Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising

( PC – Action, Adventure – 2022 ) + TRAILER

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A companion piece for the upcoming Hundred Heroes, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a spin-off title meant to wet the appetite for the setting and characters more than anything mechanical. I hesitate to call it a Metroidvania because it doesn't exactly delve deeply into “use your abilities to access previously locked areas” as fundamental building block. Is the Giant Lens worth looking for, though?

We step into the shoes of the intrepid Scavenger CJ embarking on a quest from her home town with a simple goal in mind – don't return until you've found a treasure more impressive than the one your father brought home. So CJ comes to New Nevaeh, village with a peculiar situation where locals are allowing adventurers, mercenaries, and the like to take their chances with dangerous nearby locales like the Great Forest... as long as they pay for the license and taxes, as enforced by Acting Major Isha. It doesn't take long for our heroine to realize she doesn't have the money to outright buy the license so she settles for a stamp system where every assistance to locals means she's one step closer to getting approved. Along the way she comes across beastfolk called Garoo as they go after mysterious rumors of a Giant Lens, more potent version of a device letting people cast magic. Perhaps there is more to discover in this waylaid village, though.

I'll cut the usual preamble short and outright tell you story isn't Rising's strong suit. Yes, it eventually goes beyond just a treasure hunt as personal stakes get involved, certain developments hint at a bigger picture involving the League of Nations and their rival Galdean Empire, but I think where the most personality stems from are characters. It's kinda jarring to see couple of definitive sideshows or glorified shopkeeps get a dedicated “whoa, this character matters” info screen, but you have to keep in mind this is laying down the groundwork for the upcoming Hundred Heroes set to be a JRPG taking after its spiritual predecessor – Suikoden.

Even though you don't unlock all three characters at once I'd say it's not really a spoiler since they're plastered over promo art. CJ is your GOTTA GO FAST Scavenger with an easy going personality primarily driven by need to find treasure and willingness to help with people's small problems out of pure goodness. In comparison our mercenary Garoo is probably the most complex one as he slowly reveals there's more to him than “gruff merc barely tolerating everyone's nonsense” given it's him of all people who diffuses tense situations. And lastly, Isha. Acting Major of the village capable of casting magic without a Lens, making her an oddity, she goes from being an aloof bureaucratic obstacle to discovering her own past and working for the benefit of New Nevaeh even as it sometimes puts her at odds with village elders.

Beyond those three playable characters there's also named villagers, some with portraits marking them as important, who bring their own antics to play as you interact with their missions. I'll get into those below, but as far as fluff goes it was nice to see most of these background characters get some semblance of personality and even tiny stories of their own. Like the on-going gambling matter between two characters, or an old geezer constantly challenging CJ to see who can catch higher quality fish, etc. It's the small touches that make the game come to life provided you care about such things.

Adventurer problems 101.

In case having portraits was not enough important characters also get some additional info.

Combat scenarios gradually introduce complexity with bosses taking the spotlight.

Like I hinted at in the opening this is an action adventure game with some rudimentary platforming. There are no special abilities to buy in traditional sense, though. Our trio's advancement primarily comes from upgrading gear, conferring both statistical upgrades and few ability-equivalents like longer float time, double jump, improved dashing, etc. Why I'd say there's only traces of Metroidvania design here is because those abilities aren't really vital for progression. In fact, your way is barred only by obstacles in the form of elemental pillars cordoning sections of levels until you've found the appropriate Rune and slotted it to proceed forward. Naturally, this is mandated by the plot as you trek to five distinct locales in linear fashion. And believe me, you will be revisiting them often from the central hub of New Nevaeh.

CJ, Garoo and Isha each bring their own style of gameplay; fast-attacker, heavy tank and spellcaster, thus covering all the archetype bases. In practice you only need Garoo to bust some rock walls... and parry.. and deflect projectiles back at enemies. I'm sure you'll find your own favorite, but CJ's mad criticals as she hits enemies with her pickaxes are hard to dislike. Isha is your ranged attacker with charged ability AND projectiles changing type depending on slotted Rune. Rising adheres to an interesting control scheme where each character is keyed to one button effectively making switching between a breeze. On the flipside there's little nuance here to speak of beyond switching characters mid-attack for a combo chain. DMC this is not.

And now for the negatives because they could impact your reception of the game since they're so instrumental to its structure.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is Chores: the Game. I refuse to call them quests or missions because, in the attempt to get those aforementioned stamps, villagers will send you on your merry way to do their bidding. In most cases this means revising the same locations over and over and over again to gather resources or kill something. Just to give you context for my complaining: keeping in mind some main scenario objectives will also net you a stamp, there's a total of 160 stamps to get your hands on. Let me just say you'll be praying for the uninspired “character X wants you to talk to character Y” because at least that won't take you to the Great Forest for the hundredth time. I'm not even taking into account all the post-game chores game showers you with because you clearly wanted more recycled content.

In essence the real issue is that Rising is simply too long for how little [unique] content it has to offer. Looking at my total playtime having finished the game, completed the adventurer's card with all the stamps, and beaten the bosses on hard mode, I'd say probably good five hours could be shaved off if devs chose depth over breadth. However, they couldn't because there's a village development aspect at work aka various shopkeepers open up stores and have missions taking you out into the world to expand those stores, hence offering improved stock. It's a cycle that makes sense in a vacuum, but not in an inherently short title like Rising should be. Did we really need a dedicated store to get new mining/fishing/hunting tools, or a store that just sells better backpacks to increase your carry capacity when dungeon delving, or an Inn that lets you take a bath for stat bonuses? That's really up to you, but I have a feeling this was also a test run for Hundred Heroes like some other features in the game.

Lets end this with a production overview. Which is good because we're looking at another 2D HD project subscribing to an art style that's become all the rage recently. Combining 2D character sprites with 3D levels. I don't mind it as Rising doesn't revel in its pixels, but rather has pretty spruced up sprites and background assets edging more into PS2 era of geometry. If you ask me it looks better in motion with snow levels in particular being standouts. Due to how the game re-uses areas you'll sadly be subjected to same few tracks constantly further hampering an already limited soundtrack. Notable tunes end up being used almost too sparingly for my taste.