The first extended gameplay footage of Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising – an action RPG spin-off of the upcoming Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes – has been revealed.
During a special video presentation from publisher 505 Games at Tokyo Game Show 2021, Yoshitaka Murayama and Junko Kawano introduced a trio of playable heroes: JB, Isha, and Garoo.
JB is an athletic young girl, Isha is a magic-wielder, and Garoo is, well, an anthropomorphic kangaroo (complete with a pouch on his shirt). In the story, these three meet in a village called "New Never" and they go underground exploring ancient ruins recently uncovered by an earthquake. The heroes seek both treasure and anyone who might be trapped underground.
Gameplay is 2.5D and fast-paced, and players can swap between the characters at will. The trailer shows one hero seamlessly fade out as another fades in, and their attacks chain together to deal large-scale damage to the monsters roaming the environments. For example, Isha can fire magic bolts at enemies out of her reach, then swap out for Garoo who leaps into the air with his giant sword to smash them into pieces.
The trailer features a pair of boss battles: first a giant, ferocious tree, then a large rock figure. The tree attacks with roots from beneath the ground as well as insects descending from its branches, requiring the heroes to move fast to dodge all the hazards on-screen. Eventually a worm emerges from the trunk, which proves vulnerable to direct attacks. When the three leads team up and actually go on the offensive, the battle ends quickly thanks to all the damage they're able to dish out.
The trailer focuses on the action aspects of Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, but the developers did outline the connections between this title and the main game, Hundred Heroes. At least seven characters from that game will make appearances in Rising, and all three heroes from Rising will show up in Hundred Heroes. References to a "conspiracy under the surface" came up more than once during this conversation, so the stories of the two games are definitely intertwined.
The developers hope that Rising will appeal to both action game fans and RPG fans, with Murayama adding that he hopes this spinoff of Hundred Heroes will "fill the gap" between now and that highly anticipated game's 2023 release. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is scheduled for a simultaneous Spring 2022 release on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox X|S and One, Steam, Epic Games Store, and the Nintendo Switch.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will also be multi-platform, though Murayama said that the team is "investigating" a Switch release. At the time of the original Kickstarter, the campaign text said the game might come to a "next-gen Nintendo console". Both versions of Eiyuden Chronicles have been confirmed as day one releases on Xbox Game Pass.
Diamond Feit is a writer/podcaster in Osaka, Japan, who uses Twitter and Twitch as feitclub.