The small town in the wilderness was a magnet for adventurers.  Its mine led to old ruins and unknown treasures, which is a siren call for scavengers, rogues, explorers and anyone else looking to try their hand at unlocking the secrets underneath New Nevaeh.  Some explorers had already turned up rare magic lenses, which imbue magic in whatever they're tuned to, and that's exactly the kind of haul that a fledgling scavenger like CJ is after.  The family tradition is to set out in search of a bigger treasure than the previous generations had found, and all CJ's instincts point to New Nevaeh as the place where she could prove herself.  As it turns out, though, the town was already run down before it had been hit by a recent earthquake, causing the new mayor to institute rules on access to the Barrows beyond the mine.  Adventure and high-grade scavenging opportunities call, but so do the needs of New Nevaeh.  Fortunately CJ is an inherently good-natured and helpful adventurer, more than willing to lend a hand in the dozens of side-quests that advance her standing in the town and get her one step closer to the secrets of the Barrows.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a small yet satisfying action-RPG prequel to the forthcoming Suikoden-styled RPG Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.  While a different game overall from the turn-based combat of what will eventually be the main series entry, it serves as an introduction to the world and a handful of characters.  CJ is a huge amount of fun, instantly likeable and straightforward, and she soon teams up with the heavy-fighter kangaroo Garoo who's much more self-serving but not unkind.  The plot, characters and fantasy world all feel like they're lost in time from an idealized version of the 32-bit era, in fact, and it's refreshing to be able to connect with a setting so quickly without worrying that the situation is going to get ludicrously overdramatic.

When CJ arrives in town one of the first things she learns is that getting to her goals is going to take working through some red tape, in the form of either paying a massive fee for an adventurer's license or collecting stamps by helping the townsfolk of New Nevaeh.  Being flat broke, CJ chooses the helpful route, and this kicks off what's going to be the overall structure of the game going forward.  The main story is always tagged at the top of the quest list but below it can be several side-quests for the villagers.  Some are as easy as finding someone in town who's clearly marked with a "this person is interesting" icon over their head, while others involve scrounging for rare items in a specific part of a dungeon, but each quest, big or small, earns a stamp on the progress card.  Nice as the stamps are the real reward is in fixing the town, with new shops and upgrades coming at a steady pace as each side-quest is ticked off the list.

Better shops mean better gear, and while Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising starts off easy, the dungeons eventually ramp up to the point that buying as many upgrades as you can afford is required.  The basic gameplay is side-view action, with each of the eventual three characters in the party getting their attack mapped to one of the four face buttons while the last one is jump.  CJ is the quick fighter, using her hooks to swipe at enemies quickly with what's initially an unimpressive two-hit combo.  She also earns a double-jump after a few town upgrades, and has the traditional dash-dodge to avoid damage.  Garoo is tougher but slower, dealing a heavy hit with his massive sword and being able to block damage with a well-timed guard.  Finally around mid-way through the game the mayor Isha joins the group (it would be considered a spoiler if she wasn't featured prominently in the game art and screenshots) with ranged magic, short-range teleport and jump-hover.  It's a well-rounded group of fighters and their abilities nicely complement each other particularly when the chain attacks are taken into account.

While attacks don't completely break an enemy's strike they can slow it down, which is the perfect time to switch in a different character for a chain combo.  While the combo focuses on the one specific enemy it started on with, it can keep wailing on it for a set amount of attacks well after it's down to zero HP, batting it around the stage and catching up other enemies in the splash damage.  The somewhat-too-simple battles of the start of the game slowly give way to bigger and more intricate encounters which require full use of the party's abilities plus taking elemental magic into account, particularly with Isha due to the way different elements make her projectiles act in different ways.

While the world and combat are a great amount of fun, there's no escaping that this is a budget adventure doing its best to wring every second of gameplay out of its limited scope.  There are only a handful of areas in the game, although all decently sized, and the quest system has you running through them more times than you can count.  Fortunately, unless the quest item is a common resource, the room where it's located is clearly marked on the map.  This makes it easy to focus on getting in with fast-travel between the save-point signposts and then zip out again, and there's no reason not to clear off three or four quests in a specific area over a single run.  Even so you'll be seeing a lot of the forest, quarry, Barrows, frozen mountain and the town as you constantly revisit familiar territory.

Closing Comments:

The weird thing is, though, that somehow it all ends up working.  The quest to revitalize New Nevaeh, solve the mystery of the Barrows, and take care of each party member's personal issues rarely bogs down despite the repetition of the levels.  New areas within the levels open up just frequently enough that it feels like there's always something to discover, and the quest rewards get constantly plowed back into character upgrades that keep on expanding the combat options.  A lot of effort is also put in towards making New Nevaeh feel like a functioning town, filled with a huge number of characters that may only have a few lines of dialogue when giving out and finishing up their side-quests, but still manage to make the place feel like a lived-in community.  This goes a long way towards making the game overcome its limitations, especially as the town grows and flourishes as each little mini-story completes.  Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising manages to be more than the sum of its parts, becoming a likeable adventure that not only sets up the world for the main event to come in Hundred Heroes, but stands as a great little action-RPG in its own right.