Mothergamer Plays Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising

 I am a huge Suikoden fan. I love the Suikoden series, especially Suikoden II which is so good that I have played it more times than I can count. When I heard about Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, I was curious and excited especially when I heard that the creator of the Suikoden series himself Yoshitaka Murayama was collaborating with the developers on this. Then I saw their spin off prequel Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising and saw exactly what they meant about the series being a spiritual successor to Suikoden. There was no denying that familiar Suikoden art style that I have always loved, so I picked up Rising and started playing. 

There are some differences with Rising and that makes sense because it's a new series with a new story and world building. For one thing it's a 2D action side scroller format instead of turn based battles. There's a brief tutorial that explains the combat as you get into your first fight and it was easy to follow and fun. 

Learning the combat. 

Rising introduces us to the main character CJ who arrives in the town of New Nevaeh determined to be the best treasure hunter she can be and have a grand adventure. The town is recovering from an earthquake that happened several months ago and this introduces the fetch quests and the stamp card. CJ can bring the townspeople things they need such as building materials, ingredients, or items from monsters. All of these help to rebuild the town and CJ does get money, items, and a stamp for the stamp cards. It's a smart way of level grinding in a way and some of the fetch quests do have a mini story with them, some amusing and others heartwarming. I was never bored doing any of them and had a good time hacking and slashing my way through various areas.

I wanted all the stamps!

The entire point of the town is to be the home base for CJ and companions she meets who become party members as the story continues. Each party member has their own set of skills and there is a fun dynamic where they can do link attacks which can absolutely destroy enemies if you time them right. You can also swap between characters during battle using their unique skills according to what the flow of battle demands. I used CJ the most, but I absolutely loved Garoo because he had some pretty powerful attacks. I was also amused by how often he and CJ would argue back and forth and Garoo would give in and just do what CJ demanded. It showed a great friendship and a lot of humorous moments. 

Garoo was very cool. 

As the story continues you unlock more areas and the town gradually gets rebuilt and you get to see how it changes. The shops are set in their own areas like the smithy and armor shop on one street and the magic and items shop on another. There are definitely some great nods to Suikoden besides the art style, like having to sharpen your weapons so they're more powerful or the use of runes. The runes had a bit of a new twist to them with the fact that you can put the runes in rune lenses and different runes give different effects. I thought that was really cool and tried out different runes to see what worked for my play style. 

There are runes in this series too!

I was never frustrated with the game play of Rising at all. I did appreciate that I could set the game to the easy setting so I could just enjoy the story and have a good time with it. Exploring areas to fight monsters, getting materials for upgrading things, and finding all kinds of treasure was a blast. The link attacks add that extra punch of style that made me want to keep playing because I was having so much fun. 

Having fun fighting a rock monster.

There are some fantastic creative boss fights as well. They do get a bit harder as you go, but nothing that was so difficult it would frustrate me. These blended well into the story and I wanted to know what would happen next. The story itself is interesting and gives you a good introduction to the world of Eiyuden Chronicle and some of the characters that will be in Hundred Heroes. I personally liked the combat style and enjoyed the fetch quests because the game rewards you with some really nice upgrades and rare items that definitely help improve weapons, armor, and skills. 

Oh, hello monster tree.

The game itself overall isn't very long, about twelve hours to finish. I loved every bit of it and it made me really hyped for Hundred Heroes. Rising did a great job with introducing us to this new series and the characters that will be a part of it. There are so many beautiful nods to the Suikoden series and it really feels like a precious gift to the many Suikoden fans. I can't wait to hang out with CJ and her friends again in Hundred Heroes as well as seeing what the next adventure brings. 

Taking a break from adventuring.

* Eiyuden Chronicle Rising is available to play on the following platforms: Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S

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Gibbon: Beyond The Trees, A Beautiful Game With An Important Message

 *Note: I received a free game code for the Nintendo Switch for the game for my honest review. Thank you to Future Friends Games for the code.

Gibbon: Beyond The Trees hooked me in right away with the beautiful artwork that looks like a watercolor painting come to life. I also loved the sounds of the jungle and the singing of the gibbons. The sounds blend together perfectly. There were so many lovely details right at the start right down to the tutorial showing how to move your gibbon so you can swing through the trees, run, and slide as you play through the side scrolling of the game. 

Learning how to move.

The game plays like a storybook which I love introducing the little family of gibbons traveling through the jungle. I loved the artwork in this game because it's very well done giving a sense of being immersed in their world as you swing through the trees. It took me a bit to get used to moving at such a fast pace and I failed a lot of jumps, but I didn't mind so much because I was enjoying the game.

The gibbon family travels together. 

The music for the game is excellent as it changes according to the setting and tone of the story mixing well with the gibbon songs and jungle sounds. The landscape changes as you move showing how vast the jungle is and each area is quite pretty with the artwork. I found myself in awe of how much detail was in each area because it added to the wonderful elements of the game.

Another beautiful area in the game. 

The big thing about Gibbon: Beyond The Trees is it's not just a beautiful game. It comes with an important message about the exploitation of gibbons, climate change, deforestation, and how it is vital that we do everything in our power to work towards protecting our planet. The game does this in a powerful, thought provoking way with the gradual changing of the landscape showing more metal, fire, and scorched earth. The sounds change also with more clanging and city sounds showing how each thing affects the ecosystem. 

Deforestation upsets the balance. 

There are less trees to swing from as the landscape changes to towns and cities. It's all part of the story and because the game does such a good job of simply showing through art how each thing affects everything I was emotionally invested in the story and understood the message they were sharing with everyone. 

Swinging through a town. 

Gibbon: Beyond The Trees is not very long, but honestly it doesn't need to be because it gets the message across very clearly. The storybook elements and gameplay work together perfectly to show that we have the power to change things if we work together. This is absolutely a game that is wonderful and should be played by everyone because it shows quite well how art can be powerful and get us to think about the things that matter. That in itself is an amazing thing. 

A beautiful and powerful game. 

The team that developed and worked on the game also showed at the end ways to spread awareness and how we can help. They also have it on their website which you can check out here: https://www.gibbongame.com/gibbons.html Together, we can evoke change. 

*Gibbon: Beyond The Trees is available on the following platforms: Steam, Nintendo Switch

*Join our community on Twitch as we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer