eiyuuden chronicle rising is a kickstarter made spinoff of a game i haven't played and don't even own, honestly it kind of interested me more than the actual game it was made to promote, not that i don't want to play eiyuuden hundred heroes, i do and especially after playing this i really have to, but the ideas it had, the idea of a town focused RPG with a town that exapands as you play and that took inspiration from vanillaware games, like, it sells itself really and i think it's one of the coolest 2D platformers around, for sure one of the few metroidvania games I've ever found myself falling in love with. a quick start though, you don't need to play the main game first, or at all, really, this is a prequel so you can just jump right in, though reportedly the main cast of this does return for that game, but this one is super standalone.

the main thing that sold me on it was the town stuff and i think its what the game does best outside of maybe its cast of characters, it's a cozy and well realized town that starts as very rundown and empty and gradually improves and expands as you do more main and sidequests, filling up a stamp book after finishing quests (this makes it feel a lot like the RPG equivalent of a collectathon which i just love, i 100%'d the stamp book and had a great time doing it) and seeing stores open, residents arrive and entirely new districts open, you get tons of NPC's with their own character, some super memorable shop owners and a rotating cast of more main characters who will probably be expanded on in the main game (you can tell who is who by who gets a character portrait), you get tons of shops for even small things like your backpack or potions or resteraunts, multiple types of farms and even an onsen and as you do quests for them they'll get better stock and even start to build themselves up and start to look better on the outside, it's not a traditional townbuilder in the sense of a dark cloud or actraiser, but rather a game about building a town and i think that's a really cool take on it that fits the suikoden vibes it wants, plus the music is amazing for almost every version of the town and it even changes as you hit major town milestones, plus you even get your own house super early on, so you do feel a lot of ownership and care for the place over the course of the game as it goes from dying to bustling and i'm excited to see it come back in the main game as this does try and build it up like it will be a big deal in that.

there is a loop to the actual gameplay, accept quest, buy supplies, go to dungeon, get materials and quest items, maybe do a little fishing, advance story and then go back to town to reap your rewards and see if the town advances. you'll get better equipment and level up, new places to buy items will open, you get your own little farming plot and gain new abilities and characters like said ability to fish and 2 more party members but this is more or less the whole game, it's not a roguelike or anything so if you die in the dungeons you won't lose all your items and they're all bespoke levels, it's just a metroidvania type deal, with the characters abilities opening new pathways and you gaining things like the ability to use specific runes to break specific stones, stuff like that and you'll use that to push through farther in each dungeon every time, it's neat and it made the game feel super comfy to play because you always knew what you were doing, you can still ignore a lot of the loop if you want and focus on the main quests, but i do feel you will lose a lot of the experience that way so i do recommend at least trying to beat the side quests, they're worth it. the game overall feels like a bite sized mini RPG and i think it works super well for that, about 10 hours if you rush it and 15 if you want that 100% stamp book, no secret bosses or anything though, sadly.

the combat is very vanillaware'y, super detailed sprites with some basic platforming and a combo system, you have some light attacks that you can chain into other characters moves, each character has their own moveset on a dedicated button, a fast strike with the pickaxes, a huge heavy strike with the sword and a ranged attack with the mage and if you chain the combos right they do these big rush in moves that deal tons of damage and stun enemies, it's simple but it works super well and it's very fun. I also like how different it feels, like the combos aren't just standard combos, you really are having these characters rush in and do a thing, it makes it feel super teamwork-y and it makes the bond the cast forms feel so much more believable. there isn't much else to really do though, gathering items and a very basic fishing minigame and a pipemania minigame to activate the teleporters is all there really is other than the combat but the game is short enough that it didn't bother me too much. one good thing is that its also pretty easy, at least in normal, the platforming isn't too tough and beyond a few more tough missions for locating items everything is very easily manageable, though i do hear that hard mode is really tough and you need to make good use of your items and accessories there which didn't feel all that useful in the normal mode, so if you want a challenge i would recommend to go with that, unfortunately this mode is NG+ only, but it's still there.

