Summed up, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is an easy and easy motion/RPG. It’s straightforward to get misplaced in its tranquil cycle of gathering stamps by way of fetch quests and fight. Nonetheless, Rising doesn’t have a lot substance. The entire expertise is bland and commits varied RPG transgressions, which is disappointing. Particularly because it’s a prequel introducing the Eiyuden world forward of Eiyuden Chronicle: A Hundred Heroes – a non secular successor to the Suikoden series. If this can be a sign of what’s to return, I’m involved.
Rising’s protagonist, CJ, is a younger adventurer who needs to make a reputation for herself as a treasure hunter. She units up in a city that draws adventurers far and broad for its worthwhile close by sources; consider the Gold Rush. Throughout her trek, she groups up with a grumpy and feisty kangaroo appropriately named Garoo and a pointy and stylish magic person named Isha. The principle story primarily serves to get you shifting to your subsequent vacation spot, serving up a number of revelations about why mysterious, harmful threats have appeared. General, the narrative could be very predictable and generic.
With a dry story, the shortage of bonding moments between the characters upset me. A couple of charming interactions play out in CJ and Garoo’s banter, and I took nice delight within the look of a magical woman named Mallore, which is a transparent homage to Sailor Moon. Nonetheless, there’s not a lot depth to those personalities, they usually really feel extra like character outlines than totally developed people. Sadly, this makes it laborious to really feel any connection to them.
An enormous facet of Rising is its town-building function, which helps you to assist varied villagers arrange their outlets to draw individuals to the settlement, making it extra affluent. You’re continuously leveling up varied shops, corresponding to a tavern, inn, apothecary, weapons store, and extra. At first look, the town-building looks like a enjoyable further wrinkle, however its tedious fetch quests make it one of many sport’s greatest letdowns. You trek to the identical areas after which again once more to the search giver, who normally asks you to acquire a certain quantity of a useful resource or find an individual for them.
The town-building shortly turns into an extended listing of chores. On the one hand, they aren’t all that troublesome to finish. Alternatively, they’re senseless and don’t provide a lot satisfaction for the trouble. The outlets get some new inventory, and the city will get slightly extra crowded, however it’s such a hole sense of development. Each effort earns you stamps, which showcase your city completion stage. After doing a bit of those, I misplaced curiosity in prioritizing the facet content material, however then realized I used to be under-leveled if I didn’t have interaction with it because the quests provide a substantial amount of expertise. That is irritating, as you’re pressured into boring pursuits with no substance and little or no in the way in which of storytelling. A facet quest ought to really feel optional, not required.
Dungeons are damaged up into quick romps, which I favored as a result of they didn’t really feel bloated and lent themselves nicely to quick play classes. That was till I needed to maintain backtracking to the identical dungeons, preventing the identical minibosses repeatedly. The sport is linear total, which isn’t a problem if the exploration is attention-grabbing. That’s probably not the case here; dungeons have very minimal hidden paths, and their predominant attraction is selecting up uncommon gadgets that you need to use in crafting, gear upgrades, and cooking. Their total design can be very fundamental, tied to totally different components (e.g., ice, earth, fireplace). On the very least, the ultimate bosses of every dungeon are visually interesting and supply an honest problem. One in all my favorites was the furry ice twins, who may flip the ground to pure ice, forcing you to remain within the air with double jumps and combos till it lifted.
The motion fight is one other space of the sport that's simply ample. Your social gathering members and their assaults are tied to totally different face buttons on the controller, and in the event you swap to a different character at simply the appropriate time in the midst of an assault, you'll be able to chain highly effective combos. As you stage up, you unlock newer skills, corresponding to totally different leaping assaults like air and fast steps, alongside upward and downward assaults. Sadly, I by no means felt a rising sense of energy or satisfaction from these; the hyperlink combos had been extra fulfilling and lethal. Nonetheless, all the things managed nicely, and I didn’t run into any glitches or critical technical points throughout my time with the sport on Change.
The two.5D artwork type deserves its personal reward. Rising is a vibrant and welcoming journey, with stunning hand-drawn visuals that add a pleasant private contact. The graphics have this retro vibe paying homage to Suikoden, whereas nonetheless modernizing simply sufficient to really feel like an thrilling visible improve. The character portraits are detailed and alluring, and the little particulars within the landscapes pop, corresponding to grass swaying within the wind or blistering snow falling.
Rising was created to reward followers for reaching a Kickstarter stretch aim, however it’s not simply an add-on, it's a full sport, operating round 20 hours. Natsume Atari took level as developer, with enter from Rabbit & Bear Studios, the masterminds behind Hundred Heroes. Sadly, the expertise falls quick as each factor of it's simply satisfactory or run-of-the-mill. Nonetheless, its artwork type is a vivid spot, making me longing for the primary sport that's nonetheless to return.
Fairly visuals can solely get you far, nonetheless, and Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising doesn’t provide sufficient entertaining or distinctive content material to maintain it from being something greater than a satisfactory RPG. On the very least, it introduces the Eiyuden world and a few characters concerned in Hundred Heroes, however that’s little or no incentive for placing up with tedious gameplay and boilerplate characters.
