Stegosoft's Chrono Trigger-esque Rise of the Third Power was first announced back in 2018 and, with a demo released exclusively on Steam last year, we weren't entirely sure whether or not it was destined for a Switch release.
However, a new eShop listing for the game has now confirmed that it will indeed hit Nintendo's console, arriving on 10th February priced at £17.99/$19.99/€19.99. The game, which is a follow-up to Stegosoft's WW1-inspired Ara Fell, sees a party of eight heroes fight to survive as they battle across the Land of Rin in order to topple an evil emperor, all while the clock ticks down towards "the reprise of the greatest war in human history", which we're assuming means some sort of alternate universe World War 2 is on the cards.
Rise of the Third Power's trailer, which you can have a gander at above, certainly looks the part, with some pretty epic music and a nice line in retro pixel turn-based battling that calls to mind both Chrono Trigger and the early Final Fantasy games.
We're certainly intrigued to see how this one pans out when it arrives next month, but for now you can check out a little more info on the game from the official press release as well as a few screenshots below;
Rise of the Third Power is a love letter to the glory days of the console style RPG, with modern conveniences such as auto-save and a combination of the best elements of Japanese and Western style gameplay and writing. Experience this fusion of East and West, old and new, in a game meant to surpass Stegosoft Games' previous work in every way!
Story Driven - Join a party of eight, each with their own unique ambitions, perspectives and personalities as they embark upon a suicide mission to topple the Arkadyan emperor, Dimitri Noraskov. A blend of humor, drama and tragedy await players as they navigate the treacherous world of Rin.
Political Intrigue - As the world of Rin recovers from the Great War, the balance of power remains badly skewed, with vacuums of power still waiting to be filled. The player's party will be both beset and aided by schemers, liars and betrayers, all while the clock ticks down to a reprise of the greatest war in human history.
Custom Battle System - Rise of the Third Power offers eight playable characters in a battle system built from scratch, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, all of whom are meant to participate in battle simultaneously without the need for tedious party management. Combine each character's unique powers and disadvantages, analyze the abilities of your foes, set your formation and charge into battle.
Persistence Equipment - Each piece of equipment found, purchased or stolen is a permanent, unique upgrade for each character. Instead of purchasing replacements, the player purchases upgrades. No more buying that awesome helmet back in town only to stumble over a better one as treasure in a dungeon. Each character has 3 equipment slots with 8 upgrades each, with 192 to find in total. This system avoids the tedium of inventory management, while also giving the completionist something useful to hunt for.
Will you be partying up for a journey across the Land of Rin when Rise of the Third Power drops in February? Let us know in the comments!
Comments 17
This looks interesting
Shame. The combat looks REALLY nice and then the main maps are cookie cutter RPG Maker fare.
Looks dope. 8 different characters... each with their own story, or as a party? Cuz i tried OPT, and it was too much for me to deal with.
I like everything I’m seeing except the character portraits. I’m sure I’ll end up picking this up if the reviews are positive.
From what I remember the portraits in Ara Fell were pretty good. Be it the generic NPCs or important characters.
Those just look Kemco level of bad...
@Nephestinus Agreed, which I find odd because they don't have to use them. It's easy enough to just put a name in the textbox and forgo the portrait entirely, which likely would've given this a more consistent visual feel
By the way, battles are different from Chrono Trigger as the location of the character seem the same in any battles.
As opposite, in Chrono Trigger, character position was a key feature to use some position based skills.
Looks interesting, I was afraid it would just be another Kemco RPG, glad that it's not.
@Daniel36 You saw like 5 seconds of a part of the map
Boy that is just an unfortunate name. I guess "Rise of the Third Empire" would have been worse, but not by much
Oof, that character art. The out-of battle tile maps. But then...the music. The battles. It's got just as much good as bad.
Tentative curiosity.
I hope that annoying "wa wa wa" song isn't actually in the game!
@Nephestinus it's crazy, cuz all the 8 & 16 bit crap looks the same to me. I wish i could be that perceptive, but it all makes me disinterested, sadly.
@boatie Not really. I watched the entire trailer.
The combat section looks amazing, the still sprite art pieces look amazing, but the main maps (both world map and town/dungeon/everything else maps) look both cookie cutter and disconnected from the (again) amazing looking combat and still art.
So no, my comment wasn't based on 5 seconds. And it's not like I don't wish them the best of success with this, but they obviously have the skills to make amazing looking sprite art but then only apply it on parts of the game.
As someone who played and loved Ara Fell 4 years back, the story was actually really touching, the characters are likable and thought out. The music was great, and the whole aesthetic was fantastic, which is why I am so glad to see this game is finally getting a release!
The dev team is really capable.
I Kickstart-ered this one way back in 2018 and it's gonna be pretty dang sweet to get my hands on it.
Ara Fell was a nice surprise and I see the same team is behind this one, so I'm intrigued.
Oooo nearly flicked past this news story but glad I took a look at it. This looks pretty good!
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