Mar 212022
On the weekend, I decided to take a short break from dying incessantly in the Lands Between to instead play a bite-sized visual novel called Eternia: Pet Whisperer.
It was described as being inspired by Hatoful Boyfriend, a favorite of mine, and I got it as part of a bundle, so why not?
You have decided to adopt a pet, so you head to a special animal sanctuary, and the animals living there start talking to you.
I felt like this could have been expanded a bit more, since it seemed to me I went from the protagonist denying the possibility of animals speaking, to happily wondering what a koala will enjoy talking about, without anything in between to bridge it.
Anyway, the visual novel takes place over a series of days. Each day, you can pick an animal to talk to from the animals that are currently around. Once you’ve talked to an animal enough times, they’ll start showing up more and more, until the possibility of adoption comes up.
Once you adopt an animal, it’s effectively the end of the route, but you’re given an option to loop back to the start.
The loop being built into the game if you choose to take it means you don’t have to skip through dialogue you’ve already seen, because only the new conversations are available for you to choose from. That’s convenient, although it does make subsequent routes feel shorter and shorter.
Each animal has their own little story, although the stories are nothing exceptional. I also wished the ending had a bit more content, since it felt abrupt even for what it was. Eternia: Pet Whisperer is a short (less than 30 minutes for me) game about talking animals with some wacky humor. I don’t necessarily recommend you rush out and buy it, but if you do end up getting it, it should bring a few smiles.