Good adventure / puzzle game that allows you to have tea with the boss you just defeated, how nice!
THE GOOD
-Great 2 player mode
-Good music
-Epic boss fights
THE BAD
-Controlling Cutrus can be frustrating at times
-All enemies have temporary invincibility after you attack them
OVERVIEW
8 Eyes is a good adventure / puzzle game where you use Orin the Falconer and his pet Falcon, Cutrus. The two characters are fighting to return all the 8 jewels (eyes) from eight Dukes who are trying to gain power by obtaining all of them. Each of the eight Dukes are located in different countries and each palace is a huge labyrinth with lots of human and not so human enemies. Interestingly enough, the game takes place in what looks like medieval times but in the introduction to the game (in the manual) the Earth was almost destroyed by 8 nuclear explosions. As you can see eight is a very popular number in this game.
GAMEPLAY
This game is much better when two people play together. In the multiplayer mode one person controls Orin and the other controls Cutrus but in single player mode you can only control Orin or Cutrus at one time. Now, controlling Orin is fine. You can jump, attack with your sword and use other items but with Cutrus it can be quite a challenge. Cutrus flies up and down the whole time and you can't stop in one spot so you end up weaving around and taking unnecessary damage. To avoid this I would recommend that if you are playing as Cutrus to stay on Orin's shoulder most of the time.
As you go through each of the Duke's palaces you can find special items like the freeze ball and pistol to help you in defeating enemies. There are also hidden secret messages to help you at the end of the game and power ups to increase your max health. This game is a difficult game because all the enemies take a few hits to kill them and once you hit them they obtain temporary invincibility, which sucks. The bosses also get this temporary invincibility and have lots of health, which makes it tough to beat each of the 8 Dukes. However, the reward is good because your sword increases in power. The funniest thing about this game is the fact that once you defeat a Duke you sit down with him or her, have a chat and drink tea together like old friends. Once you have collected all the jewels your adventure is over and the puzzle game begins. Using the clues that you found throughout the game, you have to put each jewel back in the correct order. This adds a nice twist to the end of the game.
GRAPHICS & SOUND
The graphics are pretty good for 8 Eyes and each of the levels were designed fairly well. Also, this game does a fairly good job of representing the country of origin in the level design, which is a nice plus.
The music is very catchy and fits the country's theme for each of the different palaces. The sound effects are good too.
CONCLUSION
So, as far as an adventure game this one is pretty good but it might make you mad with the level of difficulty and computer cheapness so I would recommend renting it first. But once you get the hang of the game and master the difficulty you'll find that this game is a hidden gem.