Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising acts as something of a prologue to the crowdfunded Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, which is aiming for a 2023 release on PS5 and PS4. It's a side-scrolling action RPG with an emphasis on character-switching combat, but it also dabbles in Metroidvania-esque exploration and even town building. An interesting mix at a glance, but it takes hours for Rising's systems to really click — and the game's not that long to begin with.
It is quite easy to fall for Rising's charm early on, though. The game boasts some lovely art direction, and the whole adventure has a cosy, old school JRPG vibe to it, despite its side-scrolling fundamentals. Its main cast of characters is also decent, sporting fun personalities propped against a whimsical fantasy setting. The story's not that interesting — ancient ruins and ancient secrets — but for the most part, it's enjoyably straightforward, and there's certainly potential in the world building.
Gameplay structure is where Rising stumbles. It's absolutely packed with tediously dull side quests, which help pad out an otherwise brief excursion. There is a kind of laid-back appeal to these objectives — you can generally grind through them without much thought — but the sheer amount of basic fetch quests means that your patience will likely be tested.
The problem is that side quests offer up important rewards, like character upgrades and improvements to the town's facilities. If you want to get to the good stuff, you've got to embrace the tedium — and that's especially true of the title's combat mechanics.
On a base level, Rising's combat is okay. The controls are fairly smooth, and the character switching works well as you rack up heavy-hitting combos. But it all becomes much more engaging as you gain access additional abilities and attacks — the aforementioned good stuff that's locked behind the grind. Now, we're not saying that you should just have everything unlocked from the start, but fights can feel unnecessarily stunted until you can make use of specific skills.
If you can stomach its disappointingly dull quests, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a solid enough action RPG. Some pretty visuals and a cosy JRPG vibe do a lot to mask its flaws.
Comments 14
Removed - unconstructive
I will say tho, this is probably my favorite version of the octopath/hd-2D artstyle. Octopath and TS just look extremely washed out and unexpressive most of the time. Not extremely huge on the artstyle fundamentally, but this is definitely the most pleasing one to look at out of them.
Tried it last night on PC GamePass. Have it so I can play True Colors, so why not.
I thought it looked nice (love the little touches around the world) but yeah had a bunch of fetch quest before long. Doubt I'll go back.
Really enjoy Trek To Yomi and ANNO: Mutationem. So 2 out of 3 on the Indie list is not bad. I now own Yomi on both PS5 and Steam... and can play it on PC GamePass 😅
How's the difficulty? Can it be changed
Backdrops looks fine, but something about the way the character models are animated makes this kinda... cheap?
@UltimateOtaku91 you can’t change it - but it does have a ‘simple’ mode (which you can switch on or off whenever you like I think) which I believe makes link attacks easier to pull off. However once you beat it you get access to a hard mode (which is required for some achievements and I assume trophies). It’s not difficult - i’m 8.5 hours in so far and enjoying it; but a lot of it is fetch quests lol.
@K1LLEGAL thanks for the reply, I'm mainly interested in the main game that comes out next year which I believe has a different combat style to this game, but I feel like I'm missing out on story if I dont play this, so wanted to see if there's an easy mode so I can breeze through it, for £11.99 though I might take the gamble and buy it
@UltimateOtaku91 Yea that is basically why i’m playing through it as well. Next game should be a turn-based RPG I assume? I still haven’t gotten around to playing a Suikoden game…
Can’t tell you how much of this will matter in the next game though - got no idea. Garoo is a cool character though if he pops up
You could play it on Gamepass? But assuming you want the trophies; it doesn’t look like anything is missable which is a lifesaver in a RPG. Means you can just chill and play through without worrying about missing a random chest or monster. Even the Hard Mode trophies, sounds like you can just load up your clear data, flick on hard mode, beat a boss and then switch back.
I'm about 6 hours in and it's good, simple fun. Day one purchase for me to support these devs breathing life back into the suiko-verse.
@K1LLEGAL I play all my jrpgs on playstation unless it's a switch exclusive, but I suppose I could try it gamepass first to see if I like it.
And yeah the main game should be a turn based rpg with more 2.5D elements
9/10. What a fun game. 10 hours in. Did all the sidequests. Gonna get that platinum trophy. Cant wait for Hundred Heroes.
I'm playing on Game Pass and really (unexpectedly) enjoying it. The loop and characters are fun. The music is great. I'll definitely pick up Hundred Heroes when it drops.
@Deoxyr1bose Dude right? Everyone seems to be in love with the Octopath look but from the start I thought it looked hideous. I liked what they were generally going for but the end result always looked muddy and washed out and just plain ugly. This style is FAR superior. Just one guys thoughts.
Shame about the rating, but I was always going to wait for a huge sale on this game.
Once I see it for 50% off I'll happily grab.
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