Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a psychological horror action-adventure game published by Nintendo for the Gamecube in 2002. It tells the story of twelve characters that span the world and two millennia, and must confront ancient evil forces that try to manifest themselves in our world. The chapters are set in ancient Rome, Persia, the Middle East and present-day Rhode Island. During the game, the protagonists have access to different weapons that correspond to their era, from bastard swords and gladius to flintlock pistols and shotguns. The game has a sophisticated magic system that lets you create different spells by combining runes. These spells can attack enemies, dispel illusions and heal both the body and items. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem also has a unique feature called Sanity. When an enemy sees a character, their Sanity meter drops. When sanity is low, the character is plagued by hallucinations. Walls bleed, voices whisper out of nowhere, and the camera becomes cluttered. Sanity can be restored by giving a dying enemy a finishing move, or by using spells or certain items.
Story
The story of Eternal Darkness takes place in four main locations, between which the game jumps. These include an underground temple complex called the Forbidden City in Persia, a Khmer temple in Angkor Thom, Cambodia, the Oublié Cathedral in Amiens, France (not to be confused with the Amiens Cathedral) and the Roivas family mansion in Rhode Island, which also leads to an ancient underground city called Ehn'gha below the mansion. Each time a site is visited, it occurs in a different time period. The time period ranges from 26 B.C. to 2000 A.D. Almost half of it takes place in the 20th century. Each era and character offers a different temporal and personal perspective on the place. The chapters in the game are not discovered in chronological order. To make the narrative more dramatic, each chapter jumps around the timeline of the plot. Although the story as a whole jumps back and forth in time, the chapters follow a chronological order within their respective locations. This is because each setting also has its own story. In 2000 AD, Alexandra Roivas returns to her family's Rhode Island estate after her grandfather Edward Roivas, her only living relative, is found brutally murdered. Two weeks after her return, and after the local police have made no headway in their investigation, Alex decides to search the estate for clues and comes across a secret room containing a book bound with human skin, the Tome of Eternal Darkness. When she decides to read it, she finds that it contains accounts about various people from the past, starting with the story of Pious Augustus.