Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, review

If you have a few years on your shoulders – or maybe if you like vintage – and you love JRPG, then it’s very likely that you’ve been waiting for the coming of the messiah in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes because he’s been working on it. . Yoshitaka Murayama. We’re talking about its creator, who left Konami shortly before the third episode of the unforgettable Suikoden series aired and founded Blue Moon Studio and then Rabbit & Bear Studio. Murayama develops his new game after introducing it on Kickstarter and reaches the goal in just three hours.

One of the challenging goals that was met in a matter of weeks included the development of a side title: entrusted to NatsumeAtari, the game will serve as a flavor of the world of the Eiyuden Chronicle until the main course is scheduled for 2023.

ours Review by Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising We’ll tell you if this appetizer turned out well, so read on.

Rebuilding the New Nevaeh

The first thing you need to understand is that Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising isn’t a big game and doesn’t want to be. A low-budget game developed to thank fans and introduce them to the world of Eiyuden Chronicle and its characters. By reducing the scale of this operation, NatsumeAtari, in some ways it even delivers more than it should. Another thing worth mentioning is that Rising is not a true RPG, but a mix of evocative genres. suikoden – basically, the cornerstone in Murayama’s career – just in the advancement of a community called New Nevaeh that acts as the nerve center of the whole experience, in some ways only.

There Date of Rising revolves around this town, a crossroads of merchants and explorers like the game’s young protagonist, CJ. Acting mayor Isha, an anthropomorphic kangaroo armed with a giant sword and also a powerful sorceress.

There storytelling By Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising relies heavily on stereotypical protagonists, but the plot, which at first seemed like a banalotto, turns out to be more interesting than expected a few hours later. Too bad it was diluted by a flood side missionsadorned with delightful dialogues, thanks to its fluent Italian localization and carefree settings.

The absolute hero is actually the city. New Nevaehthat we will gradually rebuild and see it unfold before our eyes. In fact, most of the quests serve to expand the community, adding new visitors, merchants and services that will come in handy in the hours to come. In this sense, Rising is structured in a smart and balanced way: something new is constantly unlocked and the city changes its appearance accordingly, delighting the player even from a more visual point of view.

City rebuilding is intertwined with game progress. In fact, the new features cover the most RPG parts of the NatsumeAtari title and intrude on the playing field. metroidvania. New tools make it possible to overcome or recover from previously insurmountable obstacles. materials this will allow us to create new instruments in a satisfying cycle. This mechanism is also reflected in the combat system: by improving weapons and armor, we will learn new techniques and maneuvers that will make combat a little more diverse and exciting.

This battle system In fact, it is only half successful. The implementation of an “accessible” mode that allows players less accustomed to action dynamics to navigate battles using just a few buttons is welcome, but the first hours of gameplay are crucial.

Unlike Future Hundred Heroes, Rising doesn’t actually use a turn-based combat system. Action in real time and its horizontal/vertical scrolling structure is reminiscent of 2D games like Castlevania, Ori and Metroid. After all three heroes have been collected, the player who controls only one at a time can change them at any time; doing this swap In the middle of a combo that becomes automatic by choosing the appropriate option, characters that come at the right time do much more damage. Mastering this mechanic is essential, especially when facing the toughest enemies or bosses at the end of mazes, often protected by armor and represented by a gauge, which must be consumed in a barrel first.

Upgrade runes, weapons, and armor to gain characters new skills double jumps, dodges, loaded attacks, etc. like, but despite various maneuvers, the combat system still remains tainted with rough hitboxes, predictable patterns, and over-recycled enemies.

An unbelievable cycle

The problem is that the old battle system makes the fortissima heavy. replayability of the game. As we have said, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising takes place in and around the city of New Nevaeh, and this means that there are few areas that can be explored and can be attributed to non-original biomes: forests, caves. , ancient ruins, snow-capped mountains and an entire repertoire of fantasy clichés.

A series of secondary quests that are often necessary to progress through the main campaign and are therefore not entirely optional, backtracking very persistently. While it’s true that you can solve sets of quests in a single session with minimal foresight, you’ll have to go back to the same maps over and over again to seek out resources or specific enemies to defeat, and then return to the city. to report.

a system fast action – tied to checkpoints in dungeons, but free within the confines of New Nevaeh – this eases the load of the cycle a bit, but in the long run it’s tiring to come and go and only serves to artificially prolong the duration of the game.

Campaign actually completed about fifteen hours, it’s still generous enough for this type of production, and a few more are needed to unlock any upgrades or content. Perfecting the rescue doesn’t seem to improve the future experience in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, as we’ll apparently only be able to import the names we’ve given to the heroes’ weapons and dishes cooked in the inn.

From this perspective, we must admit that Rising only partially satisfies our Eiyuden Chronicle appetite. In the game, we encountered a number of characters that we will definitely see again in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, but it was just a delight and nothing more: they stand out a lot in the slightly more pronounced characterization and creation. from sprites.

Feast for the eyes, not the ears

The other slightly more sensitive question is exactly technical sector By Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising. The scenarios are very detailed, decorated with details, lighting and animations. NatsumeAtari uses a wide variety of bright and vibrant colors, but if exploring this corner of the Eiyuden Chronicle world is a real treat for the eyes – a little less for the ears as the tunes aren’t exactly catchy – it’s equally clear. that the same commitment was not generous in the implementation 2D motion graphics yes they are good at pixel art but not enough at animations they are often woody and clumsy. Hundred Heroes should be much more refined and defined in this respect, as several teasers released so far suggest, but it’s a shame that Rising hasn’t given us a taste of Eiyuden Chronicle in that sense as well.