Egglia Rebirth is a surprisingly dense game. The more I played, the more things started to fall into place. What I initially perceived as just a mobile title ported to the Nintendo Switch has quickly become a turn-based RPG with more depth and fun. While there are some hallmarks of a game originally released for mobile, the quality of the game really surprised me. Gacha mechanics are present, but mainly in the form of recruiting Spirits. (These are useful creatures that can aid you in battle.) Of course, there are features that also require a bit of patience.
For example, players can collect rare materials to level up or evolve their Spirits through planting trees and growing stones. However, getting these items takes time. Literally. You will need to wait for a certain amount of time in the real world to pass after planting rocks and different root vegetables. Sometimes it can take up to two hours to harvest, most are fine.
Egglia Rebirth is a game that encourages you to pick it up and play at your leisure. It’s hard to accept that, especially since the types of mobile games I’ve played in the past don’t reward players for placing games over a long period of time. After accepting that, I can leave the game for a bit and come back to it later. That means I feel so much better about Egglia Rebirth. Boost items are available, but I never felt like using them for this reason.
It reminds me that being productive doesn’t always mean you have to be active. That’s something I don’t usually expect from video games. Especially when you have something that was originally meant for mobile devices suddenly appear on the dashboard. The worst, I expect Egglia Rebirth for some attractive forms of money making. But considering the game is buy-to-play on Android and iOS devices, I’m surprised it isn’t. Instead, the player is tasked with grinding out materials to summon Spirits, expand their village, or fulfill the requests of the villagers.
All of these tasks seem simple, but are quite layered. By expanding your village, or rather improving the quality of life for your abode, the player character will become stronger. The player can do this by accepting quests from each villager that you will recruit through the course of the story. Sometimes they’ll be looking for an item you can get through specific maps, or maybe they want you to upgrade their house. In some cases, they will also ask for furniture. This gives the player a lot of work to do, as grinding materials to fulfill these requirements can sometimes take longer than expected. That is largely due to the randomness of buying materials in bulk.
However, the player can increase their chances of getting certain materials by sending some villagers onto the field with them. They play a more or less passive role as you explore, harvest, and take out enemies across different maps. For example, taking Brown will give you a chance to get more than a few different types of ingredients. Feeding a villager like Paru increases the chance of getting different types of ores in one excursion. Players will also need to keep in mind how much energy each of these guest characters consumes. Do not worry. The characters will definitely let you know when they’re tired, as they’ll almost always talk while on the quest. And while players will have access to a shop that will unlock through the progression of the story, collecting the ingredients on their own is a better method.
The game is split between fulfilling the requests of the villagers and going to the fields and clearing the areas. What surprised me the most about Egglia Rebirth its combat system. Players navigate the map through a grid-based system. The movement depends on the dice rolls. Although it adds a certain degree of randomness to it and makes Egglia Rebirth Feels a bit unconventional, this system can be a bit of a chore. If you’re stuck with the small dice rolls, sometimes completing a map can take longer than necessary. And the maps must be completed within a certain number of turns. This means you will sometimes need to re-visit areas to hit all completion rewards. That said, harder versions of these maps will be available once you complete them. The difficulty actually increases in these harder maps.
I found myself needing to hone before taking on a harder version of an earlier map. That feels a bit frustrating, as I’ll need to allocate my time elsewhere to actually get the progress stats and harvest the materials I need to complete the villagers requests. It wasn’t in the end what stopped me from progressing, but it certainly did put me down quite a few times. That wasn’t a disadvantage in the end, as the passive mechanics in the game rewarded me when I came back when I wanted to continue.
Pictures and music in Egglia Rebirth also quite nice. The character designs are fun and offer a taste that I haven’t seen in most modern JRPGs in quite some time. They are not afraid to be bold and sometimes ugly. Which I really appreciate, because it creates a kind of fun. The music, although quite limited in selection, is also very pleasant. The only song that I get tired of is the main theme. As it will start a new loop after every cutscene or when entering and leaving certain areas.
However, one thing I feel Egglia Rebirth lack of general quality of life features. While players can view the items they need to craft ingredients or claim, these are sometimes buried deep in the menu. Not to mention the game lacks a proper skip functionality. This means players can’t skip cutscenes, which I find a bit annoying.
Final, Egglia Rebirth is a really fun game. It’s more like a standalone JRPG than a portable umbrella, which works in favor of the Switch version. Players who spend a lot of time on it will likely feel rewarded by its system. Even so, if you’re someone who wants to make the most of your time, you might get frustrated with the game lag that can sometimes occur. That said, it’s an interesting title that feels like a stand out from most modern releases. Overall, Egglia Rebirth is a game that rewards players for patience and will surprise some with its layering mechanics.
Egglia Rebirth Will release in North America and Europe for Nintendo Switch on February 10, 2022. It’s instant available in Japan.