the story and characters are great too, I like how many of them are characters that would usually be the hero's on their own in other games but here they're just a part of the world, doing their best to settle down in the town and help around. the lazy samurai, the bumbling magical girl, outsider treasure hunter, grumpy merc, chosen one mage or the inventory armour crafter, it's cute and I can very much see what they're going for with it, that's not to say it's all stereotypes though, it does its best to still buck those, like how many of them are cool animal people like the merc being a kangaroo or some of the merchants being parrots and iguanas, or how the sleazy looking rich guy who you super assume is going to be a scumbag is just, a little shady but his heart is kind of in the right place, it keeps you interested and guessing, though the story overall is kind of simple. i think that fits the kind of game this is THOUGH, its enough to keep you going and the mysteries it presents are neat like with the runeburrows and the mayors dad and the cast, plus the villagers with their own gimmicks and questlines are also a lot of fun.

the music is amazing. the town themes that actually change as you level up the town and some of the dungeon themes are all amazing, especially the great forest and snowpeak themes, snowpeak being probably my favourite song in the game other than maybe the level 3 town theme. the games two main composers, Takashi Tsuzuki and Seitaro Tsuzuki have only worked on this but for a first time duo they did super good, though they had help from the great Hiroyuki Iwatsuki, a former natsume composer who's worked on games like wild guns, pockey and rockey, ninja warriors and dr slump, he also worked on some kamen rider stuff, half minuite hero and the seven deadly sins game. that said the graphics i can be pretty hit and miss on, i love the designs a lot, especially the animals and CJ (the MC) but this specific brand of HD-2D has just never done anything for me, and while i think it works better here because its less a focus than a lot of the more rpg-y games, it still just super doesn't work for me, as good as the sprites all are, at least the locations are varied enough, with the forests and caves, snowy mountains and ruins and lava zones all being super interesting and distinct.

for ports you have your standard ones for this gen, ps4 and switch and even xbox, though if you want a physical copy you're limited to just switch and ps4, but at the very least its a common enough release, with cheap Japanese copies (with English) and a wider localised release by red art games too thats not too expensive on the secondary market. the game was followed up by its main game, eiyuuden chronicle: hundred heroes which is a more straightforeward suikoden like and one that seems really fun and cool, super excited to grab a copy of it down the line because i'm really invested in what happens to CJ's party and the town itself. the games developer team, Rabbit & Bear Studios Inc. had really only worked on this game and the full game, but for a first time developer they killed it here, this was a great first project and they clearly have a lot of potential as a studio and i'm excited to see what their first big non-kickstarter project is! the game was also however worked on by natsumeatari, the remnants of natsume and a studio that's worked on tons of projects ranging from Godzilla ps3, to seven deadly sins: knights of brittonia, kamen rider memory of heroez and some natsume revival projects like pockey and rockey reshrined, ninja saviors and shadow of the ninja reborn, plus the recent reynatis which is one of my most hype games right now, so excited to give that a try once its a little cheaper.

the games director was also natsume, having worked on games like amazing penguin, dr slump, tail gator and some power rangers games, plus a bunch of the above mentioned games like Godzilla and seven deadly sins. from the other studio is worth mentioning that TADASHI SATOMI worked on this game, my personal favourite writer, you'll know him for persona 2, digital devil saga, folklore and the Caligula series, having him here at all is a mark of serious quality and it explains to me why i loved the writing so much, its just a shame he didn't seem to work on the main game. also there is other people like suikoden character designer junko Kawano, also known for games like shadow of destiny and time hollow and you have Yoshitaka Murayama who is another suikoden alum and who worked on 10,000 bullets, alliance alive and warriors orochi 4, Osamu Komuta is also here who worked on countless suikodens plus elebits, silent hill 2 restless dreams and time hollow, it's a stacked dev list. i do really recommend his game, it's short and it has a super unique vibe to it with the focus on the town and the writing is a lot of fun, it's also super cheap and easy to find and the fact its standalone means you don't even need to be interested in the main game for it to be worth your time.