silicon Knights, at E3 2006, "Truly one of the most underrated games of the last generation." [3]

[edit] Sequel

Denis Dyack, designer of "Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem" and Too Human, said "absolute yes" in July 2006 regarding the question of a possible sequel to Eternal Darkness in his Too Human IGN blog. He stated that Silicon Knights intended for Eternal Darkness to be a stand-alone game, but the company have always intended to make more games set in the Eternal Darkness universe involving the Ancients. [4][5]. A sequel has been announced but not the platform it will be released on.

[edit] Eternal Darkness Films

In 2002, Nintendo and Hypnotic, a film entertainment company, established a filmmaking contest in which contestants submitted ideas that would be later funded into short films if selected. The contest looked for ideas that evoke the same kind of psychological horror that the game intends to evoke. Ten finalists were selected and were granted $2000 each to produce their respective short films. The grand prize for the contest was $20,000, and was selected by a panel of industrial experts. The finalists were unveiled between May 23 and July 4, 2002. A second prize, the "Viewer's Choice Award", was awarded on the basis of its popularity among the online audience.

The grand prize winner of the contest was Patrick Daughters, for the film Unloved. The viewer's choice award went to the film Cutting Room Floor, by Tyler Spangler and Michael Cioni. Other videos featured on the official website included:

  • Article Number One by Julian Cautherley
  • Dinner with Kip by Chris Schwartz
  • Del by Chris Milnes
  • Suburban Nightmare by Sean Heflin and Christopher Reves
  • Darkness Visible by David McMillan
  • Corner of the Eye by Peter Hunziker
  • Carnal Noise by Francisco Aliwalas
  • << (pronounced "rewind") by Rich Gallup

As said before, the films were not directly based on the Eternal Darkness characters or storyline, but inspired by the psychological horror themes in the game.

[edit] Trivia

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  • Eternal Darkness is the first Nintendo published game to have received an "M" rating by the ESRB.
  • The game was dedicated to Ben Dyack (1920-2002) father of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem director Denis Dyack.
  • Music was composed by Steve Henifin
  • Lovecraft is mentioned when Alex examines some books in a corner of Edward's library. Lovecraft was also from Rhode Island.
  • Inspector LeGrasse was the name of a character in Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu.
  • At the end of his chapter, Dr. Maximillian Roivas is institutionalized in Jefferson Coombs Asylum, a possible tip of the hat to actor Jeffery Combs[citation needed] who has starred in several film adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft stories.
  • "Roivas" is "savior" spelled backwards.
  • Pious's speech immediately before Roberto is tossed into the Pillar of Flesh precisely echoes Tamerlane's before he sacked Damascus.
  • Karim was not in the early builds of the game. Nintendo had originally placed a Templar Knight fighting against Muslims in the scenario, but later changed this for an unknown reason in 2001.[citation needed]
  • 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.
  • The game originally included a United States Special Ops commando who falls into the pit near the pillar of flesh. Presumably this was Michael, whose finalized intro scenes and character model show him as a Canadian firefighter who was fighting an oil well fire in Iraq. [6] [7] [8] His original equipment (such as the automatic rifle and uniform) was placed a small ways off in the same chamber, on the body of a marine.
  • Many parts of the game were inspired by the Indiana Jones films, such as the scene where a staff catches the sunlight and focuses a beam of light into a clay model of a city. The character of Dr. Lindsey also bears a great resemblance to Indiana Jones, and his level is riddled with similar traps.
  • During the 2005 film Are We There Yet?, a young boy, Kevin Kingston, is playing Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem in the back of a car.
  • Silicon Knights stated in an interview with Nintendo Power (volume 164): "At one point, the story even included one of the other, stronger characters (note: presumably Michael) taking his own life in Edward's presence rather than face the Ancients. This scene was eventually removed because it was considered far too grim."

[edit] Voice actors

[edit] Resources

The video game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem was consulted in the writing of this article, as well as its Instruction Booklet and the Official Player's Guide from Nintendo Power.

[edit] External links

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