Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising

I was almost immediately hooked on the idea when I heard about Eiyuden Chronicle and its relation to the old Suikoden series. Seeing it return in some form is exciting, and with Yoshitaka Murayama, the creator of Suikoden, directing it, I had a lot of hope for this spiritual successor. To get us ready, they released a prequel game to get us ready for the main game, Hundred Heroes. For its purpose of setting the stage for Hundred Heroes, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising does an amazing job of keeping me engaged throughout the playthrough and setting the story up, even if it does have a couple of pitfalls sprinkled throughout.

Before I go into the combat and gameplay loop, I want to talk about Eiyuden Chronicle's art style. Both Rising and the upcoming Hundred Heroes combine semi-detailed 3D worlds with 2D characters, which is gorgeous. Square Enix has been using a similar visual style with Octopath Traveler, and it never gets old. I honestly remember when I went into specific dungeons, like the Great Forest, and found a spot in front of a lake that reflected the character just to sit and take some screenshots. The style is flawless and easily one reason I would keep returning to the game.

The story is also quite solid, even if it starts a bit monotonous and slow. You start the game as CJ, who is hunting for treasure after being ousted from her clan. She comes across a village hoping to find treasure, but ends up helping repair the village and build it back up to what it once was. Without revealing too much, you will work with Garoo, a blindfolded kangaroo, and Isha, the town's mayor, to rebuild. It doesn't take long to beat the main story, but it does a great job introducing the Eiyuden universe and some intriguing characters you will meet. The bountiful sidequests are many of the same: kill enemies, find resources, or just speak to NPCs. It can be a bit draining due to some of the sidequests necessary to upgrade the town to get new weapons and tools.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a real-time action RPG that means you will be fighting enemies and attacking without pausing. The combat itself is fairly simple: you will fight and run on a 2D plane using a single button to attack. It's very button-mashy but still surprisingly quite enjoyable. Each of the three characters you control is assigned a button, allowing you to swap between characters and use special link attacks to deal massive damage. And, with each character equipped with a different "Rune Lens" that gives elemental damage, you can strategize and choose your fighter for each enemy. I was surprised I enjoyed the combat as much as I did, given it is mindless, but it felt great overall as I upgraded weapons and got more attacks.

I like a lot of the systems here, and on top of that, the quests we complete build out the town, unlocking more shops to upgrade and buy new items. Seeing the town expand and look noticeably different as I completed the side quests was awesome.

The developers added some nice quality-of-life features to make going through the world significantly easier. When in town, you can press "Select," and you will be brought up with a menu with all the spots you can teleport to. I am so happy they did this, seeing as you must travel around a LOT when completing quests. You can even travel outside of dungeons and certain spots inside them this way, which I appreciated. The equipment and upgrading are also streamlined, instead of making you go through skill trees and more. It is very light regarding the crafting, and I appreciated it.

There are some little quirks here and there, though. The music was okay, not really anything memorable, and I disliked the constant text that would pop up after completing quests. It would make me come to a complete stop, and it felt like it stayed on the screen a bit too long. This was most obvious when completing main quests, where text would pop up for 3 seconds saying quest completed, the screen would go black, then come back on a second later with a new "Main Quest" text that was there for another 3 seconds. It sounds small, but I just wanted to get back to playing the game!

Ultimately, the game is also exceptionally easy. There are no harder difficulties, until you beat the game and head into endgame content, and I didn't feel the need to grind at all. I was able to beat each boss on the first try, which is not something I could normally do in most games. I wish I had the option to make it harder in the beginning, as I do like a challenge, but I didn't really find that until the endgame content.

Luckily, I was able to enjoy this on the Steam Deck regardless of the small issues here and there!

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising - Steam Deck Performance

For the most part, there is little issue playing Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising on the Steam Deck, though there are some trouble spots. There are certain areas in specific dungeons, especially the ones with a more detailed and open background, like The Great Forest, that have framerate drops. But overall, it can be played quite nicely regardless of how you choose to!

Recommended Settings

Throughout the game, I tried multiple different settings at different framerates, and in the end, 60 FPS is the way to go. The game caps at 60, so we can't go up to 90 on the OLED, but it feels fantastic almost the entire time. There are a couple of drops at The Great Forest, like the first boss there, but for the rest of the game, to be at 60 is worth it. It sticks to around 45, but it is still very playable. And, with everything at "Mid" except for Shadows and turning SSAO on, the game will still look amazing. I did turn off Reflections due to the drops when they are active as well.

Quality Settings

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is one of the most beautiful games, so I wanted to find some way to play it in the highest possible settings, and it is possible with two compromises. We will have to set the Shadows to Mid and the framerate to 40 FPS, but other than that, we can keep everything else at High and On and we have a beautiful and stable experience. We can't have a TDP limit due to some areas being a bit harder on the system, but overall, it will play quite well.

Battery Saver Settings

Finally, we have the battery saver settings. For this one, we will set the quality to the Low preset and put on a TDP limit of 8. Together, these settings can keep battery drain around 9W - 10W, with a high of 12W in some areas, and the game still looks incredible.

Accessibility

You can change the language, different audio sliders, vibration, action settings (how you control your team in combat), and keybindings, but that's all the game offers in terms of settings.

The game doesn't support the 16:10 aspect ratio, so there will be black bars at the top and bottom, but there are cloud saves and good controller support! There are no HDR settings.

Conclusion

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a fantastic entry into the Eiyuden world and getting it ready for the main game, Hundred Heroes. The action RPG gameplay loop is addicting and engaging, even if it is a bit mindless, and the visuals are absolutely stunning. The story is solid and a prequel, and I love the way we rebuild the town and open up new shops to upgrade our characters. The sidequests can be a little obnoxious, and it is very easy, but it's an overall worthwhile experience to dive into on the Steam Deck, especially if you are going to head into the sequel very soon.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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