For the past nine years, theGod Eaterseries has quietly held a place as one of my favorite video game series. God Eater Resurrection, God Eater 2 Rage Burst, and God Eater 3 delivered some of my most cherished story-focused multiplayer RPG experiences on the PS4. But despite my love for them, they’ve always leaned a bit too heavily on Monster Hunter influences, content to mimic the hit franchise in a way that I think has hindered God Eater from growing out into truly its own thing.
“Eating Gods” Since 2016
In 2016, my adventure with God Eater Resurrection on PS4 began. Set in a post-apocalyptic world threatened by monstrous Aragami creatures, you play as a customizable protagonist, a member of the elite God Eater unit tasked with combating the Aragami menace. I was drawn in by its accessibility and unique blend of Monster Hunter-style mechanics with a strong emphasis on storytelling.
Armed with special weapons called God Arcs, you join the Fenrir organization, dedicated to eradicating the Aragami and ensuring humanity’s survival. As you undertake missions to hunt and eliminate Aragami, the unfolding narrative reveals the mysteries behind their origin and the apocalyptic world.
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The “Eater” part of the God Eater title comes with The Devouring mechanic, which is at the heart of the series. Chomping into the enemy gives your attacks and overall battle performance an upgrade (putting you in what’s called “Burst Mode”), and is a great way to recover your health. Fights become a juggle of trying to stay in Burst Mode while also dodging the enemy’s attack patterns and landing some sweet combos.
That Sweet Multiplayer Experience
God Eater Resurrection’s cooperative gameplay added layers of strategy and camaraderie. Playing alongside friends undeniably heightened the impact on the story. In my personal journey, I took on a support role, dedicating efforts to upgrading my weapon for swift replenishment of gun shots, ensuring I was always ready to heal my party members. Employing the tactic of devouring enemies to maintain Burst became a crucial tactic. The ability to stay at a distance proved invaluable during intense Aragami fights, especially considering my frequent critical conditions from struggles with dodging attacks swiftly.
Collaborating with a friend designed for tanking, another specializing in hard-hitting attacks, and an NPC serving as secondary support, we navigated even the toughest battles seamlessly. However, God Eater Resurrection’s robust weapon customization system, while intricate, suffered from a clunky explanation. This led me to seek guidance on GameFaqs and connect with helpful forum acquaintances, highlighting the necessity of external resources to fully comprehend its intricacies.
This brings attention to a struggle within the God Eater series – finding a balance between intricate gameplay and the desire for a story-heavy experience within the framework of a Monster Hunter-like loop. Under the weight of both ambitions, the series seems to grapple with defining its identity.
I’m not advocating for the removal of the multiplayer experience; instead, I believe the series could benefit from stepping away from the Monster Hunter gameplay loop - killing monsters to get gear to kill stronger monsters for even stronger gear - and placing a greater emphasis on storytelling.
Streamlining the intricate combat system in God Eater could contribute to a more cohesive gaming experience. I’d like to see more accessible combos and bullet customization systems in the series. The explanations currently come in rushed information dumps, leading you to rely on either veteran players or elaborate GameFaqs spreadsheets to see how to make the most of the systems.
Separating Gods From Monsters
What distinguishes God Eater from Monster Hunter is its focus on storytelling. While Monster Hunter revolves around the exploration of new worlds, the God Eater series crafts a narrative with a distinctly anime feel. You spend many cutscenes talking with your comrades and building relationships with them. Each of the three PS4 entries shares a common setup: post-apocalyptic landscapes, damaged cityscapes, colossal monsters, and a stylish main cast armed with absurdly large weapons.
In my opinion, Resurrection boasts the best story of the three games. Unexpected heartfelt moments in the final hours, with two favorite characters sacrificing themselves, added plenty of depth and pathos. The ending encapsulated the thematic element of life’s hellos and goodbyes, welcoming a better tomorrow but bidding farewell to those sacrificed along the way.
The ability to experience the story with friends is the narrative’s cornerstone. Starting a new game, one of us would initiate a multiplayer lobby, allowing everyone to view cutscenes and undertake missions together. It became a norm for us to discuss our befuddlement after plot twists or losses of dear characters. Kidnappings of cast members added a personal touch to battles against Aragami.
These dynamics forced us to adapt our combat strategies. Losing a key team member meant reevaluating roles and responsibilities, creating a deeper connection with the narrative. It’s these story-driven elements and shared emotional experiences that made me cherish God Eater, not the intricacies of building overpowered weapons or bullets, often poorly explained and overly complicated.
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Next On The Menu
Putting more emphasis on the story is the key for the series to truly stand out, but what would that transformation look like?
When you download any of the series entries onto your PS4 or PS5 console, you’ll be surprised at how compact the game sizes are. God Eater 3, the most graphically robust of the three games, only takes up around 20GB, for instance. How is that possible? The answer lies in limited action scenes, frequently reused assets, and an over-reliance on the same hub.
While I did appreciate the narratives of each God Eater entry, it’s hard to overlook the issue of excessive “talking heads” moments—those scenes where characters stand around, delving into exposition, flooding the game with telling instead of showing. The most engaging moments are when the game presents a more cinematic dynamic to its presentation.
I’d love to see the characters look more animated, walking around, giving more moments where you canseethe tension within their body language, not be told that someone is angry.Take the anime aesthetic of overt expressions and embrace it. Give them more space to move, not just explain the situations surrounding them.I’d prefer the game to visually demonstrate that things are improving for my “husbando” Hugo from God Eater 3 and our motley crew of misfits, creating a family, rather than simply telling me that things are getting better.
Moreover, many fights become monotonous due to the recurring use of the same combat arena for various missions. The once mystical allure of the frozen tundra, devoid of life, becomes an eye-rolling affair as you’re repeatedly placed in there to face the same set of enemies.
The central hubs also suffer from this stagnant aesthetic. Returning to the same area repeatedly, engaging in conversations with people who occasionally move around, becomes somewhat tedious.
To revitalize God Eater, the series needs to invest more in its environments and story. Provide more variation in the areas, offer different segments of the tundra to explore and engage with. Allow the characters to interact and explore more diverse settings. Make the post-apocalytic world come alive by making the environments into characters themselves.
A Godly Future
The radio silence over the last few years made me wonder if God Eater 3 was the last game we’d get, especially since the third entry was given to another developer and Code Vein became the original developer’s main focus. But the series is still receiving recognition.
Having dedicated over 300 hours to God Eater, my vision for the series is resolute—God Eater must emerge from the shadow of Monster Hunter and transform into a compelling narrative-driven multiplayer RPG. The series exhibits promise, and with sustained backing, it can thrive, carving out its distinctive identity. Here’s to anticipating the unfolding of the next chapter in the God Eater saga.
