Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a fun companion to Hundred Heroes, offering a bitesize action RPG that stands up on its own merits.

While Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is nothing novel, it is a charming and enjoyable experience.

Pretty visuals can only get you far, however, and Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising doesn’t offer enough entertaining or unique content to keep it from being anything more than a passable RPG. At the very least, it introduces the Eiyuden world and some characters involved in Hundred Heroes, but that’s very little incentive for putting up with tedious gameplay and boilerplate characters.

A tedious action RPG with more filler than an arc of anime, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising offers little to excite or challenge those awaiting its more exciting Suikoden successor companion, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.

Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.

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.

Do you enjoy waiting for public transit in the rain? Could you bear sitting next to a screaming toddler on a transatlantic flight? Do you think you'd derive pleasure from chopping down trees in the Great Forest over and over again until you had enough light lumber to fulfil three or four requests? If so, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising has a delightful little adventure hidden beneath a lot of tedium just for you. If not, we wouldn't begrudge you for staying clear and hoping Hundred Heroes doesn't follow too closely in its predecessor's footsteps. This game certainly has charm, but it makes you work too hard for it.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a distinctly average prequel/spin-off that gets itself bogged down in busywork and repetitive running in circles, overshadowing its core dungeon-crawling and town-building action in the process. The combat here certainly has some reasonable ideas, the story is decent enough at providing a setup and it all looks very pretty, but there's just far too much in the way of unnecessary padding and jank to make it feel as though it's really worth your time and effort beyond gleaning a few insights into next year's full adventure, even at this budget price point. Fingers crossed 505's main course is much more satisfying.

Rising is a satisfactory introduction to the world of Eiyuden Chronicle, with great characters, writing, and art. However, the game structure and combat have a hard time standing on their own.

While Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising may simply serve as an appetizer for Hundred Heroes for some, its excellent writing and characters, fun exploration, and fantastic sense of community make it worth playing regardless of its status as a "prequel."