A prequel that leans too closely into town-building and fetch quests.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is the byproduct of a really profitable Kickstarter for Suikoden non secular successor Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. A 2.5D action-RPG (versus the latter’s turn-based type), Rising begins slowly and always will get in its personal means by forcing you to return to the city of New Nevaeh all too usually, typically merely to verify in with a townsperson or two. Clocking in at 8-10 hours in size, the precise expertise finally ends up feeling even longer as a result of bouts of monotonous gameplay and prolonged, padded exposition. The engaging artwork and extra satisfying ultimate moments don’t do sufficient to make Rising really feel like way more than a crowd-funded afterthought.
The story follows scavenger CJ who has got down to fulfill her household’s legacy of returning dwelling with a bigger and extra treasured treasure than that of her father. She seeks out the Runebarrow, a sequence of underground mines and labyrinths the place many an adventurer have come to hunt out their very own fortune. Above the Runebarrow is the city of New Navaeh, and it’s mayor Isha who has ultimate say on simply who can delve into the caverns beneath. It’s additionally Isha who entices CJ into serving to her help the villagers with quite a lot of requests as a means of incomes an explorer’s license, which might enable CJ to proceed her private quest in earnest. A part of Isha’s scheme includes a stamp card, and it seems that CJ will get massively caught up in accumulating stamps from townsfolk she helps.
I hope you want finishing facet quests as a result of that’s what you’ll spend most of your time doing right here. A lot of Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising includes accepting a activity from a person on the town after which heading into one of many principal areas outdoors its partitions, similar to The Nice Forest or The Quarry to gather a specific materials or merchandise. Since most of the principal quests are nearly indistinguishable from the requests you commonly decide up, the expertise as a complete finally ends up feeling fairly grindy, nearly like a cellular recreation. Each accomplished request awards expertise factors; most present cash and objects, too. You additionally begin out with a silver stamp card that takes about 30 stamps to refill, which then converts to a gold after which a platinum card. The advantages of finishing a card aren’t readily obvious, however doing so appears to broaden the variety of folks on the town, maybe solely by way of background visuals.
It’s unlucky that the action-RPG fight and lightweight platforming aren’t emphasised extra as a result of their shortage truly makes them a breath of recent air in comparison with the tedious sim parts. CJ wields a pair of pickaxes and a touch transfer that enables her to flee hazard. The second character who joins your get together, Garoo, carries an enormous sword and may parry enemy assaults. The third get together member, Isha, is a mage whose ranged-magic takes on the factor of the rune you will have geared up to her. Every character is mapped to a distinct face button, so urgent Y brings in CJ for an assault, X for Garoo, and A for Isha. All of them have solely a single primary assault after which a defensive/evasive transfer, however you may name in your again up get together members for satisfying chain assaults.
The development of the story and your particular person characters is inextricably linked to the city’s growth. You’ll want stronger weapons, harder armor, and particular instruments from completely different outlets to make headway within the Runebarrow. Necessary objects that ultimately come into play are elemental runes that can help you cost your weapons with fireplace, ice, lightning, and earth; these make you extra able to dealing harm to particular enemies but additionally can help you break down elemental boundaries within the areas outdoors of city. By exploring The Quarry extra, you may accumulate uncommon supplies and additional improve your gear. The difficulty is that there isn’t sufficient gameplay or problem in Rising to make devoted exploration and obsessing over the requests of the residents of New Navaeh a worthwhile endeavor. In different phrases, as a result of so most of the facet quests are of the fetch selection and since the one actual issue spike comes with the ultimate boss, it doesn’t really feel all that gratifying to verify off all of the containers the sport throws at you.
One other double-edged sword is the map and quick journey system of Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising. Whereas it’s simple to skip round to completely different districts of the city, later areas of the Runebarrow abandon the handy quick journey in favor of pressured backtracking and quite a few jumps between nearer checkpoints. The again half of the sport feels padded as a result of you must stroll backwards and forwards by means of the identical areas again and again, and there isn’t sufficient visible or enemy selection to make such excursions satisfying. Additionally associated to traversal is the truth that working by means of city blurs the background textual content, so you may’t even learn the names of retailer indicators or folks until you cease shifting. Neither is the textual content measurement adjustable, and I usually discovered my eyes rising drained from the small measurement and the font sort itself.
As somebody who enjoys town-building mechanics in RPGs, like these of Ys VIII, Xenoblade Chronicles, or Dragon Quest Builders, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising depends too closely on them, at the price of telling an attractive story or providing compelling motion gameplay. The too-frequent backtracking, mind-numbing facet quests, and general lack of selection make for an expertise that’s powerful to advocate. An unlockable arduous mode, 50 in-game achievements, and the promise that Rising saved information will yield bonuses in Hundred Heroes are feathers in its cap, however Rising by itself is simply an excessive amount of of a slog. Right here’s hoping that Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes lives as much as the success of being the primary online game Kickstarter of 2020 as a result of its prequel actually doesn’t.
