Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a game about incremental progression, mostly in the form of busywork. This probably explains why I liked it so much, despite its commonly discussed flaws, or maybe because of them—I like ticking boxes and watching numbers go up, and fetch quests don’t bother me. I’ll talk to every NPC. I’ll fill out every corner of a map. I tried to 100% Breath of the Wild with the help of several spreadsheets and self-imposed restrictions on fast travel and exploits, even though I repeatedly ran into the fact that BotW isn’t really meant to be “completed” like that. EC:R is meant to be completed like that, or at least it seems to be, and I think that’s why this game can be either addictive or aggravating, depending on your fondness for clearing out quest logs for the sake of the quest log and not the content of the quests. And that’s without bringing up the often-awkward action RPG mechanics, which are appropriately simple but not particularly refined, at times finicky and unresponsive and at other times immensely rewarding to pull off.
I think it’s hard to pin down EC:R because it’s pretty good at things you might not expect it to be good at and pretty bad at other things that seem like they should be essential. Enemy combat mechanics eventually devolve into stun-locking frustration gimmicks, but the puzzle-platforming tech needed to reach hidden areas around the map is bizarrely fun and severely underutilized. Huge chunks of the plot and main character development are stuffed into the last few hours of the game, and yet the consistently just-above-par dialogue left me emotionally invested in the development of New Nevaeh and satisfied with the endearingly trope-y ending. EC:R is paced like a very fun town-builder mobile game, but I admit that once that feedback loop loses you, it’s hard to find the motivation to push much further. It was engaging enough for me to be hooked through the end of the main story and a little bit past that. Nonetheless, EC:R’s good parts give me faith that Hundred Heroes is probably going to be plenty of fun for a bit of a wider audience, especially if it’s closer in form to its spiritual predecessor games than Rising is.
I think it’s hard to pin down EC:R because it’s pretty good at things you might not expect it to be good at and pretty bad at other things that seem like they should be essential. Enemy combat mechanics eventually devolve into stun-locking frustration gimmicks, but the puzzle-platforming tech needed to reach hidden areas around the map is bizarrely fun and severely underutilized. Huge chunks of the plot and main character development are stuffed into the last few hours of the game, and yet the consistently just-above-par dialogue left me emotionally invested in the development of New Nevaeh and satisfied with the endearingly trope-y ending. EC:R is paced like a very fun town-builder mobile game, but I admit that once that feedback loop loses you, it’s hard to find the motivation to push much further. It was engaging enough for me to be hooked through the end of the main story and a little bit past that. Nonetheless, EC:R’s good parts give me faith that Hundred Heroes is probably going to be plenty of fun for a bit of a wider audience, especially if it’s closer in form to its spiritual predecessor games than Rising is.