Eiyuden Chronicle Rising – Review, a trivial homework

Eiyuden Chronicle Risingprotagonist of the review today, it is a good video game but not really exciting, between not very detailed mechanics and a not very stimulating narrative sector. Before leaving, a contextualization must be made on the reason for existing of Eiyuden Chronicle Rising, which breaks away from the actual review but could help you understand the choices behind this title. At the head of this project there is Yoshitaka Murayama and its software house Rabbit & Bear Studiosthat is, the creator of the iconic Suikoden. Murayama funded the spiritual sequel to that series through a fundraising campaign: Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes! Among the objectives of the campaign there was also the creation of a “preparation” game for the new title, which would serve as an introduction to the game world. This game is obviously Eiyuden Chronicle Rising, whose task was also to act as an appetizer while waiting for the main course. Well, the problem unfortunately is just that, it is an appetizer that it does absolutely nothing to try to be something more! The nature of “appetizer game” of Eiyuden Chronicle Rising is justified by the price, but for a review we can’t consider it that much. But we can say that it definitely is honest for what it offers, but net of these considerations, let’s start now with the actual review.

A bland plot, saved for a corner by the protagonist

You know those mediocre films that are partially saved by characters, or in general acting performances, of excellent level? Here we find an excellent parallelism with the plot of Eiyuden Chronicle Rising. In short, the protagonist CJ she is a raider, and comes from a family that has been doing this business for generations, complete with a handover in progress for the young damsel. CJ then decides to legitimize herself as a raider a New Nevaeh, a small town that has within it a greedy quarry potentially full of treasures. Probably the only quarry on the continent, why the raiders everywhere have all gone there! Plot needs aside, we are informed of how there are gods problems with the quarryand that if we want to explore it we must have a permit that certifies that we can do so.

Not having the money to pay for it, we agree to take a card to fill with gods stamps which are collected as you complete an errand, such as finding a lost cat or collecting a certain amount of mushrooms. The rest of the narrative development is very mundane and bland, but it has a positive side: the protagonist. CJ is a girl he is impossible not to take a liking to, because even if quite cartoon it has a less two-dimensional characterization of the other characters. Especially in some dialogues she really gets the player attached, so she is promoted with flying colors. Overall a revisable plot, devoid of elements that encourage you to continue, and made a minimum interesting (albeit little) by the protagonist.

The gameplay works, but in the long run it is repetitive

The gameplay from Eiyuden Chronicle Rising it’s enough solid, responsive and capable of entertaining the player for several hours. There basic structure is that of a horizontally scrolling action rpg, in which we can use up to three different protagonists. Such as? Each main action button, excluding the jump button, corresponds to the attack of a character. Here is a small example to make it clear what it is: we are exploring with CJ when enemies appear at some point that we can fight. By pressing the key Square (or the equivalent in non-PlayStation pads) we will stick with CJbut if we press Triangle a other party character and we attack with him, then if we go back to pressing Square it goes back to attacking CJ. Therefore, Cross is used to jump, while Circle, Triangle and Square correspond to the attacks of the three playable characters. Already from these very first game mechanics the first attention gaps come into play, which made us think that the proverbial “homework” was simply done.

With this mapping, the key chosen for interactions is R1but instinct will always lead to pressing Cross / Circle (depending on whether you are used to western or eastern mappings) or Square, because the standard for interacting with characters and objects is those characters there. Considering that jumping is also often used in battle, we need a button on which we can always keep our finger ready for the click. R1 as a jump button, and Cross for interactions, would have been a much better combination and the flow of the gameplay would have been vastly improved.

It doesn’t help either consistently always do the same kind of mission. Once you collect mushrooms, once more minerals, another time you defeat a certain enemy, another time you reach a certain point. You never really get the feeling that you are doing new things in terms of pure gameplay. To keep the threshold of attention at acceptable levels are the boss, which at least break the routine and can also be faced several times to accumulate extra experience points. Note of merit also for the level design, well done and always with some interesting ideas. We believe that the level design is the real strength of the gaming experiencebecause it holds the backbone of a title that is based on facing dungeons by fighting within them.

Eiyuden Chronicle Rising also allows you to upgrade your equipmentrack up consumable items (like classic healing potions) by throwing into the fray various useful structures, such as armories and cafeterias for food to be consumed to obtain benefits, all this through the various quests that require us to obtain certain materials or meet certain conditions. The end result is that of a game that works, and also well, but which at times is repetitive and not very stimulating. From a Game Design legend like Murayama perhaps a few more twists were expected, which would elevate this game from a good filler to an excellent title, but surely we wanted to keep the best ideas for Hundred Heroes and the expectation remains high!

A very pleasant technical sector

Eiyuden Chronicle Rising has a valid technical sectorvery pleasant to look at and combining very well 2D elements with 3D ones. The modernized classic game vibe is rendered in the right way, and the music helps to get into that mood too. The only Achilles heel is the absence of real artistic flashes, with very few artwork that they manage to remain really impressed and sprites well done but nothing more.

This last aspect of the game also gives the impression of a lazy homework, of a game that was played because it had to be played. We remember in fact that this title was not foreseen immediatelywas one of the advanced objectives of a fundraising campaign in the end. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes it would have existed even without Rising, and it’s not very nice to feel it while playing it. Eiyuden Chronicle Rising it is neither meat nor fishis a project that with a few more twists could have been a great prologue (even if Hundred Heroes It will be a JRPG classic turn-based) and instead will always remain as a completely optional plus and accessory. Sin.