Fallen Tear: The Ascension Review – Beautiful and Aimless

Fallen Tear: The Ascension Review

Fallen Tear: The Ascension is out of early access and ready to welcome gamers into its lush fantasy world. That world is a joy to explore, but I wish the game’s narrative was a little more structured.

This game focuses on the tale of Hira, a young boy of mysterious origins. After a terrible event, Hira is forced to leave his village and set out on his own, bearing new power even he doesn’t understand. He finds refuge in a temple and its priestess gives him a quest that could save the world. And it may even reunite him with his vanished mother and brother.

Hira travels through different biomes, searching for clues about corrupted gods and his missing family. As he progresses, he stumbles across both new companions and ominous ruins. Collectibles hint at something unsetting going on in the background.

The land of Raoah is under threat from four corrupted deities. But the truth about Hira could have even greater consequences.

The Beauty of Raoah

Fallen Tear: The Ascension is a tribute to classic JRPGs in the form of a Metroidvania. Its hand-drawn visuals and lush, vibrant world are a joy to take in. However, the structured narrative that keeps a JRPG moving forward is a bit lacking.

I kept getting turned around or failing to notice what I needed to do to progress. Some quests are hard to complete because the steps need to be done in a specific order. Others are hard to complete because I can’t find where they want me to go. This is how I mistook one of the earliest quests in the game for a mid-game task.

I wish there was more dialog with your hub NPCs. More does unlock over time, but the early game doesn’t have much. Most of them don’t even have idle conversations at first. It would also be a good way to slide hints in for the directionally disinclined.

This game looks and sounds gorgeous. The lush, hand-drawn visuals are stunning. And the visual style reminds me of Wakfu and has a similar sense of cartoony charm.

The character designs are distinct, colorful, and fit nicely into the bright fantasy world. Expressive voice acting lends them all a sense of vibrancy.

Fallen Tear: The Ascension is a Joy to Explore

Like any Metroidvania, Fallen Tear: The Ascension revolves around exploration, combat, and unlocking new paths and abilities over time. Unlike most other Metroidvanias, this game links its abilities to the bonds that Hira forms with other characters.

The core gameplay loop involves exploring, encountering and befriending NPCs, and unlocking new options. A treasure trove of collectibles and optional bosses lurk in every map.

Combat flows pretty smoothly, especially once you start unlocking new moves. Hira’s goal is to unload his combo into the enemy and then dodge before they can strike back. Pogoing on top of foes like in Hollow Knight can be more effective than backstepping.

The opportunity to heal mid-battle is limited and restricted to a specific drop. This made some boss fights feel downright soulslike-y.

On that note, boss fights are generally quite challenging. Leveling up stats and health is linked to gathering collectibles, so level grinding is not an option.

Optional bosses can be delayed. For story bosses, you have no choice but to get good. This would be more reasonable if it was easier to tell what obstacles are and are not mandatory.

What Am I Supposed to Be Doing?

Fallen Tear: The Ascension is a gorgeous game full of interesting corners to explore. However, it can be quite hard to complete quests or figure out where to go next for the same reason. This title struggles to convey its narrative at times.

It took me about 6 hours to unlock the dash upgrade. Part of this is on me for failing to notice some avenues of progression. However, part of it is also on the designers for making some things very hard to notice.

The genre clash becomes more obvious over time. A Metroidvania can be fairly aimless and leave the player to their own devices. A narrative-driven JRPG, however, needs a firm plot direction or the tension suffers. I also had trouble with getting distracted by new map developments instead of focusing on quests.

This is quite a long game—up to 80 hours if you want to 100% it. Combined with how aimless it can be at times, I found Fallen Tear as frustrating as it was engrossing. Also, if you downloaded the demo, start a new game. Otherwise, you’ll run into bugs later on.

All in all, Fallen Tear: The Ascension is an interesting exercise in fantasy worldbuilding. It’s a good time, and it’ll be a better time with a walkthrough.

***Steam code provided by the publisher***