A pretty decent return to the RPG fold for some of the devs of the classic Suikoden series. Though it is very basic from a story, game play, and RPG perspective, there are glimmers of the Suikoden influence in this game and gives me optimism for the next Eiyuden Chronicle game next year.
I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a prologue to the game releasing next year or not but it very much feels like a beginning introduction of a world and a few characters that will eventually appear down the line. There aren't a ton of playable characters, something the Suikoden series was famous for (around 90 or so playable characters in each of those Suikoden games give or take) but the characters that are around all do a good job of looking unique and standing out.
You can only play as three characters with a good amount of NPCs that will make consistent appearances but the artwork is pretty great and the designs are all quite nice. Setting design is a bit more basic and cliche, you get your snow level, your mine area, your forest area, etc. All very basic stuff that doesn't really stand out.
Combat is also fairly basic. You'll start the game with one character but you'll eventually get a second and a third. How combat in Rising works is each button controls one of the characters with the A button being the universal jump button for all.
If you want to attack with the main hero, you can hit X (played on the Series X so this will obviously be different depending on system) but if I want to attack with the eye-patched kangaroo mercenary I get, I can do so with the Y button and my character will seamlessly swap out. I can swap out during combat (Eiyuden Rising is an action based combat game) or just on the fly when I'm walking through part of an area and it's a pretty flawless swap out.
Combat tries to take advantage of this swap system by allowing you to chain attacks together with your team but that chain attack has a limit. That limit can be improved as you progress through the game and if you decide to take care of the various side quests that are in this game. The more quests you do, the better the town gets, and as a reward, the more chain attacks you are able to do.
That's really the only unique thing about combat though. Each character has a unique skill, each of which is fairly basic, one gets a block, another a dash, etc. Combat is very basic and not all that interesting to be honest. Boss battles are a bit more strategic and changes up the generic battles you'll have throughout the various levels of the game but there isn't enough of a shift to really say it's great. Nothing offensive or bad, just nothing all that interesting.
The side quests are also quite basic. Your generic fetch quests or "find this person" type stuff that is more time filler than all that interesting. Again though, nothing offensive or bad, just nothing that really stands out.
Overall, this game is sort of that outside of the art design. It's a great building block for whatever this new team is doing and I can feel the bones of the Suikdoden series in Rising to some degree, it's just very basic so it's hard to recommend this game. Even for the RPG hardcore fans, this might feel pretty barren. It is relatively short by RPG standards though and on Game Pass (as of writing this review) so maybe give it a shot if you're looking for an action based RPG that won't take a ton of effort or brain power to get through.
I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a prologue to the game releasing next year or not but it very much feels like a beginning introduction of a world and a few characters that will eventually appear down the line. There aren't a ton of playable characters, something the Suikoden series was famous for (around 90 or so playable characters in each of those Suikoden games give or take) but the characters that are around all do a good job of looking unique and standing out.
You can only play as three characters with a good amount of NPCs that will make consistent appearances but the artwork is pretty great and the designs are all quite nice. Setting design is a bit more basic and cliche, you get your snow level, your mine area, your forest area, etc. All very basic stuff that doesn't really stand out.
Combat is also fairly basic. You'll start the game with one character but you'll eventually get a second and a third. How combat in Rising works is each button controls one of the characters with the A button being the universal jump button for all.
If you want to attack with the main hero, you can hit X (played on the Series X so this will obviously be different depending on system) but if I want to attack with the eye-patched kangaroo mercenary I get, I can do so with the Y button and my character will seamlessly swap out. I can swap out during combat (Eiyuden Rising is an action based combat game) or just on the fly when I'm walking through part of an area and it's a pretty flawless swap out.
Combat tries to take advantage of this swap system by allowing you to chain attacks together with your team but that chain attack has a limit. That limit can be improved as you progress through the game and if you decide to take care of the various side quests that are in this game. The more quests you do, the better the town gets, and as a reward, the more chain attacks you are able to do.
That's really the only unique thing about combat though. Each character has a unique skill, each of which is fairly basic, one gets a block, another a dash, etc. Combat is very basic and not all that interesting to be honest. Boss battles are a bit more strategic and changes up the generic battles you'll have throughout the various levels of the game but there isn't enough of a shift to really say it's great. Nothing offensive or bad, just nothing all that interesting.
The side quests are also quite basic. Your generic fetch quests or "find this person" type stuff that is more time filler than all that interesting. Again though, nothing offensive or bad, just nothing that really stands out.
Overall, this game is sort of that outside of the art design. It's a great building block for whatever this new team is doing and I can feel the bones of the Suikdoden series in Rising to some degree, it's just very basic so it's hard to recommend this game. Even for the RPG hardcore fans, this might feel pretty barren. It is relatively short by RPG standards though and on Game Pass (as of writing this review) so maybe give it a shot if you're looking for an action based RPG that won't take a ton of effort or brain power to get through.